So many of you have probably heard me talk about my auxiliary books but I never really explain what they are, I just throw the term "auxiliary" and a bunch of titles around. Auxiliary used to be any Chronaverse books that weren't Dreamland, including those that technically exist in the Chronaverse but that doesn't have any bearing on the plot (Luminous, Extraordinary, Deja Vu, etc.) but since has come to just be any book I want to write but haven't written yet.

My creative process consists of periods of brainstorming or just general inspiration (basically whenever I'm awake, things tend to come up), which leads into very vague plots and characters, which are filed onto documents, then after a few months I file a story I can't stop thinking about or have worked on a sufficient amount onto its own document. So these would be the stories that have their own documents but I haven't put up on Wattpad yet (as discussed jokingly): 

-Deja Vu

What is it? Two groups of teenagers are endowed superpowers to save the world from two separate entities who have acquired a shard of the mysterious material known as Diosite, which corrupts and twists the mind of humans and grants access to near unlimited power. Stuck at the heart of this conflict and the kids' struggle to balance hero life with their normal lives are Will and Adam Rosenbloom, twins recruited for separate missions who unwittingly keep the secret of their identities away from each other. 
When are We Getting There? I'm literally working on the first chapter as we speak. It's just a really long first chapter and I'm... unsatisfied with my ability to establish that the twins are flawed and their strained relationship is what triggers the plot to begin with. Will is a secretive, finnicky dreamer. This initiates and drives the plot. Adam is your typical brusque, somewhat condescending teenage boy and doesn't really give a damn. This drives and initiates the plot. They grow from somewhere. 

Troubleshooting: The above. The other issue with the book would be that while I love Karen, Garrett, and Amanda, I'm in love with the Alpha team, especially Evan and Megan. The hard part is making the conflicts both teams face original, compelling, and different without making you compare the two of them mentally or wait painful amounts of time for your favorite POV to come up while skimming the other.

-Amalgama

What is it? Twelve shapeshifters, all of whom present themselves in the teenage-ish age range, travel across rural America as they attempt to reconcile with their monstrous true forms, inhuman abilities and impulses, and learn why they exist or if they even should, really. It's unclear to any one of them if they're human, beast, or somewhere in between, but it's a journey each one of them takes differently. 

When are We Getting There? I'm twenty-five percent of the way done with the "fishbone" or chapter draft, where I plan everything chapter-by-chapter. These guys are also my oldest auxiliary book, stemming all the way back to ninth grade, so it's about time they get a chance anyways. I'd say... whenever I resolve the below issues. 

Troubleshooting

This is Elle. Elle's personal mutations include charmspeaking, incredibly high cheekbones, and an inability to feel love or empathy. (also being impossible to draw) Elle's other talents include preventing me from writing this book. I have mentioned before that she's probably the single darkest Amalgam in a book where one character can tug the lifestrings of other living beings, there's a time traveller who desperately wants to die but can't, and one character is unable to feel fear and often doesn't feel any kind of remorse for her dangerous actions until it's really too late to fix anything. 

Point being, Elle's story drives the central plot, especially Kali and Red's (arguably two of the most pivotal characters in the book) arcs. It is still the story of a very desperate, almost despicable person, and I don't know if I can tell it well enough to express that I don't agree with her actions without just making her a clear-cut antagonist because honestly, she doesn't need to be reduced to that. I don't like reducing my characters to that, it's one of the reasons I'm bad at antagonists in general.

Other issues include BALANCING TWELVE CHARACTERS GODDAMN. I mean obviously no matter what I do some characters will not matter as much as others. Do you hear me blabber about Trace or Alex all day? No. That's because Trace and Alex don't have the same narrative weight as Mimsy. I don't want to give them less screentime, though, so you end up with a Homestuck-esque situation where anyone who hates certain characters is going to be sitting around a lot waiting for it to E N D, and I want to fix that without just having half the characters follow the others kind of but not really adding to their arcs instead of having their own. Sounds like even more of a pain.

I still don't have a goddamn title and the name "amalgams" is still ripped from Undertale. It's not even relevant because I've changed their backstory so many times. 

