Worldbuilding: How the Arms Make the Character

I write action-filled books, so obviously, my characters are going to be armed.  This is something I put a lot of thought into when first designing the characters and the world.

First off, in Maradaine, I didn't want guns.  They just didn't fit into the mold of the world I wanted Maradaine to be.*  Plus, I don't really know about guns, and when you get that stuff wrong, those who do let you know.  Sometimes quite loudly.  So I avoid that conversation completely.

But which weapons do I give my characters?

For Veranix in Thorn of Dentonhill, I really wanted his weapons to mean something to him.  His bow is to honor his father-- former soldier and leader in the Aventil streets, and then later a trick shot performer in the circus.  His staff is to honor his mother, who a circus acrobat, aerialist and tightrope walker.  Of course, they are also the tools he is skilled with, but that's because those skills were passed on by his parents.

For Minox and Satrine in A Murder of Mages, what I chose for them had to apply to the constabulary force as a whole.  They carry crossbows (usually loaded with blunt-tip quarrels, for an option that is not-necessarily-as-lethal as a pointed ones) and handsticks, The handsticks are, of course, why the constabulary are called "sticks" on the streets.

A lot of the Aventil street gang folk, like Colin, have knives, knucklestuffers (think brass knuckles or this beauty my friend Kat used to carry in college) and cudgels.  Now, I also had to consider what this meant on a cultural level.  Why are people on the streets carrying  this stuff, and what does it mean, legally?  Maradaine is a civilized city, after all, with an established constable force, legal code and court system.  

But Maradaine also has a dark past, where corrupt lords had no checks to arrest anyone they pleased for whatever reason-- or no reason-- as the mood struck them.  So when the founders of the Parliament and other aspects of Druthal's modern government were drafting their Rights of Man, the need to protect oneself from false or unjust arrest was prevalent in their minds.  Thus enshrined in the Rights of Man is the right to be armed, explicitly to protect oneself from unjust arrest.  At one point in Thorn, Colin even mentions it when confronted by a stick. 

These character-based weapon concerns, as well as how old traditions can clash with a "modern" world, come into play in several aspects in Way of the Shield,  a book that I hope to have some news for you about in the near future.  

Also, I decidedly made some unique weapon choices for some of the more flamboyant characters showing up in The Alchemy of Chaos, coming out early next year.  Hope you're looking forward to that as much as I am.  Until then, I have a very full plate of edits, proofs and drafting for the rest of the month (and year).  So I better get to it.

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*- Not that fantasy can't have guns.  There is, of course, the rising subgenre of Flintlock Fantasy.

WEAPONIZING your CHARACTERS

There is something brilliant in selecting a weapon for a character that not only works for what must be done story-wise, but which defines the character in specific and perfect ways.

Wasn't that fun?

Not always, but often, there is more going on than just arming your characters. Sure, it could be a world where blades are commonplace and no one is startled by seeing a man with a blade on his belt. But maybe it is a world where only certain people have blades. Then it is a status symbol, displaying power and evoking responsibility. Or maybe, as the Walking Dead franchise is pretty good at showing, the taking up of the weapon is symbolic of the change of mindset in the character.

Did the character fashion the weapon out of ingenuity and need?

Was the weapon a gift of rank?

Was it earned or taken by force?

What did the character go through

to get to the exact place in time

where he could claim the weapon?

What did possessing that weapon mean to the character?

You could feel what the weapon meant to him, right?

Approaching with disbelief, yet in need.

The childlike wonder and joy in claiming the weapon.

The confidence gripping it bestowed him.

The freedom from the chains it gave him.

And what about a character who does not need a visible weapon to

Destroy an Enemy With His Mind?

And what about those who are not the obvious product of fiction,

but who are real and could be in line behind you at the grocery

or in the apartment upstairs, or the cubicle next to you?

 I'm talking about the subtle, sweet faced character armed
with something that cuts deeper, slower,
and does every bit as much damage
as a well-honed and poison-tipped blade.

"If that's how you remember it."

"Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse where the abuser manipulates situations repeatedly to trick the victim into distrusting his or her own memory and perceptions. Gaslighting is an insidious form of abuse. It makes victims question the very instincts that they have counted on their whole lives, making them unsure of anything. Gaslighting makes it very likely that victims will believe whatever their abusers tell them regardless as to their own experience of the situation. Gaslighting often precedes other types of emotional and physical abuse because the victim of gaslighting is more likely to remain in other abusive situations as well."  (Article this is from is HERE)

I don't think this would be easy to write (both emotionally and tactically), though with the latter the problem of showing the reader everything the victim-character is buying little by little while the reader screams, "You know better!"

Why Carry a Big Sword?

