Ark of the Lost Angels

My writing is described as being heavily detailed in terms of its settings and its characters. I’d say that’s true. As a fan of movies, the little details about the world always impressed me, and I have tried to flesh out the details by continually asking “why?” Why does a character do this? That’s what they were taught in their home area. Why do they do things in that location? Because of X, Y, & Z. There’s always a reason behind it. For example, I love The Hunger Games series, and the first part of the trilogy that forms the basis of my creative world (think the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but centered around future technology brought back to the present world, closing the time loop, and giving the protagonists the ability to create a heroes-for-hire independent organization to better humanity) is inspired by it. However, the world didn’t always feel fleshed out, or sensical as a larger scale construction. The Fifth Empire, the post-apocalyptic territory not retained by the United States, in my story thus answers those questions: how did it come to being, what is the structure of the political and military system, where did all of their advanced technology come from, etc. A great creator by the name of Monty Oum once said, “You have to start with your world. Your world determines your characters, and your characters determine your story.”

And characters are important because they can punch up a fairly basic plot. The plot of the same story regarding the Empire is fairly basic, the Resistance makes a move, gains momentum, and takes the fight to the bad guys. But, it’s the way that the characters: two former Imperial cadets, a hacker, an engineer, the strong quiet wise man type, etc. all differentiate themselves from stock tropes. My favorite to write is Chris because he’s the type of guy that will obnoxiously hit on girls, but he’ll also throw himself in front of the bullet for you, and his bad traits make you react the same way you do when an adorable puppy chews up your slipper: you just can’t stay mad at it. It’s the way the characters interact with each other, especially Chris’ childhood friend who is another main character. She is deadly serious and much more grim, and the interactions the characters have with each other, the snappy dialogue for example, help endear those characters onto the readers.

I also like to play with expectations. Your typical start to a trilogy of this type is the people getting acquainted, warming up to each other, unable to work as a team, and not quite as capable until the mentor dies at the end, and they get the push to come together as the team, and have the big final battle. Instead, I wanted to skip over the training sequences. The team gels together, partially because they were chosen for their ability to work well together, and they are all very capable, and the story focuses on the struggles they have to face as the war drags on. Instead of the mentor’s death being a point of encouragement for the hero to beat the villain, it shuts him down, and his friends have to bring him out of it. It’s the subversions, bringing something fresher to the table that I’ve always sought to do, because I like it when things change up the formula.

And, a lot of that comes from my inspirations. Monty Oum worked on the web series Red vs. Blue which, by the time of season 6, found a wonderful balance between comedy and drama, and when Monty started his working on the series as lead animator of the CGI sequences in season 8, he typically went over the top, jaw dropping in terms of the scenes he choreographed and animated. It was the ambition, the willingness to follow the Rule of Cool, while keeping the rest of things grounded enough so that the audience would forgive those sequences of Rule of Cool. Another of my influences is Aaron Sorkin, the lead writer of The West Wing, and several other projects. Sorkin’s optimism, snappy and witty dialogue, and memorable characters provided another similar set of inspirations. His unique style of blending eloquent language with fairly pedestrian phrases, exemplified in Sam Seaborn’s discussion of the Declaration of Independence in the episode “Isaac and Ishmael” of The West Wing, “We jumped out from behind bushes while the British came down the road in their bright red jackets, but never has a war been so courteously declared. It was on parchment with calligraphy, and “Your Highness, we beseech you on this day in Philadelphia to bite me, if you please.”” Or, George Lucas. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, George Lucas’ universe captivated me from my youngest days, and the idea of this massive universe always spoke to me.

The important thing about finding a place for me to publish is someplace that I can bring all of that without changing what makes my stories mine. I’d like to think that my strengths lie in the differences my stories have, and the balance between fun and awesome and serious and intriguing. That balance is why I became a writer in the first place, and so I wish to find place that allows me to follow Shakespeare’s advice, “To thine own self be true.”