#wordweavers 01/05/2024 Introduce your setting as if it's a character in your story.
The McAlistair mansion POV: “I’m currently the host of Esther and her strange little maid. Before I belonged to Esther’s husband, but he wasn’t with them when they came back from the colonies. Something has happened there, I don’t know what, but it makes Esther ill. The little strange maid tries her best to help.”
#wordweavers 02/05/2024 What are your MC's living conditions like? Are they better or worse than average?
Esther’s material conditions were pretty good, she had everything she wanted and even more (poney, dresses, jewels)
But it was at the price of terrible psychological conditions
Lately, her material conditions suddenly became precarious after the return from the colonies and her husband’s death
[Illustration: excerpts from Inktober 2023] #fediart#mastodonart#mastoart#creativetoots
#wordweavers 05/05/2024 Are there characters or events that challenge your MC's belief system?
That’s the plot: the events at the Chamberlain’s Seminary will completely challenge the way Esther sees the world. I could quote @NaraMoore answer:
That the supernatural is real
⁃ The desirability of social conformity
⁃ That no one can be trusted (except Erié)
⁃ The world is a cursed place
#wordweavers 06/05/2024 Who is your most fun character?
Hmm my story doesn’t leave much place for fun, but I would go with Lady D’Arcy. Being the villainess, she’s the one who can be the most funny, by her lack of moral limits and excesses.
#wordweavers 07/05/2024 What behaviors does your characters' society encourage?
As in the actual Victorian era, women are supposed to spouse a man and then to stay confined in the role of mother and home’s mistress. They are expected to be modest and discreet.
#wordweavers 08/05/2024 What behaviors does your characters' society discourage?
For a woman : being a free and independent, someone who stands for herself instead of staying in the shadows of her man, someone proud of herself, someone sexually very active (and not shy about it), well, everything Lady d’Arcy is.
#wordweavers 09/05/2024 Does your MC agree with 7&8?
At the beginning of the story, Esther was fully complying to 7 and she was very upset by Lady d’Arcy. But what happened in the undergrounds of the Chamberlain’s Seminary will open her new perspectives… but is it possible to take Lady d’Arcy’s freedom of without embracing all the bad sides? That’s one of the main questions of the story
#wordweavers 11/05/2024 Who is the best leader in your story?
Lady d’Arcy: best as «the most effective», because morally…: In her relationship with Sir James, she’s the leader, and she used his influence to create a sect of worshippers who participate in black masses and orgies.
After the exile, she creates the Seminary, and for this, she needs to train Erie and a few other leonines as maiden.
#wordweavers 12/05/2024 Who is the best friend in your story?
Lady d’Arc… err no, not this time 😅 The best friend is probably Erié, although her official position is to be the maid. During the story, she will become closer and closer to Esther and ultimately, she will be far more than a friend.
#wordweavers 15/05/2024 Who are your most and least gullible characters?
As she stated herself, Esther was quite gullible. She refused to see the problem in her family until it was too late, leading her marriage and all the mess after.
Érié is the least gullible: she has learned the hard way that most people are deceptive.
#wordweavers 16/05/2024 If your characters were in a museum, how would they act?
Esther: she would be perfectly fine. Museum’s visits are exactly the kind of activity Esther was trained for and is expected to enjoy.
Erie: provided she would be with Esther, she would be ok. Except if they were in a anthropological museum, because leonines would be depicted as brutal and stupid subhumans.
Lady d’Arcy: she has no interest, except if it was the Museums of Sex or Torture.
#wordweavers 19/05/2024 How did you settle on your MC's appearance?
When I dreamt of Esther’s story, I had nearly all her features in mind. But I didn’t have any experience in drawing dark skinned people or in Victorian fashion. It took me 4 years to get a style and the quality I wanted.
[Illustrations: First art of Esther, based on a photo found on Pinterest]
#wordweavers 20/05/2024 How did you settle on your antagonist's appearance?
I started with The Evil Queen (played by Lana Parilla) in ABC Once Upon a Time TV show. With time I mixed her with Bianca Beauchamp, a latex fetish model
I like this evolution. Latex Fetish Model. I plan to have a character in my next novel modeled after a gravure model. I don't know how much of a role she will play.
@NaraMoore The story behind is quite weird, latex isn’t the weirdest aspect: a few years before, I was working for a web agency specialised in solutions for farming and agrochemical products companies. The CTO, who was an alcoholic who enjoys watching p0rn at work, sends me the Bianca Beauchamp website, telling me to redo our own copying hers 🙃 When thinking of Lady d’Arcy, I remember her and thought that her exaggerated curves would be perfect.
@NaraMoore well depending on the targeted audience, it could be a good idea, but for ours, probably not (no surprise this web agency has failed a few months later when the 1st internet bubble exploded)
There is no reason that a fetish queen couldn't have a well-designed website. Just because there are so many tacky clickbait porn sites doesn't mean an individual couldn't design a good site.
#wordweavers 21/05/2024 Do you consider how your MC's appearance may contribute to stereotypes?
Esther is a stunningly beautiful woman with everything where it should just in the needed quantity, who loves to fashion. She spends lots of time taking care of her appearance. So she adheres to most of Victorian young lady’s stereotypes (except being dark skinned).
#wordweavers 22/05/2024 Is your antagonist more a dragon or a dragon rider?
Lady d’Arcy is definitely a dragon rider: you have to be crazy to do such a dangerous thing as riding a dragon, but the reward is high, exactly the kind of feat she would take.
[Illustrations: dragons exist in my universe… but they are rode by leonines]
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