Category: character development

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Miis in Nearspace – Part One

  By A Veiled and Distant Sky, books, character development, just for fun, Nearspace, One's Aspect to the Sun, publishing

For my birthday last year, my daughters gifted me the game Miitopia for my Switch. Of course, one of the first fun things to do with this game is create characters, and I had the idea that it would be fun to try and re-create the people from my Nearspace universe as Miis.

I was right. :) It was fun, but I hadn’t really considered the challenge of faithfully reproducing some of the aliens the crew encounters. However, as I proceeded along, (and being inspired by some of the creative ways my daughters had created non-human characters for their own games) I realized how very versatile the creation system can be, with a little imaginative use of the tools offered.

So, to celebrate the release of the newest Nearspace title, A Veiled and Distant Sky, I’ll be sharing the results of this endeavour over the next few blog posts. It’s been really fun to do, and I especially love the way the various aliens turned out. But let’s start today with the original crew of the Tane Ikai.

Luta & Hirin Paixon
Although Luta and Hirin are about the same age, of course Luta has stayed very youthful because of (spoiler alert!) nanotechnology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rei dam-Rowan

Like all Erian women, Rei wears pridattii, swirling facial tattoos around her eyes and over her cheeks. These were definitely a challenge to re-create, but I was happy with the way they turned out. Rei’s signature long, chestnut-coloured hair and golden eyes were a lot easier to incorporate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baden Methyr
As the resident “tech-dog” on the Tane Ikai, I thought it only fitting to give Baden’s Mii an eye-implant gadget. He doesn’t actually have one in the books…at least, not one that we know about. Yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yuskeya Blue

If you’ve read any of the Nearspace books, you’ll recognize Yuskeya immediately. I loved that one of the wig options in the character creation interface let me recreate her gorgeous hair so beautifully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viss Feron
The Mii-version of Viss (the Tane Ikai’s engineer) looks just as affably cranky as I always imagine him. Buzz-cut and all!

Come back tomorrow to see some other characters from One’s Aspect to the Sun, including our first alien, the Vilisian Dr. Ndasa. Then stay tuned to see who else pops up!

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Hooks & Histories: Fantasy RPG Game Resource

  By character development, game material, publishing

I’m pleased to announce that my first publicly-available gaming resource is live now at DriveThruRpg.com. “Hooks & Histories” is a character backstory builder for fantasy RPGs.

Are you a player who has a hard time coming up with interesting backstories for your characters? Are you a GM who’d like to create more fully-developed NPCs with strong motivations and personality quirks? These thirteen system-agnostic character hooks and histories will help populate any campaign with well-rounded and intriguing individuals to bring the world of the story and the story of the world to life.

Perfect for player characters, NPCs, and other inhabitants of any fantasy world RPG, these backstory starters are wholly character-based, and so can be used in any game system. Whether it’s for a new player who’s having trouble generating ideas for their character’s past, or a recurring NPC a GM would like to flesh out a little more fully, these character-building starters provide a great jumping-off point for characters to grow from.

Each backstory starter can be molded to fit any race or class, and includes a “Qualities & Quirks” section which players and GMs can incorporate as they choose. These are ideas, beliefs, and personality traits that may be used to further develop a character’s roleplay persona. These choices have no effect on game mechanics unless the GM chooses to use them in this way, but allow for deeper and more lively role-playing.

“Hooks & Histories” is just $2.00 at DriveThruRPG.com, so if you’re a gamer (or a writer!) you might want to have a look! The product includes both a stylized version and a tested accessible simplified doc.

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Workshop News ~ Exploring Speculative Fiction

  By character development, maps, plotting, publishing, revision, self-publishing, story, submissions, WFNS, workshops, writer development

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be presenting a workshop at the end of May in Truro, NS. This is my “Exploring Speculative Fiction” workshop that I did in Antigonish last spring, to *ahem* glowing reviews. Here’s the description:

In this workshop, we’ll explore the map of the many different paths through the landscape of speculative fiction. We’ll talk about what makes a story speculative, tropes and expectations, and what it takes to make a good speculative story work. We’ll discuss the importance in SpecFic of three strong and interconnected story pillars (idea, character, and plot) and the best ways to approach building the world of your story. Finally, we’ll explore paths to finding speculative fiction ideas in the mundane world, and some helpful tools in the pursuit of professional publication in these genres.

This workshop is for anyone interested in writing speculative fiction, whether you’ve already begun your journey, or would simply like to learn more about the genre’s terrain.

The workshop is scheduled for May 26th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Colchester-East Hants Public Library, 754 Prince St, Truro, NS. The cost of the workshop is $150, but if you’re a WFNS member, you can sign up for just $90. We had a ton of fun at the last session, so think about joining us!

