30 Day Writing Meme - Days Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty
Argh.
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
Probably Lindjer, one of the villains in the first book of my fantasy trilogy. He, sadly, doesn't survive the end of the first book (OMG SPOILERS). I really, really wanted to keep him around because he was so much fun to write, but I can't. His part in the story is over, and there's just no way to keep him around, I think, without everyone expecting him to make a comeback. And the thing is, he can't make a comeback because after the first book everything goes to epic for him. As crafty and ambitious as Lindjer is, his worldview is relatively small: he wants to rule a city. He might have plans on the empire, but he's too crafty to just make a grab for it. His plans are byzantine and takes years to implement. He gets his city (for awhile, at least), but he doesn't get any further before his untimely death. And since everything after that gets dialed up to eleven, there's really no room for his quiet, scheming ways. So I satisfy myself with writing lots and lots of his backstory in random little short stories that have nothing to do with the trilogy. Perhaps one day he will get a prequel novel of his very own, because I do think he's one of my more interesting villains.
The problem with me and antagonists is that I rarely have one strongly defined character as an antagonist. My protagonists tend to fight against organizations, not individual people. This probably shows that I have some sort of deep-seeded issues with authority. Like, I might have a story about a nation at war with another, and the "side" the heroes aren't on would be considered the antagonist, but it's not just one person. The other side might be led by a king or a general or whatever, but I wouldn't tend to make that person a major player in the antagonists stakes. What makes good antagonists is, I think, some kind of personal relationship with the protagonist. Like with Lindjer, not only is he ambitious, but he kind of has a personal vendetta against Atro: in his mind, Atro stole what Lindjer saw as rightfully his (even though it wasn't). So a lot of Lindjer's actions are fuelled by his anger toward Atro. And Atro feels that anger right back, because Lindjer did steal what rightfully belongs to Atro. So there's that personal connection there that's different from some nameless, faceless king that my protagonists have never met and have no reason to feel animosity toward outside of a general, "Oh, no, he went to war with us!"
And then in TES I have two protagonists who are actually antagonists toward each other and also toward a third party, so you have a more complex situation in which my MCs are on the same "side" in regards to their struggles against the third party, but who disagree greatly on how to carry that struggle, to the point of being enemies with each other. That's also fun to write, but again, doesn't really work that well with the traditional antagonist/protagonist dichotomy. And in DC I have something else entirely, which again I'm not going to talk about because I AM GOING TO FINSH THIS STORY, DAMN IT and post it online as part of novel_bigbang for everyone to read if they want.
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
MERRUS. Like, he is the poster child for minor characters shoving themselves into the spotlight. When I started what eventually became my fantasy trilogy, it was only meant to be a short story. About Atro and his father Martyn and the two of them coming to terms with Atro's heritage and learning to understand each other while Atro became the leader his father wanted him to be. Except 10,000 words into the story and nowhere near the end, I realized there was no way this was going to be a short story. So I decided to make it a novel. Then, in my neurotic way, I had the sudden panic that the story wasn't going to be long enough for a novel. So I decided to flesh out the character of Atro's salkiy teacher, who at that point had only shown up in the background of one scene and didn't even have a name. So I gave him a name and a little bit of a backstory. And then ctrl_me was reading the story one day and said, "I want to know more about Merrus. He's more interesting than Atro." So I decided to give him his own subplot, and as I delved more into his backstory and salkiy culture and history, I realized I'd been telling the wrong story. Sure, Atro coming of age made a nice, neat novel, but Merrus's story was huge and sprawling and required at least three. So Merrus's subplot became the main plot, and it was Atro's story that ended up being just part of a whole.
(Lindjer [see above] is actually an artifact of the original version of the novel, because he was designed specifically as an antagonist for Atro. Which works well for the first book, but once the second book comes along and really cranks up Merrus's story, he just doesn't have a place in the narrative anymore. So he's a one-book villain, sadly.)
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
Um, any? I'm not sure what this question is asking. I love character interactions. I live for them. I want people to walk away from my writing with a strong sense of the characters. I don't care if they don't remember anything else about the story, just that they found a fascination with the characters. I want this because that's what I like most in the stuff I read and watch. I want to emulate that and inspire that same fascination in others.
Hmm. I like subtle character interactions, like where two people are having a conversation with each other that's not actually about what the words would imply it's about. I like characters who can talk in fast, snappy dialogue with each other. I like characters who are best friends and speak almost entirely in inside jokes. I like characters who drive each other crazy or are so different that they would never meet if whatever extraordinary event that just happened in the book didn't happen. I like characters having to learn to work together. I like characters who misunderstand each other and characters who are in complicated romantic relationships. I like all kind of character interactions, and I like writing most of them.
