Tear's Author SPLOT#2: Morgan and Kazaar

[Tear]

Author Splotlight: #2: Morgan and Kazaar

I’m going to do this interview a little bit differently from the first. It’s going to be a double team! Two writers! One set of questions! (It’s not lazy, it’s efficient.) I will also be doing a series of follow up questions. So if that interests you keep an eye out for it.

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Please state for the illustrious court your first names and list the characters you write:

Kazaar: Taylor.

I write Aurelias Kazaar, Cyrus Haman, The Black Man and Samantha Lessard. I also write Taylor Millard and Wargrave when they suit my fancy.

Morgan:

Morgan Evanar, Adia Issoris, Milivikal k’Vik, Adjerban the Interloper, Victer Dejan, and some other characters that don’t have anything to do with Star Wars. I can list those too, but they lack the same history as those four.


When did you first start writing? Has writing always interested you?

Kazaar: Well, I write for a living (I'm a radio news reporter) so I guess writing has always interested me. I couldn't tell you why I started writing, maybe it was because I read a lot.

The first story I wrote was when I was 12, I think. Just a fragment really. I was a big Hardy Boys fan so I wrote five chapters of a "team up" with Nancy Drew. It was supposed to be a "sequel" to this book my grandparents bought me as a gift for some reason. I inserted my cousin, my sisters, this girl I liked, and elements of The Rocketeer. Never finished it, but that was probably the start.

Morgan: I first started writing for pleasure in high school. I actual struggled with the medium until 8th grade, when I was graced by a tremendous English teacher who helped me figure out how to get thoughts down on paper. My problem was that my mind moved way faster than my mouth or my hand could possibly keep up, and she helped with that problem.

I’ve always recognized its value as a medium but it used to be a tremendous struggle to get anything onto paper/screen. I’ve been an avid reader since second grade.


What drew you to write Star Wars fan-fiction?

Kazaar: I had created my own little world when I was 14-15, based on the Star Wars game TIE Fighter (that was actually where the Taylor Millard character spawned from) and kinda kept it up because I was a big flight simulator computer game player. In my, I dunno, early 20s I met Drin Kizael through comic book author Chuck Dixon's website and he directed me here.

Plus I've always been a big Star Wars fan. I remember first seeing it at the age of 9 or 10. Then when they were re-released in 1996/97 my sisters, Dad and Mom went to the midnight releases. Plus I read a lot of the early Dark Horse comics on Star Wars. It was funny, when I was a senior in High School, most students had either pictures of Leo DiCaprio or Cindy Crawford in their lockers. I had Texas Rangers baseball cards and Star Wars comics (which probably makes me weird somehow).

Morgan: I love Star Wars. It’s a wonderful combination of moral tales, science and magic bundled into one big bag of awesome. I needed a writing outlet and happened along Fans about ten years ago.


Have you ever visited other fan-fiction writing boards, Star wars, or otherwise?

Kazaar: I read a few Buffy the Vampire fan fiction and Forever Knight fan fiction in my late teens/early 20s but that was about it.

The stuff we do here I don't consider "fan fiction" really. Just stories that happen to take place in a Star Wars universe. We don't use canon characters (unless they get mentioned off-hand) so I don't consider it "fan fiction." Just a buncha people who like Star Wars and choose to write in that universe.

Morgan: Yes. If I had more time I would post at SW Epics again. They’re great writers over there.


Where do you seek most of your inspiration?

Kazaar: Umm...everywhere I guess. Comics, movies, TV shows, books.

Ed Brubaker said it best, "If you want to write a specific genre real a lot of it."

So if I want to write pulp/noir-style, I'll read a lot of those novels or comics or write the films. I've read a lot of Tom Clancy novels so that tends to help with my spy stuff.

And if I need a Star Wars reference Wookiepedia is your friend.

Morgan: I find inspiration everywhere. I don’t actively seek it, per se.


What are the biggest influences on your writing?

Kazaar: It really depends on the character I'm writing.

