Defining Eli

Eli is the main character of my no-plot kamikaze novel, as I am participating with the other 5,000 people for the Nanowrimo in November. I will post the progress in my other weblog, mydesignationiseli.blogspot.com. My pretty-ambitious goal is to have 50,000 words in 30 days, and have a very rough draft of a novel. What do I know about fiction or creative writing? Probably none. But, I heard alot of people that has done this has a good result to discipline themselves to write several hours a day. That's a good thing, practice for perseverance and patient.

Chris Bate, the founder of Nanowrimo, suggested not to do so much research and planning in our novels, but just go with the flow and enjoying the process to write. I had that bad habit, doing all the research before I write, because I write non-fictions, you have to know everything you have to know for your article, that's for sure for non-fiction. But in fiction writing, you define how much reality will be in your fiction.

So I will throw all the fun stuff I have been thinking all this time. I have this love affair with Southern Culture. It is close enough to call the culture as home to me, but the history, the controversy, and reality that I found here is not always delicious. Not to generalize people based on their culture is true, but I found a range of reality in every "rumor", rumor that I don't agree with such as racism. But it was back to the Civil War era, where no one is alive to testify right now. And it is limited to certain people who worship their only race as neo nazi. I think people are prejudice when they are prejudice, and it is not fair to identify individual or group attitude as regional one. There are so many things I discovered through living in the border of the south and the north, the transition poin where the identity seems to collapsed and combined at the same time. I know so many nice and decent Southerners, who I thought to be more polite than anyone else. And I love the idea of family, the porch culture, community, bow tie, and food...

This guy, Eli, is a twenty-four year old white Southerner guy who just graduated from a private prestigious college in Virginia, Hampden Sidney College. He moved back to Cincinnati, his hometown, and found a different world ready to dig in. The story is range around two years of his life, where he really found out what life is all about. I like everything about Eli, and I know him very well, for I am his creator. Basically, I am in love with my character. Although he is not perfect, just to make it real enough, he (finally) has the character I admire in guys. I have it all in my mind, but I can't start writing until November 1, not even the layout or the plot. I'll let Eli decide what he wants to do. The other main character is Mitch, his long lost dad, who always watch him, and help him (sometimes) but always keep his identity a secret. I don't know anything about Mitch, yet, but I know what kind of father he is. So far, I am excited to enter his world, but we'll see in the next thirty-days.

What's Eli doing?
That full of pride guy is in Virginia, having a good time with all his fraternity brothers, playing games with girls, enjoy being around them and admired by them. Something is going to happen tonight, something big that will totally change his life, but he doesn't know yet. Enjoy your last good days, Eli!

I was at church today when I suddenly realize of how foolish is someone who's in love. Remember the old phrase "the fool never sees the thruth"? When you were out of love, suddenly you can see everything clearly, and you will ask yourself "what were you thinking?". It seem so hard when you go through the process of letting go, but when you get there, it will be very clear that what you were doing what was right. One more thing I learned is that never tried to forget them because they will never go; they were part of your life, and you will never forget them; I just tried to forgive myself and the other person, think that everything happened for a reason, and I learned so many things from the relationship, it even got into the point that it brought me closer to God more than ever. Also, never tried to runaway either. It might seem odd, but my latest successfull attempt to forget about the relationship is to accept the other person the way he is, to accept the situation, and to accept the new kind of relationship, whatever it is, with the person, in a new kind of way, that doesn't involve anything more than friendship. Is it possible? Yes, with God everything is possible. I believe that guys and girls can be friends, especially if they have been through rough times together, knowing each other, respect each other's space, and remember the reason why the relationship didn't work at the first place

Back to Eli. He was so stubborn and convinced me that he is a rich, full of pride guy, who thinks the world is in his pocket. He got everything he wanted and think that it was all his achievements. Even he is smart, may be genius, though, Eli had poor grades, he was almost got kicked out of college. He doesn't know what life is all about, he doesn't know what he wants to do in his life.

Day one = 1,334 words. Eli moved to Cincinnati and got his own apartment; an introduction to a stranger; a good love life, and a bitter childhood. I already loosing my faith on Eli, so I decided to change his character and his attitude.