A Galaxy of Possibilities: Discussing Character Writing, Diversity, Star Wars and Fandom – Week 1: Introduction

Welcome to A Galaxy of Possibilities: Discussing Character Writing, Diversity, Star Wars and Fandom! This series will be posted as a Tuesday weekly feature. It will last thirty six episodes and I hope that many will join the discussion, whether you are an author, a Star Wars fan, and/or someone interested in diversity in cultural and media representations. Storytelling is extremely diversified and belongs to many people, not only the industries but also to the fans and the wide span of authors that range from amateur to professional, or even some hybrid possibilities for one can be a professional in a certain genre and still enjoy fan writing, roleplaying, fan fiction or else, as a hobby.

Every installment of this series will focus on some of my roleplaying characters that I write at the Star Wars board SWRPG.net. I joined the community in July 2008 after a google search, and it has become my online home since then. While I did some other brief attempts at roleplaying both in the Star Wars universe and a couple of others, I never stuck around the other places. The settings and people at SWRPG is where I (along with my zoo of characters) belong.

The stories we write on the board take place 16-22 years after the battle of Yavin (end of Episode IV: A New Hope). We aren’t allowed to write canon characters (or legend ones, as the distinction now exists). Our original characters must be affiliated to an existing faction: Jedi, Sith, Dark Jedi, New Republic, Imperial or Hutt Cartel (pirates, mercenaries, smugglers and bounty hunters).

Banner made for the board’s 10th anniversary in February 2013, featuring members from Jedi, Sith, Dark Jedi, Imperial and Republic leaderships.

I currently write 29 different characters spread across the six factions. I also used to write others that are now deleted, per my request. I believe that failures are part of the learning process which is why I decided to include analysis and discussions about these deleted characters, as it wouldn’t feel right not to mention them.

The series will be sorted out by faction and mostly alphabetical order within each of them. The deleted characters will be regrouped in a single post per affiliation, while every active ones will benefit from a post of their own. I will include illustrations both in the posts and on Tumblr, links to the active characters’ Wiki pages and to relevant Wookieepedia ones too.

If you are interested in joining the discussion, you will be able to do so via WordPress, Tumblr, Twitter and emails. By making this series a weekly feature, I am leaving room to include follow up posts to a given installment, in case questions or feedback call for them.

• Did you ever write in the Star Wars universe?
• Do you have interest and/or roleplaying experience?
• What are you mostly looking forward to in this blog series?