Mandala update

 

I made more! I took the color schemes for each character and shamelessly stole celtic knot patterns made of three strands off the internet and colored them. I tried to post this like two days ago but Blogger was giving me trouble.

Today's update: I wrote the scene last night. HALLELUJAH I WROTE THE SCENE. 

Guys I am so close to 45% I can taste it.

Character mandalas

So I'm stuck in a giant plot hole, right? This is the scene where Lee and Nadie call Jimena, the first time our heroes are (sort of) in the same room together. The scene where Jimena calls the outcome of the romantic subplot, and tries to explain to Leandra how they're going to eat each other alive, but only succeeds in driving them away. But I can't figure out how to write the scene so she'll get that, on account of Lee and Nadie get along really well. 
So I colored mandalas of all of them.

 

Nadie "all that glitters is not gold" Jones

 Jimena "what you see is what you get" Navarro

Casey "don't call me pretty"

I kind of love them. Maybe I can do a design with the color schemes of all of them, so I can metaphorically pluck out why they do and don't work?

Characterization of Henriette

How did I forget Henriette? No, seriously. How did? Henriette is easily one of my favorite characters. I have misplaced my list of questions to ask, so I shall do my best.
Henriette is 5'6", skinny, with messy dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and freckled, pale skin. She's kind of a hippie, barefoot whenever possible, earth lover, peace lover, but also wears body glitter for reasons she's never explained. She likes ripped jeans, which got that way through use, natural fabrics, shirts without designs, no jewelry. She's got a tattoo of the Deathly Hallows symbol on her shoulder blade. She's into robotics and computer science, and loves fantasy, especially Harry Potter. She's an introvert, but an open kind of person, which leaves her completely exhausted at the end of the day--luckily for her, no one is demanding her nights from her. She's a fairly friendly person, but she does get confused when things head flirty/innuendo, and tries to avoid such conversations. She enjoys helping people. She speaks fluent Spanish, like Leandra. When she's comfortable with the situation, she's a great conversationalist, really good at the give and take, but when she's not, she just sort of shuts down. Nothing in particular seems to be really important to her, it's more that she balances having a lot of mostly important things. She listens to New Age stuff but also pop. Henriette is asexual and possibly aromantic, and cis. Relationships make her go mostly 'huh what?' She is a Hufflepuff.
I kind of want to write a second novel about Henriette. At the moment, she's slightly Mary Sueish, though--she needs some flaws.
Sheer obliviousness?

Tell me a Whitney

Hello, everyone! Happy NaNoWriMo! And Thanksgiving, that little thing...
They actually have NaNo at my school. I've never tried it, but I did wish I could, homework-related-guilt-free, go to one of the several-hour writing sessions here.
Life continues very rough. Story continues very stubborn. I have now got to the point where I need to tell Whitney's coming out story, and despite everyone's insistence that I don't actually need the story, just the leadup and the fallout, I still feel the need to actually write the thing. I don't know if I want to switch POV or maintain a dialogue setting, but I dont think it matters. I'll write whatever comes out when I write it.
Unfortunately, this isn't a very well traversed blog, and y'all who do read are almost always silent. Otherwise I'd ask for ideas on what you think Whitney's backstory should include (siblings? With what reactions? Quirks? Interesting teachers?) in hopes something will strike a chord and I'll start writing it. Downsides to not being even reasonably well known.
It's also possible I'm counting on the phenomenon which goes, if you complain about something to enough people, the thing will go away. BRB. Going to try to write the thing again.

Character sketches of Radical Three

Chrys is short for Chrysacolla, which suits hir much better than Emily. Chrys has black hair with a green streak in it that matches hir eyes. Ze’s shortish, and likes to wear leather, sequins, makeup, and bright colors. Ze’s in Shakespeare Performance Troupe, and is in fact assistant directing the latest performance of Othello. This conflicts with the startup of GenderQuest, the club ze and Whitney are co-presidents of, which is dedicated to making a safe space for transgender and gender non-conforming people. Parties, friendliness, and mingling are second nature to hir, but ze’s learned to be a little reserved around people who might be transphobic, and is likely to be defensive around said people, due to the very small amount of people who acknowledge hir identity. Ze’s a scientist, and a chemistry major. Ze identifies as genderfluid, Ravenclaw, and pansexual.