P.S. If you leave this workshop without at least one new story idea, you’re just not trying. ;)

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A Reincarnation

  By books, character development, covers, current projects, ebooks, editing, plotting, reviews, revision, rewrite, self-publishing, story, writer development

For a number of years, I ran a couple of successful email courses through The Scriptorium; one was called “The Two-Week Short Story” and the second was “Short Story Workshop for One.” People seemed to enjoy them and I received a lot of very positive feedback from students. The first was (rather obviously) a guide to coming up with a story idea and writing a quick, complete first draft, all in a two-week period. The Workshop was a method for writers who found it difficult to get feedback or critiques to work on developing the kind of critical eye needed to help them improve their stories on their own. The Short Story Workshop itself grew out of an article I had published in Speculations back in 2001, so it had already lived through one reincarnation. It occurred to me that they’d both probably translate well into short ebooks now, and that I might reach a new group of aspiring writers in that format.

Never one to let a good idea fail to distract me from what I’m really *supposed* to be doing, I set to work and did some revising, tweaking, and re-formatting. Also, cover design, since every good ebook deserves a good e-cover. I’m not quite ready to release the ebooks yet, since they need one more good going-over, but I’m thinking within a week or so they’ll be ready to go. But I can share those covers with you now (they might get a little more tweaking, but I think they’re pretty much done):

I expect to price the ebooks around $1.99, which will be a bargain considering the courses used to sell for $8.00 each! However, I did have the hassle of setting up the email schedule, so compared to that, selling ebooks is easy. I believe I’ll test these in Kindle Select at first, and then move to a broader platform after that, as my marketing experimentation continues.

If you or someone you know is looking for some story inspiration and motivation, or have a story that needs some intensive self-workshopping, I’ll be posting here when they’re released. Maybe you’ll find them useful!

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NaNoRetro: 2003

  By Awards, books, character development, NaNoWriMo, Nearspace, One's Aspect to the Sun, projects, publishing, WFNS, writer development

My NaNoWriMo Retrospective continues with a look back at 2003. I came, I wrote, I bought the t-shirt. And I wrote “THE END.”

nanoretro2003This was my second year of NaNoWriMo, and the year I wrote the first draft of One’s Aspect to the Sun. I learned a lot about novel-writing that year, including the fact that sometimes characters you intend to kill off in the second chapter just keep hanging around until you realize they’re not ready to die after all. I also found out how fulfilling it is to reach some semblance of an ending and type those two wonderful words.

I wasn’t certain if this was the year I became a Municipal Liaison, but I’ve just gone and checked my email (yes, I’m an email hoarder, I confess), and this was the year I started. So I’m glad to have that figured out, because I’m never sure when filling out the ML form each year. It didn’t occur to me before this to just go and check those old emails, for which I really have no excuse. As I recall, we were a pretty small group that year, and far-flung across the Island, as we still are, although there are definitely more of us participating now. I remember mailing out pins and possibly stickers to a few participants.

Anyway, this is a big year in the retrospective, because the draft I wrote this year became my first published novel (from Tyche Books) in…wait for it…2013. In November, even! Yes, ten whole years after I wrote that first draft. Now, I wasn’t working on it constantly during those ten years (I wrote a lot of other stuff in there, too), but I did write several drafts. I submitted it to the Atlantic Writing Competition (now Nova Writes) and took second place (which one of the organizers assured me meant that the novel was “publishable”), and rewrote it using the feedback I received from the judges. After a couple more rewrites and submissions, it found its home at Tyche. The beautiful cover art is by the talented Ashley Walters. The book was named “Speculative Fiction Book of the Year” by the Book Publishers of Alberta.

Here’s the blurb, which remained pretty much the same from the time I first wrote it in 2003 until the book came out:

When Luta Paixon, captain of the merchant trader Tane Ikai, looked in the mirror, she saw a woman in her thirties–even though she was actually eighty-two. Luta’s only explanation might lie with the mother who had disappeared over sixty years ago. But even if her mother were still alive, it would be no small task to track her down in the vast, wormhole-ridden expanse of Nearspace. With the ruthless PrimeCorp bent on obtaining Luta’s DNA at any cost, her ninety-year-old husband asking for one last favor, and her estranged daughter locking horns with her at every turn, Luta’s search for answers will take her to the farthest reaches of space–and deep inside her own heart.

Looking back at my spreadsheet from this year, I see that I finished November with a word count of 50,715. On the second day, my note says, “A little worried that I don’t know where I’m going,” but by the end of the first week I seem to have settled into a groove and flown straight on till morning. I actually finished on the 27th, averaging 1878 words per day.

Which year will we visit next? Stay tuned!

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Friday Desk Report – Nov. 6/15

  By character development, current projects, NaNoWriMo, writing life

NaNo-2015-ML-Badge-Large-SquareThis week’s desk report could be summed up thusly: NaNoWriMo.