-Luminous 

What is it? I literally wanted to write this one book about dragons in fifth grade and it has taken me five goddamn years. This book predates Wattpad. This book predates Double Rainbow. This book predates DragonClan. Anyways it's about three dragons: G'ren, Venia, and Fenrir (who might get his name changed because he would be the sixth character of mine to have a name shared with another Chronaverse character) who through certain circumstances end up in the Elysian hubworld and must work together as a team to retrieve a shard of Diosite across the cosmos, confronting their past, the dark side of the Elysian empire, and Ivy Strong (also a temporary name), a time traveller who claims to be Fenrir's daughter- from the future, of course! 
When are We Getting There? Uhhhh it was my 2k special for a while but I guess before I graduate high school? Whenever I work things out I guess this dragon book might haunt me until I die though.

Troubleshooting

Did you say Diosite?

Yes. 

As in-

Have I mentioned Deja Vu takes place in the extended Chronaverse? Yes. I have. The Veins described in Deja Vu, the place where the kids meet the Cherubs, is the interior of a dormant Ophaboros, the ancient ancestors of the Elysian dragons. The Cherubs are like their white blood cells. 

Why must you do this to yourself/us?

I haven't even gotten into the tricky dragon lore. It's nearly deep as Dreamland lore. The rabbit hole knows no end. 

Honestly I still have no idea where to take this one, the above is about as far as the plot has gone. I have more details on the three of them, and they are in my first art book a few time, but outside of some very rudimentary character arcs the story is vague enough that I can't really make that chapter-by-chapter plan I do before actually writing a book. 

-Lux

What is it? God Is A Fifth Grader With Depression and Anxiety Issues, The Book

You're joking. 

It's about a seraph who's world is destroyed so she runs to an uninhabited dimension and creates, within her own mind, a functioning town with an alterego for herself and characters who, as the book goes on, develop from pretty flat archetypes to dynamic individuals even she couldn't have planned for. The story is told from their perspective as they suddenly acquire powers and traverse the Ruined Realm, a world only accessible in their dreams, to hold back a 'mysterious evil'. They don't learn who their "friend" is until late in the book. 

Did you seriously give away the plot twist, though? 

That's not the only plot twist. 

When are We Getting There? Eh... this one's also been on the docket for a while.

Troubleshooting

Extraordinary and Deja Vu are similar (okay, less weird psychology, but similar basis!) but in this one the kids are a lot younger. Really, I should only be writing one of these three to avoid them sort of blurring together, and Deja Vu outmuscles this and Extraordinary, easily. This one also unfortunately overlaps with Amalgama in terms of how heavy it is on the POV switching and number of characters.

-TCHF Rewritten 

What is it? I'm rewriting The Cities Have Fallen.

Things to expect:

-More complex characterization for all Lira City Defenders

-Verde development

-Fyera and Flare are really gay

-Thistlepatch and Twitch are handled with some dignity

-Gale and Rena's dynamic is a lot better

-Nina is more blatantly abusive and her and Gale's relationship is expanded upon more

-Indy's cooking show 

When are We Getting There? when i finish TSBS 

Troubleshooting

Nah this is going to be way better get hype 

-Extraordinary

What is it? Urban fantasy where magic has always been real but is largely growing irrelevant as the higher number of Eugaeans (non-magic people) and the expansion of their technology leaves the shady, dangerous world of magic and superstition in the dust. Enter Ylva, a teenager forced to move with her family to a run-down neighborhood in a big city, and Emily, whose hobbies include taking on missions for the government and participating in a kind-of-illegal underground fighting ring. They meet people, go on adventures, and engage in Magic Shenanigans. 
When are We Getting There? The first three (?) chapters are up. I am stuck around halfway through by-chapter planning.

Troubleshooting

This story works better as a TV-show esque serialized story rather than a traditional narrative with 'rising' action, and you know, a central conflict and plot 

Wattpad is a better medium for such a story but I still worry that I'd eventually lose interest in a story that doesn't really go anywhere. It's not that there's no risk or nothing going on, there's a ton of stuff going down, it's just that it's very hard to find a central "villain" or issue for this book that doesn't veer into issues I'm not comfortable/ready/informed enough to deal with QvQ so it just works better as a lot of "episodic" stories, as seen in the last chapter of CAUP (this book). 

-Gevona's Hope (Sol and Luna edition) 

What is it? I've wanted to make a CYOA book along the lines of Dictator forever, where audience decision drives the plot forwards. It would be spoofing JRPGs and the like and follow two princesses in a land where the royal family is slowly being assassinated. Security increases, paranoia grows in the kingdom, and the most dangerous villains may be just a heartbeat away... 
When are We Getting There? Formerly my 1.5K goal. Then my 2K goal. I don't know.

