week three

During our third meeting we did a lot of work on developing our character. We came up with tons of good ideas to use for our character, which we decided to name Mike. I haven't come up with a last name that will suit the character yet, but he has lived on the street for fourteen years and has had a lot of experience. What we did was, basically, jotting down our ideas and editing them until we came up with something we wanted. Right now I beleive we both agree on the characteristics we have given our character. We added in antagonists as well, and made several problems occur in his life. We also worked on making the character more interesting, and giving him some added information so people might be able to relate to him, and think of him as a real person, not just something read about in a book. With some of the books I have read, I can totally imagine this person and this situation being real, since it is so complex as well as being something I can relate to.

Our character was originally going to live on the streets, but I didn't see this as a good option since he is supposed to be trying, and failing, to fix his life up. He runs into problem after problem after problem, the problems generally leading up to the next problem and then to the next. As each problem comes up, he gets more desperate and willing to risk more to get what he wants and get out of the pit he has dug himself into. He hasn't dug the pit he is in all by himself, his land lord is secretly, but not so secretly, doing work but keeping himself safe under the law. The character goes to Labor Ready, and gets enough to live off but not enough to lead a normal life, which is one reason he is stuck in this position.

He is basically spending most of the money he makes every day on paying for rent, and later gets himself into another problem. His brother, who is living across the country, is seriously ill and needs his help. His brother is also taking care of a baby because his girl friend has abandoned him. So he gets a loan from his landlord (who deals drugs and is also loan shark) and plans to buy an airplan ticket with in the next few days. Unfortunately the money is mysteriously stolen, and this is when things start to make a definite turn for the worse. His landlord decides now to get Mike into crime, and Mike has no other options, so be is almost forced into it. They begin to plan a [dangerous] organized crime, or robbery. Mike doesn't want to get himself back into crime, but is very desperate and has no other options.

These are all our ideas at the moment, but we are going to make more. So far I think the story is going great and we are going to add more to it soon.