#WordWeavers day 7: How do you define a “strong” character? How do you create one?

The word has some ambiguity to it: sometimes, people use it to mean a character who displays strength within their story (i.e., by overcoming difficult tasks and great obstacles), but other times, we use it to mean the character is well-constructed, interesting, etc. — a strong addition to the story. 1/2

Creating the first type of character seems easy enough: just throw lots of adversity at them, and have them triumph over it. (The word "seems" may be doing a lot of heavy lifting, there...)

Creating the latter? Entire volumes have been written about that; I can't really do the topic justice here. 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 8: How do you approach stereotypes while creating characters?

I try to avoid them.

#WordWeavers day 9: If you need to share an important piece of history/lore, what’s your approach that avoids infodumping?

One approach I'm using in my current story is to have two "learner" characters. They're both interesting people in their own right, so there's absolutely no problem with them "existing solely to have things explained to them". But they do get to (among other things) serve as reader surrogates, so that readers... 1/2

...can learn along with these characters. I even had one be a fairly new transplant to San Francisco, so I can easily explain non-magical things about, e.g., the City's history or trivia.

Of course, another good strategy is to break the info up into little, bite-sized pieces so it's not "dumping". 2/2

#WordWeavers day 10: Antagonist POV: Imagine you achieved your goal. What’s next?

Donna Kuang says: Which goal? I've got three propositions on this November's ballot, and four candidates I'm backing. But fine, assume I get all of them passed or elected.

Since that would be a goddamned miracle, I'd celebrate like there was no tomorrow. I'd've earned it!

And then, in a day or two, it'd be time to start thinking about *next* year's races. There's always another election cycle coming up. 1/2

Travis Winter says: Once I've made the City safe, and set it on a path that would keep it from being overrun with homeless people and criminals? Then I could just relax and enjoy that. Go back to running my company.

(Narrator: He would not, in fact, relax at that point. He'd find that there was something else wrong, that he *had* to "fix".) 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 12: How could someone who knows your MC well console them after the last time you made them suffer?

I haven't made too many of my characters suffer that much yet (I'm planning on ramping it up — although this question is making me wonder if I should pile it on a little more quickly!), but the couple of times I have, I've had other characters help them to some degree. Interesting. 1/2

Frex, in chapter 2, three characters acquire an Ominous Tome of Dark Magic™. Later, one of them talks to another about the things they're finding in it, and Character Two tells the first one that they honestly look *haunted*, and hey, if they've gone through the thing once and gotten the basic gist? Then it's okay if they put it down for a little bit, and just do a little self-care.

It helps.

(Until the next time I hit Character One with something even worse.) 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 13: Tell us about a quirk your SC has.

I'm having a lot of trouble with this one, because I've been trying out various different characters to try to find a good answer. While I do feel my characters all have well-developed personalities, I'm having trouble finding anything that feels like "a quirk". I mean, is a hobby a quirk? I don't think so. 1/2

All the details I have about my characters feel more important than mere quirks. Conversely, anything small enough to be a quirk would be... kind of trivial or even irrelevant, you know? 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 14: Is selling your work for money important to you when you write?

Not for the money, no. I have a day job, and it pays me better than writing is ever likely to (unless I get *way* luckier than I have any expectation of).

But the knowledge that total strangers had paid good money to read my stories would make me feel really good about myself as a writer. I'm already paying my bills just fine, but *validation* is something you can't just buy.

#WordWeavers day 15: If your SC came across a large crystal that was glowing from within, what, if anything, would they do with it?

Most of them would think, "*Glowing*? Okay, _that's_ a very odd thing for a magical item to do," and promptly look at it with magical sight to try to figure out more about it. 1/2

Not all my SCs are magicians, of course. The non-magical ones would vary from wondering how the hell someone had rigged that up and inspecting the thing for hidden wires or other tech to being disturbed and backing away slowly. 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 16: Do you have any kind of ritual to get in the mood to sit down and write? If so, what is it?

It depends on what you mean by "ritual". Is a ritual simply a set of frequently- or at least periodically-repeated actions? Or does it have to be an *intentional* set of repeated actions? 1/3

I mean, I *love* me some ritual! So I kind of get into the question of what qualifies. I don't feel like my writing-session kickoff qualifies. For that, I'd want something more intentional, more focused and deliberate. 2/3

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I do generally set myself up with a Manhattan and maybe a shot of Irish whiskey — although sometimes I'll deliberately do some other drink that suits the scene or the POV character. And I'll usually put on one of my writing mixes, although I may go for some other music that matches the scene.

But that doesn't feel like "ritual" so much as "getting my shit together." 3/3

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#WordWeavers day 17: Did you ever receive formal education in creative writing?

Dammit, now I'm trying to remember exactly what courses I took back in college. Particularly at UMass Amherst. I know for sure there was at least one poetry course, and I'd swear there was at least one other that might have been more prose-oriented. But the details are lost to the mists of time and the gaps in my forgettery (the opposite of a memory).

#WordWeavers day 18: Tell us about a time when your MC failed.

At the beginning of the story, Jessie is dealing with the aftermath of having lost her job. She considers it a major personal failure, and I'm not about to say she's entirely wrong. (I will note that there were factors in play that she's still unaware of. But she won't learn about those until after the story's over. If there's a sequel, her reaction to that knowledge will show up there.)

#WordWeavers day 19: Share something that makes your SC different from your MC.

They're different people. Like, entirely.

#WordWeavers day 20: How much romance is in your story?

