Book 6 planning
We have no idea for a title yet, but the sixth and possibly final (hah!) book in the Sunspot Chronicles is going to be written by a common person about common people (the Children). And it's going to be kind of a romance, slice of life kind of story. We hope to have it actually be a compelling story of some sort, but we're trying to figure out how to do that. It is, however, meant to be something refreshing after reading all the heavy stuff of the first five books, and to serve as a denouement for the larger arcs. So the stresses will be interpersonal instead of political.
So, we're using some TTRPG tools we have, to flesh out the cast and their relationships before writing anything substantial.
For the central cast, we're using something called Pathways, which is a mindmap or flowchart kind of thing that's usually filled out in steps as a group by the players of a TTRPG. This isn't done, but it's pretty close to where we need it, and represents the relationships of the characters at the start of the book (so no spoilers here):
And then, for each character we're going to fill out this prototype character sheet for the TTRPG we're trying to make. We might even playtest this as a game while writing the book!
We're not following any particular rules for deciding the stats, though. We're just filling them out to what feels right for the character.
We also have other sheets of notes regarding the characters and what they'll be doing in the story, which is a hell of a lot more than we've done for any of our other books. But these character sheets will be particularly quick to consult when working on the story.
Note: "Art", with a capital "A", in this context, refers to a characters special interest, hyperfocus, passion, and/or most practiced skill. It can be literally anything.