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Writing Exercise: Three Lists of Three

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of radnatt at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

While creating characters is easy, creating unique characters is hard. Generic waitress, cab driver, teacher, romantic lead, detective, etc. It can take some time to develop a character into a multi-dimensional person.

The challenge, especially when writing short stories, is reducing that process to maximize the story impact while also getting a story written quickly.

WRITING EXERCISE: One way to do this is three lists of three characteristics of the character. (1) Basic things the character is/does. (2) Basic things the character is not/does not. (3) Brainstorm quirks.

Example:
She has long blond hair, works as a mystery shopper, and lives in an apartment with two other roomies. She does not return phone calls, wear sneakers (only high heels for her!), or clean out her car. Quirks include never eats at the same restaurant twice, prefers bad horror movies, and always drop a dollar into the bucket of a street performer.

Remember the basic things the character is NOT, shouldn’t just be the opposite of what the character is. For example: The character is female; the character is not male.

Think about appearance, occupation, living arrangement, hobbies, clothing, and food faves. These characteristics may change as the story develops. Some may need to go away, and some are never mentioned.

You can also use this exercise well into a story. Discovering a new quirk can take a sagging middle into a new direction. For existing characters write out all everything for (1), (2), and (3) which have been presented in the story. Draw a line and then write the things that you know which haven’t been presented lists. Then, draw another line and add one new item to each of the lists. 

Flash: Fortee

Erin Penn

Image is Public Domain
Portrait of a Moorish Woman – Italy about 1550; School of Paolo Veronese (oil on canvas)
Presently in a private collection (as of 2003)

 “Do hurry up child, the painter expects us before nightfall.” Fortee’s husband barked on the way down the stairs.

The Ivory Coast immigrant bit her lip while adjusting her chemise and overgown one last time. Though married over three years, she had only been living with her merchant husband for a few months after he had made arrangements to bring her home. She still cursed her father every day for accepting the bride price from the self-absorbed money-grubbing man. The marriage contract benefited her family back in Africa as well as the Brunos here in Venice, but she paid the price. Her young soul longed for a single lingering glance or soft touch. Looking in the glass, her brown eyes questioned the servant behind her. The white maid nodded a half-hearted approval, not yet comfortable with the wife her master unloaded from the boat following his last excursion.

Enough dithering, Fortee squared her shoulders, eyed the high feather to gauge its height for ducking through doorways and followed in her husband’s wake. She found him at the front door giving orders for the evening’s meal; several guests tentative about participating financially in the next trade trip were expected. Black eyes darted, measuring her like lumber, before returning to his business, and she felt every bit of the age difference between them. None of the servants bothered turning as she approached.

“The drop pearls work well,” Johannes observed without inflection in her native tongue as they pulled on their wooden platforms before leaving the townhouse.

She muttered a “thank you” in proper Italian but didn’t believe he heard it. His mind tumbled numbers, charting the course and cities for next month’s voyage to maximize profit.

The portrait painter’s workshop neighborhood required walking deep enough into the city the last lingering scent of sea disappeared into the effluvium of humans and animals too long together in too small a space. Holding a scented cloth to her nose, Fortee stepped over horse dung to enter the artist shop. Inside linseed oil and other fumes pushed back the odors of the city.

Her husband was cornered by the oldest of the men in the open, well-lit room. Upon her arrival, the youngest of those present flocked to her. Dark skin drew them. Even in an international port like Venice, the children don’t see many Africans, at least this far into the city. At port, people from her continent sometimes were the only color seen, depending on which ships were in, but here the difference was a rare treat for the young. Fortee crouched down and shifted her shawl so they could touch the skin and hair. Well-trained, the children only patted and stroked, keeping her careful preparations for the painting unmarred.

Two of the older ones darted over to some bottles on the side. When they returned, their arms each had half a dozen lines of different browns. The boys compared it with her skin, then begged her to come over to the paint area so they could figure out exactly how to get the color right. Crowded by children, apprentices, and young journeymen, Fortee allowed herself to be dragged to the work area. Soon every child had at least one stripe somewhere on them representing their best guess at her color. She laughed alongside them until her husband demanded she join him.

