NANOWRIMO: The Conclusion + Learning From Failure

NANOWRIMO: the conclusion + learning from failure

Hello friends!

Long time, no see! ᕱ__ᕱ These past two weeks I have been giving myself a little break from this blog. I have been swamped with final projects in all of my classes and have been trying to balance getting all of them done with middling success. I’m not thriving, but I am surviving. 

However, to make up for my absence, I will be giving y’all some extra content within the next two weeks. In those posts I won’t be boring you with my rambles as I usually do and instead will simply be giving you some content that I have created for my novel! In this post, though, I will be updating you on my novel’s progress and giving you my thoughts on NANOWRIMO.

For those of you who have been here for a bit, you will know that I attempted to participate in National Novel Writing Month for the first time this November. (As always, here is a link with more info about NANOWRIMO for your perusal.) My personal goal as a full time student with a part time job, was to write a 25,000 word manuscript instead of the full 50,000 words. November has ended and I am happy to report that I failed. I failed to reach even my cut down goal. However, I am surprisingly really happy with my progress this month. I learned a lot about myself as a writer and about my process and while I didn’t manage to write even a 10,000 word manuscript, I feel much more prepared to tackle writing this novel.

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So, here are the things that I learned:

Character design and building is VERY important to me

This, I already knew. One of the main things that bother me about book to movie translations or “hot takes” about books on social media or even some fanfictions is that characters, their personalities and development and relationships, are often either misunderstood or sacrificed for the plot or the sake of another character's development. It’s so annoying. I personally belief that every character in a work of fiction should be able to stand on their own, especially if they are a main or secondary character. Characters should be their own individuals with their own motivations and backstories and for goodness sake they should be consistent! (Crappy character development is a thing that bothers me about published novels too. The wasted potential of Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and Draco Malfoy, among countless other characters, in the Harry Potter novels bugs me so, so much!!)

 So, one of the things that happened everytime I sat down to write this NANOWRIMO was that I would find myself getting “stuck” on this character’s backstory or that character’s personality. I have 13 characters that exist for this story in my head. 2 are the main main characters. The 11 others are also going to have their own plot lines and spin offs. Before NANOWRIMO, I knew that this would make my novel complex. After NANOWRIMO, I realized that I was going to have to organize and map and structure and detail my characters (along with several other things) to the metaphorical gods before I even try to manuscript anything or else I am going to be stuck forever and I will never get this book out of my head.

Worldbuilding is also VERY important to me

This was a bit of a surprise. I am definitely no Tolkien and before I started this blog, and my creative writing journey, at the beginning of this fall, these original characters simply just floated around in my head in a vague fantasy realm with no discernible structure or detail. I expected to be able to just continue with this vague fantasy world and as I started writing let the structure fall into place. Yeah… that’s not what happened. 

As I began to outline character backstories and a basic plot to start writing, I would find myself drawing up short when I needed to insert a detail about the world in which my story is taking place. This month made me realize that I need to also worldbuild to the metaphorical gods before I try to manuscript anything, and in some cases before I try to go deeper into outlining my character’s backstories and such as well. I’m such a detail oriented person that I have no idea why this didn’t occur to me before, especially because I am including a magic system in my book. I hate fantasy books (that are meant to be serious and not just cozy reads) in which the magic systems rely on the “because it’s magic” excuse and the author doesn’t make any attempt at giving at least some sort of structure or rules. So yeah. I really need to worldbuild, which I am going to hate because it is going to take FOREVER (detail oriented person).

I work better on lists and schedules

This I did know, but I didn’t realize it applied to my writing. A lot of the reason why I failed to write anything of substance for the plot of my book is that I thought I could just throw myself in and make it up as I go. Incorrect. As November passed, and I kept getting stuck on details, I realized that I would need to incorporate my penchant for planning and list making if I was ever going to complete a task this large.

Also, side note, but I keep referring to this story that I’m writing as a novel. It will most certainly not be a novel. It will be a whole dang book series. (13 characters!! Who will each get their own POV at some point!! “A novel” my a**.) 

I can throw myself head first into school essays and short writing assignments no problem, but with a story this big, all coming straight from the mess I call my brain, I need to do a lot of planning beforehand. That, above all, is what this failed NANOWRIMO taught me. 