Troubleshooting

When I don't plan things get messy, and this requires me to think on my toes a lot. I would LOVE to do this as a shorter story, just for "fun", but I don't know if I could get an audience/momentum behind it. I also want to implant a bunch of stats and maybe even something similar to combat but don't want to make it too tedious to potential readers or anyone who wants to read through "for the plot" rather than to play along. 

Also the world is vague. I have a BUNCH of characters from ninth grade (also, can you say Chronaverse cameos?) but THE WORLD IS SUPER VAGUE. 

-Spirits Rising: Heaven's Aria

What is it? Local Teen Ends Up In Love Triangle With Detective and Interdimensional Criminal and Crime Prince, Everyone Fucking Confused 

Okay, now you're just making this shit up.

have you read any of my books friend they're all bizarre as hell

Anyways, this is actually an idea old as Luminous, or of similar age. Originally it was a Pokemon ripoff because Dreamland used to be close to a Pokemon ripoff, where "human" counterparts had a more legitimate role in the series (although in Dreamland the relationship was that of equals). This was a holdover of that for a long time, which is why it's never come up, but in my heart I've always wanted to write that one story where an almost-normal human world must contend with all the madness of the Chronaverse. 

This is that story. 

In this world, aliens have made contact with humans and ask for certain human children as "ambassadors". In return, they give them technology and have cured many of the world's ills. Ava Brightfield is one of the ambassadors, but as she explores the world of the "aliens", she finds that not only are they not a legitimate nation, but they're also renegades who recruit children from many worlds (including her Earth) because of auspexes, who are people who happen to be Earth's version of important beings from other worlds.

To clarify auspexism: you know how in parallel universes, there would be another version of you? An auspexism is when that "split" between universes happened before you were born, often LONG before you were born, so the alternate you may look nothing like you yet still retain many of your qualities... and often, helpfully, your magical fingerprint.

As Ava continues to draw herself closer to the web of crime and treachery constructed by said aliens, she befriends Von, who is set to succeed his adopted father as representative to Earth and is cracking under the pressure (and may have a crush on Ava); a plucky Spirit Canira; Cindy, another teen from Earth who wants to use her power as representative to push for social justice on Earth, even if it means screwing diplomatic relations over; and Abigail, a deep-cover interdimensional detective determined to blow the lid off this operation, but whose relation with Ava goes from one of necessity to one of potentially romantic engagement. 

It's a mess of cosmic proportions.

When are We Getting There? hahahahahahahaAHAHAHAHAHA I HAVE NO CLUE 

Troubleshooting

Names aren't established, certain worldbuilding facets haven't been explored... there's no "central flaw" that puts a crack in this one but there's a lot of small, nitpicky issues, and I don't know if it's quite come to fruition yet. :/

-Riptide

What is it? Another Interdimensional Criminal Attempts To Raise Three Children While World Burns, Deals With Crippling PTSD and Learns A Lesson About Friendship 

Cut it with the cloyingly vague descriptions!

That's about all I've got for this one, bud. 

The titular "Riptide" is a Canis, exiled from her native home for a crime she didn't commit, who has wandered the worlds from years. When the supposed death of the High Auspicia leads to a power vacuum in Dreamland and the perfect opportunity for those like her to return home, she agrees to help some old friends, but their job for her turns out to be nothing like what she'd expected... 

When are We Getting There? I don't know 

Troubleshooting

it's fluff.

it's... it's all fluff. all of it

I need to develop said children but Riptide remains one of my favorite Dreamland characters... ever? She's one of the less traumatized members of the "Short End of the Stick" club (Nat, Aislyn, Red, Ashley, etc.) and she's got this great stoic design and she's been my ventsona for a while now. her story isn't really personal but riptide herself is very old and definitely is personal, she's one of those characters who on concept just

makes me feel better. 

anyone else just want to go, i don't know, live by the ocean forever? 

I also have a policy about not writing more than one story per High Auspicia/Princess because fuck it I already have to write 63 stories about these goddamn sparkledogs so this one might just sit on the backburner forever. 

-Polarity

What is it? 

Kids. Superpowers. The cardinal directions. 

If anyone's been keeping up with my second art book, it goes more into West/East/North/South there. 