For Kazaar, I'll read a lot of Frank Miller, Ed Brubaker, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jo Nesbo and Tom Clancy. If Chuck Dixon's stuff were more in print I'd look at that for action scene stuff. James Ellroy is good for noir too. Or just look up Michael Madsen clips on YouTube or put on one of his films.

Robert E. Howard (the creator of Conan, Soloman Kane and Kull the Conqueror) is also a big influence. And I can't forget George R. R. Martin. He does a great job at writing various points of view.

For Cyrus Haman, kinda how Joe Pantoliano played him in The Matrix but really play up how much of a "male slut" he pretty much is.

Morgan: Herbert, Lovecraft and Bradbury. Zen in the art of writing by Bradbury, and all of his works dissolve into poetry disguised as prose. Something Wicked This Way Comes is one of my favourite books. I adore Lovecraft’s descriptive power. Herbert’s economy of words, especially in the first Dune, is stunning.


Toxicity is probably one of the longest, if not the most epic, series of threads to take place on SW-Fans. How did it start? Where did the concept come from?

Morgan: You would have to ask Jenn and Taylor. They picked me up later, after the whole thing was rolling. I think.

Kazaar: A Tom Clancy novel. I was reading The Cardinal in the Kremlin and wanted to do a story like that.

It also started because you know the Empire has moles in the Rebellion and vice versa. And, imo, we hadn't seen any real machinations that way. So that's why it got created.

It's stalled unfortunately but when fiction writing is a hobby and not your job, stuff like that'll happen. I think it'll pick up because both Jenn and Morg and I have said we want to finish it. Just takes time.


How does your creative process start when you come up with an idea? Do you come up with a premise first? Characters first?

Morgan: For me, character development is a deep, somewhat onerous process. I do my up most to make my characters believable on some level, and it takes a certain mindset to write each one. They are all conflict driven, regardless if the conflict is internal or external, self –imposed or external.

Kazaar: A lot of characters are created first. Aurelias Kazaar was done because I wanted to show that not all Rebels were Luke Skywalker or Han Solo or Wedge Antilles. Some of them really are in it for not so right reasons. Kazaar has good reasons for being in the Rebellion (his parents were killed by Imperials) but he's also got a craving for violence. I think he just wants to fight.

I honestly really wish I could find a psychiatrist to do a psych evaluation on Kazaar. Because he's not necessarily crazy but he's definitely not normal.

Haman was created because I wanted someone who could play off of Hera in "pre-reset" days. Now he shows up when he's needed.

"The Black Man," actually, was never meant to be his own "character." He was an almost plot device, the mysterious man pulling the strings of SpecOps, who'd give Kazaar and Estelle orders but almost always "knew more than he was telling them." Even I don't know his full story yet. He spawned into his own account because he needed to be one.

Samantha Lessard was created almost specifically for Toxicity but she could show up elsewhere.

Wargrave was originally created because the Taylor Millard character didn't want to go parading around as a Darksider. It was his "dirty little secret." When the reset happened, they got split into two completely separate characters (Wargrave is actually Millard's brother).

Millard was created so I could "live out a fantasy" of being in Star Wars. He was also done to show there are some Imperials who are there because they're just "doing their job" and aren't "evil." A lot of his stuff was done pre-reset and I haven't really felt the 'need' to write him (save for a post just say, "Hey he's still around and an (unfinished) thread with s'Il's MMU character). His story is pretty much done.


What follows in building the foundations for your story? Do you start from a high concept and work your way into specifics? Or do you go from specifics into something more broad?

Morgan: The honest, stupid answer is that it depends. I’m more likely to push a new scenario or framework for my and other’s existing characters to work in. It usually starts with a simple concept and then leads to exploration of consequence. Sometime a start comes from a character’s past reasserting itself.

In the end, I do what feels right.

Kazaar: My biggest flaw is over planning and over thinking (ask ANYONE either on the boards or in real life). I obsess about the details, how this should be done or how that should be done. Should this character die here or live? If they're being written well. It's maddening for me and probably drives Jenn and Morg nuts too.

