Day 4 of #WritingWonders: MC POV, What's your occupation? Do you like your job?
"Project logistician, mostly numerically modelling complex processes. The implant helps with that."
But…
"This wasn't the retirement I'd imagined when I planned to leave the monastery on Tetra and make my life on a new world. I was ready for alien climate and lifeforms, higher gravity,
hard work and a little danger.
But I never expected the other humans around me to be the most alien part of the experience"
Day 5 of #WritingWonders : Scents and Sounds
The scents and sounds of Ascension are in general strange if you were used to living in monastery in an Earthlike managed ecosystem.
There's smoke from people actually burning solid fuel! I mean, WTF, right? The forests of muddy ochre coloured vegetation have a salty, marine smell (but Calnor doesn't identify it, having never seen a sea).
Noisy things include real outdoor weather, the rumble of explosives from the quarry, and Nolene.
Day 6 of #WritingWonders: opening scene theme song.
Easy. First movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata, as the the Ribbon Ship falls into orbit and Calnor comes out of suspension not sure at first where he is.
I don't write cinematically in general, but I can picture exactly how I'd shoot that scene.
It's an easy choice because the book is structured based on the movements of that sonata,. If that sounds a bit wanky, fair. But you try things, right? It sort of works so I leaned into it.
Day 7 of #WritingWonders : what does the MC look like?
I don't know exactly? 1P POV means I never had to "see" Calnor's face to write him.
And I can't draw.
What I do know: 40-ish, not tall, wiry build but with some weight and muscle tone lost during suspension in the 20-year flight from Tetra to Ascension.
Probably brown eyes, close-cropped hair. Arrived in light, loose silk-like shirt and trousers, so mistaken for a Buddhist on arrival (actually a Matheist, maybe Buddhist-adjacent tbf)
Attached: 1 image Inviting all #writers to join us for the fun and friendship of #WritingWonders. You can participate with a WIP or an already published book. Alina, Amelia and I have come up with some hopefully intriguing questions for May. For added fun, several questions are for your characters to answer in their voice. 😊 As always, play the days you want, skip the ones you want. Looking forward to seeing all your answers, finding great books, and meeting new friends. Here you go! #amwriting #author
Day 8 of #WritingWonders: describe your MC's laugh.
Calnor is very reserved, and has a dryish, self-deprecating sense of humour. I don't think he laughs out loud even once in the book? Not as Calnor anyway. We can revisit that technicality tomorrow.
But the 2nd protagonist, Nolene…
[
"Ha!"
She had a sharp, high-pitched laugh, if that monosyllable had been a laugh.
]
She's more a laughing at than a laughing with kind of person. As a teenager, obviously everyone else's stupidity is funny.
Day 9 of #WritingWonders
MC POV: when was the last time you laughed? Why?
- - -
Joreth here, ignore Calnor, there's nothing interesting to say about him. I'm the Main Character really.
The *second last* time I laughed, it was at how naive and easily played everyone around me was.
The last time was at how naive and easily played I was.
- - -
Day 10 of #WritingWonders: how much humour is in your story?
A little, here and there. I'm playing with ideas around technology, politics and unintended consequences, and along the way, the characters living through that will find some of it amusing, as one does.
I notice tho that often when Calnor is making a wry observation I'm using it to foreshadow something very bad happening to him, so he'd find it less funny if he knew that.
So anyway, 1/3 of the way through #WritingWonders, and I should probably re-mention that disOrder is an existing, published book you can get now if you like (my book bundle is linked off my profile, you can also get a paperback on Amazon, or EPUB on Smashwords)
BUT there's more: for the duration of May, I have created a 100%-off coupon code UP53U on Smashwords for my collection Silk and Sharp Edges, which contains the story Pure, in the same universe as disOrder:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1041554
Day 11 of #WritingWonders: does your MC laugh more or cry more?
Calnor/Joreth cries more, because of an irreparable loss, and also due to incredible physical pain at one point.
While he's unambiguously just Calnor, his emotions are quite flat (apart from anxiety), for reasons.
Nolene laughs more, but arguably has more to cry about.
Day 12 of #WritingWonders: do you think your story will make readers cry at some point?
Eh. I want them to care about the characters, and feel to some extent their pain and terror and desolation and comfort and triumph, and in the end be satisfied by the experience.
But I don't know if people actually for real cry while reading books. Is that a thing? I can get that with listening to music, but it doesn't really happen to me with the written word, so I don't *expect* anyone to. Who knows.
Day 13 of #WritingWonders: description of a secondary character.
Let's talk about Elaine again.
