THE KING'S ACTORS Development pt 3 Ava

    

The fiery burning sun of ambition and obsession! Ava Charlie Evans remains one of my favourite arcs in the entire book! Every interaction with the other characters just adds so much drama and drive to the story, her scenes are definitely my favourite!

As always, Welcome to the Homestead. Grab a seat by the warm hearth and get cozy while we dive together into the last main character of The King's Actors, Ava

Background: Ava has the most realistic backstory out of the three (Which considering she's taylor swift famous is saying something) If you factor in Jason, she's the second most realistic, but Jason will have a post to himself later. Ava comes from a presitigious family, The Evans. Her mom is a conducter at the Lavivrus Opera house and her dad is a very successful lawyer. Between the two, there was no escaping the public eye for Ava. She didn't want to though! Her parents put her in different sports growing up, trying to findd heer niche and she really took to Theatre. With her parent's connections, she quickly rose up as a popular child actress. She wrote songs, recorded albums, starred in movies, musicals, from age 6 to age 16, which is where we see her at the start of the book. 

Personality: Aries. That's...that's the simplest definition of her. She's got a streak of Hamilton in her, a streak of Macbeth, being Ambition is her folly. Ava thrives off recognition and appreciation. She's an overacheiver and naturally skilled in problem solving that she's grown lazy from not needing to try hard in school. She has a tendency though to be very worldly, trying this dress from this hit company, or this lipstick that this famous actress wore, she's always searching for something to complete her, which drives her entire arc in the story. As I said in Chestnut's post [https://the-homestead-blog.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-kings-actors-developement-pt-2.html] Ava and Chestnut switched about two years into developement. I wrote Ava originally more leaning towards Lucy from the Lego movie. Cool, calm, reserved, refined. She wore feather boas and the highest heels and I would spend hours imagining her strut. As I was writing her though, It bothered me how much of a know it all she was. She didn't quite gel with the other characters, so I decided to scrap that personality and give her more of a fun-loving, life of the party energy. She's kind, caring, smart and very in tune to giving people compliments. Her love language is words of affirmation and it shows...most of the time. At quick as her wit it, like Rex, she tends to speak first and think later. Her and Rex are both equally impulsive, however this manifests in Rex through action and manifests in Ava through words. Rex will run head first into a burning building while Ava would blurt something about how "the building was bound to burn eventually o.o" She does her best, but it's a nice contrast to Chestnut because although Ava talks non-stop, she's not really good at comforting people. 

Voice: Ava's voice is similar to Rex's except it's heavier on the dialogue. Ava puts heavy emphasis on peoples words (or lack of in Chestnut's case) and most of her chapters are filled with alot of "He said", "She said" on purpose. In contrast, Rex is more intuned to action and his surroundings, like I said in his post, he doesn't attach much emotion to his actions, it's more "Okay" Rex set the book down. Ava also puts heavy emphasis on action, but it's less of what she's is doing and more what eveyone is doing. She has a keen eye out for little things to copy or to mention as small talk. 

And with that, I conclude Ava's post! Personally, her personality is closest of the three to my own, even though all of the characters have bits and peices of my journey and personality in them, Ava is the closest to my heart. She's the loud friend you can't help but love! Thanks for reading and as usual, Stay tuned!

PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW

 AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW AT https://brand.site/golden-age-publishers This riveting Multi-POV Supernatural Fantasy will have you at the edge of your seat. Official release date JUNE 29TH 2025. Get yours now for $5 off!

TO BE BRAVE

Gripped by an acidic poison, Princess Chestnut Oak accompanied by Rex and Ava, races against time to get to the city of Lavivrus, but unforeseen setbacks might be the difference between seeing her family again and dying alone.

TO BE FREE

Rex Thunder, a smalltown pickpocket, finds his fate intertwined with Chestnut's when a powerline falls and takes his life. Each child of the afterlife, Limbo, signs a contract which purchases a second chance at life for an eternity of slavery serving the King. With his contract due, Rex's ghost runs away from the man who's been assigned to bring him to home. Under the guise of caring for Chestnut's wellbeing, he joins her in her travels. If he could only destroy the portal back home to Limbo, he could finally be free.

