My first reaction was Please, oh merciful Mother, no. Then I thought about it and decided that the timing of certain events (none of which you want to know about, I'm sure) made that hypothesis unlikely in the extreme, even if I wasn't on birth control.
But if it doesn't stop soon, maybe I'll go buy a $10 drugstore kit. Just to be sure...
Braz and I have been having something of an ongoing conversation about the characters that live in our heads. No, you didn't get a warning MeadeHall graphic because - while this conversation has been inspired by the current MeadeHall plot, it's not really about that plot. (At least, what I'm going to talk about isn't.)
The characters that I really care about take on their own lives inside my head. Sometimes, it even seems that they have thoughts and actions and personalities separate from my own. It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, controlling those characters is next to impossible. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I tend to create strong-willed characters.
The first character who truly lived in my head was Caroline. I'd had unruly characters before, but I usually managed to drag them into line. Caroline absolutely put her foot down and refused to go where I wanted to drag her. This was even more of a problem because that story was being written in concert with Matt, who owned Graham, and Graham, too, refused to go where Matt pointed him. No, Graham wasn't going to just "get over" the fact that his best friend had been turned into a vampire, because it frankly scared the shit out of him. No, Caroline wasn't going to "admit" that she was in love with Graham, because she wasn't, and never had been. (Lust, maybe, but not love.)
MeadeHall characters get into my head very easily, I suppose because they're role-played, so I have to let them in to some degree. And, as I said, I create strong-willed characters, so once they get their foot in that door...
I created Maeli to be the antithesis of most of the Hall's patrons - she was extremely old, had never been an adventurer, and had lived her life in one place, always doing the "proper" thing. When I created her, my idle intent was that she'd let one of the powerful patrons revitalize her, and then she'd go adventuring, the way she'd always wanted to do.
She was having none of it. Sure, she'd always wanted to go adventuring. But she'd decided to stay home and marry and raise a family and by the gods, that's what she did. She'd had a full life, and she had no intention of letting some over-powered whippersnapper go fooling around with it. (Did I mention she was a crotchety old bag?) I fought with her over it for weeks, but finally accepted her wishes - and in understanding, she let me decide when she'd go.
Now, Braz and I are both getting overwhelmed by the current plot. Braz is wrestling with not one, but two characters - both of whom are getting their jollies by only telling him just enough to confuse and disorient him. I created Zoya specifically with a lack of romance in mind, but when Marten showed up, Zoya told me she thought it was about time to get over her past, and move beyond it.
Yesterday, Braz and I were chatting on IM about various things, and he told me about a vision Marten had shown him. Zoya's actually much smarter than I am, but she's still not very good with people or relationships, and she jumped to conclusions. I spent at least an hour arguing with her about possible alternative interpretations of that vision (Braz, conveniently, had to leave almost immediately after telling me about it) until she finally accepted that it didn't have to be disastrous. She's still feeling a little suspicious, though. I warned Braz to have a long talk with Marten.
So what's the point to all this? I don't know, really. This thing has been out of my control for weeks. I'm just looking forward to the ride.
Word of the Day: baroque - characterized by grotesqueness, extravagance, complexity, or flamboyance
If it's baroque, fix it! Ha!
Well, seriously. I don't like ornate, extravagant decorations. I really never have. I protested loudly about the bedskirt on my bed when I was a kid. I hated ruffles, and I hated the color pink, and I don't know what my mother was thinking when she brought me a pink ruffle that went all the way around my bed. I like simple lines, elegant curves, and clean edges. I'm a proponent of function over form and comfort over appearance.
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