23 Aug 2018

dba LTV Paranormalists - Hauntings Anonymous - Commentary 5

Meet the family or equivalent, in dba LTV Paranormalists Chapter 5.

It's now the slow portion of the story, where everyone investigates.  It's a good time to expand the setting to show everyone's homes.  Kristi's we've seen already, with one of her roomies.  Ayel and Kieu, though, haven't really had time at their respective homes.

Ayel lives out in Barrhaven, a suburb outside Ottawa's Greenbelt.  She has a bit of a commute to get to class at Carleton, so the family mini-van gets some use.  Ayel has an older brother, now living in Hamilton after graduating from McMaster there, and a younger sister, Tiffany, still in high school.  The goal I had with Ayel and Tiffany is show sisters who love each other, even if they still get on each other's nerves.  Their mother, Janet, does what she can to keep the peace.  Ayel's father will appear in Chapter 12; he's just not around for the scene, plus he didn't have a name yet.

Kieu lives on the other side of the city in Orleans, where she went to school where a friend teaches.  Not that she spends that much time there during the school year.  Kieu gets so caught up in her studies she tends to crash on campus, mostly in the computer labs.  Every May, she goes through the same routine with her younger brother, Quyen.  Their mother is tired of it.  And, somehow, the entire family is quirky.  I didn't intend for that to happen.  Kieu's role was to be the technical expert, not the tech wizard running on energy drinks and sheer stubborness.  Her mother wasn't supposed to be able to catch shoes without looking.  Yet, Quyen threw the shoe.  This is all on me.

Kristi's other roommate shows up.  Janelle is not a morning person.  She's being introduced to Ginger so that awkward situations don't happen later.  Communications between characters is important.  Too often, sitcoms have plots that can be short-circuited if people just talked to each other.  So many laughs, but leaving viewers wondering if the characters are idiots.  Here, I wanted to avoid that.  Kristi is smart; she knows Ginger won't stay hidden for long.  Introducing the fae to the roomies makes sense.  Ginger's love of coffee was also a last minute addition.  NaNoWriMo encourages participants to keep writing and toss in ideas when needed.  Quirks just happen, but the quirks also help round a character.

Even with the character moments, the plot still needs to advance somehow.  I had to somehow figure out what was causing the problems seen last chapter.  I set up the situation without working out who and why before I started.  That's the wrong direction for a mystery, though.  I really should have known who was responsible and why so I could lay down the clues and red herrings.  But, I am going through the process of figuring out who with the characters' investigation, with a side of actual magic research.  Kristi's major is a help here.  If she doesn't know anything about the artwork in question, she knows where to start looking.

Friday, back to the scene of the crime, in Hauntings Anonymous Chapter 6, "Skirting the Edge".
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, hiatus week to let me get ahead on my reading.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, The Bond Project contunues with The Living Daylights.

No comments:

Post a Comment