Hey y’all, I’m procrastinating plotting! I haven’t posted in a little while, and I thought it would be fun to introduce y’all to my characters for my nanowrimo WIP. This may or may not be my excuse to do something vaguely productive ish to develop this idea before November without actually plotting, but you didn’t hear that from me. Whenever I work on a new book I always try to do some sort of character questionnaire to flesh my characters out more, and I figured why not do something similar to that on my blog to (1) get to know my characters a little better, and (2) introduce them to y’all

Since I have’t even written a first draft yet any and all of these details are subject to change, but this is them as of the first draft!

I’m going to do this in interview format (which was super fun to do!! I liked getting into their heads a bit for this), but first let me give you a quick run-down of who’s who!

I’m somewhat private about my writing, so I won’t be posting much about the book itself, but essentially it’s about mages and quests and monsters and also friendship and corrupt governments. It should be a lot of fun, if I ever actually plot it!

Meet the crew:

Carly – My main character, a water mage (although she doesn’t know that until near the beginning of the book), sort of a directionless blob in the beginning but she learns to take charge of her own life over the course of the book and I love her. This is my first time writing a single POV book, so I’m a bit daunted, but I love Carly so I don’t think I’ll mind spending the whole book in her head

Teagan – One of Carly’s two best friends, a fire mage, grew up fighting monsters so she’s sort of badass but also sort of terrified of aforementioned corrupt government so she’s . . . working on defying them but it’s hard. She’s Carly’s introduction to the whole world of magic and is put in an awkward position when her two worlds collide

Ellie – Carly’s other best friend, the only non-mage of the main cast, a literal ray of sunshine but very naive sometimes. She would do anything for her friends, but has also always been a little bit the odd one out among them, which is really not helped by Carly all of a sudden having magic and being in on Teagan’s world

Beck – I’m not 100% sure what I’m doing with Beck yet, but she’s Carly’s love interest and I’m so excited for her character! She’s an air mage, and she’s very soft, but unlike Ellie she’s far from oblivious of the bad things in the world. She doesn’t talk much about her childhood, but she moved across the country on her own and she’s really just trying to fit in in her new home.

Keenan – He’s an earth mage and the adopted son of a very powerful mage in the government. He also happens to be Teagan’s ex. He’s a big softie, but he does struggle with deciding where his loyalties should lie. He would also literally never hurt a fly though. Like Teagan and Beck he grew up in the world of magic, but he was also a bit more sheltered than them, so he had a more intensive education but less practical experience.

all questions are taken from this post and this post

What topic could you give a 20-minute presentation on without any preparation?

• Carly: Anything about books or movies or fandoms that I love, maybe more specifically the strengths and weaknesses of the usage of tropes and cliches. Or how certain tropes negatively or positively impact women or queer people.
• Teagan: Is monster fighting an acceptable answer? Okay but I think really I’d love to give a presentation about the significance of hair and clothing in self-expression, especially within the queer community.
• Ellie: My best friends are nerds, and I would give a presentation about baseball.
• Teagan: Excuse me I’m proud to be a nerd.
• Beck: *ignoring the others* I think I would give a presentation about Romeo and Juliet for the sole reasoning that I absolutely couldn’t talk about anything for 20 minutes unprepared, but I did an entire group project on it all by myself for English class so I think I still remember enough to fill 20 minutes if I talk really slowly.
• Keenan: I could definitely talk about photography for 20 minutes, although no promises it would be interesting.

Who is the most interesting person you’ve met and talked with?

• Beck: I don’t see my grandmother very often, but when we do visit her I always love hearing her stories and opinions. Also her baking is next level and she teaches me tricks, which is really cool.
• Ellie: One time I got to go to a meet and greet and meet a couple professional baseball players, and it was amazing to hear about their experiences playing at that level.
• Keenan: My relationship with my mom is incredibly complicated, but she’s one of the most talented mages out there and I always learn so much from talking to her.
• Teagan: Probably my older sister. She’s a psychology student, and she tells me all about her lectures, and she’s just so smart about everything. I want to be like her when I grow up. On a more personal level, she’s a few years older than me, which means she has a lot more memories of how things used to be in our family, and talking to her always makes me feel less alone.
• Carly: *blushes and whispers* Beck.

What is the dumbest way you’ve been injured?

• Teagan: Again, does monster fighting count? I’ve definitely made a lot of dumb mistakes and gotten injured because of them.
• Keenan: I’m pretty sure to most people ‘being attacked by monsters’ would definitely not be considered a dumb way to get injured.
• Teagan: True but I made dumb mistakes.
• Carly: We’re going to say that does not count as dumb, Teagan. I guess the dumbest way I’ve injured myself was probably the time I tripped over a pile of laundry I forgot to pick up and hurt my ankle.
• Keenan: One time I was practising my magic and Teagan walked into the room–before we were dating mind you, back when I was still helplessly crushing on her–and I literally dropped a rock on my foot.
• Teagan: Keenan . . .
• Keenan: Definitely not my finest moment
• Ellie: I really don’t think I’ve injured myself very badly, to be honest. Stubbed toes and a few twisted ankles in gym class, and that’s about it.
• Carly: What about you, Beck?
• Beck: It’s maybe not as bad as Keenan’s but this is really mortifying . . .
• Keenan: Oh now you have to tell us.
• Beck: *talking very fast* One time I was playing with illusion work and turned myself invisible and like I was on a sidewalk near a mall and I wasn’t looking behind me because it wasn’t really that busy and someone ran into me with a shopping cart because they couldn’t see me and it was very painful also I sort of screamed and so they just heard this loud disembodied scream and ran into nothing and I have never seen someone flee a mall faster
• Teagan: That’s it, Beck wins, go home everybody.

