Young Writers Society

Committing myself to doing Camp NaNo because I haven't finished a fresh project in like a year now and tbh I'm kind of scared I don't know how to anymore :,) dropping an aesthetic for now and going to post more details as I go through the PlanMo challenges.

PlanMo Challenge time!

Elevator pitch:
Ivy Dowell has always wanted to save the world. Faking her age and identity to train with her childhood hero seems like the perfect way to get there, until she discovers that the lines between good and evil aren't as clear cut as she thought, and dooming the world is a lot easier than saving it.

Character questionnaire:
Name: Ivy Dowell
Age: 17
Height: 5'3" (smol with the attitude of a tiny dog that wants to bark at all the bigger dogs)
Eye colour: brown
Physical appearance: short and baby-faced, she's always mistaken for younger than she is. She has freckles across her nose, and her ears are pierced with two lobe piercings on each ear and a cartilage piercing on the left ear. Her hair is naturally dark brown, but she bleaches and dyes it frequently, so she almost always wears it up because it's so fried from the dye.
Strange or unique physical attributes: her hair is currently dyed green/turquoise
Favourite clothing style/outfit: Very fond over oversized sweaters and hoodies. Usually wearing jeans or jogging pants. Her style is very casual and she doesn't really own anything formal or fancy.
Where does he/she live? What is it like there?: she lives in a dorm at Hawthorne College, a university that blends magical and mundane subjects.
Pet peeves: she doesn't like to be told what to do, and often pushes back against authority in unwise ways
Hobbies/interests: rollerskating and DIY enchanting, which is often dangerous, but that's part of the fun
Insecurities: she loves people a lot, especially her friends, but is often insecure and unsure if they care for her as much as she does for them
Quirks/eccentricities: both her parents passed when she was a child, but she has her father's watch and wears it daily; she has a habit of holding onto it when stressed or scared
Temperament: very impulsive and extroverted, can be a little careless at times
Negative traits: often doesn't consider the effects her actions have on others and can be too self-centred
Family (describe): she knows little about her biological parents, who passed when she was a child, but she was raised by Hyacinth Dowell and her wife, Sara, two witches who taught Ivy to use magic and did their best to raise her as their own
Other people's opinions of this character: Ivy can be a hard person to get along with, and she knows this, but those who do like her tend to really like her; she's impulsive and sometimes thoughtless, but loyal to a fault
Favourite bands/songs/types of music: one of the few things she knows about her parents is that they grew up in the late 80s and 90s, so she listens to a lot of music from that era because it comforts her to think her parents might have listened to the same stuff
Favourite movies/TV shows/books: similar to music taste, but she also loves LOTR (books and movies)
Favourite foods: is coffee a food? if not, probably the pumpkin cookies Sara always baked for her in the fall
Dream holiday: I'm reading holiday as like a vacation in this context, so probably something adventurous, like hiking to Machu Picchu or something wild like hanggliding
Any pets?: she feeds the stray cats around campus
Best thing that has ever happened to this character: pre-story, probably meeting her best friend, Birch
Worst thing that has ever happened to this character: I mean, probably her parents dying (sorry, Ivy's parents)
Three words to describe this character: loyal, impulsive, inquisitive
If a song played every time this character walked into a room, what song would it be?: I don't know if it's necessarily *her* song, but Vienna by Billy Joel is what I imagine playing during a pretty pivotal scene she's in, so going with that for now

Full cast (so far):

Ivy Dowell (she/her) — the hotshot 17-year-old who successfully snuck into Hawthorne College by faking her age on the application. An orphan since shortly after her birth, she grew up in foster care, raised by a pair of lesbian witches. They did their best to teach her about her parents, but even they knew very little. All Ivy has of them is her father’s watch and a faded Polaroid photo. She is impulsive and often seems to have little regard for others, but deep down, she loves hard and just doesn’t realize people care as much about her as she does about them.

Avery “Birch” Williams (he/they) — an 18-year-old trans-masc/nonbinary person working his way through college. They come from a big family and are often found FaceTiming their little siblings and cousins, when they aren’t studying or working at the campus coffeeshop. He met Ivy on her first day at the college, when she crashed into them while rollerskating to class and knocked him off his skateboard. They bonded over a mutual love for the local skate park. Even though Birch loves adrenaline, they also have big tired older sibling energy. Ivy is their feral cat bestie and he’s constantly holding her up by the scruff so she doesn’t fight a much larger animal.

Michael “Mickey” Lachlan (he/him)— one of the former founders of Hawthorne College, and Ivy’s childhood hero. He disappeared from the spotlight and hasn’t spoken to the public or really been seen in 15 years, for reasons unknown to most people. He struggles with PTSD, and tends to come off very rough and rude because of his anxious nature and fear of bonding with people he can lose. Deep down, he longs to care for people, and is very thoughtful, but the fear tends to get the better of him. The last person he really allowed to get close to him was Ezra.

Ezra Delgado (he/him) — a professor who occasionally teaches at Hawthorne. He specializes in herbalism and potions, but also teaches theoretical magic. A very powerful magic user who hardly ever uses it; he prefers doing things by hand. Married Mickey in a private ceremony in the 2000s; he sometimes wishes his husband was more willing to leave the house once in a while, but he tries his best to be understanding although he doesn’t know the full details of what happened.

Sir David Barnes (he/him) — another of the founders of Hawthorne, and Mickey’s rival from their school days. Still hasn’t let go of his high school grudge against him, really needs to grow up. He is absolutely brilliant with magic and swordplay, but unfortunately is too vain and stuck up to be an effective professor. Most of his students are torn between idolizing and despising him.

Pascal Salazar (he/him) — the new head of the Wizards’ Guild. He’s young, for a wizard, and was not who anyone expected to take over after the previous head passed away. However, he was allegedly hand-chosen by his predecessor, and the other wizards have too much respect for him and his memory to protest, even if they cringe at Pascal’s pageantry and unorthodox methods. He loves to put on a show, and he loves drama, especially at other folks’ expense. The one person he really cares about beside himself is his daughter, Selena.

Selena Salazar (she/her) — Pascal’s daughter. She’s not yet an official Hawthorne student, but it basically goes without saying that she’ll be accepted by virtue of who her father is. She lacks the flair for drama that her father is known for, preferring to keep her head down and get by on book smarts. She’s used to being defined purely by who her father is, but when she gets a taste of life away from his shadow, it may be too late for her to go back to being known for nothing more than that.

Thank you Spearmint!! I’ve already been trying out some dialogue between them and they’re so fun to write, I love writing besties who annoy each other but also love each other so much.

Height: 5'3" (smol with the attitude of a tiny dog that wants to bark at all the bigger dogs)

LOVE IT

I love how detailed your character sketches are already! They certainly seem like a diverse bunch and you seem to have a good grasp on who they are as persons. And can I say that I am already in love with Ivy and Avery? (they seem like such a chaotic duo!) All the best with Camp! <3

BluesClues wrote:

Height: 5'3" (smol with the attitude of a tiny dog that wants to bark at all the bigger dogs)

LOVE IT

hehehe thank you

RandomTalks wrote:I love how detailed your character sketches are already! They certainly seem like a diverse bunch and you seem to have a good grasp on who they are as persons. And can I say that I am already in love with Ivy and Avery? (they seem like such a chaotic duo!) All the best with Camp! <3

Thank you!! The characters are always what comes easiest to me when I start a new project, so I'm excited to write these ones!

I am HERE for that aesthetic and the elevator pitch!! Excited to watch your progress during camp!! <3