Thread: Character journal

A challenge I started over at inkstains was to write a journal from your characters perspective for up to a month. I think It's a great way to get to know a character.

You can relate the journal to the story you are writing about them, but you could also focus on past events or something different if you'd like.

Any takers?

This is s seriously kickass idea, I'm in for sure!

Glad you like Well I have one entry thus far. I'm not sure whether I am coming across as a guy should. Am I putting too much emotion into it and making him girly?:

Thursday May 15, 2008

My mind is racing and I can’t make it stop. Somehow she’s gotten to me, crawled under my skin and latched on. I can’t seem to shake her, and I need to. It must happen. I’ve never had this kind of connection with any other student under my care.
Maybe I should retract the offer of outside tutoring? But the girl is brilliant, and talented, she could really go far. She needs encouragement, support, a likeminded person who’s been through the world of publishing before.
On one hand, I know what the rules are, but on the other I see a woman who is just waiting to flourish when she finds the right tools. I could give her those, but at what cost?
Today after the tutorial finished and all the other students disappeared from the room, she came to my desk and dropped a large wad of paper on my desk. It was the first five chapters of her novel. She trusted them with me, she said, but not with anyone else.
How the hell did I get here?

Nothing makes a guy girly like a girl. Run with it.

i'll do it

Originally Posted by Nefieslab

i'll do it

what character you going to use nefie?

My first entry ended up being a beast...


February 13, 1953

Today I acquired a notebook and a ballpoint pen, someone died for me to be able to write this. I have not yet decided if it was a worthy trade? I am not worried about the life of the downcast I killed, nor my own life; I worry about my brotherhood. I am sworn to secrecy, I died the day I became a son of the Thieves in Law and therefore death I fear not, but if this journal is captured I will have exposed truths, and disgraced myself. So here I will place a disclaimer for anyone reading this text, I am not turning on my brothers, but I am recording facts and atrocities that should be known.

When I joined the world of the Vory V Zakone, I left my world behind, not that there was much to leave. My family was dead, I had no lover, and outside of the People’s Army I had no life. After my humiliating discharge I was sent by train to Siberia, shivering the whole way. The only source of warmth on the trip was body heat, and that was fleeting. Our train car was so packed, we could not all lay down at the same time, we had to take turns. The three day trip felt like weeks, the car smelt of foul body odor and the latrine bucket that was constantly spilling over. This was my first run in with a Vor, until this point they were a myth to me, like vampyres or daemons, and maybe, I thought, with similar intentions. I sat in the corner looking frantically at the other passengers, all of them looked the same: filthy, exhausted and bitter. Suddenly voices rose not from myself, two men were bickering, one wanted the others jacket. The other man counter saying the first already had one, and to not be greedy. Suddenly my view was exposed as a woman screamed and shuffled towards the other side of the car. The man on the offensive was a Vor, and he was preying on a younger, soft looking man. The Vor was pointing at the man and I could now clearly see the tattoos on his hand. With a flash he punched the poor man in the face and dragged him to the floor. In between kicks to the ribs he worked the man’s jacket off of his body. With a second jacket in his possession the Vor looked happy but not content, from his pocket he withdrew a toothbrush with a sharpened handle and stabbed the poor man in the neck. With spray of blood the man made the most horrific noises, I had seen much killing in the army but most of the other were simple folk, and they began to panic. The Vor threw up his hands and hissed ‘any of those who disrespect the Vory V Zakone will meet the same fate,’ while running a finger across his throat. For the rest of the trip the Vor had his own area to sleep, far from the latrine bucket, and the second jacket to keep him warm, he may not have been respected but he was feared. The dead body traveled with us for another full day before we arrived at the camp, he had sent a strong message to the new prisoners.

If you want to know how I acquired this book and pen, I will tell you. My training in the army has taught me not to fear death, but to use it as a tool, even a bargaining chip. I wanted to keep a journal, but with no family on the outside and no money to speak of, I decided to use my skill to acquire what I needed. In fact I killed two birds with one stone, as they say, I also used it as my way into the world of Thieves. I saw a Vor make a very risky bet and lose, the Thief said he could pay and would do so the next day, but as he left I overheard him say he could not cover the bet. To take a bet one could not cover is against the code of the Thieves, so I approached him. I said I would kill the other man, who wasn’t a Vor, and all I asked for in return was a notebook, pen, and his vote for my acceptance as a true Thief and brother to the Vory V Zakone; he agreed. That night I removed a spring off of a bunk at the far end of my cell and sharpened the tip. I spent all night scraping the end of the spring against the ground until it was sharp and pointed. In the afternoon when we were sent outside to ‘work’ I quickly found the man who won the card game shoveling a ditch. I approached him from behind, covering his mouth with one hand, and stabbed him twice in the neck with the other. I let his body drop limp into the hole and filled in the dirt. The next day I was accepted as a low ranking member of the Thieves, though not yet an actually Thief in Law.

Nikolai Petrov

This is a great idea! i'm going to try it out

I'll give it a shot too.

3 Lyar 2059

I've come to the conclusion that even if I've somehow duped a few people into thinking I'm a human with a grotesque, deformative disease, it doesn't make it so and it doesn't really mean my life's peachy. Oh, I can go to the corner deli and get a Kosher roastbeef on rye when the shrapnel's not falling like rain; I can go to my new job and find the same disgusting things I fled from in the States too, though. Israel's just quieter about it. They hide their sins better.

I like my old job better. Surprise, surprise, they have higher standards for soldiers than rent-a-pig security (and unfortunately, cops are the only kind of bacon they sell here. What I would give for a BLT). I can carry a firearm at work, but it's not encouraged to use it. I'm also the only person in the building that actually knows how to use this model because everyone else has been off combat detail for fifteen years or more.

Watch out kids. This is where internet porn scandals land you: as leased fuzz in a group of old fuzzies that have nothing better to do than stare at your fly and wonder if the footage was digi-doctored.

It's hard to stay sane when you can't escape your past.

Great idea! You can get to know your character, and so can other people in the RPG.

Im in

I'm glad so many people are enjoying this. It's fantastic to read your entries!

I would, but I can't see many of my favorite characters writing in journals. -_-

Well, I don't see mine doing it either (too incriminating for a start!) but it's just an exercise and a bit of fun.

Originally Posted by Kast13

what character you going to use nefie?

one that none of you have ever seen me right as