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So! Now that I have torn my failure to shreds and dissected all the little pieces and given yall a short (yes that was short for me - I’m starting to think you guys don’t know me at all ᕱ__ᕱ) summary of who, what, when, where, and why my failure occurred, what’s next. Well, I plan. I outline to the metaphorical gods (as I seem to be fond of saying in this post), and next year, when November rolls around, hopefully I have done enough planning and outlining and detail work that writing a 50000 word manuscript should be a breeze!

That’s all for now folks! If any of y’all are curious as to some of what I did manage to get done on my novel/series over NANOWRIMO then stay tuned for the first of your special content posts which should be up within a few minutes of me posting this. Also, if any of y’all have suggestions about how to store/order worldbuilding content in an easily searchable way that would be fantastic!! Please do let me know. Thanks for bearing with me! ᕱ__ᕱ

And remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

extra content

Hello friends!

As promised, here is one of the extra posts about my original story! A few weeks back, I introduced y’all to Queen Aurora of Sylvanthia, so today I figured I’d introduce you to the special man in her life! ᕱ__< He was talked about briefly in her short character description, but he is one of my 2 main, main characters so I figured I’d better give him his own proper introduction. I also have a picrew of him to share, but hopefully someday I’ll get around to creating my own drawing. Without further ado, however, I’m delighted to introduce ma main boy Kazuki!

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Kazuki of Okunseiko [meaning]

Age 18

Human

Rightful Ruler of Okunseiko

He was about to be coronated when sh*t hit the fan and he had to flee with Sascha

His mother was assassinated when he was 12 and his dad got super over protective

When he was 16 his dad contracted the same illness that killed Aurora’s mother

His uncle Kagero took over as pseudo-regent until his dad passed away when he was 18 and Kazuki was to be crowned king

However on his coronation day Kagero attempted to murder him (it was very chaotic lots of explosions and magic) framing it as an outside assassination forcing him to flee

Engaged to Aurora of Sylvanthia

A puppy love childhood romance in which they strong armed their parents into making official by betrothing them

He misses her desperately (it makes Sascha sick)

A very calm, steady individual, it takes a lot to make Kazuki lose his cool (something Sascha seems very good at)

Also quite adept at reading emotions, even Sascha’s, which gets under her skin something fierce

Very artistically inclined

Loves music of any kind

Plays the violin/fiddle himself

Constantly doubts his ability to be a good ruler, but has a very logical and tactical mind along with empathy in spades

Though Sascha constantly complains he is useless he has saved her life more than once through both strategy and his instinctual understanding of others

He is very aware he is mostly book smart not street smart however

His mind is current on worrying for his people, figuring out why his Uncle betrayed him and if there is a bigger problem at hand (like he fears), and making his way to reunite with Aurora after 6 long years apart without getting killed in the process

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Sooooo… what do ya think? Not sure if y'all saw my last post, but writing out even this short description of Kazuki was one of the first indicators that I had a lot more worldbuilding to do before I was ready to manuscript anything and also the moment when my main antagonist began to take shape. No spoilers (half because spoiler suck and half because I’m still shaky on the details myself) but I hope yall will stick around with me as I continue to craft this story and find out for yourselves in time. I have a long journey ahead and next week you will be getting a second extra content post revealing some more characters!!

TTYL! (And remember to dot those j’s and cross those t’s!)

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

trope talk

Hello friends!

As I stated in last week’s post, I will not be posting anything too grandiose today, as I have been focusing on my original story for NaNoWriMo and do not want to get burnt out. So, I decided that, much like last week, I would put another in-class assignment to use and give you a short listicle about my favorite inter-character relationship tropes! I hope you enjoy! ᕱ__ᕱ 

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6 of the best fiction tropes for inter-character relationships

(in my opinion)

By Clem

Any writer worth their salt these days knows what a trope is. And no, I’m not talking about the traditional definition of a trope, i.e. synonymous with figurative language, though it is indeed important to know that meaning as well. I’m instead speaking of the more recent, broader definition of a trope. As writer Dave Chesson puts it in an article all about tropes on his website kindlepreneur.com, “a trope is a plot structure, theme, storyline, character trait, motif, or plot device that is commonly used in storytelling.” 

