So I’ve been working on that story for NaNo. Writing notes on characters (11 pages on Sam, 5 on Mouse thus far), working out the plot details in my head so I can get an outline on paper, all that fun stuff. I’ve been discovering a lot about the characters. For example, Sam has a tattoo (totally shocked the hell out of me), and Kyle isn’t actually a stoner. He looks like a stoner, dresses like one, acts like one, but when he has touched the stuff from time to time (“I can admit it, I inhaled.”), it doesn’t happen often.
I’m starting to really like Kyle. He isn’t the brash, cocky ass hole I thought he was. He comes off that way at first, but it’s all show. Once you get to know him, he’s a sweetheart. A smart ass, but a sweetheart all the same.
On that note, I give you a little more Sam and Kyle:
“You,” he said, jabbing a finger in my direction, “are a literary snob.”
“Am not,” I replied childishly.
“Oh, you so are,” he countered with a grin. He cleared his throat and raised his chin, pointing his nose heavenward. “My favorite book is Frankenstein,” he said in a high pitched voice. “I also enjoy Shakespeare and Melville—“
“No one enjoys Melville,” I cut in.
“—and pre-American literature. I read the Encyclopedia Britannica, but I found it dry and repetitive. Very unoriginal.”
“Har har,” I said dryly.
He just smiled at me, like he knew he was right and there was no swaying him.
“Fine,” I said, getting off the floor and going to my bookcase. I ignored his chuckles as I slid my Encyclopedia Britannica set aside and removed the three books hiding behind them.
Walking back over to where Kyle was sitting, I dropped the books unceremoniously in his lap, refusing to admit, even to myself, that the fact that I kept these hidden only served to prove his point.
“Pop lit,” he chuckled, looking through the titles. “Nice.”
He opened one book midway, and the way his eyes bugged made me want to snatch the books back from him.
“Dude, these are practically porn!” He continued to laugh as he flipped through a few pages.
“See,” I said, snatching the books from his hands and returning them to their hiding place. “Not a literary snob.”
***
I like they way they interact, the back and forth they keep having in my head. The way Kyle draws Sam out, but how she draws him out of himself as well.
I’m hoping to finish my first draft of this story during NaNo. This is a story that I want to tell, want to get out there. I mean, I feel that way about all my stories, but this one is different.
