Well Miranda Fave set the Homework for the Ad Astras writers of: –
“What approaches do you take to writing and conceiving your characters? Do you have their milestones and the path that made them mapped out already? Do you perhaps also have their future map laid out? How do you go about realizing and bringing from conception to written reality your characters?”
See his original Blog at: – http://mirandafave.adastrafanfic.net/2013/07/31/character-delving/
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Does Random count as an answer? Then again why that might be true for me it not the whole truth. Perhaps chaotic would be a better word.
To explain that strange sentence further let look at my major character, I know you’ve only seen them mostly from my weekly Free writes on the forum, () as I don’t like putting story in the archive till their finished. While I’m happy to create and put Don’t Edit it to Death just write DEITDJW scene ideas straight from my brain here for comment.
So in time honored fashion ladies first,
- Emmylou Galyaski
Emmylou start off as an idea to create a character with a story stretch from the end of the dominion war to the start of Star Trek Online Verse (now if only I had time to join and play STO),
Though I didn’t just want to create a Mary Sue character just re-visiting the events of destiny and STO history, so I decide she need to have a husband but I felt they need to stay separate, hence I made him another Starfleet Captain Scott Trieres, so they be force to communicate via video letters, but I want to ask the other questions of family life for a captain(s) in Starfleet and hence why the unexpected ‘joyful’ accident and introduction of their daughter Sophia.
During a medium flight I only had pen and paper, having forgotten anything else, so I try to write Emmylou story but I could remember any of the other characters name, so I move it forward to the end of her career when she is a vice/rear admiral (I did keeping mixing them when I wrote Emmylou on that flight). So I created her Admiral PA the delightful Ensign Jalke’I Palver and put them on a runabout heading to research station to investigate while the report quality was dropping off at that station.
Upon my return the Ad Astra Forums Weekly Free Writes,
I found 097 Sweetness was the current topic and as I just been writing Admiral Emmylou, I wrote the sweetness story, this is where she acquire a taste for sweet white wine when off-duty that I will retro add back to the USS Trireme time frame.
So that is how Emmylou came to be and the rest of her is been discovered as I write WFW, thou her MU counterpart, I’ve discovered by just placing her in the same verse and seeing where the inherit unfairness and greed of that universe took her. Turn out the Mozart facility.
- Lily Fitzroy
Lily was an accidental creation as the Commodore who punched the Centuran Ambassador not mentioned in Emmylou and Jalke’I first meeting, when Emmylou used the Vulcan hand sign to greet Jalke’I rather than offer to shake her hand, in WFW 091 First berth.
So I need a Commodore, who was hot tempter enough to punch a Prime minister during first contact and yet her rank meant she need to be not some hothead.
Then watching a terrestrial repeat of AOS ST Move, I realize that the Kelvin era, had potential. The Kelvin class seen dark and very crowd going on crew numbers listed by Pike, something that would put pressure on the ship crew. It would also allow for me to place Centuarian characters in my TOS/AOS series later, so it seemed a perfect fit. Then for reasons know only to my subconscious mind it cast British actress Louise Jamieson (70’s Doctor Who Leela) in this role.
So I wrote the Prime minister incident and after some help from LBD and Cadetcowgirl1701 on Beta boards, I post the three-part story about Lily meeting with the Centaurans into the Archive. Strangely I then feel the need to continue her story now and again in the WFW. First in WFW 02 when Admiral Ineiri & Torquil stood up to the UFP President about her actions and the right level of punishment for that incident. It was during WFW Where I learnt her first posting was to the Daedalus class USS Tabard and she was on helm at the infamous battle of Ulirku.
Lily is still revealing herself to me but the more I write her the more I suspect she broken somehow in her childhood past and while her first best destiny might be starship captain, I’m starting to feel she someone who need to be busy running a starship to avoid the pain of the past, but what that is, I’m yet to discover the incident.
- Ineiri
The Aenar Admiral was created as someone to have a reason to defend Lily from the annoyed UFP President, but she need a reason to care about Lily, then it hit me to get to that post, she had to have serve with Lily previously, then I had a rare brain wave. She was Lily first No.1 when she first took command of the Argonaut, since then Ineiri had proved herself as a captain on her own and became recently become an admiral, but she wouldn’t of done this if Lily had look past the blindness and give her a chance to shiny as an X/O when most other Captains look over her for the racial blindness of the Aenar.
I did write a story for Ineiri in WFW 016 to try and give her more back-story about why she loyal to Lily if she now out ranks her. Not a success of a story and won’t go to the archive without a major re-think and re-write.
Now to the Gentlemen,
- Ha’rris and Kallachit of Nausicaan
Kallachit is the perfect example of my chaotic approach to character creation, I knew I want to write an AOS series and to use the bigger budget of my imagination to have more aliens in the crew mix, I suddenly envisage the need for an alien captain who was tough and then the Idea of using a Xindi-reptilian seem a nice fit, I could picture him on his bridge in the gold shirt, but while doing that I also pictured Schick the Xindi-insectoid in a mini-skirt at science and a Nausicaan at the front desk. So I need to know these two unexpected characters, Kallachit I knew had to be a renegade from Nausicaan society and need a reason to be in Starfleet, and his story became my first post to the Archive.
And back to the Ladies
- Schick & Jolene Lallason
The Xindi-Insectoid in a mini-skirt remain a mystery on Ha’rris bridge as there are an Aphrodite specie according to memory alpha till WFW 099 when Schick a Xindi-insectoid with gender alignment issue and Jolene Lallason turn up for a very IDIC relationship, both characters stuck mainly as writing Schick in click is a fun challenge and have both characters have been added to my provisional but growing crew list for the forthcoming AOS Excalibur series.
And finally but not least
- Douglas Gorrim
The Captain of the NX-04 Ariane, was never intend as a major character, he was just going to be another NX captain to turn up to meet with Archer, when I got round to writing more of that series, but seeing Jespah and other better Enterprise stories I kind of shy away from those stories, so when I had the idea of using WFW 09 ‘Backpfeifengesicht’ as a code word to attack a temporally enemy, I knew it required a Enterprise Era Captain that wasn’t Archer or Hernandez, so I gave Douglas the role, and he grabbed it with two hands and went on a eight WFW arc to defeat the alien ‘Chilo’ attempt to wipe out the federation by destroying the preserver race from ancient history. Douglas just came into been and leaped off the page with no planning and it via those WFW I’ meet the character and got to learn him.
Finally,
Well that an insight into my inner mind working, I’m not sure I can say I’ve got a fixed way to create a character, I have at time feel like I discover them rather than created them. Some are popular and some aren’t but like all writers I’m determine to treat them all the same and find the story that fit each of them and shows their good with their bad sides, to be full 3D characters.
So yes my answer teacher remains Chaotic.
Thanks for readings, sorry about the lack of pretty pictures, bar the one from Miranda Fave.