Well Journal, it certainly has been a long time. Hasn’t it? Truth be told I all but forgot about you.
As soon as Mother became pregnant with that thing, she stopped caring if I wrote in the journal or not. Even Daddy couldn’t be bothered to check up on me. Since they stopped caring about me, I stopped caring about you.
But don’t take it personally. Since Lyric has come into existence we also stopped doing family yoga together. We stopped going on walks together. We never do anything just me and Momma and Daddy. No more; everything now has to have Lyric included (which just ruins everything).
To be fair though, Bert does still ask how my magic studies are going, and if journaling had helped. So, at least there is someone in this house that still cares that I am alive.
The only reason, Dear Journal, that I happen to come upon your forgotten hiding place is because I am forced to pack up my room because we are moving.
Yes, that is correct. Once again my life is being uprooted for that little brat that I am forced to call my sister. I am being forced to vacate from my childhood home.
This is the home that I grew up in. My room where I was casting spells before I could walk (or at least that is what Momma and Daddy tell everybody). This is where Daddy and I built forts out of every blanket and pillow that we could find. At night he would tell me stories of our family, stories about fairy godmothers, dragons, and evil witches’ curses.
Yet now everything that I own is separated into three piles: one pile for keep, one pile to throw away, and one pile to donate to the local Goodwill.
I guess I can be excited for Momma.
And I am, really, truly I am. I am so proud of her hard work. Her beloved adventure books are being turned into a TV Series for the Simsney Channel. They even let her sign on as a show runner with producer credits. That way she can have creative input, without having to be in Bridgeport all of the time.
This added income has allowed the family to move into a bigger home. My room will be bigger. Plus, I will be closer to Luther and Briar; we can all take the same bus to school.
But I am getting sidetracked here. What I was about to say is, that if we didn’t have Lyric to deal with, then instead of buying a new house we could have spent this extra money on a trip. Somewhere cool like a trip that Momma and Daddy used to take in their adventures. But no; that will never be. Because of the added burden of another child, we are moving out of our cozy 2-bedroom home.
Of course I would never say that out loud; call Lyric a burden. Or a meddlesome nuisance. Or an obnoxious aggravation. Or the bane of my very existence.
No, I am no dummy. I know better than to say anything even remotely negative about the favorite child. Before Lyric was even born, she was the clear favorite, and I became an afterthought. I remember that I was grounded from the moment I learned of her existence. Therefore, I quickly wised up and, for my own preservation, I play nice.
Well, I wouldn’t call it “play nice”. My relationship with Lyric is more like a casual acquaintanceship. I will acknowledge her presence with a sort of half smile and ask her basic questions about her mediocre existence.
But don’t think that I picked the room furthest away from Lyric by accident.
Well Journal, I guess this is it. I have no doubt that as soon as I unpack you and put you in a random corner of my closet you will once again be forgotten. Well, it’s not like I really wrote that much. I mean, no offense, but I really didn’t get that much use out of you. My magical abilities have only gotten stronger, with or without writing in a frivolous journal. I am still on track to taking over for Master Aberdeen once he retires.
So, I guess that is a good place to leave you: on a positive note; with the confidence that my life will get back on track after this last interruption.
SIDE NOTE:
Harmony is correct; this really will be her last Journal entry.
Honestly, this first person narrative isn’t really working for Harmony’s story the way I had originally intended. That’s because I am changing this Generation’s fairy tale. I’ve never actually done that before. I’ve always had a clear idea and storyline for each generation.
When I was still working on Linc’s story, I had a basic idea for the next fairy tale. Since picking things back up, I just went along with the original idea. But, it’s not really working.
This new fairy tale will put the focus on both Harmony and Lyric. So, for the rest of the story I will be switching to a third person narrative allowing me to tell a better story from both of the girls’ points of view.
Once Upon a Legacy 
Harmony looks so pretty as a teen! She kind of reminds me of Taylor Swift with the blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes.