When are We Getting There? [screeches forever]

Troubleshooting:
West is a terrible person. This isn't a problem unless you consider that East is a stoic, apathetic narrator. This story was always going to be third person but it's just them, essentially two forces of nature, dueling it out across continents. Passion and apathy. Cruelty and justice. Fire and the earth it leaves behind, ash-covered and ready for new life. 

How much of that can you write, really? They're more suited for smaller stuff.

North and South are also "opposites" but they do have a little more of an arc between them. South kind of burned down the house with her abusive family still inside when she was physically assaulted because her powers went a liiiittle haywire. She's pretty fucked up by that and North finds her, about to plunge off a bridge, and convinces her to come with him instead. They gain a reputation together but the past continues to haunt South...

yeah these four are just characters I really like. North and South are literally thirty/fifty years before West and East (fun fact: Texas is its own country in their time. Also the world's food supplies are running low because We Warned You About Global Warming But Nobody Listened.).

I don't really have a cohesive story for them? They're just cool and I want to. I do have some short pieces for them I could post here??? 

-The Panacea Project 

What is it? The most pretentious High Auspicia abandons her own government to DO THE SCIENCE with Delta, who is an ambitious Progenitor Canira on the brink of creating a machine that will allow for the detection of heartlines (reincarnations) and bring forth a radically changed world order. 

I lovingly call this "Natrina Gets Screwed Over" the book because out of all the books where Natrina gets screwed over, this is the book where Natrina gets the most screwed over.  

When are We Getting There? It was going to be this year's nanowrimo but i'm pushing it back

Troubleshooting

Originally this was a story about finding happiness even in bad situations/when the world wants you to be miserable (Ampere, the Auspicia and main character, always smiles) but the truth is that really, Ampere is a reckless teen anarchist and a culmination of many failed coping mechanisms used by past Auspicias to deal with their trauma combined into one gleeful egomaniac who's all to happy to DITCH THE GOVERNMENT AND DO THE ILLEGAL SCIENCE.

It is, however, relevant to the end of the series- the cult Thistlepatch joins (the one that manufactured the Plague and essentially lead to the downfall of the Auspicia) was created by Delta, and this book explains how he got to where he was. It's more relevant than Roses and Thorns or my potential 2017 NaNo, but it's also just... hard to make the protagonist likeable when she kind of angers me on a visceral level. 

Also Natrina doesn't deserve to keep getting ditched. Wouldn't it be great if she had like, a sister or a best friend, either of whom might be immortal, to keep her company...?

Oh wait. 

-Activity Reboot

What is it?

 In my life, I've always wondered about the repercussions of multiverse theory on my life. What bad decisions have alternate Chronas made? What about good ones? (This is where the 'second darkest timeline' thing comes from. It's sort of a weird joke for my books and my life, and serves as both paradox and hyperbole- in an infinite multiverse, you can't qualify the second worst, and there's no way YOUR life is even close to the bottom. But doesn't it feel like it sometimes? Definitely does for most of my characters.) 

This might seem like a weird tangent, but Hearts of Gold and The Activity were a toss-up for me. I was going to write one or the other, and on a complete whim, Hearts of Gold became that story. It didn't have to. I could have just as easily written The Activity afterwards- where would I be now, though? How many of you would I perhaps not even know? It's likely I would have veered far from fanfic, likely gone on to leave the site when I failed to garner an audience, and would be doing more professional work by now. Whether this is better or worse is entirely subjective, and hey, I also could've stuck around, it's all speculation. Still, The Activity, which was little more than a Warriors rip-off with powers (actually, think Warriors and Wings of Fire in a blender), is one of my greatest "what ifs".

It was a decent story in it's own right, also one that got extrapolated on one of my longer text rants in the old art book, and the characters are dear to me even though they were very amateur. They had an honest charm to them and I do want to go back to them one day, but now they'd definitely be humans... and not cats. I do have lore set up, though, and potential cultures I'd like to explore stemming from the areas the different "tribes" once inhabited.

When are We Getting There? (shrugs)

Troubleshooting

I don't really have a plot yet. Just characters and fun worldbuilding. There's not much that *could* spark conflict in this world, it's very stable. 

I'm working on it. 

