Young Writers Society

She TOTALLY just like walks up and randomly gives you a bunch of purple hyacinths like "hey. have these." And like, no one really talks to her? On her own? Like they include her when she's with Scott and everyone knows Scott's her best friend so they all go to him like "uhhhh" and he goes "oh, she's sorry" -- by now (end of junior year) it's pretty much common knowledge in her classes but in a school of 1600 you still get the kids who don't know.

Justin is actually super adorable like he does all the single dad stuff like learning how to braid Zelda's hair (until she chops it all off) then learning how to dye hair and do nails and stuff, and when Zelda outgrows her girly phase he supports her 100% through her tomboy phase, and now she's juuuust starting to get settled into the idea that she can be girly and boyish at the same time. (you'd think it'd be easier since her dad has a stereotypically feminine profession but nah xD) But he's 100% the kind of dad I wish I had growing up and also he doesn't age much but that's like nbd right, just perpetually like 36 with "I have good genes"/"my family ages well"

THE KNIFE YES it all goes together it's all part of a Big Plot (well a Little Big Plot) on the part of Nerissa c: I maaaaay have it be a little creepier and have Justin see it and freak out because ALERT ALERT FAER FAER TAKE AWAY FROM KID. "Where did you get that?"

coming soon: wait, Zelda's great-uncle was also kidnapped into the Other? YEP THERE'S A REASON THE TOWN IS AFRAID

ALSO coming soon: possibly a Spotify playlist? it's mostly going to be inspiration and aesthetic songs but I have a couple I'll totes single out for characters.

Justin is actually super adorable like he does all the single dad stuff

OMG YES EVEN BETTER wow okay how am I so in love with these characters already, I don't know but I totally am

<3 yay

and now, on the silver screen: The History of Gramarye

1. Gramarye was founded way long ago by a dude named Gramarye. Theophanius H. Gramarye, to be exact, or Theo G if you're one of the many teenagers attending Alice Faye High School.

2. AFHS used to be named Theophanius H. Gramarye High School, and before that it had an array of other names. A statue of Gramarye still stands in the park next to the school. It was recently renamed to Alice Faye after Ms. Faye herself, an influential teacher and principal, was lost to the Other. A portrait of her hangs in the front office. The eyes follow you around the room—almost screaming to be watched.

3. The town has a history of disappearances. Usually people no one cares about—tourists, or wanderers from elsewhere—but occasionally a high-profile citizen will disappear. Most recently, senior high school student Fred Hawkins went missing at graduation. One moment he was walking out of the theater with everyone else, and the next he was gone. Skeptics assume he ran off to be with his not-so-secret boyfriend in the city. Believers bless the tree he vanished under, now known colloquially as the Hawkins Tree, as they walk by.

4. The most high-profile disappearance of the last century was that of the lumber heir Stephen Wethers. The older brother of present-day mogul Josiah Wethers, Stephen was 7 years old in the winter of 1944. He was due to inherit the fortunes of both his father's and mother's families.

Then he went missing in the snow.

Ten thousand dollars bought a lot of manpower in 1944. Enough to turn the whole town on its head as people searched yards, snow drifts, ditches, forests—anywhere within ten miles of Gramarye was searched to the bone. No ransom letter was received. The town searched so long the snow melted.

His mother visited T. H. Gramarye Park often—a sweet little garden where the Grey House now stands. The mirror pool has been there for longer than anything else; whispers rumor that the town was build around the mirror pool. The wife of a skeptic, Pandie Cordell Wethers knew none of this in the spring of 1945.

She knew only one thing: As she sat on the bench by the mirror pool, the thin layer of ice on the surface was beginning to melt. A small, dark shape bobbed under the water like a fish trying desperately to break through for air.

The ice cracked.

Her son's shoe floated to the top.

There was no way Stephen could have drowned in the mirror pool—it was four inches deep. Not even deep enough for the shoe to bob like it did. There was no way he could have fallen into a snowdrift beside it; they had been overturned as thoroughly as everything else in town. Stephen Wethers was gone, and his shoe had, mysteriously, returned.

This was the first time the Wethers family was exposed to the Other.

No ransom note ever came, but in 1975, Josiah Wethers—now the inheritor of his family's fortunes—had a daughter, named Karma (by her mother, who ascribed to those sorts of things). Shortly after her birth, he received a picture in the mail: a photograph of his brother, aged 7, with yesterday's date on the back in a lazy, smudged scrawl.

He never took it as truth, but he kept it folded into a secret pocket of his wallet so none of his family would ever know.

