Good day fans and nonfans alike! Here to my right, I've included a lovely picture of Janet I drew. This is a prototype character sketch, it hasn't been cleaned up or anything. But I wanted to put something from 'Natalie' up. Today, I thought I'd talk a little about Janet. She's physically based off a good friend of mine, who's always been a very heavy influence on me and I really wanted a character like that in 'Natalie,' someone who was like a mother, but not actually one.
SPOILERS for Chapter 16 (just posted!)
In this chapter, Janet and Natalie have a fight. Janet is always very concerned for Natalie's safety and health and happiness, but she's also very timid when it comes to vocally expressing it. This is mostly because Aidan is usually the one to comfort Natalie and he is capable of doing it without even speaking. Janet is never sure what to say to her niece, so she frequently opts out of the parenting role and slips into more of a friendly role. And Natalie acts so grown up, that she doesn't need much parenting.
END SPOILERS.
Janet is one of my favorite characters and I love to write scenes including her. Part of this is that she's based of my friend, as I mentioned before. And I see her as she is in the picture above; she has this very simple, but classy fashion. She's very tall and very skinny. This is in contrast to her sister, Sara, who is shorter and more voluptuous (this writer had to use spell check for that one). In fact, Janet and Joshua represent a lot to me in their very awkward family life. It's supposed to be a comfort zone for her, but still challenge her to grow and not just rest on who she is.
As for my life, I'm back at school and writing as much as possible. I got some great writing mags for Christmas. I'm reading the end of the Winds of War by Herman Wouk. I have a new printer (hence the scanned picture of Janet), which I have lovingly named Andrew. He's a lexmark and brothers with my roommate's printer (also a lexmark). I start classes tomorrow and I'm uber excited for the challenge! My tunes are Tegan and Sara's The Con (especially "Are you Ten Years Ago"<--love it!~). I'm hoping to keep the writing up so I'm putting a chapter of 'Natalie' up once a week. This is a rather ambitious hope for me, but I hope it nonetheless. Soon to come will be more sessions with Michael Ashby, conversations with Amy, and more of Sara and Jacob (if you're wondering who Jacob is, you need to read the latest chapter). And I hope to be writing more here as well!
Hope you guys all had a good Christmas and New Years (or whatever you celebrate)!
Lizzie Arlen
