Friday, November 9, 2018

Shared WIP Tag: Week Two!


Welcome to week two in the Shared WIP tag! This Friday, we will be talking about the protagonist-- the main character. I have one "main character" then I have a secondary main character. Basically, I'm writing from these two POV's. I will be answering the questions for both of them in different colors to make things easier! 

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1. Introduce your MC a little (name, maybe a description or picture, etc,) and tell us something quirky about them.
Main Character Full Name: Dakota Skye Whickner 
Role: Heroine//Oldest Daughter//Sister//Friend
Age: 19
Hair color: Long, strait, dark brown, past her hips
Height: 5'9''
Favorite color: Forest green, dark red, blue, and earthy colors
Ambition: To move West.
One sentence summary: A young woman who desires to move to the country and become self sufficient.
One paragraph summary: Dakota has always longed to leave the hassle of city life far behind. Although, convincing her family to move West is no easy task. But when circumstances arise, do they have a choice in the matter? Plunged deep into what she once thought was what she wanted, will Dakota rise to conquer the challenges that come her way in order for her dream to come true? 

Something quirky about Dakota is that she is very good at identifying herbs and wild medicinal plants.

Secondary Main Character Full Name: Adam William Brown
Role: Hero//Brother//Friend
Age: 17
Hair color: Short, curly, medium brown 
Height: 6'0'' 
Favorite color: No favorite color
Ambition: To find a home.
One sentence summary: A young man struggling make ends meet and searching for a new beginning. 
One paragraph summery: Adam is on a quest to break free from his past that leaves him living on the streets and destitute. The only thing keeping him alive is the sweet face of his little sister. Trouble seems to follow him wherever he goes and when a rare opportunity is offered to him, giving him the chance to leave the streets of New Orleans and travel by steamboat, how could he refuse? Will his dark secret keep him captive, or is there hope for this young stray?  

Something quirky about Adam is that he secretly can play the piano. 

2. What does your MC value the most?
Dakota's values: Nothing is more important than family. Nothing is more important than doing the right thing. Nothing is more important than moving West.

Adam's values: Nothing is more important than his little sister. Nothing is more important than finding their next meal. Nothing is more important than leaving New Orleans. 



{Picture from Pinterest}

3. What is your MC's wildest dream? What is their greatest fear? 
Dakota's wildest dream: To live off of the land and start a family someday. Note: Dakota has many dreams but cannot write them all here because it would be a spoiler... Lets just say, Dakota is a dreamer.

Adam's wildest dream: Adam has better things to do than to dream about the future.

Dakota's greatest fear: She fears she has brought her family into something that they cannot handle, herself included. And blames herself for the difficulties on the trail.

Adam's greatest fear: That something bad would happen to him and his sister would be left alone.

4. What is your MC's favorite food? Can they cook? 
Dakota's favorite food: Anything sweet. Her favorite for special occasions is molasses stack cake. (Personally, molasses stack cakes do not sound appetizing to me. But I looked up food on the trail, and since my main character has a sweet tooth... Ya, so, molasses stack cakes it is, then!)

Adam's favorite food: He'll eat anything, but not before his sister eats first. 

Can Dakota cook? If biscuits hard as rock and corneal mush that is burnt coal black qualifies as cooking, then yes. 

Can Adam cook? He makes do, but prefers cooking on a open fire.

5. What do you (the writer) have in common with the MC? What do you not have in common? 
In common: I have lots of things in common with Dakota... Some would be, her love for wide open spaces, her desire to care for others, and her kindness to the underdog. She also can be shy when first meeting someone.

In common: I have quite a few commonalities with Adam as well. He and I are both introverted and quiet, but will protect and defend "our own" in a flash. Adam thinks outside the box and is creative with the things that he has. We both have curly hair, but mine is more wavy instead of curly... 

Ways we differ: Dakota loves a good debate, whereas I hate confrontation. Dakota has dark brown hair, almost black, and I have blonde. She is very tall, and I am not considered to be very tall. I would say Dakota is more stubborn than I.

Ways we differ: Adam is a guy (obviously we don't have that in common!) *gives you permission to laugh at me* Adam is also very secretive, trying to always hide his true self under a thick facade. Adam doesn't believe God can forgive him of his past. 

6. What lie does you MC believe about himself/the world?
Dakota occasionally believes that she is not good enough.

Adam believe that his past has corrupted any hope for the future that he longs for.



{Picture from Pinterest}

7. Who is their best friend and why? 
Dakota's best friends are her two younger sister's and two younger cousins. Dakota would do anything for them.

Adam doesn't have many friends until later in the book but can't relay much for fear of spoilers!

8. What song best describes them this book? 
To be honest, I'm not sure what song best describes my main characters. It's hard to find songs that would apply to someone living in the 1800's...

9. What is their personality type?
//Kind//Protective//Stubborn//Willful//Helpful//Takes charge//Short temper// Determined//Quiet//

Personality test result: INFP-A (I'm not sure how accurate this was...)

//Gentle//Scrapper//Lost//Smart//Introvert//Careful//Worrier//Fighter//Intuitive//

Personality test result: INFP-T (This is probably more so accurate than the one I took for Dakota)

10. Why should your reader care about this person? 
Dakota is strong, and not just physically strong either. She admits her weakness and is stronger because of it. She is smart, and her love for her family is unbreakable. Although she is quiet at times, she is more so introverted on the inside. And although she might not always feel confident, she is. She is considerate and determined, and very much so the oldest child. 

