Rowen Aether's Blog: The Realms of Fantasy - Posts Tagged "characters"

So this is my first blog, I’ve never done this before. Naturally, beforehand I did research. I looked up blogs, read what other authors were writing about and discussing, and you know what I found? ‘Go buy my book; it’s amazing! Let me tell you about my dogs! This is what I had for dinner!’ Boring stuff.

I’ve decided I’m not going to do that. Of course I never planned to anyway, but I assumed authors would at least talk about their books. Which is what I’m going to do. I’m going to pick scenes, talk about what’s going on, explain why some characters made the choices they did. Or maybe I’ll take you all the way back to the beginning when this 200K novel was just a fleeting idea. You can see how the book has changed.

When I first planned this book there were supposed to only be three main characters: Leondra and Audron, two demons, and Rayorian, a fallen angel. Lucipher was supposed to be the main antagonist, because let’s face it; he always is. But I had a different idea as to why he wanted to start the apocalypse, why he hated humanity. (It’s been so long, I don’t even remember what it was now)

I think I was only about ten chapters in when I was writing the rough draft for Lucipher. I was going to explain to the reader from Lucy’s POV why he was doing what he was doing but then the character ran away from me, literally. He grabbed my pen and my paper and took off. There was nothing I could do. I struggled to come up with a new villian.

Now in the first chapter, which has been completely rewritten at this point, I mentioned the nephlihem, children born from angels and humans, but only in passing and my mom asked me ‘What about these nephlihem? You mentioned them but where are they?’ And thus, Cassandra crawled out of the woodwork.

I’m not quite sure where Darian came from. Unlike Lucy and Cassie it took several rough drafts to get his character fleshed out. I created Shimarune and Valiana around the same time, though Shimarune practically fell right into place with minimal tweaking. I think I still struggle with Valiana sometimes.

Now Cerberus, they were a planned character and their mini adventure before they rendezvous with the others was planned out, to an extent. Well, up until Lucy shoved his way in and took over. He does that a lot.

Norman and Dresseme came into existence around the time Cassie had to go off on her own. I needed someone to show her where to find what she needed, thus Norman materialized from the New York City smog.

Norman and Cassandra were struggling to sep everything up and I couldn’t figure out how to make it work, thus Dresseme appeared in a shower of sparkles and glitter.

Now, I can’t even imagine how this book would be without any of these characters.
Has that ever happened to other authors, I wonder? If a story or a character ran off cackling and wrote themselves regardless of the writer’s frustration or annoyance?

Anyway, I feel like I’m forgetting someone. Which leads me to another question; has anyone ever written a scene only to forget a character and write them out? I can admit, I’m guilty.

Valiana huffs, flipping her long, golden hair.

I said I was sorry! You wouldn’t have fit in that scene anyway!

Afterwards, did you struggle to rewrite the scene to fit them in or did the rewrite just flow or did you do like what I did and just come up with a reason they weren’t present and leave the scene the way it is?
Check out my group, I’ll add a post and we can discuss it. And now, I think I’ve reached the end of this blog, which seems to have run away from me.
Tune in next week!

So I haven’t been on here for a while; I actually kinda forgot about this website. Anyway, I’ve been working on two new short stories, well novellas really, at least they’re turning out longer than I planned. Also, video games distracted me, but now I’m--

A door is thrown open so hard it slams against the wall, chunks of plaster crumbling. I purse my lips, my eyes widening. A man stands in the doorway, seething. He’s pale, with dark brown hair, brown eyes, and pointed ears. Valerian curls his lip, baring fangs.

Oh boy; death by vampire is not how I thought I would go. I thought there would be more explosions.

He holds up a stack of paper. “We need to discuss my contract.” His voice is a deep rumble as he stalks towards me.

“Just be glad it’s not an erotica,” Rayorian says. The angel is lounging on a couch, playing something on his phone, and not protecting me. What a douche.

Valerian’s gaze cuts to Rayorian, and I try to take the opening, slinking by him. “So that’s supposed to make me feel better?” he snarls.

Rayorian offers the vampire a disinterested glance, “Just stating it could be worse.”

“Wow,” Lucipher chimes in, “imagine the mayhem if we got him and Leondra in the same room.”

“Everything would burn,” Rayorian replies.

“Hey!” At Valerian’s bark, I jerk to a stop, inches from the door. “We’re not through yet; what do you think you’re doing, pairing me with this human?!” He flaps the paper back and forth, “Do I look like I want to have any kind of relationship with a sheep?”

“A male, no less. I get the feeling you’re going to be submissive,” Rayorian states. So not helping. Neither is Lucipher’s snickering.

Valerian spouts off something in French which I don’t understand. Maybe I should have made him Italian; thanks to Ezio and Assassin’s Creed 2 I could at least understand the curse words.

I stand up straight, thrusting a finger at him, “I invented you, I can write you however I please!” I argue.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have written us so well,” Rayorian adds.

“I like being written well.” Lucipher places his hands on his hips, posing. “Means I’ve got personality.”

Valerian holds up the stack of paper in both hands and tears it down the middle. Wow, that was a big stack. Maybe I can still make it to the door.

“No one asked you for your input, pigeon!” Valerian snaps at Ray. Rayorian actually puts his phone down. This might turn into a fight. I take a small step towards the door.

“Did you just call me a pigeon?” Rayorian’s tone is flat; uh oh, he’s pissed.

“I thought you angels were eternal, I didn’t realize you suffered from hearing loss.” You better stop while you’re ahead, Val. I love all my characters (except Pete) but Ray will kick your ass.

Rayorian stands form the couch, his expression blank, “Let us test that healing factor of yours, shall we?”

Lucipher grabs the back of Ray’s coat and tugs him away from Valerian. He stumbles, turning a glare to Lucipher. “All right, kiddos,” the Archangel interjects, “let’s keep it friendly, or at least hands-free.”

Wow, never thought Lucipher would be the one to be responsible.

"It's called character development," Rayorian states.

"Get out of my head."

The angel looks at me with a confused expression before it turns into incredulity until finally he just looks at me like I'm stupid.

Lucipher makes shooing motions at me and Valerian growls, clearly not in agreement with my leaving.

The Archangel rolls his eyes, "She's heard your complaint and will take it into consideration." He looks at me with an eyebrow raised, "Right?"

"I'm not changing the story."

His expression falls, morphing into something displeased.

I sigh, trying to use Valerian's distraction to get the door open. Judging by his deepening scowl, he wasn't falling for it. "I'll keep the romance to a minimum but I can't do anything about Michael's flirting."

I don't wait for a response, slipping out the door and slamming it behind me, locking all 13 deadbolts. Hah! Joke's on him. "Just for this, I'm writing you and Michael into a porn scene!" I yell through the door.

"Oh come on; will you stop provoking him!" Rayorian grumbles.

There's the sound of a short scuffle before Valerian yells back, "You've never even spread your legs for anyone; what would you know about writing porn?!"

"It's called the internet!" I cackle, sprinting down the hall, Valerian's angry protests growing softer the further away I get.

I round a corner and almost run right into a tall man leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. He has black hair and ocean blue eyes with lightly tanned skin.

He smirks at me, "So about this scene you're gonna write with me and Valerian..."

I flick out my index finger, "First of all, it's Valerian and I," my middle finger follows suit, "and second of all, I'm not writing any porn."

"Wha--?" His arms drop and his shoulders sag, "Awe man."

I sigh; I need a vacation.

(Aug 17: Fixed my typos :D)