There he explained the portrait would take several sittings, including a number of hours today. He verified she could find her way back to their house, checked the master would provide escort, and coins changed hands before he left to prepare for the evenings negotiations.

The master introduced himself as Paolo Caliari after Johannes left, as well as his sons Carlo and Gabriele and his nephew Luigi. All four wanted to paint her, their school priding itself on the study of color and the human body. Paolo arranged her seat and lighting best for the portrait her husband had commissioned. Once she and the master were situated, the rest took various positions around the room, including one of the scamps who had been the first to try and figure out how to paint her skin color.

Several times during the initial sketches they allowed her to get up and play with the children when the youngsters had breaks from crushing stones and mixing dirts for paints. She learned far more about stretching and preparing canvases than she ever expected existed from the excited children. Twice the artists asked her to cease moving during the “rest” breaks so they could sketch a particular position.

Until sunset, she had all the laughter, lingering looks, and soft touches she had been missing.

(words 778; first published 4/14/2018; published on blog on 4/22/2018)

Notes: Writing-in-Stone, my writing group, provided the above picture for inspiration for their April challenge.

 

Blog: Marking Mature

Erin Penn

Hey all. I’ve picked up a couple young teen fans who want to look over the blog but totally not into the erotic slices. I’ve gone through and marked the blogs which have erotic bits as “mature” and those with certain language no-nos as “mature (language)”. I hope this allows readers to better pick and choose what to read. If you see anything that needs additional labeling, please let me know.

Thank you,

Erin Penn

Geeking Science: Queuing Theory and Lavatories

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of criminalatt at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Lavatory Science

Why are there always queues for women’s bathrooms but not men? They got the same number of stalls, right? The same equipment? Do women just have smaller bladders and need to go more? And what’s up with that pair thing? You know, women going to the bathroom in pairs.

Answer – Science to the rescue.

Biology of the Bladder – Let’s start with bladder size. Size comparison can be tricky because the bladder is a stretchy bag varying in size from two to more than six inches long with a capacity to hold about three cups (24 ounces) of urine (Healthline). The body gives warning with the bag is about a quarter full. The amount a liquid is about the same for men and women, except when a woman is pregnant. Pregnancy prevents full expansion and signals the need to empty sooner.

Therefore the queues in the bathroom are not from women needing to go more.

Sociology of Public Bathrooms – Therefore sociological factors may be impacting. A lot of the “long lines” can be seen at retail establishments. Women tend to be the primary shoppers in the United States. With a disproportionate ratio in the retail environment, queues will be created if male and female bathrooms are created with the same amount of stalls.

Sociology of Additional Tasks – Raising the stakes higher, women disproportionately take children to the bathroom with them. These lengthen the queue beyond what a single small body would indicate because part of the process of a bathroom run with the child is teaching them the etiquette of public bathrooms as well as guiding the child into a better understanding of their body through constant questions like “Do you need to pee or poop? Can it wait?”

Finally, for the public environment, women are usually the ones changing the diapers. This crowds the bathroom further, interfering with the flow of people in and out.

But queues also occur where the ratio of men to women are more balanced, or even skew to male heavy. For example, restaurants and sports functions. The only time I’ve experienced no line and saw a long line for the men’s side was at a computer sale in a convention center where the ratio was eleven to one male to female (I counted the crowd because I had been amazed).

Mechanics – One of the verifiable differences between men and women during a bathroom run is disrobing. For urination, men only need to unzip, not drop, pants. They can keep things fairly private even with a public urinal as no clothing needs actual removal. Further advantages in time are created by the public urinal, which does not require entering a stall and closing a door. Each step takes times. Women need to walk further, turn around, close doors, then disrobe below the waist, and reverse all this for both defecation and urination.

Since healthy humans should urinate on average six times a day (with four to ten being well within normal depending on food intake and activity level) and defecate once per day (with three times a day to three times a week being normal range (Hansen 2018)), that mean only one in six times is a male doing the full stall dance (turn around, sit down, wipe) compared to a woman. Since a urination stall visit takes about one and a half minutes versus a urinal visit, which is just shy of a minute, a man urinating vs. a woman urinating time in process is about half again as long.

