Sleep and characters and plots and junk.
I feel like I've spent most of my weekend sleeping, and that's probably a pretty fair statement to make considering... I've spent most of my weekend sleeping. I haven't been feeling well and I guess I really needed the sleep, but dang... I got things that need doing! Shouldn't be wasting my time sleeping. XP In between sleeping, we've been doing the usual weekend shopping here and there, plus I had a planning meeting yesterday for our Yule ritual later this month. Still have to go out and get groceries today, plus I have a social work assignment to do and CoV this afternoon. Right now, I'm starving for a big fluffy cheese, bacon, avocado omelette, but Dino's still in bed so I have to wait to go to Hillside and get one.
Maybe slightly spoilery:
Little by little I've been making headway on Dominic's post for Eridanos. And, like the three others before him, his character is surprising me by acting in ways I did not expect him to act. These kids really are writing their own stories, it feels like to me. Unfortunately, Dominic is rather tempermental and only wants to work on his when he feels like it... which is usually at some ridiculous hour in the morning, or when I'm driving to classes. Little snot. Ah well, I love him so.
Funnily enough, when I first envisioned Dominic, I had intended him to be a very unsympathetic secondary character who was actually supposed to be cruel and abusive toward one of the main characters. You see, Dominic originally comes from a Veronaville story that I started to do quite some time ago, in which the main characters were three boys who grew up together in a poor neighborhood of Veronaville, but who stuck together through all the hardships to eventually go to college, at which point their friendships would turn into a romance triangle and all the angst that comes of that. Sounds familier, ne? Well, essentially that story evolved into Eridanos, with Dustin, Ripp and Kiley replacing the original main characters (and actually Kiley herself comes from the Veronaville story, only she was just the mother of one of the main characters).
Dominic was the older step-brother of one of the boys in the original story and I had plotted him out as being very manipulative, cruel, and not at all a nice guy. But over the course of playing that household, I got sucked into investigating just why he was suppose to be that way, and it came out of being ignored at best and actively abused at worst by his no good father, and transferring his own feelings into anger toward his younger step-brother. Viewing him that way - giving him dimension - instantly changed the initial concept of the character and, being the angstbunny that I am, I just started loving Dominic more and more and even though he was suppose to just be a secondary character, I started planning out a plot and a future for him and trying to steer him toward as good a life as someone in his dire circumstances could have.
Well, that story was dropped, but the main concept of it - that of a group of friends in individual hard circumstances coming together to give each other strength - is obviously alive and well in Eridanos. Starting fresh with the idea not only gave me the opportunity to work with Dustin and Ripp (both of whom had gone in completely different directions in their own neighborhoods in my game), but to likewise do something with Kiley, whom I'd also taken a shine to, and Dominic. With Dominic, I'd hoped to give him a slightly better chance at fullfillment than he'd had in Veronaville. His Eridanos character became a merging of him and his younger step-brother.
Thing was... even though I love Dominic and his anger and angst, he still wasn't suppose to be a very sympathetic character. The other three kids are essentially good. Dustin does bad things, but with the good intention of helping his family. Ripp would probably like to do more bad things than he does, just for the sake of rebellion. Kiley is just... good. She might have the occasional dark thought, but she maintains goodness in her heart. Dominic was suppose to be the dark side in this group, with very little actual good in his heart. But... it's not really working out that way, of course.
In order for him to be a main character, I don't think he can be without some merit. Plus, it is his circumstances that make him the way he is, so I feel sympathy for him because of the things he's forced to endure. The point is, I was hoping to keep him in a "bad guy" sort of role for awhile in this story, but as soon as I got to his entry, that hope pretty much disappeared. Seeing things as Dominic sees them means getting an understanding for his circumstances and (hopefully) feeling some sympathy for him as a result (I do, anyway, I hope my readers do as well). Only in the other kids' journal entries will he be able to maintain that "bad guy" status for awhile.
For his part, Dominic is trying to maintain his usual levels of inner anger while writing his entry. I had hoped that one of the themes in this overall story would be the discrepancies that exist between what the kids feel inside and what they show outwardly. Since the only things we've seen so far of Dominic is a quiet, distant, sharp-eyed boy who talks in monotones, I think his venomously angry and emotionally unstable journal entries will exemplify that theme. And as we shall see as he gives us that glimpse into himself, he certainly has plenty to be angry and unstable about.
In the meantime, a side effect of writing Dominic is how emotionally draining he is. I had much the same problem with Ripp. I was exhausted when I finished with his run-on sentences and emotional mood swings. Dominic's anger makes me tired as well. I can only write him for a little while before I have to stop and take a deep breath. I just hope that I'm managing to get across in his words what I feel inside as I "channel" him. For his quiet intensity, as well as for what I have planned for him, Dominic is truly a favorite among my original characters. I feel like I've traveled a very long way with him.
