oj-swan

[oj-swan]

Words Written in May 2025

May was the first month I've really tried to accomplish a daily word count in. The format I've chosen to use is to decide on a specific word goal a day (for example, a thousand words a day in May) and if I don't reach it, the amount of words I have left gets added to the words I need to write for tomorrow. If I go over a thousand words, though, it doesn't subtract from what I need to write the next day. If I have a certain amount of words left over at the end of the month, though, they don't get moved to next month.

I find the stress of the amount of words I need to write in a certain day piling up if I slack off helps me find the motivation to actually write anything, knowing that every word counts, and the fact it doesn't move over from month to month stops me from getting so overwhelmed I can't do anything anymore.

All that said, here's my progress for the month -

Ignore the fact that the border for the donut chart doesn't line up exactly with the lines of the cells, in my copy it does, but I have to zoom out to 50% to be able to get the entire month in one screenshot, and for some reason that mucks it up :(

If anyone is interested, I'm more than willing to share an empty copy of the spreadsheet I've used to make this. Most of it relies on formulas and the conditional colour fill formatting feature - the only thing you need to enter is your daily word goal and how many words you've written on any given day and add your daily word count to the next day if you went over yesterday, because otherwise it tends to go in the negatives and I haven't figured out how to fix that yet.

The only flaw I've found in this so far, for me, at least, is the fact that I tend to try to get pretty, round numbers instead of just writing what feels right, but that isn't an issue so big I can't look past it, and often even motivates me to add extra words.

None of these words are particularly good, but they're there, and there's so many of them. A few weeks ago, I saw something to the effect of "You can't sculpt anything out of clay until you put the clay on the table. Getting down the words is putting the clay on the table." It sounds corny and silly, but it's been the only phrasing of the "Just write it, you can make it good later" mentality that I've actually been able to get behind.

All of these words are going towards the book I'm currently writing, title and series name pending, that follows a girl while she ages out of the foster system, gets diagnosed with a personality disorder, makes an effort in her relationships, feels safe for the first time in her life, and discovers she has powers. That last one might seem shoehorned in there, but I promise it's relevant to the overall plot of the series if not to this specific book.

[oj-swan]

Church Basement

An alternative/indie/punk rock band started in 2016.

Asher Gallagher - The drummer, his mother let him practice in a back room in the church where she worked.

Hazel Ginger - The lead singer. Born Hazel Gallagher, Asher's little sister who annoyed her way to a place in the band and uses her first and middle name as a stage name.

Zachary Kline - The bassist, the one who named the band twenty minutes before their first gig - he named it after a room they were allowed to practice in. Minimal effort.

Micah Levine - The guitarist, it was his idea to starts a band, though he meant it mostly as a joke before Asher and Zachary took it seriously.

[oj-swan]

Used Tags

lyrics that hit my characters like a truck - this one is very self explanatory

in another universe - how things would have turned out for my characters if something had gone differently

just bullshitting - shitposts about my characters that I wouldn't consider to be canon / to have actually happened in canon

i am god - shitposts about my characters that I would consider to be canon / to have actually happened in canon

otto is actually writing it's fucking insane - I struggle a lot with writing. Here's some evidence I did it. Might include my monthly report of my daily word count, or a scene that got cut from a book.

[oj-swan]

Mana Naming Customs

Mana naming customs originate from River naming her children Minnow, Doe, Cardinal, and other names like that. There’s a common misconception, because of the generalized anesthesia technology that H.E.R.I.T.A.G.E. developed later, that this was what River was suffering from and named her children the way she did because she didn’t remember any normal names – this is not the case.

Minnow was born three years after River was taken into captivity, three years after the last time she ever saw the sun. She wanted her children to have some connection to the outside world, with the hope that one day they would see it and she’d be able to show them the things they were named after.

Over time, common Mana names have grown to take more possible categories than simply things from nature, including colours, places, concepts of freedom, time, food or characters from stories they like.

Once Manifesters become common knowledge, it’s very common for people with Mana names, even Baselines with names that are deemed too suspicious, to be discriminated against exclusively based on that. Because of this, Manifesters with Mana names will typically have a Baseline name on their birth certificate – often a derivative of their real name or something their real name could be a derivative of – and only be called their real name in their home and around other Manifesters.

[oj-swan]

Characters Post Links

Soooo it turns out I have too many characters to put in a reasonable list, so I'm going to break them up into groups and give each group their own post.

Church Basement - An alternative/indie/punk rock band started in 2016.

The OGs - Coming soon! Characters that originally started this universe, but over time have been pushed into more sidelined roles.

Primordials - Coming soon! A group of the first ever seventh graders to attend Lethe Lekh.

