#thinking about caelin... you know what sure maybe this is pretty in-character

[dawnbrigade]

sorry one last U.S. erection post -- being jumpscared by a lyn fireemblem political meme from my coworkers on instagram of all things was absolutely not on the bingo card, lmfao

[quilloftheclouds]

Novel Prep Tag

Tagged by @ahowlinwolf! I don’t usually do tag games, but this one was fun and it happens to align with the new wip I’m working on~

Rules: answer the questions and then tag as many writers as there are questions answered (or as many as you can) to spread the positivity! Even if these questions are not explicitly brought up in the novel, they are still good to keep in mind when writing.

Tagging @livvywrites @tenacious-scripturient @abalonetea @aslanwrites @surroundedbypearls @ditzysworld @h-faith-marr-writeblr and @ardawyn! Only a few, because I’m not quite sure who’s open to tag games or not. Feel free to ignore!

I’ll be doing this one for Two Witches Woven, since I just starting writing the first draft about a week ago! It’s the second book in the One Siren’s Soul series! (I don’t yet have an introduction up, but I’m working on that now.)

FIRST LOOK

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

The Diluculo's crew sets off to return the magical Siren's Soul to its true guardians, their voyage drawing the attention of a rather peculiar pirate captain as it leads them directly into the heart of siren territory. But that’s not all that hinders them: war rides on the tides, and it’s quickly coming in.

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

This is book two of a trilogy! If you’re curious about the first book, check out the introduction post for One Siren’s Soul here~

3. What is your novel’s aesthetic?

This book focuses a bit more on the Forest sirens than the first one did, but a lot is still the same.

Storm clouds churning with violet lightning and swells of foam seething waves below; sunlight filtering down through calm water and pillars of giant kelp, shoals of fish glittering between; a massive ship with black wood, gold and gemstone dragons, and amber, ribbed sails; a room of secrets locked behind a black door; the clash of blades and smell of gunpowder and taste of blood; mist-like green magic whirling chaotically; glowing eyes and fanged snarls and slick scales and wing-like fins; and a world of endless stars.

4. What other stories inspire your novel?

Quite a darn lot! Of course, the major inspiration from movies was probably Pirates of the Caribbean. There’s also Avatar: The Last Airbender in there and How to Train Your Dragon and LOTS of Peter Pan and just. Lots.

But mostly it was inspired by my personal experience living on the coast and fishing/kayaking/hiking, and from my uni courses! Lots of marine biology and other science! And honestly. So much of my ideas are from music. Heck. Ah. Like, this song in particular was stuck on the wip playlist since the start, and for more epic stuff, all of the PotC soundtrack and epic instrumentals like this and this.

5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel.

I wanted to include some ships and piratey stuff too but... only three. Auughh.

MAIN CHARACTER

6. Who is your protagonist?

Celestine, Dione, Caelin, Lá Lúa, and [spoiler] all have perspectives! But Celestine is kinda the main main character.

7. Who is their closest ally?

Uhhhh Phoenix? Maybe? Also someone Celestine doesn’t even remember~

8. Who is their enemy?

Technically the British Royal Navy! Although, Captain Ryans and Rose are pretty close to being the main antagonists.

9. What do they want more than anything?

Celestine just wants to live peacefully for once! Really! To stop having people chasing them for the bounty on their head, have plenty of time and materials for their machine building, maybe possibly get away with a bit of thievery. Is that so much to ask for?

Also! In this book, the main goal is getting a magical artifact called the Siren’s Soul back to the sirens who were supposed to be guarding it!

10. Why can’t they have it?

BECAUSE PEOPLE KEEP CHASING THEM AND BEING ANNOYING (and also there’s some magic chaos going on that prevents it).

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

Aww. Celestine believes that she’s bad luck. Everyone she’s come close to in the past have come to severe harm or have lost their lives, so she’s rather frightened of getting close to anyone new. Hence the belief that she wants to live in isolation, which is... really not true. Nor is it what she needs.

