Young Writers Society

Its coming along fairly well.

I've decided on a name and appearance. ALso came up with some rough points for personality and backstory.

Mostly got some rough points thought out for the backstory, cause pretty much everything else about here does get built up as a result of said backstory. I've thought of using a dragon that's a bit older too, so that said dragon can be a bit of mentor to her.

OH and its prolly good I run this past y'all first.

Soo to fit the criteria I was thinking of earlier, this is kind of the rough direction I'm thinking in...

So...Rachel, that's the name I went with, Rachel Winter, was uhh given to an orphanage like a week after birth. Her mother died at childbirth and her father couldn't afford to raise her.

And I was thinking she gets adopted by this noble family who plan to raise her as a sort of bodyguard/friend to their own daughter...so she's like taught to fight from basically when she can walk, but also like treated like a member of their own family. So like loving environment, but also looots of combat training.

That's kind of what I'm working with, I haven't figured out the meeting with her dragon and the rest of that part quite yet...but yeah for a loving background to make her a bit more innocent while also giving her training that's about what I thought of. It was inspired by a Frozen fanfic of all things.

Does that sound like it's coming along okay?

@HarryHardy its looking good so far! Some notes:

-The reason we ask about Rachel's age is that, well, dragons are rare so having a dragon bond and imbue with someone barely into adulthood would be a bit difficult to realistically explain away. So, it's totally okay if you have difficulties writing adult aspects, but I would still ask that she be at least in her twenties. This would give a bit of a cushion for major events to happen in her life to lead her to being a dragon rider, yknow?

(Also, as an adult, I'mma letyou know that there really isn't a difference in writing teenagers and young adults other than experience, so you can still have that vibe with her being inexperienced or just innocent while still having her as a young adult.)

- I think the royals could be like minor nobles in Asturia. @ScarlettFire is more knowledge in Asturian royalty. Would there be anything notable or unique that would attract them to Rachel?

- If you would like, we can hop into a pad and brainstorm some ideas for how Rachel and her dragon bonded? Either me or one of the more experienced peeps with OSW can totally help out!

This looks great, though! You're doing well and it's coming along well.

-Hmm...might I suggest a bit of a compromise then? I'll keep the age undecided for now, and when the backstory if finalized and approved, I'll take the lowest age that makes sense

-Umm, I didn't think that far quite yet. Hmm, couple of ideas off the top of my head.

Perhaps Rachel's more magically inclined that most humans would be. I'm still not terribly clear on the magical system of the world, cause that is a lot to read through, but uhh, if she showed more affinity towards it as a baby, perhaps that drew the nobles in. Her unusual magical affinity could even have something to do with her mother dying at childbirth.

Or I was thinking, her father was the son of a now dead former bodyguard of this noble family and something can be spun from that one.

Hmm, that sounds good actually. I think I should probably come up with who this dragon is going to be before that, I've only got a fairly vague idea for that at the moment, but yeah, that'd be awesome.

And thx!! I'm having a lot of fun making this!! Always love diving deep into lore. I'd be doing this a lot faster if it wasn't for college and RevMo

@HarryHardy So long as she's a young adult, that compromise's totally fair!
In case it helps easing your mind towards the idea: it's especially true in medieval times, where the very notion of teenage wasn't even a thing in most cultures. A teen of 15 years old could basically have the same vibe as an adult that's 28, because they were just educated to nurture it — and that's still a fact applicable to today. It would not be unrealistic for you to stay in your comfort zone while having an older character, because real, actual humans do that when they grow.

Oh, also, and this is more of a general truth than something related to this SB in particular, which I hope will be kept in mind by more people:

The "adult vibe" is a myth.

Or rather, it's a collection of perceived behavioral patterns linked with social standing/status that you can find at any age. It's how real humans right now feature people in their 60s having immature mindsets, and kids at age 10 already aware of how to pay bills.

This isn't actually an opinion, it's an observable fact — and a fascinating psychological and socio-cultural study, buuuut I digress. The point is: just go with whatever vibe belongs to you and adapt it to the necessities of the setting. If you're comfy with writing teens, having an adult act like a teen is okay. So far, you seem to be onto something with the bodyguard storyline, so, power to ya! Have fun with that. If Rachel's a trained bodyguard, she's already got more of an adult vibe than most when she's in Job Mode, for instance. Hell, I just used this trick in this very comment. A page ago I was all "Have fun with your schemin'♪" and look at all this stuff I just wrote, like what happened, yo.

