Writing what you don't know

[brainofck]

I hate trying to write what I don't know.

Alright, all you cool alternative lifestyle chicas out there.

I'm trying to write a sort-of new-agey on the outside, practical on the inside OFC.

I am thinking of her as sort of a non-proselytizing vegan with a peace to the world type agenda, zen philosophy, but I don't want to make her into some kind of caricature that would be insulting to a real person who might have some or all these views/lifestyles/philosophies whatever.

I feel like there are a few of you out there who read this journal.

How would I build this character? In her real life, what would she do for hobbies? Where would she hang out? What would she bring her boyfrind for breakfast? What would be distinctive about her, to the extent that her philosophy and lifestyle made her stand out or be different from just a meat-eating, Christian-on-Christmas, middle-class white American?

I guess what I want to know is how to realistically illustrate the things that are unique and different about this person without going completely over the top with it.

This is what I love about fanfic and hate about "real" writing. Fanfic hands you the characters you use on a platter. You play with them, maybe develop them a little, but in general, the structure is already there, and the good writer presents the known characters in a way that other fans understand, accept and believe. Gah. Trying to write an original character with any depth that isn't someone I actually know? So. Much. Work.

I FORGOT: All that said, I think I DO want this woman to have adopted a Buddhism inspired name, for the purposes of contrast and the illustration of otherness (and of course, the making of lame jokes). Suggestions?

*spellchecks* OMG! I can't believe I spelled proselytizing right all by myself! Too bad I couldn't spell caricature...

Comments

[tejas.livejournal.com]

That's a tough one, but should be interesting.

One thing I recall from hanging out with such folks in another life is that she'll know where all the weird, yet very cool, shops are. :-)

And they'll always be in the most bizarre places. :-)

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Heh. Around here, they're all in random industrial parks. At least, the ones I know about. :)

[tejas.livejournal.com]

One of the coolest ones around here used to be in an old house in one of the wealthier parts of the inner loop. Damn shame when they went out of business. :-)

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

she can certainly have her adopted name...I know plenty of women who do! for inspiration, look here (http://www.sikhwomen.com/SikhNames/). I am familiar with several who have names that are xx Pal Kaur.

good luck on finding your 2KHippy chick! I'd hook you up with my sister in law but I am not sure she would follow what you were doing!

[shalom]

She volunteers in her community.

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Excellent point!

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

She shops at the co-op and Farmer's Market almost exclusively. She has a recycling bag and compost bucket in her kitchen. Her cupboards have big glass jars repurposed to hold bulk rice, beans, lentils, quinoa, millet, pasta, etc., and one down-low cupboard has a collection of empty, washed-out jars for this purpose. She takes her own cloth bags and bulk bags/containers to the store. She brings her boyfriend fruit salad for breakfast.

Her coffee table has the latest issues of Utne Reader and Tikkun magazines, the latest Gaiam catalog, and a big coffee table book about the Dalai Lama that her Mom bought her one Christmas in a pretty good attempt at "getting it." Her bookshelves have Pema Chodron and Thich Nhat Hanh books on them, as well as The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet. Tibetan prayer flags hang over her front door. There's a little brass buddha sitting on the window ledge in her bathroom.

She drives either a Volvo, a Subaru or a Prius, and she non-ironically has a "Visualize World Peace" bumper sticker, as well as an Om symbol decal in the back window. She signs her emails and notes with "Namaste, [name]".

Feel free to email me. :-)

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

you are really my sister-in-law in disguise, aren't you!

CK, I have had my caffeine now and can think.

She is saving airline miles for a trip to India. She has taken a course on Thai massage but only uses it on her boyfriend. She wakes up at the ungodly hour of 4am to do "sunrise yoga" (hey, wait, CK, isn't that part you?)

Is she raw food vegan or just vegan? If the former, her kitchen looks like a greenhouse experiment gone horribly wrong, with all manner of things sprouting and fermenting in cheesecloth bags hung about the place. Also, she spends a large amount of time preparing food that those not into raw food veganism are sure they wish to try (for the record, some of it is very good).

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Haha! Somehow I knew the two of you would be the perfect betas! :D

Thanks! Raw vegan will be way too technical for me to address directly, though maybe she can have "weird stuff" in her kitchen.

Heh. Thai massage. *smirks*

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Excellent! (Is she you? Or just people you know? :D ) This is very helpful, and suggests that *maybe* I wasn't thinking too over the top after all.

