noyouyesme The Composite Method - - writing exercise

[noyouyesme]

Character based on three separate people:

Kenneth (Kenny) Gibson:

A talented musician, who can play anything but is gifted on the guitar. Makes his living through music but is not a household name. Sometimes he plays, sometimes he works technically. Has played with big name performers. . .Ian Hunter, Bob Dylan, and Bonnie Raitt. But those are only a few. He’s busy. He has a passion for vintage guitars that he sometimes turns into a lucrative business when he isn’t on the road. He writes and he records and he works with other artists. He is respected in the industry and is on many well-known people’s speed dials. He is happy. He has a son but no wife, or ex-wife for that matter. His son is now in his early twenties and can begin to appreciate his father for what he does and his views on life. In fact, they are just getting to know each other as men. Although it was not his idea to become a parent, he never shied away from the responsibility once it presented itself. He does not know how to get close to anyone. There is a woman that he loves, 20 years his junior, and he loves her more than he knows what to do with. He won’t tell her. She is married, unhappily, and they keep in long distance contact. She has no idea how he really feels about her. Sometimes they talk daily and sometimes he hides from her for weeks. They are just friends, because, that is all that will work. He never graduated from college but loves to learn. His collection of books is staggering and he has read, or intends to read, them all. He is on a voracious quest for knowledge on all subjects. Politics both enthrall him and enrage him. He hates what the country has become and fears where it is going. Huge government conspiracy theorist, he delights in them. He gets a validation or a confirmation knowing that refusing to put his trust in the nation’s leaders was the right decision. The internet is his best friend. He can see and do everything he needs to from the confines of his apartment where the windows stay covered and an incredible amount of well organized clutter covers every inch of usable space. It is difficult to believe that this man, who spends half of his life on the road in every country on the globe, around so many people is able to close off when he is home and go into hermit mode. His hours are unpredictable, sometimes he sleeps all night and rises at 8 AM, sometimes, he is just laying head to pillow at that time. He is not unattractive, however, he isn’t someone you would look twice at. Once you know him, though, he is the most handsome man you’ve met. Being in his presence has a calming effect and after you’ve been there, you want to be there again. You want to know him and learn from him. He should have been a teacher. He loves to introduce people to new ideas and discuss them at length. He is getting older though and will see sixty soon. What will he do when he cannot tour on other people’s schedules any longer? Will he always be alone?

[Bonnie824]

I am interested in who the 3 characters were that made him up. Not their names, but were they all men of the right age, for instance, and how did they relate to you. Did you pick the best parts of each? Or some of the best, some of the worst? He is an interesting composite.

[ziki]

Thank you, he feels real and possible enough to make me wonder what could happen with him.
ziki