Hi Elly!

I hope you’re doing well! I’ve just come out of two weeks of mocks, and am currently getting all my papers back. How are you doing though? How is school going for you? Hopefully not too stressful! Also, Easter holidays are coming up so are you planning anything fun to do then? I’m mainly going to be chronically revising during the Easter holidays, but I’m also helping out with some kids as well so that’ll be quite fun!

Oooh, let’s talk about music next! I know you’re a swiftie, so I guess I have to ask the obligatory questions: favourite Taylor Swift album? What about your favourite Taylor Swift songs? It’s hard to pick one, so feel free to pick more than one if you need to!

For me, I’d say my favourite albums are Red and 1989. I love The Tortured Poets Department as well (it’s my go to “I’m sad” album) but not as much as I love 1989 or Red. There’s just something about that pop and country-pop sound that makes me just fall in love with those albums so much. As for my favourite songs, I’d say Message in a Bottle, New Romantics, Getaway Car, The Tortured Poets Department, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me, State of Grace, Treacherous, Red, and Welcome to New York, among others.

I also listen to a lot of non English music as well - I’m very into my Japanese and a bit into Korean Idol Pop if you’d like to hear me ramble about that, but I’ll spare you that for now.

How are things going for you writing wise? What sort of stories or worlds are you working on? I’d love to know! I’d love to get to know a bit more about your worlds because I absolutely love worldbuilding, and I’m interested to see what you’ve come up with! Feel free to ramble on about it for as long as you like, I’ll probably read through it all.

That’s all the questions I have to ask today, I guess!

Regards,
Skylar

to skylar,

hi!! this penpalswc concept seems like so much fun <3

to begin - i also hope you’re doing well!! and oh my gosh yes - best of luck for your a levels, and have fun over the easter, when you’re not revising, at least!! other than chemistry, what subjects are you taking? i’d love to hear a bit more about what they’re like, if you’re comfortable with that!

and i’m doing well! i was a bit stressed yesterday because i had a clash with a few activities, but everything worked out in the end, so that’s been a huge weight off my shoulders! i’m not exactly sure as to what i’m doing over the easter yet - i’ll probably be doing revision, as well, and enjoying not having to wake up early.

ooh, yes - midnights or reputation are definitely my favourite albums though i love love love red and ttpd too! i find them so comforting - and 1989 is awesomeee. :jaw drops: i love all your top songs! they’re great to play on the piano - i’d give you my favourites but it’d be too hard to choose. and yess, j-pop! i’ve never listened, but one of my friends really like to play pjsk, which i guess is similar? i hope that comparison wasn’t too disastrous, but, yes, feel free to yap, i’m all ears <3

and aah writing!! (let’s ignore how obvious it is that i would like writing xD) i’m currently working on this mystery novel that i was originally planning on making a fantasy/sci-fi sort of thing, before finding the initial concept too tricky to figure out… i might still go back to that sort of idea when i’m finished, but that probably won’t be anytime soon.

the worldbuilding aspect of it was initially going to be portals to death opening up that the main character can see, so she basically knows when someone’s going to die and how, and what to avoid so she doesn’t - she doesn’t know it’s the portal to death though, and she’s trying to figure that out.

what about you? i remember critiquing one of your secret agent sort of pieces last year - that was super cool!

best wishes,
elly

Hi Elly!!

Ah, other than Chemistry I’m currently doing Biology, Maths, and Physics. (Yes, this may or may not have been a very bad idea. Alas.) It’s really fun and I enjoy all my courses but the grade boundaries for them can be a bit iffy depending on which exam board you’re doing - the OCR A Chemistry grade boundaries are insanely high while the AQA Physics grade boundaries can be insanely low. The hardest course I’m currently doing is probably Chemistry - it’s really fun, but memorising all the different reaction conditions and also trying not to dock a ton of marks is really hard. My favourite course is probably Physics - while the start of Year 12 was pretty boring physics things got so much better when we started talking about waves and superposition and quantum mechanics, and there’s a lot on the A Level spec that isn’t covered at GCSE! Biology is also really interesting - it’s fascinating learning how the human body and other organisms work and how genes work and how everything is so much more complicated than we make it out to be.

How’s school for you, though? Good luck with revision over the Easter holidays - and make sure to take lots of mandatory rest breaks! You’ll do amazing, I know this!