5. Stephen Wethers is still alive. He is still 7. And in the present day, though she doesn't know it yet, Zelda is close to following in his exact footsteps.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH how do I get more excited for this story literally every time you post something? MYSTERY YES PLEASE OMG okay sorry Imma stop shouting now for a little bit like I'm literally contributing nothing to this thread but excitement

(this is super super super rough and will get smoothed out as i actually write)

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BOOK 2: THE WINTER WAY

Morgana's whole position in this book is ????? and what's happened in the plot is likely NOT what will happen in the story, depending on how I feel when I get to that point. Morgana is a Big Force and I'd like to build up to her a little more. I'm also considering dragging her into the Herenow. We'll see.

Uh other than that is there anything else I need to cover?

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE REALMS THAT SOUNDS GOOD

Herenow - the space defined as Here and Now; that is to say, a witch's name for present-day Earth. A witch's haunting question: How much of them belongs to the Herenow, and how much to the Beyond?

Beyond - Beyond the Veil, the sheer fabric separating the worlds; it is an afterlife and a beforelife, and things live there that no mind could comprehend. The Beyond is a noiseless flash of green light in the sky, or a sudden shift two inches to the left, or a repeat of yesterday's conversation word for word. It is unknowable. Many witches, notably those taught under the ancient Houses of Magic, believe it's where magic comes from.

Inbetween - the Other, and the home of the Other[folk] (faerfolk; merfolk; deirfolk; sceadfolk).
• Faerfolk - humanoid creatures born of magic tied especially to life. Said to originate from Avalon.
• Merfolk - half-humanoid, half-piscine creatures born of the seas. Said to originate from the roiling lilac Maelstrom.
• Deirfolk (formerly Therfolk) - beastly shapeshifting creatures with a humanoid form, born of the wild magic at the far edge of the Otherlands. Always at war; they often leave the Other for a more peaceful life in the Herenow.
• Sceadfolk - ghosts, goblyns, trolls, and other things that thrive in the dark. Born of the shadows under your feet.

WITCHES TOO BECAUSE THAT'S A WHOLE THING

Taught witches (capital T) are different from Untaught witches. Mainly it's to do with their education, obviously:
• Taught witches were educated by a member of one of the ancient Houses; many used to exist, but only three survive in any capacity today (Vrith; Bruixot; Grisi). They have many branches, some more prominent than others. Julissa Grey is a Taught witch, educated by her third cousin some three or four times removed, Zenaida Grisi.
• Untaught witches are largely self-taught, or have been taken under the wing of a mentor. Whether the mentor is Taught or Untaught is irrelevant; what matters is that an Untaught witch was not born or adopted into one of the Houses, and was not taught by one of their direct descendants. Wendrick Grey is an Untaught witch who discovered his power and its limits through total trial and error.

Taught witches are a tight-knit community, banding together in times of struggle. They often alienate Untaught witches, or anyone else who shuns or doesn't seek their company.

While Julissa is a Taught witch, and descended from the House Grisi, she's alienated from the Houses for her decision to go off on her own (and steal her father's house while she was at it). No one in the Houses will take her children as pupils, so Jupiter and Jovian are Untaught witches.

Basically, family drama times ten plus a couple thousand years.

ALSO NOTES/IDEAS FOR WINTER WAY:

so Wendrick is a time traveller basically? like, not a SCIFI time traveller but he accidentally propelled himself... a good two centuries forward into the 1990s, and ran into Julissa Grisetti (probably literally) and this is prolly gonna turn into a short story because I love that.

BUT that also informs how he interacts with the world around him. he's super respectful of medicine and technology and believes in taking time to appreciate the world and nature (and the fact that he's not dead in the middle of a freezing bloody battlefield).

do his kids know he's from the past??? I don't know yet. gotta figure that out.

Character Aes:
Children's Work - Dessa - Jupiter & Jovian
Bury Me Face Down - grandson - Nerissa
Dancing With A Wolf - All Time Low - Justin
Thank God I'm Not You - Himalayas - Zelda & Jupiter
I Only Lie When I Love You - Royal Blood - Nerissa & Justin maybe?
Camisado - Panic! - Scott
Miss Mysterious - Set It Off - Zelda & ...Zelda?
Emperor's New Clothes - Panic! - NERISSA

General Aes:
Bad Moon Rising - CCR
Troubled Times - Green Day
Wake Me Up - Avicii
Keep Your Disease - Bloodboy
Duality - Set It Off
Sleeping on the Blacktop - Colter Wall - Gramarye
Fool's Gold - Raggy Monster - The Harvest Court
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - Bart&Baker - The Unseelie Wake
Bad Boy Good Man - Tape Five - The Unseelie Wake

Here's the thing: I don't want to overthink this. But by saying that, I've immediately begun to overthink it.

