July's Camp '21: Colonia Heights

but wait! there's more

mel are you really going to do all the planmo journal challenges all at once?

yes


Journal Entry One. What world do your characters live in? A fantasy world? A sci-fi world? The real world? If in the real world - what place? What makes the world your characters live in unique? Describe in your thread what your world looks like.

Colonia Heights is set in the modern world (circa 2019 technically because that's when I started writing it and uh, you know. the pandemic can't be messing this story up) but with ~magic~

To be specific, Colonia Heights is a small, middle-of-nowhere town in Colorado in an unnamed valley next to some unnamed mountains and a sprawling, vast deciduous forest (I describe is as a coniferous forest but later only deciduous trees are mentioned while Felicity is IN the forest so,,, obviously that needs to be changed lol) known as the Old Forest. I was thinking about the ridiculousness of a town called Colonia Heights in a valley but we don't question that here.

And, of course, there's magic. The widespread impact of magic on the world as a whole and how it's affected everyone is not covered in detail, just because I don't think it has much of a place in this novel, but there's definitely different rules and societal shifts because of it. There are forbidden magics, there are nuances in certain kinds of magic (like necromancy, which is largely seen as dangerous and unbecoming, but some necromancers are born with an affinity for it and are cool people, but end up facing discrimination because of it. obviously this isn't something we ever see in our world now. obviously), and there are a lot of different ideas of what magic is/how it functions, exactly. It's not gone into immense depth because, again, this is a novel about Spooky and Growing Up and not about exploring the facets of the magic system (also because I want the magic system to remain a secret just for me for funsies)

Journal Entry Two. Have a think about your opening scene. Write about what plot points will be hit and what information will be shared in your first scene, or first scene that you consider to be important.

It's been over a year since I wrote the first chapter of the second draft (for April of 2020's Camp NaNo, actually!) and I'm...still kind of in love with it. I was actually just working on revision notes for what I still want to change about it, but I think it sets up a lot of what it needs to. It establishes a tone, it tells the reader "hey, this is a quiet novel, and it's going to be heavily relying on the way it feels and the atmosphere over anything flashy". As far as plot points go, we establish:

-Felicity and Fiona's return to Colonia Heights
-Felicity's discontent with this, and how soured her memories are of Colonia Heights
-They are a little hidden (because subtle), but I almost immediately establish that something about entering Colonia Heights makes Felicity feel, physically and reactionarily, bad. She gets a headache, her magic starts feeling weird, and the sensation of being back in Colonia Heights is one of feeling disconnected from reality. Which is to say, *Mickey Mouse voice* a surprise tool(s) that will help us later.
-It also introduces Felicity's magic! It's minor, but we start exploring her capabilities. I'm still on the edge about what I want her to be displaying in the first chapter (because of secret reasons), but it's still established in that first scene that yes, there's magic in this world, and Felicity uses it, even in more mundane ways.
-Also, it introduces the unrest in F+F's family, and hints at that tension between some of them.
-not to keep going but we also get some information about people important to Felicity from her past (specifically Benvolio)

There's more, but most of it is more along the lines of establishing setting/scenery and isn't as pivotal to the plot. Still! I'm really happy with everything that gets covered in the first chapter, and I think it's written in such a way so that it's not confusing? It hasn't been brought up by any of the five people who have read the first chapter anyway, so I am choosing to believe it was not.

Journal Entry Three. Don't neglect your villain. We may spend less time with this character, but it is crucial to the existence of the plot that your character's opposition be as believable and interesting as possible. For this challenge, either write about your antagonist's aims, characteristics, flaws, fears etc or, if you're feeling musical, write a lament-style song for them.

THE VILLAIN IS A SPOILER THOUGH

uh. can I interest you in some meme instead? (enspoilered for ~language~)

Spoiler

honestly I think the real villain is the debilitating mental health struggles that felicity is going through and is bottling up and kicking under the rug.

Journal Entry Four. Fill out the following questionnaire from the NaNo site about at least one of your side characters, though the more you do the more prepared you will be.

wow I can actually fill this out this time instead of writing "violin" in every single section like I did for Aristaeus last year xD

