GNO!! An exercise in character development... :)

Happy Sunday to all my fellow bloggers, friends and random readers!!

I'm going to break down my title for you first:

GNO (aka Girl's Night Out) = a MUST for the entire female population!!  If you aren't scheduling these at least once a month with your best gal pals - START NOW!!

Exercise = the writery type, of course.  But, also the literal type.  I think I seriously laughed part of my arse off last night!!  Can't complain about that ~ :)

Character Development = it's all about the games, here.  In particular - Boxers or Briefs.  If you haven't played this one - pick it up.  Seriously.  It's hilarious!!  And insightful.  Find out what your friends REALLY think about you... and link together some quirky character attributes at the same time!

Last night, my sisters and friends and I celebrated our annual Christmas GNO!!  We brought a fun $10 gift to exchange via the "left/right" game (you can google this), an appetizer to share for dinner (shrimp cocktail, bacon-wrapped l'il smokies, queso dip, spinach dip, jalapeno poppers, cheese and crackers, meatballs - num!), and also a homemade treat to exchange:

white choc chex mix, pumpkin choc chip mini loaf, butterscotch haystacks, mint brownies, creative take on cannoli, peanut brittle, and a cookie brownie - *drools*

We also, of course, had to play games and gab the night away (yeah, I got home at 3am...)  I LOVED it!!  Soooo much fun!  Did you know that getting together with your girlfriends is actually good for your health?  Seriously - look it up!  AND of course you've heard that laughter is one of the best ways to lose calories (and with what we ate last night, we needed to laugh A LOT!).

As we played our games - a hilarious round of Boxers or Briefs, in which you roll a die of I's, I want's, I have's, I dont's, etc...and your friends get to pick the best random phrase to describe you - I realized that this is a really fun way to get to know people.  It's also a great way to pick fun.  By the end of the game - I was "a whole lotta woman", who was "too much to handle", and thus became a "master debater".  Yeah - not sure I'll live this one down anytime soon - but, I'm a good sport!

We also ended up with a "Jedi Master" who loves "pink fluffy bunnies", a woman who's apparently an authority of all things "Teletubbies" and "Barney", a gal who's "good with her hands", "gives a great massage" and "wishes to run a marathon...naked", and a *warning!!  bowel movements involved* long-time sufferer of "constipation", who's addiction to laxatives has left her dependent on "Depends".  (yeah, my friends are sweethearts, no?)

Afterwards, we all wrote down a deep dark secret and an embarrassing moment to throw into a bowl.  We passed the bowl around, picked a paper to read and tried to guess who wrote it.  I'll just say I learned some interesting tid-bits about everyone!

But, seriously.  Isn't this kind of a fabulous way to do some character development for your MCs and/or supporting characters in a novel?  People's pasts, their quirks, their secrets, the things that embarrass them, etc., it's all part of what makes them who they are today and motivates the things they do, speak, think, eat, all of it!

So - my suggestion to you....if you're ever stuck wondering what you need to make your character as unique as can be?  Have a night out with good friends...

And TAKE NOTES!!!  :)   DO ANY OF YOU HAVE SOME CHARACTER-DEVELOPING GAMES TO SUGGEST?   Happy writing!

Find the Story Friday!!!! Puttin' a little Spring in your Winter....

Happy Friday - all!  Soooo.  Is anyone reading this on your phone/laptop as you freeze to death in line and outside your favorite department store for the Black Friday shop-a-ganza mayhem??  Not me!!  Seriously.  You couldn't pay me to stay up all night in the cold with a bunch of strangers only to stampede through random-store doors in hopes of fighting, grappling, stealing, wrestling  getting a deal on something I probably don't need anyhow.

But if this is your bag (baby), I hope you're staying warm, you don't get trampled, and you steal the deal of a lifetime!  :)

And also hoping your Thanksgiving was fantabulous!  Mine sure was.  Did I mention that Thanksgiving dinner is my all-time favorite meal of the year?  My sister switched it up a little this year (I'm generally a traditionalist with my T-day meals....turkey, cranberry sauce, mash taters and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls...) and made a butternut squash souffle.  Yum!!  And then we played games while (some of) the boys watched football.  Games = Spoons (we only saw a few injuries) and Phase 10 (I won!!).  I love long days with great food, great conversation and fun with the people I love.

But, after all was said and done, we left a great day and each other in a freezing cold night.  I've been home for a few hours now, but my teeth are still chattering!!  So...as I sat here thinking of what photo I'd add for Find the Story Friday - I realized that even if you're not as cold as me...it's still winter out there, everywhere!  So - here's a little spring to your winter.  Let me know how it inspires?  I'm giving you a few choices here, so hopefully one of these lovely spring pics will spark a story idea in you:

Ahhh....lovely.

Beautiful!

Little slice of Secret Garden here....

Gorgeous, no?

Hmmm....I'm visualizing #1 -  a scene set for a lover's quarrel  and/or  #2 -  a clandestine meeting of two old high school friends at the Tulip festival in Amsterdam.

Anything budding in that brain of yours?  Hope so!  Now grab that pen and write!  :)

(oh - and P.S.!!  If you haven't entered my GIVEAWAY yet, there's still time.  Accepting entries through Midnight, Dec. 4th)