(Just an amusing note: I've had a character named Dominic for eons, it seems. Way back when I was a teenager and used to write Star Wars fanfic, I had a very unredeemable villainous character named Dominic Tagge. He was Han Solo's daddy! *laughs* And Indiana Jones' dadddy too, because you know Indiana Jones and Han Solo were long lost twins. Of course! :D The last name of Tagge spawned a few other distant relatives like Han and Indy's cousins Price and Redd.... yes, such bad puns were hilarious when I was 13...)
Maybe slightly spoilery:
Little by little I've been making headway on Dominic's post for Eridanos. And, like the three others before him, his character is surprising me by acting in ways I did not expect him to act. These kids really are writing their own stories, it feels like to me. Unfortunately, Dominic is rather tempermental and only wants to work on his when he feels like it... which is usually at some ridiculous hour in the morning, or when I'm driving to classes. Little snot. Ah well, I love him so.
Funnily enough, when I first envisioned Dominic, I had intended him to be a very unsympathetic secondary character who was actually supposed to be cruel and abusive toward one of the main characters. You see, Dominic originally comes from a Veronaville story that I started to do quite some time ago, in which the main characters were three boys who grew up together in a poor neighborhood of Veronaville, but who stuck together through all the hardships to eventually go to college, at which point their friendships would turn into a romance triangle and all the angst that comes of that. Sounds familier, ne? Well, essentially that story evolved into Eridanos, with Dustin, Ripp and Kiley replacing the original main characters (and actually Kiley herself comes from the Veronaville story, only she was just the mother of one of the main characters).
Dominic was the older step-brother of one of the boys in the original story and I had plotted him out as being very manipulative, cruel, and not at all a nice guy. But over the course of playing that household, I got sucked into investigating just why he was suppose to be that way, and it came out of being ignored at best and actively abused at worst by his no good father, and transferring his own feelings into anger toward his younger step-brother. Viewing him that way - giving him dimension - instantly changed the initial concept of the character and, being the angstbunny that I am, I just started loving Dominic more and more and even though he was suppose to just be a secondary character, I started planning out a plot and a future for him and trying to steer him toward as good a life as someone in his dire circumstances could have.
Well, that story was dropped, but the main concept of it - that of a group of friends in individual hard circumstances coming together to give each other strength - is obviously alive and well in Eridanos. Starting fresh with the idea not only gave me the opportunity to work with Dustin and Ripp (both of whom had gone in completely different directions in their own neighborhoods in my game), but to likewise do something with Kiley, whom I'd also taken a shine to, and Dominic. With Dominic, I'd hoped to give him a slightly better chance at fullfillment than he'd had in Veronaville. His Eridanos character became a merging of him and his younger step-brother.
Thing was... even though I love Dominic and his anger and angst, he still wasn't suppose to be a very sympathetic character. The other three kids are essentially good. Dustin does bad things, but with the good intention of helping his family. Ripp would probably like to do more bad things than he does, just for the sake of rebellion. Kiley is just... good. She might have the occasional dark thought, but she maintains goodness in her heart. Dominic was suppose to be the dark side in this group, with very little actual good in his heart. But... it's not really working out that way, of course.
In order for him to be a main character, I don't think he can be without some merit. Plus, it is his circumstances that make him the way he is, so I feel sympathy for him because of the things he's forced to endure. The point is, I was hoping to keep him in a "bad guy" sort of role for awhile in this story, but as soon as I got to his entry, that hope pretty much disappeared. Seeing things as Dominic sees them means getting an understanding for his circumstances and (hopefully) feeling some sympathy for him as a result (I do, anyway, I hope my readers do as well). Only in the other kids' journal entries will he be able to maintain that "bad guy" status for awhile.
For his part, Dominic is trying to maintain his usual levels of inner anger while writing his entry. I had hoped that one of the themes in this overall story would be the discrepancies that exist between what the kids feel inside and what they show outwardly. Since the only things we've seen so far of Dominic is a quiet, distant, sharp-eyed boy who talks in monotones, I think his venomously angry and emotionally unstable journal entries will exemplify that theme. And as we shall see as he gives us that glimpse into himself, he certainly has plenty to be angry and unstable about.
In the meantime, a side effect of writing Dominic is how emotionally draining he is. I had much the same problem with Ripp. I was exhausted when I finished with his run-on sentences and emotional mood swings. Dominic's anger makes me tired as well. I can only write him for a little while before I have to stop and take a deep breath. I just hope that I'm managing to get across in his words what I feel inside as I "channel" him. For his quiet intensity, as well as for what I have planned for him, Dominic is truly a favorite among my original characters. I feel like I've traveled a very long way with him.
(Just an amusing note: I've had a character named Dominic for eons, it seems. Way back when I was a teenager and used to write Star Wars fanfic, I had a very unredeemable villainous character named Dominic Tagge. He was Han Solo's daddy! *laughs* And Indiana Jones' dadddy too, because you know Indiana Jones and Han Solo were long lost twins. Of course! :D The last name of Tagge spawned a few other distant relatives like Han and Indy's cousins Price and Redd.... yes, such bad puns were hilarious when I was 13...)