Currently, I have an entire romantic side-plot. I'll likely have to cut it as one of the many ways to try to get my word-count down to a manageable level. But even without it, there's also the three established relationships that three of my MCs are in: two are happily married, and one is in a happy long-term relationship. 1/2

There's *definitely* some romance going on between Margot Chu and her husband, and Carlos Velázquez and his wife may be less demonstrative, but they're no less in love. 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 21: Where do your MCs fall, on a scale of timid to recklessly brave?

Counting 0 as timid and 10 as recklessly brave:

Angel: 4

David: 5

Carlos: 4, but he wishes he could be about a 7 or an 8

Margot: 7 (and would be higher if not for her husband and children)

Jessie: 8

#WordWeavers day 22: Is there a subject that’s represented poorly in media that you’d like to cover in your work?

Lots of things. One is depiction of various types of neurodiversity. Another is depiction of bisexual people as being bisexual regardless of what type of relationship they're in.

#WordWeavers day 23: What are you careful about when writing?

Goddess, so many things! Not contradicting anything I've already established; not contradicting actual reality (except if I _consciously, deliberately_ choose to do so); making characters with backgrounds different from mine as realistic as I can. Those are the big three that immediately came to mind.

#WordWeavers day 24: Tell us about something positive you experienced because of writing.

Getting to participate in writing communities like this one.

#WordWeavers day 25: What do you feel thinking about the last scene you wrote?

Last one I completed? Fairly positive. It seems to be doing a good job of hinting at something that I want to hint at, without bluntly revealing it yet. The kinds of people who will get it will, I think, read this and go, "Ah, I wasn't sure if [redacted] before, but now I'm quite positive," while the people who completely miss it will be able to come back after... 1/2

...the reveal and go, "Yeah, all the signs were legitimately there, how did I miss that?"

If it's the last one I did some writing in (i.e., the second of the two I worked on last night), then it's coming along okay. Off to a decent start, without dragging things out too much.

(Good thing you didn't ask about the *first* scene I worked on last night. That one's spinning out of control. Dammit.) 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 26: SC POV: What’s your favorite smell?

Lex Bainbridge says: I gave up smoking many, many years ago, but if I'm gonna be honest? I still love the smell of clove cigarettes.

I won't *have* one. But I like smelling them when someone else nearby is smoking one.

#WordWeavers day 27: Which character would be the most fun to be around?

Zoë Broadstreet. She's a party girl, and completely unapologetic about it. OTOH, she's also smart, and deep.

#WordWeavers day 28: When was the last time your MC got excited? Why?

Not sure if it was the absolute most recent time any MC got excited, but one that stands out to me is that Jessie Nakamura recently got excited when her big brother, George, called to say he was just up the block from her apartment and invite her out to lunch.

#WordWeavers day 29: How big is your cast of characters?

5 MCs, 5 villains, and a whole host of other SCs who relate to the heroes or villains in various ways (parents, children, siblings, romantic partners, friends, co-workers, roommates, employees...)

It's a story about *a city*. Not a small town or village. It's got a large population.

#WordWeavers day 30: How do you keep track of important info related to your characters, world, etc.?

I have extensive notes of various types, as detailed at: https://wandering.shop/@kagan/116273665587989242. Also a spreadsheet tracking various info about each character (since that's not "notes", I didn't think to include it in the other answer!).

#WordWeavers day 31: Share or tell us about a fun scene you recently wrote.

The one I most recently completed starts off being not-fun: Zoë Broadstreet needs to clean up her apartment for a party/ritual that she's hosting. She's not happy with how little time she has to do it in. But then Casey De Luca shows up to help. This was not unexpected, but Casey's attitude makes everything okay. She tells Zoë to put her to work, and says, "Don't worry. We've _got this._"

#WordWeavers day 1: Your opinion on April Fools Day and do you incorporate the day into your work?

I used to like it a lot more than I do now. I think we're drowning in way more misinformation and DISinformation than we used to be, and there's no sense in adding to that problem.

My WIP has a scene that, if you check a calendar and do the math, happens on April 1st. It's a scene like any other, no mention of April Fool's.

#WordWeavers day 2: Do you use any special means to get to know your characters? E.g, character sheets, prequels, interviews, etc.

I think the vignettes I started off with might qualify as the "prequels" mentioned in this question. I also do pretty thorough backstories, including things like where they went to school, what media items were formative influences on them (TV, books, songs, you name it), what they majored in, how they got into their current career, their relationship history, etc.

#WordWeavers day 3: For which characters do you come up with a backstory?

Pretty much everyone with more than a fleeting appearance or bit part. My MCs and villains get pretty thorough backstories; my SCs also get backstories, though of varying elaborateness depending on how much we see them and how central they are to the story.

#WordWeavers day 4: Choose a character to invite to a party. What kind of party is it? Does it have special rules (dress code, bring alcohol, etc.)?

I can't invite my characters to parties; they don't get to know me as the guy who created them. But in-story, Lex Bainbridge invites basically the entire San Francisco urban wizard community to a party to commemorate the City's surviving the Great Quake and Fire of 1906. 1/2

(This is a standard, annual event for them, but who throws the party rotates yearly — and it's a new concept for the two new learners, David Hartmann and Jessie Nakamura.)

Angel Castillo, Margot Chu, and Carlos Velazquez were included in the invite, too. So what the heck, tomorrow I'll answer for all of them. 2/2

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#WordWeavers day 5: How would [did] the character[s] from question 4 react to being invited?

Jessie was happy to be invited, and happily attended the party. Okay, she was a little nervous about meeting so many new people, but she went anyway, and had a good time. (At least until this one guy started being a jerk, which is plot stuff.) 1/4