Closet Full of Notebooks is now into its 3rd year and has seen hundreds of prompts to fill its shelves. After I’d written the first 100 prompts, I decided to write a post to collect some of my recurring characters in one place. It was handy, for a time, but as the blog has grown and the prompts have provided even more characters, it occurs to me that an old archived post won’t suffice anymore. I need an easily accessible, less wordy overview of each character/world.
“LESS words, you say? Sara, surely you jest. Do you even know how to keep things brief?”
Hurtful, but accurate, and I will try my best. Here goes.
Wolves of Legend: Awakening, Betrayal, & Legacy (Anime Fanfiction Series)
Ali Shinamori is my oldest, most developed character. I created her in high school as a love interest for a brooding side character in an anime I loved and over the years she has grown into a fully fledged personality with a backstory that only gets richer the longer I write her. She is also one of my favorite characters to practice new writing tips and tricks on and I return to her stories often. Her tale spans three novels, though the third focuses more on her daughter, Mika, and has been in limbo for a couple years. You can read the first one here on the blog. Eventually I’ll revise the second one and post it, too.
But I said I would be brief so let’s (try) get to the short of it, shall we?
Ali Shinamori/Rin: Wolf demon. Psychic. Child of Prophecy. The end of the wolf demon race was foretold generations ago; a sibling pair, destined to battle, would herald the beginning of the end. Rin and her twin sister, Sayuri, tried to fight fate instead of each other, but it could not be so. A horrific tragedy breaks Rin’s mind and her psychic powers break the world, erasing all trace of her and Sayuri from it. 15 years later, a young human girl named Ali is wrestling with a strange power that she doesn’t understand but which feels familiar. With a little help from Koenma’s Spirit Detectives, she is able to solve the mystery of her past and confront it. Several more years pass, and she has a family to protect. But another old enemy arises, this one 10x worse than her sister. She’ll have to make a deal with the devil himself to spare her loved ones, but it won’t be enough. In her lowest moment, she has a vision of the future and learns what she must do to end her enemy’s reign of tyranny. After she sets the future in motion, she bides her time until her daughter is ready to take up her mantle.
Ali POV Prompts:
2: Speak Up
25: Award
53: Sole Role
88: Guilt
114: Beach
186: Useful Tool
229: Eulogy
Mika Jaganshi: Daughter to Ali and Hiei. Half fire-half wolf demon. Adept with a sword, proficient in martial arts (trained by her father and all her “uncles”), can channel her energy into flames or a bow. Unlike her parents, has no telepathic powers. This vexes her often. Idolizes her father, loathes and resents her mother, adores her sister (cousin) Yuri. Has her own destiny to face, but none of her training prepares her for it.
Mika POV Prompts:
24: Need
102: Stress Relief
130: Best Friends
213: Worst Feeling
228: Patience
(Other) POV Prompts in universe:
60: Selfish (Yuri)
74: Offspring (Yuri)
82: Ancestors (Takei)
83: Mom’s Clothes (Nikkie)
91: Hotel (Youko)
109: Blessings (Hiei)
187: New Beginnings (Koenma)
282: Hometown (Nikkie)
333: Five Years (Yuki)
[Huh, interesting, a lot of the prompts I’ve written for those two have actually come from outside POVs]
Ashes of Eden (Post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi)
The Last World War devastated the planet and humanity lost the will to fight. The people who survived laid down their weapons and returned to their cities to rebuild. The giant domed city-states sheltered people from the volatile Wastes, but after years, humanity began awakening to something new. The Sages were the first to discover their new abilities and realize that a new form of human was emerging within the Domes. One which was faster, stronger, smarter. If they could only find the key to unlocking the affinities, they could push everyone into the new world.
Lara Hayes: Chimera (5 affinities-Reader, Mover, Seeker, Elemental (Water), and Hero). Due to her multiple affinities, she has incomplete control over all of them. The most troublesome is her Reading. In the Dome, there are too many voices for her to tune out. A True Reader would have no difficulty, but Lara is a Chimera and she cannot do it unaided. She had a Mentor who was like her who helped, but he abandoned her. She begs the head Sage of the College, Arcadios, to be allowed Outside. He is reluctant at first, but eventually he gives her a task, a quest that will send her into the Wastes and away from the Dome. Despite the dangers, she gladly accepts the job.
Mitchell “Midge” Bennett: Hero (agile). Short, quick-witted, silver-tongued, and fleet-footed, Midge becomes Lara’s closest ally on her quest from the Sages. She found him when he first manifested and he feels obligated to follow her to the ends of the earth.
Shane Dolan: Chimera (3 affinities-Reader, Elemental (Earth), and Sage). An enigmatic man who takes Lara under his wing when she first comes to the College. He’s distrustful of the Sages plans for her and tries to protect her as her Mentor. He makes plans to get her out of Athens and away from them. Ark forces his hand before he can execute his own plans though, and he has to flee the Dome without her.
AoE Prompts:
1: Lazy Day
3: Art
9: Self Deception
18: Three Goals
21: Siblings
22: Fridge
39: Twice the Cost
63: Discovery
73: Value
78: Mentor
104: Handmade
122: Something’s Wrong
164: Let Go
191: Motherly Quality
208: Self Pride
214: Pickup Line
248: Newfound Knowledge 2
317: Hope
337: Chocolate Life
363: Virtuous
The Adventures of Captain Leo Peaches and The Ninja Spaz (Action Fantasy)
In a world where pirates and ninjas have been enemies since the dawn of time, a pirate captain encounters a lone ninja woman who makes some outrageous claims about his own lineage when she attempts to “rescue” him from his own crew. Trouble is, he never knew his parents and he’s always had an uncanny awareness of ninjas that most pirates could only dream of.
