Essence of Heroes Character Aesthetics

A while back, I had some fun and made some character aesthetics for the five central characters in my Essence of Heroes series. I had shared these on Twitter, but I never got around to putting them up here on the blog until now. Along with the main aesthetics for the characters, I'm including links to their aesthetic boards on Pinterest in case you ever want to check them out. I've found that these are a pretty useful way to learn new things about your characters, because it really made me think about the things they liked and what they would be associated with.

Aly's Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/kspangler95/character-aesthetic-aly/

Riley's Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/kspangler95/character-aesthetic-riley/

Leo's Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/kspangler95/character-aesthetic-leo/

Becca's Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/kspangler95/character-aesthetic-becca/

Vanessa's Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/kspangler95/character-aesthetic-vanessa/

The Sequel Writing Journey: Sequel Writing Joys

Last week I talked about some of my sequel writing woes, but sequel writing isn't always difficult. This week I want to talk to you about some of the joys I've experienced with writing Iridescent's sequel.

I think my favorite thing about starting Coalescent was how easy it was to start. I already had a little bit of chapter one written before Iridescent was published, so I could include it as a sneak peek at the end of the novel. The differences between writing the first chapters of these books is amazing to me. With Iridescent, I had to introduce everything. Who is Aly? What is she doing here? Why is she here? What's going to happen? With Coalescent, I didn't have to do that. Sure, I did have to reintroduce her, but it felt easier this time around.

I didn't know who any of the characters were when I first started Iridescent, which could be a little frustrating. I would keep getting stuck on chapters, because I didn't know how to move forward with a particular character (most often Leo). Now, I know these characters. I know who they are and where they're going. I'm still learning new things about them, but it's knowledge that's adding onto their characters, not changing them to something completely new.

At least in most cases.

There are a handful of characters that are changing to me. It's like they've went, “Hey, I get what you thought about me, but you're missing a few things about me. Let me see if I can give you a new outlook on who I am.”.

And it's great!

Characters I didn't originally have a lot of ideas for, I now have new directions I can take them in.

I love getting to explore my characters and getting to discover new things about them. In the first book, I created these characters and started them on their journeys. In the sequel, I'm getting to see how they're going to grow and change along the way.

It certainly adds a fun experience to sequel writing!

Favorite Fictional Relationships

It’s that time of year again. It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. Unless you’re currently single like me, in which case the only love that’s in the air is the love between fictional characters. So what better way to celebrate this holiday than talking about my favorite fictional romances? These romances range from books to movies to TV shows to games. So without further ado, I present my top seven favorite fictional relationships.

7. Tris Prior and Tobias “Four” Eaton – Divergent

Okay, I have a big love-hate relationship with the Divergent books, and by love-hate, I primarily lean towards hate. I loved the first book, the second was “eh”, and then the third book was just plain awful to me. That being said, I did like Tris and Four as a couple.

6. Emma Swan and Neal Cassidy – Once Upon a Time

I’ve mentioned on this blog before how I loved these two as a pairing, even though it was short lived because Once Upon a Time had to crush my heart and force me to lose interest in the show. Regardless, I still love the thought of these two characters in a relationship. Part of it is because they have a history together, they shared good moments and bad, and, frankly, their relationship wasn’t perfect. If Neal had lived these two would have had a lot of stuff that they would have had to work through and that could have been interesting to have seen. Also their relationship was so poetic when you think about it. The one meant to break the curse and the one who was the reason behind it. If only it could have worked out between the two of them.

5.  Daisy Johnson and Lincoln Campbell – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Oh look, another short lived romance. There’s really not a lot to say about these two characters except that I love them both and liked them together as a couple. A lot of people seemed to have issues with Lincoln, but I always liked him. I wish he could have stayed on the show longer. L

4. Stephanie Plum and Ranger Manoso – Stephanie Plum

This is the odd couple in this list, because they’ve never officially been a couple in the book series. They like each other and people ship them together, but they’ve never been an official item. That being said, I still think that they could make an awesome couple.

3. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Malarik – The Hunger Games

These two characters really went through a lot throughout their journey and it was really interesting to watch them grow. This is another one of those couples where I just really like them together, but I don’t have much else to say about them. All I can really say is that I’m glad that they found some semblance of happiness together after everything that happened in these books.

2. Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner – Pirates of the Caribbean

Okay, so Will and Elizabeth are my favorite characters in the Pirates movies. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Captain Jack Sparrow too, but I’ve always been invested in Will and Elizabeth’s characters and relationship. Which is probably why I’m so excited about the new movie coming out in May. Yay, Will’s back! I will say that Will and Elizabeth never got an official happy ending. As we can see now with the new movie, he’s still stuck having to roam the sea as captain of the Flying Dutchman, which means that his curse apparently can’t be broken and that he can’t be with Elizabeth all the time. Add in the fact that he’s essentially immortal now, unless you know someone stabs his heart, their time together really is limited.

1. Nancy Drew and Ned Nickerson – Nancy Drew

Alright Nancy and Ned are my top favorite couple, and if I’m going to be completely honest, Ned is pretty much my fictional dream guy. Nancy goes on adventures all the time in the books and in the video games by HerInteractive, and a lot of the time that leaves Ned back at home. Understandably, he would get a little frustrated from time to time. I mean his girlfriend is traveling the globe often times risking her life, and he can’t really do much to help her. Also, Nancy gets so caught up in cases that she forgets other important things, such as her anniversary with Ned in the game Sea of Darkness. While Ned does get upset, he comes back around and forgives Nancy. He’s always understanding and supportive of her, and best of all he always believes in her. Two of my absolute favorite moments in the video game series come from The Silent Spy and Sea of Darkness and they are lines from Ned that go back to his relationship with Nancy:

"Nothing I say is going to stop Nancy -not this time. I understand why you don't want to help her. But that'll make things more dangerous for Nancy. She called me because she knows that my faith in her is stronger than my fear for her." – Ned in The Silent Spy

"You have that 'help people' gene. There's this fire within you. I firmly believe you're going to save the world one day. At times, I worry like crazy. Even if I'm out with my friends, or at a game, or in the middle of class. I've got one hand on my phone, terrified that I might get that call one day. A call that this time you didn't get lucky. And that used to terrify me, but now... I'm not afraid. What I'm trying to say is, I can't imagine life or the world without you. And even though I might get that call someday... I'm not gonna let fear hold me back. I love you Nancy. I love you so much." – Ned in Sea of Darkness

Isn’t he the sweetest?

Well that sums up my favorite fictional couples. What are yours?

Vacationing With Your Characters

Recently I went on a beach trip with my best friends. I had a lot of fun, and it was a great time to relax and catch up on my reading (which means that I have some more book reviews coming your way soon). I hadn’t planned on necessarily bringing my characters along with me, after all a vacation is supposed to be for R&R. However, this vacation provided me with a unique opportunity to gain some new knowledge on the main character in my WIP novel, Iridescent.

Iridescent takes place in a small rural town. It’s a setting that is very familiar to me, as it’s where I’ve lived my entire life. I’ve experienced poor Wi-Fi, crappy cell service, and having very limited options of entertainment when hanging out with friends, but I’ve also experienced the beauty of the mountains and nature around me (deer are a regular occurrence, and during the past few weeks adorable fawns have made an appearance). So I know how the majority of my characters live and things that they can do in their free time. There is one notable exception to this, my main character Aly.

Aly did not grow up in a rural town, she’s moved to it. For her entire life, she’s lived close to the ocean at a popular tourist destination. This move would be a huge change for her, and there’s bound to be plenty of things that she would miss. While I was on vacation, I was able to see some of the differences between a location similar to where Aly grew up and one where the rest of my characters live.

For example, Aly would have access to more things to do with her friends after school and on the weekends than the characters who grew up in the rural setting.

These differences help me understand what Aly would be missing in her new town, but also see what she would be gaining at the same time.

There were several things that I saw on my trip that I would find myself wishing that I had back at home, and that thought would be immediately followed by Aly. This was something that I don’t have, but she probably did before she moved.

I had never thought about using vacation time as research time before now. But vacations are such a great opportunity to see things that I don’t get to experience on a daily basis. Not to mention it gave me time to plan out future chapters for this story and its sequel.

I usually follow a certain routine when I write. I have my writing spot, my beverage of choice for the day (tea or coffee), and then I’ll get to work on hitting my word count goal. However, floating around in a lazy river with my eyes closed produced better results when it came to plotting and getting in sync with my characters (after all this is their story, I’m just writing it down). So I’ve decided that I should shake up my writing schedule and try working in new places. You never know what will work until you try it after all.

So if you’re ever having trouble getting the right perspective on a character, try taking a little road trip. It doesn’t have to be far, even going a few towns over or to a nearby city can give you a chance to scope out a new setting and meet some new characters. You also might find that idea that you didn’t know you were looking for just by relaxing and having a good time.