NaNoWriMo Prep: Character Development I

When my then-boyfriend-now-husband introduced me to the delights of old fashioned D&D style computer games, it was love at first sight (ha! spot the deliberate-ish ambiguity!). And while playing the games themselves is magical, for me the best part is usually ...dum dum dum... the character creation. 

How most of these games work is that there are a certain number of parameters (race, character class/type, abilities, appearance, skills etc...) which you get to adjust (using a limited number of points in each category) to "create" a relatively unique character. Certain parameters affect each other - for example, if you choose to create a elven mage then you are likely to put more points into intelligence than strength: mages need intelligence to cast spells rather than strength to fight. But once you've put more points into intelligence, then you can't put many points into shields, because your character is too weak to carry a shield. Instead, you have to give him points in unarmed combat, or healing. You get the idea.

The point is, I've always wondered how much this kind of thinking could translate a) to thinking about strengths and weaknesses of real human beings (in fact I once led a youth group session on understanding and accepting yourself through computer games...interesting!) and b) to creating characters for my writing. Well, my friends, the time has come. I have designed a form to do exactly that. It is based partly on the D&D notion of basic characteristics and skills, partly on the Enneagram - an interesting idea which I stumbled across on Wikipedia (bless you, Wikipedia!), and partly on things that I know I will need to know based on the specific needs of my story.

So without further ado...

The idea is that I will either fill it out manually (leaning that way, to be honest) or digitally for each of the characters/suspects in my NaNoWriMo attempt at detective fiction. Where are the details, you ask? Why isn't it filled in already? What about all the other important and relevant questions? As you saw, this is part ONE of my character development. I will get back to you with tweaks and changes to the form once I have started using it in earnest. But I was too excited to keep it to myself a minute longer. 

What categories would you include in a character development form? What parameters am I missing?

yours thoughtfully

jjr

Planning vs Pantsing - NaNoWriMo 2013

I know it's early, but as you know I am already chomping at the NaNoWriMo bit. For those who don't know what NaNoWriMo is...it is an epic challenge: write a novel in the month of November. 30 Days. 50 000 Words. Yes, that is the correct number of zeros.

I won NaNoWriMo last year (by that I don't mean "came first" or anything. EVERYONE who finishes 50 000 words is a NaNo winner) and am firmly addicted to the rush of hurtling through a story at 1 667 words per day. The feeling is kind of like caffeine on a high. So naturally I want to do it again. Duh.

Now according to the NaNo lore and prophets, there are two ways of writing your NaNo novel. Planning (self explanatory) and Pantsing (flying by the seat of your pants). Last year, having discovered the notion of NaNo in the 20s of October, I pantsed it. Largely, anyway. I had a more-or-less chapter plan scribbled somewhere on a piece of paper. I had a couple of characters developed a couple of days before starting...but that's about it. Perfect for my episodic, fantasy-ish romp of a story. Short of words for the day? Insert a new species of monster, and some flashy spells. 

source

But this year I'm thinking about emulating some of my favourite authors of all time and writing a golden age style detective story. Think Dame Agatha and her coven of cronies. Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers... *happy sigh* I do love a good murder mystery. If I had the creative energy to write Poirot or Lord Peter fanfiction I SO would.

source

But...one small problem... as we all know, a good detective story is built on timetables, and alibi charts and stuff. Turning clocks back, train schedules, tide tables, that sort of thing. Just the sort of thing which is impossible to make up on the fly. Not at 1000 words per hour, anyway. And in any case I may, possibly, skip over those pages in detective stories. I want to get to the good stuff, you know?

I have some ideas about how to do this without making myself miserable with tables and boring alibi charts, such as making characters like I would create computer game/dungeons and dragons characters. If and when I carry these ideas out, I will share them. Judiciously, of course, so as to save you all from the spoilers.

But basically, if I want this year's NaNo to be a win for me, and if I don't fall back on the interesting zombie apocalypse/teacher twist that is still a valid possibility... I need to start planning. Like, now.

