Today I discovered a new writing meme created by Lizzy @ The Bent Bookworm. Every week, there will be a theme for Writing Up Wednesday that highlights an aspect of your current writing project, and a link-up below Lizzy’s post where you can share your responses. The theme for this week is favorite characters, and you can click here to see Lizzy’s post.

Nico Deverow is my absolute most favorite character out of the “shaman novel” that I am currently editing/might as well be rewriting from scratch. His family holds one of the highest seats on the royal council, which basically means they rule the world. The Deverows are ruthless. They made their fortune in blood money, and they’ll kill if they have to in order to keep their power and status. But Nico doesn’t exactly fit into that picture… He can’t conform to the system of “academic magic” the council has created, and therefore he is “a disgrace to his royal blood.” On top of that, he has his own gift/curse to contend with! He can see auras, the spirits of the restless dead, the residual imprints of meaningful events, and pick up on the emotions around him. And… No one can ever know about any of this because those are shaman powers, and a Deverow having shaman powers would put his family’s precious reputation at risk. Nico learns to lock all his powers and true feelings inside, only showing the world the heir to the royal seat that they expect to see. He doesn’t trust anyone, and no one trusts him. His mask is flawless while really he’s shattering. He turns to a magical drug called Bliss and self harm as a way to escape it all. But eventually he finds some allies, and by the end of the book, he’ll be well on his way to becoming a true shaman.
Here’s a little scenario from Nico’s daily life: You enter a crowded room where a violent murder took place twenty years ago. Your gaze is immediately drawn to the translucent scene of the murder being played over and over again. You watch the knife flash in the moonlight that drifted through the window the night it happened, witness the woman’s silent screams, and watch as the blood stains the marble tiles. You know that this has happened hundreds of times in this room, and that if you allow yourself to get lost in the scene, you will witness other deaths that were never spoken of. You look away from the scene, blinking as colors swirl around you, fading from black, to white, to gray, to green, to purple as auras touch and move apart. It makes you dizzy. Everyone’s emotions stab at you like knives. You want to float again, but you can’t, not now, not here, not yet… You have to get through the gathering first-act royal, act normal, pretend you belong with this crowd that cares for nothing and no one but power.

Share Your Opinion?

Got any thoughts, (good, bad, or bloodstained), that you’d like to leave in the comments? Just kidding! Please don’t leave me any bloodstained thoughts! That got pretty dark, but Nico is a dark character. He actually came to be before any of the plot was formed, which means I worked the plot around him and his family, which means the whole book is kinda dark… Anyway… I’d love to hear about some of your characters, so feel free to drop your links in the comments if you do this! Also, don’t forget to check out the link-up on Lizzy’s post because there are lots of awesome writers out there!