If Adam's rough past doesn't pull at your heartstrings, then his kindness and gentle personality will. Although he has been through some unimaginable things, he never gives up, and keeps fighting if not for him, than for those he loves. At first, he is very closed up and quiet, but he will surprise you, for there is more to this character than what meets the eye. 

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And there you have it! The second week's questions have been answered! I hope you liked learning a bit more about my main characters! Stick around for next Friday's post about the villain/antagonist(s)! And be sure to check out all the others' posts who participated in the Shared WIP tag! Go HERE, to the first post to find the list and links to the other participants!

Do you relate more with Dakota or Adam?
 Are you excited to read more about my book?
 Share your thoughts in the comments! 



32 comments:

  1. This was so fun to read, Brooklyne! I already love your characters! I look forward to reading more about your book and Dakota and Adam and all the other characters!! :D

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    1. I'm so glad you like reading part two in this Shared WIP Tag! Thanks for commenting, Rebekah!! :)

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  2. *gasps* TWO INFP'S!!!! (Sorry, I’m an INFP and get really excited when I see that.... XD) but BESIDES personality types, these two sound awesome! I can’t wait to hear more about them!

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    1. Being introverted myself, it's a lot easier for me to write that personality...! Thanks, Nicole!! :)

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  3. That was fun learning about the characters! :)

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  4. I loved to read this!! I really like Dakota's name, I was going to name Lottie that, but changed my mind. *laughs*

    Have a good day, God bless! <3

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    1. I'm so glad! I like Dakota's name too, but I also really like the name Lottie for your puppy! Funny thing is we have a dog named Dakota! :)

      You have a great day too! <3

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  5. Me and Dakota have a bit in common I can't cook either. XD

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  6. oooh, Adam sounds like a character I would like, what's his little sister's name?

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    1. Yes, I'm still working on his backstory though! Adam's little sisters name is Beatrice, but everyone calls her "Bea." Right now, she is six years old, but that might change... :D

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  7. oh, wow the way you wrote this all out was so fun and I chuckled more than once. But two INFPs?? that's insane ;) Nice people they are, though. I also love that your main characters are siblings.That's such a unique dual POV story ;D

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    1. I'm glad you liked reading about my main characters, Keturah! Yes, two introverts! But even though they both lean towards being on the quite side, they are very much different and unique from each other! Crossing my fingers that I can pull that off! :) Well, actually, Adam and Dakota aren't siblings, but they both have younger siblings... They don't meet each other until a few chapters into the book. =D Thanks so much for commenting!!!

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  8. Hey, I wasn't sure if you saw, but I replied to your comment on the giveaway... just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to enter!

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    1. Oh, ok! Thanks so much for reminding me!!! I'll check out your reply right now! <3

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  9. Your WIP sounds interesting! Ha, I'm an INFP too :D. Out of the two characters I probably most relate to Adam, however I guess I can relate to both characters somewhat.

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  10. Oh, this is just really cool!! You've done a lot of prep for your characters, and that's awesome! (I don't think I even do that much, lol...I strongly detest character sheets, personally. I know they work for lots of people, just not for me.)

    Also, piano playing is cool. Can I get together with Adam and we can play around together on the piano??

    I think Adam's little sister is gonna be a fun character. Hope to hear more about her in the side characters portion of the tag!!

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    1. Thanks so much! I kind of used the Snowflake Method's character sheets... although I need to do some more with other details! I'm still figuring out what works best for me. How do you write without the characters sheets?

      Piano is such a great instrument! I didn't know you played the piano!

      I hope I can pull off Adam's little sister's childlike sweetness and spunk, because I think every story should have a little girl in it somewhere! :) Thanks for commenting! Can't wait for the next WIP post!

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    2. Ehhhhh....it's kind of a weird process, honestly. First off, I hate labels. I don't like getting a character and going "okay, Wisdom has black hair to her shoulders, is 31, 5'2'' high, she is an ENFP, she likes reading, writing, and talking to people, she wants to find love, and her greatest fear is dying alone." I feel like that's not really told me much about her. I want to KNOW her, not know ABOUT her.

      So I usually just start writing. Cause, personally, her hair color isn't that important to me. It's dark, I know that. I know she's around thirty or so, give or take a few years. But I know exactly how she's going to act when she meets a new person, when around friends, when doing anything, because I can slip into her head when I'm writing.

      If that makes any sense at all. Maybe I should do a blog post about it...

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    3. But yes, I do play the piano. By ear, since I haven't really sat down to teach myself to read music yet. I've only recently started playing it, actually. But I've been playing bluegrass for years (banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, dulcimer).

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    4. Cool! It sounds like you have found a good method that works for you! Getting to know our characters, and not just about them, is very important!

      I love the mountain dulcimers! :)

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    5. Dulcimers are fun, but a pain, because they're tuned to a certain key. So if I want to do a song in one key, I don't always have the notes available and so have to retune everything...which is a pain...especially with one song I wrote where the keys change...I was playing it with a (blind) friend, who was on the piano, and I was like "I can't play that note, it's literally not available!" and he was just in shock!

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    6. Yes, that does make it difficult to play with other instruments! My cousins have dulcimers, and I will occasionally play my moms... we have played them in a group of 3 or 4 and they sound good all together! So do you write songs yourself??

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    7. I do songwrite. I haven't put any of my own music up anywhere, except for one song. Sarah wrote the words for her book, and then as a surprise, I wrote music for it and got a friend to sing it.

      https://soundcloud.com/fiddlingcharioteer/dawn-of-a-hero

      I also like trying to play different genres on different instruments. Like the "I am the Doctor" theme from Doctor Who...but on the banjo. :D

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    8. That's so cool!! Thanks for the link! :)

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