User blog:Skyrocket/On the Fly

Normally I plan out my stories in detail before I start. But lately I've been cooking up the characters and letting their stories spin out from them. This naturally means going back and tossing stuff out and putting new stuff in. But, as usual, this results in something better.

Keri Midvid is a great example. At first she was just supposed to be a nurse around to provide medical exposition. But getting into way she's join the Rebellion I came up with her being witness to stormtroopers killing staff and patients at a hospital and even being tossed in jail as a possible Rebel agent. Now being that the Empire are jerks I had to come up with a reason for her to be released since busting out just didn't fit with her character. At first I went with the idea that since her parents are respected medical professionals and that she (unknowingly) had a hand in the events that lead up to the killings that would be good enough. But "friends in high places" seemed a bit of a stretch even there and it just left me slightly unhappy.

After thinking on it a bit it hit me that since Keri had a hand in bringing in the Imperials and that she was from a respected family that the Empire might actually try and turn her into a poster girl for the good Imperial citizen. Instead of reporting someone being shot to the authorities like the law required that she tipped the Imps off to a Rebel cell in a hospital and that it was the discovered Rebels who killed all the innocent people. And Keri wasn't sitting in jail as a suspected Rebel she was in protective custody while the Empire sorted out who on the staff they wanted to blame. All Keri has to do is go along with this and she'd be sitting pretty for life.

Of course she doesn't do that and it actually turns into a rush for her to get her parents somewhere safe and find the Rebels because they're sure as hell going to see her as a spy if she let's herself become a propaganda tool. But if the Rebels get her first then they've got a credible witness to an Imperial atrocity which is a big propaganda win for them.

I've got some more details to work out before I update her profile. In any case this writing style has really proved surprisingly good for me and Keri has rapidly become a personal favorite among all the characters I've created.