End of an Era

My last day of high school is today. I can't say I'll actually miss it, but there is some small amount of nostalgia that will always haunt me here, though the building may change.

I am lookinig forward to writing my novel and creating a new wardrobe this summer, and I hope to get into very good shape for my upcoming debut at college.

I've been having some ideas for my novel as of late. I'm not entirely sure what I wish to name it, but among my options I have included Signet of Antares and simply Antares.

I have toyed with the idea of Farleigh having Western Wood Elf heritage that she doesn't know about (well, why should she? If she was part Wood Elf, then it would be a very small part, like, one of her grandparents was one).

I know that I want to make Eliza a selkie's child. No one ever really mentions the properties of the children of a selkie and a human, other than that they sometimes have webbed feet. I think I will make Eliza a very light-hearted girl, who can also be serious. She will have some sort of clairvoyance, but not very much, more like she just gets feelings about certain things, feelings of foreboding greater than anyone else can feel. Her selkie blood gives her the ability to communicate with animals and magical creatures very well, and she can summon. She will probably be one of the last characters introduced, as she makes her home in the Eastern Isles, and I see the group meeting her there somehow.

I know that I need to expand on male characters some more, as my most developed characters are female. I suppose I just find them easier to write. My male characters so far are Barlone, the warmage, Cyves, the hitman/mercenary,  and a young swordsman that I want to name Aeschere, whose motives are so mysterious that I, the author, do not even know of them.

On the other hand, I have four female characters begging to be written. Farleigh, of course, the main character, is the handmaiden to the princess Euwaru of the Northern Kingdom. That's two. Then I have Eliza and another, whose name is thus far been known as Meiji. I'm thinking of changing her name, though, to something that fits in better with my rather English/Norse naming scheme. I will admit that Beowulf has inspired me to come up with quite a few of these names... Aeschere is the name of the advisor to Hrothgar that Grendel's mother killed, and Euwaru is an adaptation of Freawaru, who I think was a princess mentioned somewhere in the book. Of course, Euwaru will be mentioned as "North" for most of the book, so her name is nearly irrelevant.

I wonder how many times I will have to edit through the manuscript once I've finished? At least until I am satisfied with the flow and level of discription. I think I want to do descriptions that are flowery and interesting word combinations yet not too long. Definitely not Tolkien level, but not as horridly undescriptive as some of my earlier works, like the one I wrote about Laure.

That brings me to another thought. Shall I rewrite that piece? I think it could have been better if Laure had better motives, and a reason for being as horribly evil as she was. Then there is the piece about Nan, and the memory loss. I think I will discard that one, although it was quite interesting to look back on and read. Sometimes I feel as though I have lost a piece of my creative writing abilities. I just hope that I can manage to regain whatever it was...

This concludes this installment of misguided ramblings. I look forward to confusing you again soon!