Tag: Steve D

My Goodreads Challenge 2023 Recap

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On StorytellingLeave a comment

Around this time of year, I usually do a bunch of recaps on my goals, my website stats, or my book publishing strategy for the upcoming year. I’m not doing any of that this year, because I like my monthly goal recaps, my website stats are underwhelming and not a key focus for me, and I’m still figuring out my next steps for publishing, as opposed to just writing.

One thing I am pretty stoked about from 2023, however, is my Goodreads reading challenge, in which I achieved my goal of 26 books read for 2023.

The Highlights

I’m not going to list each and every book; you can check out the detail above or on my Goodreads profile if you like. But it’s fund to look at my reading trend/mood for the last year.

I read…

22 fiction books, including…

  • 6 novels from The Last Kingdom series, which I finished in 2023
  • 4 collections of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories
  • 1 finale to The Wheel of Time
  • 5 other fantasy stories
  • 4 thrillers
  • 2 character dramas

4 nonfiction books, including…

  • 2 history books, usually a staple of my reading list
  • 1 parenting book
  • 1 book about writing

I didn’t really read any sci fi this year, but I did read a lot of historical fiction, as opposed to fantasy or just straight history. I’d like to continue reading historical fiction this year; the challenge is finding the books with the right balance of historical basis, fictionalization, and overall storytelling.

Anyway, I like that spread, but will probably try to read a bit more nonfiction and sci-fi this year, just to diversify a bit more. I’m also not sure whether or which type of super-epic fiction series I might get into this year. I haven’t yet identified a series that might dominate my reading list across the year, but we’ll see, of course.

Steve D

January Write Day: Continue Down the Path

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

December was crazy, as should have been expected. We had a great holiday season, even if it was busier than we intended. I’m also coming into January busier than intended – new hire at work, new class starting this week, new projects to work on at home…

It already feels like a lot, so I’m just trying to stay focused on what’s in front of me each day.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise at least every other day and go to the gym more than once per week.
  3. Finish current round of revisions for New Earth.
  4. Create character sheets with physical descriptions/clothes for main characters.
  5. Outline New Earth for chapter structure.

Ahhhh, the optimism of a new month. Let’s get this over with.

Read three books?

I finished one book and made some headway on two others. We had busy weekends leading up to the holidays, and I generally don’t bore my family with my audiobook choices in the car, unless they’re all asleep.

I’ve taken an unintended hiatus from Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I’m enjoying the story, and it feels like it’s really moving now after several chapters of… prelude? It’s just an incredibly heavy book, in tone, style, content, and detail. This is not the type of book I can zone out for, so I’m only inclined to listen to it when I can really focus.

I still managed to achieve my GoodReads challenge of reading 26 books, and I feel like I can do more. I’m aiming for 30 in 2024. I’ll also do a recap of my GoodReads list for 2023 this month.

Exercise and go to the gym?

Not really. A little bit. I only went to the gym once, and I did just enough yoga at home to not feel like total crap. The holiday season has always been tough for me maintaining an exercise routine, because of travel, and because of my desire to be lazy and cozy at home.

Finish current revisions?

Not quite. I had a little bit more to complete in New Earth than I had anticipated, and I was also lazy in December. I’m nearly done, though, and I’m still really enjoying the way this story has turned out. More revision phases will be needed, but it’s coming together.

Create character sheets?

In a way. Rather than creating individual documents or sections for each character, I used an existing reference. I had laid out a basic family tree for the clan at the center of my story in a spreadsheet. Each character’s role in the clan is absolutely a part of their characters, so it made sense to use that format as the basis for character sheets. Each character has their own cell in the spreadsheet, so I just added a note to each cell. The information is readily accessible, but it doesn’t take a lot of time for me to sift through.

I created the character sheet template for each character and filled out the details I knew offhand. What I now need to do is find references to other character details in my stories, record them in the character notes, and then do another round of revisions for those (and other) details across both stories.

Outline New Earth for chapter structure?

Nope. I’ll aim to do this after I finish this round of revisions.

Goals for January

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise at least every other day and get back to the gym.
  3. Finish current round of revisions for New Earth.
  4. Outline New Earth for chapter structure.
  5. Begin revisions based on character notes.

So pretty similar to last month, but I still feel alright with where I’m at. Work in progress, as always.

Steve D

Creativity Sessions writing process. Evening Satellite Publishing.

Character Sheet Template: My POV Character’s Details

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On StorytellingLeave a comment

Earlier the month, I discussed my current task to create character sheets for the main characters in my duology of novellas, Uprooted and New Earth. My goal with these is to fill out the flourishes of detail that I skimmed over when first writing these stories, to ensure my characters feel distinct from each other and can each be described consistently.

In that previous post, I listed what I thought would be useful details for me to pin down for each of my main characters. Because these stories deal with family trauma for a clan of extended family, there are a lot of characters. Not all of them will be as fleshed out as others, because some are more side characters.

What I ended up doing was using a basic character template for each member of the clan, and then trimmed it down based on how frequent or significant that character’s appearances are throughout the stories.