It’s these types of tropes that you can find on one of my favorite websites tvtropes.org. Tropes have become such a pop culture, as well as fan culture, phenomenon in the past few years that even those who have never heard the term “trope” before can recognize some of the common ones: the damsel in distress, the chosen one, a friends to lovers romance, a tragic backstory. In fact, some tropes have become so popular that they are deciding factors in whether or not people consume a piece of media. I know this is often the case for me, and in the following list I have provided 6 of my favorite tropes about inter-character relationships that I just can’t get enough of.

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Found Family

Not all tropes about relationships have to be romantic in nature! In fact, a good portion of the tropes on this list are more platonic or familial, and found family is one of them. One of my favorite tropes of all time, found family refers to when a group of individuals, usually a group of misfits or outcasts, come together and form a close platonic, near familial, bond with each other. As many characters in a found family situation don’t have good or close biological families (or any family at all), they become each other’s family.

The Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology by Leigh Bardugo includes an excellent example of the found family trope. The six main characters of the books, some of which are pictured above, are a ragtag group of criminals, each with tragic pasts. Eventually they come together and learn to love and care about one another as they pull off an impossible heist. The found family dynamic between them adds a softness to each character that helps smooth their rough edges. This makes them feel more human and their story all the more captivating.

Golden Retriever & Black Cat

A yes, the good old black cat/golden retriever relationship dynamic. Only given this name in recent years, this character dynamic is much older. Simply put, this trope refers to a relationship, whether romantic or platonic (or even familial), between one character who is very excitable, sweet, and happy (the golden retriever) and one character who is cool, often rude, and grumpy (the black cat). The conflicting personality types is what makes this relationship trope compelling. As they say, opposites attract!

The example I have chosen here is Enid Sinclair and Wednesday Addams from the new Netflix adaptation of The Addams Family, a show entitled Wednesday. Enid and Wednesday are roommates at a boarding school in the show and could not be more different: Enid a bubbly, optimistic werewolf (talk about a golden retriever!) obsessed with pastels and Wednesday a deadpan, pessimistic psychic allergic to color. However, throughout the show they eventually become close friends. It is intriguing to watch this golden retriever/black cat duo interact and try to solve the mysteries that crop up in the show, as their personalities and perspectives on the world couldn’t be more different.

Enemies to Lovers (or at least Rivals to Lovers)

The enemies to lovers trope is the first specifically romantic trope in this list (though there is a parallel trope used for platonic relationships called enemies to friends). This trope, as the name suggests, involves two characters whose relationship with each other develops from enemies to romantic partners. While some may call this trope toxic, and I admit, I can see how it could be written that way, it’s personally one of my favorite tropes when done correctly. This is especially so when between a male and female character. I typically read fantasy or action/adventure novels, genres in which female characters’ skills (particularly in combat) are often looked down upon or patronized by the male characters who are interested in them. However, if an action novel has a well written enemies to lovers side plot, I know I can be sure that at all points in their relationship, a female character’s love interest is taking her seriously.

One of my all time favorite examples of enemies to lovers, albeit in its lesser form rivals to lovers (which is saved for media that does not have characters trying to kill each other), is from the classic romance novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet start out loathing each other, but eventually, through various family dramas, learn to understand and respect each other, and in the process, fall in love.

Girl Boss x House Husband

Technically, this trope is actually titled “girl boss x male wife,” but I prefer the term “house husband” as I have seen the phrase “male wife” used with degrading connotations as well, and that is far from what I am trying to convey. This is another relationship trope most often used for romantic couples, however I believe it can be translated to platonic or familial relationships as well (with some finagling). Whatever the context, this trope contains a strong, independent female character and a male partner who cares for her and holds her stuff when she needs to go beat some sense into someone. As a reversal of the typical gender roles where the male is assertive and protective and the female is the caring and supportive, this trope provides a breath of fresh air and an interesting dynamic to explore.

A great example of the girl boss x house husband trope is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase from Rick Riordan’s Greek mythology books. Percy is definitely a powerhouse character in his own right, but is 100% willing to step back and let Annabeth take the reins in their relationship while making sure she's taking care of herself in the process.

