writing Ethan

[beccaelizabeth]

Have pinned down one of the problems I have trying to write Ethan.

One of the reasons I like him in the first place is I know he can think of things I'd never be able to think of. Elegant, artistic, utterly insane things that make perfect sense from a certain point of view. But that I can't invent.

I'm writing him, I'm supposed to be doing all the inventing.

At the moment I'm finding I can invent the Ripper times perfectly well if I think of it as sex and violence, but I can't think of anything particularly interesting to do with magic, and it was all about magic. I'm going to have to dig through RPG spellbooks and start getting creative in the applications.

Or write something like this and ask for bunnies from people who don't intend to use them :)

Comments

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

What kind of bunnies are you looking for?

[beccaelizabeth]

magic bunnies!

things that Ripper and Ethan et al might have used magic for back in the 1970s, when Eyghon counted as something bigger.

but the trouble with random bunnies is Ethan spells are always so much about psychology.

I don't know, I think I'll have to apply my own brain to my own stories for it to make sense. who'd have thought? :)

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Pick a list of proverbs or commonplace sayings and see how they can be twisted. Or check irish fairiy tales - the sidhe have shown how to pervert people's desires.

He could ruin someone's birthday by making the candle wish come twistedly true, or he could make sure everybody cries during a wedding, even the priest and the saints' statues...

He could attend a funeral and put a truth spell on the proceedings so nobody can lie about the dearly departed. (Actually, I like that. Makes mental note to use it eventually - but feel free to use it too)

Anything of pied piper ilk would work too.

Making people's clothes invisible.

He reveals, unleashes, twists.

Anything that brings forth hidden desires, or hidden greed. Exposing charitable church people for self-serving assholes. Making sure that the pious neighborhood priest gets caught fucking a choirboy (even if the little boy is a succubus Ethan hired for the purpose)

Causing a national monument (a statue of a famous American hero) to walk and play king kong - especially if Ethan thinks that the hero was a fart or worse.

American Natives enact the Ghost dance for tourists and suddenly the ghosts truly rise and massacre the tourists. (I like that one a lot!)

Or he puts a spell on the owners of a geriatric home, making the old darlings really horny, so they have orgies and plunder the local erotica store for sex toys, mightily embarrassing their offspring - this works best if the spell takes effect during a fundraiser at the place, where everybody is festive, only the old people insist on having fun.

Jinxing a life saver so he attracts sharks.

Putting an evil glamour on glamourous people so that all their cosmetic surgeries suddenly become obvious, and causing their wigs and toupets to dissappear. :-)

As you can see, it's not that difficult.

[beccaelizabeth]

heh, not that difficult for one with the right mind.

Making people's clothes invisible. is the only one I'd thought of, and I think I read it somewhere.

Also I was going to use the truth thing, because that's one of the things Ethan always brings out, only twisty.

thanks for all many ideas :)