If you had to change your name, what would your new name be, and why would you choose that name?

• Beck: Well so I sort of already changed it from Rebecca so I’m pretty happy with Beck.
• Carly: Wait you did? Omg, Beck suits you so much better. I don’t really mind my name one way or the other, but I think if I had to change my name maybe I’d change it to Skye. That feels so . . . free.
• Keenan: Honestly I’m really attached to my name, because it came from my birth parents. I don’t think I’d want to change it, it makes me feel more connected to them.
• Ellie: I’d probably change it to a flower name, maybe Violet! I always loved the name Violet . . .
• Teagan: I don’t know, I like my name well enough? I’m sort of ambivalent to it, names just don’t matter that much to me.

If you could know the absolute and total truth to one question, what question would you ask?

• Keenan: *softly* I just want to understand my mom. Like I don’t know what she wants from the Guild and I don’t know if she has good intentions or not, and I’ve never really known if she adopted me because she felt like she had to or if she actually cares.
• Carly: At this point I would really just like to know what the fuck is going on, where my family is, and who I can trust in this bizarre guild.
• Teagan: Neither of those are questions.
• Keenan: They are close enough, Teagan. What’s your question then?
• Teagan: I don’t know, I think I’d want to know the answer to some great mystery. Why do we as humans work the way we do, or where did we come from, or maybe how can we fix this messed up world we live in.
• Carly: That’s deep, thanks for making the rest of us look bad.
• Ellie: Yeah, Tegan *makes a face at her*. Anyways I’m not sure what I would ask, there are so many things I want to know, and choosing just one is hard! Also I’m just going to look shallow next to Teagan anyways haha

What is the best pair of shoes you have owned?

• Carly: . . . shoes? I don’t know I had some comfy runners once? But then they fell apart and I had to replace them
• Teagan: *showing off her feet* I have steel toed combat boots and I love them. They make me look like a badass and also are pretty good for fighting.
• Ellie: Everything makes you look like a badass, Teagan.
• Teagan: Okay but especially the combat boots.
• Keenan: Okay so I definitely cannot fight in boots because unlike Teagan I am a reasonable person, but yeah definitely good fighting shoes–I have a few pairs of really light running shoes with really good support and stuff, and they’re a dream when it comes to agility.
• Ellie: I really don’t care all that much about shoes, is it bad if I say the butterfly gumboots I’ve had since I was 13 because my feet haven’t grown since then?
• Teagan: Those boots are epic, it’s definitely valid.

What weird thing do you have nostalgia for?

• Beck: Maybe not too weird, but my grandma has this dartboard in her basement and I used to go right down there whenever I visited her and just like throw darts at it. Which sort of makes sense seeing as I was trained in combat from a young age, but also I didn’t really like the combat, just dartboards. Or really that specific dartboard.
• Teagan: . . . I’m nostalgic for the combat training? I mean like obviously I’m still being trained and stuff, but I was so excited when I first started. Like I’d seen all the big kids do it, and I was so excited to be one of them. I don’t love the actual monster hunting, but I fell in love with the techniques, I don’t know.
• Carly: I think my weirdest one is probably the way my sister and I used to have these silent popcorn fights when we’d watch movies as kids. It would start with one of us lobbing a piece at the other, and then just escalate from there. Then my parents would look over and see what was happening and shut off the movie and make us clean it up, but for some reason that never stopped us from doing it again. Finally they just stopped making us popcorn lol.
• Ellie: I get nostalgic over the first day of sixth grade, when I met Teagan and Carly for the first time. I was a new student, and they were already best friends, but they made such an effort to include me and just . . . we were such babies back then, and it was the start of something amazing.
• Keenan: I don’t know, I mean I definitely get nostalgic over the few memories I have of my birth parents, but I don’t think that’s weird. And then I guess like Halloween with my mom was a really bonding experience for us when I was still dressing up and trick or treating, so I guess that’s pretty nostalgic for me.

What’s your favorite way to spend time outdoors?

• Carly: No ❤️
• Teagan: Carly that is not an answer
• Carly: I will simply stay indoors whenever humanly possible
• Keenan: That cannot be healthy
• Teagan: Anyways Carly’s poor life choices aside, I love training outdoors when the weather’s not too hot (or rainy)
• Ellie: My favourite is just like picnics in pretty places
• Carly: Picnics are fun, but I think I’d rather do them indoors
• Beck: I think that’s just called a meal, Carly. Personally I just really love swimming in the summer.
• Keenan: I only swim once or twice a year, but it’s so much fun. I also like jogging with an audiobook on, it’s relaxing.

Are you doing NaNoWrimo?

What’s your project for NaNo?

Was this interesting? lmaoo