So, er... bye! No time to talk. I'm planning...

yours prudently

jjr

Birdies

I got the know-how to make these little darlings from here... have a look at Elvie's plagiarism story, by the way. Isn't it tragic? Just goes to show how careful we all need to be in this age of internet inbreeding!

In any case, I find these guys incredibly soothing to create, a kind of hiatus in stressful times... you should give it a try:

2013? Really?

Hello everyone!

So apparently it's 2013 already - and the internet is full of focus words, resolutions and general planning goodness. Far be it from me to buck the trend.

(Some of you may have noticed that I've killed Out of Perspective - splitting my attention was a silly idea in the first place. But I did import all the posts, so nothing lost!)

So, on to some of what 2013 holds for me:

teaching english

Yes, this year I am teaching THREE English classes (grade 8, 9 and 10) and only TWO Maths classes (grade 9 and 10). While this is a good thing (I've been wanting to wriggle into English teaching, and yay! no grade 12s), it is also a VERY VERY stressful thing. I've been teaching Maths for almost three years. How much experience do I have teaching English?? Zip, zilch, nada...

Prep time!

teaching maths

So I'm still teaching a fair bit of Maths though, and will continue to lead the grade 9 Maths team at my school, which means a lot of resource creation and general admin. I'm pleased with the plans we've set in place to tweak the ordering of the syllabus, and this year I will be teaching a top-set grade 9 class - yay! Last year I had all mixed groups in terms of Mathematical ability - pretty demoralising when at least half my kids failed every exam. So although I enjoy teaching kids who struggle with Maths, it will make a nice change. 

As good as a holiday? We'll see. This past holiday will be pretty hard to beat.

family

...which doesn't only consist of my cats, believe it or not!

My younger sister is getting married in April (yikes), and then moving to England with her beloved! Very exciting times, but also a bit sad and definitely stressful. So this year will be full of family things, at least for the first part, and I want to try and prioritise them as much as I can...

"Family" also covers my mini family (husband + two cats) and home, and trying to leave work earlier as often as possible (5pm, please? maybe??) so that I can spend time at home and hopefully not leave such chaos behind me when I go to bed at night.

creativity

Last year I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time, and absolutely LOVED it. So come November 2013, all else being equal, I will NaNoWriMo again! Yay!

But I also want to get into the routine of getting creative work going regularly throughout the year, starting with the editing of Mending Hedges (my NaNo novel from 2012). I've also got some other interesting plots and plans up my sleeve but we shall see... dum, dum, dum...

ALSO, I want to get back to a more regular blogging schedule. To that end, I want to stop putting pressure on myself to create one type of post or another at any particular time - just to write and create whatever springs to mind based on current events. Realistically, I will be trying one general post and/or one writing post per week (depending on work situations). Mainly posting on Saturdays, as far as I can make out my schedule, but obviously trying to gather material throughout the week and mainly construct the posts over the weekend.

Anyhow, I'll give it a decent effort for the first little while, and hope to hold up my end when the school work gets tougher.

sjoe!

I think that's quite enough resolution-type things for me for one day...nap time?

Brilliant Mathematical Thinking (or is that brilliant daydreaming??)

Transcript:
In algebric equation if 1+y is the sum you cannot add 1 and y together for example 1 would be a man and y would be a crocodile. But 1 [times] y can be possible because for example 1 would be a man and y would be a crocodile but [times] would be the fairy that change 1 and y into a frog so they can stay together then the answer is 1y.

Smiley face but no mark...

Butterfly Skeleton

butterfly skeleton
apophysis 

Dancing Dragon

dancing dragon

 apophysis

 

Reverse Hourglass (and other fractals)

The last image has a name: Reverse Hourglass. The others are just images!


They were all made by me, a complete fractal novice, using the cutest (and free) little program called Apophysis. It's super adictive, so I'm sure more fractal posts will follow...you don't mind do you?


Yours in fractality,
JJR

Woeful Wednesday - Energising Efforts

It's woeful wednesday again and despite not having taught a lesson yet today I am CAPUT out of energy. So I'm drinking a huge cup of very sweet coffee and trying to hype myself up to start a new and extremely challenging chapter with my grade 11s..

