Broken Record…

Character concepts have always been my strong suit, but I’m beginning to wonder if that’s more detrimental to my writing than anything else. Lately I’ve had a lot of ideas for different characters, but less ideas for places to put them. That really sucks, and here’s why.

Lately I’ve been very anxious to do some sort of ensemble project. Something larger than a story progression from a single character’s point of view. Well I can put the ensemble together without too much trouble, but try as I might I seem to be having a hard time keeping the personalities different enough to keep it interesting. I tend to lean on one or two archetypes a bit too heavily, and unfortunately I’m not realizing it early enough in the process to avoid continuity errors.

This, combined with my constant problem of screwing up tense, the past, present, future, and et cetera [yes, et cetera, paradoxes are common] tends to lead to a lot of retconning. I’ve done my fair share of that, and I’m not a huge fan. I understand it’s a necessary tool in more epic stories, but I prefer to try to get it right the first time.

Impulse Company now has a primary antagonist, and I think at least one protagonist. Some ideas have even been put together for additional ensemble, but really this is something I want to share with others. I’m also beginning to think that it’s going to have to be shared in order to thrive properly. If I’m the only one doing the personalities on something like this, it’s going to get stale very fast.

I just need a good way to set up sharing it. Forums seem to work well in concept. I’ve always liked the interactive novel idea with forums. Working a chunk of the overlying story while focusing on a single character per writer provides a level of dynamic story telling that other forms of collaboration just don’t provide. It also offers a lot more input than a simple two person group. Unfortunately setting up a forum with the current site design is a pain in the ass.

Obnoxiously so.

— Vid