Sometimes, it's fun to imagine what a cast of characters would do or be in a scenario you've never seen them in.

My siblings occasionally speculate on such topics as "how would the crew of Moya interact with the crew of Serenity?", or "how would the cast of this or that anime handle a zombie apocalypse?"

I once wrote a blog post about how the characters from my own books would respond to being drunk.

And after getting sucked into the crazy and wonderful world that is Homestuck - seriously, guys, read that thing! - I thought it would be fun to decide which Sburb class and aspect the cast of Farscape would have.

Of course, it wouldn't do to simply draw a picture of it - I wanted this to be something everyone could enjoy, even if they didn't belong to the probably rather small niche of people who enjoy both Homestuck and Farscape.

So I decided to make a cool wallpaper that everyone could appreciate regardless of their participation in the mixed fandom, and post it here for your enjoyment.

If you're as much of a nerd as me, and actually want to know why Chiana is a Seer of Doom... first, please accept my high-five for being awesome. :D

Secondly, here's my explanation for my choice of class and aspect (contains some spoilers for Farscape):

The Seer class tends to be blessed with the gift of foresight. They see the future through their aspect, and use that knowledge to guide themselves and their team toward victory.

When Chiana has a vision, it usually either:

1. Reveals a shipmate’s imminent doom, giving her a chance to prevent it

2. Gives her information that helps her to doom her opponents, or

3. Brings a form of doom on her, like the cruel punishment she suffered when she was caught using her vision to cheat at a game. Her visions themselves also “doomed” her original eyes by blinding them.

That being the case, I thought Seer of Doom would be a fitting title for the mischievous young Nebari.

Are you part of the Farscape + Homestuck fandom?

Do you also enjoy speculating about scenarios and crossovers with your favorite stories and characters?

​I look forward to reading your comments.

I didn't know what information the scientist had that was so sought after, or how it tied into the larger picture.

I didn't know how her hunter intended to use it; I just knew that he wanted it, and it was important to him.

I didn't know much about the spaceborne story world I was creating; I just knew a bit about the bodyguard's superhuman abilities, and her rival's tragic origins.

I had a few key scenes that I wanted to include, like dots in a connect-the-dots puzzle, but I had no idea what lay between them.

Basically, I had an awesome relationship floating around in a shapeless soup of disconnected plot points and premise elements, with no real structure tying it all together.

​What's a girl to do?

For example, I had one really awesome character who was badly in need of being included in a story, but I'd had pretty much nothing for her story except for the character herself, her backstory, and her relationships with her evil rival and sole surviving family member.

Then she offered herself and her backstory to my skeleton of a novel, and suddenly I had one of my primary antagonists, a much-needed source of interspecies conflict, and a badass wildcard character.

The novel is still a work in progress, and has thus far taken a backseat to Catgirl Roommate in terms of receiving a share of my writing time. But it's coming together beautifully, and I'm glad that I decided to give it a shot.

I guess it just goes to show that when you don't have much to work with, but you know that what you have is worth pursuing, it pays to start with what you have, from where you are, and work your way up from there.

Do you have some story fragments in your head that you absolutely love?

Did this blog post encourage you to start turning them into a story?

If so, I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

It's not that you're a sloppy writer; there's just a LOT to think about when you're writing a novel.

Depending on the complexity of the story, premise or cast, there can be dozens of characters, multiple planets and/or time zones, internal rules of magic and science to keep consistent, and several backstories to reveal.

You have to pay attention to pacing, phrase things in a way that's immersive and compelling, keep the characters in-character, and try to prevent steam from escaping from your own ears.

When you have that much to think about, it's important to have simple methods in place to keep track of all the story's myriad minutiae.

Here are 3 methods I use to avoid creating plot holes:

1. Create character profiles.

In my larger and more complex writing projects, I create a list of all the characters. Each character has a profile with their appearance, list of current injuries if any, abilities, backstory, and personality.

To make it easier to find each character's profile, I put an asterisk before their name in the headline of their profile.

That way, when I use control+f to search for them, I can type in "*Kadian" and go straight to Kadian's profile, so I don't have to pick through every single instance when the name Kadian is mentioned in other characters' profiles.

2. Create concept art.

When I'm not sure what a character, weapon, location or other entity or item looks like, or the appearance is nuanced enough to give me a lot to keep track of, I'll tend to make some simple concept art that I can refer to as needed.

For example, when I first started writing Heroic Lies, I wasn't sure what Zorei looked like, and that uncertainty brought my writing to a screeching, visually ambiguous halt.

I ended up solving the problem by doodling until I produced this:

As you can see, it isn't super detailed, and doesn't even have any shading. But it lets me put a face to Zorei's name, and gives me some clear guidelines for his physical portrayal.

