Writing Assignment Week 6

Writing Assignment Week 6: Character Development

As Canary looked down the winding road that could be seen outside her bedroom window, a single tear rolled down her cheek and onto the leather journal spread out before her on the spindle legged desk. The journal spoke no answers to the incessant questions that would not leave. It did not have the power of decisiveness within its yellowed pages. Canary required an omniscient narrator to decide her path for her, but her omniscient narrator, her night in shining armor would not be there for her this time.
Canary’s soft black padded purse with an oh so not subtle double “C” in white letters rested against the corner of her desk. Vogue, Bazaar, Gormet and Fine Cooking rested together in a pile on her 300 thread-count Italian cotton sheets atop a handcrafted solid mahogany bed frame. Canary’s matching mahogany bedside table sported a Bose Wave Radio, in Platinum White, which perfectly complemented the Martha Stewart gray blue of the wall paint, freshly retouched. Canary’s bookshelf supported text upon text of Tax auditing and financial planning books – each well worn and individually loved. These were the only items in her bedroom showing any sign of wear.
Canary laughed softly to herself every time she had thought of John’s first experience within her parent’s house, when she was still a junior in High School. She always would remember with perfect clarity the way in which his eyes darted around nervously in her bedroom – at high canopy bed and vaulted ceilings, at her vast walk in closet and extensive bathroom with its marble floors. She knew he never felt fully comfortable within her parent’s house – instead always in some way excluded. Though Canary taught him how to tie his tie in a ‘Windsor knot’, he still managed to confuse the soup and salad bowls at dinner. He still managed to earn a meaningful glance from her parents.
Everyone Canary knew was interested to learn about Johns life – about his aspirations, his ambitions. Who was this mysterious man Canary was involved with and spoke so little about? Rarely did anyone meet this man. No one could name his family, where he was from or anything about him, except that he attended the same school as Canary. Was he in the medical school with her? Was he in the honors department with her?
John had interests other than Canary and what she was used to. John’s house was a half hazard jumbling of his various interests. He had unusual animals and plants, strange artifacts from his travels to Southern America and Africa, and an inordinate amount of books and old texts. His items were in a constant state of disarray to the ignorant viewer, yet he always said that there was some method behind the disorganization. He only wore clothes that he had acquired freely – and still wore boxers that his mother had given to him five years previously.
John went to school because he yearned for personal enrichment – for developing skills that were needed for “life”. John viewed college as a time to expand ones horizons and began to learn what interested one. College was not to begin a career, it was to learn what ones career would or should be. A well paying job was secondary, not as important. He lived for life, not his job. His job paying minimum wage working at a bookstore provided him with enough income to live without parental input and thus he thought of himself as successful. He did not want to tie himself down with a specific career and job path, he wanted to explore what interested him, and to only work in a career that was self fulfilling. He disliked work and wanted to do everything in his power to make it enjoyable.
Canary’s goal in life was to acquire as much wealth as was humanly possible. She also wanted to live her life to the fullest, but what does that mean without the monetary means in which to do such things. She had intensions to become as successful as possible in order to insure that had the funds to enjoy life to the fullest. Her ideas of success included being world renowned, and during her life she was motivated to always do the best possible in order to make that happen for herself. Her parents always pushed her to be the best possible, and she was simply expected to be successful. It would be unusual and strange if she wasn’t successful – she would be the black sheep of the family.
Canary spent every minute of everyday with John. She refused to be without him. His perspective was so different and difficult to understand and comprehend that it was like an entire new world that she would never and could never fully understand. There would not be a situation in old age in which Canary and John would be sitting together at dinner with nothing to talk about. John was a breath of fresh air to her stifled, carefully constructed rigid life. Yet their needs and wants in life were different. John already told her that he would not make this decision for her. Canary had to stand on her own and make a decision.

Writing Journal
I chose the character based on some personal strife that I myself was feeling with my relationship with my boyfriend and his current choice of major – that I feel is unsatisfactory. I felt that it was challenging to focus in on the character and rather ignore the plot of the story, or at least develop it secondary. I found it difficult to create a meaningful character without dialog, and in the end decided to do nothing in my story except have the character ponder some points, and as always, found it challenging to show, not tell. I attempted to give myself and the reader something familiar, and easy to relate to as everyone has relationship issues at one time or another. I chose this because It was easier for me to write a story with a character that I could relate to, because I could see their point of view very clearly.