Third chapter to the Equilibrium Saga.  Rip Van Winkle part 1.

Last week, Ash finally returned home, but to great confusion.  If he was home, why was somebody else residing there?  And what or who caused him to go unconscious?  If that wasn’t hard enough on poor Ashton, he now has more trouble and danger to deal with.  But this time, it’s not from the supernatural.  Or is it?

So it has been a few weeks since I last announced the weekly release of the Equilibrium web serial on this blog.  Life kind of caught us up in its hecticness and took over.  I haven’t quite managed to get completely back on track, as you can tell since this is Thursday not Wednesday.  Hopefully I’ll manage the proper day next week.  :-)

And if you are new to the Equilibrium Saga, and would like to start at the beginning, here is a link to the first episode.  Meetings part 1. 

http://www.sianawineland.com/2/post/2012/03/meetings-part-1.html

You can also access the story through the page buttons at the top of the screen, just click on Equilibrium.  Instructions for navigating through the story are in the right hand information bar on the Equilibrium page. 

Characterization is about painting a picture, about making every word count in our fiction.

Instead of just having a room and a desk, the room and the desk can help illustrate our main character.
 
He sat down at his desk piled high with assignments. His leg hit the keyboard tray which had just lost another screw. He ripped it off, cracking the plastic.
 
As opposed to.
 
He caressed the hand-turned legs of the 19th century mahogany desk, then pulled out the polish and rag from the bottom drawer, wiping over every crevice with care. Checking to make sure the blotter was properly placed, he set his stationary and pen on top. Dear Alice, he began to write.
 
In each instance, the reader learns a lot about the character and what type of person he is, what his habits are, etc... The same can be done with objects and worlds and clothing. They shouldn’t just sit there doing nothing when they could be doing a whole lot of something.   

And I may see a tree that looks like a drooping old man.  But is that what my character would see? How would my character describe it?
 
I took a workshop a few years ago with Elizabeth Lyon and she suggested creating a lexicon for every character to help us create descriptions and sentences filtered through our characters’ sensibilities instead of our own. It’s something I had done most of the time anyway, but it really helped me take characterization to the next level. Our jobs and hobbies give us all a unique vocabulary by which we view the world. By creating a lexicon, we can more clearly paint that view through our character’s thoughts by using words they would use.
 
What’s your favorite way of creating richer, character-driven prose?

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