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Last month we featured our Best Story winner. This month, I wanted to similarly highlight our Best Character winner, @Emma Prescott! Because without characters, there'd be no real story, after all. Without further ado, our interview focusing on Kimberly Fairbrooke from Land of the Roses!
dp876: First of all, congrats on Kimberly's Best Character award! How did it feel to get one of the top awards this season?
EP: It felt good, and came as a complete surprise. When I looked at the competition she was up against, I didn't think she had a snowflake's chance in hell.
dp876: How did the idea of Kimberly's character first come about?
EP: It's been so long since I've initially created her that some of the details are lost to time. I do remember where her name came from, and it may sound weird: Kim Bauer, one of the main characters in the first two seasons of 24, which I was watching heavily at the time I created her character. I don't quite remember where the rest of the details came in, other than burning desire to write a posh-yet-slightly-rebellious princess character. She's not quite a princess and not terribly rebellious, but she's close enough to the character archetype.
dp876: Which other character of yours has been your favorite to have Kimberly interact with?
EP: Her Blastoise, Juliano. Juliano doesn't talk, and like all other Pokemon in my stories, he doesn't even say his own name. His only forms of communication are the indecipherable noises he makes, his facial expressions and his body language. Getting him to communicate what he means and having Kimberly figure that out is a fun challenge that I always look forward to. Showing that she understands him on a deeply personal level and can get any sort of meaning out of his lack of communication is a big part of what I enjoy about their interactions. They truly are on the same wavelength, moreso than any other character and their own Pokemon, and that's what makes it fun to write.
dp876: What about your favorite human character interaction for Kimberly? I've seen quite a few fans of Kimberly and Andrea's friendship. Has their friendship changed from how it was in Storm Island as well?
EP: This is tricky to answer. She hasn't really had a chance to interact with anyone besides Andrea yet, and of her interactions with Andrea, I can't pick a favorite because I like them all, really. If I really had to choose one, it'd be the makeover scene in chapter 20. It shows how different the two are, yet how they're capable of giving and taking in their own little ways to work with each other.
dp876: So Kimberly's appeared in at least two of your works, including Land of the Roses and Storm Island. How did you manage her character development across different stories? Have you written her differently from fic to fic?
EP: This is where it gets confusing. The Kimberly seen in Storm Island is the same Kimberly seen in Land of the Roses, yet at the same time, they're not. Land of the Roses is not intended to be a sequel to (the unfinished) Storm Island, but a reimagining. So basically, her appearances in Storm Island are considered non-canon (how ridiculous is that to say in the realm of fanfiction?). They're practically the same character, but I made a few key differences in order to facilitate her development:
EP: Readers are already familiar with her extremely friendly nature, something that has been shaped by the selfless and humble nature of her faith. If readers have been paying close attention, they'll notice that she's just about the only character in the story who isn't needlessly rude for the sake of being rude (an exception being Eliza, another follower of the same faith). This positive outlook on life will continue to shape her into the future, perhaps to a fault. We'll see!
She'll also look to her faith for answers to every major problem she is faced with if friends and family aren't capable of giving those answers first. It serves as a guide for her and will influence her personal morality in ways she (and probably the reader) won't expect. I'm not sure what else to say without getting into the spoiler territory.
dp876: Care to offer some trivia facts about Kimberly, maybe subtle ones that appear in the story? Or maybe even ones that won't make a story debut at all!
EP: Hmm... I'll try not to be spoilerific!
EP: I think my favorite is a scene that's in a forthcoming chapter. But since I can't use that, I'll go with the river crossing scene in chapter 19. I feel like it's one of the best examples that illustrates the deep understanding that she and her Blastoise have of each other. Their fluidity of motion says that they have a lot of experience with each other, and Juliano's dedication to getting her across completely dry exemplifies his unending loyalty.
dp876: Worldbuilding definitely seems to be a huge factor in LotR. How do you come up with ideas when expanding on the Pokemon world? How do you keep track of all the little details you come up with?
EP: Keeping track of all the little details can be a little bit cumbersome at times. Whenever I come up with a little detail or piece of trivia, I try to store it away in its relevant location. I have a whole collection of documents related to a region's geography, its culture, important people,
As far as the method goes... I don't have enough room here to properly get into my methods. I'll try to slim it down:
dp876: First of all, congrats on Kimberly's Best Character award! How did it feel to get one of the top awards this season?
EP: It felt good, and came as a complete surprise. When I looked at the competition she was up against, I didn't think she had a snowflake's chance in hell.
dp876: How did the idea of Kimberly's character first come about?
EP: It's been so long since I've initially created her that some of the details are lost to time. I do remember where her name came from, and it may sound weird: Kim Bauer, one of the main characters in the first two seasons of 24, which I was watching heavily at the time I created her character. I don't quite remember where the rest of the details came in, other than burning desire to write a posh-yet-slightly-rebellious princess character. She's not quite a princess and not terribly rebellious, but she's close enough to the character archetype.
dp876: Which other character of yours has been your favorite to have Kimberly interact with?