For today, I wanted to share the full character template for my primary, point-of-view character: Mikaela.

Character Sheet: Mikaela

Logline: “After her village is attacked, a woman must do everything she can to protect her family.”

Age: 29

Occupation/role: Herbalist and healer; Married to the clan leader with two children; caretaker for her mother-in-law

Physical: I actually don’t have a great description of Mikaela’s physical appearance, because she’s the POV character – it would be odd for her to describe herself, but I should be able to work in a few details naturally, such as the texture/length of her hair.

Clothing: A dagger made from a particular type of stone she wears around her neck tied with a leather cord. This was given to her by her husband as a wedding gift. This type of stone is rare, so this is a precious gift both in its value and its utility for Mikaela as an herbalist.

  • I’d also like to add one or two small details about the clothes Mikaela wears, so I will need to include those in my stories.

How Mikaela…

Thinks/feels about her life in her village: Mikaela likes her village, loves her clan relatives, and especially her clan-sisters, and believes they have everything they need to raise their children. She wishes she had some connection to her mother other than the herbalism Mikaela learned from her. She has not seen her own parents since she was married off to her husband and left the village she grew up in.

Gestures: sighs of exasperation; bites her bottom lip when deep in thought or anxious

What she wants: to raise her son to be a kind man like his father; to raise her daughter to be resilient and to pass her knowledge of herbs and healing onto her

What motivates her: Providing for her children and the rest of their family

What she fears: losing her family – Her husband or son getting killed in the hunt or a raid, her daughter being married off to a different village, never to see her mother again

Filling in the Gaps

As you can see, I have a couple of gaps to fill in for Mikaela’s character sheet, particularly in her clothing and appearance. Because she’s my main character, I wanted her character sheet to be the most detailed, but most of this information came naturally as I was writing.

I will not be going into this level of detail for every character. Even the four or five primary characters around Mikaela will not have this much detail, and the secondary and tertiary characters even less.

In any case, I’m looking forward to completing these and filling in the gaps in my writing as part of my ongoing revision process.

Let me know what you think. Would you take a different approach to character sheets?

Steve D

Haiku Sunday, weekly haiku, Steve D'Adamo, mountains, snow, forest, woods

Prose-Haiku – Winter Solstice

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Sharing the Love a.k.a. ReblogsLeave a comment

“Winter Solstice”

Twilight afternoon,

gray skies drift to midnight blue,

sunlight seeped away.

Chill seeps through layers,

frosted breaths seek out embers,

glowing in the dark.

Orange glow reaches,

catching with fiery hands,

to stave off the night.

Staves crackle alight,

warmth emanates, embraces,

cozy winter night.

Steve D

Author’s Note: It has been quite a while since I’ve written any poetry other than a haiku. It felt appropriate to honor the winter solstice.

Creativity Sessions writing process. Evening Satellite Publishing.

My Character Sheet Template

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Creativity Sessions, On StorytellingLeave a comment

One of my goals for this month is to create character sheets for the main characters in my duology, Uprooted and New Earth. I’ve already gone through multiple drafts and revisions for each of these novellas, so why am I doing character sheets now?

Because I didn’t do them initially, and my early drafts of these stories were heavily focused on plot and dialogue, rather than characters. Going into writing Uprooted, the first of this duology, I had a basic idea of who my characters were and how the plot would unfold with them, but not much else. I was focused more on telling the story rather than adding the flourishes of detail that make it feel alive.

Now, I want to go back and make sure that living detail comes off the page. These stories are snapshots of a family dealing with trauma — there are a lot of names and a lot of moving pieces. So, I want the main characters to feel distinct, each with their own expressions, clothes, gestures, and opinions.

I also don’t want to entirely rewrite my story around these details, so I need to work backwards a little bit. I’ll design my character sheet templates, fill in whatever information I already have for each character from what’s already written, and then fill in the blanks.

You can find tons of character sheet templates online, so I’m creating one that fits my fairly specific purpose of retrofitting some details onto established characters. Here’s where I’ll start.

Character Sheet Template

  • The basics: Name, age, role in the family/clan (family roles are vital in these stories)
  • Logline: Something I always write for my major characters — the single sentence that captures what the character is trying to achieve and what stands in their way.
  • Physical description: the details missing for a lot of my characters. I’ll likely stick to 2-4 simple details, such as distinct facial features or posture.
  • Clothing: This family is from a small village, so their dress won’t differ too much. What can standout: head scarves. Children in this society wear particular styles of headscarves until they come of age. Adults then wear these headscarves differently, depending on their role in the family. This is a crucial detail that I want to ensure feels authentic.
  • Personality: How the characters thinks, feels, reacts.
  • What the character wants
  • What the character fears

I could probably go into even more depth, but I don’t want to overload myself for this month. I’m not even sure how many characters I will ultimately create sheets for – likely six, at the least. Perhaps I can create full character sheets for my mains, and slimmed-down versions for more side characters.

I’ll see how much effort this takes me, and, I just may share a couple of the characters’ details later on.

Steve D