Whitney was born Whitney, and when he came out as male, he decided to keep it, since it’s actually a unisex name and the touch of femininity suits his personality. It really fazed his family and friends when he came out, and in fact it took him a while to figure out what was going on himself, since he presents as so feminine. He has all the stereotypes: hand gestures, stances, catchphrases. Although he’s happier now he knows he’s just a very femme gay man, he’s gifted at seeing both sides to every story, and gets how easy it was for everyone to mix up his gender and gender presentation, so he’s generally pretty laid-back about the whole topic, and tends to be the one people with questions go to. He’s a very patient and understanding person, too, which helps..He loves drag culture and dreams of being able to go out to clubs in drag without feeling dysphoric. He’s very careful about keeping his hair bleached and styled, and wears feather boas constantly. He’d love to go into the fashion or modelling industry, and generally settles for photography. His parents want him to get a good degree, so he’s debating doing art, which would irritate them, or business, which would please them and eventually be quite useful in the industry, but which he also expects will be very dull. There’s speculation on what color his hair is under the bleach. The current best guess is ginger. He and Chrys run GenderQuest together. Ravenclaw on the edge of Hufflepuff.

Ella is short for Eloise. She comes off as a bit of a ditz and also about twelve years old, which is a combination of her style choices (overalls? Really?), blonde pigtails, and bouncy demeanor. She has a tendency to ramble to the point of monologue, but it’s born out of high energy and extreme extroversion rather than disrespect, and when she asks you a question, she’ll give you her full attention while you answer. And I mean her full attention. It can be a little heady. She adores the Backstreet Boys. Despite the airhead first impression, though, she’s a person you want in your corner, a kind soul who’s loyal to the end and an environmentalist, a Hufflepuff in all the best ways. She’s the token cisgender straight person, but she plays it well, and pretty much everyone has a soft spot for her. She’s Leandra’s bio lab partner and a frequenter of Doublestar Sci-fi/Fantasy club. 

Sorry y'all for the slowdown in posting! It's been a difficult couple weeks. 

Nadie characterization

Nadie is reserved. Se’s tall, on the short side of average for a guy. Se’s got skin like porcelain baked a little too long—smooth, and sort of permanently lightly tanned. Se has almond-shaped brown eyes and dark brown/black hair in a ponytail. Se likes obviously girly shirts, though it’s got a good bit to do with genderfuckery as well as personal preference. During the winter, when the difference is less obvious, se goes gender-neutral. Se doesn’t really have friends, which sucks, and leaves sem with depression and a handful of self-hatred. Se’s strong, though, and most of the time manages to keep up ser grades. Se’s not out to ser parents. Se keeps a kitten in ser room, secretly. Se liked archery, but has quit due to it making ser arms bigger and causing a certain amount of dysphoria. Se’s fond of Jane Austen novels and other classics—English major! Se’s also a movie buff. Se’s a really good poet, but se doesn’t advertise it much. Se’s normally pretty calm, but the idea of coming out to ser parents meets absolute refusal and some anger. Se’s adopted—se thinks somewhere in ser lineage se is Native American. Ser adoptive parents called sem Ned, which is too dysphoric, so when se found the name Nadie in a book of Native American names, se kept it. Se has a good relationship with ser family otherwise. Se’s less into hiding ser emotions, but not really exuberant either. Happiness meets with a smile—a real smile, usually, but a small one. Anger, sharp words and a raised voice. Se’s not a huge music person, or a foodie. Se identifies as agender and pansexual.

Jimena characterization

Jimena is joyful and sassy. She’s fairly tall, typical Latina in looks, and she likes revealing clothes to show off for the boys. Some people call her a slut for it. She pretends not to care, but she does, a little. She’ll listen to Anberlin with Leandra, but her secret love is Shakira, which she keeps secret because she thinks it’s stereotypical. In public, she’ll admit to liking Lady Gaga and Madonna. She’s fiercely loyal, and pretty brave, definitely a Gryffindor. She adores books, mostly YA fiction, and spicy food. She played a variety of sports in school, and still works out. She’s pretty entrenched in her family’s culture. You do not mess with gender in her family’s culture. For this reason, she had a hard time with Leandra’s coming out, but ultimately decided it was more important to keep their friendship. It helped that Leandra isn’t big on the dating scene. Jimena, unlike Leandra, wears all her emotions on her sleeve. She screams when she’s angry, bites her lip when she’s nervous, dances around when she’s happy. She’s quite fond of her family, has two brothers and a dog, and they’re all Catholic. Jimena is straight cis.