Flaws

1) I've changed my mind about JD's real name. It will not be Kira.... I still stand by my reasoning in choosing it, but I need something that is less Porn Star Barbie (in my eyes at least). I got this "Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook" so I might start pouring through it a bit more and give up on the 80s Rock star names.

2) Today I'm at 46,396 words. I have a list stapled to the inside of my notebook of "Scenes Needed" so that's helping me sort of stay on track a bit. Some of them are very specific, but some of them are just things like "Show more of Mara's personality" which can be a little bit harder because if I had an idea for that I already would've written it, right?

3)Team Daniel? Team Tyler? Hell if I know. I thought I'd decided and was writing in that direction, but I keep having second thoughts.

4)Lately I have been thinking about "Fatal" or "Tragic" flaws. What got me thinking about them was actually the Percy Jackson book series, because (since they are so strongly tied to Greek myth), they mention that all heroes must have some kind of fatal flaw. This is a very loose and technically not-quite-right interpretation of Artistotle (who considered it to be more or a fatal CHOICE rather than character trait), but I like their interpretation better.

I will be working on figuring out what each character's fatal flaw is, but since JD is the hero of the story I have so far just concentrated on her. Her fatal flaw is that she only sees the world in black and white. Good guys do good things, and bad guys do bad things. She has a really difficult time believing that someone (Erin, for example) can do bad things but still ultimately be a good person and be on her side. This results in her being judgemental and unable to forgive, which is really going to hold her back in terms of forming relationships (that she needs both as a person and as a hero). Other than the obvious defeat-the-bad-guy plotline, a lot of the book revolves around her learning to STOP compartmentalizing and judging people, including (most importantly?) herself.