Crucibles: Secondary Character Biographies

[thresherofmen]

Crucibles is a story set in an alternative universe, but one extremely similar to our own. There is nothing fantastical or absurd about it, it's simply our world that went down a slightly different path, but that minor change has made all the difference

Comments

[thresherofmen]

That's Tolkien's influence on me. Reading the Lord of the Rings, and the immense detail and depth the author imparted to Middle Earth, its peoples, places, and events showed me how fiction is really meant to be written.

I mean, the man invented a half-dozen entirely alien languages (the Dwarf language, two separate Elvish tongues, the Black Speech, etc.) that can actually be written and spoken. Entirely function alphabets and syntax, along with slang and colloquialisms!

A little easier for me, since I'm writing in our world. George Bush is still President, the Mets are still awful, and obviously Amy Lee is still front woman of Evanescence. The only things I have to invent are my OMC, Jack Hackler, and the people who helped make him who he is.

I hesitate to do so though, because I don't want to distract from the interaction between Amy and Jack. So you actually won't see too much of these secondary characters. You'll actually see a lot more of the military personnel that Jack works with (either subordinate to, or commanding him).

On the other hand, I'm also struggling in writing the events. The economic, social, and political reprecussions of a massive Third World War are pretty difficult to puzzle out in realistic ways. Fortunately, the focus of Crucibles is pretty narrow, and I only have to write those things insofar as how they effect Amy and Jack. But writing the larger story for the III novels is an absolute bastard.