Author Othy Jones

Greetings,

It’s been nearly a month since my last post, much to my own frustration, as my day job has recently also consumed my nights.  Unfortunately that has equated to less time for creative endeavors, though I aim to get back into the swing of writing sooner rather than later.  I thank you for your patience with me and I promise to continue to churn out material that I hope you find entertaining and perhaps even a bit inspiring.

This brings me back to “The Grid”.  As I work to develop an integrated tapestry of stories woven together by the actions of interesting characters, I decided that I need to construct a central element that is currently missing.  I need a main antagonist.  This character needs to be directly involved with Global Grids either as a CEO or a VP in charge of environmental affairs. 

Like any good antagonist, they will need to challenge the other characters equally.  Yet I believe in creating antagonists who are truly multi-dimensional.  Similar to George R. R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones”, all of my characters, especially in “The Grid”, need to have both good and bad qualities.  In this way the reader will, not only connect with them, but project their own flaws onto the characters and see some of themselves in them.  This antagonist needs to be one of those characters.  So they need to have a good side too.   To make it really interesting, that good side needs to be in direct conflict with the needs of the other characters.

Though the novella may begin to paint Global Grids as a power hungry global superpower, I need to establish the paradox that we all use energy and, more often than not, never really delve into where it comes from.  Dare I say that many of us don’t even care?  As long as we get it, we’re fine turning a blind eye to it.  I want this novella to inspire people to learn more about where they get things from and the ramifications their actions cause.  Else, how can we preach change?  It seems rather hypocritical to me.   

This novella won’t be an advocate for any cause other than fostering a healthy awareness.  The topic of energy spawns thousands of heated debates, all of which have some sort of environmental impact.  I just think most of us agree that we need to get the most energy with the least impact possible.  I don’t know what the source is but I think it’s worth researching.  I aim to do that and present many of those sources in this novella as a way to plant a seed into the reader’s mind that, hopefully, will grow into a curiosity they then learn more about on their own.

So this antagonist needs to embody the necessary evil that energy production is.  I think a good place to start to think about this character is to create a crisis for them at the onset.  Being in crisis-mode can tell you a lot about a person.  So this character is in a crisis.  Why?  Partly due to the loss of their climatology research team that Lauren from “The Brink” was a part of.  Global Grids has been getting a lot of bad press lately, from reporters like Kevin Deerfield from “Twenty-Seventh Time” and this antagonist seeks out an advertising agency to help clean up their brand.  This agency will just so happen to be the one that Chloé works for in “Longing on Las Olas”.

Come back to see how this antagonist in crisis will impact the lives of the other characters you’ve already met.

Cheers!

Othy