Come Selahway With Me…

One of the things people notice right away about Olde School is that the bulk of the characters are nonhuman. I’ve done panels on writing the “other” recently, and it kind of shocks me that there has to be a “way” to go about writing these characters.

I’ve seen probably two distinct uses of nonhuman characters in fiction. Either they’re mindless adversaries (usually monstrous or huge in number) for the protagonist to go up against, or they’re a somewhat-more developed character. Sometimes this is limited to showing that the faeries are conniving, the vampires political or sexy, the werewolves aggressive – usually in a lot of short urban fantasy. There’s nothing wrong with that. They fill their use and the parts of the story they’re in well. In the really good fiction, though, they’re more well-developed and play pivotal parts of the story.

For me, though, it was important to retain the parts of the characters that make them “other,” but also give them realistic personalities. Who they are affects the story as much as what they are.

As Olde School developed, it was very important to me that things not be gimicky. Sure, a lot of the book is silly, a lot of it is quirky, but I didn’t want things to be a one-note joke. I wanted there to be a full-bodied world with a lush history, and I needed full characters to inhabit it. For me, this meant questioning what these creatures were versus who they were.

Why does a troll have to be dumb and mean? Why can’t he be a compassionate, yet somewhat passive, businessperson? What challenges would he face if he had that sort of personality? How could he carry a story? That became the basis of Paddlelump Stonemonger and the source of many,many frustrating late nights of editing.

Could trolls carry on decent friendships even if they were a little more traditional and crotchety? Where would they hang out? What if they were old men types hanging out in a diner? Thus began the lives of Ippick and Uljah.

What kind of an occupation would an ogre have? How about a pixie? What if they didn’t look quite like we’ve become accustomed to seeing them? What if they had their own motivations and personalities that weren’t quite simpatico with what we’ve been led to believe?

How about the humans? Are all princes handsome and valiant in Kingdom City? (short answer: bwahaha, no.) What do modern princes and princesses do? Would they still be connecting with each other for a love connection? What if there was a princess who obeyed the rules of older stories and went out to seek her fortune, but didn’t have the pristine motivations that her ancestors might have? And what about the non-royal humans? What if you were a waitress or a schoolgirl? Would you be bitter about your lot in life? Would you keep your chin high and be proud of your work ethic? Who would you associate with? What if you had secrets of your own?

And, of course, what would magic be like if it manifested in a world like this? Are talking animals always helpful? Are rituals and curses what they seem to be? What if they’re controlled by something else that’s vaguely close to the rules of the Fae, but far more terrifying in its true form?

And, of course, what if dwarves were heavy metal rock stars instead of holing up in mines all day?

Can these types of characters be as confused about strange situations as we would in our own lives? What about their daily, mundane lives? What are those like? How do they interact with each other? What’s their history together in the city like?

Yeah, I like to play with things, but these questions really got me started looking at the full range of possibilities in the characters. I like a lot of different types of stories, and I was intrigued as an adult discovering the work of Holly Black, because she does have some nonhuman side characters that hold their own. That really, really inspired me to push myself as hard as I could and see if I could populate the majority of my cast with nonhuman or Folk type characters and have people identify with them. Is the casing really as important as the heart?

It’s pleased me that a lot of people have gotten behind Paddlelump, Flora, Clyde, and even Nobody to really explore what makes these characters – and Kingdom City, itself – tick. There’s a lot more to show and discover, and embracing the “other” quirks and characteristics and using them in new ways while still giving the characters a sense of integrity is important to me. I’m glad to see that so far it seems to be fun for others, as well.