CONGRATS ON KICKING NANO'S ASS! i don't know if you're still taking wip questions but if you are: what's the thing you learned about your characters during this month that was the coolest or the most surprising?
first off: I am always taking questions about my WIP. I love my WIP so much and I will never shut up about it, especially since 50,000 words isn’t NEARLY done and I’ll still be working on it for a long time.
I think the most helpful thing I learned was about how Jayani visualizes the world and makes sense of it, which has been something that’s eluded me for a long time. she’s a phenomenally grounded personal and moves through her life with such absolutely perfect confidence and control over herself both mentally and physically, with doubt rarely entering the picture, and like.... what makes someone like that? and more importantly, how do you write that and make that interesting?
and I think it kind of came to me that Jayani, different as she is from her trio of academic parents, really got a lot from them in terms of how she sees the world and takes in information, so that below this very collected and snarky surface is a mind that’s intensely analytical and constantly running numbers - what does she need to get up and over this wall as quickly as possible? to beat her mentor in a practice bout? to get across the cabin of a crashing spaceship and try to set things right? to keep her best friend safe all the time, from everything, including from himself?
it makes for kind of a fun dichotomy between her and Mal, because while he’s the squishy magic-using softboy he also tends to take big actions in impulsive bursts and deal with the anxiety later, while Jayani is very much the planner in their relationship.
