***PUSHING CHARACTERS***
If you’re an author and you work in a relatively small space
when it comes to your stories, you have to be careful about which characters
you push and which ones are just for show. When I say push, I’m not talking
about shoving them off a cliff and watching them fall to their deaths, although
some characters deserve such a fate. The word “push” is wrestling lingo for
heavily advertising a character and building him or her to be stronger.
Wrestling companies push their superstars by giving them a series of wins and
championship accolades. Authors push their characters by having them overcome
difficult obstacles, show emotion when necessary, and generally be the star of
the show.
Some authors have the ability to push multiple characters
and make them look good while doing it (as opposed to overrated). The reason I
mentioned working within a small space earlier is because I’m not one of those
authors. There was a time when I had the endurance to write long ass stories,
but that time has passed. My short stories and novel chapters are generally
anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 words apiece. Ergo, if I don’t have many
characters in these stories, at least ones that I can properly push onto the
reader.
I’ve been in situations where I had too many characters and
couldn’t adequately describe them all, so I had to murder some of them. Killing
off inconvenient characters is a literary sin due to the perceived laziness of
not being able to develop that person. Hell, I could be accused of doing this
as I’m writing Demon Axe. I’m getting set to write the fourteenth chapter and
already eight major characters have died so far: G-Pac, Pig Man, Vulture Man,
Bear Man, Tarantula Man, Lady Killer, Johnny Vega, and Sonia Marquez.
Eight fucking characters! While I realize that death and
destruction are both central themes to any story about terrorism, I still feel
like I could do so much more with these eight dead bodies other than have their
spiritual essences torment Daniel during moments of insanity. I’ve even
considered deleting Johnny and Sonia from this novel altogether, but nothing is
set in stone just yet.
While I acknowledge that most of my readers are in no way
wrestling fans (just ask the people who reviewed “Occupy Wrestling”), you had
to have seen this analogy coming from miles away: The Divas Revolution. In
2015, WWE did a storyline where three factions of female wrestlers feuded over
the Divas Championship and general dominance over the WWE. You had Team PCB
(Paige, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch), Team Bella (Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, and
Alicia Fox), and Team BAD (Naomi, Tamina, and Sasha Banks).
What’s wrong? You have no idea who these people are? Don’t
worry, you’re not alone. The whole purpose of the Divas Revolution was to push
all nine of these women into stardom. Considering they had limited TV time,
what started off as a mass push ended up being a cluster-fuck of forgettable
faces and undeveloped characters. It should come as no surprise that for the
Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards that year, the Divas Revolution was
considered the Worst Feud of the Year, second place for Most Disgusting
Promotional Tactic, and third place for Worst Gimmick. Ouch!
There are several solutions in which I could solve my own
Divas Revolution crisis with Demon Axe. I could expand it into more chapters to
give my characters more room to develop. I could delete characters who never
meant more than traumatic ghosts. I even considered having a chapter before
number twelve where the imprisoned characters sit around and talk to each other
about their hopes and dreams. Nothing builds a character quite like dialogue
and emotion. Then again, why wrack my brain when all I’m trying to do is write
a first draft? All great projects start out as fertilizer before they grow into
redwoods and oak trees.
If you’re a fellow author or you just love to read books,
this question of the day is for you. How would you handle character development
if you have lots of characters who need it? Considering my author friends all
write longer stories than me, I’m already anticipating what the answer will be.
In fact, I can see it coming from miles away. To quote The Who, “I can see for
miles and miles and miles!” We’ve got ears, say cheers!
***DEMON AXE, CHAPTER 14***
There are two possible routes I could go down when it comes
to this chapter. One of them is to follow the original blueprints and have
Daniel give a pep talk to the puppet string cops guarding the gateway to the
elven world. The other route is to have Daniel spend some time in the hospital,
which would make the most sense considering how badly he was tortured in the
previous chapter. While the latter would make the most sense, it doesn’t really
give a sense of urgency when it comes to stopping Roger Zee from doing what he
wanted to do. Decisions, decisions…
***FACE BOOK STATUS OF THE DAY***
Just once I’d like to
see a rapper with the stage name Apollo-G.
