Blue Lines Blog – Issue #10 Partial Character Study

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Blue Lines, Character Study, divorce, Jay-Z, Kenneth A Suffern Jr, KYW, psychology, UNC Chapel Hill, West Side Story

Character Development Exercise…

The following are partial (censored) excerpts of Blue Lines protagonists KYW’s character Development Worksheet(s).

Basic Attributes
* Given Name:
KYW

* Nickname(s):
Key, Key-Key, Keep (Renee calls her that, because it is easier than incorrectly pronouncing her name), Love (well only Blue calls her that).

* Appearance:
– gender Female
– age 18 years old
– height 5”8’
– weight 115lbs
– hair color/style long shoulder length hair usually out and seldom in braids
– eye color Brown
– makeup rarely
– clothing style usually sweats, since she is at school, or a hoodie and jeans.
* Race/ethnicity: Black/Filipino American

Make sure to keep in mind:
– How did your character get here from there? She had shipped her belongings and school supplies the same day that she flew into North Carolina. She packed enough belongings to hold her over until her boxes arrived.

– What was their life like before the story began? She had no complaints until her grandfather fell sick, and she spent most of her time tending to him. She had previously not had a family member deathly ill or sick, therefore she was very saddened by the cancer that had spread through and racked his body. She was told that death was imminent and spent every moment that she could by his bedside. She considered delaying her entrance her freshman year, or going to a community college to stay in proximity to him and her family.

Blue Lines Blog – Issue #9 Rants

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1998, Blue Lines, Kenneth Suffern Jr, rants

Origins of Blue Lines manuscript…

Distractions…ahh…

I started this weeks’ blog late, and without a clear cut idea of the direction to go in. I had given the basis of why I had begun my writing. I’ve given an interview of the writer. I have even given a review on one of the first poems that I wrote, that I was able to transfer over into my manuscript Blue Lines but where could I go this week with the blog? I looked through some old documents, to try to get by this week, and happened upon some old documents, that I thought I could get away with. But the thing was that you bring up things that make you reminisce on the writing process, you find things that make you remember why you wrote, and certain things that you just can’t read because you a) can no longer identify with those times (1998 in relation to 2009), or things that you just don’t want to remember.

Blue Lines Blog – Issue #8 The Interview part 2

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Arthur Golden, Atlanta, Atlanta Braves, ATLiens, Blue Lines, California, Chicago, Christina Milian, interview, Joy Bryant, Jr., Kenneth Suffern, Lauren London, Memoirs Of A Geisha, North Carolina, OutKast, Paolo Coehlo, Sacramento, Starbucks, The Alchemist, UNC Chapel Hill, Zoë Kravitz, Zoe Saldana

Alright, to switch it up…something different, the continuation of the interview with Blue Lines author Kenneth A. Suffern, Jr.

I: What inspires you?

KS: Life and experiences. Not mine, per se, but life and living in general.

I: Every writer has a method to his or her writing. On a typical writing day, how would you spend your time?

KS: In the beginning, my writing consisted of specific items. My (or borrowed) computer, my disks set out, I file of pictures relating to the story opened on the machine, some paper and music, whether playing on the computer (now iPod, or whatever).

I: How long does it take for you to complete a book you would allow someone to read?

KS: I would say that if I am focused on one piece of work, possibly about a year and a half to two years.

I: Do you write right through or do you revise as you go along?

KS: With Blue Lines I wrote the manuscript all the way through, and then I returned to the work to revise.