Getting to Know Your Characters: Asking them the right questions

When writing, it's important to have a good sense of your characters as you compose a story, probably even before you begin. Though there are an incredible amount of ways to do this, most depending on the kind of writer you are, it helps to ask your character some basic questions.

These questions sound like they're off a cheesy "questions to ask on a date" site, but they can actually prove quite useful. Picturing your character outside the action in their normal life can help you stay true to them when writing. If you have a strong character, you should know the answer to these questions almost right away (even if your character is in a different world, a fantasy setting, or back in time, try tto place them in the situation where they could answer these questions.)

Questions for your characters:

1. Do you get up early, or do you like to sleep in?
2. What's your favorite time of day? Favorite season?
3. Would you rather go skydiving or scuba diving?
4. Favorite meal of the day?
5. How do you spend a day off?
6. What are you most grateful for?
7. First memory?
8. If you could only spend the rest of your life with one person, who would it be?
9. Books or movies?
10. Do you or have you ever kept a journal?
11. Favorite color?
12. Ideal pet?
13. How many, if any, kids would you want? 
14. On vacation, do you generally like to sit on a beach relaxing or do something active/explore this new place?
15. Books or e-readers?
16. Planes, trains, or cars?
17. What is your favorite memory?
18. What are you most proud of?
19. Favorite subject in school?
20. What drink do you generally order at a bar?
21. Does the cold bother you?
22. If you a month to live, would you rather spend it seeing new things or revisiting places with memories?

This is just the beginning of what you could be asking your characters. Try finding a complete list of questions if your curious for more. Answer them as each of your important characters. Who knows, you could end up discovering something new about them!

What do you think of this list? Thoughts? Have any questions to add? 

#seflie - What's With this Super-Vain Selfie Culture?

Walking around at school, at the store, the mall, I  have noticed an increasing amount of people whip out their phones, front-camera on, and snap a picture of their own face. Just like that. And in public! But no, it doesn't end there. They always proceeded to either post the selfie or complain about it. At that point, I just lose my shit. Oh dear God, no. Not another selfie. My generation is so selfish and disgusting. How dare they. How dare they admire their own faces and have the gall to love themselves. And then to go and flaunt that photo on social media? It's absolutely repulsive.

I take selfies with my cat a lot.

If you can't tell, I'll spell out what's going on here: S-A-R-C-A-S-M

I fully embrace selfie culture. Celebrating self-confidence is powerful. It enables us to appreciate ourselves more, which in turn can empower the individual. Face it, confidence is like the opposite of Harry's invisibility cloak. It makes you stand out in a good way. When I feel good about myself, I feel invincible. When I feel invincible, good things happen. (I'm not saying invincible like Sonic when he gets those spinning sparkles around him. But also kind of like that because sparkles are great.) I think seflies are great.

Admittedly, that was not always the case. Like most millennials, I went through that phase of "I'm not like my peers. I'm mature and cool." I also hated by nose and thick eyebrows (and then people said I have strong eyebrow game, which is a great compliment, so thanks!) I'm pretty much over all that, now. Hell, I'll take a thousand selfies. I'll admit that there are selfies saved in my image galleries, even the awful ones.

Reasons selfies are great:

• Body positivity
• Boost your self-confidence
• Stick it to those companies that try to leech off your insecurities
• Represent yourself
• Allow you to support your peers by complimenting them on their confidence and lovely features
• Promote self-love with conscious effort 

Don't be embarrassed to take selfies. Make whatever expression you want, because, believe it or not, it's actually your face. Your mind controls those muscles. So don't be afraid to duck-face it out or strike that weird pose guys do in their selfies. Don't read those high-and-mighty articles punched out by crusty Gen-Xers. (Ironically it seems that their favorite topic of criticism is the generation they raised.)

A selfie I took a couple days ago. 

I love selfies. I love reading captions that say "I felt pretty today~" or "Bitch, I'm flawless." Hell yeah. You know you're pretty. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Don't let anyone tell you that you aren't. That includes those magazines.

Plus, we're hardly the first generation to like having pictures of ourselves. As that one tumblr post (that I tried to look for but can't find right now) points out, renaissance portraits are just glorified selfies. Except they had to stand in place for hours and pay tons of money for them. Yeah, who's conceited now?

