Lunatic Space Pirates Falling in Love During Free Fall-- Sheena

For this blogaround, we're all sharing a prompt to show how we would write a story based on the trigger

Lunatic Space Pirates Falling in Love During Free Fall.

Okay, so the first thing I do is stare at those words for a few... minutes. In that time,  phrases start to separate.

 Space Pirates, for example tell me the genre. We're talking scifi. And pirate means thief to me, so we know the character's motivation is to steal something so rare they had to go to space to find it.

The free fall is interesting to me. I don't think it's falling if there isn't something to crash into, so the location of my story will be far above a planet. A dangerous not earth planet, so if they survive the fall, there's still a story there. And since they are in space to steal something, it could be the planet that houses the thing they are trying to steal, because the very thing a thief fears more than death, is getting caught.

So a story is starting to emerge. High above a red swirling planet, something bad happens to the ship, and brings the notice, (and weapon fire) of the people on the planet below, so these thieves silently escape their ship, and then something else bad happens, and they are cut off from control, so they are free falling to certain death on this red swirling planet below them, and even if they survive the crash, (and the fall) they might be caught, but still they are hopeful that there's a chance for them to steal this thing they really need, and getting away.

Okay so now I have to figure out what this thing is, and why they really need it... but I got nothing.

Maybe to do that I should go back to the prompt.

Falling in love reflects a story arc. It's a process with a beginning, middle and end. It also reflects the action of the story which is falling to their deaths.

And then there is the word lunatic.

To be honest, lunatic was the word that made my creative side perk up on the very first reading, so I saved it for last, so I can savor it. I love stories where the POV character is slightly crazy. I love exploring madness in all its forms.

 And falling towards one's death is a high stress environment. Anyone could go crazy in the vacuum of space.

So this is where my twist happens.

POV Character is all alone, trying to retrieve something...a medicine, a get out of jail free card, something necessary to save the person they will be falling in love with. Because the story arc needs a beginning, it's a person who the POV character finds slightly annoying, but still is attached to. They aren't in love yet, or at least they don't know yet that they are in love. Something goes wrong, and draws attention of the antagonist, and POV character could run away, but must sacrifice their own safety in order to try to get this thing for this annoying person who they are probably cursing out right about now.

New plan. New disaster, and again the character chooses to keep going instead of finding their own safety, and disaster number three happens, and POV person is falling uncontrollably in space towards certain death. Attempt after attempt to save themselves fail, but eventually the hero get the spinning under control, right when cracks appear across the visor. And the stress sends POV character into a descent of madness. They see this annoying person they are trying to save falling with them, which is impossible since they are on their deathbed, or imprisoned somewhere, and after telling them all the ways they are stupid, their hands meet, and the person falling realizes that they can't live without this person. There a joke or a moment of beauty, trying to distract from the danger, and the POV wishes the person could be there for real. Then right before an insane delusion of a kissing scene, or an almost kiss, there's an interruption. Shrapnel, or a bullet, or pain, and the person wakes up from their insanity, tries one last Hail Mary attempt to save themselves, which doesn't work, and they realize they are about to die, and then one of the early attempts finally works, and last second they are able to save themselves...or maybe they won't. I love tragic endings too.

And now the last thing I decide. The character. I always choose the character last, because I need to know what they will lose before I decide who gets to lose it. Because falling in love, for someone who wants to fall in love, isn't a sacrifice, so it's not something to lose. Falling towards death is really bad for someone with a fear of heights.

So this is a person with a history. Someone broke this person's heart, or trust, and they don't want to trust anyone ever again. This is a person who has cut ties with their history, maybe even with their former name and planet, and left on a space ship, so that because of relative time, everyone they know is dead by now. So this person is seriously prickly... Or maybe they aren't. Maybe this is a person who faced heartbreak, but didn't let it break them. Maybe they are nice to everyone, except this one person who reminds them of the person who broke them. Or maybe they were friends, and this person thought it meant something more.

Time to make some decisions.

My first instinct is to make this person a girl. I love the dichotomy of a girl saving a boy, and then realizing she's fallen for him, but... I don't know, it feels done, like that is a story I've told before, so...yup. I'm making this POV character a dude. And yes, I know a boy saving a girl has also been told a thousand times, but not by me, so I'd rather surprise myself.

