FairWind's Life Soundtrack

I carpool with my brother-in-law to school, which means that we sometimes have to wait for each other's classes to get out before we can head home. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it's my turn to wait, and I have about an hour and a half to kill before it's time to leave. 

This most recent Tuesday, I was sitting in a lovely, grassy spot on the UVU campus beneath a tree, feeling stressed about life. As it happens, I didn't bring enough homework with me to keep me busy, and I was too on edge to get anything productive done anyway. What I really needed was a distraction. Normally when that happens, I go hide in my room and dispel, but that's not exactly an option at school. So, I pulled out my iPod and did the next best thing - just listened to music. 

It didn't work. I was looking for a distraction, but music by itself was too easy to set aside as background noise. Fortunately, Dragon Masters came to my rescue, as it very often does. 

I've been listening to a few songs recently that have reminded me of FairWind's childhood. Music is a pretty big part of fey culture too, so the idea of FairWind actually singing the songs I was listening to wasn't entirely ludicrous. In that moment when I was lying beneath a tree, desperately searching for some way to escape my tension, I thought it could be fun to build up a soundtrack specifically for FairWind. I've been wanting to do it awhile for Dragon Masters in general, but I thought it could be fun to put together a group of songs that are unique to FairWind. I've separated them into two groups: Her youth, and the years of her Dragon Master training. Here is what I came up with:

Youth

• The Orphan (Jane Eyre Musical)
• Exemplifies how she felt in her few moments of childhood. Especially shows the beginning of her yearning for freedom and acknowledgement from her father. Also introduces her passion. FairWind, like Jane Eyre, is a very passionate girl, but she keeps it hidden deep within.
• Nobody's on Nobody's Side (Chess)
• This is the first time she starts to realize that everything she's doing to please her father may not be enough and the start of her wondering if its even what she wants. Her frustration to the world when she's nearing the end of her training.
• Anthem (Chess)
• The beginning of her doubt. The idea of running away is first planted in her heart. This is her clinging to the last hope that she belongs in the place she considers home.
• This is the Moment (Jekyll and Hyde)
• The moment before her final test where she will become the youngest master in the twisted arts and officially a part of her father's elite warriors (or assassins, not sure which yet). Exemplifies her unfailing hope that everything will be better when she succeeds. It's her trying to forget her doubts and cling to her dreams.
• Nothing Left by Beth Crowley
• FairWind's feelings after the test, when she realizes she's chosen the wrong path. Her looking back on why she left her home and how she feels about her father.

Dragon Mastery Years

• Pretend it's Home by Beth Crowley
• FairWind's warrior side taking over after her memories are blocked. She recognizes that she has always been an outcast, but she's going to continue anyway. This is like her preaching to TigerClaw and BurningFeather about what she does and why.
• Open Your Eyes by Bea Miller
• The moment when FairWind chooses to leave her forgotten memories behind her and decides who she's going to be and how she's going to live. The second verse could allude to her brother when they meet again.
• Lost in Paradise by Evanescence
• The moment when even FairWind's stubbornness couldn't save her. Her darkest hour and moment of truth.
• 2007 by Beth Crowley
• Listen to the song. Enough said.
• Undefeated by Daughtry
• The moment when she becomes a Dragon Master
• Where No One Goes (How to Train Your Dragon 2)
• Come on, can't you picture FairWind flying around in triumph to this song? If this were a movie, this would be the song that would end the prologue and transition into the story where you see FairWind as an adult and fully fledged Dragon Master Warrior.

Fighting Ants in My Pants and Writer's Block

Every writer has a different way of dealing with writer's block. My usual method is mostly just me indulging my procrastination side. I figure, if I can't think of anything to write in a given moment, maybe I'll be able to tomorrow. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow, right? But, I've got to write sometime, and at some point, writer's block starts to lose it's legitimacy as an excuse.

But, never fear! Writer's block isn't the only excuse I have. Whenever I get really in the mood to write something, I get really excited about the story. That's great and everything, but it means I have a really hard time sitting still. Even when I'm on my ADD medication, when I get excited, I'm just pumped with energy and I don't want to just sit and write. I want to be up and about and doing something. That's part of where dispelling comes from. For those who don't know, when I refer to "dispelling", it means I go to my room, listen to my iPod, and act out scenes in my stories. That's usually what I end up doing instead of writing. Then there are days when I feel physically drained, but still in a writerly mode, but as soon as I pull out my notebooks, it's like my creative juices die. So rude.

Usually when that happens, I just write anyway, but I don't get very much done. So I have developed a new method. 

I was bored today, so I decided to dress up like one of my characters. I've done this before with my character Nella when my friends and I made an ASL movie of it for school, but this time I wanted to dress up as someone else. I was watching these beauty video things on youtube and I saw one about a Dragon Queen hairstyle and one about Dark Angel makeup. I combined them with my own little twists and built up my own costume. It was bizarrely fun. I'd never want to take that much time on myself for a normal day, and I would never want to wear that much make up either, but sometimes it's fun to dress up as someone else. That's the only thing I like about Halloween. I get to dress up - if I want. Heh heh. 

So, here is the result of writer's block, an inability to sit still, and a vivid character in my head. This is FairWind. She's the first real character I ever created. She's a fairy (though in this world they call them fey. Specifically, she's a sky fey), but her wings are usually tucked under her shirt. That's my excuse for why you can't see them in these pictures. She is a three and a half century old Dragon Master. Dragons in this world are actually what they call the magic people have - it's not a reptilian beast. Everyone has a dragon, but few know how to recognize them, even fewer know how to use them, and still fewer are capable of mastering them. Thus, Dragon Masters are considered mythical beasts. FairWind is one of them. She also has mastery of an evil sort of magic (the name of which I haven't yet decided on), but she doesn't know that at the beginning of the story. She's a very stoic, serious, compassionate, vigilant, mysterious type of character.

FairWind has a very special cape that has certain abilities which keep her . . . healthy, per say.

She doesn't smile much. Can you tell?

I'm not actually posing here. I was trying to come up with a way to make the waist-scarf visible. The scarf is one of the reasons you know she's a sky fey. Many sky fey wear similar styles. As FairWind has spent no time amongst her own kind, little reminders like wearing that scarf are small connections she can still have with them. However, the scarf isn't supposed to be visible, because that's where she keeps her daggers.

This is me wondering if I could make this position look normal. 

I'm wearing a skirt as a shirt, if you didn't notice. :) I imagine the sky fey have very lose fitting, flowing shirts because they have to fit their wings in there, and they're usually there for a long time, so I figured a flowing shirt would make sense. It would certainly be more comfortable.

Hey look! She's almost smiling! 

I only took this picture to show the wrist tattoo. It's one of the few clues FairWind has about her past (which she has no memories of), but she doesn't know what it means or why it's there.

I think this pose is supposed to be her daring someone to fight her. I don't know. I was running out of ideas at this point.