(That being said, selfies are sometimes commandeered by fetishists and other awful people, so be careful what you put out there!)

What are you throughts on selfies? Do you take selfies, like selfies, share selfies? Have any criticism of selfies?

Midterm Crisis: Time Managing for Stress-Free Exams

It's that time of year. No, not the one with the rotund man in the red suit and all the jolly carols. That's still a few months away. I'm talking midterms, here. The week you get assigned for papers and two exams, and none of it is fun even if you usually enjoy papers (if you're a nerd like me).

Also, the title is a total lie designed to catch your attention. There's no such thing as stress-free when it comes to heaps of exams that count for a too-large-for-comfort portion of your grade. You're gonna sweat, cry, get tension headaches or whatever it is that happens to you when you're feeling the weight of responsibility. I'm here to offer you ways to reduce the stress you feel as midterms approach.

In the stress of midterms, it's hard to take time for yourself. Between long days at school and work topped off with those mounds of studying and essay-writing, there's about as much time to unwind as it takes for Sonic the Hedgehog to run the 100-meter dash. Balancing the different elements of your life can feel a little like trying to fold a pile of laundry with one hand. But there is a way. The secret to surviving it all is Time Management.

Oh no! Before you roll your eyes and exit with the words "Yeah, right. Not this again." dancing behind your teeth, I urge you to consider this: you need to take care of yourself.

Taking care of yourself means getting enough sleep, not working past your limits, and accomplishing what is required of you. Finding a way to do all of these things seems like an impossible feat. Suddenly, you're Tantalus staring at the fruit dangling above your head, ever unable to reach it and quell your hunger. In this case, that food is relaxation.

A nice, clear work space.

Coming home from a long 12-hour day, all I want to do is sit at the table and drink a cup of tea, take a nice-long hour all to myself. And you know what? That's exactly what I do. Allowing myself this break is an act of kindness to myself before diving into the abyss of schoolwork. It is important to know when you deserve a rest so that you don't end up stressing your mind and body. During this period of relaxation, I take out a piece of paper and make a list of priorities. What do I have to study first? How am I going to do that? How much of it will I complete? You shouldn't have to sacrifice too much of your peace-of-mind for school or work.

Once, I'm finished with that soothing ritual, I come up with some kind of mantra like"I'm going to study." I repeat this a few times in my head, affirming it as I head to my room where my empty desk awaits.  This is important: you should have a work space cleared that permits you to focus on what is in front of you. Don't let clutter distract your study-ready mind. It's also important to cut yourself off. Close the door. Disable the internet on your computer (unless you need it for research). Toss your phone on the bed and put it on silent. It's time for serious studying. You need to be able to prevent the natural desire to procrastinate that will inevitably creep into your thoughts.

Then I construct my work space, placing only the material I need at that moment for that subject on my desk. This helps me focus, making sure I don't start to worry about history when I'm studying biology. Then, I get to it. Looking at my list, I start off with my first priority, work on at least most of it, and then move on. Having an organized order to your studying is an immense help. Know what you have to do and when you have to do it takes off the pressure of having too much to do. Once you've completed the chunk of work you've set aside for that day, you should have a little bit of free time to spare. Use it to catch up on you favorite show or something like that.

Also, make sure you get to bed at a reasonable time. You can't relax if you're being bogged down by that cloud of tired in your head. Another tip: go out with a friend at least once, even if it's only an hour-long coffee break. It will take your mind off the struggle and give you a moment to realign yourself. You'll feel more prepared to tackle a load of essays if you've given yourself a nice treat like seeing a friend.

All this sounds like it takes a lot of preparation, but to be honest it only takes a couple of minutes! Sure, it may take a while to find the perfect schedule or method that works for you, but it's out there.

Stay hydrated, everyone!

Donut Mess With My Clique

Friday morning, after a brief discussion about how old is too old for a sleepover, my friend Kim and I decided to make donuts. Well, that's not quite the whole story. We decided to make donuts LAST week, but after spending an hour hunting and foraging through our local Jewel, Target, Walmart, and TJ Maxx, we returned home defeated, resigning ourselves to watching a The Other Woman and indulging in root beer floats. Forced to put off our donut-baking extravaganza, I ended up ordering two pans off Amazon. Having them at hand this weekend, we were able to actually bake 18 delicious donuts.