Hey! What's her co-op named?

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

She's an amalgamation of me and numerous women I know. The stereotype exists for a reason. :-)

Here are her preferred stores. (Yup, I've done all this research on Colorado Springs before--there's bits and pieces of Daniel in her, too. ;-)

1) Rocky Mountain Natural Store (http://www.rmnstore.com/) (member-only co-op, all organic produce, only open Tuesdays)
2) Sammy's Organics (http://www.organicconsumers.org/linkpage.cfm?memid=16238) (local family-owned, all-organic produce, organic bulk)
3) Vitamin Cottage Natural Foods Market (http://www.organicconsumers.org/linkpage.cfm?memid=12887) (regional, family-owned, all-organic produce)

Jack thinks he's being cool when he pulls into the Whole Foods Market (http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html) parking lot. She wrinkles her nose at their aggressive monopolization, reliance on large corporate farmers, and anti-union stance, and directs him across the street to Vitamin Cottage.

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

The stereotype exists for a reason.

They usually do, I suppose!

Jack thinks he's being cool when he pulls into the Whole Foods Market

*is sad wannabe* :D Actually, I just like their (heh) meat and fish department. *snickers*

But you would be proud of Jack. Sorta, maybe. Maybe not. He's not gonna try to go native. He's happy to be the great white hunter with the exotic native lover, who maybe picked up a few local eccentricities in his travels, but you know, that's what happens when you serve in the frontier. Or whatever. :)

I did want a yoga venue where they could meet but where Jack would be really unlikely to meet anybody else Air Force. Maybe I can make up a posting on the community board at Vitamin Cottage, where maybe Jack saw a posting for her yoga group when he happened to be there with Daniel? *ponders* Or should it just be a straight yoga hookup in the park you already read about?

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

She's going to have a big eyeroll for his truck, too, but he'll chalk that up to cultural differences, also. ;-)

Yeah, it could have caught his eye at Vitamin Cottage, with Daniel. Or at the park. But I imagine the doc must have prescribed yoga for him to get him interested in the first place.

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Yup. I think a physical therapist along the line suggested it, and after a while he decided he felt better with yoga than without.

And re the truck. But of course. Even *I* could feel confident about that. But then even *I* have an eyeroll for that truck. :D

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

What's funny is that even Jack had an eyeroll for his truck, when he was agreeing with the gas station attendant, "It's a hog, alright." I wonder if that was RDA's feeling? :D

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

It's a beast! I'm sure Jack got it in a moment of spitefulness because Daniel had been particularly pigheaded that day and made some kind of comment about small arms and phallus imagery, and Jack thought, I'll show *him* phallus imagery and voila, truck of overcompensation. Which he regretted later, but by then he had the damned thing and THEN what was he supposed to do with it? Well, on the one hand, if the goa'uld ever come and he needs a muscle vehicle he's got it. On the other hand, he can only go about 200 miles before he needs a gas station and then he's SOL... Maybe he should get Sam to juice it up with some doohickies. Or Thor.

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! Naquadria-powered Ford. Hee!

[etrangerici.livejournal.com]

You know, I've thought about the truck and RDA and Jack, and I can't help but think that Jack is someone who weighed the pros and cons and went with the truck for the same reason he would bring 4 times as much ammo offworld as he would reasonably (or unreasonably) expect to need. He'd have the testosterone-fueled vehicle of doom so he could get through any roadblock in any amount of snow or ice and haul any one of his team-mates vehicles out of any ditch. It's the "better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it" MO. After all, if it all goes to hell in a handbasket and he needs to get to the mountain, he's REALLY going to NEED to get to the mountain.

But I do think he's aware of the environmental issues and probably recycles and all - after all, Jack strikes me as a person who hates waste in any of its myriad manifestations. Fertile ground for character development, at any rate. And a very cool premise!

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

Extremely good point! :)

[melayneseahawk.livejournal.com]

Do you still have questions, or did they take care of you?

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

All contributions welcome! :)

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

reading this was as entertaining as the story!

[brainofck.livejournal.com]

:)

[indywind]

Reading these comments is almost as entertaining as the story, which I just found--apparently years later.

[brainofck]

:D Wow. It is weird to think that it is years. The joy of the internet - always new stuff out there! I'm pleased you enjoyed the comments here so much. She was a fun character.