In a little under four weeks I'll be partaking in my own personal Writing Madness! A NaNoWriMo-esque thing in April to get this Jenny and Joey tale out of my system and into the world.
I'm the type of person who can't really write to the utmost of my ability unless I'm hyped about it. I need to be excited about my work, about my imaginary world. I need to feel my characters and prepare for all the emotions they're going to face. I need to babble about my ideas and get them flowing. Babble, babble!
Half Past the Moonfall was successfully created and written during NaNoWriMo 2018 with the @freewritehouse, mostly because I was excited about it. I had this idea in my head and I was getting it out each and every day, and I was excited to see what the random daily prompt was so I could figure out a new direction or try to brainstorm how to work this prompt into the tale.
It was exciting!
So, throughout this Month of March, every so often I'm going to write up a post talking about my April plans and getting my brain prepared and excited to get to work and do this thing.
What's on the agenda for today?
Today I'd like to talk about the characters themselves. Not just Joey and Jenny, but the other various characters we will meet in this story. Jenny's perspective is the only perspective we're actually going to read, there'll be no character-bobbing, but the characters she interacts with are just as important.
⭐️ Jennifer / Jenny ⭐️
Our main character.
Having distanced herself from her dysfunctional family long ago, she's relied on herself for many years. She finished school, found work, rented a house, and focused on creating her life with no help from others.
Unfortunately, when the business she works for dissolves, she finds herself unable to find suitable work and is no longer able to make ends meet. Unable to pay bills or rent, she has no choice but to leave her life behind... luckily Joey, one of the few school-friends she kept in touch with over the years, offers her a room in his house and she uses that as a stepping stone to try and get on her feet once more.
She's an overly sensible woman in her mid-20s, has a short-fuse, and can't stand incompetence. That's not to say that she doesn't have a sense of humour, because she does, but it's hidden under years of grumpiness and only peeks out on the odd occasion.
⭐️ Joey ⭐️
Our main character's bane.
Joey has lived a very non-conventional life. Abandoned by his parents as a baby, his Great Aunt took him in and raised him as her own. She was an eccentric woman who loathed interacting with other people and found her fortune in brewing wine in her basement -- her specialty: cucumber wine. She died when Joey was 16 after she fell into one of her vats and drowned.
On his own ever since, Joey took over his Great Aunt's house and has all the money he ever needs thanks to the earnings of the once-prosperous wine empire. He invites Jenny to become his housemate during her time of need but soon discovers that he enjoys her company and doesn't actually want her to leave. Unable to simply tell her that, he does his utmost to sabotage her employment opportunities so that she can never get back on her feet.
Despite that one desire that could be considered a red-flag if it were anyone else, he's not malicious. He's an easygoing chap, also in his mid-20s, and doesn't have a care in the world. He's happy-go-lucky, lacks self-inhibition, and is as impulsive as they come. Due to his upbringing, he's also quite eccentric and has a warped world-view.
⭐️ Blaire ⭐️
Owner of the only grocery store in town, Blaire's Wares, and founder of the nationally acclaimed Blaire's Bakery franchise.
Blaire is a stereotypical flamboyant gay man who has one focus in life: the success of his empire. He is fastidious, a neat-freak, obsessed with appearances, and allows only the most attractive people in town the opportunity to work in his most glorious grocery store.
He has connections around the world and very quickly gains an inkling of the impending doom that will befall everyone, and is excited to at last make a significant fortune, despite it being at the expense of others.
⭐️ Sharon and Craig ⭐️
A dysfunctional "bogan" couple who have moved in next door to Joey.
This couple is a pure stereotype based on many neighbours I've personally lived next-door to and witnessed in my life. They are that couple that abuses drugs and alcohol, that has a literal litter of unkempt, neglected children, that yells and screams at each other all day, every day...
Their purpose in the story is mere comedy. They are the local drug dealers, but they are also ridiculous people who Joey enjoys tormenting from the sidelines, unbeknownst to them.
These are the characters that will actively be featured in the story.
There'll be other named people too, for example; the various employers Jenny will meet and subsequently be fired by, employees she works beside, patrons to the local bar, et cetera, but the five mentioned above are properly featured and recurring.
Many of the characters will be one-dimensional simply because this story is a comedy and stereotypes are part of the charm. This is not a serious tale that requires every character to have a fully fleshed out backstory, flaws and nuances to make them real people.
The only characters who have "depth" are Jenny and Joey... and despite his role as a comedic secondary character, Joey probably has more depth than Jenny does.
That's it for today's Writing Madness Babble! 😄
In my next Writing Madness Babble, I'll focus on the story itself and churn out a small synopsis... a synopsis that could very easily change due to the nature of this story basically being freewritten, on-the-go, with daily prompt words to fuel the story forward.
After all, in Half Past the Moonfall my original plan was to have the protagonist turn into the antagonist and lay waste to the fantasy world she found herself residing in. Instead it turned into a dopey derpy love story with the friendly elf becoming the bad guy. (oops, spoiler).
But things can change! Hell, I could even add another recurring character! 😱
I'll babble about it anyway. xD It's what I do best!