Pepper investigates the donut-decorating process.

 Now, there are several reasons one should consider baking donuts. 1) They are delicious. 2) They are cute. Seriously. Even the pans look cute and donuts are just cute. 3) Baking donuts is actually somewhat healthier than buying the deep-fried ones from the grocery store or Dunkin's. (Not that this has stopped me from eating donuts before. They're a good treat.) 4) Everyone just likes donuts, okay? If they say they don't, they're probably a liar and you should cut their toxic presence out of your life.

Because I'm a sucker for sprinkles, those were the first kind we made. Sprinkled donuts. Ever since I was a kid, they were the only kind of donut I would eat. Dad would head to our local Spunky Dunkers (which has the best donuts. You can't argue with me on this until you come here and try them) on those rare Sunday mornings and bring in a haul of fatty, sugary rings of dough. A double chocolate for one sister, a sugar raised for the other, a boston creme for my brother, an assortment of others for my parents, and always a sprinkled one for me. I could never resist the white icing speckled with pastel colors. And they always changed the these of the sprinkles depending on the time or year, which was in all honesty the neatest thing. Red and green for Christmas, pink and red hearts for Valentine's, bunnies and egg shapes for Easter, patriotic colors for the fourth, and of course, my favorite, Ghosts and pumpkins and even black cats for Halloween. (I had a serious thing for cats. As obsessions go, it was pretty bad.)

So, here's the recipe we used for the donuts: from Joy the Baker

(We doubled it and ended up being able to make a total of 18 donuts, but here's the basic recipe! We also made white vanilla icing and cinnamon-sugar coating instead of the chocolate icing Joy the Baker uses.)

Brown Butter Baked Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze

Yield: 6 Doughnuts

For the Doughnuts:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (but we’ll only use 2 tablespoons of browned butter for the recipe)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• For the Chocolate Glaze:
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 3 to 4 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly grease a doughnut pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and sugar.  Set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter.  Butter will begin to crackle and pop as it melts.  That’s the water melting out of the butter.  Once the water has evaporated the butter will quiet down and begin to brown.  Keep an eye on it, it browns quickly.  The butter will begin to smell nutty.  Remove from heat and immediately transfer browned butter (brown bits and all) to a small bowl.

In a small bowl whisk together egg, buttermilk, and vanilla extract.  Measure out 2 tablespoons of browned butter and whisk into the wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Stir together until no flour bits remain and all of the ingredients are well combined.  Try not to overmix the batter.  That might create rubbery doughnuts.

Use a small spoon to dollop batter into the prepared pan.  Smooth out and fill each doughnut in the pan three-quarters full with batter.

Place in the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on them and try not to over-bake them.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

While the doughnuts cool, make the glaze.

Once the doughnuts are completely cool, dip top-side-down into the chocolate glaze.  Return to the wire rack and sprinkle with toppings.  Allow to set for about 30 minutes before stacking or serving. Doughnuts are best within 2 days.  

Kim devouring the first donut.

White Vanilla Icing:

• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Mix the ingredients together to a thick glaze. Dip cooled donuts top-down in glaze, then immediately dip glazed portion of donuts into a bowl of sprinkles.

Cinnamon-Sugar Topping:

Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in a bowl until a warm brown/sandy color is achieved.

Dip the donut in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture until the donut is completely coated.

The donuts ended up turning out absolutely soft and delicious! They weren't heavy at all like I expected them to be. This assuredly won't be the last time I make donuts. And probably not the last time Kim and I have a sleepover. We've been having them for about 14 years, only now we're going to start calling them "organized crashing-at-my-place" so we seem more /adult/. 

Have you experimented with Baking donuts before? Have any thoughts or tips? Comment below!

Finished product. Try to tell me sprinkled donuts aren't the most adorable thing you've ever seen. It makes them all the more fun to eat!

Alaska

First let me begin by saying that I love mountains. I absolutely adore them. I also happen to live in Illinois. Midwest = no mountains.  It's actually appalling.

This summer, I had the opportunity to visit an old family friend who had just moved to Alaska. I purchased a ticket and made my way up to the Last Frontier, not sure what to expect.