OOOOH Reputation I love Reputation! I feel like there’s so many love songs on that album and it’s also just so much vibes? I absolutely love Call It What You Want and New Years Day from that in addition to Getaway Car! Unfortunately I don’t really like Midnights - there are some good songs on there but it just isn’t for me, sadly.

Ah, yes, J-pop! And Project Sekai!!! I’d argue Project Sekai is J-pop, but hey. I absolutely love the music from Project Sekai - you can just sit and study to it in a way you can’t really with other music. I absolutely love the unit Leo/need because of their Pop-Rock style of music (and it’s been one of my favourite genres to listen to!) and I also love More More JUMP! because. Idol pop. Oh, and speaking of idol pop, it’s one of my favourite genres of Japanese music aside from J-rock! I’m really into AKB48 and their sister/rival groups such as Nogizaka46, and I’ve been meaning to listen to other groups but they just keep pulling me back for some reason. I find that there’s something in J-pop that isn’t there in western pop music and that you just don’t get these sorts of songs talking about graduation and school life as much in western pop music. Anyways, that’s my very brief rant on Japanese music over, I would ramble more but this might get a bit too long for you ahaha.

I love your writing project’s world aaaa?? I love the idea of having portals to death - that’s such a cool and unique idea? Tell me more about your characters, I’m

And my dear secret agents. Their universe kind of… devolved. They now exist in a city where I was just like “SCREW EVERYTHING LET’S PUT ALL MY FAVOURITE TV SHOW GENRES INTO ONE STORY” so now it’s Law and Order plus Medical Drama plus Action with superheroes and secret agents, apparently. Honestly I don’t think anyone's really explored the implications that having superheroes would have on the public services and that’s something I wanted to do, so that happened. I have no idea where the plot is going but all these characters are demanding attention from me and there’s like seven different plot threads while I try to figure out what the main Big Bad is. Also, it’s also kind of an AU of some other stories I’m working on so it’s really convoluted at the moment…

Normally when I make worlds I tend to have an overarching story (or no overarching story) and write short stories within that universe but this world has just gotten very much away from me.

Still on the topic of writing, do you have any genres you like to write in? And what are some of your goals for this session of SWC? I’d love to hear back from you ^^

Skylar

hey skylar,

your a level choices are so cool! it must be busy doing four :zany: i'm not that great at maths and the sciences, but i'd agree with you - they are super interesting! and school's going okay for me- on one hand, i haven't been doing the best academically so far this half-term, but on the other, i've had a nice time doing my extra-curriculars <3 and thank you!! same goes for you!

and yess you're so right i love the vibe that reputation has!! i was secretly rooting for the life of a showgirl to be just like it, haha - and no i totally get what you wrote about midnights! as for j-pop/pjsk, that genre honestly seems like so much fun! if you have any recommendations i'd gladly listen to them :D and aaa i totally get what you mean about the pulling you back thing- some albums are just so comforting and feel so right you know?

as for the universe thing, i don't really know how i thought of the portal to be honest xD but thank you so much! and while i'm sorry that your universe devolved and stuff, that's SUCH a cool concept for a universe omg?? and literally - whenever i watch spiderman or something i can't help but thinking about how high the taxes would be because of all the damage to buildings and stuff, and whether the police would get laughed at for depending on spidey so much ahah-

the seven different plot threads thing is so relatable - i hope you're able to figure everything out soon <33 or you could just write a 7 book series… /j

i like to write in contemporary the most! massive respect to sci-fi or fantasy writers (and the like) because i find world/universe making so tricky!! i also find it hard to make my writing symbolic, which is a shame because i really want to be able to write with a bunch of deeper meanings and stuff :) what about you?

for this session of SWC, i really want to be able to complete all the weeklies (although i've already forgotten what the current weekly is) and have some fun, as well as work on my writing! what about you?

the bi-daily looks cool, too- i vaguely remember doing a bi-daily, but i don't think i've done one for SWC before! i don't know what to write about for the memoir, though… i've been trying to think about experiences that have made me who i am today but i can't really pinpoint one thing xD

all the best,
elly

Hi Elly!

Apparently I’m writing these at quite a fast pace ahaha, I’m trying to slow down but one of my goals is to write a little bit every day so you’re getting two letters from me today since I didn’t plan on doing the bidaily, ahaha. I may or may not have forgotten to add the points from the first letter to the main cabin, but hey, I got words for it!