12. Draw your protagonist! (Or share a description)

nnnmmmmm don’t feel like writing a physical description. Have an art instead:

PLOT POINTS

13. What is the internal conflict?

There’s. A lot! But as I said above, that belief that she’s bad luck versus several people getting close to her (and her desire to get close to them even though she’s trying to convince herself that’s not a thing). Celestine also has severe PTSD and has plenty of guilt towards her mother’s death, and her hydrophobia is especially prominent as an internal obstacle to what she wants to do.

14. What is the external conflict?

THERE’S A WHOLE HECKIN’ WAR? Between sirens and humans? And Celestine’s caught right in the middle of it. Oops. Also the selfishness and greed of humans when it comes to gaining magic from the sirens, and both parties being rife with fear and misunderstanding. 

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

Celestine really just does not want to lose someone else she’s close to. Being responsible for that would be the worst, though. c:<

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

Someone’s not wholly human.

17. Do you know how it ends?

Yeppers.

BITS AND BOBS

18. What is the theme?

Lost years, healing from trauma, family being more than blood and home being more than place. The consequences of aging/time passing and the inability to return to what once was, but learning to live with the current. (Haha puns. c;)

19. What is a recurring symbol?

LIGHTNING. Zappy zap. You’ll learn why soon.

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

I haven’t really decided on a specific place yet, but it takes place on an alternate Earth during the Golden Age of Piracy! The first book was in the Northern Atlantic off the coast of New Acadia (modern day Nova Scotia), but I think the second book (this one) will take place in the Caribbean!

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

Ooohhohhh yeah.

22. What excited you about this story?

I mean. Captain Xuân being my favourite character. Is a thing. They make a major appearance in this book. Also just! All sorts of new siren worldbuilding I get to reveal and cool magic stuff!

23. Tell us about your usual writing method!

I have a basic bullet point outline I’m working from, though I often stray from it. I write in order, and if I get stuck, I often find just writing the dialogue like a script is much easier, so I do that and skip parts I can’t write at that time and return to them later!

I have to basically always be listening to music while doing anything ever, so. It doesn’t always have to follow the theme or similar emotions to what I’m writing, but it can help with the mood if it does match!

[worldnotation]