TO BE LOVED

Ava Charlie Evans, the sweetheart of the stage and film industry, is cut off from the spotlight. Her mom requests she come to live with her in Lavivrus and finally live a normal concealed life. When her boat is docked by a hurricane, she meets Rex and Chestnut. Desperate for love and attention, her jealousy grows when she drifts into Rex's shadow.

The Nessecary Evil of Writing: Cutting

"Just get your first draft out there"

"You can't edit a blank page"

"The first draft is inherently word vomit, just get it on the page"

    We've all heard these before. These phrases commonly circulate writing communities and for good reason! This is one of the best peices of advice you can give to a new reader, but once you complete that first draft, new readers are left staring at their creation wondering "What now?" 

    Now, my dear travellers, welcome to the Homestead. Grab a seat by the warm hearth and get cozy while I explain the cruelest neccesary evil of Writing; Cutting.

    No matter what length your book is, 20k, 80k, 120k, it's always hard to cut things. Authors who are disassisfied with their book length especially have a hard time cutting. I recently finished the first draft of JUNE 9TH and it's come to a grand total of 43k. Yaaaaay... For comparison, my first book was about 200,000 words. I tend to overwrite and ramble on, which is great for when you get to the second stage, editing, however when you have a short book, it becomes harder to axe peices that you are deeply attached to. 

That's my advice to you:

DON'T GET ATTACHED

    When you finish your first draft, especially if it's your first book, there's a sense of excasty, I mean you just finished a book! That's a major accomplisment and you should be super proud of yourself. However the worst thing you can do is look at your first draft and say "Wow, this is the best thing I ever could have created" There's always room for improvement and months or years down the road you may look back on those "genius ideas" and have a better one, and that's okay! Cutting, reworking, and rewriting is, in my opinion, the most fun part of writing. Some characters will clutter the plot, some arcs will seem out of place, some descriptions just won't make sense. It's important to look at your work with a mindset of "How can I make this better?" instead of peaking in your first draft. Pssst, this also helps when you have Beta readers. If you're mind is more angled towards constructive critisism, their comments will feel less like a direct attack 

    All in all, cutting can be hard and emotionally wretching. Recently I had to cut a major character, Eric from The King's Actors, because he wasn't big enough to effect the plot in an important way and adding more scenes to fill out his arc would clutter the plot. In the beginning it was a small thought that destroyed me. I couldn't imagine the book without him, but as I was editing, I realized just how neccesary it was to cut him. After days of crying and debating, I took to my manuscript, enterred "Eric" into the find and replace bar and removed every mention of him....the hardest thing for me to accept was just how easily it was to cut him. The more you get attached to your characters, the best descisions become the hardest. 

Thanks for reading and stopping by, as always keep writing and stay tuned!

OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE: JUNE 29TH, 2025

 Dear Family and friends! I am pleased to announce that my debut novel, The King's Actors, will release on Amazon and other retailers on JUNE 29TH. Mark your calenders for this riveting tale of three unwilling puppets as they reach for the strings to control their own fate. The book will be available for pre-order within the next month, until then, Stay tuned!

TO BE BRAVE              

Gripped by an acidic poison, Princess Chestnut Oak, accompanied by a smalltown pickpocket, Rex Thunder, and an acclaimed child actress, Ava Charlie Evans, race against time to get to the city of Lavivrus. If they can get the cure in time, Chestnut would be saved, but unforeseen setbacks might be the difference between seeing her family again and dying alone

                                                           TO BE FREE

Rex Thunder, having lived by himself since age 11, finds his fate intertwined with Chestnut's when a powerline falls and takes his life. Each child of the afterlife, Limbo, signs a contract which purchases a second chance at life for an eternity of slavery serving the King. With his contract due, Rex's ghost runs away from the man who's been assigned to bring him to home. He accompanies Chestnut under the guise of care for her wellbeing, however if he could just get to Lavivrus and destroy the portal, maybe he could finally be free.