This is a first draft. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it's the first draft of a first draft -- this is me going at writing a novel with this kind of planning, in this style, for the first time in my life. All of my completed/deleted first drafts have been pantsed, and I can see some definite pros and cons to both.

Because I planned this novel, I know how it begins, I know roughly how it'll end, and I have a path to get me through the middle without floundering and relying solely on filler in between Huge Events. Because I pantsed the others, I felt I had more wiggle room to add absurd ideas or retcon plot points that no longer fit with my vision of the story.

Because I pantsed the other novels, I didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted the story to be like in the end. Because I've planned this one, I might feel too beholden to my outline to change things that don't fit the ending I have in mind, or too beholden to the ending to change it even if it stops making sense for the story or characters.

There's ups and downs to any decision made in life, but I believe that by planning The Autumn Door, I made the right decision. It gives me a frame to work within, with some leeway to make changes if I feel like they're best for the story. It gives me an opportunity to work within a set of predetermined events and decide if they're really the best way to tell the story I want to tell. It gives me the chance to look at myself, as a writer, and develop my personal style of planning without feeling like I have to stick to one style or another or bow to someone else's rules.

The planning can't help me solidify a voice, really, but my voice tends to grow stronger the more I write from a character's viewpoint. The planning can tell me which scenes would look best from which character's POV, and which characters I should try to focus on for the story I want to tell.

If anyone's curious, there is a moral to this whole thing, but it's the same moral that tends to appear in most or all of my writing: The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

As a writer, especially in my works that aim to be YA, I try to emphasize the importance of found family. I know -- and I've been this person -- kids whose blood family might be awful to them or make decisions that harm them (as Nerissa emotionally harms and manipulates Zelda). That doesn't mean 100% of all blood family is awful always, but no one should ever feel obligated to love someone who hurts them just because of shared blood.

I feel like I've grown a lot as a person since I started planning this, too. I've found -- not a cure, but a workaround -- for my anxiety, and I've found a way to cope with some of my more pressing negative emotions. I feel like I'm starting to resemble something like a capable adult (oh no!) and my current job, while not totally stress-free, is something that allows me emotional room in my personal life (as opposed to my last job, which required me to metaphorically fight for my existence every day). I feel like this is the right time in my life for me to start this story. I feel like I've sat on it and let it brew and thought about the major conflicts and implications, and it won't be great the first time around, but this is just sand into sandboxes.

This is the story that will become a castle, and I have arrived at the site with an early blueprint in my hand. Now I must survey the land and decide what fits and what doesn't, what must be cut and what must be added for the story to survive, and if my castle will be clunky and get in the way of the beautiful landscape in my head. I am an architect, and this will not be my masterpiece, but it will be my first finished home. I will make it so.

Once I get about halfway through -- and I will continue to post updates in this thread during LMS, as I think of plot points to alter or have questions for my audience -- I will probably start planning The Winter Way, which will focus partially on the Grey family.

The Autumn Door - «1.1 Reveniit» WARNING: foul language; religious mentions.

for a regular note: I'll try really hard on my own but please be patient if my Latin sucks! I've never formally learned it and most of my knowledge is cobbled together from internet searches and piecing together conjugation charts.

also if anyone out there is at least passable with Latin or Greek I might be seeking help for the Winter Way once I finish this and am willing to pay in reviews

some Major Ideas have happened and expect to see my planning change up a little in the coming days! rn I'm totally spoonless for writing but as soon as I get back some of my energy I'm going to update the plot as it's posted.

Apologies if this question has been answered before but~

Does Zelda's mask have time to change? If so, what does it change into?

It hasn't been answered!

Mainly because no, in this story at least, her mask does not have time to change. I don't think, at least. She spends a short-ish amount of time in the Unseelie Wake. But she does bring it back with her into the Herenow—and as far as my ideas are concerned, it's something involving flowers and butterflies, spicebush swallowtails in particular, and quite possibly a skull as well because FAMILY THEMES. There'll definitely be a hint of it at the end I think. And definitely answers in other stories.

And it might help to break down approximately how much time they lose in the Other—

So the story starts in early June. Let's say June 1st for clarity and ease of counting. Timeline in spoilers below. And if the Other time doesn't match up to an exact equation of Herenow time, well, no one ever said that magic followed a linear path like that.

The Autumn Door - «1.1 Reveniit» WARNING: foul language; religious mentions.
The Autumn Door - «1.2 Reveniit»
The Autumn Door - «2.1 Thin Air»
The Autumn Door - «2.2 Thin Air»
The Autumn Door - «3.1 St. Anthony»
The Autumn Door - «3.2 St. Anthony»
The Autumn Door - «4.1 The Queen of Wands»
The Autumn Door - «4.2 The Queen of Wands»