Take one of the ideas you're excited about, and then audition five different characters for the lead role in that story. Make sure they're all different from each other.
Technomancer in the music-inspired story - who should the character be?
1. Initial idea was to write a character very much NOT like myself - an anti-Mary Sue. Female, sexuality somewhere at the other end of the Kinsey scale, loves electronic/techno/dance music, one rent payment shy of being homeless, dark-skinned (specific ethnic background TBD), young (early 20's), skinny, hyper - sleeps a couple of hours at a time, then goes for hours on a project. Employment? TBD. Magically aware - knows that something's happening, is fusing magic and tech to create a new Path.
2. Chaos magician side character from UF novel? I'm planning to kill him off in the novel, but this could be part of his backstory. Some tech elements possible with chaos magic - conspiracy theories definitely cross over, and it would flesh out the character's moral compass (or complete lack thereof) - he finds the MacGuffin, and is out to get as much for it as he can without actually getting killed in the process. Youngish - 30's? Male, white, suburban, kind of an asshole when it comes down to it - would have to spin him as an antihero, perhaps.
3. Female lead, based loosely on X? Loves music, especially country (much to her boyfriend's dismay). Does karaoke regularly, downloads MacGuffin while looking for new tracks to practice with. Completely out of her depth when things go sideways, and nearly as disoriented by the Itchy-O performance as the thugs chasing. Not aware of the magical reawakening - could be horrified by the idea, reacting from a strongly anti-magical bias (it's all Demonic...)? Not a technomancer, obviously - might need to add a character if I go this route.
4. Fish out of water - the person who downloads the file is computer-savvy enough to know it's not what they thought it was, but has no idea what it actually is. Engineer pulls a copy off of a shared directory that shouldn't have been shared? Leads down the rabbit hole - weird phone call(s), people following, foot chase on Broadway, cue Itchy-O in 3...2..1... mass hysteria. Could do this with or without the UF framework, as a straight-up mystery/thriller.
5. Or push the competency slider up - the person who downloads the files knows exactly what she's looking for. Perhaps she's actually a member of Itchy-O? Could pump my sources for road stories - the West Coast Tour would have been a perfect opportunity to do some research on an unconnected laptop, then ditch/disperse/pass along the file in California to a Silicon Valley bigwig (either technical or magickal or both)
5. Or push the competency slider up - the person who downloads the files knows exactly what she's looking for. Perhaps she's actually a member of Itchy-O? Could pump my sources for road stories - the West Coast Tour would have been a perfect opportunity to do some research on an unconnected laptop, then ditch/disperse/pass along the file in California to a Silicon Valley bigwig (either technical or magickal or both)
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