A six hour flight would answer that question.  I landed to mountains on the horizon and a murky daylight the clock said was 9:30 pm. The sun wouldn't set until 11.

Anchorage, the biggest and busiest city in Alaska was small. It resembled one of the bigger Chicago suburbs I am familiar with. There were hotels, shops, and museums.  One thing I found most charming about the city was the absence of sales tax.

Since only 730,000 people inhabit the expansive  state, everything is pretty spread out. For the 663,267 square miles of land, there are only about 15,000 miles of public roads in Alaska. So, it is commonplace to rely on small planes for transportation rather than cars.

Alaska had a heavy air of solitude. Looking out the window of the room I was staying in, I saw mountains. Neighborhoods where I was, just outside of Wasilla, were scattered and small. The beautiful landscape truly overtook the human architecture. I loved the weather. It was often cloudy, a lnd early August brought temperatures in the fifties and sixties. None of this humid and hot nonsense we get near Chicago.

The jumpsuit you feel way more bad-ass than you look.

As for what I did on my trip, I relaxed. I sat outside and wrote. I drank tea. I enjoyed the fresh air and the beauty.

Don't worry. I also went skydiving, hiking, and glacier climbing.

Obviously, falling from a plane over a landscape of mountains was one of the most beautiful sights I've seen. Skydiving may have changed my life, because I find that fewer things scare me. Jumping out of a tiny plane at 11,000 feet can do that to you.

Alaska Skydive Center is the only place to skydive in Alaska, and it was only a short drive from where I was staying. Luckily, my hosts are seasoned jumpers with almost 300 jumps under their parachutes. 

I surprised myself by only experiencing mild jitters. I half expected myself to freak and demand to be landed, but once you're sitting on the plane's foothold and about to fall, there's no going back. That instant you jump, you realize you're falling and there's absolutely nothing around you. It's unforgettable, and now I know I need to find it again. My tandem and I ended up flipping in the because I failed to enter the correct posture right away, but that really only added to the fun. I don't think that will be the last time I skydive.

If you're looking for a wonderful trip to a clean, quiet place, head to Alaska. I know my post is a month after I got back, but it was such an incredible trip that I had to have a whole entire month to reflect slash I was lazy and also busy starting school. My experience in Alaska was one of the best trips I have been on, and I think that one day I could move there.

Supernatural Pre-Season Ten: Hope and Low Expectations

Supernatural's tenth season is premiering in less than a month, so I'd like to congratulate the show on this milestone. The season will feature the show's 200th episode, an impressive number for any television series, let alone a genre exclusive one.


When we left off at the tail of season nine, Castiel's stolen grace was burning him out, Metatron was locked up, and Dean's death resulted in him becoming a demon. This sets up an interesting playing ground for the new season, which is allegedly supposed to focus more on relationships and family bonds rather than a large scale arcing plot.

That is precisely what I am looking forward to about the tenth season. At this point, I follow the show for the characters and their relationships. Having the writers prominently feature this aspect of the story will certainly draw me in. I am especially looking forward to the way Sam and Dean interact now that the elder brother has, as I am sure they will say, "gone dark-side." The promos have successfully gotten my interest bubbling to excitement. (The extended promo can be found here.)

Although I do believe there is much to look forward to, I do not have high expectations for Supernatural season ten. Any show can grow tired, and I fear that Supernatural already has. I hope they don't try to overdo story lines. However, it sounds like they might. Hannah's line "Heaven needs you, Castiel," has been uttered more than once, and it never has a pleasant result. I had the impression that heaven would finally be fine, but apparently not. Let's recycle that old story line like its brand new.

In another note of worry, I'm a little anxious over how the writers will treat Cas this season. Since he's my favorite character and I love his interactions with the boys, I always hate to see him sectioned off.  I think that this season will largely exclude him from intertwining plots and try to create his own arc. That's not necessarily awful, but I don't trust the writers to execute it in a way that will ring with the fan base. In addition to this, there's the romance between him and Hannah that is supposedly blooming. What is that? Angel incest? I'm not sure if I'm interested...If they wanted a romance for Cas, they shouldn't have killed Meg off.

