Writing Exercise: Influences on a Character and a Personal Story About My Favorite Uncle

Yesterday, I started working on the outline for the next sesson of the Seattle Short Story Writer's group.

Our schedule is fairly light:

1 to 1:30 General Discussion / Q&A.
1:30 to 2:00 Writing Exercises
2:00 to 2:30 Focused Writing
2:30 to 3:00 Peer Review

It is my job to help find the good exercises. I found one I liked about influences on a character. Who and what helped shaped your character into what he is. Who is his/her favorite relative?

I thought about this on the ride home. How would I answer that for me? insatia and I bought sandwhiches and drove to Carkeek Park. I took pictures and walked along the beach. It felt oddly familar to me and then the answer hit me.

I always felt a bit different than the rest of my family. My mother's side of the family has always been wild and somewhat looked at me like an alien. My mother often disappeared and had her own crazy adventures.

My father's side of the family treated me at times like a ghost. My father died when I was around 5. I move around so much that I'm not really sure when things happened until I hit 8th grade or so.

When I was 14, I visited my Aunt Jan for the summer. She had just married a man named Wayne Messer jr. Wayne is a kind gentle man built like a giant. He was around 25 when I first met him at his birthday party at Clovis Lakes.

As a kid, Wayne was the coolest adult I had ever met. He was friendly, easy to laugh, and slow to anger. He drove a black monster truck like he owned the world.

He was the first member of my family to actually enjoy some of the same things I did. Wayne loved watched crazy sci-fi/horror/fantasy movies and he actually had a VCR. In the early 80s, this was a major piece of technology and the only the coolest people had them. If it involved the apocalypse and driving cars out in the desert after the bomb hit, then Wayne was interested.

He took me to see Return of the Jedi in the theater. This was a big deal. None of my family ever went to the movies with me to see a movie that I actually wanted to see. I remember seeing Ghostbuster and a ton of other movies with him.

During the really hot days after work, he'd pack up his gear and we'd drive to the mountains and go to the river for fishing. Standing in the water like I did twenty years ago, I remembered those trips and laughed at how much they changed me.

There are lots of little things I still do that remember me of home. I remember Wayne introducing me to munching on chips with salsa. I still get the same chips and the same salsa. Or drinking sodas from a large plastic cup with lots of ice. I drive like him with my elbow hanging out the window. I eat pizza with jalapeno. Sometimes, I smell cigar smoke and feel like I'm at home.

We were also very different in our interests, but I feel like he is the one that most got me. Wayne was a mechanic. He loved the outdoors and hunting. I loved reading and computers.

I had uncles and relatives tell me that computers would never be something I could make a living working with. As I write this on my lunch break at Microsoft, I have to laugh.

Wayne was the first person to tell me to go for it and to work with computers and to write. He bought me random comic books.

I had never been to a real library outside of a school until I was fifteen. I remember the day Uncle Wayne took me there and thats when I wanted to be a writer.

I eventually lived with them during my junior high and high school years. I had some rough times, but I always felt like Uncle Wayne appreciated me even if I was the weird one.

Thank you Uncle Wayne.

Writing Exercise: Influences on a Character and a Personal Story About My Favorite Uncle

Yesterday, I started working on the outline for the next sesson of the Seattle Short Story Writer's group.

Our schedule is fairly light:

1 to 1:30 General Discussion / Q&A.
1:30 to 2:00 Writing Exercises
2:00 to 2:30 Focused Writing
2:30 to 3:00 Peer Review

It is my job to help find the good exercises. I found one I liked about influences on a character. Who and what helped shaped your character into what he is. Who is his/her favorite relative?

I thought about this on the ride home. How would I answer that for me? insatia and I bought sandwhiches and drove to Carkeek Park. I took pictures and walked along the beach. It felt oddly familar to me and then the answer hit me.

I always felt a bit different than the rest of my family. My mother's side of the family has always been wild and somewhat looked at me like an alien. My mother often disappeared and had her own crazy adventures.

My father's side of the family treated me at times like a ghost. My father died when I was around 5. I move around so much that I'm not really sure when things happened until I hit 8th grade or so.

When I was 14, I visited my Aunt Jan for the summer. She had just married a man named Wayne Messer jr. Wayne is a kind gentle man built like a giant. He was around 25 when I first met him at his birthday party at Clovis Lakes.

As a kid, Wayne was the coolest adult I had ever met. He was friendly, easy to laugh, and slow to anger. He drove a black monster truck like he owned the world.

He was the first member of my family to actually enjoy some of the same things I did. Wayne loved watched crazy sci-fi/horror/fantasy movies and he actually had a VCR. In the early 80s, this was a major piece of technology and the only the coolest people had them. If it involved the apocalypse and driving cars out in the desert after the bomb hit, then Wayne was interested.

He took me to see Return of the Jedi in the theater. This was a big deal. None of my family ever went to the movies with me to see a movie that I actually wanted to see. I remember seeing Ghostbuster and a ton of other movies with him.

During the really hot days after work, he'd pack up his gear and we'd drive to the mountains and go to the river for fishing. Standing in the water like I did twenty years ago, I remembered those trips and laughed at how much they changed me.

There are lots of little things I still do that remember me of home. I remember Wayne introducing me to munching on chips with salsa. I still get the same chips and the same salsa. Or drinking sodas from a large plastic cup with lots of ice. I drive like him with my elbow hanging out the window. I eat pizza with jalapeno. Sometimes, I smell cigar smoke and feel like I'm at home.

We were also very different in our interests, but I feel like he is the one that most got me. Wayne was a mechanic. He loved the outdoors and hunting. I loved reading and computers.

I had uncles and relatives tell me that computers would never be something I could make a living working with. As I write this on my lunch break at Microsoft, I have to laugh.

Wayne was the first person to tell me to go for it and to work with computers and to write. He bought me random comic books.

I had never been to a real library outside of a school until I was fifteen. I remember the day Uncle Wayne took me there and thats when I wanted to be a writer.

I eventually lived with them during my junior high and high school years. I had some rough times, but I always felt like Uncle Wayne appreciated me even if I was the weird one.

Thank you Uncle Wayne.