So it's a guy... A guy who has lost everything, and still chooses to smile. He's smart, and resourceful, and not afraid to steal, so that means he thinks everything sort of belongs to him. He's confident, but afraid of heights, and afraid of attachments. Now he sounds like Captain Kirk, so I've got to change something.

He doesn't have any legs. No, he's covered in acid burns, from the thing that made him not trust people. No that might make it too dark. He needs more flaws, and more humanity.

Got it. He has a tangled family history, and HE made a mistake that made him lose everything. HE hurt someone who trusted him, and HE is carrying so much guilt he doesn't feel lovable.

Except maybe by this girl. There's this girl he met somewhere who makes him laugh, who makes him into someone kinder. When he's with her, he's someone he can like. He knows he could pursue things with her, except that he doesn't want to put her in the position where he could hurt her. Although he trusts her, he still doesn't trust himself.  So he walked away, even though he knew it meant hurting her, it was the lesser kind of hurt, the kind she could survive.

But when he left, something bad happened, and she got caught up into something, a scheme I think to earn enough money to start a different life. She was caught by the same people who own said treasure, who live on this planet. I.E. The antagonist.

Oh, a love triangle. The girl is caught, and the guy who owns the treasure is super handsome.

That's been done. The girl is caught, and the LADY who owns the treasure is surprisingly kind.

Erm. The antagonist (no gender yet) needs the treasure for a reason. It's medicine? No, that's too easy. It's something terribly important, like the last peg to an engine, or the last chance to go to this planet where the Antagonist's family is. Erm. It's a valuable piece of art painted over a sheet of unobtainium. It's a thing of tremendous value, but is sentimental value to the antagonist. It's a person, the child of the antagonist, who was born with amazing abilities. It's an animal, the last of its kind, and its bones when ground become a drug that is so rare and worshiped, because it gives the user magical abilities.

Oh. I like that.

So the Antagonist, (no gender, because it's an alien who has a different kind of gender than humans recognize), is a protector of this really rare swimming animal. It breeds them, and then sells the bones, but a strange disease caused most of the animals to die, so there's only a few left. The antagonist owns the entire planet, and has enough resources for major weapons, and security to protect the animals. When the girl was caught, she was going to be given to the animal as food, but the animal protected her. Once bonded with this strange swimming creature, she was given the job to start taking care of this animal.

So she doesn't want to be rescued.

Delicious.

Okay, so now we have a story that is complicated enough to start to plot.

My next step would be to create and plot out secondary characters. And since this story just moved beyond the free fall, the hero will survive, and will need help. so maybe the pilot of the ship, other Animal caretakers, Allies on the planet that can help hero reach the girl-- maybe an ally who's purposes run cross-ways from the hero. Then I'd figure out the rules of the world, the way the science and technology of the world work, aspects of drug culture that have shifted society, figure out the moral line of the characters, and then I'd figure out what a happy ever after would look like. Oh, and figure out how long the hero's insanity will last, hopefully a good long time. Because...yummy.

Then I'd plot out archetypes.

Hero- Dude McDudehead (Goal to save the girl, and steal the bones in order to release the girl)
Antagonist- Alien Druglord (Goal to protect its creatures, and its bottom line)
Sidekick- Pilot of Ship, friendly but at a distance. (Goal to help friend, and get the payday)
Skeptic - Ally on planet. (Only in it for the payday)
Guardian- GIRL McLoveinterest (Moral line, Goal to protect Dude McDudehead and Protect the Creatures)
Contagionist- Ally on Planet who wants to take down the Antagonist, by any means necessary, and will betray hero
Emotion- The Animal itself. Strong emotional telepathy.
Reason- Girl McLoveInterest's friend and fellow caretaker. (Possible love triangle. Does she choose to stay with logical dude and take care of this Animal she loves?)

Then I go through and assign gender to the archetypes.

Sidekick, Skeptic, and Contagionist all need genders and ages. Let's make them all girls, because we can.

Sidekick is an older lady, like Mags. She's the touchstone of the story. Common, kind, loyal.
Skeptic, is a sassy alien type. Short. Fierce. Lots of guns, bombs and knives. Swears in her native tongue.
Contagionist. She's the Mrs. Brown of the story. Human. Ambitious. Knits. She's a plotter. Widowed with a significant fortune. Former buyer of Whatever Dude McDude was selling.

