Delays and Kernel of Insight: Dancing...King?

Hello, all.  First, just a quick update.  I doubt very highly that I'll be able to get another chapter out until at least December.  I've gotten a new job, my school work is hitting me pretty hard, and I've got a serious program I'm applying for which eats up a ton of my time.  Coupled with a few minor disasters, my writing has been a tad derailed.  Some of it is still happening, so I can keep giving Kernel of Insights to keep the blog updated, but chapters are at a standstill right now.  Which, again, sucks because we're moving into an arc I dearly love in the story.  All I can ask is that you be patient with me.

In the meantime, here's another look into the madness of my early drafts and some thoughts on writing in general.

Kernel of Insight: Dancing...King?

            Okay, so this kind of shows influence of Avatar: The Last Airbender...before I actually saw it.  Weird as that sounds, I grew up with characters frequently having specific movements associated with their powers, not unlike elemental bending from Avatar.  The idea being that someone could use a specific motion to control the flow of energy or what have you.  The most iconic of these was the kamehameha from Dragon Ball Z.  Just a solid movement that was recognizable and easy to connect with a specific type of attack and character.  In my efforts to make several of my characters unique, and  before I figured out the magic system as it is now, I really wanted something similar to that.  A move or a set of moves that really made each character stand out.  Right now, I prefer to have their personalities be the stand out rather than their movements, but back when this was in early draft phase, back when we had four girls instead of three, I stuck with this idea.

            To that end, I gave one character arguably one of the stranger traits in this universe.  Gadius, as he is now, is a bit of a womanizer.  Not outright misogynistic, mind, but a womanizer.  He is meant to be an elven ideal of beauty, as that is part of the joke, that jela-vey are the traditionally beautiful elves who are actually kind of dickish, racist, and prejudiced because of their perceived superiority.  However, before all that was firmly ingrained in the storytelling, Gadius was...a ballet dancer.

            No, I'm serious.  His first appearance in one draft was to be spotted in an underground cavern where he starts to dance in a graceful display of fluid movement.  And as he danced, life would start to spring up around him.  He would turn barren locations into beautiful flower gardens all through the power of dance.  This was also before he was as masculine.  Elves as a whole tend to be very androgynous, so I gave Gadius a sturdier build with more muscle to differentiate him, however back in the early days, this dancing was meant to sort of show his status as an otherworldly beauty, not truly man or woman, but merely a being.

            His powers also went beyond simply breathing life into the world.  He'd dance to fight or to use any of his abilities, which meant that he was sort of like an RPG character from Final Fantasy who could use their dancing to confuse enemies or drain magic or the like.  While this could easily be a cultural aspect, I really...didn't have a lot of purpose for this.  I just thought of it as a way to make Gadius unique without needing to delve too deeply into his persona.  This was before his status as sort of homeopathic medicine/farmer/gardener role was established in Acacia, where he would grow food and plants for use by everyone else.

            Due to the fact that I really had no basis or standing for Gadius to dance, and really, it is hard to write dance if you're not a professional dancer yourself, I eventually excised it.  Gadius does still have a few quirks that separate his jela-vey powers from others.  The way I've handled that, as should be clear from his character, is a deeper connection with the world at large.  His elemental magic is much stronger and can actually do a lot of things that normal magic users cannot.  But that's jumping ahead a little bit.

            So, when this was still an idea in the back of my mind, I thought of having a dancing character, who used dance as both a weapon and means of expression.  However, unless you have a really good reason for it and CAN write dance well, it's wise not to simply give a character a quirk for the sake of being a quirk.  Make it play into who they are or what makes them special.  Besides that, I was once told to simply write what I know and do the best I can from that.  I can dance...kinda...but I'm not trained in it, especially not the graceful kinds.  So, I decided it was best for me if I just didn't even touch it.

            Gadius no longer dances.  He does have a more involved backstory, as much of the dancing was made in the first few scripts, but he does not dance...or does he?  I've got plans for a recreational dance scene with him and someone else WAAAAAAY down the line, but that's neither here nor there.  I just thought this was an interesting quirk.  Actually, if I could make it work, I'd love to have a dancing character who fights through the power of dance and NOT have it be a joke or something to roll your eyes at.  Dancing is, in many aspects as involving, as forceful, as fluid, and as graceful as martial arts, at least to this untrained watcher.  So...don't scoff too much.