It's been a couple weeks since I first exposed my ideas for NaNoWriMo, however vague and simple. After much thought, I've decided to release what I have as far as "planning" goes. Some of it is a little corny, at least to me (but I'm admittedly hard myself), but it's relevant to the story in a rather significant way.
**(I'll make one thing clear--anything I write here is very likely to change in at least some small way if not completely. Although the "title" of each character has already been written down weeks ago, anything I write about them here is coming straight from my mind right now. At least two of the characters are almost definitely set in stone as to who in the Circle they refer to, but just for the fun of it I won't say who is who ;) You can guess if you like; maybe I'll answer, and maybe I won't haha)**
Anyways, on to the topics!
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First, the title. I've been working with a few different ideas for a title, but I haven't been able to settle on one. The way I see it, the title can be one of two types (as far as sci-fi goes): either it must be vague and complex and somehow slightly relevant, or so simple it nearly hurts. In the first case, the title wouldn't be official until the end. In the second, it could be anything, and since its efficient I think I might go with that until later. So, the most recent I can think of that has a nice ring is "Astraeus Lost." Its simple yet intriguing, so it works :P
That leads to the next thing--the ship. After nearly two hours of brainstorming and Googling and checking the Star Trek database, I finally came up with a couple possibilities for a name of the starship. The first I thought of was the ISAS Utopia, which was technically taken but not significantly like everything else. The second, and the one I picked, is the ISAS Astraeus, named for the greek Titan-god of dusk. ("ISAS," said as simply eye-sus, is a tentative acronym that may very well change, meant to mean International Space Administration Ship)
And now, the tentative cast :o Listed by title/role in no particular order. Most of the titles are a reference to the person's skill, though a couple may have a more underlying-literary-sort of title....whatever :P
Remember that this is "international"--a lot of the characters won't be American.
(also, due to the nature of this mission, several of the main characters have no direct purpose as far as functioning on the ship; in case they can't get back, they'll need to encompase every bit of humanity they can to attempt to carry on the race. Sensible enough, ya?)
The Commander
Name: Ian Ross
Info: Picture for a moment the awesomeness that would be formed if you combined Kirk and Picard and added a little bit of "Top Gun" in the mix. Pretty friggin epic is what you get--the brains, the brawn, the daring, the commraderie, and humanity, all in proportion (so minus Kirk's overacting and Picard's pristine condition and Tom Cruise's Scientology and assholishness).
The Physicist
Name: Sydney "Sid" Hainsworth
Info: Crazy genius and religious skeptic. Also French :P Don't ask me why. Look out for this guy later--I think I have some dasterdly plans for him ;)
The Biologist (and general doctor)
Name: Anabelle "Ana" Hainsworth
Info: Wife of crazy genius, but not so crazy. Very even-tempered and professional. Think French-woman-Spock, but less amusing XD Maybe a combination of Seven-of-Nine and Saavik...?
Lead Engineer and Assistant Physicist (guy that built the ship, perhaps?)
Name: Aleksei "Alex" Borisova
Info: Had to pay tribute to Checkov ;) Picture a Rusky Kraut (yup, I just said that), but not extreme and HUGE. He's not "too" Russian, however--a native, but not a fanatic, if you get my drift. He can speak both English and Russian equally well. He'll probably be the depressing one, considering a friggin black hole just ate half his country :o
Lead Programmer/Assistant Engineer
Name: Toshiro Arashima
Info: Yup, the nerdy Japanese guy plays our main techy--imagine that! :o Haha, nah, he just popped into my head and I figured this would make the most sense for him to be. I'm thinking something like Hiro here :P Maybe he'll be our main source of comic relief.
The Linguist
Name: Jacqueline Thomas
Info: A studier of languages, their development, etc. She is actually one of the most important roles to the mission as a whole because of her ability to analyze language and methods involved in it. She can speak nearly any major language, from French to Korean. All in all, as far as personality goes, she's suprisingly laid back but knows when to mean business (which isn't often).
The Culturist
Name: Benjamin Johnson
Info: Huzzah for the chill black man :P Of course, as a culturist, he's very tolerant and open-minded and acts as a mediator between characters. So I guess he's a little like a black Scotty? Haha, I can see it, which is kinda sad, but awesome.
The Psychologist and Assistant Physician/Surgeon
Name: Susannah Scott
Info: A little like a woman-Bones, I think :P Guess she and Ana don't like each other much...or do they???1! haha XD I'm seeing a little Hawkeye in there too :D So, slightly crazy and silly with a tint of McCoy-sarcasm and Hawkeye-whore, just for more comic relief
The Historian/Professor/"Philosopher"
Name: Julia McCulloch
Info: Ah, the profound one, whose main purpose is to hold all the knowledge of everything no one else can manage. She's rather quiet compared to the others, but of course gives the best advice. As the carrier of the legacy of the human race, she is also very important to the mission should the crew not return.
So far that's it, but based on what I've re-read, I like it a lot :D Sort of like a mismatched Star Trek crew. I'm finally getting more excited about this story finally.
As I was writing them, I found other Circle members in the characters, so lets see if you can spot yourself or someone else :P
Comment comment comment!! What should I change/add/get rid of? Sound like a good idea so far? Gimme feedback! (^,^)
So that took like 2 hours to write, and I'm off to bed. Ta.
