Finals Week + Fandom Stats

finals week + fandom stats

Hello friends!

Finals week is upon me and as such I have had to prioritize. This means that despite me chomping at the bit to get more done for my original story, I have unfortunately not done much. For one of my classes, however, I recently did a final analysis on my work. (In fact, it was the same class I started this blog for. ᕱ__< ) In this final analysis I came to some conclusions about one of my projects that made me quite sad. Despite all of the hardwork and effort I put into it, I failed to make an engaging piece of digital media. It was a good piece, but it missed the mark in several areas. BUT! I feel as though it may be of some interest to my fellow fandom nerds here on tumblr. So, since I don’t have much new work to share with y’all this week, I figured I’d release this project into the wild.

For some background information: the assignment was to create an infographic. I wanted to make it something relevant to my interests, so I was struggling a little to come up with something fun and interesting until I remembered a video I saw back when I used to have TikTok. (Yes, I had TikTok. It was cool and fun and all, but it took too much time from my day so I deleted it a little over a year ago. But I digress.) The person in this video was throwing out some fandom stats from Archive of Our Own (popular fanfiction website, though I’m sure most of y’all know that) and I wondered if I would be able to collect my own data from AO3 and make an infographic of that. And so I did.

Needless to say, the data collection took a lot of work. A LOT of work. And once I was finished with gathering, I sorted. And once I was finished sorting, I did some math (incorrectly) and then some more math (correctly) and created my infographic using Adobe Illustrator. And it was okay. If I had the technological skills and know-how to do so, I would have made it an interactive graph which would give you more data when you clicked on stuff. But I didn’t have the skills or know-how. The resulting infographic kinda hits you in the face with a bunch of info and it’s kind of overwhelming. 

So, like I said, it’s not my best work, but I definitely learned a lot from it. And mayhaps y’all might find the information fascinating so… behold, I suppose:

What do you make of it? Is the information surprising? Unsurprising? Completely and utterly uninteresting to you? Let me know! And for those of y’all in college/university with me: good luck on your finals if you have yet to take them and I'm sure you aced your finals if you have already taken them! And if I survive, I’ll see y’all next week! ᕱ__ᕱ

Just remember to dot your j’s and cross your t’s (especially on your final essays)!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

P.S. Remember that I am posting a second extra content post this week as well!! Look out for that coming soon!

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 

~*~*~

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 

~*~*~

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 🪷

nanowrimo + more fanfiction

Hello friends!

Today I have some exciting (and mildly terrifying) news to share. I have decided at the last minute to attempt to participate in NaNoWriMo this year! ᕱ__ᕱ  I know I’ve mentioned it on here before, but for those who don’t know NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is a 30 day writing challenge that takes place in November every year. The goal is to have a 50,000 word manuscript of something done by the end of the month.  (Here is a link with more info if y’all are interested!) As an ardent fanfic reader, consuming 50,000 words is all in a day's work. As an amature writer who is currently struggling to gain back a bulk of my creative writing muscles that I have lost from disuse, writing 50,000 words is an uphill battle. 

Since I am a full time student with a part time job I have decided to be nice to myself and make my own personal goal 25,000 words in 30 days. If I hit 50,000, that would be awesome, but I don’t want to beat myself up if I fall short. And for those of you (my fellow AO3 enthusiasts arise!) who are looking at 25,000 words and saying “Clem! That’s going to be a piece of cake! 25,000 words is nothing!” let me put it in perspective for you. 25,000 words is about 100 pages of double spaced 12pt font typing. 100! PAGES!!! 

So, what does that mean for this blog? As this is still a school assignment, I do need to keep up with posting weekly, but I may not be posting anything about my original story for the month of November. I want to give myself space to work on that on its own as my original story is the project I am working on for NaNoWriMo. However, like I said, you can count on me to post something involving creative writing here once a week. ᕱ__ᕱ 

For this week, I have decided to post part of the class assignment that I wrote a Harry Potter fanfiction for 2 weeks ago. Below are images of a letter that my original Slytherin character wrote to her father during her (and Harry Potter’s) first year at Hogwarts. 

