Thanks to A Homeschool Mom Blog, I just took on a new fiction project and it involves my super-excited son. We consider it part of our homeschooling project (Caput Draconis Homeschool). I think this will prove, not only great fun, but also an extremely useful way for knowing my characters better. So…which character then?
The idea involves writing letters from the viewpoint of fictional characters. My son writes them from the perspective of his time traveling triceratops in addition to various characters from the fiction books he reads, at least one per book. Now, you may write me off for insanity, but I want to play with other writers too!
Anyway, now I must compile a list of characters for my works in progress and choose one. The problem of that choice exists in my only current writing project…a story starring my son. We may find it loads of fun for me to write letters from my son’s perspective (and he to write to himself), but…I actually want to use this as an excuse to work on fictional characters.
Before I can create my letterbox, I need to figure out who that letterbox belongs to. It’s time to pick a serious project from my box of ideas, something I’ve never been all that great at, especially when new ideas flood in all the time, bones inscribed to a notebook for later consideration.
Yeah…I’ll likely end up with three different letterboxes on the wall for Michael to write to. The leading contestants of choice are down to Isana from Stalemate, and Renawyn from Hyper Gear. Stalemate is my oldest idea in progress that always ends up scrapped because I fail, repeatedly, to get a handle on the main character. Isana is her…fifth name (Ember, Akasha, Wynaré, Ceraia…yeah, fifth). Renawyn is my first and only (so far) steampunk(ish) character desperately searching for a novel idea of her own. She’s making it to the choices purely because my son adores her. I created Rena for roleplay purposes in the game, World of Warcraft. Her many gaming incarnations include a super hero on City of Heroes, named Hyper Gear. I love Ren too, but she’s always been part of someone else’s story, I’m not sure what her own might be.
So, there it is. My letterbox project in progress. Do you like the sound of the idea? Do you want to play? See you in the comments!
Muse Sings 
That sounds like an incredibly fascinating idea. I could do that to help with my own writing, but I’d have to find someone else to write with me because my kids wouldn’t be on board. It sounds like a great way to flesh out details in characters. It could help my writing out tons too!
I would be willing 🙂 feel free to choose any character you find of interest on my website…maybe in subsequent fiction Fridays (what I call the Friday posts, dedicated to fiction on my site) I will write initial letters from a new character each Friday. People can respond with their own letters in comments or something 😀
That sounds like an awesome idea! I might just have to take your inspiration and do something similar. I’ve got a few characters brewing that really need a little more direction so I can actually do something with their stories! Writer’s block really drives me crazy. I’m just hoping I can get enough inspiration for NaNoWriMo this year!
The more I’m thinking about it after writing the more convinced I am to do it. I like the idea and it could prove a really fun way to get my readers directly involved (thus, hopefully, making their visits more fun). I’m getting excited haha! Do you share your writings on the same blog as your homeschooling, or is there another blog I should keep an eye on if you decide to write open letters from characters too?
I admit I’ve done fictional letter writing before and usually end up failing at it, but I see this different. The times before I meant the letters in character and part of an actual on-going story as opposed to a penpal-like format existing past the fourth wall in a way.
As to nanowrimo, best of luck with that. I’m Saronai there. My son is going to give it a try this year to see how far he gets. As for me…I almost never get more than 2k words in every single year. Almost like my brain says, “Hey! Nanowrivamo! National Novel Writing Vacation Month!”
I’m so glad that you were inspired to create your own characters and to begin the project. Keep us posted on your progress! It sounds like you have all the planning down!