Ever since I started writing, I have been building worlds and their characters. And while I love each of the ones I’ve created, it’s been the happy accidents that excite me the most. The first time I ran into this was when I crafted exclusive flash fiction stories for my patrons on Patreon. Early on, I pulled a prompt for a fantasy taking place in a shoe store and featuring pancakes. Initially, I didn’t know what kind of narrative I could string together and fulfill those requirements. Thankfully, the tale I developed resulted with a protagonist who quickly became one of my favorites.
The pancakes, the item I needed to work into the tale, turned into a unique quirk for my favorite wizard, Darren Gilbert. A thousand words felt inadequate to fully explore my newest creation. Following the intense desire to delve further into Darren’s history, I thought about a complementing world. It didn’t take long, but I knew exactly where to place the pancake wielding mage. When I finally returned to Darren’s life, I wound the clock back to a time before the spell slinger came into his power and created his trinket.
As I continued to follow Darren’s journey, I explored a planet I crafted but wasn’t intending to do much with. Despite that comment, I have long-term plans for Darren’s world. Thankfully, there were massive chunks of time that I intentionally left unexplored. Darren’s existence allowed me to flesh out this his surroundings, a feat that bringing me intense joy. And my pancake carrying mage isn’t my only accidental discovery.
A more recent creation is an alchemist who shares the same world and roughly the same timeframe as Darren. This new character can wield magic, but he focuses it on potions and salves. He specializes in creating a concoction that allow him to bind ghosts. He anchors those spirits to him through tattoos with his potion mixed into the ink.
I first stumbled upon Lucas when I wrote a piece of micro fiction for my Ko-Fi account. Love for another protagonist sprouted from a mere two hundred and fifty words. But that narrative created a unique individual compelling me to delve into his history and story. While running into these spontaneous characters proves to be distracting, it’s proven to be a marvelous way to enhance my skills.
I have committed to a challenge of writing something every day, and while there are time, I’m unable to achieve this, I’ll continue to strive for that goal. And as a side benefit, I can explore some of these accidental discoveries while I accomplish further work on my existing projects. Keep an eye open on my blog to discover any more unique protagonists I create while seeking to complete this challenge.