Send in a ghoul with a gun.

[stillsostrange]

I've been bitching to my writing chat about this problem for a couple weeks now, and still have not solved it, so now I will bring out the big guns and bitch to LJ.

When I first wrote Dreams, I threw in a secondary character I'd had in my head (and RPGs) for a while, who came with a backstory that tied into the greater metaplot (read: things that had nothing to do with the book at hand). This seemed like a good idea at the time. When I started this latest revision, I realized it was not a very good idea after all; the tangents this character brought with him were doing nothing to help the pacing in the last quarter. But, the role itself--which provides exposition, conflict, eleventh hour rescues, and a romantic entanglement--was still useful and viable.

For several weeks now I've been trying to fill that role. Using the same character with a backstoryectomy seemed cheap. Then I asked myself does this character need to be a man? and the answer was not particularly. This opened up so many new possibilities.

And now I'm completely stalled. I don't have any handy preexisting characters I could plug into the role, and my initial attempts at creating a new one have not been satisfactory.

Anyone have any stray characters lying around who'd like to audition? I can provide guns, fast cars, and a snazzy wardrobe.

Comments

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I have the bitter daughter of a deceased general who doesn't show up for six chapters yet in my book, who I can loan to you if you'd like. She comes with combat skills, sullen sarcasm, and a knack for helping the bewildered helpless for free while pretending to have ulterior motives!

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I have a character who specifically built a Blackwater-styled paramilitary organization so he could legally create a large enough army to eventually take down the puppet-master Powers That Be, wreak havoc, and then step in the gap left by the corpses. He's in a book that's been sitting unfinished for a few years now, if you'd like to let him play in your world for awhile. :)

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I have a receptionist who would prefer to be a professional potter, who uses a glamor to pick up chicks but is otherwise just a lovely woman. She dances well and wears kick-ass stompy boots. I rebooted the novel she was in to 11 years earlier, and now I think she's at loose ends.

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

I have a grumpy young woman whose hometown was destroyed by evil. She barely made it out alive, and became leader of the refugees because someone had to do it. Has antagonistic relationship with capricious deity, but since said deity does come through in a crisis, the relationship continues. Loves: her swords, wine, the color blue. Hates: short jokes (she's a hair under five feet tall), small talk, and ghosts.

Her story just up and quit on me two years ago--maybe she'd be happier in yours.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Alma, the youngest daughter of the Jewish community Leader in a 5th century Byzantium City - far away from Constantinople - tells me she is interested in the position. She had been in love with the local Bishop's scribe Timos, but was unwilling to give up her family and her religion for the Christian young man.

The Jewish community in Celestia (about where modern day Georgia is) hived up there after being driven out of Alexandria, by rabid Christian bishops. Her husband and children recently died in a fire so she is currently under-employed

[curgoth]

African American assassin with dreadlocks and a tophat, full of nanotech enhancements. Speaks with a bad fake British acccent and answers to "Betsy Killyerface". Last seen having her arms torn off by a cyborg gorilla.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

The Medium Mermaid, the elder sister who swapped her hair for the knife that she failed to persuade her idiot younger sister to use on the prince. She kept the knife and took care of the prince later by herself. Now back to normal mermaid life, but willing to take some time off from drowning sailors.