Anyway, good luck with college and RevMo! I doubt anyone's gonna hold it against you to be slow because of things like that, since uuuuh, yeah we've all got one of those Life slow-downs lyin' around somewhere. XD

@TinkerTwaggy, wow thanks for that. This is going to be useful not just in this storybook but in my writing in general. Its just a mental block I have I guess. I always just assume characters above a certain age just kinda have to act this one way...yeah...anyway I'll be sure to remember all of this going forward!!

And thanks, I'm hoping I can make it work out okay. I'll probably end up writing things for a generic sounding setting and inserting specific towns and what not with everyone's help.

And thank you again!!

Umm...also to everyone in general, I'm going to try and work on fleshing out this backstory and stuff a bit more before I drop a pad link to work on the meeting the dragon and those later parts of her history.

Hey. So question about the conclave. Do the dragons get born into it or are they captured into it or both?

Both!

Thanks!

No problem! Feel free to message me if you have any other questions about the Conclave!

@HarryHardy Nnnno worries♪ Happy to help.

Pff, please, you'll be fine. In this SB, the power of goodness and friendship and laughter shall come over you, thus making you more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Double references are tight.

That being said, thanks in advance for the pad link! Should prolly follow that example some time this century, but first I'll use the remaining days of the week to advance on my character as well.

Just a note on the adult vibes (I totally agree with the basic premise, since I've realised a long time ago that adults often behave like entitled children): No matter how mature a child is, there are still certain developmental stages that they're observed to experience, such as children only really understanding abstract concepts and thinking in terms of external perspectives once they're past the age of seven. It's a tricky situation, where they're smarter than we think, yet simultaneously not as smart as we think, because they are still just children.

I think it's more accurate to say the "adult vibes" are a myth for adolescents more than young children (from the ages of 7 to 11, they already show a remarkable increasing in certain areas of cognition), and even then, adolescents are still in the final phase of cognitive development, so there are many things they could experience that adults might not. Mostly, this relates to the formation of a permanent identity, which is why teenagers can be so confused and rebellious; however, only 15% of teenagers (at least according to the 2003 study about which I read last time XD) are reported to act out.

The developmental psychology aside (sorry if I butchered the explanation; I don't have the textbook next to me "XD), I still agree that writing adults and teenagers don't differ too much! It's really not that hard. :)

…Except if you like angst. The majority of adult readers with whom I've interacted hate angst and often state they wish angsty teenagers or young adults in fiction would just grow up already. XD

Ah, yes.

That legendary moment when one person deliberately phrases an off-topic point in a brief manner so as to avoid appearing as too off-topic for the developped setting at the risk of sounding too imprecise, and then his equally precise buddy swoops in and develops the point anyway because it wasn't precise enough.

Balance between humans can never be reached. XD

But yeah, pretty much that. No worries though; as mentioned, I purposely spoke in general terms so as to avoid quoting the whole notebook I also have on the topic.

Let's marry them, that way we can grow anthropology on trees

But yes, my stating that adult vibes are myth was a reference to the socio-cultural side of the statement more than the psychological one (so: you have a car, a house and bills to pay, you automatically have an adult vibe VS you live with your parents and play video games, you don't, even if in this example, both people are buddies with equal levels of maturity that they can express whenever the situation calls for it), so, precocious children are set aside — they're just a necessary example I used in this context because children who act like adults can be used in writing, even if they're psychologically limited.

...I will not say anything about angst.

Okiii...I think I've gotten about as far as I'm gonna get with this character by myself, so here's the pad that the profile is currently residing at. [Line 151]

Hopefully the base that I've constructed for her and her dragon turns out to be okay

Hey so my character is up. I hope that Aze now fits with the Conclave well enough! I took a little while but I tried so thats all that matters. I dont have a picture for him but I hope that Its still good enough!

@HarryHardy

Age: 720, I would like that....but I don't know if that would be tooo old...if its too much I'll be fine with around 200 something...but need opinions here too.

About that (I mean, everything in the pad is fine, but I just figured this next bit would be useful to everyone involved), uh, you may have missed the part where Anelmok Serkoy Five has a dragon partner that's 1315 years old.

Basically, you can go from 1 to 3000 — or beyond, but starting from 3000 they gain the ability to turn into humanoids. The Conclave having mostly young dragons is sorta lore-related, but aside from that, it's nothing to worry about. Unless things have changed (in which case Scarlett and Omnom'll tell me), 720 is perfectly fine! I'm a rando' and I get to be over a thousand; that means you can do whatevs so long as it fits the story you wanna tell.