There's a recommendation, from another writer, that stuck with me a long time ago. (I just wish I could remember who it was.) It was, that if you wanted to have an interesting character for your story, you need to give your character a background. One of the methods for doing that was to interview your character.
One of the recommended methods was to have a friend or family member actually present questions to you, while you "play" the role of your character. I've always wanted to try that. I'm just afraid my wife would think I'm loonier than I already am if I ask her to interview my lead character.
However, that doesn't stop me from doing a on-line, blogger, interview of the character from my series of stories about Zegin Thomaz - Spaceship Troubleshooter. In fact, I think I see him now, walking over to a ship at the Cydonia Starport.
"Hey, excuse me. Can I talk with you a few minutes?"
Zegin stops and turns, "Who me? You want to talk with me?"
"Um, yes. I understand that you're Zegin Thomaz, the local starship troubleshooter," I politely state while walking over to him.
"Yes, that's correct," he replies while looking puzzled. "You need some work done?"
"No, not really. Though my wife says I need some work done. But, that's a different matter." I notice that he's not laughing. Straight to the point then, "I'm a writer and I keep a blog site on the uniweb. I think my readers might be interested in you and the work you do."
"Me? Why would they be interested in me?" Now he really looks puzzled.
"Well, you seem to be fairly famous here on Cydonia. The locals and even some of the visiting ship Captains have some interesting stories to tell about you and your expertise."
"Really? Humm. Well, I just fix ships and get them on their way. Unless you're referring to that incident down at the Yeoman's Pub a few months ago. You know, it really wasn't a big deal and..."
I interrupt him, "Not about that actually. I just wanted to hear a little about your background, in case, um - some of my readers want to pursue the same career." Then I add, "But, some other time I would like to hear about that incident. It did make a bit of a splash on the local net."
"Ah, good. I am a bit tired of talking about that. Well," pausing and scratching his head. "I do have a job that I'm on my way to. I spose I have a few minutes for a couple questions."
"Excellent! First, how did you get started? Why spaceship troubleshooting?" I asked.
"That's two questions!" he laughs. "Well, it started with my interest in computers. My mom usually likes to tell the story of how I reprogrammed our home controller to tap into the systems at HoloVid Networks. I was 11."
"You used your home environmental computer system to break into an media network station? What for?"
"I was 11. I just had to find and watch the new episodes of The Skragglers before everyone else. Then I would tell everyone at school what it was about before they could watch it the next night."
"That's pretty good." I could tell he was proud of that. "So, how did that lead up to you being a shooter? That's what they call you, correct?"
"Yep. I'm a shooter. Well, I got speed tracked through school. Basically, someone wanted to put me to work as soon as they could. By the time I was 16, I was working for Stellar Naval Systems."
"Wow!" I was impressed! "You were working for SNS at the ripe old age of 16. What were you working on?"
"Well, officially, I was writing navigational prediction routines for their star-ship Folding drives. I was able to extend their exit points another 500 parsecs."
"That's pretty impressive. And unofficially?"
Zegin looks around then continues, "Umm, well, I really can't discuss that. Not here."
I look around too, just in case. "So, how long were you with SNS?"
"Seven years."
"So, you were 23 when you left. Why did you leave?"
"That's when I met Reb. They wanted to turn me and she convinced me that it wasn't a good idea."
"Turn you? I don't understand."
"Yea, from civil duty to recruited."
"Ah. Okay. When you left..." I started to ask.
Zegin interrupted, "It's great answering your questions for your readers and all, but, I need to get back to this job. Maybe we can continue this another time, when I'm not quite as busy?"
"Of course. I feel we're just barely scratching the surface of Zegin Thomaz. I'm sure my readers will appreciate it. Thank you for your time and I'll be in touch to schedule another interview." I held out my hand.
Zegin gave it a firm shake and added, "No problem, um, Mr..."
"Timothy. Timothy Trimble. You can send me a comms via my site, timothytrimble dot com." I added.
"Will do. Have a good afternoon."
That quickly, Zegin was heading off to one of the star freighters parked at the port.
Well, how was that for a quick interview? Would you believe this was all just straight stream of consciousness typing? No planned dialog or scripting. Just from this few brief minutes of writing, I'm already formulating more of a background for Zegin. Now, I will admit, that I've done a lot of pondering about Zegin, his role as a "Shooter", and his relationship with Reb (his wife). However, I've not really fleshed out his schooling and employment history. Thanks to this little exercise, I now have some of that, and I've sparked a few ideas for more stories - especially about that little incident at the Yeoman's Pub. ;)
Feel free to drop me a note here or via twitter (@timothytrimble) and let me know what you thought of this little exercise.
Updated Statistics
Here are my latest statistics in just a little over a week since the last posting:
Klout Score: 39 (holding steady)
TT.com Page Loads for the past month: 650 (+39)
Twitter Followers: 116 (+33)
G+ Peeps Following: 84 (holding)
I've not been doing much on promotion via Google Plus and it shows. For the time being, most of my focus has been on improving my Twitter stats. I'm also a believer in quality postings. I'm not one for re-tweeting every little promotion that comes along, unless it's something that impresses me. I prefer to post things that are happening with me and my writing - real postings with very little advertising. Which is how I like my TV.
Zegin's Infection
I found a professional editor and she's currently reviewing my first Zegin story. I'm also on the hunt for an artist to do the cover art. I'm aiming for a high quality, professional release, of this story as my introduction into the science fiction market. Got any leads on a sci-fi cover artist?
That's my progress thus far. Come back for some more Zegin soon.
