Returning to Work

I let myself slack off last night, and I'm feeling a little guilty about it. It made it that much more difficult to start working again tonight. But that time off may have helped shake something up in my head.

In an attempt to kick-start my writing (or in this early stage, it's still planning) I'll usually just open Word and start free-writing. I saw something about this when an author detailed their writing process - they'll just start free-writing about anything (why they're having trouble writing, etc) until whatever part of their brain is being difficult realizes that they're going to be writing one way or the other.

As I was doing this free-writing, my thoughts (and my writing) drifted to my antagonist, and what I was thinking about doing with him. I started thinking about the culture this character came from, and suddenly realized that his story didn't work terribly well with the story as a whole. He could still work perfectly well as a valid threat to be confronted, but he didn't add anything extra - and for this character, I'd really rather tell his story that shoehorn him where he doesn't work quite as well.

And almost instantly, I realized what I needed for an antagonist. I'm unsure if I should put the details here in the blog, but the idea I had basically reflects my protagonists in a way that I think adds deeper levels to the story I'm trying to tell. The new antagonist I'm building - I don't know his specifics, but I think I'm already in his head. I can understand why he's doing what he's doing - and why he's doomed to keep doing it. He's under pressure to validate himself... to 'show them all'. I'm excited about the idea, but I still need a couple details before I can start building him and refining my plot. I've been researching, trying to find the spark that'll fill in these last blanks for me, but I don't have anything yet. I'll sleep on it, and see if that provides any illumination.