Captain Leo Peaches: Captain of the pirate ship The Eternity. Born to ninja parents but abandoned on a wharf as a baby. Raised on and around ships and eventually made his way to piracy, eventually captaining his own ship. The only clue he had to his parentage was an obsidian amulet with intricate carvings of a crescent moon at the center and an unrecognizable script around the border. He is well respected among his crew and well on his way to making a name for himself on the seas.
Leo POV Prompts:
19: Fears
67: Time Management
85: No
135: First Home
195: Memorable Hairstyle
250: Parrot
261: Stolen
285: Worth the Risk
369: Won’t Risk It
Kita AKA The Ninja Spaz: An unconventional ninja who does not subscribe to the “all pirates are bad” philosophy that rules the ninja world and who believes the eternal war is dumb. Her ideals got her kicked out of her clan and she went off adventuring to see the world her people refused to acknowledge. One day she hopes to bridge the divide and bring peace between the nations but until then she’s content making friends and fighting bad guys.
Kita POV Prompts:
6: Worth It
108: Theme of the Week
113: Newfound Knowledge
182: Inheritance
196: Misfit
201: Who Are You Like
234: Best Friend
327: Lucky (technically not Kita or Leo POVs, but Kita is the focus in this one)
335: Sunrise or Sunset
352: Silver Linings
Galactic Empire (Alien Invasion Sci-Fi)
(Also sometimes referred to as the story of the Price Bros.)
The Mosari are a powerful, militant civilization spanning the galaxy and they’ve made their way to Earth in the name of Expansion. The Empress will protect the galaxy at any cost, and conquering primitive worlds is just another necessary measure to ensure everyone survives. But Earth proves troublesome. The Terrans are resilient, and they have maintained a stalemate for four years. They aren’t doing it alone. A rebel princess, the former Empress who abandoned her duty to her people, is on the surface of the wretched planet, aiding their resistance. She has a talented knight at her side who seems to thwart the Empress through sheer determination alone. But she has her own trump card to play. The war will end soon enough.
Faelurian Amadestia: Rebel princess and former Empress of the Mosari Galactic Empire. She was raised to lead the Empire to glory through the Expansion, to protect the galaxy from a terrible threat. For years Fae believed they were doing the right thing, until she uncovered a secret that flipped her world upside down. It was a truth her people were not prepared to face, and so she fled. She ran ahead to the next system to provide warning to the next inhabited worlds but crashed and was grounded at the first one she came to. Earth.
Veralis Amadestia: Current bearer of the Mark of the Empress. She inherited it when her sister abandoned her people. It allows the Empress to channel the energy of nearby stars and wield it as a weapon against the Great Enemy. Ral was never supposed to be Empress. It is not a power she wants, but the Expansion must continue and the traitor must be brought to justice.
Todd Price: A young soldier who rose to acclaim during the early years of the invasion. He lost his younger brother in the first wave and Fae promised she would help him get his revenge. He has always been by her side and she has trained him in Mosari tactics as well as the language. He leads an elite team of hand-selected professionals, code named King’s Court, but affectionately referred to as the Todd Squad. One way or another, they will bring Ral down.
Jack Price: Todd’s younger brother, believed to have died in the first wave but who was in actuality whisked away with hundreds of other Earth children of an age compatible with indoctrination. Jack learned Mosari culture and the language, as well as fighting and pilot skills. Ral took special interest in him and made him her knight in an effort to counter Fae’s.
GE Prompts (POV):
33: Turning Point (Jack)
34: Souvenir (Todd)
35: Stress (Fae)
64: Red Line (Jack)
111: Unwanted Task (Fae)
161: Strength (Todd)
167: Anger (Ral)
192: Truth (Todd)
205: Admirable Trait (Fae)
233: Priority (Todd)
240: Generation Gap (Todd)
259: Family (Tar*)
278: Facial Hair (Todd)
281: Emotional (Ral)
297: Comfort Object (Jack)
298: Deserving (Todd)
331: Space Trip (Todd)
355: Gut Instincts (Todd)
*A Mosari resistance fighter and valued member of the Todd Squad
Untitled Fantasy WIP
Magic. Monsters. Elemental pairs fated to save the world. An eccentric wizard mentor. The dichotomy of good and evil. No indoor plumbing. Ya know, all the tropes that make up an epic fantasy. Honestly not much going on with this one, but it’s been featured in enough prompts to warrant a collection on this page.
Zinnia: Fire elemental. Twin sister of Kennick.
Kennick: Water elemental. Twin brother of Zinnia.
Tamara: Earth elemental, empath.
Remi: Air elemental, Changer.
Elvior: Grand Master of the Mages Academy, though he would just say he was a simple sorcerer.
Prompts:
28: Country
40. Lesson Priority One
44: Tattoos
50: Campfire
100: Recurring Dream
150: Old Flame
157: New Skill
Ensembles
Sometimes I get the fabulous (read: insane) idea to do group interviews with all these characters. Why would I do this to myself you ask? Because writers are sadists and masochists. Also in this list are prompts where I listed how some of my characters would interpret them without necessarily writing a big group therapy session.
11: Risk
185: Bad Dating Ads
194: Chapters of Life
237: Happiness or Success
295: Eulogy 2
308: Reset Button
Last updated: 2/8/20 @ 1AM
Closet Full of Notebooks 