I’m working through Story Genius by Lisa Cron and I thought I’d share some of the process.
Here’s the fourth exercise in the book.
“Write a thumbnail sketch of who your protagonist is before the novel starts.”
Ruth was about to enter a marriage of convenience before the Time Line arrived and she found out that in canonical history she accomplished nothing and drank herself to death as soon as her daughter turned 18.
Armed with this grim warning, Ruth also armed herself with some down-time weapons and ran away from her fiance, her family, and everyone they sent after her. She became a private investigator and champion for the lower classes of the Station that became Black Chicago.
Ruth tried to stop migration down time and the human trafficking syndicates that grew up around it. She failed. Every year, more people leave Black Chicago and the gangsters become more powerful. Ruth is banging her head against an impossible problem. And when her enemies or her own bad habits finally kill her, she will have accomplished nothing except maybe keeping her conscience clear.
Then a woman walks into her office…
(in case you didn’t know, the book I’m writing is called The Centuries Unlimited)