For much of August, as in previous months, I’ve been concentrating on one writing project, so I haven’t posted anything here since August’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group post, Regrets… if you ignore the reblog, which it seems almost everyone did.
On the home front, we now have paintings on our bare walls, including two special horse pictures and an English landscape painting. The photo from our office window in Wales is also up, as are some plants in our bedsit room. In the corridor outside our room, we can now see our cuckoo clock from the Black Forest.
Time is the key takeaway for my writing. I fear that, due to my health, I am running out of time, so I need to make some drastic choices. As I said last month, I am stuck at a roadblock in the project I was working on, my North Wales police procedural, Fates Maelstrom. There are far too many talking heads and not enough action. Either I need to murder someone or chase someone across Snowdonia.
Instead, I have spent the month working on revising my alternative history novel, Eagle Passage. It’s not only topical in the themes I have already included and will develop, but there’s also a better balance of elements. The devastating Nepal-Tibet flood also brought home how the direction mankind has taken the world in the last century, or more, is taking us toward an apocalyptic future – one I wrote about in another post-apocalyptic series. That’s unless the rich nations on the planet, and especially wealthy exploitative companies, choose a different path. My novel sets mankind on a different route in 1000 AD, one that places ecological resilience, people and livelihoods before profit and exploitation. However, the characters face a crisis in 2020 which threatens at least one continent, if not the whole world, resurrecting dangers from our timeline.
Here is one of many current warnings motivating me: Nepal-Tibet flood: this is the cost of not acting in the face of the climate crisis: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/28/nepal-tibet-flood-climate-crisis-global-heatinghttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/28/nepal-tibet-flood-climate-crisis-global-heating
Weirdly, just like my only published novel, Spiral of Hooves, the opening chapter is set in a part of what we call Canada. Some of the other chapters take place in what is now Quebec, which is where I went to college for two years. Any guesses to where Stadacona is?
However, I can’t abandon my Ukraine saga, Freedom Flights, which remains on hold, probably until there is just peace, which brings an end to this horrendous war. I do try to keep up to date with the news from Ukraine.
Slava Ukraini
Heroiam slava!
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Every month, IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG posts. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
September 2 question – Do you have a favourite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?
This proved to be an interesting excuse to delve deeper into my writing. Initially, I also wondered what sex my main characters had been so far. I wasn’t surprised to discover that male leads were six and female leads twelve. In some cases, these were joint main characters, one male and one female. It was also hard to know who the lead characters were when the secondary characters took up an equal proportion of the plot.
I suspected that more of my lead characters were of the Detective archetype. Not surprising, as my Welsh detective Sparkle Anwyll features in the four draft novels in the Snowdon Shadows series. So, presumably, that makes the Detective archetype the one I gravitate towards. However, not everyone online classifies the Detective as an archetype, although these characters “Doggedly follow clues and bring truth to light.”
Graphics by Jonathan Temples –
http://jonathantemples.co.uk/
In my writing, they also fit the Hero or Heroine archetype. In which case, I need to delve deeper. Several of them also have traits that place them in another category… The Outlaw, who “Defies rules and social order”. Sparkle’s sexuality and mind games put her apart from her fellow detectives, and some disapprove of the way she behaves.
Others operate outside the normal detection system, although still exposing lawbreakers. In the same draft novel and its sequel, I have two female characters who clearly operate outside the system, but on the side of good. One even openly rejects rules and societal norms and challenges authority. She calls herself a ‘white hat’ on numerous occasions, as she hacks into computers to stop the wrongdoers trying to bring down two online worlds.
The male lead in the same books falls squarely into two categories. First, “the overlooked and underestimated” Underdog, “proving their worth against the odds”. Second, the Everyman, “the relatable, ordinary person who may lack confidence or ambition but is thrust into extraordinary circumstances”. Writing this character, I found myself putting a lot of my own feelings and situation at the time into creating him.
Over the years, I may have unconsciously been writing similar archetypes. However, I’ve consciously wanted to write something that fits the Hero’s Journey. In 2016, I did write something that fit, or was meant to fit, the Heroine’s Journey. The central character, Torill Migisi, is clearly matches the archetype, The Chosen One – someone who is “Unwillingly anointed to defeat evil”.
It might not be my ‘favourite character archetype’, but it’s the one I’ve been gravitating towards. In last month’s IWSG Post, I wrote that, “I can regret and revise Eagle Passage as an Alternative History with current themes woven into a Heroine’s Journey plotline”.
So that is what I’m doing. As I follow what’s falling apart worldwide, I feel this novel might be a more interesting sell, especially if I get the balance right between rewriting history, dialogue and action.
Here are some resources I used to learn more about archetypes.
24 Character Archetypes: Definitions and Examples: https://www.novel-software.com/character-archetype/
50 Common Character Archetypes: https://www.everywritersresource.com/50-common-character-archetypes/
27 Character Archetypes — Examples in Literature & Movies: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/character-archetypes/
The awesome co-hosts for the September 2 posting of the IWSG are Kate Larkinsdale, SE White, JS Pailly, Olga Godim, and Natalie Aguirre!
Finally, don’t forget to visit other writers via the IWSG site for their invaluable insights on writing:
Insecure Writer’s Support Group
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG, and our hashtag is #IWSG.
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer – aim for a dozen new people each time – and return comments. This group is all about connecting!
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