It's Thursday and keeping with publication process, I've been mulling over proposals for my Black Opal series. Today I was hit with a dozen ideas, all while thinking about the same hero, and it's made me wonder just how far can I take him? How... unheroic, can he be, while being a hero at the same time?
Let me back up. I like dark heroes. I like men that are so flawed, how they can be heroic, is a bit hard to grasp. And given my heroine in Stripped falls into this, I guess that extends to characters all the way around. I find it incredibly challenging to not just redeem this person, but dig in and draw out the things that make them worthwhile. To see if I can make that person hold onto a heart, no matter how unlikely it might seem.
I asked an editor once how dark a character could be, and she pretty much gave a green light on any level as long as it is well-justified. That conversation completely blew my mind, because all along I'd been preached at "You can't do that, he's unheroic. You can't redeem him." Well... evidently not so. And this delights me to no end.
Anyway, going back to the proposal. I'm torn now, because what I would like to do makes the character real. It gives him mountains to overcome, and really brings out a viable haunted past. But that one aspect, might push it over the top and make it hard for him to fullfill a story. I already piled on the shit once. He's got a huge mountain facing him as it is. But wow... it would... yes, it would be a great way to twist him in the wind.
I'll have to mull this over. Meanwhile, I had two other stories hit me at once, and I sure wish they'd develop androids that could plug into my brain, use my words, my approach, and everything me, and write side-by-side with me. Yeesh. I wrote the ideas down, filed them away, and will make outlines as I get past some more pressing things.
So what do you all do when you have idea overflow?
~Tori
http://www.toristclaire.com/
The Revenge Plan by Linda Kage
5 years ago
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