Energising Efforts:

more awesome coffee piccies

1. Get the caffiene flowing in my veins (feel the heartbeat skyrocket!)
2. Music: soundtrack mix (preferably lots of vibey Disney stuff - think Hercules and so on...)
3. Work - preferably something completely non-essential and non-urgent (like making stationery choices for next year :-)

Baby Tree - Big Tree

At the moment I am a Baby Tree. I still need support.

But one day I will be a BIG tree.

A Discourse on Purpose

For some reason today I realised that I haven't written a "proper" blog post for ages. My "hectic maths" label is becoming quite empty, and even photographs taken by myself have been pretty scarce.

Part of the reason for this is that I've started a cellphone experiment at school which involves being online with the kids a LOT, via twitter, class blog and so on. So I've been using up all my internet energy - or a lot of it anyway!

Another reason is that I've been thinking quite a bit about what the purpose of Daydreaming in Maths actually is. My class blog has a clearly defined purpose, but in some ways its purpose has eroded Daydreaming's.

Is this a blog for my students? Well, not really. But not NOT either.

Is this a blog for ME? Well, if its just for me maybe I should get a diary and stop filling the internet with random cr**p.

Is it a blog for the general public? Er...not sure if the general public is that interested in Maths and my crazy musings.

Is it a blog for other people that know me? Well in that case maybe I'm better off emailing them more regularly.

So what s the purpose of Daydreaming?

Aaaah...there's a question to please the soul of irony!

Message from the soul of irony (i.e. the brain):

Dear JJR - please note that daydreaming does not serve a purpose. It represents an absence of purpose. Therefore your question is irrelevant. Kind regards etc.

 
Well that's helpful...any suggestions from anyone else?

Message from the id:

Dear JJR -please note that this blog represents nothing more than a place to stash your ideas and impressions. The fact that it is open to the public simply provides you with an illusion of importance. Kind regards etc.

Not sure I like that answer - can I have another one please?


Message from the ego:

Dear JJR - please note that you are providing an extremely insightful and important service to society by writing this blog. If you stop, the world will surely be lacking that certain something. You fulfill a crucial role in the continuance of our cultural identity. Kind regards etc.

I'll shut up now...for now!

The Coolest School Ever

from the wayfaring website

Random Quote for Monday

"When I'm a veteran with only one eye,

I shall do nothing but look at the sky" 

incredible artwork from...

Profound Realisation

In the past few days I've spent a lot of time staring blankly out of my classroom window (which, by the way, I thought was purely the province of naughty children) while my students were writing tests, working on tutorials and exercises and generally getting on with things without my immediate assistance.

My profound realisation is this:  

distance lends grace

Interpret as you choose.

Counting at the Seaside

I'm on holiday folks, so no hectic maths for a bit... instead I've been collecting pictures of numbers. Today I counted from 0 to 5 on and around the beautiful beach at Muizenburg.

 Hum...the usual problem with "counting" zero. Am I encroaching on hectic maths after all?

One clock-tower on Muizenburg station. Not one o'clock.

Two walking people (husband and father-in-law if you must know)

Can you spot the three?

Four beach huts...

Five (or is it six?) steps gone adrift...

Proof and Imagination

A few years ago I saw a movie called Proof. It's about an elderly Maths professor and his daughter. He spends his whole life trying to prove a single theorem, and eventually gets Alzheimers or something like that. His daughter sacrifices her academic career to care for him... Anyway, I won't give the plot away, but the idea of the film centres around the great value of proof.

Now my idea of a mathematical proof tends to be a hand-wavy argument followed by the conclusion: "so it seems clear that..." But through the years I've changed my mind. The great beauty of a true proof (as recognised by Socrates, Aristotle, Bertrand Russell, and various others at different points in the history of thought) is that a proof is irrefutable. Every step follows inexorably on from the previous steps in logical and unarguable progression.

Stripped down to its bare bones, a proof is a statement of pure logic. It takes you from what you know (or what you assume, axiomatically or otherwise) to you guess but do not yet know. In this sense proof is another (more or less accessible, depending on your point of view) form of lucid imagination.

It's imagination that has a shape.