I also sometimes do this with locations. Because Catgirl Roommate takes place mostly inside a single house, it's important for me to keep the layout of said house consistent.

​To help me do this, I made this rough diagram:

This one's even simpler than Zorei's concept art, but it helps me to stay clear on where everything is, so there's no teleporting furniture to worry about.

3. Map out the plot in advance.

I learned a few years ago that when you want to get a bird's-eye view of the entire plot, it's MUCH easier to look over an outline of the key scenes than to sort through hundreds of pages with a fine-toothed comb.

As I commented in a recent blog post, writing all the scenes in the order in which they appear in the book, without first creating a plot outline, is a recipe for stale scenes, writer's block, and limited plot intricacy.

It's also a recipe for plot holes.

That's why, whenever I start a new writing project, one of the first things I do is make a list of all the key scenes I can think of, in the order in which they happen.

​That way, I can see the whole overarching plot at a glance, and make sure everything fits together logically before I start to write the actual book.

I look forward to reading your comments.

Writing smart characters can be hard. Especially if they're noticeably smarter or more knowledgeable than the person writing them.

To meet this challenge, some writers resort to pseudo-intelligence in an effort to make their characters seem clever.

Technobabble, long words, and inscrutable offerings of wisdom that don't actually mean jack are all classic fallbacks.

Unfortunately, they're also rather unconvincing ones, at least in my mind.

Here are a few methods I've seen that really worked, some of which I've used in my own writing:

1. Making accurate deductions from fleetingly mentioned facts

If a fact is prominently mentioned and clearly emphasized, it's easy for the audience to realize that it's obviously relevant.

​When this happens, the reader will pay more attention to this fact, and might very well make the needed deductions before the characters do, thus making the cast look slow instead of smart.

But when a character can notice and remember things that the narrative mentions only in passing, and form accurate deductions from them, it shows that they're a highly observant individual who notices things that ​others don't, and who can use the data they collect more effectively than the people around them.

Even if the defeat wasn't part of the original plan, if the character can adapt and take advantage of it, it's still a credit to their cleverness and flexibility.

4. Extreme multitasking

Farscape's Stark looks, sounds, and acts like his brain has been badly fried. Given his backstory, it arguably has been.

But as the following bit of dialogue reveals, underneath the surface of that fractured mind, he has mental capabilities beyond the limits of normal people.

Accomplice 1: "How will I know when to start burning the generator?"

Stark: "I TOLD YOU! We'll all be on a silent count for the entire battle!"

Accomplice 2: "A silent count? While we're fighting?"

Stark: "Yes! It's easy!"

Obviously, keeping an accurate silent count during a firefight is not easy. Unless, of course, you have the ability to follow multiple trains of thought simultaneously, and to do so effectively, even if one of them is hard and complex.

So if a character can do this, even if they aren't that smart in other areas, they clearly have a pretty powerful brain.

5. Predicting other characters' actions

Some characters have a hard time figuring out what they are going to do next, never mind everybody else.

And then there are the characters who have other people figured out so well that they know what those people are going to do before the people themselves decide.

Their opponents think they're being clever, only to discover that every move they made was already factored in, and both they and the audience realize that they're dealing with a genius.

​6. Thinking fast

Almost any reasonably smart character can solve a complex problem, come up with a clever strategy, or put the facts together into a deduction if they're given enough time.

But when a character can do it in the time it takes for a glass to fall or an opponent to reach for their weapon, you know you're looking at a very sharp mind.

​7. Having a big, long list of good reasons

Some characters make an important or crazy decision on a hunch, and look like they're either intuitive, crazy, or blessed by cheating plot gods.

Some characters have one or two good reasons, and most of the cast and audience is convinced.

Then there are the characters who have a list of reasons as long as their arm.

​They can name every single one of the problems that their crazy action solves, the benefits it provides, the reasons why the alternatives aren't as good, and the long-term advantages to doing things their way.

When a character can justify their actions that thoroughly, they may risk coming across as a windbag, but it definitely shows that they've thought their decision through.

​Are you looking forward to meeting the star of one of your favorite stories?

A lot of my online friends have been posting about their experiences at various sci-fi/comic cons lately, and one of them shared an article that I thought was handy and interesting.

It's called 10 Questions to Ask at a Con Panel to Get Yourself Booed Out of the Hall, and I could definitely see why some of them were considered cringe-worthy!

If you're going to a con anytime soon, this is a great resource to help make sure that you DO get the most out of your conversation with the panel, and DON'T end up annoying the panel or audience, or embarrassing yourself.