                                                          TO BE LOVED

Ava Charlie Evans, the sweetheart of the stage and film industry, is cut off from the spotlight. Her mom requests she come to live with her in Lavivrus and finally live a normal concealed life. When her boat is docked by a hurricane, she meets Rex and Chestnut. Desperate for friends and attention, she joins them for a little fun, but her jealousy grows when she drifts into Rex's shadow.

THE KING'S ACTORS Developement pt 2 Chestnut

    

Ah, Chestnut, my beloved cinnamon roll. Chestnut was always meant to be Rex's love interest, but their relationship had dramatically changed. In the beginning I wanted to aim for a slow burn, innocent girl x angsty flirt dynamic, but I cut most of the scenes that Rex was being a jerk in and between draft 2 and draft 3, they actually had a much softer, sweeter love story. Read the book to see! They're super cute! <3 Chex stan.

Background: Chestnut has, next to Rex, the most fantasy backstory compared to the other characters. She isn't a human, but a Chipeerman (chipmunk, deer, human) I drew inspiration from Avatar with the cat like design, except I adapted that into the two selected animals. She was born on the planet Varterra, a utopia of peace and unity. Predators don't exist, and the only human like creatures are Chipeermen. They carve their homes out of redwood trees and harvest fruit and vegetables from their farms to sustain themselves. Their clothes are made of silk, as silk words are prevalent, as much as flies are for us. Their culture is tribal, but they have some level of technology literacy. Each Princess, once they turn 18, must go on a two year pilgrimage to the planet, New Earth. 

Personality: In regards to Chestnut's personality, I had a mildly hard time creating her. Her character was inspired by Unikitty, who was my go-to character whenever my brother and I would play legos growing up. She started goofy, upbeat, think any adorkable disney princess. She was curious and often got in trouble trying to figure out this new world she's in. This pretty much changed immediately, when I moved the chapters from my phone notes to an actual document, I flipped Ava and Chestnut's personalities. Ava had been more of an older, cooler aunt. So when I gave this to Chestnut, it translated into Mom energy. From there Chestnut basically became the mom friend, making sure everyone was cared for. The idea of having her get poisoned came about halfway through the first draft. I needed a motivation for them to go to Lavivrus that was more than just "We're going there, because we can :D" I was bouncing off walls weeks after I came up with the idea, just playing it out in my head and giggling cause I thought it was so cool! Now, I kinda forgot Chestnut was an actual character that needed fears and motivations until the second draft. I made her less of an explorative adventurer and more of a shy freshman in college. I gave her an arc based on her becoming more courageous, finding the strength to face challenges in face of her fear. 

Voice: It wasn't until halfway through draft 2 that I wondered "What if each character had a unique voice" Come to find out later as I read books on how to write that that's what you're supposed to do HAHA. I had a really fun time creating Chestnut's voice, because it's so different than the other characters. Contractions don't exactly exist on Chestnut's planets so she speaks "elequently with perfect diction, for as you know, she was raised as a perfect lady and choose not to partake in slang speech" She basically talks like she's in Pride and Pedjudice. Her chapters are heavily thoughts focused. Each character has a major focus that I try to keep in mind when writing their POV. Rex is more focussed on his feelings, emotions, what he's doing, it's more action minded and less of long winded internal monologues. Things like shaky hands, racing heart, knocking knees are all things he notices that Chestnut Ava and Jason dont. Chestnut is more focussed on her thoughts and the beauty of the world around her. Her chapters are filled with those long winded internal monologues that Rex doesn't have, neither Ava, because she is a deeply introspective introvert. She's more likely to have more poetic descriptions of places too, because she can appreciate colors and patterns and light reflection.

WOOOO! Well that wraps up Chestnut's breakdown and development! Thanks for reading and as always, Stay tuned!