Nick Hayden
May 9, 2014
Who doesn’t wish he could play as Leo just a little longer? There’s a NPC worth exploring.
From here
Now that all 10 stories of The Wheel is Broken are available for your enjoyment, you may (not) be asking: “Why bother writing a collection of flash fiction about random characters we’ll never meet again? Give us more Bron! Give us more Jaysynn! Even more Calea, if it comes to that!”
Well, I’m glad you asked.
Answer: I felt like it.
Expanded Answer: It seems that most of what I write (or want to write) are reiterations of ideas I’ve had for a long time. You might even call them themes.
For instance, if you watch much Miyasaki (and if you don’t, fix that immediately), you notice certain ideas and character types that occur again and again. The importance of nature, for instance. Sometimes, it’s a big deal (Princess Mononoke) and sometimes it’s more subtle, just hanging in the background–like the detail to leaves and grass and beauty in everything he makes.
Well, I’ve always been fascinated with filling in the cracks, with examining how the NPCs, so to speak, might react after the hero sweeps through. I once ran a short story project called Cobblestones, where the point was for each new author to take a minor character from the previous short story and make him the main character in the next short story. In high school, my friend and I were writing a script for a SNES-style RPG, and we planned on letting you have sidequests playing as all manner of vaguely important NPCs. Why?
Answer: Because I thought it was cool.
Expanded Answer: Everyone has a story, not just the movers and shakers. I like those stories. They let me, as a writer, tap in common, everyday experiences. They also let me play with ideas not worth a longer story. It builds the world down at the level where most people live.
In the end, I loved Jalseion, with its eight Sections, mostly unexplored in The Select’s Bodyguard, and I loved the possibilities of how the Cataclysm could effect different people.
So, that’s why I broke the Wheel, so I could pick up the pieces and see what they looked like.
Hopefully, you enjoyed it, too.
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