Okay, I get that this is a challenge to come up with something that's not too, too revealing, but how can you make this even more interesting and raise the stakes. Most college students stay up late. Many do, in fact, and sometimes they put off work until the last second. That is not surprising. How can you make this have more of an emotional impact? One way to do this is to figure out WHY you do this (and from here on out, let's say it's not you, but your character who does this). Is your character homesick? Is she hoping to give herself an excuse in case she fails in some way (like, well, if I had tried harder, I wouldn't have failed)? At the heart of this type of behavior is some minor form of self-sabotage, and you have to work harder to figure out what that's all about. In other words, what is she afraid of? Why does she continue doing something in the moment that she knows she will later regret? What is she avoiding? That's your job, as a writer, to find out.
Okay, I get that this is a challenge to come up with something that's not too, too revealing, but how can you make this even more interesting and raise the stakes. Most college students stay up late. Many do, in fact, and sometimes they put off work until the last second. That is not surprising. How can you make this have more of an emotional impact? One way to do this is to figure out WHY you do this (and from here on out, let's say it's not you, but your character who does this). Is your character homesick? Is she hoping to give herself an excuse in case she fails in some way (like, well, if I had tried harder, I wouldn't have failed)? At the heart of this type of behavior is some minor form of self-sabotage, and you have to work harder to figure out what that's all about. In other words, what is she afraid of? Why does she continue doing something in the moment that she knows she will later regret? What is she avoiding? That's your job, as a writer, to find out.
ReplyDeleteI see exactly what you mean! I added a new one, so hopefully it is more emotional and does what you said.
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