January, 2025 - The Word Guardians

There’s a short and longer answer to the question of ‘Who is Yas’ and why her character is written the way it is.

What I’d like to share is why I decided to write a lead female character who is independent, has firm beliefs, is open-minded, sensitive and has a rebellious streak.

Confused? Hopefully I can explain.

Motivations

The motivations and significance of Yas come from books and television shows and movies that I grew up with. I loved storylines that presented female characters as other than the sidekick who turned to their male counterpart when the going became rough.

A particular irritation was the Golden Gate bridge scene in the James Bond movie ‘A View to a Kill’ where Bond’s female companion was stranded, in stiletto heels, on the bridge supports while screaming for help.

In contrast there were characters such as Wonder Woman and Colonel Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century. Yes, they still bowed to their male counterparts in some situations, but for the most part these characters broke the mold of how starring females were presented at the time. They were independent, able to get themselves out of trouble (and more importantly not in it to being with) and were able to be more thoughtful and compassionate in the process.

As a side note, I’m not going to age myself by giving any time periods here, you can probably come up with a rough guess based on the references!

How I decided to introduce Yas

Fast forward to me starting to write the first Word Guardians book and I knew I wanted the lead character in the first book to be a strong female. Strong, rebellious, yet sensitive and open minded. And I figured that a way to bring all that together was to write a storyline where she pretty much figured out she knew what life was about, and then had all of that questioned through a series of events with her best friend, Sam (I’ll talk more about him in a later blog post).

So, giving away a few details from the first book, The Battle for the Peacekeepers, she’s strong minded, not interested in being popular, and is different to others at her school. She also has a strong belief that there’s no magic in the world whereas Sam begs to differ. His dad has disappeared and he’s holding onto the belief that he’s stuck in a realm.

Yas reasons this out as Sam refusing to accept the possibility that his dad may not be coming back, so treads carefully trying not to encourage his optimism while also not delivering what she thinks has actually happened. All of this combined is what draws Sam to her (you’ll have to read the book to see how their friendship develops).

So, who is Yas?

Very quickly, Yas is presented with irrefutable truth that magic and realms do exist. Now, she could have handled this a different way, but she’s tired of dealing with secrets in her own family and not having anyone to talk to. Ultimately, her open-mindedness, inward questioning and humility enables her to confess that she was wrong to Sam. It galvanises their friendship and starts the duo on their adventures together.

Finally, how Yas handles the climax of the battle in the first book is also testament to her character. She’s conflicted, yet sure headed enough to intuitively know what she needs to do when the moment comes. As a reader too, you get to understand some of her inner exploration as she reaches this point and the ethics that I mentioned in The Worlds of the Word Guardians) also play into this.

So, hopefully, I’ve explained who Yas is and the significance of her character while also not giving away any spoilers. If you’d like to learn more about the book series, please check out the link below.

The Word Guardians book series

Determining the truth of a situation (and what to take on trust) is a reoccurring theme in the Word Guardians series. In What are the Worlds of the Word Guardians I mentioned that the Word Guardians employ something akin to Star Trek’s Prime directive to determine how to act without influencing readers’ thoughts.

I thought I’d delve into this a little more in this week’s post.

What is truth?

Truth is a very interesting word, it turns out. According to the Mirriam Webster dictionary definition, it relates to determining the facts of a situation, what’s real. But if we think about our own lives, it’s hard to figure this out.

How do we determine the truth of a situation?

We see reports in the news, accusations from someone and then opposing stories that come out over time, courtroom coverage and more. And as bystanders, we know we’re hearing differing viewpoints but what is the objective truth here? We can only typically understand this from the bigger picture, other viewpoints and understanding something about the behavioural patterns of the persons involved. Often, we can’t see this because we’re basing what we believe on what we’ve been told or what’s been reported. We trust that those parties are acting ethically, morally and fairly in how they deliver the news. But how can we verify that too?

Why is the truth important to Word Guardians?

In the Word Guardians books, the Controllers manipulate imaginations. They sow ideas and use those who have been disadvantaged in some way. They’ll pose as someone they are not in order to gain trust and ultimately ask something in return. They’ll encourage others to action by constantly pulling at a wound of disillusionment, inciting them to action. The Word Guardians have to second guess, strive for the bigger picture and rely on their own instincts to figure out what action to take. Yas in particular is good at this (but even she can be fooled).

So… how do Word Guardians determine the truth?

The stories are in magical fantasy worlds (realms), but it’s not so different to what we experience in life. Like the Word Guardians, we should question where information has come from, why it’s been presented a particular way and who it might benefit or impact. It can be overwhelming, but we shouldn’t always just take things on trust.

This answers how the Word Guardians determine the truth but, when taking any action, how do they know that they’re not just being controlling, or manipulating, just like Controllers? Well, you’ll just have to read the Word Guardians series to find out. 🙂