the character meme

[aliana1]

Via dwimordene_2011 and mrowe.

Pick a character I've written and I will give and explain the top five ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.

Comments

[dwimordene_2011]

Firiel.

[aliana1]

1) As a teenager she had a massive crush on Valacar (long after their, ahem, initial meeting). Although she will not admit this, she is still mildly to moderately in love with him.
2) He is also mildly to moderately in love with her, though of course in a somewhat different sense. (He will not admit this either, but only because he never admits anything.)
3) She is rather remarkably non-judgmental, and it is very, very difficult to faze her. See #3 for reason.
4) She is the rare person who had a terribly shitty (think Dickensian, but worse) childhood and became an only moderately fucked-up adult, like most people who have only moderately shitty or better childhoods.
5) In an early draft of Fallen, she was going to be the one breaking code by doing the mercy-killing, and it was going to be kind of a side note. I can't remember why I changed that, but I imagine that she still could have, and probably did.

[dwimordene_2011]

I would love a series of Valacar-Firiel ficlets/drabbles/something for the holiday season. Eight for Chanukah? Twelve for Christmas? Something...? I'd be interested to see how that friendship actually formed.

Not that I would ever suggest you pursue such a thing over your studies.

[aliana1]

Because, as I've said elsewhere, I've spent way too much time thinking about these people, Valacar and Firiel actually have their own multi-chapter story. Which, granted, is still mostly in my head, but which will get written, dammit! There is a bar fight and some trauma and a lot of class consciousness, and Aradir and Ioreth also feature prominently.

Not that I would ever suggest you pursue such a thing over your studies.

No, of course not. Never.

[just_ann_now]

Avoiding studying for finals/writing papers/grading, eh? Always happy to enable!

Tell me about Aradir.

[aliana1]

Avoiding studying for finals/writing papers/grading, eh?

Ann, I'm surprised that you would ever expect me of doing such a thing! Why would I ever avoid doing actual work when I could write LJ posts about fanfic?

Anyway.
1) In his tenure as a City council member, he's imbibed a thing or two from the Steward: namely, how to consolidate power and hold onto it, and not to apologize or making excuses for doing so. Also, how to read people. Or so he thinks.
2) He is very, very smart.
3) He is not a cardboard villain.
4) He is a firm believer in the ends justifying the means.
5) His affair with Valacar ended with them kicking the crap out of each other--both literally and figuratively.

[just_ann_now]

I'm surprised that you would ever expect me of doing such a thing!

*falls on the floor laughing, spilling my own beer in the process*

1, 2, 3, 4, - all very good, and mesh well with the image I have of him in my head.

5 - Interesting! I was thinking he was more like Hugh Grant's character in "Maurice": really really preferring boys, but giving them up for the sake of his career, and then deluding himself into thinking it was all boyish and immature and "marriage is better, really! No, really!"

[aliana1]

Hope your beer is okay. :p

No, I don't think Aradir ever deluded himself in that regard, or even tried. His thinking is more along the lines of, "This is what most people do, and this is what I have to do in order to play my role well (e.g. continue the family line, not be thought odd or deviant in any way) and, at the end of the day I don't really have a problem with that." (He also, it should be said, does not have a problem with cheating on his wife, so...)

[wheelrider]

OK, now the obvious choice is Valacar! (Or "Val.")

[aliana1]

Ah, Val

[wheelrider]

Cool! Much of this comes through in your writing.
#3 is a juicy tidbit that could be expanded...

[aliana1]

Thanks!

I am currently working The Valacar and Firiel backstory. And by working on, I mean, I am thinking about it. In my head. But a lot of Valacar's family background will be fleshed out there, along with many other things.