One reason I love the cover of THE TALON OF THE HAWK – and what readers always say, too – is that you can’t go wrong with a big, mother-effing sword. 

I love this character, my warrior-princess and heir to the high throne of the Twelve Kingdoms, because she does carry a big sword. Goes without saying that she knows how to use it. It was super fun for me to get to write a warrior heroine who’s really good at what she does. Maybe it’s what I write, but it seems like I don’t get that many opportunities to write a woman who is a dazzlingly skilled fighter.

In fact, when I got this cover from my publisher, I gasped aloud. I loved loved loved how Ursula’s sword shines, her heir’s circlet and her thousand-yard stare. In a state of thrilled excitement, I showed it to my husband. Know what he said?

“That sword is too big for her—she could never swing it.”

More than a little tartly, I replied, “Does it help to know she’s not entirely human?”

At which point he backed off, really fast. No doubt due to that honed spouse’s sense of when they’ve put their foot in it and domestic discord is barreling down the track at them like a drunk driver on the wrong side of the highway. To be fair, he and I studied Chinese martial arts together for many years, and our teacher very much emphasized what female fighters could do versus male fighters—particularly as regards upper body strength. And he doesn’t read my books.

 

But man, way to harsh my buzz!

Especially because I don’t think—maybe I’m wrong and, boys, correct me if I am—that men ever look at a cover with a male hero carrying some improbably large and heavy sword and say, “No way he could swing that thing.” Instead we know it’s fantasy. That’s why we want that story—for the fantasy of the badass hero or heroine who *can* do this thing that would never occur in our reality.

It does, however, point up that these considerations must be weighed. Thus this week’s topic: Choose Your Weapon: Arming Your Characters—how do you choose, from what do you choose, and why?

For me, arming Ursula with a sword wasn’t a decision. When she first walked onto the page as a character, she had her sword in her hand. It becomes an integral part of her character—including the jokes that she sleeps with it. She also uses a variety of knives, but the sword is her primary defense. It’s also a character metaphor, as she holds everyone not just at arm’s length, but at sword length. The jewel in the pommel of her sword holds great significance in the overall story arc, too.

On the other hand, Dafne, the heroine of book 4, THE PAGESOF THE MIND, is a librarian. She’s never going to swing a sword. I did, however, get to write a terrific scene (to my mind!) of Ursula teaching Dafne basic self-defense—with short daggers much more suited to Dafne’s size and strength.

But, you’ll notice, Dafne IS carrying her mother-effing weapon on the cover also. 

We all have our strengths!

My Weapon of Choice - Brains

So, yes, I spent years fencing. I was okay. I'm stage combat trained and certified. That means I'm qualified to pretend to beat the crap out of you with either rapier and dagger, quarterstaff, my bare hands or a broadsword. I'm married to a former police officer, so I am familiar with guns to the point that I know which end gets pointed at the bad. Strange fact: I'm right handed, but I lead with my left eye - so I shoot left handed and I fight quarterstaff left handed. This drove my stage combat instructor nuts.

But let's be honest. Come the zombie apocalypse, if survival is predicated on sheer physical fighting prowess, I'm zombie chow. If, however, the oncoming hordes of undead are, in fact, mindless - I'd have a pretty good shot at getting out alive because I'm in possession of the one weapon the zombies lack: brains. (Though notably, I'm not interested in them as a snack food.)

Weapons - the guns, knives, bombs, martial arts, and so forth are tools. Monkeys use tools. So do crows. The real advantage comes from an ability to think, to plan, to make rapid-fire decisions under pressure, to adapt to changing circumstances and to come up with creative ways to use old information and objects in new ways. This is a fancy way of saying that if you're a creative thinker, everything is a potential weapon. It's funny. Put a tool like a gun in someone's hand in a high pressure situation, and a primitive part of the brain seems to take over. It's as if our ancestors were wired to respect the caveman carrying the biggest stick. You and I can argue the point of which weapon is most dangerous, but from a societal standpoint, guns equal big sticks. Most people holding a gun in hand and pointing that gun at someone else with intent to harm seem to feel like they're in the position of greatest power, right?

Remeber Micheal J. Fox in one of the Back the Future movies? Old west, a shoot out at high noon, one he knew perfectly well he couldn't survive, much less win? How did he win it, then? By thinking. No. I won't remind you what he did.

