Strange Seawolf 🕒 CET<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@sifaseven" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>sifaseven</span></a></span> At the core of <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/HeraldPetrel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HeraldPetrel</span></a> was that I always loved the <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/Odyssey" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Odyssey</span></a> and that I wanted for once a captain that was even less than a reluctant hero in the sense that he really, truly didn't WANT to be a captain. I have answered here in greater detail this morning: <a href="https://mindly.social/@strangeseawolf/114408854265378356" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">mindly.social/@strangeseawolf/</span><span class="invisible">114408854265378356</span></a> </p><p>My characters are more or less "there". They appear and when I start writing them, they more and more gain personality. Of course, Captain Galahad introduced himself BEFORE I started writing Herald Petrel, he and the damaged ship itself were the nucleus everything else developed from, shortly followed by Siff. The others appeared as I let him inspect the damage. It is a process that feels more or less organic. Sometimes I know a scene or a plot point needs a certain kind of character. But more often than not, they just appear and surprise me.</p><p>For example, Raffi jumped on the page out of nowhere. Before that, I didn't even know Galahad had an assistant, not to mention how important she will be in her role as a friend, moral compass, and independent thinker. That she basically adopted Galahad because she felt he needed a daughter became obvious very shortly after that and in hindsight made a lot of sense. With a personality like Galahad, he would never have survived the loss of Aretha without someone who truly cared for him as a person, not just a boss. 1/2</p><p><a href="https://mindly.social/tags/ScribesAndMakers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ScribesAndMakers</span></a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/TTMD" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TTMD</span></a></p>