#wordweavers#writing 8. What behaviors does your characters' society discourage?
Making problems for others. Standing out.
I have a bit of trouble with these generalized questions about socioty. Since my stories are set with the back drop of a real socioty, the questions feel very reductive.
In the current WIP? The greataunt with the basilisk glare and the crocodile smile. 🐊 She is acerbic, is as rich as Croesus, doesn't suffer fools lightly, and has a kind heart.
In my two Victorian novellas, she is keeping my MCs on their toes, and just like in Springtime Pleasures, where she made her first appearance as the hero's aunt, she helps to facilitate the happy ending (esp. in Reunion on a Winter Night!)
I'm so crazy busy these days and unable to keep up with all my beloved hashtags - so please don't be mad if I post a day or two late (or not at all, but I guess that wouldn't be an issue for anyone but me 😅).
Sky Falcon instantly raised his hand. It's not that he's a jokster. But he has a quirky mind and is full of curiosity. Nothing gets him down much, he always comes back swinging - and laughing.
Nick Karagianidis comes a close second, he's one of my Wolves. He can easily laugh at himself. I love that in a person.
Sky Falls, Pillars of the Empire 2
A Wolf's Honor, Wolves of the South 3
In The Borgia Dove, Giulia herself. I love being in her head and her viewpoint on the world. She's very pithy sometimes. "Disasters averted are soon forgotten."
#WordWeavers 2405.04 — How does your SC deal with failure?
Try different ways to get what she wants until frustration sets in, followed by anger, followed by doing something stupid.
When all the hauling companies in her home prefecture blacklisted her not simply for being female, but for being female while being persistent, she may or may not have thrown a brick through some windows and turned over some vehicles. She ran from the constables. She got tricked in another city into thinking she could earn quick money hauling questionable things to start her own company. She got blackmailed into the mob. She's still saving, for that day she might escape.
Kan-chan: "I used to drink and hide under the covers. Look I'm being honest. Now I would either go talk about it with Kao or sit at Shiro's feet and let her pet me.
Tomo: "Clean the kitchen and make a joke about it. Eventually, Ume will notice and hug me and then we will drink a couple of beers."
#WordWeavers MC POV: What do you dislike about yourself?
Oh, God, it's my earnestness. Like, for instance, prepping for my interview with Mr. Price. Mr. Price is a regular person, not an expert like the 2000 people I prepped at Grantham, Reed. Being diligent, I videoed myself asking the questions. Good enough, I thought, until I watched it. My careful voice, my serious expression—it made me want to vomit. I'm so full of it.
#WordWeavers 3: MC POV: What do you dislike about yourself?
Milos holds up his hands, backs toward you. His fingers blur from the first knuckle, become formless, then coalesce into long grey blades.
Milos: I know they're the reason I have a job—why I have everything—but at the same time... I have to be so careful. If I get hurt, sometimes if I even get startled... I could really hurt someone. I—I have before. And I know they're not my fault, but... sighs and shifts them back into fingers
#wordweavers May 3. MC POV: What do you dislike about yourself?
Katja: Uhm. I'm too impulsive. I tend to act and speak before I think. Otherwise, I would have never asked Friedrich of Swabia these questions or eavesdropped on Max - really, not!
Although, in hindsight, it's good that I did that, right?
Shiro: I wish I was more considerate of others. I let my fears get in the way of doing what I should. Maybe it's not that I'm inconsiderate, I wish I was braver. I avoid anything that I think will cause other people to get upset. I often don't tell Kaori when she is doing something that bothers me, because I'm afraid of hurting her feelings. Kan-chan gets on me about that. She is usually right, if I spoke up things would be better in the long run.
#WordWeavers 2405.02 — What are your MC’s living conditions like? Are they better or worse than average?
Wow, this question! A bit of background: I wrote the original novella, then wrote a prequel novel based on the history in the first story, then retconned the novella, worsened the situation and followed it with new events to make it a novel, /then/ wrote the sequel. It's her life story, now.
In this last story, the answer to this question is the running joke. The new work takes place over three days. She starts having been living with a fellow student, an ever-seeking-male-companionship elite who months ago offered her a free roommate situation—so long as the MC slept with her in the same bed (and her new roommate only sleeps well being held). The next day it's the couch after the MC is reunited with a former coworker (bodyguard) whom she introduces to her elite roommate. They hit it off. Noisily. All night long! The next night, not wanting a repeat performance, she connives to spend a (satisfying) night with her new boyfriend in "palatial" digs in the Residency where the main antagonist lives, but is currently out on a military adventure. Having reconciled with a childhood friend, the subsequent night she ends up on his bed, in a Residency guest suite, sleeping with him and a pile of thaumaturgy books they nerded out over. She regrets not having had more fun with him, but he's too sweet and obviously not ready for that. The next day, she's fighting for her life in a hospital.
Her living conditions are way above average, arguably superior.
Previous Living Conditions
Born in a nice house in an obscure village
Raised in a newly built mansion for a newly titled elite (her)
Homeless for months, having run away, living in encampments and wandering the east coast
Big city hostel for over a year
Gangland trainer's nice apartment with separate beds
Boarding house with aspects of a brothel, where she must defend herself
Leased a one room dance studio where she sleeps on a mat between a wall of open windows and a wall of mirrors, having no need of further furniture
A series of high line hotel and mansion rooms owned the Doña she works for
As for the homelessness, she was moving around without money while hiding her identity, and rarely stayed long. The worst was trying to sleep under eaves in the city during storms; she didn't always have a tent. Regardless, it qualifies as below average living conditions for a total of about a year. It did focus her like of asceticism.
My MCs mostly live in decent conditions, in decent places.
Mostly, I write escapism - happy stories about good things happening. I don't mind reading other things, but right now I can barely handle much more than Cute Bunnies Have To Wait Five Extra Minutes For A Snack. I'm wiped out with bad stuff.
#WordWeavers 2: What are your MC's living conditions like? Are they better or worse than average?
The MCs in the Book of the Astral Kingdom are mostly equivalent to Nepo babies (except not as shitty and they do actively work in the family business). Their accommodations are rather roomy, well furnished, equipped with servitors to keep their places clean and stocked with energy to consume. Along with personal doors to places of note on the Umbrian continent. So, better than average!
Tannisgre, his previous incarnation grew up in the Clanless Wild commune. His accommodations weren't bad as he had everything needed to lead the Clanless but it would not be on par with those Entishay who were born and deemed a member of a Clan.
Less roomy and sophisticated, the vibe would be rural bougie in my opinion! As there were no Grandmasters of Construction and Creation, so it was certainly rougher in nature but sturdy enough to endure.
#WordWeavers May 1: Introduce your setting as if it’s a character in your story.
The Greater Cascadian Megalopolis was born from the need to house the population of the Pacific North West but leave the bulk of the continent free of humanity,"re-wilding." The fetal megapolopolis started as superblocks and then arcologies,multiplying until they formed an urban organism that now stretches from the middle of British Columbia all the way to the California border.
#WordWeavers May 2.What are your MC's living conditions like? Are they better or worse than average?
Yes, by world standards, absolutely. She's in an arcology, all her needs are met. Her city/region provides all the services anyone could need. Medicine,education,housing, and transportation are all administered collectively. It's functional democratic socialism. Much of the world does not have that,in the book. She's privileged.
#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 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.