Rothko's Rolodex

Back to the rotting Conestoga that is WordPress. I am recovering from a broken ankle, pulmonary embolism, and DVT, and there is no time like the present. I have a cast on my leg, my butt in a hospital bed, and hours on my hands to type in this moribund blog.

I have no desire to be cute or clever, or topical, or deep in the sense of contemplating dead friends or Brooklyn ghosts. I do have an important task, and not on this blog.

I need to humanize a character in my second novel. Two agents loved it, except for the skimpy surface of this person on the page. Let us call him Character C. C is for crappy, ha ha. That is a bad joke and an attitude I need to avoid. He is a person, with feelings, a biography, and a past. I most definitely can give him corporeality and real motivation. He’s not too nice a guy. Oh, he’s mean to Character B. Relies on looks and loves appearances. sexually impulsive, creatively competitive, and does what he wants. Displays nastiness like a cake decorator pipes roses: thick, gritty in texture, and with flourishes.

I prefer writing another character A, my primary emotional partner of characters. He’s what I started with, and what carried me through the shebang. One of those characters who write themselves; it’s so much fun when that happens! It’s like your fingertips are spigots for this being, this voice. I know this character, his scent, the color of his molars. He is easy.

C, what am I going to do with you? Write the shit out of you, that’s what!