Surely you remember that short story you had to read in high school? The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell. You DID read that didn't you? I thought every high schooler in the USA had to read that thing. Good story. Creepy. And a perfect illustration for my point. The summary:
Sanger Rainsford falls from his boat while on expedition in the Amazon. Unable to catch the boat, he swims to an island. He finds a palatial chateau inhabited by the owner, General Zaroff, and his servant Ivan. The General, a big-game hunter, has heard of Rainsford from his book about hunting snow leopards in Tibet. After inviting him to dinner, General Zaroff tells Rainsford of how he became bored with hunting because it no longer challenged him. Thus, Zaroff says, he decided to live on an island where he could capture shipwrecked sailors to send them into the jungle supplied with food, a knife, and hunting clothes to be his quarry. After a three-hour head start, he would follow them to hunt them. If the captives eluded him, Ivan, and a pack of hunting dogs for three days, General Zaroff would let the man go, but no one had eluded him that long thus far. Rainsford is now his prey.

Rainsford, armed with nothing more than an inadequate blade, has to turn the tables on the man with the guns and the hunting hounds. His only advantage is his ability to think. He has to act one way (like the prey) and think another (like a predator) if he's going to survive. He has to adapt, plan, think his way to the end of the story. Won't tell you how that one ends, either.

So, yeah. My weapon of choice is between my ears. Sure. Some days, it's a blunt instrument incapable fo cutting through anything at all. Like the day I picked up the glass of water from beside the sink so I could swallow my vitamins. It wasn't until I took a big swig that I remembered that was the water that had been used to soak dirty silverware...

On those days, I confess, I still have a secret fondness for the quarterstaff. (This should lead to a YouTube video that refuses to embed properly...)

Weapon of Choice: Nut Up or Shut Up

by Allison Pang

No, I don't actually own a Hello Kitty Glock. I *do* own a regular Glock .26, though. (Among many other firearms, but I keep the Glock for concealed carry purposes.)

I actually wouldn't ever keep a pink gun in the house with the kids. Even though we keep them well locked up, anything that looks that much like a toy is bound to be trouble somewhere down the road, and truthfully, the only real purpose of a personal firearm is to kill someone.

And don't get me started on the concept of self-defense. A gun may be the great equalizer, but it's not for self-defense. Not really. The moment you pull it out of the holster and aim it at someone, you have to be one hundred percent mentally prepared to fire it. And kill someone.Stories of guns being used against their owners are almost always because the owner hesitated. And no, you *don't* aim for the leg. You're lucky your brain is rational enough to aim for the chest, let along a skinny limb when your hands are shaking because the adrenaline has set in and you've got tunnel vision. Rule Number One? If you don't think you can actually kill someone with a gun, don't carry one.

Rule Number Two: Double Tap.

Not really. Just that guns in real life are very different than what you see in the movies. Recoil plays a very large factor (something you rarely see on TV. Notice how the actor's hands don't move up as they fire? That's crap. Your hands are going to jerk a bit, particularly if you're not used to firing it. It's going to screw up your aim. Anticipating the recoil is *also* going to screw up your aim.).

Rule Number Three: Know Your Gun

Semi-automatic vs revolver, for example. They work differently. So many people think it's just a simple equation of point and shoot, but there are so many factors involved, particularly when you're in a stressful situation. Does your gun have a safety? Will you remember to take it off in a moment of panic? Do you carry a round in the chamber? Will you remember to rack the slide if you don't? (In the case of pistols, anyway.) Can you change the magazine? What do you do if a round gets stuck in the chamber?

Guns can be heavy. Small fingers, particularly women's, may have a harder time with some firearms when it comes to loading bullets into a magazine. (The coils can be pretty stiff, particularly if it's new.) Larger guns can be harder to fire if your fingers are short, as well. What I'm getting at is to make sure the gun fits your hand.

And of course, Rule Number Four is safety. However you choose to enforce that in your home, make sure you keep your firearms out of the reach of children, above all else.

Clearly there is more to gun ownership than those four things, but that 's a pretty good start if you're new to the world of firearms. (But go do your research, please.)

I also carry a Masters Of Defense tactical talon knife, known as the Lady Hawk. Knife fighting is a skill which I do not possess, and as noted earlier this week, stabbing someone is an extremely personal way of killing.

I like this knife because it was specifically designed by a woman for women who don't know how to fight with knives. It's small enough to palm, it folds out with a simple press of my thumb over a nub. Even if I flail randomly at you with it, I'm going to probably cut you pretty bad. If you grab my wrist, the curved edge of the blade allows me to gouge you anyway.

And then there's physical hand to hand combat. Before my back screwed everything up, I did kickboxing for several years. I had a lovely uppercut and and a double round-house kick that worked very nicely. However, to be perfectly honest, martial arts aren't really all that useful for the average fight. Ninety percent of most fights are going to end up on the ground anyway, so if you're looking to take classes for self defense purposes, skip the jumping-spinning-crescent kicks (which look impressive but aren't that hard to block..or step out of the way of) and try for a good jujitsu class. (Mixed Martial Arts classes are very popular for that reason.)

<-- This was my kickboxing instructor by the way. :)

And thus endeth the lecture.

