#The white grey and black one are actually mostly used when tagging ace posts but still used nonetheless

[fangirling-heart]

💜❤️💙🤍🩶🖤

It means a lot to me that when people send heart emojis, they have a specific color/style they use. And heart they choose to use seems to really reflect that persons personality and how they love.

Actually, do me a favor. Reblog this with the hearts you typically use.

💜💜💜💜

[scribe-the-write-thing]

So I’m back.

Got tagged by @writtenindust <3 Decided to go with How to Pirate.

I might do another one for Strings, which is another WIP I have, soon. <3

1. Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences (elevator pitch). 

Three people from varying backgrounds attempt to find their way and survive during the golden age of piracy. It’s not as easy as they thought.

2. How long do you plan for your novel to be? (Is it a novella, single book, book series, etc.)

At the moment it’s just episodic -- hopefully a novella at the end of it, I’m still working on everything.

3. What is your novel’s aesthetic? 

The ocean, worn wooden ships, blackened and worn flags, empty bottles, city streets with cobblestones, hidden away taverns, navy vessels, swords and pistols.

4. What other stories inspire your novel? 

Treasure Island, Black Sails, Black Flag (AC),  tales of Robin Hood or Sinbad, The Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack

5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel ajsdh idk but i made a moodboard for one of the characters

MAIN CHARACTER

6. Who is your protagonist?

There’s three, actually, or is that cheating? Either way, the three POV characters are Jessamine Rodriguez (also known as Jesse Clarke), the captain of the ship and a part-time revolutionary with a grudge and an identity crisis;  Theodor Erkens, her partner and first mate, who proves that the phrase Dutch courage is completely accurate; and Cecil Harlow, the newcomer on board who only ever wanted a new life -- this all isn’t quite what he imagined.

7. Who is their closest ally? 

Other than each other? The rest of the crew -- most of which will have individual goals/personalities as well as their own bonds to the main cast. The crew acts more like a family, despite their nature, about all they have is each other. At the beginning, Jess and Theo are far closer allies, but later bond together more with Cecil.

8. Who is their enemy? 

The central ‘villain’ (from their perspective) is a navy admiral, Beckett Reynolds, who of course pursues them due to well, the whole pirate thing. He mainly has a history with Jess and her former family -- but largely has the desire to bring justice as he sees it. Otherwise, they also combat other pirates, various rivals for business, merchants and slavers.

9. What do they want more than anything? 

Freedom, I suppose, in different ways. Jess desires a steady, stable home where she can be completely free. Theodor wishes for a purpose -- the freedom to go where he likes and do as he likes without being tied down. Cecil wishes for freedom away from a pressure-filled life with a family that only sees him as an asset to work for their benefit.

10. Why can’t they have it? 

Because while they can, it isn’t without sacrificing something. Jess struggles with finding stability without giving up the agency and freedom a life of piracy means for her (being both a woman and of African heritage in the 1700s).  Furthermore, she views settling as giving up her fight for justice and tolerating the way things are. Theodor, meanwhile, deals with the issue that he cannot continually run away from his own responsibilities -- as it will only make it worse when he does have to face them. Cecil also struggles with exiting a life of rigid structure and entering into a system that completely goes against his own morals.

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

Jess believes that the choices she is somehow required to ‘carry on’ the legacy that her pseudo-father and mentor, Emmerson, left behind, and must do so despite how it may harm her. Theodor believes that he is unable to discover his purpose or ever be satisfied unless he keeps chasing unending ambitions and that, in the long run, he has no purpose outside of the trouble he causes. Cecil believes that he has little use to anyone and severely undervalues himself, and that he is largely unimportant to, well, anyone.

12. Draw your protagonist! 

Hoh I’m not an artist, but some art has been done of them, as I’ve shown off in a previous post. <3

PLOT POINTS

13. What is the internal conflict?

Overall, all three of them deal with their issues of identity and working out their own morality.

Jess struggles with living up to what she believes Emmerson would have wanted her to be, as well as working through an identity crisis involving Jesse Clarke, the disguise she maintains. She debates whether being Jesse is easier -- wondering who she actually is and if the ‘alter ego’ is more similar to her actual personality.

Theodor attempts to find his own purpose in the world and to find a sense of satisfaction -- he rarely feels content with where he is, and constantly hungers for more, never quite feeling complete. He tries to find some way to feel a sense of accomplishment, while avoiding his own issues wherever he can.

Cecil, meanwhile, struggles with his lack of confidence and escaping the black-and-white mentality of the home he grew up with, with the idea of greys and nuance being something strange to him -- morality and the idea of differing ideas of morals becomes his conflict.

14. What is the external conflict?

The external conflict is mainly the forces of the navy and other lawmen who, of course, interfere with the more shady dealings the characters get up to. The external conflict also follows the threat of rival gangs and of the slavers and corrupt officials.

15. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist? 

Separated from each other, most likely -- or one of them being captured and executed.

16. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story? 

Most of the ‘secrets’ only change the characters attitudes and the way they interact with each other. Such as the connection between Jess, Reynolds and Emmerson, Theo’s connection and relationship with Reynolds and other rival characters, Cecil’s internal conflicts, ect.

17. Do you know how it ends? 

Mostly.

BITS AND BOBS

18. What is the theme?

Freedom and finding a place/identity. The greyness of morality and how problematic does not strictly equal ‘bad’. Drama with a comedic spin on things at times.

19. What is a recurring symbol? 

The ocean/waves/the tides. The shore/docks.

20. Where is the story set? (Share a description!) 

Around the 1700s, an alternate history (in that the Republic of Pirates is more of a thing/lasts longer) of sorts with some known anachronisms at points but mostly standard to historical fiction. Set around the Caribbean islands, including; Tortuga, Port Royal, Havana, Matanzas, New Providence, ect.

The story not on land, of course, takes place aboard the Felicite, a stolen privateer-turned-pirate ship.

21. Do you have any images or scenes in your mind already? 

The vast majority of scenes have been imagined and planned out, now it’s just placing them in a timeline and writing them.

22. What excited you about this story?

The exploration of characters and their own personal struggles and how they evolve and grow as they attempt to find themselves and become what they want to be. Exploring the differences in morality and how certain events and situations can allow people to justify, internally, what they do and how they view themselves still afterwards.

23. Tell us about your usual writing method! 

Scenes/snippets all at once which may or may not evolve into chapters as I write, right now they’re very episodic and I tend towards writing scenes I feel most inspired for in the moment.

ahsh for tagging

idk if u wanna but i gonna tag u anyway lemme know if you don’t wanna and ill remove it but

@idunscrewedup