Naive Hero & Mentor Figure 

The mentor figure trope is basically what it says on the tin: a naive character, typically the main character, is taken under the wing of an older and wiser mentor. Oftentimes, the mentor figure fills a familial void in the naive hero’s life. If you’re lucky, the mentor figure survives. If you’re not, then, in the words of Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte, “sorrows, sorrows, prayers.” This trope is a great way of giving the character, and the audience, the background information they need to know while showcasing the main character’s development. 

Often, this trope appears in superhero fiction, such as one of my favorite examples for this trope, IronDad and SpiderSon Tony Stark aka Ironman, and Peter Parker aka Spiderman from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony recognizes the raw talent that Peter has, as both a superhero and a tech genius, and does his best to guide him, by protecting him and steering him away from the same mistakes Tony himself made in the past. It will forever be a crime that we didn’t get to see their relationship develop further before… you know… “Sorrows, sorrows, prayers.” 

Bros before Hoes

While it does have a bit of a vulgar name, this trope is actually one of the sweetest on this list. Usually, at least one of the characters in friend groups with this relationship dynamic is involved in a romantic relationship outside their group, and at some point will have to choose between their friends and their lover. When this relationship dynamic comes into play, characters will always choose their friends. 

Unless, of course, their friends are wrong. My favorite example of this dynamic comes from The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chainani. The two main characters are the best of friends. While throughout the series they have their fair share of disagreements (if that's what you call it when your best friend keeps falling in love with men who try to kill you and your boyfriend), they ultimately pull through and choose each other over boys, proving that romantic love is not the only love that can vanquish evil. Though not every story with a Bros before Hoes dynamic is full of life-and-death decisions, this relationship trope provides a sweet nod to platonic love in any story.

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So, the next time you sit down to write media, or consume it, pay attention to the tropes you may include or notice. Do they make the media better? More compelling? Or do they take away from the main message or storyline? (For some reason writers love to include love triangles. I abhor love triangles thrown into media just for kicks). For all you writers out there, maybe consider including one of the tropes listed above. If you do, send me a link! Like I said, I just can’t get enough!

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So... do y’all like any of these tropes?? Do you hate them? Please do let me know, I’d love to hear it! And if this post was not your cup of tea, I apologize, but don’t worry, we should be back to our regularly scheduled programming in another 2 weeks! ᕱ__ᕱ Good luck to those of you also participating in NaNoWriMo!! 

And just remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s! 

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

extra content 2: electric boogaloo

Hello friends!

As the title suggests, here is the second extra post as promised!! Last week I introduced y’all to Prince Kazuki of Okunseiko, who is Queen Aurora of Sylvanthia’s beau, so this week I figured I’d introduce some of their attendants/friends. Also, one of these characters happens to be my favorite character thus far! I hope you love her just as much as I do! ᕱ__ᕱ 

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Sascha [meaning]  (19)

Age 19

Human (?)

Her father abandoned her when she was quite young and she never knew her mother

Right hand woman of Queen Aurora of Sylvanthia

The Spymaster for her majesty

Was previously on an undercover mission to investigate the mysterious illness (that claimed both Aurora’s mother and Kazuki’s father) which had been spreading across the land in the past decade or so

And she was in the process of discovering that it ran much deeper than simply a new virus developing

Was pulled away from that to attend Kazuki’s coronation as a representative for Sylvanthia as her Queen was too busy cleaning up the mess her previous advisors made to attend

Is now stuck on the run with Prince Pretty Boy Kazuki himself after uncovering a plot to kill him and saving his life

Serious, takes no sh*t attitude with a sharp wit and sharper tongue

If one is lucky (or unlucky depending) they may get to experience her wicked sense of humor

Surprisingly beautiful, ironically contrasting her caustic personality

Extremely independent 

She gets her job done and done well

Has been very hurt and betrayed by people she should have been able to trust in the past

Which is why she staunchly ignores Romulus’s affections for her (though she mayhaps feel the same)

Her thoughts are rushing around at the speed of light, constantly observing her surroundings and taking in new information, but the most common of them feature worry over Aurora, both as her Queen and her oldest and dearest friend, determination to figure out just what is causing the rising unrest in Delyorea, and attempting to resist the urge to throttle Kazuki whomst seems to attract trouble like dung attracts flies

