Starwalker Villains: Coming Soon
Over the past few months, an idea has been slowly growing in the back of my brain. Like a mushroom.
It started when I did a couple of pieces for my writing group. We were writing scenes based on general themes and I wound up doing a superhero-type piece, but from the villain perspective. I’ve written lots of superhero stuff before (in the online RP I used to do), and felt like taking things from the other side of the struggle for a change. The next one involved a barfight – again, sliding away from the ‘heroic’ side of things.
Then I started to ponder if I could do a full story (those pieces were just fragments, really – scenes in longer stories I have yet to write) from a villain’s point of view. Without turning the character into an anti-hero. Is it possible? I honestly have no idea. But it sounds damn fun to try.
So, of course, my brain spun it on. What about a series of shorts – not full novels/blogfics/huge monstrosities, but something more like a short story or possibly novella (I do like to go on). Different characters, different styles of writing. I could play around with it.
This led to: what if I set them in the Starwalker universe, and placed each one on a different colony? I did a list and came up with eight or nine possibilities. Loads of material to pull from there. A chance to explore not only the Starwalker world, but the dirty side of things at the same time.
It’s not the kind of thing I usually write, and that’s also part of the appeal. It sounds like fun! I’ve done a handful of pieces since I started noodling this idea about – nothing is complete yet, but I have some promising beginnings. Characters are taking shape. Stories are poking their heads out of the dirt and searching for a spotlight. Here, kitty kitty, and don’t mind the claws.
I’ve pencilled the project in for next year. I’m not sure how long Starwalker will run – my plan is to write it until I run out of stories to tell with the ship and her crew – but I’m not planning to wait until it’s finished before I start posting the villain shorts. I want to build them up over the next few months, trickle them along in the background until I’ve got enough for a half-decent (and possibly coherent) posting schedule.
I’m also tossing up ideas for how and where to post them. Do I do it on the Starwalker site? Interrupt the regular story with random shards of something else? Set up a new blog for it? I’m not sure which way I’m leaning on that yet, but there’s plenty of time to figure it out.
Next year is still a ways off, but I don’t plan to make everyone wait quite that long before I show you what I’m babbling about. As the regular Starwalker run is currently between books (and I’m taking a much-needed, if short, break), I’ve decided to post up excerpts from the existing villain shorts in the meantime. They’re not finished and I’m still honing the details, but they’re ready enough for you to get a taste!
The first sneak peek goes up on the Starwalker site tonight. I’d love to know what you all think!
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