In this Writing Year of the Giraffe, Penna and I continue to be tempted by the low-hanging fruit of our various series. But we also hope to stretch our necks to grasp unfamiliar fare. The writing exchanges are a great way to explore different fandoms and themes that we wouldn't normally pick. My assignment in the recently concluded Candy Hearts Exchange is a case in point.
The recipient I was matched with wanted a story about interspecies love where one of the characters is a non-humanoid. Lavinia, an alien I created for Arkham Files, encouraged me to write in the non-humanoid's point of view. Up to now I'd only occasionally dabbled in writing from an alien's perspective. I've dipped into Lavinia's POV, but even with me, she doesn't reveal much. So far she's refused to describe her true appearance although I suspect she doesn't look like a human.
A common saying for writers is to write about what you know. That could present a challenge for this assignment since, as you probably guessed, I'm not an alien. Or am I? As I mulled over options, I realized I wasn't as inexperienced as I first thought. I'd spent many a happy hour playing The Elder Scrolls. In that video game series, two of the playable species are non-humanoids, and I'd fashioned characters for myself from both species. If I were a lonely alien on a planet far away from home, wouldn't I be drawn to the game? That was the launching point for my story Sucker for Love.
I set the mood by making a playlist of Foreigner songs. Even the name of the group helped inspire me. And after revisiting songs like "I Want to Know What Love Is," "More Than a Feeling," "Feels Like the First Time," and "Long, Long Way from Home," I felt ready to tackle the challenge. I had a blast writing the story, and the two characters, Larissa and Melody, have now become close friends with the crews in my series. Will they ever get to visit their friends in a story? In the world of Arkham Files, anything is possible.
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