Ah, I’m sorry to hear that you aren’t doing as well academically this half term, but I’m sure you can work things up with some more revision and hard work - you’ve got this! And I’m glad you’re having fun with your extracurriculars! What sort of extracurriculars do you do at school? For me, I’ve spent a lot of time in my school choir. We’re doing a Wicked medley at the moment and it’s genuinely so fun to do - I’m singing Alto/Soprano 2 and my favourite parts are Defying Gravity and One Short Day. I’m really sad that we don’t have What Is This Feeling on the medley because that is just such an iconic Wicked piece and it’s also made for an ensemble as well? It would have been so fun to sing, but alas, no. It’s a nice change of pace from the recent Latin choral works I’ve been doing in choir though. Aside from choir, I also engage in Model United Nations which genuinely just took over my life last year - I’m still attending the club sessions every now and again but I head off on study leave soon and there won’t really be time to attend it at all after that, which is kind of sad.

Yes, I love comfort albums and songs to listen to when I’m sad! What are some of your comfort songs or albums? I’m not quite sure what mine are since I think I’ve experienced quite a lot of emotions listening to all the music I have since I tend to get really obsessed with one type/genre/artist for a bit and I kind of go through life with that obsession for however long it lasts.

As for my universe, I’m currently working on fixing some of the world by actually figuring out what superheroes do in their spare time when there’s no real big bad around… and also trying to get some lovely politics going on in the world as well. Yes, their taxes are probably going to be through the roof but oh well… I don’t know how many books I’m going to end up writing in this because it’s turning into a novel or a book series and that’s the one thing I have zero attention span for. I’m currently trying to figure out a general continuity and then I’ll probably slot in scenes here and there and try not to cause any continuity errors (hah this will be fun!) because there’s so many characters I’m already losing track-

Contemporary fiction is really fun to write! I love putting characters in realistic or modern day settings, it somehow makes them a ton more relatable? And also it’s just easier when you’re tired because there’s no worldbuilding ahaha. I also struggle with symbolism in writing as well, which is probably why I did not like English Literature very much at school. It also means that I do struggle to get across meaning in my writing and it’s supposed to be taken very much at face value and I do think my writing suffers because of that, so we’re in the same boat here! As for me, my go to genres are realistic fiction or science fiction. Realistic fiction is fun because I don’t have to build a world, and I’ve always loved writing about my characters just going about their mundane everyday lives, which isn’t something that usually happens in books so it’s quite fun to write! I’ve also loved scifi for quite some time now, probably because of my interest in science as a kid that’s somehow just sticking with me for life. I write it a lot because it’s sort of my comfort zone, especially when I’m employing a lot of the traditional tropes such as warp drive or an interstellar federation or literally any trope that originated in the worldbuilding of Star Trek that have since become classic science fiction tropes. I could yap on about how much I love the worldbuilding of Star Trek (okay not fully, but like, the general bits) since that was the first big scifi franchise I fell in love with and it has influenced my writing so much.

Oooh, completing all the weeklies seems like a very noble goal and I hope you can reach it! I’m hoping to do all the weeklies too since there hasn’t been a session where I’ve done all the weeklies yet. I’ve tried to do all the dailies this session but this memoir bidaily is really something I don’t feel like doing, ahaha. Speaking of the weekly, what’s your progress looking like so far?

As for my other goals this session, it’s to write a bit every day! I’ve definitely written a bit every day so far, even if I’ve been unable to update trackbear, since it forces me to take a break from the chronic revision I’ll probably end up doing. I’m trying to reach a word goal of 30k, but I also decided I wanted a perfectly straight (ish) line on trackbear so I’m also aiming for 62k… I’m also hoping to end up in the top ten this session since that hasn’t happened yet but I do not have enough time in March to write so aaaaargh. I’m really busy on the second cabin wars day and I missed the first which I’m really sad about. (But I was at a concert in a cool cathedral so hey, things worked out in the end!)

