Anyway, I came to know my characters through daydreaming. Daydreaming can be a way that you can come up with ideas for a story--remember that.
So, I guess I'll start with how I met my heroine... well. [Hold on a minute.] Actually, the villain came first.
Ivor the sorcerer eel
Though, I had written a prototype of Ivor back in high school; and this was in a novel that I've never released (and probably won't, after seeing this series come to fruition). So that "starter" novel was only a glimpse of him. At that time, I didn't really know what to call this monster. "Cedric" was one option, but that name seemed overused and generic.
A few years later, while at the University of the Incarnate Word, I had written about a stingray named Ivor. But then, I thought: Eh. The name "Ivor" didn't suit well with a stingray... but maybe, that must be the name of an eel that was huge, and wanted to take over a kingdom...? And that was when Ivor's image came into my head...and that was when I began to write Dolphin Princess.
So, you can say that I knew about Ivor for a good while...though, he was kind of hard to recognize at first, due to how mysterious he was in the mind.
Princess Silhouette
Originally, I had imagined myself as the lead role; but then, I shook my head and said, "I want this character to be apart from me. I don't want an exact clone of me." So, I had imagined her as a young woman who lived in a mansion, and struggled to please her rich human parents in the 1920s. Now, say what you want about her wanting more, and her being tired of her boring life; but with my character, she's secretly friends with a dolphin, and she wants to leave her miserable life. However, it was never her intent to enter the ocean and become her true self.
Now, the princess thing didn't come until I had her figured out. Silhouette was to be human the first time we meet her in the story, but then she was to discover her past--that's when the princess thing happens. And you'll see her try to adapt to the life that was supposed to be hers. During her self-discovery plot, you'll notice that she'll spend more time underwater than in the human world.
Jarvis the Sand dollar
Okay, you might be thinking: A sand dollar can't talk, as much as move to the beat of the ocean! Well, my sand dollar can, and his name is Jarvis.
So after having Silhouette find out that she was meant to be a dolphin of royalty, I figured that she needed a steward. Well, of course, she'll have a caretaker, but I wanted that friendly side character that would watch over her, and be her tag-along. Now, at first, I didn't want this steward to be another Sebastian-the-crab or Flounder-the-fish... I wanted something different.
Then, for some strange reason, I thought back at my childhood, when I would go to Padre Island, TX to find some sand dollars on the beach. I remember telling my family that I would someday find a sand dollar that wasn't broken but whole, because I kept finding bits and pieces of sand dollars, never whole ones. And from that reflection, I decided to have a sand dollar be a steward to my princess. And this sand dollar would have magical powers to help her, guide her, and protect her.
Horace the dolphin
Now, I wanted Silhouette to have some kind of love interest in the series. So, I was thinking that at the beginning, when we she her as human, that she would sneak out of the house to meet Horace the dolphin. As a human, she is forced to believe that her and Horace would only be friends; and she is also forced by her rich human parents to court with a rich fellow. However, when she changes into her true self, what will she think of Horace then? Would she fall in love with him then?
As for Horace, I was thinking about a dolphin who had a patch of red hair on his head (melon) and wear a necklace of metal tags around his neck (since he's on the go all the time).
So, yeah. That was a little bit of my imagination that I've just shared with you all! Therefore, daydreaming can have its perks (to an extent--Don't daydream in class, kids!).
Veronica Gonzalez
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