Nicolás [meaning] (19) 

Age 19

Human

Bodyguard of Crown Prince Kazuki or Okunseiko

Also his best friend

A classic knight figure

Extremely noble of spirit and loyal of heart

To his credit he immediately believed Sascha when she said something was fishy during Kazuki’s coronation and contributed heavily to saving the lives of not only Kazuki, but Sascha as well

Son of a nobleman on Okunseiko’s court, he has been with Kazuki since Kazuki was 8 and he was 9

It almost pained him physically to not flee with Kazuki but stayed behind to attempt some light undercover work to try and discover Kagero’s motivations

Eventually he leaves Okunseiko however and sets out to try and convince the Atharenel to ally with Kazuki and Aurora

His current worries are whether or not Kazuki is okay, why these damn shadow beasts won’t stay dead, and how he’s ever going to make allies with the Atharenel if Ailidh keeps avoiding him 

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Sascha is an absolute doll, I love her so much!! She’s also the second main, main character in my story. And Nicolás, we can’t forget about him. If any of y’all remember way, way back at the beginning of this blog when I first introduced an original character from this story, but Nicolás is Ailidh’s knight. *waggles eyebrows* ᕱ__<

Ugh! I have such plans for these babies and I can’t wait to start actually writing, but as I said last week, I have a lot of planning left to do first. Thanks for hanging in there with me y’all!  Till next week!!

Remember to dot those j’s and cross those t’s!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

housekeeping, AI, and naming systems

Hello friends! ᕱ__ᕱ

I suppose I should start with a quick forewarning: this past week has not brought a whole lot of progress in regards to my creative writing and the story I am crafting. I was very busy with school assignments during the beginning of the week and very busy being ill at the end of the week. (Just a common cold and/or my allergies acting up thankfully but regardless being ill always makes my brain feel weird and often messes with my vision, hearing, and sense of balance which is a joy to deal with… not).

However I will update you with some thoughts that I had this week. 

Housekeeping

Firstly, some housekeeping. I have decided to change the name of my blog. I am a very private person. I always hesitate to give out my name on the internet. I didn’t have any social media until I was 18, and even now that I do have some social media accounts, none of them have my full name or face attached. This is just how I feel comfortable existing on the internet. I have also always toyed with the idea of writing under a penname. (These two things connect, I promise). Firstly because pennames are cool, but also because of privacy reasons. 

When I decided to create this blog, I was unsure about naming it. I eventually decided to choose something close(ish) to my real name because I had the tagline “dot your j’s and cross your t’s” thought up for years before I decided to commit and actually start a blog, and the penname I had picked out for myself did not have a “J” in it. However, recently I have come to the realization that middle names do exist. Also, plenty of authors use their middle initials. All this to say, the penname plan is back in business babes!! ᕱ__ᕱ 

So, if anyone was confused as to the name change, that is why.

AI

This is a bit of an abrupt shift in topics, but this week I was required to use AI for a couple different assignments in my classes and it got me thinking about it. I know AI is a bit of a hot button topic right now, especially in creative spaces, so since I was thinking about it a lot this week, I figured I’d put my two cents out there. 

I do think AI has the potential to be really helpful in making people’s lives easier (that's what progress is all about, right?). However, I disagree with the usage of AI in creative, professional, and educational spaces until the moral and ethical problems it brings up are addressed. And there are a lot of moral and ethical problems that come with AI. 

Plagiarism of other people's ideas and creations is the issue that I’ve been thinking about most often. We are constantly told in academia to “cite our sources” and most universities even have policies that can lead to students who plagiarize being kicked out. Yet, many people don’t see a problem with using works created with AI. All AI is, is an amalgamation of other people’s ideas and content that’s either been mined from the internet or fed to it specifically. So every piece of work AI spits out is a cut and pasted collage of other people’s stuff. And its sources are never cited. 

I am most certainly not a techie kind of person so I couldn’t tell you how to fix this issue, or any of the others AI brings up, in a way that I’m sure is plausible. All I can say is that the use of AI without addressing the moral and ethical concerns makes me mighty uncomfortable. 