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
Probably Lindjer, one of the villains in the first book of my fantasy trilogy. He, sadly, doesn't survive the end of the first book (OMG SPOILERS). I really, really wanted to keep him around because he was so much fun to write, but I can't. His part in the story is over, and there's just no way to keep him around, I think, without everyone expecting him to make a comeback. And the thing is, he can't make a comeback because after the first book everything goes to epic for him. As crafty and ambitious as Lindjer is, his worldview is relatively small: he wants to rule a city. He might have plans on the empire, but he's too crafty to just make a grab for it. His plans are byzantine and takes years to implement. He gets his city (for awhile, at least), but he doesn't get any further before his untimely death. And since everything after that gets dialed up to eleven, there's really no room for his quiet, scheming ways. So I satisfy myself with writing lots and lots of his backstory in random little short stories that have nothing to do with the trilogy. Perhaps one day he will get a prequel novel of his very own, because I do think he's one of my more interesting villains.
The problem with me and antagonists is that I rarely have one strongly defined character as an antagonist. My protagonists tend to fight against organizations, not individual people. This probably shows that I have some sort of deep-seeded issues with authority. Like, I might have a story about a nation at war with another, and the "side" the heroes aren't on would be considered the antagonist, but it's not just one person. The other side might be led by a king or a general or whatever, but I wouldn't tend to make that person a major player in the antagonists stakes. What makes good antagonists is, I think, some kind of personal relationship with the protagonist. Like with Lindjer, not only is he ambitious, but he kind of has a personal vendetta against Atro: in his mind, Atro stole what Lindjer saw as rightfully his (even though it wasn't). So a lot of Lindjer's actions are fuelled by his anger toward Atro. And Atro feels that anger right back, because Lindjer did steal what rightfully belongs to Atro. So there's that personal connection there that's different from some nameless, faceless king that my protagonists have never met and have no reason to feel animosity toward outside of a general, "Oh, no, he went to war with us!"
And then in TES I have two protagonists who are actually antagonists toward each other and also toward a third party, so you have a more complex situation in which my MCs are on the same "side" in regards to their struggles against the third party, but who disagree greatly on how to carry that struggle, to the point of being enemies with each other. That's also fun to write, but again, doesn't really work that well with the traditional antagonist/protagonist dichotomy. And in DC I have something else entirely, which again I'm not going to talk about because I AM GOING TO FINSH THIS STORY, DAMN IT and post it online as part of novel_bigbang for everyone to read if they want.
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
MERRUS. Like, he is the poster child for minor characters shoving themselves into the spotlight. When I started what eventually became my fantasy trilogy, it was only meant to be a short story. About Atro and his father Martyn and the two of them coming to terms with Atro's heritage and learning to understand each other while Atro became the leader his father wanted him to be. Except 10,000 words into the story and nowhere near the end, I realized there was no way this was going to be a short story. So I decided to make it a novel. Then, in my neurotic way, I had the sudden panic that the story wasn't going to be long enough for a novel. So I decided to flesh out the character of Atro's salkiy teacher, who at that point had only shown up in the background of one scene and didn't even have a name. So I gave him a name and a little bit of a backstory. And then ctrl_me was reading the story one day and said, "I want to know more about Merrus. He's more interesting than Atro." So I decided to give him his own subplot, and as I delved more into his backstory and salkiy culture and history, I realized I'd been telling the wrong story. Sure, Atro coming of age made a nice, neat novel, but Merrus's story was huge and sprawling and required at least three. So Merrus's subplot became the main plot, and it was Atro's story that ended up being just part of a whole.
(Lindjer [see above] is actually an artifact of the original version of the novel, because he was designed specifically as an antagonist for Atro. Which works well for the first book, but once the second book comes along and really cranks up Merrus's story, he just doesn't have a place in the narrative anymore. So he's a one-book villain, sadly.)
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
Um, any? I'm not sure what this question is asking. I love character interactions. I live for them. I want people to walk away from my writing with a strong sense of the characters. I don't care if they don't remember anything else about the story, just that they found a fascination with the characters. I want this because that's what I like most in the stuff I read and watch. I want to emulate that and inspire that same fascination in others.
Hmm. I like subtle character interactions, like where two people are having a conversation with each other that's not actually about what the words would imply it's about. I like characters who can talk in fast, snappy dialogue with each other. I like characters who are best friends and speak almost entirely in inside jokes. I like characters who drive each other crazy or are so different that they would never meet if whatever extraordinary event that just happened in the book didn't happen. I like characters having to learn to work together. I like characters who misunderstand each other and characters who are in complicated romantic relationships. I like all kind of character interactions, and I like writing most of them.