So it mostly starts from a high concept and then works into specifics. Sometimes one story will spawn an idea for another one and then another one.

I tend to write in "trilogies" sometimes, wanting to see something last for three stories then ending with the effects felt later. Doesn't always happen, but I guess that's the comic book influence on me.


I know Kazaar has a few ongoing story lines going. Morgan what about you? Any big story lines you are hoping to launch?

Morgan: During Burning Nerd I came up with the idea that the Onderon/Hapes group would start buying massive quantities and pressuring the price of Bacta. The consequences are huge and far reaching. I am horribly easy to distract and didn’t do anything with it until a week ago. I blame me. I’m terrible.

I recently got the whole bacta crisis rolling, finally. I should have done that 8 months ago, but I had several personal timesinks. Real life can be a pain in the behind.


Which character are you enjoying writing the most right now? Does this change? Or is there one character above all you always enjoy more?

Kazaar: It's almost always Kazaar. It was funny, he was created "just" to write a Rebel and spawned into his own thing. He's got the most use and most mileage, I think. I like to focus on just one character to flesh him out.

But Haman's fun to write when the needs suits. He's total scum.

Morgan: Originally I had a short answer, but I feel that things require some explanation of each of my characters. You’ll have to bear with me. It changes.

Mili is the most challenging to write. She’s from a different time and mentally unbalanced to boot. Her motivations can be hard to measure. She’s mostly revenge-driven, but incredibly emotionally fragile. Mili also has verbal idiosyncrasies and perceives the world through sound.

A well written Mili post is the most satisfying, but almost always the hardest to write.

Adjerban is the most fun to write, since he’s a creature of id and a total dog. He’s mildly self-destructive, but Mostly Harmless, usually.

Morgan is probably the easiest to write for: he’s pretty straightforward and a fundamentally good person. He is easily the most emotionally complete of my characters. His conflicts are mostly external. Most of his uncertainty comes from a lack of understanding about the Force, and his difficulty in relating to it in the same terms as most other Jedi.

Adia’s conflicts are almost purely internal. She’s trying to resolve her nature as a bred weapon, although Navaria helped a great deal to resolve some of this.

Victer Dejan is incredibly results driven, and scared of Salem. He had no idea what a viper’s nest he was stepping into. He’s a man with a narrow focus and he doesn’t fully understand things outside that focus.


I think one of the more popular groupings at Sw-Fans is the team of Kazaar, Milli and Estelle. How did you guys bring about this team in particular?

Morgan: I have no idea. I’m going to blame Taylor. It’s gone far enough back where the details are pretty hazy.

Kazaar: That just kinda "happened." Jenn and I have always been writing partners. Just for whatever reason the characters, whether they be Hera/Haman or Estelle/Kazaar just "clicked." I can't explain it but it works.

Morg coming in was really a blessing too. I think he said to me over the phone, "I want to write with you and Jenn." I ran it by Jenn and she was totally up for it too.

Both he and Jenn can tone down my over thinking and tell me when ideas I have aren't good (case in point, I had an idea for a follow up story to "The Wrong Side of the Table." I ran it by Chris who went, "No...doesn't fit into Star Wars. I respect that. I know Jenn has said that to me too. I like it when people can say that and give a specific reason).

They also put in their own ideas. Like Mili's crush on Estelle. Total Morg thing. It's been hilarious to see the two interact.


Was there ever a discussion about other possible characters filling Milli's/Estelles/or Kazaar’s roles or was it those three from the start?

Kazaar: Morg said, "I want to write with you and Jenn" and we said, "Awesome!"

Morgan: Originally it was Estelle and Kazaar. I’ve considered taking Milivikal in a different direction, sort of back to her dark Jedi roots as a route to destroy the Empire. Estelle’s relationship with Cristobal left Mili feeling uncertain about her relationship with Estelle and Kazaar.


What do you think makes this trio such a unique group?

Morgan: They’re all very different characters, and they have very different approaches to a problem. They’re united in a cause. Strange bedfellows, all that. The fact that we play off each other well as writers is our strongest point by far.