Names

Finally, I can give you at least a little information on my story. I have always been the most obsessive about naming my characters. A 5 minute writing exercise? Eh, it’s whatever. Just use any names that come to mind. But give me any type of fiction writing that’s meant to be workshopped and it’s over for me. I’ll spend 3 hours searching for an appropriate name for the background character that’s going to be in 1 scene tops and never seen again. I get it from my dad, I think. He was always insistent that me and my siblings had names with good meanings. At least, that’s what my mom tells me. I’m like that with my characters.

Now, I have nowhere near as good of a grasp on linguistics and linguistic patterns to create my own language or a naming system from scratch. I’m not Tolkien. However, when I am writing a larger work, or at least a work with some worldbuilding/lore, I like to come up with systems for things like names. This past week, I started to create a naming system for the story I’m currently working on (Ailidh’s story btw if that wasn’t clear). What I have so far is that the type of fae folk Ailidh, Ruslan, and their people will have names pulled from Celtic, Russian/Slavic, Germanic, and French origins. Don’t ask why I chose those languages. I couldn’t tell you. 

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That’s pretty much all I got done creative writing wise this week. I know it’s not much, but at least it’s not nothing, right? ᕱ__ᕱ Sorry for being so scattered in this post but as I am currently still ill, everything is a little fuzzy. I hope you all have a lovely week and hopefully by next week’s post, I’ll have gotten some more things done within my story. 

Remember, dot your j’s and cross your t’s!!

~Clementine J Quincey🪷

worldbuilding!!✨

Hello friends!

I’m back and better than ever!! ᕱ__ᕱ This past week I have felt much, much better and, while I don’t want to jinx it, I think I should be looking forward to sunshine and clear skies for the next few weeks in the mental health department so that's always good news. I don’t have very much commentary this week, and I don’t want to keep y’all for longer than I need to in light of last week's heavier post, so I figured I would keep this one short and sweet. The main thing I have made progress on in the last few days is world building. Now, keep in mind that all of this is still in it’s beginning stages so things may likely change in the future, but for now here is a basic outline of some of the fantasy races and magic system in my story:

Lore

Elven Kind - the Atharenel

Names come from celtic, russian/slavic, germanic, french

Ailidh’s people have celtic names

Ruslan’s people have russian/slavic names

Two other main groups of Atharenel

one has germanic names 

one has french names

The Atharenel are fully mortal and have normal lifespans much like humans

However they have a highly increased ability for magic

Along with a deeper connection to the natural world

And they have slightly enhanced abilities

Naturally mildly faster

Stronger

More flexible, etc.

Humans

Names come from misc languages

latin, hebrew, spanish, japanese, chinese, arabic, african dialects etc.

Some have ability for magic but at a much lower rate than the atharenel

And naturally powerful magic users are rare

Often use objects of power to help channel and amplify magic

Staffs, wands, rings, etc

Often utilize spells to help direct and shape magic specifically

Magic system - STILL NEEDS QUITE A BIT OF WORK 

Magic is highly connected to nature

Magic enhances nature and follows an extension of most natural laws

There is always a reaction to an action

Something can’t be made of nothing

Stuff doesn’t just happen because

Light magic (or Life magic) refers to the magic of healing, growing, creating

Dark magic (or Death magic) refers to the magic of aggression, death, destruction

NONE OF THIS TYPE OF MAGIC IS “BAD MAGIC”

Life and death magic exist on a balance, they are yin and yang, there simply is not one without the other

However there is such a thing as “bad magic” and that is corrupted magic

This is the type of magic that creates things like the shadow army

It tilts the balance between light and dark out of balance

It twists nature itself into something unnatural and seems to come with no cost

Shadow Army do not have names

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That’s pretty much all I have for y’all today. As you can tell, this is a pretty basic outline and some of the details are still vague and wishy-washy, but as I devote more time to this project I hope my vision becomes more and more clear. Only time will tell I suppose. Next week I will hopefully have some more characters developed for you all as recently many have been fighting to be released from my brain. We shall see. Until next time!  ᕱ__ᕱ 

Always remember to dot your j’s and cross your t’s!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