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)

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.

Day 24 of #WritingWonders: Secondary character POV, what was the best thing the MC did for you?

Elaine: I'm going to try to be fair and say he did some good overall, but how much was it for other people and how much was it for himself? That's all I'm saying until after the arbitration.

Day 25 of #WritingWonders: does the antagonist have a favourite food or drink?

Gorman Magann is a superficially cheery but joyless kind of man, and while he very much enjoys controlling the monopoly on food processing, I think that's what he likes about food in general. What he likes about any plate of food in front of him is that it's his plate and his food, and every plate of food in front of anyone is his food and must be paid for, one way or another.

Reminder of the prompts for #WritingWonders (so I don't have to keep scrolling miles up my notifications to find what I'm supposed to be doing every day)

https://writing.exchange/@BranwenOShea/110288342412659808

Day 26 of #WritingWonders: does the media or public opinion play a role in your story?

Not much Magann's power base is not political but contractual. There is one situation where he cares what the public thinks.

Nolene, as his daughter, has public opinion predisposed against her, perhaps unfairly but to be honest, accurately.

Day 27 of #WritingWonders: which genre of music best fits the story?

Since there's sort of a structural theme to disOrder shaped around Beethoven's "moonlight" sonata I suppose slightly sinister piano music would fit best overall.

Day 28 of #WritingWonders: secondary character POV. What is the worst thing the MC did to you?

(Several characters are not available for comment because of reasons not irrelevant to the question.)

Hass: to me, personally? Not much. I did have to fix that roof. Of course he lied, but I don't count that as something he did to me—I was sure he wasn't telling me everything, and Nolene was obviously lying too. Yes I knew it was her. If I gave too much benefit of the doubt, that's on me.