Name: Nero
Age: 19 (he's the babyest of the group)
Height: 5'5" or 5'6"? idk he's definitely short
Eye colour: Hazel (or "vivid hazel", as described by Felicity)
Physical appearance: Has a "ruffle of dark hair, barely reaching the line of his jaw" and "skin like dark, polished amber".
Strange or unique physical attributes: Has a scar on the palm of his hand, which is a Weird Place for a scar, and is often where those who use blood magic draw from. Is perpetually cold.
Favourite clothing style/outfit: He lives in hoodies. Always looks comfy.
Where does he live? What is it like there?: He lives in a small house that was pretty rundown and then he turned it into basically a greenhouse. Anything broken or cracked has been swallowed by the copious amount of plants that Nero has in his house, including a literal tree. It is always hot in his house, but at least the air is really clean and it looks very cool and witch-y.
Defining gestures/movements: I guess he taps a lot? I think most of the characters share a lot of physical movements lol I don't know if he has a specific one that's special to him. He's gotta be constantly moving though.
Things about his appearance he would most like to change: His scars, probably.
Speaking style: I,, do not know how to answer this anymore than I did last year lmao but when he texts he texts with proper grammar and capitalisation and gets on Felicity's case about her atrocious texting style
Pet peeves: the wilful ignorance that people have about necromancers and how they are painted as "just bad" even though their powers don't equal hurting people. the sound of clocks ticking. loud traffic.
Fondest memory: he has quite a few really good memories of baking with his mum, getting really messy but ultimately making something really delicious. on the same thread, having his older brother, August, help him with schoolwork or comfort him after bad days at school are something he holds really close.
Hobbies/interests: gardening, baking/cooking, magic.
Special skills/abilities: he is a little witch man. so, magic. also being really good at baking and taking care of his plants.
Insecurities: he's a wreck. the biggest thing is probably his magic, the second is just. decision making. he is always afraid he's just constantly making the wrong decisions. some of his scars also make him feel Real Bad. he's really insecure about being people's friends, because he's just. constantly terrified everyone hates him.
Quirks/eccentricities: his house and that general situation I would say is pretty eccentric.
Temperament: chill. he's sweet and gentle and just wants to be the goodest boy.
Negative traits: gets mad disproportionately (occasionally), especially when something scares him. never talks to anyone about anything he's going through (mostly) because ~trust issues~. can be a little mean sometimes without intending to (but he's trying really hard not to be and to unlearn his bad behaviours)
Things that upset him: oh, boy lol there's so many. any form of loss of control (though in particular, forms of psychic magic used to dominate will), bullies, his family, isolation. to name a few.
Things that embarrass him: Nero really isn't easily embarrassed?? probably anything he's self-conscious about though, or anything that pokes fun at him in that way.
This character is highly opinionated about: plant care, baking, and Felicity's awful grammar and spelling.
Any phobias?: Fear of isolation. Fear of loss of control (in an abstract way).
Things that make him happy: Baking! Gardening! Hanging out with his friends! Watching trashy movies! Doing magic (sometimes)! His two doves! Books!
Family (describe): Immediate family is his dad, Aidan, who is a very charming and manipulative man who is tangled in a lot of generally bad stuff and came from a terribly messy and awful family, which culminated in a lot of unresolved problems of his own. His mum, Ginny, was a patient and quiet woman who raised her kids as best she could, made sure they were taken care of, and read them stories before bed (Nero def inherited her kindness). His oldest brother, Augustus, was an outgoing kid who definitely got some of his father's charm, but who generally stayed away from his family and lived a very independent and separate life. He did dote on his younger brothers when allowed, though the middle brother, Tiberius, was often reclusive and distant from both him and Nero. Tiberius was very broody and full of that Teenage Angst, and tended to lean further towards his father's side.
Deepest, darkest secret: Spoilers :eyes:
Reason he has kept this secret for so long: who is he going to tell it's a completely insane thing that is deeply personal
Other people's opinions of this character: the general opinion of him is: bafflement (he's a weirdo who doesn't know how to interact with people and he tries to offset this with humour and ends up saying wild things), suspicion/distrust, or thinking he's the Softest Boy ever (he is) and incapable of hurting a fly (also true). there is one member of the group in CH, however, who is genuinely afraid of him (same person is also somewhat afraid of Felicity though so,,, magic, man).
Favourite bands/songs/types of music: probably a mix of like, indies/alternative, then some classical when he's feeling it, and he'd probably be into show tunes and musicals as well (so,,, similar to me lolol).
Favourite movies: good god, uh. I dodged this question last year because fantasy. I barely know my favourite movies, let alone my characters. he'd probably be into stuff like stars wars and lord of the rings, but I think anything cheesy and with bad supernatural elements would tickle his fancy.
Favourite TV shows: along the same lines as what he'd like in movies. he'd also probably like bad medical dramas? don't ask me why. also, probably shows like Monk, just so he can try to guess who did it (does that make me old?? idk)
Favourite books: askdjkajk pROBABLY IN LINE WITH THE GENRES I ALREADY MENTIONED he'd be into fantasy and sci-fi in particular, but I think he could cosy up with a good mystery.
Favourite foods: he's got a huge sweet tooth so homemade baked goods honestly, but I think he'd also love hearty foods like stew too.
Favourite sports/sports teams: lmao
Political views: good question lol
Religion/philosophy of life: He's an atheist and I have no idea what his philosophy on life would be lol
Physical health: there's some problems there, but overall he's healthy! just some lingering physical trauma/malfunctioning from an old incident.
Dream holiday: probably somewhere quiet out in the middle of nowhere, without impending doom or scary spooky stuff happening. surrounded by plants and his friends <3
Description of their house: Somewhat falling apart, but being held together by plants. He's cleaned it up nicely though. It's small because he's broke and has no money. Also there's a tree inside of it. it's described in the novel.
Description of their room: I,, am too lazy to answer this question.
Any pets?: Two doves, Hades and Kore
Best thing that has ever happened to this character: Moving to Colonia Heights and meeting Felicity + the ghostbusters gang (not their canon name but I like to call them this for fun) <3
Worst thing that has ever happened to this character: oops! that's spoilers
Superstitions: another fascinating question I am not going to answer lol
Three words to describe this character: goofy, compassionate, hurt.
If a song played every time this character walked into a room, what song would it be? I maybe will come back to this one (this is like, the ONE novel I didn't make a playlist for, I just listen to the Night in the Woods soundtrack on repeat)

Journal Entry Five. Two alternatives for outlining your plot: 1. Draw them as a graph, 2. Write a list of everything important that happens and in the margins make note of what happens in between.

