PJ’s Blog

Character creation is just as arduous, if not even more, than world creation. Once the walls and the decor are in place, the actors have to be cast, rehersals have to be made, costumes have to be sown, flesh and blood must be conjured out of the words in order to make the characters more than unidimensional caricatures of past clichés.

The main character I have in mind for this story is in part a walking cliché: a somewhat recluse scientist, called by destiny to become the unlikely hero that will save mankind. However, by placing him as the narrator, and having him be painfully aware of the absurdity of his position, I hope to be able to flesh him out a little more, and to connect a bit more to the reader. I am aware that this is in itself somewhat if a gimicky cliché by itself, but I’ll run with it, and see if it goes anywhere…

The two main storylines of the book are separated by three hundred years, so the cast of both storylines has to be distinct and completely separate. This limits the number of characters I can introduce and use in each story, otherwise it’s just going to become a jumble of characters that’s gonna be too confusing for the reader to follow.

So the part of the story set in the 30th century will be told through the eyes of the narrator, who is personally involved in the events. The part of the story set in the 27th century will be told by the same narrator, telling the story of what happened through his expertise as an historian. This means that the 27th century storyline can be a series of short “historical” stories of specific important episodes, but it could also be the story of one character, as told by the narrator.

I’m still not sure which way to go…