Owners of Shittily Named Cats - Coming soon! Contrary to what the name suggests, not all of the characters in this group own shittily named cats, but they are all in the same group, and this is the best name I could come up with (50% of them own shittily named cats, it's fine)

[oj-swan]

Worldbuilding Post Links

Statuses - Different types of people in my world, in relation to Aspect and Essence.

Organizations - Coming soon! Organizations in my world, in regard to Manifesters.

Mana Naming Customs - After living almost entirely in captivity for centuries, Manifesters have come up with their own way of naming children.

[oj-swan]

Hello! Welcome to my blog!

My name is Elliot, or Otto, or Lily, but no other nicknames. I'm nineteen years old, and currently writing a book - and have others planned, all taking place in the same universe.

Below the cut are links to posts I'm going to use to organize this blog so that it isn't impossible to navigate, hopefully.

Worldbuilding Post Links - A post full of links to posts detailing different aspects of my worldbuilding.

Story Post Links - Coming soon! A post full of links to posts detailing stories of mine.

Character Post Links - A post full of links to posts detailing characters of mine.

Used Tags List - A post full of different tags that litter this blog, and what they mean.

[oj-swan]

Statuses

Natural Statuses

Manifesters

Manifesters - previously known as Homo exemius, a term coined in the mid 18th century by the then head of H.E.R.I.T.A.G.E., shortly after the application of the term Homo sapien, now considered derogatory for the implication that Manifesters aren't human and the creation of a slur, Hex, derived from it - are people who have both an Aspect and the Essence to be able to use it. Because of the way Manifesters have lived for so long, they have their own cultures and customs different than that of Baselines - these are referred to as Mana culture / customs. Mana is not a term used for Manifesters.

Aspect

For lack of better word, an Aspect is a Manifester's specific power. If someone has the ability to control or create fire, their aspect would be pyrokinesis, and they wouldn't be able to do anything but that.

Essence

Essence is essentially the battery to a Manifester’s Aspect, though without an upper limit. The longer they go without using their Aspect, the more Essence they will have saved up, and the more they will be able to use their Aspect. If their essence gets too low, Manifesters develop symptoms such as dizziness, fainting, fatigue, irritability, or death until/unless it gets back up. Not every Manifester makes Essence at the same speed.

People who make Essence quickly, regardless of their status, have been known to report discomfort when near electricity. Most common is a feeling of buzzing, just under their skin, all the time. In certain cases, there have been reports of people suffering from constant migraines.

Potentials

Potentials are people who could be Manifesters, but aren't quite - they only have one of the necessary things - either an Aspect and no Essence, or Essence and no Aspect.

Aspectbound Potentials

Aspectbound Potentials are people that have an Aspect but don't create Essence. For the majority of history, being Aspectbound is a death sentence, as people with Aspects need Essence to be able to maintain it, even if they don't use it - the same way a heart needs to pump blood.

There's a common misconception that Aspectbound Potentials have no Essence - this isn't quite true, they wouldn't be able to survive without any. Typically, they get a little bit from their parents, especially the one that carried them. It isn't enough to be able to use their Aspect, but it keeps them alive for a number of years, depending on how much they inherit. The closer they get to their death, the more symptoms of low Essence they exhibit, such as dizziness, fainting, fatigue, irritability - just the same as a Manifester overexerting themself. The oldest recorded Aspectbound Potential lived to thirty-five.

Essencebound Potentials

Essencebound Potentials are people who create Essence but don't have an Aspect. They have the same side effects as other people with Essence, meaning a buzzing or migraines around electricity. Because they don't have an Aspect, there is nowhere for their Essence to go. As a result, they often have hair and fingernails that grow quickly, and they heal just a bit faster than most.

Baselines

Baselines are exactly what you'd assume - people without Essence or Aspect, what H.E.R.I.T.A.G.E.'s founder was operating under the assumption was normal, or baseline, when he was conducting his research.

Manmade Statuses

Trials

Over the course of the late 14th to early 21st century, H.E.R.I.T.A.G.E. performed experiments on Manifesters, Potentials, and Baselines alike, with the purpose of trying to figure out what makes a person create Essence, or be born with an Aspect. The motivations for these tests have always been murky, ranging from wanting to be able to recreate it for military purposes, to the desire to cure Aspectbounds. These people are referred to as Trials - they can be any natural status.

Echos

To avoid Manifesters using their Aspects to revolt in their Keeps, H.E.R.I.T.A.G.E. use intense, specific types of electromagnetic radiation - ones that stop them from producing Essence. There are side effects to constant exposure though, and the children of both Manifesters who spend even only a few months in a Keep, and Baseline guards and scientists, armed with protective gear, who've worked there for over two decades have been proven to be more likely to be born with a number of disabilities. The children born with disabilities because of their parent's exposure to said electromagnetic radiation are called Echos, and they as well can be of any natural status.