Then I do some character analysis, and figure out all the specific details about these characters. They need a name, age, a nationality, a backstory, character quirks, catchphrases, personal style, fears, inside jokes, attachments.

Then I'd plot the full story from the Dude's POV, The Girl's POV, the Antagonist's POV, and the Contagionist's POV. And possibly Reason's if I choose to go the love triangle route. Which I will.

There's a good chance you've started skimming by this point, if not stopped reading altogether. I'm betting plotting isn't as interesting to read as it is to write.

But in case you are reading these words, I thank you. This is how I plot. I take an idea and twist it, until I find something that has been done before, and then I twist it again, and again, and then again. I find one failure after another, and choose my hero based on what they have to lose, because the common theme of all my stories is making the absolute worst thing happen to the character so that they can survive it. The hero must be someone who fails, and sacrifices, and keeps going.

Happy plotting!
~Sheena

For more Space Pirate plots, check out these by...
Karen
Trina
Melanie

8 Character Archetypes of Chuck

With MaryAnn's departure from the blog, we have a bit of a hole on Tuesdays, and I'm fixing that. This is Sheena, in case you were wondering. I've moved to Tuesday!

Recently I read this article, and it CHANGED MY way of writing forever. So helpful for story structure, and world building. Read it, and then come back, or read this and then read that. Or just go read books, your call.

EIGHT CHARACTER ARCHETYPES OF CHUCK.

1. Protagonist: Chuck Bartowski. He is the Hero, the every man, and adorably played by Zachary Levi.

I actually thought I understood this one, but after thinking about the article, and analyzing my own writing, I've learned a lot about heroes. The Hero, doesn't have to be the view point character, (like in Sherlock Holmes) but the Protagonist is the one whose shoulders sits the story, the one who grows the most, and the one who is directly opposite the Antagonist.

The Protagonist needs to have a goal. In Harry Potter, Harry's goal is to defeat the guy who killed his parents. When choosing your Protagonist, its usually the one who battles the big bad at the end. In the end, it's Harry and Voldemort. But Chuck is a reluctant hero. He doesn't have large goals or ambitions, which is a character flaw, not a story flaw, but they had to balance this flaw by giving him small manageble goals.
Speaking of Which...

2. Antagonist: On the show, every episode is called Chuck verses the (insert Antagonist). Every episode has a beginning, middle, and end, because in every one Chuck battles something. A terrorist is going to attack at Chuck's sister's wedding. Chucks goal-- to stop terrorist from attacking at Ellie's wedding. Beginning. Middle. End.

What's cool about this, is that it gives Chuck the ability to grow. Once he's defeated a villain, he learns from it, and he can fight bigger bad guys, and worse circumstances.  What weakens this choice, is that the bad guys can be sort of one dimensional and weak, because you don't have a whole story to learn about them, so it makes the victory at the end of the series be less about satisfaction and justice. Generally speaking, in Chuck it was about cool fight scenes, and personal victories. Still good, but definitely something they had to fight against.

When choosing an Antagonist, choose someone who is directly opposite of the Hero's goals, the person who is standing in the way of their goal. If Harry's goal is to defeat the guy who killed his parents, then understandably, Voldemort may take issue with that. But villains need to have goals too. Goals that are completely opposite of the Hero's goal. So Voldemort's goal, is to destroy the boy who defeated him.

3.Sidekick: Morgan Grimes.


This is a Character whose goals are completely in line with the heroes. There main goal in life is the same as the Hero, or completely in line with the Hero's goals. Ron Weasly's goals were to make his family proud, and as his family were against Voldemort, then Ron's goals matched Harry's goals.

Sidekicks are awesome. They give the hero likability, a history, a buddy to talk to while on adventures, someone to discuss plot type stuff with, and someone to save. Sidekicks were a big aha moment for me. I love a good internal monologue, but a sidekick can say all those other things the character is thinking, so it can be dialogue.

Sidekicks rock!

What's awesome about Morgan, is that he grew alongside Chuck. They start out pretty equal. Same job, same history, but as Chuck grows, Morgan didn't keep up.  This similarity/ contrast shows how far Chuck has come, but eventually, Morgan found ambition, direction, a pretty girl, and even the intersect, in my favorite episode of the show ever.

4.Skeptic : John Casey.

Look how skeptical he is!