Nolene POV:
The woman wasn't pretty, which was a point in her favour. She even had a scar on one cheek, like a pirate or something. But she did have intense dark-green eyes, of which Nolene was instantly and angrily jealous. Her own were a very light and boring greyish-blue, and here was some scruffy delivery driver who had the perfect eyes to match Nolene's costume.
Day 14 of #WritingWonders
MC POV: have you ever broken anyone's heart?
Calnor: Have I what? Let me check something. Oh OK it's an archaism. Have I … "disappointed someone so badly (usually but not necessarily romantically) that they feel physically wounded by it?" No, I'm sure not. Definitely not romantically. I had a few warm friends in the monastery, but we parted on good terms as people generally do when it's time, right?
Nolene: Ha! Not yet. I might when I'm rich, but it won't be my fault.
Day 15 of #WritingWonders: is your MC good at romantic relationships?
MC Romantic relationships aren't very relevant to the story in disOrder. Calnor's romantic history isn't mentioned at all.
Nolene is too young to have had romantic relationships to be good at. She has a crush on a guy a few years older than her, who is not interested but would never be unkind about it.
As for side characters, Elaine is dedicated to her wife, and we meet *her* at a critical point in the story.
Day 16 of #WritingWonders: is your MC good at relationships in general?
Calnor, yes and no. He's kind and calm and fair, but there's something missing in him when dealing with unkindness, chaos and injustice. He's got your back, until he's suddenly not really there.
Nolene: no, she's pathologically selfish and entitled, more than is even usual for a teenager with a rich and powerful father.
Joreth: no, OMG no. Run away.
Day 17 of #WritingWonders: secondary character POV: do you trust the MC?
Wim: As head of security of course I don't trust anyone unconditionally. I trust Calnor Dale not to intend any harm, and not to directly lie to me. That's useful: if you know someone will only tell you the literal truth you can get the answer you want by framing the question carefully.
But what is security about if not safety? Do I think Calnor's well-meaning naivety is safe for himself and others? I do not.
Day 18 of #WritingWonders: do many people find your MC attractive?
No.
Longer answer: Calnor is pleasant, but not very charismatic. People finding him romantically or physically attractive or not isn't a big part of the story.
Day 19 of #WritingWonders: if they knew who you were, would your MC save your life?
How does that work exactly? Am I in their world? In which case, who's writing me? Much to consider.
Anyway...
Calnor would save anyone's life.
Nolene would save someone's life but whine about having to do it and roll her eyes. Maybe not if nobody was watching tho.
If they'd hurt her, then no. So, arguably her writer would be fucked.
Joreth is more a cause of people's lives needing to be saved.
Day 20 of #WritingWonders: Do illicit substances play any role in your story?
Yes and no. The Ascension security contract covers behaviour risking harm to others or Magann's profits, not drug use as such.
Some use redstick, a plant deadly to native animals but mildly psychotropic to humans. It looks similar to two other plants that are super deadly.
The shielded crate that arrived on the same ship as Calnor is very illicit but most of it isn't pharmaceuticals.
So, 2/3 of the way through #WritingWonders, having lots of fun.
You can get this collection of short stories free https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1041554 with coupon code UP53U until the end of May.
I like putting short collections together, because my genre mix is all over the place, and if one story misses, another is likely to land, whether it's gentle humour, lovecraftian/geological horror, ghost murder mystery or goat harassment problems.
Day 21 of #WritingWonders: MC POV what piece of advice would you give your younger self?
Nolene: Why? Just so *I* could do something different? I didn't do anything wrong! Send everyone else back to fix their own mistakes.
Calnor: Stay on Tetra.
Joreth: Don't believe people who tell you what you want to hear but are letting you do the dirty work.
Day 22 of #WritingWonders: do you prefer writing the first or last chapters?
I often get started by writing the scenes that came to me as the first story ideas, usually not the beginning of the story.
But I prefer writing the scenes with POV or dialogue of my favourite characters (like Nolene). That just flows: I know who they are and what they'd do or say next. The sense of flow grows as I write them more, so it can be best on the scenes I write later, not necessarily later in the story.
Day 23 of #WritingWonders: if you switched places with your MC, would you survive?
No spoilers for which characters actually *do* get to survive in disOrder.
But no.
@petealexharris Camille (The Lady of the Camellias) made me cry when she’s dying at the end and waiting for her lover and…
SPOILER!
…he doesn’t make it in time.
Classic pieces are excellent for space, good choice. If I only think of Stanley Kubrick's "2001 - A Space Odyssey"...🥰
Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫
Daryn Wilde
Vivian Schey 🏳️🌈 🇩🇪 <(FSM)<{