I’m not officially on social media, but I do peek at non-civilization-destroying venues from time to time. I see a lot of writer games, of which WordWeavers seems the most fun. Per the official Google Doc:
WordWeavers is a writing game on Mastodon created by Branwen OShea and Alina Leonova. The hosts post daily questions for each month.
Start anytime, answer any questions you want, skip as many as you feel like. Use the hashtag, talk to other writers and have fun!
The only rules: be respectful to others and use CWs (content warnings) for posts that might be triggering.
Everyone is welcome to participate 🧡
I can’t participate there, so I’m going to participate here!
Introduce your MC from the perspective of the antagonist.
Darling Roen is nearly as good a strategist as I, and more adaptable by necessity because she lacks the authority to force events to go her way. If she could have been broken of the unfortunate tendency toward charity that brought her to me, I would have made her my heir. Had I known the dragon didn’t intend to kill her, I would have reconsidered using her as a sacrifice. I can control her just as easily in the role of enemy, of course, but doing so will be a waste of time better spent furthering my ambitions.
(“Talk about someone else” becoming “talk about yourself using someone else as a prompt” is entirely in character.)
Who is your most intriguing character? Why?
This is a moving target because I’m intrigued by things I don’t know. I’ve been obsessed in turns with figuring out Heroine, her sidekick, and her antagonist, but it’s now so late in the revision process that I know everything about them.
Current contenders, for me, are future main characters I tried to set up as interesting without allowing them to steal this story: the spooky, maybe clairvoyant cursebreaker with not-herself mood swings; the kennerel grand with too few years and too many underlings who don’t know their jobs; and the bitterly cynical royal tutor who tells Heroine that heroism is a terrible life choice.
Character development, world-building, plot—how much attention do you pay to each?
Equal, since I don’t consider them separate concepts. Characters are products of their world. Plot is what characters do within the constraints of the world. Any change in one necessitates change of the other two.
When this book stopped being a portal fantasy, Heroine needed a whole new story-world background. I decided the background that would best prepare her for her pivotal childhood adventure would be as part of a traveling theater troupe. Now she has acting (scripted and improv), acrobatics, a specific sense of community, familiarity with places and customs all over the continent. The world has to accommodate traveling theater troupes, both physically (space to travel, camp, and perform) and culturally (audiences to keep them in business). I can’t have something that significant to the main character and to the world and not use it in the plot, so two different troupes play a significant part, and they’re mentioned often in a variety of contexts (costumes/disguises, storytelling/lying, etc.).
If I change Heroine to a milkmaid, every bit of that has to go because it’s no longer relevant to her existence. If I make the troupes reviled rather than welcomed, they can no longer serve the plot as they currently do. If I change the plot so they turn my fugitive over to the police instead of offering aid, I have to worldbuild to explain why the theater kids are helping the fash. It’s all in the same bucket!
Has your MC ever done anything contradictory to their values?
No, though her values have led her to do things she’ll have nightmares about for the rest of her life. Mercy is not always fair, and justice never undoes wrongs, only prevents future wrongs from the same source.
Values ask “What is the right thing to do?”, not “Can I get away with this?” When one’s values are more than rules and laws dictated by some external authority, with all the loopholes and “technically legals” and privileged exemptions and “I was just following orders” that render such “values” meaningless, when there will be no pardon from without, when the slate will not be wiped clean—when values are a matter of conscience—they’re not so easy to ignore. If one can discard them when tested, they only felt good to say and never mattered at all.
What sounds will your MC hear if they open the window?
In her current location, constantly, a rushing river muffled by a thick city wall. At night, rain is likely to join in, parting the air with a hiss and drumming on tile roofs and stone streets. Otherwise, eerie silence because every living thing is deep in cursed slumber.
Unexpected sounds herald a very bad time incoming.
Secondary character POV: You can spend a whole day with the MC. What will you do?
A day when nothing horrific is happening? Realistically, we need sleep. Fantastically, I’d love to follow her around with a sketchbook. I can draw the lines of her face from memory with my eyes closed, but bland portraiture is not for her. She is fierce concentration and wry amusement and sharp-edged attention, best captured in action.
Yes, this involves lounging around amusing myself while others do serious work, but we’ve already established I’m unfit for serious work. Allow me one pleasant dream.
If you and your MC swapped places for a day, who would have an easier time adjusting?
Heroine is more adaptable, but I’d be so ecstatic without surveillance tech, I think I’d win.
Besides, an oddly dressed stranger who doesn’t speak the language and possesses no valid currency is much more likely to find community support in her world. In mine, I have a neighbor who waves guns at joggers in the street, which isn’t a crime (per local law enforcement) until he shoots someone and possibly not even then if the local jury pool decides he was scared of an unarmed pedestrian 100 feet away from him.
ThisIsTheBadPlace dot gif.
Is there anything that makes your writing distinctive?
I once expressed relief to be writing fantasy so I could get away from all my “real-world” characters who take responsibility at a young age for things adults should be handling. I promptly realized Fantasy Heroine is the same, just without a cell phone.
I don’t know how to write with loving kindness about a character who has always been taken care of, and I’m not interested in “challenging” myself for a character who already has an abundance of the commodity while other characters have none.
MC POV: What would you do if you had the antagonist’s job/role?
She was my mentor for many years, and I found no fault then with the way she ran the organization. I believe she’s right that I would be too soft when the situation calls for brutality. She does train killers, after all. They heed only the one person they fear.
Now, if I had inherited the familial role that comes with being a Repal, I like to think I’d conduct myself in a way that didn’t involve slaughtering thousands of helpless people for personal enrichment. Emphasis on the I would like to think. It’s likely, however, that receiving the same nurturing Licia had from birth would have made me equally unconscionable.
Are your MCs good at fixing mechanical things or house maintenance?
Hero was an engineer’s apprentice at one time and repairs/improves a few gadgets in story.
If you were in a zombie apocalypse, which of your MCs would you want with you and why?
Hero because he can’t bear to leave anyone behind.
Heroine has better overall survival skills, but those include being unwilling to die for a probable lost cause.
Is your MC privileged in any way in their world?
Previously, she was a servant of a king and was afforded increased levels of cooperation within that kingdom.
Presently, her wanted posters are everywhere, and being well-known is problematic.
Do you ever mention writing or reading in your stories?
They read a 300-year-old journal looking for some insight into the current problem.
In terms of stories, there’s a fair amount of discussing myths, legends, and plays, all of which were written down at some point, if not explicitly read during the course of this story.
At one point, they have to wait overnight in a book-lined office. Heroine’s choice of reading material to pass the time remains a blank while I ponder what the officeholder would display on their shelves that would also attract Heroine and amuse readers. I have a long list of ideas that check one box or another, but never all three.
Is money an issue or a perk for your MC?
Her decision at the first pinch point was strongly influenced by lack of funds to pursue less distasteful options. She’s able to get by for the purposes of the plot on what money she can acquire, but she worries that the funding system she arranged for her family in more lucrative times will soon run dry without replenishment.
What would your MC dress in if they wanted to be comfortable?
Any outfit becomes progressively more comfortable with each addition of an accessible blade.
When Heroine accompanied the Nennehelle princes on their tour many years ago, court fashion in Vuslarand included voluminous skirts supported by stiff bells of woven reeds worn as an underlayer. She could have opened a shop with all the kit she was able to bind to that thing. She remains convinced that was such a peaceful month because everyone was armed to the teeth and no one wanted to die over a snide remark.
When fashion is too flimsy to conceal weapons, mouths are fearlessly vicious.