Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk, Broken Windows and Broken Spines

tumblr_nm34rat0Gg1s99hguo1_1280Like everyone in Maryland, I’ve been watching the coverage of the Baltimore riots.

Like everyone who grew up on Marvel Comics, and a lot of people who didn’t, I’ve been watching and enjoying the hell out of the Netflix original series Daredevil.

Last night, while gathered with friends to watch Marvel’s Agents of Shield, we naturally discussed both topics. And the thought crystallized in my head that the two topics actually fit together very well.

Continue reading

Character Development as World Building – Part Three

I continue from last week, where I was running through my own creative process in developing the characters, and along the way the worlds, which make up my series, The Arbiter Chronicles. As explain last week, I work by asking myself a lot of questions, and answering them allows me to develop my story.

Question: What kind of society makes it strange to have a relationship with your parents?

With this question, framed about the character Kaya, I move off earth and create the character that’s going to be both a romantic interest and a different kind of foil for my hero. This is a very smart, capable woman for whom Terry Metcalfe will fall hard. And, because I wanted that element of old, pulpy space-opera, she’s going to be the Captain’s daughter. But she has to be a misfit to be part of my team. She’s smart, she’s rich, she’s beautiful. What’s wrong with her? Her people think she’s weird because she has a man she recognizes as her father.

Wait, every human has a father and a mother. What kind of world is she from that it’s weird that she knows hers?

Continue reading

Character Development as World Building – Part Two

Last time I talked about world-building, and how I think it’s properly accomplished by starting with your lead characters and building the world that they need to live in, the world that would have produced somebody like them. (Of course, it’s important to point out that the world we grow up in is only one factor in the person we actually become. “Nature or Nurture” is an old question, and I agree with L. Neill Smith’s answer–ultimately it is each one of us, not external factors, who determine who we are. But there’s no denying that place changes us.)

So this week, I want to start showing you how I used my own method to create worlds for my most successful series, a space opera called The Arbiter Chronicles.

My Example

The Arbiter Chronicles is a teen-angst story about outcasts. When I started, I knew I wanted a cast of five young characters, mostly from different worlds. I made them each different and therefore rejected by most of the people around them. Why did I do that? Because, above all, you’ve got to write what you know. You may be writing about worlds that don’t exist, where people have powers no human could ever have, but, at some level, you’ve got to write what you know. I started creating the Arbiters when I was a freshman in college. At that point, what I knew best was what it was like to be a high school geek. So I made my characters young misfits in space.

Continue reading

The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Professor

Every now and then, my creative friends and I step out from behind the mics and indulge in a bit of stage or video parody. Here’s a short comedic tribute to the George Reeves Adventures of Superman from the 1950s, directed and edited by Lew Aide, and starring my dear departed friend Jim Childs.

Character Development as World Building – Part One

This is a distillation of a workshop I taught at the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group conference, “The Write Stuff,” a couple of weeks ago. It’ll probably be a three-part series. Hope it’s of interest!

Frequently, when I talk to new writers, especially in the fantasy field, I hear things like, “Well, I’ve been working on a novel for ten years.”

“Oh,” I say, “what’s it about?”

“Well,” they say, “I’m still building the world.”

“Who are the characters?” I ask.

“Well, there are these guys who wear blue hats, and they’ve been fighting a war for 500 years with the guys who wear red hats.”

“So is your story about a red hat, a blue hat, or a couple of each?” “Well, I’m still building the world…”

Yeah. Like that.

Continue reading

Talking to Myself and Feeling (less) Old…

Talking to yourself is supposed to be a bad sign.

Hearing voices. Also bad. Talking to yourself suggests a mild neurosis or perhaps improper socialization. Hearing voices in your head talk back to you? Now we’re talking psychosis.

Me? I talk to people that aren’t there.

They talk back. Of course they talk back. What do you think I am, the sort of fool who’d waste time talking to people who don’t answer?

Please.

Continue reading

Waste of Space – “Sacrilege and Sauerkraut”

Recorded live at Farpoint 2014, this is the latest episode in our sitcom about four evil geniuses sharing a rundown house. This time, the Reverend Crompton comes a-visiting to investigate vampire Stella’s claim that she once dated Jesus of Nazareth.

Ethan Wilson, Steve Wilson, Cindy Woods, John Scheeler, Melissa McBride. Photo by Paul Balze

Ethan Wilson, Steve Wilson, Cindy Woods, John Scheeler, Melissa McBride. Photo by Paul Balze

CAST

Stella – Cindy Woods
Heinrich – John Scheeler
Corky – Ethan H. Wilson
Golth – Steven H. Wilson
The Reverend – Melisssa McBride

Written by Ethan H. Wilson with Steven H. Wilson
Foley by Greg Woods and June Swords
Technical Support by Conventional Magic
Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Waste of Space theme song composed and performed by John Scheeler, with lyrics by Steven H. Wilson