"two alternatives" lmao no I write them chapter by chapter and fill in the events of each chapter. honestly right now it's a lot of "what am I keeping from the second draft and what needs to be adjusted" right now because we're entering the Big Revisions Babey and this draft is for making the story better now that I've kinda found it's foundations.

the weeks leading up to going camping are for finishing the outline, but I've already started taking notes on what's going on. was setting a 10k goal smart when I'm going to be merging/cutting/splicing/adding so much instead of writing a clean and whole new draft? MAYBE NOT but I guess we'll see how it goes lol

Journal Entry Six. Think of at least one way in which the structure of your story could be interesting. You don't necessarily have to use this in your story, but it can be useful to have a think about if it's something that just hadn't occurred to you.

the,, structure of the story,,,,

bold to assume there's any structure now

just kidding, this was the only novel I've ever written that I actually outlined beats of a structure for. I can't remember what template I used, but I did actually write the events for each step (inciting incident, climax, all that fun stuff). nothing comes to mind that would make it more interesting overall? I break it a little bit because I have a chapter zero at the end, which takes place before the story even kicked off, but that's the only divergence.

Journal Entries 7 & 8.

for the sake of spoilers (and also my sanity because I'm Tired), I am going to Pass on these two journal entries.

Journal Entry Nine. Really dig into your main character. Write their motives and what is holding them back. What is the conflict in their way from reaching their desired goal?

Felicity is a mess, first of all, so jot that down lol First and foremost though, she doesn't want to be back in Colonia Heights. Her ability to cope with anything has always been a little broken, and so she buries what she doesn't know how to confront (also she hates confrontation and this becomes a little abstract in the sense of not confronting her own feelings). Felicity's main motive in CH is to find something she can avert her attention to, which is how she ends up pursuing the mystery of Charity's disappearance.

Obviously, not everything is just going to lie dormant and be content to stay forgotten. The story is sprinkled with constant reminders of her past, and her parents in particular, whose deaths she is absolutely determined to (pun not intended) bury. She never reconciled with her mother and the strained relationship they had. Their family didn't get a nice resolution.

Plus, once she starts digging deeper into whatever is going on in Colonia Heights, it starts getting dangerous. And by extent, her friends start getting put in danger. And there are pressure points amidst Felicity's own relationships that only drive her further into her own slightly obsessive dive into finding out what happened to Charity and what's wrong with the magic in Colonia Heights.

Obviously, one of the biggest things is the weird amnesia that seems to run around towns. I'd say that is a fairly big obstacle in Felicity's path of finding out what's going on lol.

Felicity's real desires are deeper linked to things like her own independence--she's relied on other people for her whole life and she hates it--and finding her place in the world, and it ends up being the reason she ends up not telling the people around her the gravity of the situations she finds herself in. Which, in reality, just isolates her, but hindsight really is 20/20.

melli! you're doing two Camp NaNo stories?! you're just as crazy as Blue! I think I've heard this story before, and by that I mean the title, so does that mean this is another draft? Either way, you got these 10k words!

honestly, the only reason I decided to shoot for two is just because I wanted an excuse to work on this one while I was camping lol and yes! this is going to be the third draft of this novel, so we'll see where it goes!

Hey mell! One of our camp over achievers with the two projects
How has this one been treating you so far this camp season?

hey Carli! always have to be ;)

not great so far unfortunately! I was hoping to knock out most of pirate novel before I went camping and do a little planning on the side so I had the start of an outline for this one, but I've barely had time energy to even work on pirate novel so this one hasn't been touched yet. hoping I'll pick it up once I'm out in the woods though and am not at work always!

omg I totally missed that you had even started a Camp thread for this one too??? not,,,that,,,I'm done,,,reading the first draft yet rip that you didn't manage to work on it yet but I'm like so excited just to see this thread here and I'm sad I didn't notice it earlier <3

ye!! you have the second draft actually haha I'd be a little sad if I had given you the first draft before that baby was done TWO YEARS ago lmaooo

actually, I just got lazy about updating this after I did my camp update for PIRATE novel, but I did actually complete my goal AND I did a bunch of planning stuff! I'm very excited for this draft, I'm hoping this one is gonna be the one I get to really polish off and clean up, otherwise it's gonna be very close to what I want it to be I think! regardless, I'm very excited about this draft.

//may post more update later about what's ACTUALLY happening in the novel but for now, am lazy//