Dominatrix Character Writing

No. Not that type of character! Sheesh!

Though that might work...

See. I have this scene. And it's giving me fits. I know what I want to accomplish. My MC needs to be given a tour of her new surroundings. Oooo. Thrilling I know. But it kinda is given that her new surroundings consist of an underground steampunk lair complete with dorms, engineering, a lab for 'experiments', kitchen, and a huge observation/dirigible landing deck. That last is, of course, above ground. But I'm not telling you how they get there.

My Problem is the character giving the tour. She's driving me nuts. And I'm not sure why. I don't know why her personality isn't coming through right. She and my MC aren't supposed to hit it off for a while...and they aren't. But she's just coming off as a scene killer. Dialogue killer. Just plain...ugh.

Bitch.

Me. Lounging about. Thinking about my story...

Control my story. I think not.

So I did a background check on her, re-read the character interview I had done for her. Turns out she has some issues of her own. But still, it didn't really answer why she was being so reluctant to be the tour guide. Why it simply wasn't working. So I re-re-read the character interview. This time without the wine...And there it was. What I had been missing all along. Only not missing, as technically on some level I knew.

There is, in my WIP, a political faction that kidnaps people for genetic and biological "experiments". All in the name of Scientific advancement. This character was one such person, kidnapped, and then rescued (I'm not giving anything away...just her background). But it turns out that she's ultimately a tribal leader where she originally comes from. So it would be far beneath her to lead my MC about and show her the ropes. Insulting even. Ah.

Crap.

Though knowing this bit, that technically I already knew, I was just trying to tell myself (god my head hurts!)...makes it much easier (hopefully) as all I have to do now is decide between two options. 1) Create a new character. Hmmm. Tempting. Though the 'good?' side is getting character heavy right now. or 2) Use one of my already created already busy with other things characters. Decisions.

We shall see! News At 8!

Right on the tip of my...umm...

Words. They are a bitch. Especially when they don't behave and they just float about out there in the..um..damn it. I just had that word. It was such a good word. Space? No. Not good enough. (Now half of you are yelling at your screens, horror movie style "The word is ____!" "No! Don't go into the shed Candy! ooooooo!") But it's gone.

 Now I sit and stare at my blinking cursor for the next twenty minutes in forced writers block trying to get by this damn word. Because even though there are great resources out there for Just this situation, NOW I can't even describe the word. Can't even come up with a definition. Other then Space. Which leads my brain to "Space! The Final Frontier...These are the Voyages..." Oooo. Star Trek. Wonder what Will Shatner has been up to lately, other then those silly commercials. I really miss Boston Legal.

So, generally when this happens, I get up and move about for about ten minutes. I try not to think about it at all. Try to get my sub-conscious mind working on it. You know. The mind that wakes you up at 3:27am with answers to questions that have been plaguing you all day? "Oh my God! Darth is Luke's Father!" So I do other things, walk the dogs, read something, anything...then come back to sit and stare at the vile, evil blinky thingy...maybe there are aliens in space that have lasers and they beam them to your brain and Take words out one by one. Or Maybe there's only so much room for Brilliance in my brain! I'll go with the second option.  It sounds less crazy...

And then, as I'm staring at the tv, watching a show. Probably Dexter. Or maybe Boardwalk Empire. And contemplating the existence of Aliens and why they've decided to park their massive electricity guzzling spaceship in the aether above...my...AETHER!  That's the word!  QUICK! Back to the book...

Now...
What the hell was I talking about?
Cursor!