I agree with the comment above: no matter what becomes of this writing effort, it's going to teach you a lot. Each effort is a stepping stone to better, more effective storytelling.
It's interesting to see other fic writers' take on characters. I didn't ever consider that canon protagonists would relieve me from the labor of coming up with characters; I was simply eager to peer in through those shadowy doorways the XF panned past too quickly for my liking. But OCs pop into my longer fic all the time. My main problem with them is that if I'm not careful, whatever their personal story is will keep me from making progress along the main plot road I'm traveling. For me, OCs are a lot like those tiny sponge shapes crammed into little capsules that you can find at the more unique toy stores (the kind that swell up into a duck or a dragon or whatever when you soak the capsule in water.) Once I open the door, characters just sort of spring into three-dimensionality... even when the only thing I was looking for was someone to fill a simple plot need. But no, they never seem to come that way; they arrive with suitcases and furniture and immediately set up housekeeping.
I think one of the reasons this happens, though, is that I never try to deliberately fashion a character; I just work to set aside my preconceptions and be open to whoever or whatever may come. (As is posited in the XF episode Milagro, I firmly believe that characters choose authors.) And when a character approaches me, I try to make a little space for that character, shine the light on them and wait to see what they'll do. Because my experience is that every character comes with a story to tell, and if you step back and simply listen, they'll tell you that story. And the story the character brings is invariably better than the one I could have made up myself.
At this point, as you're fumbling your way through the beginnings of this project, I'd say just be open to whatever direction it may take you. Sometimes our starting point ends up having been just that--an initial spot that, in a serendipitous or even ricochet fashion, sends us from one idea to another until we finally stumble across that story that really wants to be told.
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Date: 2008-01-20 06:08 pm (UTC)It's interesting to see other fic writers' take on characters. I didn't ever consider that canon protagonists would relieve me from the labor of coming up with characters; I was simply eager to peer in through those shadowy doorways the XF panned past too quickly for my liking. But OCs pop into my longer fic all the time. My main problem with them is that if I'm not careful, whatever their personal story is will keep me from making progress along the main plot road I'm traveling. For me, OCs are a lot like those tiny sponge shapes crammed into little capsules that you can find at the more unique toy stores (the kind that swell up into a duck or a dragon or whatever when you soak the capsule in water.) Once I open the door, characters just sort of spring into three-dimensionality... even when the only thing I was looking for was someone to fill a simple plot need. But no, they never seem to come that way; they arrive with suitcases and furniture and immediately set up housekeeping.
I think one of the reasons this happens, though, is that I never try to deliberately fashion a character; I just work to set aside my preconceptions and be open to whoever or whatever may come. (As is posited in the XF episode Milagro, I firmly believe that characters choose authors.) And when a character approaches me, I try to make a little space for that character, shine the light on them and wait to see what they'll do. Because my experience is that every character comes with a story to tell, and if you step back and simply listen, they'll tell you that story. And the story the character brings is invariably better than the one I could have made up myself.
At this point, as you're fumbling your way through the beginnings of this project, I'd say just be open to whatever direction it may take you. Sometimes our starting point ends up having been just that--an initial spot that, in a serendipitous or even ricochet fashion, sends us from one idea to another until we finally stumble across that story that really wants to be told.