Amanda Meuwissen's Blog - Posts Tagged "prosthetic"
Writing the Forgotten - The Arrival of My One-Armed Character
I know all writers aren’t the same, but at least for me, I don’t…create characters. Characters appear to me, and then little by little as I write their story, they reveal to me things about themselves and who they really are.
This is one of the reasons why I like to ruminate on original story ideas for a long while before I start writing, because often over time, maybe from everyday life and experiences, I’ll discover something completely different about a new character before I even write their first scene.
You want to call it Divine Intervention, feel free. I know I do.
Meet Connor Daniels, one of the main characters in my first book after The Incubus Saga ends, tentatively titled Life as a Teenage Vampire. I knew the basics about Connor right from the start. 18 years old, dark blond hair in a buzz cut with honey colored eyes. Average height, slim but surprisingly muscular underneath his baggy T-shirts. Crazy smart, especially with robotics, but goofy and a huge geek. What I didn’t know right away was that he only has one arm.
Whether I was inspired to change the character, or as I like to think of it, brought to the realization that this is how he was always meant to be, a series of events led me to this conclusion.
I won’t lie, a large part of it first came from my love of the new Captain America movie and The Winter Soldier character. I fell in love with this version of Bucky Barnes more so than in the first film, and became obsessed. Add in how his awesome metal arm reminded me of the cool older gentlemen who gave talks at the library about his hook hands when I was a little girl, the girl born without an arm in my high school, a good friend from college without fully formed fingers who has the motivation and spunk of someone with three hands, and several men I pass in the Minneapolis skyways without right or left arms, and it was no wonder this was on my mind. But the final push that made me connect all of this to Connor was Even Kuester.
If you have not seen this young man’s amazing artwork with prosthetics, go to his site now. His work is beautiful.
I looked at the arms Kuester had created for his good friend and immediately thought…Connor could probably make something like that with his robotics knowledge, and…and suddenly my mind went into a whirlwind, as more history and facts about this character filled my mind. Creating prosthetics for himself with his dad ever since he was little, until his level of skill surpassed his dad and he began making more and more, even making a prosthetic leg for the captain of the football team eventually. And suddenly there was so much more dimension to Connor, his motivations, his reactions, that I fell even more in love with his character than the protagonist of the story.
I’m excited to write about Connor and give some insight into one of the many millions of people we have in this crazy world who isn’t always focused on, who’s often forgotten. Because no matter the reason for being left out of many mainstream stories, everyone deserves to have their story told. I hope that Life as a Teenage Vampire manages to portray that in many ways, with Connor just one example, and that you all love him as much as I do when he makes his entrance.
Here’s to Connor!
This is one of the reasons why I like to ruminate on original story ideas for a long while before I start writing, because often over time, maybe from everyday life and experiences, I’ll discover something completely different about a new character before I even write their first scene.
You want to call it Divine Intervention, feel free. I know I do.
Meet Connor Daniels, one of the main characters in my first book after The Incubus Saga ends, tentatively titled Life as a Teenage Vampire. I knew the basics about Connor right from the start. 18 years old, dark blond hair in a buzz cut with honey colored eyes. Average height, slim but surprisingly muscular underneath his baggy T-shirts. Crazy smart, especially with robotics, but goofy and a huge geek. What I didn’t know right away was that he only has one arm.
Whether I was inspired to change the character, or as I like to think of it, brought to the realization that this is how he was always meant to be, a series of events led me to this conclusion.
I won’t lie, a large part of it first came from my love of the new Captain America movie and The Winter Soldier character. I fell in love with this version of Bucky Barnes more so than in the first film, and became obsessed. Add in how his awesome metal arm reminded me of the cool older gentlemen who gave talks at the library about his hook hands when I was a little girl, the girl born without an arm in my high school, a good friend from college without fully formed fingers who has the motivation and spunk of someone with three hands, and several men I pass in the Minneapolis skyways without right or left arms, and it was no wonder this was on my mind. But the final push that made me connect all of this to Connor was Even Kuester.
If you have not seen this young man’s amazing artwork with prosthetics, go to his site now. His work is beautiful.
I looked at the arms Kuester had created for his good friend and immediately thought…Connor could probably make something like that with his robotics knowledge, and…and suddenly my mind went into a whirlwind, as more history and facts about this character filled my mind. Creating prosthetics for himself with his dad ever since he was little, until his level of skill surpassed his dad and he began making more and more, even making a prosthetic leg for the captain of the football team eventually. And suddenly there was so much more dimension to Connor, his motivations, his reactions, that I fell even more in love with his character than the protagonist of the story.
I’m excited to write about Connor and give some insight into one of the many millions of people we have in this crazy world who isn’t always focused on, who’s often forgotten. Because no matter the reason for being left out of many mainstream stories, everyone deserves to have their story told. I hope that Life as a Teenage Vampire manages to portray that in many ways, with Connor just one example, and that you all love him as much as I do when he makes his entrance.
Here’s to Connor!