EP: Her Blastoise, Juliano. Juliano doesn't talk, and like all other Pokemon in my stories, he doesn't even say his own name. His only forms of communication are the indecipherable noises he makes, his facial expressions and his body language. Getting him to communicate what he means and having Kimberly figure that out is a fun challenge that I always look forward to. Showing that she understands him on a deeply personal level and can get any sort of meaning out of his lack of communication is a big part of what I enjoy about their interactions. They truly are on the same wavelength, moreso than any other character and their own Pokemon, and that's what makes it fun to write.
dp876: What about your favorite human character interaction for Kimberly? I've seen quite a few fans of Kimberly and Andrea's friendship. Has their friendship changed from how it was in Storm Island as well?
EP: This is tricky to answer. She hasn't really had a chance to interact with anyone besides Andrea yet, and of her interactions with Andrea, I can't pick a favorite because I like them all, really. If I really had to choose one, it'd be the makeover scene in chapter 20. It shows how different the two are, yet how they're capable of giving and taking in their own little ways to work with each other.
dp876: So Kimberly's appeared in at least two of your works, including Land of the Roses and Storm Island. How did you manage her character development across different stories? Have you written her differently from fic to fic?
EP: This is where it gets confusing. The Kimberly seen in Storm Island is the same Kimberly seen in Land of the Roses, yet at the same time, they're not. Land of the Roses is not intended to be a sequel to (the unfinished) Storm Island, but a reimagining. So basically, her appearances in Storm Island are considered non-canon (how ridiculous is that to say in the realm of fanfiction?). They're practically the same character, but I made a few key differences in order to facilitate her development:
- She is inexperienced as a coordinator in LotR, compared to her relative skill in SI.
- Her team is somewhat different. She lacks her Wigglytuff from SI, and her Skitty has been given a different breed and name.
- She delved into spirituality towards the end of SI's run, but is in the deep end straight from the start in LotR. Her faith will play a very large and important role in relation to her character development and the overall plot, far larger than her dabbling in SI would have.
EP: Readers are already familiar with her extremely friendly nature, something that has been shaped by the selfless and humble nature of her faith. If readers have been paying close attention, they'll notice that she's just about the only character in the story who isn't needlessly rude for the sake of being rude (an exception being Eliza, another follower of the same faith). This positive outlook on life will continue to shape her into the future, perhaps to a fault. We'll see!
She'll also look to her faith for answers to every major problem she is faced with if friends and family aren't capable of giving those answers first. It serves as a guide for her and will influence her personal morality in ways she (and probably the reader) won't expect. I'm not sure what else to say without getting into the spoiler territory.
dp876: Care to offer some trivia facts about Kimberly, maybe subtle ones that appear in the story? Or maybe even ones that won't make a story debut at all!
EP: Hmm... I'll try not to be spoilerific!
- Much of her vast wealth comes from investment rather than inheritance. She has a major stake in several businesses that were able to get started thanks to her money: Misfit Angel (a gothic clothing line), High Falls PokeTech (a company that focuses in specialized trainer gear, and the source for her wacky collection of previously unknown Pokeball variants), and Visalia Solarwind (an alternative energy company that quickly grew to become the dominant power company all along the southern coast).
- She is fluent in two languages and knowledgeable in three more: Glastonian (English), Kalosian (French), Cordón (Spanish), Romatti (Latin) and Shinikari (Chinese).
- She is a student of the arts, something that is a great asset for her career as a coordinator. She can sing reasonably well, she is an excellent pencil artist, and she was one of the star members of her boarding school's gymnastics team. When she was young, she was also skilled at playing the piano, but that skill has faded with him and she has recently chosen another, more portable instrument to dabble with, the guitar.
- Despite putting on the public persona of a refined lady, her sense of humor is actually quite twisted. Similarly, a few friends have gossiped that she has trouble keeping her eyes to herself around people in various states of undress.
EP: I think my favorite is a scene that's in a forthcoming chapter. But since I can't use that, I'll go with the river crossing scene in chapter 19. I feel like it's one of the best examples that illustrates the deep understanding that she and her Blastoise have of each other. Their fluidity of motion says that they have a lot of experience with each other, and Juliano's dedication to getting her across completely dry exemplifies his unending loyalty.
dp876: Worldbuilding definitely seems to be a huge factor in LotR. How do you come up with ideas when expanding on the Pokemon world? How do you keep track of all the little details you come up with?
EP: Keeping track of all the little details can be a little bit cumbersome at times. Whenever I come up with a little detail or piece of trivia, I try to store it away in its relevant location. I have a whole collection of documents related to a region's geography, its culture, important people,
As far as the method goes... I don't have enough room here to properly get into my methods. I'll try to slim it down:
- Identify a real world culture or nation I'm interested in working with.
- Spend a few days (or weeks!) looking through their history and their culture. I'll pick out a few things I'm interested in to see if I can incorporate them into a modern setting. After that, I start to draw some inspiration from elsewhere, insert a few of my own elements, etc.
- From there, I build a physical layout of the region using 8x8 squares to help me plot the cities, routes and landmarks. This is usually what the rough result looks like. I assign letters to each city/landmark and start working on names for each of them. The physical geography of the land between these cities and landmarks isn't terribly important right away, but that's also something I work on a bit before I start writing.
- World building is the first thing I do, other than deciding on names for my main characters. I've always felt like the backbone of a good story was to have a world (partially) in place first, otherwise your first few chapters can feel kind of aimless unless you craft them very carefully.
This list probably doesn't sound all that helpful, but if I really got into it I'd probably need several posts worth of information and explanation.
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