...I shall brainstorm on my WriMo novel-to-be.

So, what do I have so far? The theme/issue of therianthropy. One male main char. One female slightly-less-main char, plus her name.

Wow, I suck. =D I have like, no idea of anything. =^^= That's how I like it, though. That means my ego--that analytical, planning-loving part of my brain--can't interfere when I start writing. It can't tell me that the story should go here because I already planned it to do so. But if the story tells me it's going to go here, I won't argue, because all a writer is... is a vessel, a channel, through which the tale pours. A writer doesn't make the words and the story and the characters--she just puts them to paper and crafts them into a shape and rhythm pleasing to the eye and tongue.

...despite my waxing poetic about being unplanned, I do need to brainstorm juuuust a leetle about my two MCs and the general setting/situation. Warning--I may repeat myself and/or contradict myself. Deal with it. =D

Let's go with the girl first, since I know more about her. Her name is Samantha Anderson, but she'll bite you if you call her Samantha--be it Samma, or Sammie, or (preferably) Sam, she just doesn't want to be called by her first name. ((She hates being called Miss Anderson, too.)) She's a tough chick, not exactly pretty, but athletic ((not a jock)) and fit and healthy. She rock-climbs. She's a decent student (Bs and Cs, once in a while an A or D) with a few decent friends (just enough to hang around with when she's bored) and one verybest friend--the male MC. Although very active outdoors and very much a nature-lover, Sam is also somewhat addicted to the 'net and uses her cell phone to surf it when she can't whip out her laptop. Her favorite hobbies are jogging, hiking, horse-back riding (trails, not shows), blogging/IMing friends, rock-climbing, and sleeping outside camping. She's more of a loner than not, and she's very comfortable in solitude, but she dearly loves her family and best friend. (All her friends 'cept him are pretty casual acquaintances--no questions asked, they do fun genderless stuff like hang out and watch movies.) She's blonde--her hair is thick and kind'f fluffy and reaches to her shoulder blades; she leaves it loose, even though it tends to frizz and get in the way a lot (in which cases, she whips out a handy-dandy headband). She's kind'f pale, despite her time in the sun, because she's way cautious about skin cancer and always uses sunblock, and she has non-spectacular greyblue eyes. Her facial features are kind'f blunt and asexual, and she doesn't wear make-up often--she's not ugly, but she's not gorgeous, either. She's about 5'7", average height for a girl her age, and pretty toned and fit--small hands, small feet, not as curvy as she'd secretly like to be, not overweight. Usual clothing is a tanktop or sporty tee + khaki pants/jean shorts + tennis shoes--no particular love of jewelry, but she has a good-quality digital watch she wears all the time. Sam's determined and stubborn and occasionally too blunt to pick up on underlying problems or deceptions--she takes things at face value, and with her, what you see is what you get. She doesn't apologize for herself and isn't afraid to show her emotions, whether it's anger or fear or sadness or joy. She's tough and won't give up--won't let anyone else give up, not if she cares enough about them. However, when it comes to not-next-of-kin folks, half the time she'll just let them figure their own problems out if she isn't specifically asked to help. Oh, and for about two years now, she's been in the furry community as a tomboyish cougar anthro. Sam lives with her dad and has a younger brother, Tommy (12), who idolizes her--her mom and step-dad have her younger sister (Angelie--7) and an older step-brother (Harold--23). Her dad is a salesman who does fairly well in the business, but who isn't home much and isn't much of a "man" role-model for Tommy--he's quiet, serious, and professional. Sam pretty much takes care of their apartment, arranges for food to be around in time for dinner (once in a while she'll cook), and makes sure Tommy gets what he needs for school and baseball. (Her dad calls her Samantha.) I don't know if she's bisexual, but she might be. ^^;; And here I was hoping to keep GLBT out of this one...