-2017!NaNoWriMo

What is it? Nothing's set in stone, but I'm currently going with two merchants exploring the vast Opphemrian landscape as cities begin to form and culture begins to truly develop in Dreamland. However, in the time of the Sixth Auspicia, a terrible war grips the young world just as it's blooming: the bones of the dead are infused with great and awful magic, and corpses are being pillaged and innocents slaughtered for such power. The Dog Day Wars are one of the most tragic and brutal parts of Dreamlandian history, but also some of the most visceral and the red-tipped fields of gold grass live forever in ancestral memory and hazy nostalgia. A simpler, if more dangerous time. 

A time of stories, of legends, and a time of ordinary heroes and extraordinary cruelty committed by the average civilian. 

When are We Getting There? Nov. 2017

Troubleshooting

you'd love to know wouldn't you 

-2k!Nuzlocke

What is it? I'm working on like three nuzlockes right now: A Sun Nuzlocke, a Black Nuzlocke, and a Omega Ruby Nuzlocke. The latter two would be the biggest contenders, as they're actually custom Nuzlockes with added rules to make them much more difficult. Mix this with some bonus lore and we're good to go (thumbs up) 
When are We Getting There? do you really think i'm ever going to hit 2k 

Troubleshooting
I really don't want to write another nuzlocke.

-Thatch

What is it? The end of the world, soft and slowly, with a group of anthropomorphic rabbits just praying not to freeze. A world dependent on stories and tradition, where there's little left to cling onto. Perhaps this is when we most need to hold on. Perhaps it is the best time to let go.

When are We Getting There? When hell freezes over. (same time as when this story takes place) 

Troubleshooting

I'm not writing Thatch. I just had to mention it because I feel bad about never mentioning it. It's like owning a house full of pets and then one goldfish, and then you name all your pets and when you've named thirty various mammals and all sixty-eight of your Sea Monkeys, you remember "oh yeah and the goldfish. it's uh... not dead yet?"

As a writer with a lot of stories and a lot of characters, and more importantly, as a writer who has been developing her craft for a decade strong, here is one of the most important things I can offer you about writing:

What makes this worth telling? What is the POINT? 

This goes not just for stories but for characters. What is the point of your character? What drives them? What can you get out of them that you can not get out of your other characters? 

Each one should AT LEAST be unique enough that you can explore something different with them. Even characters of mine with similar "aesthetic" (Flare, Blitz, Torch) or similar morality (Nina and Elle, Dill and Indy) have different ways of getting where they are, different facets of their personality, and at the end of the day, some kind of different lesson to impart. They are unique enough to matter, in the grand scheme of things.

As for stories: why are you writing this story?

Be honest with yourself. What does this story offer you for your growth as a writer? What skills do you want to develop by writing it? Is there some moral you really, really, really want to get out there? Is there a new concept you want to explore? What can you get out of this you couldn't get out of the next story over? 

If it comes down to views, it comes down to views. Hell, if I didn't want views/comments, I likely wouldn't write as much fanfiction as I have. It's how I attracted an audience. I guarantee most of you found me through my fanfiction. 

However, even then, try to make your stories offer SOMETHING. Leave me with some kind of emotion. Give me something I can't go to the next story over and find. What aggravates me about YA and most of Wattpad tends to be that a lot of stories blend together. Trend follows trend, any trope that rises to the top spawns pale imitators with shadow-copies of the saaaaame damn thing for what seems like an eternity. Being inspired is one thing. We all draw inspiration from somewhere, certainly. I would not be where I am without Warriors, The Last Dragon Chronicles, Pokemon, Harry Potter, and other franchises which have shaped my understanding of what it is to be an author.

However, at the end of the day, a good story matters. Perhaps it reflects the author, or the attitudes of the time, or in the case of fanfiction, perhaps it speaks to the very essence of the franchise. Perhaps it's just that passion pours out of it in an irreplicable way and shakes you, humanly, so hard that it haunts you for long after you close the book. That is why we, as a society, have had stories since we developed language- they are human. 

It is why I believe in my medium.

So, I suppose, this is my spark. I want to create something beautiful, something that evokes feeling, and eventually something that matters. 

(Thatch is not going to be that story. At the very least, I have no reason to write it over my other books, nothing to pursue with it I can not do elsewhere.) 

I got a little off-topic there, but whatever. Hopefully you enjoyed the ramble and are at least somewhat interested in a few of these stories. The ridiculous amount of planning almost justifies my long absences, doesn't it? I might not get to all of these but I hope that all the planning pays off in some truly extraordinary stories. Make sure to drop a comment below with what you want  to see. ;)