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

[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! :)