#[ 'no time portal necessary!' / (reblogged from one of my side blogs) ]

[e-louise-bates]

For the OC asks: 4, 12, 22, 23, 24, 26, 31, 44

4.  A character you rarely talk about?

This one is tricky, I’m known to happily babble about my characters given the slightest provocation. In general, though, I talk the least about all my characters from FTS, and out of those characters, the one I talk the least about would be ... Captain Miles. He’s mostly there to be a mild antagonist, but darned if I didn’t go and write a short story that showed a different side to him, and now I’m secretly fond of him even if he is a PITA. My original plan, if I ever wrote a sequel, was to kill him off so Sapphira could be the captain, but now I don’t know if I could do that. Besides, it’s kind of fun having the captain be a jerk, even if that does mean Sapphira gets stuck as First Mate a little bit longer. Hey, if Will Riker and Chakotay could survive it, so can she.

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot

My friend A.M. Offenwanger creates brilliant characters, and I’m particularly fond of Cat in her Septimus series. A librarian (woo-hoo!) who falls through a portal to a magic world and promptly sets about making a better life for herself there, who is practical and romantic both, and who is not a starry-eyed teenager--well, sometimes I feel like Angelika wrote those stories just for me.

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 

I have a very small readership, so not too many people have even had the chance to mischaracterise my characters. Although I did have a beta reader tell me Pauline, my historical mystery protagonist, was too perfect and needed some flaws, but that was mostly my fault for making her flaws too subtle. They were there, but I could see how one could miss them.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

My first conception of Maia (MMD) was dull, dull, dull. The goal was to make her the type of person who let others impose upon her, and who took on more responsibility than she ought, and the result was, naturally enough, a protagonist who was so boring even I couldn’t stick around to wait for the transformation. My dad suggested adding some curiosity to her personality, and as I was doing that she became more practical and strong-minded and less likely to let everyone and their brother impose upon her--though still overly burdened with responsibilities she ought not to carry, and still letting her family impose--and then there she was, a whole person, not just a wet dishrag. For which we may all be truly thankful.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

Oh, I would love to meet Len (MMD). He’s so much fun, and I’m pretty sure he’d drag me into trouble, but then he’s also pretty good at getting himself (and others) out of trouble, and every once in a while, I wouldn’t mind a little trouble to stir things up. Besides, he’s dreamy.

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? 

Ah, the joys of independent publishing. I do have editors, but if I feel strongly enough about a character, I have the power to ignore their suggestions and carry on. I don’t usually ignore them, because they are usually right (see 22, above), but if it ever came down to it, I have the final call for all my characters. Until they run away with me. So I suppose maybe once in a while I have changed a character against my will, but only because they have insisted on changing themselves.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

The difficulty with writing stories set in either the past or the future is that I really can’t imagine any of my characters with a tumblr blog. Especially since most of the time I barely know what I’m doing on here. I suppose if Helen (G&G) was alive now she would have one for fashion design, and it would be all aesthetics and moodboards.

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

My OCs all tend to be living, breathing people--which can cause problems when they try to take over the story (see 26, above), but overall I love it. I’ve never had to fill out a character sheet or write an elaborate backstory for a character, because they tend to be already fully developed; even if I don’t know all the details yet, I know they will emerge as necessary. I can be really sketchy on plot, I am constantly reminding myself that a little description is necessary so that my story is not all talking heads, but characters do live for me, and they are one of my chief joys in writing.

Thank you for the ask, @isfjmel-phleg!