The title is a quote from a recent pep talk for those in Camp NaNoWriMo this month. The writer asked us to recall the first time we clearly saw the characters of our novel, and, my current work being based on a fan fiction, I couldn't really join in.
I do remember some other moments where I met a character, or a story.
I was riding in the backseat of a car, just about to go over the highway, when a semi-truck crossed in front of us at a stop sign. On the grill were two jaws' worth of vampire teeth decals. I remember thinking that truck must have been its driver's baby. A few articles on steampunk later, the core of Macbay Transportation Services was born.
When I volunteered at the hospital, I ended up doing all of the filing they had ready for me in the main office and was transferred to the wound care centre. There I met my supervisor of sorts, whose name was Marisa. Not the English muh-RIH-sa, mind you, but muh-R-R-REE-suh. As on that morning I was on the lookout for characters for Contestant Zero, I suddenly saw a young woman named Marisa who was very particular about the pronunciation of her name. From that alone, she turned out to be the show's sassy Latina with a heart of gold.
The world of Crumbling hit me at about the second line of "Jesus is Coming Soon" while I was singing with others of my class at a devotional. It was incredibly awkward trying to shove the idea down for the rest of the song.
Later on the day I studied the nomadic section of world-building for my 2YN class, "Gypsy" came on the radio in the car, reminding me of that aspect of the week's lesson. Then "The Boxer" came on, and the plot of Roughhouse was born.
I was contemplating doing some humanisation of Pac-Man on my way to a sporting event. The ghosts were some sort of secret police force (thus their code names "Ink," "Blink," and "Pink") after the Pac-Man, who was attempting to evade them in order to not be caught for drug smuggling. I had just left the car and was walking through the parking garage towards the lift when I saw Pink in the lightless city, landing from a jump with one palm splayed over the ground for balance, her left leg bent, and her right leg straight out, the edge of her heel touching the asphalt. Such a look of determined fury was in her eyes I knew I couldn't change her, even if the story went through quite a few phases before becoming Chasers.
Chemists was born from a dream. Jacob and Scarlet were fleeing from unknown enemies and ended up in a shed, its wooden shelves filled with paint cans labelled "CELESTIAL MATTER" under a blue stripe. Jacob woke up on an aircraft driven by Martin and looked behind the cockpit to see someone controlling water and someone else directing a black, gel-like substance pulsing with jolts of blue electricity into a floating sphere.
Most of the time, I can't remember where I really got an idea, or how I came to elaborate upon it to a point I wanted to work with it. How about you? Have any of your characters stepped forward in blinding glory in the middle of a car ride? Anywhere else?
These were really interesting to read. I especially liked how you first envisioned the character of Pink - that sounds like a really powerful moment, something you can't just forget.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I write FanFiction, so I don't quite know how I first figured out the characters. The inspiration for Unstained didn't just come at one moment - it was a process of really enjoying lots of HG FanFiction based on other tributes or past Victors, liking the character of Wiress and wanting to do something about her, and seeing some Wiress Fanart that depicted her in a savannah-like area during her Games. I can, however, recall the moment when I decided I absolutely had to write the story. I was in bed, wondering what sort of things might have happened to Wiress in her Games, and all of a sudden the character for Orford kind of sprung at me, almost fully formed, and I almost instantly visualized a very pivotal scene that will happen later in the story. So I wrote that down on a sheet of paper in the dark and started story-planning the next morning.
Laurel (my DOA tribute, if you can't remember - it's been a while) came to me in a dream. She looked like a picture of the Hunger Games female D7 tribute that my sister had drawn (she had drawn pictures of all the tributes in Katniss' games) and was absolutely terrified at having been reaped. Early on in the arena, she met her district partner and asked him to kill her then and there, quickly, so she wouldn't have to face a more painful death later. I can't really remember what happened next, but I think he did what she wanted. When I woke up, I decided I wanted to create a tribute based off of her and submit her to a SYOT - and we all know what happened from there!
Yeah, Pink probably showed up the most clearly of anyone on this list. She's difficult to work with sometimes, but that's just how she is.
DeleteAah, nice. I get most of my sudden plot elements in that environment, too. Looking forward to reading that part!
How could I ever forget Laurel? ;) (I already forgot half of the rest of the cast, but whatever...) From a dream, huh? Cool.
You'll know what part it is when I get to it. If I ever get to it. *Curses writer's block*
DeleteAww, that's sweet of you to remember :3
Aw, you'll get to it!
DeleteHow could I ever forget how we first met? XD
I got one of my characters from internet topic-searching. I started researching a whole bunch of superstitions,and suddenly they turned into a lucky-charm covered character, Luce. The funny thing is, despite the rabbits foot, horseshoe, charm bracelet and other charms she always keeps with her, she isn't actually superstitious XD. Luce is probably my favorite human design, so far. Her shirt is just so distinctive! Her personality can be difficult to work with, though. She totally ignores panel boarders when she's going somewhere, doing something or otherwise not wanting to pay attention to my planning. Walked right off the page once, she did.
ReplyDeleteMim
Ah, I remember her! That's pretty cool. Her rebellious streak not so much, but what can we do, right?
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