I’m sorry she still holds resentment toward her parents and her sister. I’m not sure she’s reliable as a narrator considering how much she seems to be focused on Lyric getting everything and her having nothing. I’m sure her parents care for her and just that their attention must now be split – and obviously a younger child needs more attention.
Ooh, so we will be getting both of the girls’ point of view! That’s interesting. First person narrative has its cons for sure. It was weird to me to switch to it when in the past I used to always go for the third person and never once tried it. It can be challenging because there is so much you just can’t convey, things that narrator doesn’t know or notice. I’d get overboard with bonus posts sometimes because of the limitations so I totally get how you need the flexibility.
Btw, I love that they both have musical names! I see Lincoln’s influence for sure.
I can’t wait to see what you’ve cooked up for this gen’s fairytale after the reorganizing process and dropping the first person narrative.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Jowita,
Thank you for the comment. You are spot on about the different points of view. The 1st person really worked for Lincoln and his selfish attitude. But for Harmony, not so much. She is very overly emotional, so any little thing of course would make her feel like she has been abandoned by her parents (although that is not the case).
I’m glad that you like the musical names. They are definitely a nod to Lincoln’s love of music.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you didn’t want to paint your beloved Mira and Lincoln in such a bad light through Harmony’s eyes. I understand the decision.
Unreliable first person narrator is a very fascinating trope to me. This is why the book Lolita is so interesting.
I, too, struggled with the first person narrative in the past because I found it hard to connect to my characters whose personalities I started writing based on randomized in-game traits since gen. 3. They were wildly different to me.
Recently, I’ve been thinking of how unreliable Ron was in describing his twin Becca. Since she didn’t feature much I never got to bring out her perspective and I always thought she’d be a more interesting heir. And honestly, she was pretty manipulative to both Ron and Clint; not quite the idealized version readers got.
Honestly, Ron was a pretty unconventional choice since he was the one in the shadow and felt less like a main character. It was hard to decide what to do with him sometimes. And I can understand why storytellers sometimes use more than one heir for generation and focus on multiple people/ siblings. The limits that come with this type of narration can really restrain your storytelling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought that Ron was an interesting heir, and I enjoyed reading his story. But I totally see how we as readers missed aspects of both Becca and Clint’s perspective. Even Britt was seen though Ron’s point of view. That’s why I liked your sort of bonus chapters at the end that showed Clint & Britt after the Never Do It Again finale.
The sibling thing is going to be a something different for me, but I’m excited for this new direction. Stella was easy, she was an only child. But even with Lincoln’s story there were things from Autumn’s life that I wish I had a way of including. She was an interesting character, but not really essential to the story except for when she helped Lincoln. There were whole chunks of her life, and the lives of everyone else in the family, that were missed because Lincoln was a beast in Moonlight Falls.
Thank you again for your comments and insights.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad you enjoyed those chapters. I enjoyed imagining what life would be like after all those tragic events. I even put on Clint’s perspective where I never liked him before. And wrote a whole post on Shari which honestly should’ve been part of the story seeing how her feelings around the time Ron got with Britt were never described in the story part – and I did that one as a project for a particular course.
I can see why you would want to write more about Autumn. I think with twins especially it feels natural to have them both feature in a particular generation since they’re usually very close. I regretted killing off Becca however it was what I planned for the start since she was in many ways a mirror of her grandmother Heather. So I think if this went on longer I may have tried to bring her back like I did Heather. I even wrote a little story of Clint having a dream she’s back while I was pondering on what could’ve been.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For sure, Becca was very much like Heather. It would have been interesting to see how you could have brought her back.
I feel the same way about Autumn, and also Willow. I was thinking about doing a side story for her, at least show what life was like after Lincoln left. But I haven’t had much of a chance, or desire, to pick it back up again. All of the characters that I had written for before my husband’s passing, I kind of want to leave behind. Really start fresh with Harmony and Lyric. But I’ll never say never.
LikeLiked by 1 person