I'll Take A Knife for Their Back, Please

By KAK

I love to kill people, er, characters. I’ve bumped them off via parasites, magma baths, poison, flails, garrotes, and the ol’ neck snap. My favorite weapon? Nope, not the broadsword.

Knives

I already know from my fencing days that size does matter. Shocked, aren’t you? Yeah, yeah, I’m a girl, I discovered that truth early. Here’s why it matters in combat: I am never going to be stronger than the boys and I’m rarely the tallest one on the field. It means I stand the greatest chance at success by getting under and inside someone’s guard. Big weapons that require lots of space to wield are my foes’ weaknesses. Knives are close-combat weapons. The foe strikes. I evade. Before they can recover, I’m under, I’m in.

Blam. D-e-d.

(or at least spurting)

Wait, wait. You thought this was about killing off characters. It is, but every grand fantasy has a nugget of reality – one that goes beyond holding a knife ala Psycho shower scene or emulating Rambo at a dinner party. Knives are the go-to weapon for heroes and villains of fiction and real-life. Ask any cop, soldier, covert agent, or hunter and they’ll tell you it’s a hell of a lot easier to conceal a knife than most other weapons. They don’t require a big trench coat to hide (sorry, Highlander). There’s no large guitar case (sorry, Desperado). Best? You can carry more than one.

Knife fights happen anywhere.

Once I’ve grasped the gist of the combat skills and the feasible portability, I can set my characters in a plethora of locations. Big weapons or weapons that require a lot of space to maneuver restrict confrontations to open places. How suck-tastic would it be to have your hero swing his broadsword and get it stuck in an overhanging branch? The heroine winds up her flail and ends up with it wrapped around a fire-escape? Nah, those are the weapons for the secondary characters or the bad-guys. Knives can do their damage in the crush of a crowded street or up on the yardarms. It’s about the element of surprise and invasions of personal space – bodily and mentally.

Knife deaths are intimate.

There is a play upon the psyche of the characters and the reader when the knife is used – even if no blood is drawn.  No one escapes unscathed. The confrontation between characters can be face-to-face or the victim can be facing away; still there is a moment of unity. The killer has to be close enough to smell their victim, to feel the heat radiating from the body. The victim is aware of the proximity of their attacker and the feel of the blade. There, in that instant, the victim and the killer share a hyper-aware moment. If the killer actually penetrates the flesh of the victim, there is no escaping the spatter. Intimate? Yes. Emotionally twisted? Absolutely.

I claim the knife as my weapon of choice for the emotional connection it demands among characters and reader. What other weapons have left an impression for the way in which they force a reaction from you? Which authors do an exceptional job at drawing you further into the tale with an act of fatal violence?

The Sun, the Moon, the Fire and the Wind

by Jeffe Kennedy

I put up a convention recap on my own blog, with lots of photos. We're all very sorry for vanishing. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but the RT convention was such a jam-packed whirlwind that it all got away from us.

Alas.

So, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

For many years, my weapon of choice was words. Arguably, it still is. But when I was a young, uncoordinated and scrawny girl, I dealt with the meanies and the bullies by dressing them down. I loved how I could throw them into complete confusion with a few well-chosen words. One of the other kids told me I shouldn't do that, because it just made them dislike me more, when I used words they didn't know. Still, I kind of thought the die was cast and I refused to give up my one weapon in hopes that they'd like me better.

As for all of us, over time things got better. I left the cruel Lord of the Flies community of young savages in school for places like college, where power over words gained more friends than enemies. Eventually, to my great astonishment, I ended up studying martial arts. I wended my way to that path, partly due to a boy (still with him, 20 years later), and as an outgrowth of a long interest in religious practices. Finally I discovered how physical strength could be fun, too.

It's one of those "little known facts about me," but I studied Kung Fu for over 15 years. My school was traditional Chinese style, so I have no belts to boast of. But my studies included Tai Chi Ch'uan, Pakua Chang, Hsing-I, Shaolin Temple Boxing, plus a smattering of others.

The one that really sang for me is the Shaolin Whirling Wind stick form. That uses a three-foot stick - which creates a nice distance for a smallish person like me. Over time (and this is an appropriate phrase for me to repeat because "Kung Fu" translates as "work done over time"), I became proficient enough at Whirling Wind to take on an edged weapon.

I chose one with many edges. Believe me, they take a lot of work to learn to wield.

I've heard these called Sun/Moon Wheels or Fire/Wind Wheels. Other names, too, and people will argue passionately for a particular choice. It comes down to translation and martial tradition.

I hung these on the wall over my desk to remind me of many things. That I'm not a child armed only with words. That some things have many edges and can cut the wielder just as easily. That power comes in many forms, from many places.

They look right, hanging on my wall, just within reach.