I’m writing to y’all live from a writing sprint with a bunch of writers I know and love. I don’t have any current active fiction projects, as I’ve been so damn writer’s blocked in that regard, but I have been writing here at least a little every day, so I figured I might as well join and cough up words and send them in whatever way feels most natural at high speeds to start, and if there is anything my system is good at, it is high speed bullshit in large quantities.

I think I’ve slowly been working back towards fiction unconsciously because there’s been a half formed character stuck in my head just like I used to get in the old days before I would cook up a full novel or a subplot that would consume my entire brainhole for the next yes.

He’s not particularly chatty, just like the original protagonist of the Third Prophecy wasn’t. All I know about him is that his name is Arie and that he’s tall. His reticence could cause trouble later if I decide to write his story, as it took thirty plus drafts to even get Archer, the original protagonist of Third Prophecy, to open up. However, if another character also gets stuck in my head that can get him to open up, things might flow a bit more smoothly. I think that that was a big problem with Archer – she was very, very withdrawn as a character, and the only characters she ended up close to tended to either betray her, die, or be busy elsewhere in their own subplots. I was and still sort of am an evil writer.

However, there are other, equally as withdrawn characters who do have consistent supporting characters by their side, and they don’t know how to shut the fuck up when they are with their people. Those are far easier to write. Kira Eistros, one of the principal antagonists later on in Third Prophecy, is known for perhaps uttering maybe twenty words in a single act UNLESS she’s around her himbo of a future husband, who she then proceeds to be unable to shut the fuck up around, and vice versa. Neither of them say much unless they’re together. But holy shit, give them time alone, and they will be unable to stop yapping. Kira delivers one of the hardest hitting speeches of the first play in Act 4 when she’s relaxed and hanging out with said himbo.

In hindsight, this should come as no surprise to me. I think Archer might need better friends who don’t fucking die and then perhaps the early arcs of Third Prophecy just might come together more easily. We all need good friends, don’t we?

-Allēna