Telling a story through colour can be just as effective as telling one through music. Associating it with characters, themes and feelings can tell a sublime, subliminal story. I should have a think about what colours I want to associate with what. Red = blood. It will barely ever appear, so when it does, it will stand out. Put it on the slaver dude that you forgot the name of. All RGB colours seem to be associated with outsiders, whereas CYMK seems to be with the familiar (the main characters). But then what about purple and white? Perhaps use them to suggest the unfamiliar and even creepy; use them on characters and locations that are creepy and mysterious. Perhaps the end of the beyond and many places in it that aren't already inhabited by spirits (since those have their own themes). Note: the main character is glowing white with black hair. Use this to represent the duality of their path (multiple choice) and the different personalities they have, but also to show that they are also an outsider to this world, like the player. Perhaps if or when they reach the end of the beyond it will be black and white, like they are. Another idea: leave the player with different coloured objects of significance to the people melded with their soul. If red is danger, green could be danger from within, like a poison. (Aka the character who betrays you. Unrelated note: souls, when absorbed into the body, flow through it like blood, as noru says. Or someone else, maybe, either way. This is why they are able to disappear into the body. The protag glows white because they have such an intense amount, and it runs through them, giving them headaches and memory problems and nausea like soul clusters do, and straining them like high blood pressure. Back to colour: also use it whenever the protag decides to kill an animal or person, either by an item reward or actual blood (maybe make alien blood another colour and use the items for them, but red blood for human/sentient characters?) Make the angel people use blue and yellow, and make their temples white but not their houses or people. In fact, make anything religious white. White is mystery and uncertainty, and who can claim to know God is real? (note: maybe make a note you find say '--and who can claim to know God is real?' and have the author be surnamed white or something similar.) What about yellow and magenta? Magenta is caelin's colour and she represents passion, rebellion, righteous anger, so the locations it's prominent in should reflect those traits. Maybe when entering a scene or area where something rebellious is about to happen, make things more magenta. There could be a secret rebel place in the angel planet with magenta crystals growing around it instead of yellow. Maybe a signal for the rebellion is a magenta handkerchief. Maybe the green angel who betrays you might at one point mistakenly give you a red handkerchief instead of magenta to symbolise that she's not really with the cause. Yellow? Yellow is ambition, greed, royalty. Yellow can be blinding sometimes. But I'm not sure if that suits icarus, since though he is ambitious, he is not rich or greedy. He is powerful physically, however. So maybe yellow could come to represent power. Keep in mind that though their planet is smaller its landscape is strong against the winds. (maybe make that last bit a snippet of text too.) Then what is blue? Serin is blue. It represents calmness, tranquility, but also sadness. And maybe also the feeling of being trapped? Maybe use it in scenes where npcs have been captured in some way, and in the slave pens. Perhaps it also represents eternal life in some way. The souls are blue. Actually, just life in general, considering the fauna of colossus are blue in their stems and leaves. Red could mean danger whereas blue could mean safety security but also imprisonment, which plays with the theme of rebelling but knowing you'll be in even more danger than you were when you were trapped. Or perhaps the safety is an illusion as well? ('--Water gives life and yet you drown in it' -- Also works with the slaves and their association with water, and maybe the Atlantis rebellion who are all sort of trapped underwater now. Note: maybe the Atlantis rebellion is just a sect of caelin's rebellion, or at least a sect of where her rebellion has been as they travel around. Maybe make her rebellious locations have blue in them as well as red. Note: maybe make a distinction between dark blue and cyan, C and B. Dark blue could be trapped, light blue could be calm. Perhaps Serin is darker blue whenever he feels blue, and/or maybe when he wakes up from Vektor killing him. Note: make Vektor's products and logos dark red and white, and their labcoats white and purple, and make her have bright red hair. This is the uncertainty and danger thing. Note: Have X be in this, and on some route or maybe most or all, have them be a sort of living vessel of the 'red is danger' metaphor; have them be around before bad things happen, and have them give a warning before the rebellion base is nuked. Perhaps also make them look like one of the suspects for the betrayal, only for them to be a literal red herring. Have them refer to themselves as a messenger before their warning in some way. Scene idea: the protag is left a note by X signed as the messenger, and as they go into the next screen, they briefly see their sprite. That, or they just put the note in the protag's hands before walking away. Maybe this depends on your choices: if you're in more danger, you see more of them. The other colours, like orange, burgundy, brown, grey... Maybe normalcy? Maybe regular civilians dress in mostly those colours. Maybe most humans, anyway. On the nexus? No, that wouldn't match the colour scheme. Black seems to be a pretty neutral colour here. Hmm. Note: because of the green = betrayal association I may need to make caelin blue. Or her skin grey and eyes blue. Maybe Serin can have the opposite... Hmm. Blue grey skin, blue hair, red eyes? No, red eyes would have dangerous connotations. Maybe just change according to events in the story. Or the seasons! Blue in the summer, orange in autumn, white in winter. Black in death? Maybe. If it symbolises his character development. Actually, if we give caelin chameleon-like abilities, she can change with the seasons too. Maybe magenta hair the whole time and grey skin, but her markings change colour (I don't want to get rid of the hair)? They could be magenta in the summer, purple in autumn, blue in winter, to symbolise how she feels trapped because her efforts aren't having any long-term consequences and she's running out of time and energy. Serin's colour changes could change depending on his allegiance. He feels sad and trapped (blue), then begins to cheer up (orange) and then some bad shit happens and he isn't himself any more (perhaps when he's hacked by Vektor), so white. Maybe shortly before then it could actually not be white but could be turquoise, like the water on colossus. Or maybe it's properly cyan by that time, since cyan has different connotations than blue. In fact, maybe he goes from dark, desaturated blue to a light cyan both to symbolise getting happier and also because he starts to fit in with the rest of the group. (also, maybe if somehow he becomes more distant due to player choices, it gets darker until it's black). Maybe any other colour changes are on other elements of him like freckles and glasses and clothing. Maybe icarus could change colours too, but slower and more subtly than the rest, since he is an angel even if he can't shapeshift or colour change.