Mechanics of clothing in relation to the body and mechanics of architecture both increase toilet time for women.

Architecture – Speaking of the building itself, I’ve said a couple times “same number of stalls” implying same number of relief stations. The thing is, that actually isn’t the case. Most architecture plans set aside the same space for men and women bathroom. Since three urinals take the space of two stalls, most male bathrooms actually have more relief locations than women’s areas.

Tossing in the need for changing stations for infants, which only recently started being included in the men’s bathrooms, women have significantly less stations for the lavatory tasks while also needing half again more time.

Mathematics – Simple math indicates women need larger bathrooms than men. They need more space to have equal number of relief stations as well as needing more stations than men since the mechanics take longer. Using the same space model, the average bathroom wait is half-a-lifetime for a woman during heavy time use (like between panels at a convention) versus eleven seconds for a man. 

The science of queuing indicates changes need to be made. Men don’t like waiting outside the bathroom like a creep for their ladies, and women don’t like waiting in line when needing to pee.

Fixes need to be done. Potty parity is an actual political hot-potato (Wikipedia).

Geeking Science – Mathematics, Architecture, Biology, Mechanics, Politics. Bathrooms runs touch so much.

But how about that “woman in pairs” thing. Is it because of the line wait? I got a theory that I made into a flash last October – see Pairs. (10/29/2017)

 

Bibliography

Bladder & Bowel Community. “Urinary Frequency.” (undated) https://www.bladderandbowel.org/bladder/bladder-conditions-and-symptoms/frequency/ – last viewed 12/5/2019.

Dawe, TJ. “Why Women Have to Pee So Often.” Beams and Struts. (undated, maybe 2012 based on blog comment). https://beamsandstruts.com/bits-a-pieces/item/928-pee – last viewed 12/5/2019.

Ghent University. “Researchers study lengths of restroom queues.” phys.org. 2017 July 17. – last viewed 12/5/2019.

Hansen, Alexandra. “The ‘Three and Three’ Rule of Pooping Tells if You’re Normal or Not.” Vice. 2018 September 11. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/j54xv7/how-often-should-you-poop. – last viewed 12/5/2019.

Healthline. “Bladder.” healthline.com. (undated) – last viewed 12/5/2019

Jones, Val. “The Bladder: Gender Differences & Problems Peeing.” edocamerica. 2017 May 5. https://www.edocamerica.com/health-tips/bladder-gender-differences-problems-peeing/ – last viewed 12/5/2019

“Why do women pee more often than men?” Quora. (answers provided 2017) https://www.quora.com/Why-do-women-pee-more-often-than-men?redirected_qid=20088773 – last viewed 12/5/2019.

Wikipedia. “Potty parity.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potty_parity – last viewed 12/5/2019.

Author Spotlight: David Drake

Erin Penn

Amazon Cover

Dravid Drake’s works are known for the detailed description of the battle action and technology of the military. In addition, the author both glorifies military action and bring its horrific consequences to the unblinking eye of reality through the use of black humor. He is most famous for his Hammer’s Slammers series where the men, and handful of women who ride with Hammer’s Slammers know their chosen mercenary profession will either kill them or leave them crippled, mentally and physically, but wouldn’t do anything else.

Considered a master of science fiction military ground-action, Mr. Drake’s books shows the mastery in his worldbuilding of the battlefield, the armor, the tanks and combat cars, the soldiers, and what is left of the environment after they have done their thing. His writing is heavily influence by his time in Vietnam, and as a lawyer.

I really enjoyed his Redliners, a stand-alone novel where you not only have all the military action, but also one of the most unforgiving enemies of all time. The environment. In Redliners, broken soldiers have become dangerous to themselves and their units but are in no shape to be released into the civilian population. So the government uses them to protect new colonists as they settle on a borderline planet – rated borderline because of the local flora (yep, that is right,forget about the animals, the plants are crazy dangerous). The government could not afford to rehabilitate the soldiers or to pay for the protection of the colonists; this solved both of its problems at once. The question is will it solve the problems the broken and the disenfranchised?