Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning, Calliope.

CALLIOPE: Good morning, Joe. What's new today?

JOE: I spent a fair amount of time working on enneagrams for the two children.

CALLIOPE: Did you end up using what you developed?

JOE: Later in the day I did. I wrote about another conversation between the children after school and felt I had a better sense of how they would both react to things.

CALLIOPE: Good. What's next?

JOE: Today I will work on enneagrams for the husband's brother and wife's best friend, both of whom are appearing in chapters soon.

CALLIOPE: Sound's like it's moving along. Did you ever come up with an overall plan for the plot?

JOE: As a matter of fact I did. It just came to me a little while ago.

CALLIOPE: Are you going to share?

JOE: Of course. I plan to heighten the conflict through conversations and receiving conflicting advice on how to handle the problem. Then there will be some false starts with each trying to solve the problem in a ways which antagonizes the other. As they finally realize they are working at cross purposes, they might find a way to work together and both get at least some of what they want.

CALLIOPE: Sounds good. Any thoughts about the ending yet?
JOE: I have been considering the possibilities, the main ones being divorce, resolution or the promise of resolution without actually getting there.

CALLIOPE: Are you leaning toward one or the other?

JOE: No. I thought I would let my characters lead me to the conclusion, with your kind assistance of course.

CALLIOPE: I would be glad to provide any help I can.

JOE: Thanks, I appreciate it.
(Mayan Road- Cozumel)

Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning, Joe. Tell me how things are going with your new novel.
JOE: Thanks for asking. Sometimes I just sit down and start writing stories. When I wrote my last novel, I came to realize that I did not really know my characters and therefore they were not likely to be very real.
CALLIOPE: A good point. So what did you do about it?
JOE: I read somewhere about enneagrams. These are character type discriptions involving a person's fears, wishes, desires, motivations, best qualities and worst qualities as well as how they interact with others of the same or different type.
CALLIOPE: Very interesting. So did you decide to use them for your characters?
JOE: I was well along in the last novel before I discovered this approach. I went back through what I had written and adapted the characters to fit specific patterns.
CALLIOPE: And with this novel?
JOE: I decided to approach it a little more systematically from the start. First I made a list of the main characters I thought would be included. Then I decided how old they would be and what their names would be. From there, I looked through the character descriptions and decided on types for each character. Then with the character in mind and plans for how each would fit into the plot, I read through the character descriptions and made up a character profile for each one based on what I found.
CALLIOPE: Sounds pretty organized, especially for you. Are you concerned that you might be confining your characters too much?
JOE: Not really. I am using what I have done as a guide and starting point. As I write, I expect that there might be some changes in what I know about each character, perhaps some radical changes in them and maybe some characters I have not yet imagined. I have found that to some extent characters help me write the story and I never quite know where it is headed.
CALLIOPE: Is that what you found in your last novel?
JOE: Yes. I had a theme in mind that I planned to follow. But characters emerged whom I had not even considered at the start and each one became more complex as the story unfolded.
CALLIOPE: I'm excited and looking forward to seeing where the adventure leads.
JOE: So am I. Let's get going.