But I won’t be quite that brief. Yes, we’re off and running in another November word marathon. This year I have some extra goals on the board–write an extra thousand or so words a day, and get to “The End” by the end of the month. So far…not bad. I did wake up this morning (Day 6) realizing how the novel should have started, which was, fortunately, not horribly different from the way it did. Some tweaking needed, and handling a certain situation with a changed twist.

Now, the first rule of NaNoWriMo (or at least one of the prime directives) is keep going, and don’t look back. I generally adhere to this guideline pretty closely, but since these changes will impact scenes I’m about to write, I decided to go back and make them. And I think this is the correct decision in this case. I might be a little further behind than I would have been otherwise, but going on from here should be smoother.

Apart from that, I’ve done little else writing-related this week, and that trend is likely to continue. I did have to take some time yesterday to add details to my world’s timeline, and to find some deck plans for starships (one very nice resource at this link). And we have four writers in the house this month (that’s everyone except the dogs), so we’ll all likely be thin, malnourished, and dressed in unwashed rags by month’s end. Glamorous writing life, indeed. Best thing that happened in the novel so far: a character unexpectedly (for me) punched out another character. The guy deserved it, but I didn’t realize my character would react that way.

If you’d like to connect over at the NaNoWriMo site, find me as wordsmith. One very cool thing that happened this week was that I rolled the counter on my lifetime NNWM word count over 700,000 words. The lifetime counter is a new feature on the site this year, and if you’ve been diligent with your tracking you can get a pretty accurate number.

IMG_4577.JPGWriting soundtracks so far this month (some of my favs):

Halo 3

Halo Reach

Firefly

Battlestar Galactica (reboot)

Assassin’s Creed II

 

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She Took to Her Bed

  By character development, One's Aspect to the Sun, personal, writer development, writing life
IMG_9758

Not my bed, but I’d take it!

Today I decided to take to my bed. Not in the Victorian-lady sort of way, complete with fainting spells, swooning, and smelling salts, but in the need-a-change-of-scenery sort of way. It was chilly in my office, and I was doing financial things (my nemesis), so I needed to snuggle up with a heating pad, a warm blanket, my laptop and a nice big surface on which to spread out a lot of papers. The bedroom was the natural spot to which I migrated.

Also, there were a lot of distractions in my office, and I needed to escape them in order to get anything done.

This got me thinking about how most of us have places we escape to once in a while. In my novel One’s Aspect to the Sun, my main character escapes to the largest cargo pod when she needs to think, and sits or paces on the catwalk that vaults through the top of the empty space. In her case, it’s the close quarters and small rooms of the spaceship she needs to escape–she’s craving the simple sensation of having more open space around her. Which is, admittedly, a little ironic, considering she’s actually out in deep space.

Even in stories where themes don’t touch on escape, many characters have places they go when they need to get away, be by themselves, and think or regroup. It can be a powerful insight into a character to see where they find this refuge. Do they seek out a church or a library for quietude? A milling shopping center where they can blend into a crowd? A forest where they can feel more grounded in nature? What does their choice of escape say about them?

In a short story I wrote recently, the main character’s escape space is a rooftop garden. In that story, it is symbolic, since the garden was started by her father, now deceased, and does become both an actual physical refuge as well as a place of danger, throughout the course of the story.

Where’s your escape? Where’s your character’s escape? What does that say about you, and about them? Can you use it to enhance your storytelling? Or your life?

Tell me your answers in the comments, if you’d like to share.

Photo credit: revwarheart

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What Do You Want?

  By character development, current projects, musings, writer development, writing life
coffee-1289296-m

Not all goals are this simple.

I’ve been struggling with a particular character in this novel rewrite, and her motivations. I think she deserves a bigger place in the story than she has now, but I can’t really figure out what she wants. It’s driving me kind of crazy.

One of the points K.M. Weiland makes in Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story, is the importance of knowing your characters’ goals early on. This makes sense, of course, since it is goals that mainly drive all character actions and reactions. I’ve felt that I really needed to know this character’s motivations and goals before I could go any further, but she was stonewalling me.

However, I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe that’s not actually the problem. I think maybe this character doesn’t really know what she wants, or how she feels about my main character. That would actually make a lot of sense in the context of their history (or more accurately, their non-history). And it also explains why I can’t figure out what she wants or how she feels–she doesn’t know either. She is curious, she thinks she dislikes the main character…but that’s all she really knows. It’s going to take a while for her to figure things out for herself, and figure out what she wants to do with that negative energy.

In our daily lives, we’re frequently conflicted about our feelings, especially toward other people. Often we are not really sure how we feel about someone until we’ve had some interaction with them. We’re all set to like or dislike them based on external factors or things we’ve heard from someone else…and we’re thrown off-balance when the interaction doesn’t meet with our expectations, for good or bad.

So I’m thinking maybe this is not a bad thing with regard to this character. I think we’re going to make this journey together, she and I, and we’ll see how we feel at the end of the story. It should be interesting.