Aside from my apprehensions over Castiel, I am actually very excited to see how Sam and Dean interact. From the promos, it is evident that the boys are not getting along. The Sam-Dean brother dynamic is what first drew me into this show, and I love the way it has developed. They tend to be a little too co-dependent, but hey. That's just their relationship. I wonder how it will evolve this season.

GIF credit to mooseleys.tumblr.com

Dean is somehow best friends with Crowley, which is great, but I'm betting the friendship will be short-lived once Dean finds out whatever Crowley is planning. Because it's Crowley. He most definitely has ulterior motives for his friendship with a Winchester.

Again, I will reinforce my wish that this is the last season. I also hope that, if this does happen to be the final season, they end it in a satisfying way. What I fear most is that this season will take a path that makes me end up hating the show. (I doubt it will!)

What do you think? Will Sam and Dean's relationship change? Will Cas's story somehow tie into the Winchesters'? How do you feel about the romance between angels Castiel and Hannah? Do you agree that this should be the last season? Comment below!

Updates, Upsets, and Blessings

Updates

I have returned! I apologize for my sporadic blogging habits. Over the summer, I tend to neglect my blog. (Bear with me if there are any missing 'T's in his post...my key seems to be sticking!)

Mulder

Now that the school year has resumed, I can finally relax and keep myself sufficiently busy writing papers, seeing friends, and working regularly. Actually, this motivates me to blog more. Probably because there's more to write about!

Here's my summer recap in five words: Sister, Bored, Alaska, Skydiving, Waiting.

The summer has concluded and we've dipped into the fifty-sixty degree weather that I love. I got a kitten last Tuesday, as well! He's adorable, but he's quite the handful, and my cat Pepper isn't enjoying the new company. I've also acquired a new job, which is working out wonderfully.


Upsets

It's been a wild weekend. (It really hasn't. I don't like to leave the house.) However, I did happen to step out of my comfort zone and attend a hot yoga class with my sister Nancy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, hot yoga is where they heat the room to some outrageous temperature above 100 degrees and make you exercise. Needless to say, it's not my cup of tea. I had to take plenty of breaks. I was basically a big, hot rain cloud of sweat during this class.

After that finished up, I did feel good. Light and energetic, tired in that nice way that tells you you did something. But i will not be going again anytime soon. I'll stick to my half hour to an hour runs, thanks.

After this yoga class, we stopped at Jewel so I could grab dinner. We were in the cracker aisle when a man walked up to us and said something along the lines of "Man, I must be in the beauty aisle!"

My sister and I laughed. I laughed because I had no idea what he was talking about. Make-up products?? These are Wheat Thins and Triscuits. You can find beauty products a few aisles over if you're looking...

Apparently, he was complimenting our looks.

Fine.

What wasn't fine was when he looked us up and down and suggestively said "Damn girl! Uhn!"

No. nOnonononon nooooooooo. At first I laughed because that's my nervous reaction, and I fully processed what he said once he had already passed me--far too closely. After that I felt absoultely disgusted and furious. I was angry with myself for not catching on quicker and telling him off, which is what I would have loved to have done.

I am simply sick of disgusting men who are old enough to be my father acing as if I'm looking at Cheez-Its just so he can look at me. Absolutely not. I'm here for the processed cheese crackers, thanks.

The encounter put me off for the rest of the day.


Blessings

It was the next morning that righted my attitude. I was making my way downtown (Palatine), walking fast...to the Farmer's Market.

A man in black wearing a beret and some kind of silver necklace, which I am guessing denoted him as a religious authority of some kind, climbed out of his car. Almost as he set his foot down on the pavement, he surprised me with his enthusiastic greeting. "Bless you, my child."

Need I explain my nervous laughter again? I giggled and said a quick "hello" back, to which he responded with a joke about his attire. Then I regained my wits and thanked him.

This exchange was a vast contrast to that in the grocery store. I myself am not very religious, but I always appreciate any offering of goodwill. It was enough to change my mood, the warmer feeling extending even into this moment.

Since that brief encounter, I've taken note of the positive things that have happened in my life. I found two perfect blank unlined journals, which is hard to do since I am picky with my writing tools. Even better, one of them happened to be marked with the wrong price. I paid half of what I'd expected to.

It's strange how one small event can impact our outlook on the day, life and society. From here, I hope my week remains positive.  How you face a situation can determine its outcome and the effect it has on your attitude.