Day 1 - 1527 Words

And we're off!

I started writing for the Clarion Write-A-Thon at midnight last night, because I had an appointment with a plate of dim sum and Mr. Tow Mater this afternoon. (Cars 2 is splendid, especially if you're into a kid's version of more grown up action movies. They also did a wonderful job of creating the full, international world of cars.)

For the writing: I recast a minor character who was gumming up the works. He is a rival/colleague of George's and the person whose "case" this is. He just wasn't working. Something was clashing or not fitting in or something.

Then I was thinking about a local politician who has zero charisma, and I realized that was my problem. I was trying to make this character too slick, too impressive, with a kind of nasty faux charm. Because George is earnest and not really slick at all on the inside, I didn't think about the fact that George is really quite slick and impressive on the outside. It's a veneer, but because he is earnest on the inside, he kinda blows everybody out of the water on those points.

What I need is someone utterly charmless. Someone who is unlike George, and who George simply cannot impress. Which is the chink in George's armor. (Well, okay, ONE of the chinks in his armor. It's shiny armor but rather filled with chinks. But it lets more air in that way. Not as stuffy inside.) George is susceptible to criticism.

And Karla isn't.

Okay, so it's late, I'm tired, and I've got a big day of writing tomorrow.

See you in the funny papers.