#WordWeavers 2405.25 — How often do your characters think of death?
The reader and author are privy only to the MC's thoughts. "Often" is a vague word. Generally the MC doesn't think of death as you and I would experience time. However, in story time, she thinks of it rather often. She experiences PTSD episodes from when she saw someone die horrifically during a gang war, then realized her actions (or rather her inactions) resulted in dozens of others dying. Being responsible but powerless to stop it rattles her to the core. Her death? Not so much. Having been a bodyguard for a mob boss, and to an extent being a prizefighter where an errant strike could be lethal before that, she's never expected herself to live to old age. Twice someone has tried to murder her; only quick thinking and skill saved her. Twice she actually died, only extraordinary attempts at resuscitation bringing her back from the brink. She's not yet 20 years old. Each time she learned something or achieved something, the very last time saving not only the life of her lover but the life of his assassin because actually murdering the assassin was worse to her than dying herself. Not becoming a murderer is a possible tipping point in her life story because she is was conceived as a evil character, and if something doesn't get in the way she will be responsible for the destroying the world...
It's rare, but I potentially hit upon a fan-fiction scenario for my V character; another outcome for the merc who became a face in the crowd. The beauty of the #Cyberpunk universe that there is always something that can be pulled out of left field. Not sure if I want to write about it, but I did envision the scenario up to a point. It stems from a radical idea about certain Rogue AI wanting to walk amongst people...Associated with a Blackwall collective known as "The Midnight Beach".
This group of Rogue AI were influenced by human sympathetic databases stored on the Net before the Data Crash. Friendlier to people, but equally as dangerous if the situation warrants an aggressive response. One AI by the name of Mensch remembered V as it was monitoring his usage of the Blackwall through Songbird. It wanted to reverse the damage done as my V was an excellent Netrunner discovered some code which tamed the Blackwall. Mensch wants it and will heal V for that code.
Mensch has helped a Netrunner/Ripper Doc by the name of Empathie and his corporation to develop several therapies which could restore V. As my V has basically been abandoned by everyone save for Misty; He's got nothing left to lose by going with Empathie to the treatment center of the German Corporation known as "die Entwicklung". It's a mix of instigating genetic restoration of the nervous system and resetting V's current body. It has worked on other patients rather well.
I got up to the point in planning when Mensch warned his favorite humans about an internal shift of opinion within The Evolution Corp. It seems like Empathie was spending too much time with V and not enough with his high class clients in need of the restorative physical therapies...So the Corp Executives planned on zeroing V. I stopped at the point where they were on the run, on a train ride to somewhere.
The problem is, how to make this sound convincing in the slightest?! I should probably look deeper into #Cyberpunk as a genre so that I could better write it. Like Science Fiction, Cyberpunk is a weakspot of mine. I love to read both of those genres, this is an ironic situation. 😂
I usually rely on sensible magic in Fantasy to make things make sense. In a genre which is devoid of that...Dunno how the heck this fanfic could ever get off the ground beyond a few imagined scenes.
More than they should but no as much as they should. All of Our Hero's team are legally dead, and all of them in fact died and were revived with the medical regenerator. They don't think much about their own death because they know 2 things:
They can be revived
They KNOW there's no afterlife
But they do think about other people's death. With joy if it's their targets, and with sadness if it's about everyone else's…
It's intricately connected and part of the work, so I create it myself. I am slowly inching closer to a unified visual style for the series.
You'd think sticking to silhouettes would make it simpler, but my stars, it's complex to get the essence of a character into just an outline! It's fun, though.
The cover for book one is new. It's Freya using plants as murder-weapons. 🖤
The maiden and her cat strode boldly into the castle.
"I'm here to court the prince."
This was met with laughter, and she was thrown into the dungeons; her cat chased away.
Her loyal companion visited every night, first bringing her pen and ink, then food, and then somehow a gown and slippers. Then more food, and some soap.
After a week, the prince rushed down, "I want to know you better, your letters have been so compelling!"
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 9 Nbr 25 — Do you use a cover artist or design your own covers? Share your cover art.
I design my own covers, but I often pay a cover artist to draw them. I provide detailed stage directions (text) and supply excerpts, approve thumbnails then sketches, then negotiate color corrections to get them on one pass. I've also created abstract covers myself, or bought stock art. I've never used my photography in a cover. Yet. Once I colorized a sketch (digital watercolors) when a sketch was all the artist could provide when a family issue caused the artist to bow out.
I do the titles myself (and plan with the artist in the composition phase where I plan to put my titles). I've offered to do titles for others, but no takers, yet.
Um. Not sharing artwork. It's all for my other alias, which I feel uncomfortable revealing.