Kazaar: How they play off each other I guess. They just 'fit.' Milivikal is grey/black hat, Kazaar is a grey hat with darker tones and Estelle is white hat with grey tones. It just works.


Is a cast of 3 main characters the perfect number? Do you find running a thread with more then 3 writers slows down the process too much?

Morgan: I think more than 4 becomes a road block. It’s not an issue of too many chefs, but an issue of simple availability. If we could all be free every day to write I think six person threads would be very feasible. Maybe I win the lottery I’ll build a SW Fans writer’s retreat somewhere.

Kazaar: It depends on the story, I think. Sometimes three is enough, sometimes four or five is perfect. The "New Shoes" thread has four writers. The "Valley of Humiliation" has two. It all depends on the story and who's involved. I think one of the most heralded threads Pre-Reset was "Sick Cycle Carousel" or something like that (Holly was in it and can tell you when you talk to her (and you should)). That had a buncha writers. It just depends on the story.


Are there any characters you would like to interact with in the future? If so which of your own characters would you want to do the interacting?

Morgan: Emelie Shadowstar and Adjerban would be a hilarious ball of hedonistic chaos. There are others, but those leap to mind as readily.

Kazaar: Well one got satisfied when Kazaar and De'Ville started writing together. That was one I was really curious to see how the two would interact.

It's kinda tough because I like to know who the writers behind the characters are. I'm honestly a little too selective because I can be the kinda guy who likes to go with what he knows at times.

But if someone says, "Hey I want to write with you," normally an idea can be spawned out of it. IF I have time (because we're all busy and real life does trump what goes on here) and IF they'll stay active (and keep me active). It's a two-way street.

Kazaar/Tear would be an interesting interaction. Kazaar/Sanis too. I think Kazaar/Rev Solomon would be real interesting as well because of their backgrounds.

As for Haman...I'm sure De'Ville would love him. Or Grace Van-Derveld for that matter.


Have you ever started a thread with an ultimate goal to be met by the end of it and failed to reach that goal?

Kazaar: Toxicity hasn't finished yet. Also I was real disappointed Terran left before finishing the train job thread he and I had going. Terran come back!

Morgan: Yes. It’s very frustrating but incredibly important to learn how and why something failed to avoid it/work around in the future. Sometimes it comes down to dumb luck. Stars Fall was my best example of a fizzle.


At the same time have you ever started a thread where you didn’t expect much to be made of it and it surpassed your expectations?

Morgan: The last parts of Outlaw’s End had much more emotional impact than I expected, especially since I didn’t know that Charley was planning to do what he did. I think we collectively managed a strong sense of desperation.

Kazaar: I wouldn't say, "didn't expect much to be made of it" because that's selling it short. But the story where Adelaide showed up. "Just when things were looking so good." Oh my goodness me that story introduced a side of Kazaar I didn't expect.

Originally, I figured Kazaar's alcoholism was to blame for the two splitting up (like he was drunk at the wedding). I saw it as almost comedic. But the way Jenn took it (with it being Kazaar's job choice and Crei's manipulations and kidnapping of Bren) was fantabulous. She gets all the credit for it.

It's one of the best stories I've ever been a part of.


Lastly, what advice can you give your fellow writers in order to excel on a board such as SW-Fans?

Kazaar: Don't over think. Seriously. Having a loose outline is great, but having too much minutia isn't. Sometimes the fun is seeing where it goes.

Also be flexible. That ties into the previous statements about loose outlines.

Morgan: Even if your post isn’t fantastic it’s better than no post. At worst, it’s an ok post. No one can hit home runs every try, but we’re all screwed if you don’t try. Your next post might be inspired and everyone will forget about that post you weren’t entirely happy with. You might inspire someone else.

Trust your fellow writers, too. It’s the key to building relationships with them. Most of us will ask if we feel like we’re anywhere near taking liberties with a character that isn’t ours.

Tear: And there you have it. If you notice any typos or if the colors are too hard to read/follow let me know. Or if you have any questions send me a PM.

Next up: Follow up questions!