Creativity Post 5

(Originally posted Friday 11-04-16)

 

One of the things I’m trying to do with The Merc Series is show that everyone has a story to tell. That even characters who only show up for a brief period of time have their own lives and aren’t just cardboard stand ins.

Which leads me to tonight’s picture. This one is a good example in that it would be easy to describe a cop standing guard in a city, Boston would make sense cause it’s Red Diamond’s home turf but I like keeping it New York City.

The guy’s tattoo is what stood out to me at 1st glance. Which made me think military service.
So now instead of just a cop outside guarding something, we have a cop who used to be military. I’m going with former Special Forces which means he’s now a really good cop and whatever he’s guarding is probably important for him to get that shift /assignment.

To further flesh him out we’d ask questions such as why did he leave the service? Does he still talk to his old Unit? What’s he guarding?  I’d say he’s still friends with most of his buddies and that most of his unit is no longer serving.

He has a sister who lives in New York and took a job there to be close to her and her kids. He’s the ‘fun uncle’ who always spoils them during Christmas and birthdays. After work he hangs out at his favorite sports bar. He enjoys beer but never gets drunk. Definitely a bachelor lifestyle but he enjoys it. And has adapted to civilian life really well. Some of his old Unit buddies always try to recruit him for mercenary/contractor gigs overseas when they are in town but he always turns them down. He’s happy being a cop.

Now the question becomes how to properly use this character. And when and where it makes sense to introduce him and what happens that he becomes a minor character to a featured character.

#FridayNightWriting #TheMercSeries #Ideas #ThinkingOutLoud