Max Payne is one of my favorite video games of all time. Not only does it supply endless bullets in slow motion, but it's an involved character study set in the conventions of film noir. The two come together in a gripping and heart pounding cocktail.

Writing is one thing, but character development is another. Stories come easily to me, but likable characters either don't come easily or i don't yet know how to articulate the character in my head onto paper.

So I was listening to the Fugees trying to open up my creative muse onto my notebook. Facebook is a large distraction and my new drug, Rome: Total War beckons from it's desktop icon.

You have to know everything about the main characters. Parents, home life, religion, first kiss, schooling, fav food, fav TV show, first crush, worst fear, biggest pet peeve etc, etc, etc,. All the aspects of any persons personality must be present in the characters you want the audience to love or hate. If these attributes and facets are not perfectly in place then the character is either "unbelievable" or "flat". While that works for C.S.I " Insert Big City" it doesn't work for me.

After you've come up with this dossier you must set up what the character cares about, and how this character would (if he/she is the protagonist) get the story moving. The "inciting incident" must be significant enough that it would cause the character to move and take action but believable enough for the audience to stay in touch and not be pulled out of the story thinking now that guy would never do anything like that. Take for instance Lost. Well on second thought don't because no one really knows what the heck is going on in that show anyways. Take for instance one of the best shows in TV. Showtime's Dexter is basically about a serial killer. He kills people in pretty gruesome ways AND he is the hero of the show. Ok so what, a guy goes around killing people. What if the serial killer works in homicide at the Miami PD, hmm. What if his sister also works in Miami PD, getting warmer. What if he's been doing this killing for a long time and is a pro at it by now and leads a double life as a mild mannered blood spatter expert with a doe-eyed girlfriend but ritualistically tortures people wrapped in plastic wrap on the evenings and weekends, ok that sounds interesting.

It's interesting but so far it's just a cool character. Nothing to get attached to because on the surface he looks like an anti-hero and is just someone you sick people like to watch.

Now I'm going to leave some other details about Dexter because I want you to watch the show. But to wrap up my point I'll divulge the inciting incident for the first season. Dexter goes to a crime scene: normal. Dexter sees a corpse: normal. The corpse has been "prepared" in such a way that it's obviously a serial killer: normal. The details of the corpse give Dexter clues about the killer and his next crimes, something only a serial killer could pick up on: whoa. Does Dexter pursue the criminal to bring him to justice? Or does he find the mastermind to learn from him and become his pupil?: WHAT THE HECK!!!

Music of the day is The Cars. Show of the week has been The Boondocks. Lowpoint of the day was seeing a lumpy woman wearing "crack jeans" (tight jeans made to show the top of a woman's butt crack). Highpoint of the day was watching her try to walk in her stupid shoes and tight pants only to fall over on the sidewalk.