Skeptics are the opposite of a sidekick. While sidekicks are like, "Yeah, let's go do it. Everything you say is awesome!", Skeptics are like..."Everything you say is stupid, and stay in the car." Skeptics are important, because sometimes the hero is stupid, and you the writer need to protect them from their own shortcomings. Skeptics give you a voice for your most critical reviewers. If you worry that a character might come off whiny or weak, have the Skeptic say, "You're whiny or weak," and that skeptical reader will be like, "Oh, it's a character trait, not that the writer doesn't know that this character is whiny and weak." See useful in the dictionary.  Skeptics and Sidekicks have a cool dynamic. That's why Morgan and Casey work so well together. They are opposite on the character archetype wheel, but, and this is important, they have the same goals as the Hero. They just think maybe they could do it better. 

So there's conflict, but they have to learn to get along, which leads to loads of fun.

5. Guardian: Sarah Walker

The Guardian is the Gandolf of the group. Their goal is different, because their goal is simply to protect the Hero. They can believe in the Hero's goal, but their motivation springs from wanting to keep the Hero safe. They are the moral standard, and decide what is right or wrong, and also who you can trust. They are the touchstones for the story.

Because of this, Guardians often leave or die, because at some point the Hero needs to be strong enough to protect themselves. 

But Sarah can't die, because Sarah is also the love interest. Love interests are always one of these archetypes. Sometimes they're the Skeptic, and the witty banter shows that the Hero can keep up. Sometimes they are the Sidekick, whose goals are completely entwined, or Emotion, or Reason, or sometimes even the Antagonist whose goal is completely contrary to the Hero. 

But the love interest gives the character another 1/2 which makes them equal to the hero of the story. 

Antagonists are already equal on the character wheel, so if you're writing a love story where the love ends, make the two characters each other's Antagonists, so the balance remains.

6. Contagonist: Bryce Larkin.

Contagonists are tricky. I'm not completely sure I understand this correctly, but contagonists are the heroes of their own story. They have their own goals, that aren't opposite the Hero, but maybe lay perpendicular to the Hero, and alter the Hero's story. Draco Malfoy's goals were to make his parent's proud (same as Ron's) but because his parents were aligned with the Antagonist, Draco and Harry ran cross purposes.  Aragorn was in the middle of his own journey when he met the Frodo and altered Frodo's journey, but his story continues, even separate from the Hero.

Bryce Larkin altered Chuck's life by giving him the intersect, but his goal wasn't to alter Chuck's life, it was to do his job and hide the intersect. The alteration to Chuck was just after effects of Bryce's goals and choices. Contagonists can be good guys or bad guys, but while their character affects the entire scope of the story, it doesn't effect the story structure itself. A contagonist can be defeated or made useful in the first half of the story and it go on. But their story, or secondary plot, won't be complete until their goals are met or until the character dies.

The Contagonist is opposite the Guardian, because they are making their decisions without regard to the Hero. Because they're opposite the Contagonist and the Guardian have an interesting and equal relationship. But as it's farther away from the hero than sidekick and skeptic, the conflict is less. Gandalf and Aragon are friends, Draco and Dumbledore don't hate each other, etc.

7. Reason: Devon "Awesome" Woodcombe

and 8. Emotion: Ellie Bartowski

I'm clumping these together, because while opposite, these two archetypes have a similar purpose. When the Hero needs to solve a problem based on logic, they visit Reason. When the Hero needs to solve a problem emotionally, they visit Emotion. Both are important, and both are equal. They are perfectly in balance. But because they are steps away from the Hero, they are lesser characters, and the conflict between them is less. Because of this, you can pair them. I've seen them as The Hero's parents, or in this circumstance, a married couple. But they also can be very separate, and never even meet.

That's one of the things I've learned though. I always see a character as how it relates to the Hero, but as equals, some of the the best relationship dynamics can be from secondary or tertiary characters. When I went through my WIP, I paired up the equal characters and found some really cool dynamics between them, and uncovered a secret that fixed a plot hole. So I hope this is useful to you.

Now the article goes on to say that not every story has all of these characters, or sometimes they are combined. The emotion character is also the Guardian, or the Skeptic also the Reason, or the Antagonist, or so forth.

This has made me want to analyze every book I've ever read, especially the ones that have really stuck with me. It's amazing how many of them fit this archetype, and the balance that comes when they do. 

Try it on your WIP.

~Sheena