One-week anniversary post...for lack of any more creativity

So, this has been up for a week. Cool. So in honor of that, I'm going to make this post thoughtful and random at the same time.

Hmm, there are only two things I can think of to really write about. First, I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. I really want to see the HP movies in DVS because it was just a bit hard to follow towards the middle/end, but for the most part it was pretty close to the book--except it was *reeeeally* condensed. It would be interesting to know how the spells are done visually; quite flashy, I'm sure. Creacher was definitely cast well, as was everyone else, really. Dan R. did amazing as Harry; I thought he would from the interviews I've seen. Incidentally, I've seen nothing else he's been in, so as proof of my crackedness, I amuse myself with the familiar tone of that last sentence. Anyway. I do wish they'd kept the screaming portrait of Mrs. Black in the movie; I really wanted to see that. But all she did was talk to Creacher. :( Bellatrix Lestrange was scary. Like really scary. Like scarier than Voldemort. She doesn't give the haglike impression you might expect; she seems like a real person, not some weirdo out of a distorted fairy tale. Then you hear her laugh. Oh my goodness, that's the scariest laugh I've ever heard. Makes you really think she might just be unhinged after all. And one final highlight, the music is amazing. I want that sound track!

Moving on. I've hardly done any writing in the last couple of days. But I've decided Brin's going to keep a journal so that readers can get to know him better. Stroke of genius, or downfall? Well, we shall see. It's bound to be interesting, whatever else. I've been thinking about Ariana, too. She is the youngest sister of my main character, Eryn. She's fifteen, a mage, and when she was three (far beneath the age when children can begin learning to control their abilities) she did a very powerful bit of magic without really meaning to; she was trying to defend herself from a mad dog bigger than she was. She did defend herself, killed it in a horrible way. But the power of the magic backfired upon her, breaking her mind. For those who wonder what that means, she's not deranged. Just...just...and that's where I lose words. She can't read; she never went to school because emotional stimuli trigger the magic in her, and it gets out of hand and bad things happen. She'll never be able to control it, and though she only vaguely remembers the incident with the dog, it terrifies her when it gets out of control and she finds herself doing strange and extraordinary things without knowing how or why or how to make them stop. She's fifteen now. Can't read or write (though her parents and sisters tried to teach her...if you want to know what happened, you'll have to read the story because I'm not one hundred percent sure, it just didn't work), and the neighbors call her "feeble-minded," but she is wise in her own way. Just for kicks, or maybe my own discovery, I ran her through one of those "What's your mental age" tests. The test wasn't a good one, and the result was not just cruel, but jarring. "Infant?" I think not! Far from accurate. But I knew it wasn't a good test anyway. To judge her myself, I'd say perhaps eight to ten. I'm doing a lot of character evaluation for this story, and I've been trying to see flaws in all of them because I have a bad habit of writing "perfect angel" characters. Kelina is rough and wild around the edges, definitely a tomboy in a society where ladies are supposed to act like ladies. Eryn, though gentle as a dove most of the time, tends to get a bit snappish and argumentative when upset, tired, or just moody. Brin, as I've said before, is a bit of a hothead under certain circumstances. "Uncle" Rendig, though not really an alcaholic, tends to get carried away if you sit the whole jug in front of him and takes more than he can really hold, though he does have remarkable endurance. He's also a political pessimist and hides it by pretending he doesn't care. But Ariana. What about her. She's sweet, she's gentle and affectionate, musically talented, fond of embroidery, which she does fairly well... Sure, she might get a little out of control when she's upset, but who's going to shake their head at that? Of course we won't. We'll understand. The dear can't help it, anyway; it's not her fault she can't keep her magic in check and doesn't have the firmest grip on her emotions; that's a part of her handicap. A lot of people will take it like that, and really it is true. It *is* a part of her handicap. I'm sure she's had tantrums in her time, but I haven't seen any, and as that experience is particularly unpleasant (I've seen a few real tantrums from one older than Ariana), I don't think I really want to go there. We'll let the past be past. So, what flaws would she have? What would not contradict an inherently gentle nature? A flaw is something readers won't find endearing, and disabled or not, we all have them. We can understand and look away or say, "It's just how she is, it's okay," if we want, but every person I've ever known well where some of that has been necessary has had at least one trait that really, really, really got under my skin, whether it was clinginess or manipulative behaviors or temper tantrums. (I'm speaking from very limited experience--and all of those traits have also aroused profound compassion in me at one time or another.) Eryn and Ari are sisters, and what two sisters ever got along well all the time, never aggravated each other? Of course, Ari hasn't had a ton of time in the spotlight yet, so maybe she'll open up more as we go along. I hope so; I hope it comes naturally and I don't have to improvise, because that never turns out very well. But I'm not having any flawless characters in this story, even if I have to resort to the terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad. It's just confusing because working with Ari is like working with two in one that aren't separated by anything. Part of her has grown up, and part of her hasn't, and yet they're one; it's not like multiple personalities or anything like that.

Writing is such an adventure, and one meets so many interesting people along the way. Life would be so boring if I wasn't a writer! :)