The guy, who is actually the mainest character (even though the girl is a "better person" than him), ... has no name. I really want to name him Joel Williams, but seeing as that's the exact name of a friend of mine, I'd feel really bad stealing his own name. ^^;;;; But the name is perfect for this char, I swear. Sigh. But anyways, the guy's a spiritual therianthrope whose animalside is horse. Yep, horse. Non-breed-specific horse for now. He's a quiet, sort'f edgy sort of person who, although fairly intelligent, doesn't do well in school situations (i.e. crowded hallways, small classrooms, small desks) and doesn't take tests well, so his grades are about the same as Sam's (Bs and Cs). He responds well to kind words and gently-friendly people, and he often acts a little younger than he is when greeted with a soft demeanor and kindness--it's like a flower opening to a sun not seen very often. He's not immature, but being nervous around too many noisy, rambunctious people and being quiet by nature, he doesn't have many friends and thus is on his own a lot--this gives him plenty of time to think, and write poetry, and it ends with him being called "queer" more often than not. He's quite artistic, liking poetry and oil pastels, but he doesn't do so well in math and science (though he likes hands-on ecological sciences). However, when around people he knows and likes, he can be quite outgoing and talkative, very expressive with his hands and facial expressions--he's generally happy being around those people, and though he's learned to tolerate being alone, he's usually unhappy without others around him. He's tallish (5'11") and thin, not a jock but fairly fit, long-limbed and long-bodied with big, uncallused hands with neatly trimmed fingernails. He has black hair that's just long enough to give him an ungroomed look (but not nearly long enough to do anything with, other than spike it once in a while), and his skin is kind'f dark but not very, as his mother is Hispanic (but his father is white)--his eyes are deep brown. He usually wears dark baggy (rag-hemmed) jeans + tennis shoes + darkly colorful shirts (i.e. purple and blue and dark green and black, often swirled--you know, the silky kinds). His hobbies include reading good novels, writing poetry and some short stories (usually horror or action/adventure), oil pastel-ing, napping (he'll curl up anywhere and just sleep =D), wandering the woods, and horse-back riding. He lives with his mom--his dad died on 9-11 in the Towers--he's an only child. His mom is a social worker and brings enough money home to pay the rent for their little house and keep them in food and clothing, but there isn't much to spare--he works at a nearby stables (hard labor--mucking more often than grooming/watering/feeding) on weekends and during the summer. He's very devoted to his mom, who is a tired and overstressed but gentle, soft-spoken lady much underappreciated at her job (though she's very good at it). Though a generally "good" person, he's quite insecure and still trying to integrate his therianthropy into his life more fully.

((Okay, we're calling my male MC Horse for now. Excuse the unoriginality. XD.))

Horse and Sam met as freshman in high school when Sam started volunteering at the riding stables where Horse had just started working weekends--she wanted to get to be friends with the stables' owners so she could take some of their horses on trail rides once in a while, and he needed to supplement his mom's barely-adequate income. At this point, Sam wasn't into furrydom and Horse hadn't really probed his [latent/hidden/unquestioned] therianthropy, so they were just two teens who liked horses hanging out for a while. Sam taught Horse how to ride Western, and he taught her how to (don't laugh) muck out stables properly, plus groom (though she already knew the basics--she moved to WV when she was 12 from Texas, where her extended family had a horse ranch). They became friends pretty quickly, after Sam realized that her blunt nature and occasionally rude honesty was making Horse edgy--so once she toned herself down, Horse opened up, and they got along just fine. They were close/best friends throughout high school, having few other options--she wasn't "in" enough to have a ton of friends (and a loner besides), and he was too shy to really socialize. The novel is set in the summer between high school graduation and first semester of college--by now, Sam and Horse have become very close--absolutely no romance, thanks =D--and as Horse struggles with therianthropy, the thought of leaving his mom for a dorm in a community college, and his own self-identity, Sam is likewise caught in the flow of life that's swiftly taking her away from her family and Horse to go to a different state university (she'd gotten an equestrian scholarship to go there) and in being put into a different, very conservative community that condemns anything different--and anyone who dares express themselves fearlessly.

Hmm, that's it for now. Writer-friends, if you have any advice/suggestions/input on my chars or setting, tell me! Especially tell me if either of my chars is unrealistic, too "perfect", too angsty, etc. I want this to be a fiction novel based on nonfiction, and I don't want to give any false or misleading impressions. You know? Oh, and if you have ANY suggestions for Horse's real name, do tell. Thanks. =D

EDIT 10-6-04: Joel-the-college-student has given me permission to use his first name for Horse. YAY! So now all I need is an appropriate, original-yet-not-off-the-wall last name. Suggestions MORE than welcome. XD!