Writing meme, day 1
Okay, I'm in a relatively good mood tonight, so I thought I'd make a start on that writing meme I posted yesterday. Let's see how this goes.
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
I guess I'd have to say my favourite universe is the one I've created - well, recreated - for my historical fiction trilogy. It's set in Iron Age Scotland (called "Caledonia" by the Romans), against the backdrop of the various Roman invasions, spanning from the late first century AD to the early third century. It's a fascinating snippet of history, but the archaeological record is rather slender, as is the documentary record. Recreating that time and place is a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing, and no picture on the box. There are huge gaps to fill in, so while I do have a basic framework, there are loads of things that I have to make up from scratch, like social mores, customs, histories, etc. But I have to make them up in a way that feels consistent with the pieces we already have. And I love that challenge. I love looking at the evidence and thinking about how people in the past may have seen themselves and their world, to get immersed in thinking about what could have been, what could have happened. I have the best of both worlds: a fascinating framework to explore, and still plenty of room for wondering "what if?".
Another thing I like is that my choice to show the story from both the Caledonian and Roman points of view opened it up so much more, allowing for more shades of grey than there might have been if I'd chosen to focus solely on one side or the other. And the shades of grey, the ambiguities, are where the drama is. :)
Of course, I'll always have a special place in my heart for the world I created for the fantasy series I wrote when I was thirteen or so. Okay, so it was pretty much just a mash-up of whatever I thought was cool about Tolkien's Middle-earth and Star Wars, with a magic system ripped straight out of a Final Fantasy game, but, hey, at least I tried to create something different. XD And I still have the ringbinder stuffed with world-building notes. There was a world map and everything!
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
Hoboy. Across my various works-in-progress, we're talking about two hundred characters who have some sort of significance. That's not counting all the posthumous characters who are dead before the beginning of the story but frequently mentioned, or all the anonymous mooks that show up, or the warriors and soldiers who make up the armies throughout my trilogy. We'd be talking a cast of thousands, then!
I don't have any preference between male or female characters; I like writing and reading about both equally. When I write, I write the character that comes to me, regardless of sex. I think that slightly more of my main characters are male, simply because of the time period I'm writing about. In historical fiction, it's easier to have men taking active roles in events, because that's how it generally was. But historically there were plenty of women who had, if not outright power, then certainly plenty of influence, and that's generally how my main female characters play out. There are a few, like Moireach the chieftainess or Sargaid the Chief Druidess, who have and exercise authority, but most of the others have to work within the limited channels they have and/or take a slightly more behind-the-scenes approach, or go against the grain a little. On the whole, I like to think I've got quite a nice balance of strong, vital male and female characters.
1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.
I guess I'd have to say my favourite universe is the one I've created - well, recreated - for my historical fiction trilogy. It's set in Iron Age Scotland (called "Caledonia" by the Romans), against the backdrop of the various Roman invasions, spanning from the late first century AD to the early third century. It's a fascinating snippet of history, but the archaeological record is rather slender, as is the documentary record. Recreating that time and place is a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing, and no picture on the box. There are huge gaps to fill in, so while I do have a basic framework, there are loads of things that I have to make up from scratch, like social mores, customs, histories, etc. But I have to make them up in a way that feels consistent with the pieces we already have. And I love that challenge. I love looking at the evidence and thinking about how people in the past may have seen themselves and their world, to get immersed in thinking about what could have been, what could have happened. I have the best of both worlds: a fascinating framework to explore, and still plenty of room for wondering "what if?".
Another thing I like is that my choice to show the story from both the Caledonian and Roman points of view opened it up so much more, allowing for more shades of grey than there might have been if I'd chosen to focus solely on one side or the other. And the shades of grey, the ambiguities, are where the drama is. :)
Of course, I'll always have a special place in my heart for the world I created for the fantasy series I wrote when I was thirteen or so. Okay, so it was pretty much just a mash-up of whatever I thought was cool about Tolkien's Middle-earth and Star Wars, with a magic system ripped straight out of a Final Fantasy game, but, hey, at least I tried to create something different. XD And I still have the ringbinder stuffed with world-building notes. There was a world map and everything!
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
Hoboy. Across my various works-in-progress, we're talking about two hundred characters who have some sort of significance. That's not counting all the posthumous characters who are dead before the beginning of the story but frequently mentioned, or all the anonymous mooks that show up, or the warriors and soldiers who make up the armies throughout my trilogy. We'd be talking a cast of thousands, then!
I don't have any preference between male or female characters; I like writing and reading about both equally. When I write, I write the character that comes to me, regardless of sex. I think that slightly more of my main characters are male, simply because of the time period I'm writing about. In historical fiction, it's easier to have men taking active roles in events, because that's how it generally was. But historically there were plenty of women who had, if not outright power, then certainly plenty of influence, and that's generally how my main female characters play out. There are a few, like Moireach the chieftainess or Sargaid the Chief Druidess, who have and exercise authority, but most of the others have to work within the limited channels they have and/or take a slightly more behind-the-scenes approach, or go against the grain a little. On the whole, I like to think I've got quite a nice balance of strong, vital male and female characters.