Best wishes,
Skylar

hey skylar,

sorry for taking so long to get back to you - some irl events happened and i haven’t been able to get on scratch much the past few days!! and then i wrote a response last night but it didn’t save </3 don’t worry about writing too many letters, though! the more the merrier after all, and i’ll try my best to write back when i get the time to :D

but i’m here now, and my jaw is dropping because a wicked medley sounds like SO MUCH FUN omg?! super happy about that because 1) i love wicked!!, 2) ‘one short day’ deserves so much love and 3) medleys are awesomeee! i agree that ‘what is this feeling?’ would’ve been such a fun addition too though! i do choir at school too- as well as orchestra! i’m doing the high school musical too, which is great!

ah, yes - MUN! i’ve been to a few conferences that have been loads of fun, but i probably won’t be going to many in the future, either, though it’s a lovely experience!! do you have any favourite memories from MUN? action (in july i think it was?) seemed like such a sick concept-

as for comfort albums, i’d have to say ttpd, who’s the clown? (audrey hobert) and the good witch (maisie peters)! and i totally get that - literally me whenever i discover a new musical or something haha <3

moving into world-building, ooh that sounds so cool! good luck with that <3 maybe you could start creating a list or something? i’ve got a sort of opposite problem when it comes to characters :sob: i literally only have three for my current project. and yayy sci-fi! it’s an awesome genre to read, so if must be even more awesome to write! i’ve got to admit - i’ve never actually watched star trek! although i did learn a bit of klingon on duolingo for fun. at the time i was mainly just surprised that duolingo actually offered that as a course… i don’t exactly remember much of it bahaha, i’d love to hear more about it though!

as for weeklies, same goes for you! i’m probably going to have to speedrun mine since i haven’t exactly had the time to start yet (i might ask for an extension), how about you? and ooh i don’t think i’ve had a session where i’ve done every daily yet either, so i guess our goals are kind of like… swapped xD

ooh yay that sounds like fun! i keep a diary so usually manage to get about 200-300 words per day, which is super useful for SWC hehe- good luck on reaching your goal!! and aww it’s a shame that your missing cabin wars :( i’ll try to war dystopian in your honour :sparkles: /j that “do not have enough time” thing is so real though!! if onlyy

all the best,
elly

Hey Elly!

It was great hearing from you again <3 I am super hyped to do Wicked in choir, so I’ll keep you updated on the concert when it happens!

I didn’t know you did MUN - but I’m so glad you’ve got to go to a few conferences! It’s an absolutely amazing experience in my opinion, so I’d love to know some more of your thoughts on that! It was Apocalyptic July 2025 which was MUN Crisis Committee themed and I had the absolute time of my life with that - I got to merge Star Trek and MUN (okay we had to hold back a little bit on the Star Trek side ahaha) and that was really cool to do. What countries have you represented in MUN before, or were you just there as an observer? I’d love to know a bit more about the conferences you’ve been to and I’d also happily yap about the ones I’ve been to and the one I organised this year if you’d like!

Oooh, I love The Tortured Poets Department and I do see it as bit of a comfort album too ahaha - most of the time I just use it to help me process whenever I’m feeling upset or frustrated because uh- vibes. I absolutely love the vibes of TTPD.

In terms of worldbuilding, yep, I already have a list of all my characters! I feel at some point I’m going to have to somehow make an entire mini fandom wiki in my docs for this though - or use a spreadsheet to keep track of everything ahaha. There’s a lot of characters in this universe though I do bias quite a few of them and have fallen in love with them… though I haven’t yet figured out the villains yet. I’ve currently torn down the main plot and worldbuilding twice and we’re starting again, so hopefully I’ll figure out something that sticks!

It’s okay to not have watched Star Trek before - quite a lot of it is quite old and can be a struggle to get through, though I do have some of the newer series as well as Next Generation on my watchlist which I will get around to sometime within the year… and oooh, Klingon on Duolingo sounds like it was quite fun! I never learnt Klingon on Duolingo though every time I saw that it was a language option it did remind me of The Big Bang Theory ahaha.

I’ve already fallen drastically behind on my attempt to do all the dailies, mainly because I didn’t really like some of the past dailies and also just didn’t have the time. It’s okay though because I’ve still been writing a lot and I can still do all the weeklies and also try to reach top ten in the trackbear! (I’m so close eeep-) Mission Perfectly Straight Line on Trackbear has not gone well, but I am just about on track so I will take that as a win.

I love that you keep a diary! I’ve tried keeping a diary and journaling before but I’ve just never been able to stick to it, unfortunately. I’ll definitely look out for your war during cabin wars though!

Also, are you reading anything interesting at the moment? I just absolutely devoured the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer and I’m going on a hunt for my library card so I can go borrow books at the library but it’s gone missing… It’s probably made its way to some random shelf or something somewhere or got lost in the house move last year but if I can’t find it I’ll just get a new one.

Best wishes,
Skylar