130

[ladyseishou]

There are 130 days left until the start of NaNoWriMo, Nano Writers!

As this month's focus is on our characters and characterization, let's take a brief look at William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, the Master's pithy characterization of his mistress:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

It's been said that "Shakespeare's Sonnet CXXX mocks the conventions of the garish and flowery courtly sonnets." Yet I must admit that sometimes I have resorted to a little of the "garish and flowery" myself when trying to hit my NaNoWriMo word count.

Anyone else?

Perhaps this list may help the next time you're doing a little word padding (or just plain stuck looking for just the right word for your protagonist):

130 Positive Personality Adjectives

Scott Adams, author and creator of the Dilbert comic strip, also writes that: "...if you read the list of positive personality adjectives quickly, it actually makes you feel slightly upbeat. It's a subtle form of hypnosis."

And lest our bad guys feel neglected, there's also a list of common Negative Personality Adjectives that can be found here.

More later this week! Part 2 for What a Character! coming up next!

And as always... keep writing!

Comments

[dragonjournal]

Every time I read that sonnet, I keep hearing it in Alan Rickman's voice.

*completely pointless comment*

[facet]

OH GOD that's just perfect.

*re-reads it with that in mind*

OH GOD YES. Perfect. Thank you for that!

[facet]

It works just as well with Jeff Goldblum!

*is dork*

[dragonjournal]

I have an MP3 of it. Whenever I need to write romance, I listen to that and BAM. Insta-romance.

[lassarina]

I definitely have a more descriptive style when I'm writing NaNo, but I think that may have been as much a function of my viewpoint character (who obscures things from himself by wrapping them up in musings about honour and the like) as my own style or the constraints of NaNo; I have other characters who prefer to be written in a much more spare and efficient style.

[facet]

I haven't deliberately resorted to an access of adjectives in order to meet a word count. (More often, I have to remove adjectives to meet a word count.) I will admit, though, that the formal way some of my characters speak does pack in the words. It doesn't help that politics are involved. You know how long-winded politicians are.