Talking About Stories: Felicia Blooming
Jan. 3rd, 2016 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
k_a_webbI want to spend some time this year talking about the stories I've written, complete or incomplete. My plan is to post a couple of these a week, focusing on different stories in different collections, and talk about the world at the time it was written, the characters, and the stories I can see writing to go with it.
Today I'm going to be talking about Felicia Blooming. It's the story I was reading yesterday, while I was trying to work out how best to post my works, and while I was reading it I was reminded of how I learn about the characters I write about. Often they surprise me. I don't learn the whole truth about them until they want me to. Although it's an enjoyable process it doesn't always make writing an easy thing to do. There are going to be spoilers, so I suggest you read the story before you read my commentary.
Felicia Blooming is told from the point of view of Calix, Felicia's older brother. Calix is going through a lot of changes at this point, due to what's happening in his world, and this is the story when he realised quite how much those changes are going to affect him personally. Before that, in another story, he thought a lot about what he'd learnt, and how he knew he wasn't going to be able to change what was coming. Then he believed he was likely to end up dying. In Felicia Blooming he came to understand that not everyone who seems to be an enemy truly is.
Anyone who's going to bloom in Aurora's World will bloom on their 18th birthday. When they were born has a lot to do with what magics they're going to have, and Felicia was born in a month that means one of her powers is healing. Due to the history of the world they have lost a lot of what they learnt about having magic, so they don't know everything about this, which means I don't know everything. As I go back and forward in time I learn more from them. Both of Felicia's brothers, Calix and Vance, were hoping Felicia was safe from magic, because of how that might affect their father.
During this story I learnt about their mother, who died when their brother bloomed, and other members of their family. Blooming is a very dangerous process. More people die that survive. Originally Felicia was going to die in this story, but then she surprised me by surviving, which was nice. I hate killing characters off. Surviving, however, puts her in a lot of danger, because of what she is. Her brothers try to convince her it would be best for her to leave, and go to the mountains. There are a couple of possible AUs to come from this point. There's one where Felicia dies and one where Felicia refuses to go to the mountains. I'm probably going to write both of them.
If it wasn't for Tuula, Vance's wife, Felicia probably wouldn't have gone. Tuula, however, surprised me by not being the person Calix thought she was, which changed the path of the story far more than I expected it to. Learning more about Tuula makes me want to write more about her. She's the sort of character that fascinates me, because she's done a lot in order to protect herself from people who would have wanted to use her, including her father, and I definitely think I'm going to go back to write about what her life was like before. I'm also fascinated by her future. It's obvious she's going to be one of those incredibly interesting characters.
They all are, actually. Each one of them is walking a path that's going to have a huge effect of the kingdom of Aerith, and, I think, on the other kingdoms. Calix is the first of the King's sons to go to the mountains, but he definitely isn't the last.
From this point I'm going to go both back and forward. I want to learn exactly what happened to Calix's mother and brother; I want to learn what happened to his cousins; I want to see more of Tuula and Vance, because this is going to change their relationship for good, and their children; I want to write more about Felicia; and, obviously, I'm going to be writing more about Calix.
Today I'm going to be talking about Felicia Blooming. It's the story I was reading yesterday, while I was trying to work out how best to post my works, and while I was reading it I was reminded of how I learn about the characters I write about. Often they surprise me. I don't learn the whole truth about them until they want me to. Although it's an enjoyable process it doesn't always make writing an easy thing to do. There are going to be spoilers, so I suggest you read the story before you read my commentary.
Felicia Blooming is told from the point of view of Calix, Felicia's older brother. Calix is going through a lot of changes at this point, due to what's happening in his world, and this is the story when he realised quite how much those changes are going to affect him personally. Before that, in another story, he thought a lot about what he'd learnt, and how he knew he wasn't going to be able to change what was coming. Then he believed he was likely to end up dying. In Felicia Blooming he came to understand that not everyone who seems to be an enemy truly is.
Anyone who's going to bloom in Aurora's World will bloom on their 18th birthday. When they were born has a lot to do with what magics they're going to have, and Felicia was born in a month that means one of her powers is healing. Due to the history of the world they have lost a lot of what they learnt about having magic, so they don't know everything about this, which means I don't know everything. As I go back and forward in time I learn more from them. Both of Felicia's brothers, Calix and Vance, were hoping Felicia was safe from magic, because of how that might affect their father.
During this story I learnt about their mother, who died when their brother bloomed, and other members of their family. Blooming is a very dangerous process. More people die that survive. Originally Felicia was going to die in this story, but then she surprised me by surviving, which was nice. I hate killing characters off. Surviving, however, puts her in a lot of danger, because of what she is. Her brothers try to convince her it would be best for her to leave, and go to the mountains. There are a couple of possible AUs to come from this point. There's one where Felicia dies and one where Felicia refuses to go to the mountains. I'm probably going to write both of them.
If it wasn't for Tuula, Vance's wife, Felicia probably wouldn't have gone. Tuula, however, surprised me by not being the person Calix thought she was, which changed the path of the story far more than I expected it to. Learning more about Tuula makes me want to write more about her. She's the sort of character that fascinates me, because she's done a lot in order to protect herself from people who would have wanted to use her, including her father, and I definitely think I'm going to go back to write about what her life was like before. I'm also fascinated by her future. It's obvious she's going to be one of those incredibly interesting characters.
They all are, actually. Each one of them is walking a path that's going to have a huge effect of the kingdom of Aerith, and, I think, on the other kingdoms. Calix is the first of the King's sons to go to the mountains, but he definitely isn't the last.
From this point I'm going to go both back and forward. I want to learn exactly what happened to Calix's mother and brother; I want to learn what happened to his cousins; I want to see more of Tuula and Vance, because this is going to change their relationship for good, and their children; I want to write more about Felicia; and, obviously, I'm going to be writing more about Calix.