I am done with the assignment now, but I think I may decide to continue on with this OC at some point. Who knows? Not me! All I know is that by the end of November I am never going to want to touch a keyboard again. (“Do creative writing,” they said.  “It will be fun,” they said.) Well, that’s all from me for now! 

Remember to dot your j’s and cross your t’s this NaNoWriMo season! ᕱ__ᕱ 

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

organizing thoughts + setting microgoals (ya know productive people things)

Hello friends!

Happy 2024!!

It seems like my winter break has just flown by and tomorrow my university’s spring semester starts. I haven’t had as much time to work on my story as I would have liked, but I do feel rested after this break, which is always a good thing! ᕱ__ᕱ Despite not a lot of visible progress in my original story, there have been a few things I have been thinking about and attempting to iron out in my brain which I can update you on this week.

World-Building

Before I get anywhere else and make real progress in the plot of my story, I have come to the conclusion that I need to spend some time on worldbuilding. I knew the funky little magic world and my funky little fantasy story is taking place in needed some serious work before I started writing anything, but it’s come to my attention that it needs that work now, before I continue to develop anything else. Which… sucks.

Not that I am not going to enjoy creating my own fictional world but it's going to take A LOT of work before I see real progress and I am going to have to complete that work in very small increments because I have other Important Things™ I need to be doing. Like school. Ugh!

I am very notoriously bad with time management (which is something I’m working on in therapy actually - shout out once again to my therapist who is literally a God-send), so I think my goal for next week will be to create an outline/schedule/list for what I need to get done in the realm of world-building so that I can organize my thoughts a little better and have something tangible to work on. I’ll share it here next week if I have managed to make progress on it. One of the big things I know will absolutely be making it on that list first thing, however, is developing my magic system.

Magic System

As I have mentioned briefly in a previous post, janky magic systems with little-no rules are a huge pet peeve of mine when it comes to fantasy fiction (unless it makes sense within the story, which is rare). So, I know that crafting my own magic system will take me some time because I want it to make sense, be clear, and have outline rules and limitations. 

Another thing that's important to me is that any magic system I create/include in my story, is in accordance with my own personal religious beliefs. NOW HEAR ME OUT IN THE ENTIRETY BEFORE Y’ALL GO JUDGING ME, OKAY?! I am a Christian, so nothing aligning with demons, Satan, or the occult will be happening in my story (on the side of “Good” that is). It may seem like a small or silly thing to some but it’s 100% a priority to me. However, I want to write a fantasy novel that is accessible to ALL, not just my fellow Christians, and one that doesn’t feel preachy or anything of that nature. I’m not trying to push my beliefs onto my readers. I just don’t want to compromise them in my writing. 

This is an interesting article on writing magic systems into Christian fantasy that I have been looking over the past few days if any of y'all are interested in what my magic system may look like. 

Stereotypes

I also don’t want to accidentally write any story of -isms or -phobias into my novel and I know a surprising amount of magical beings and tropes fall into the “developed from a racial stereotype” category (just look up J.K. Rowling, goblins, and Jewish stereotypes if you don’t believe me). So, I wanted to create my own magical beings without the baggage. If, in the following posts, y’all see anything that could be rude or prejudice developing as I continue to grow my story please just let me know. It’s never my intention to cause harm. As I said, I want my story to be accessible for ALL. ᕱ__ᕱ 

~*~*~

That’s pretty much it! That’s what I’ve been turning over in my head and working on in the past few weeks while in the midst of family and friends and the chaos of the holiday season. I hope to get something more substantial to give to y’all next week, but for now I’ll let you go. For my fellow students returning to school, good luck in this new semester! ᕱ__ᕱ 

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

 ~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

PS. I also finally taught myself how to crochet something and spent 3 days working on a flower garland for the canopy above my bed. It is quite cute and I feel very accomplished!!

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!

~*~*~

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

~*~*~

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 🪷

Percy Jackson is the best book boyfriend and one of the main reasons my standards for relationships in both fiction (my own original work and work I consume) as well as real life are so incredibly high

We do not talk about this passage enough, this is so sweet