Persephone's Cage [Connor Stoll]

fun facts!!

Hello everyone! it's been a minute since I've touched this story, and genuinely, I'll probably end up rewriting it again. it seems I can never be too happy with this story, and I'd like to think I've grown since I first published it. but, I figured I'd write you all some fun facts about the creation of this story, to help me get into the mindset to actually write! I won't lie, I've been in a terrible writers block, and it's honestly really annoying. I want to get out of my slump, so here I am! I hope you enjoy these little things <3

1. Lilly was my first ever oc! I created her back in 2015, by sitting in my room and looking around. if I'm being honest, I created her name by looking at two things. one, a lily plant I had which was self explanatory, and second, I looked at my walking dead poster on my door that had Daryl Dixon, which is where I got her last name. 13 year old me wasn't very original with coming up with names, lmao

2. Lilly was originally created to be paired with Leo! The first time I read Heroes of Olympus, I fell in love with Leo's character. I related with him a lot, and I found his story so interesting. So, Lilly was born, and I had begun writing. I can't really remember the plot of the og story, but I had written a segment where Lilly first came to Camp Half-Blood, and she was going to stay in the Hermes Cabin since she hadn't been claimed yet. I wrote a segment where Connor was the first person she met, and I'm not quite sure what happened, but it accidently became a Connor story. I've always had a love for side characters, and I guess that came out while I was writing. And thus, the first rendition of Persephone's Cage came to be, and now here we are!

3. I wrote this version in it's entirety in 8 hours. Considering the way it's unedited and written weird, I feel like this one is kind of obvious. It was during the very first Covid lockdown in 2020, and I had just finished high school, so I was staying up all night and sleeping all day. I had felt the urge to write, and so I pulled out my laptop and got to work. I started around 11 pm, and I just kept writing and writing. It was strange to me, because I get writers block very easily. I didn't take a single break, and just kept pumping chapters out, not really even having a true plan in mind. I finished around 7 am, and without editing it or anything, I published it. It was my very first story I had ever published on Wattpad, and it made me a little nervous. But I'm happy how far it's come!

4. I feel like you guys already know this from the previous facts, but this story is the one I've had in my mind the longest. Connor and Lilly's story has been through a bunch of different versions, and I believe my first one was from 2016! I think the idea of Persephone's Cage hit me in 2017, and I've been writing and rewriting it since. And here I am, still unhappy with it. I hold myself up to very high standards, and if it's not up to par with how I want it exactly, I rewrite and rewrite over and over. Even this version is a rewrite! But yeah, been writing them since 2017. 

5. Lilly originally was going to be a child of Hermes! Weird thinking about it now, but you have to remember, she was supposed to be with Leo. After I realized I wanted Lilly to be with Connor, I knew I had to change it, but I couldn't figure out who I wanted to be her godly parent. I toyed with Hades, but I didn't really want her to be a child of the big three, so then I thought about Athena, but I still wasn't happy with it. So, honestly, I dropped it for a while. Then, the first Trials of Apollo book came out, and I had forgotten how much I loved Apollo. So, I thought it fit well, and thus, the daughter of Apollo was born!

6. Lilly has gone through the most changes of any of my ocs. You saw that her godly parent change, but her look and personality has also gone through many changes. The first version of her was a girl with strawberry blonde hair, glasses, and she was a huge nerd. Then, she had brown hair and brown eyes, and she was shy, quiet girl who was nervous over everything. Then, she got her blonde hair and blue eyes, but she was kind of stuck up, and it was my least favorite version. I liked her blonde hair and blue eyes, and I gave her glasses again, and she was very preppy and sporty, and very energetic. With each change I made, I couldn't find a way to write her the way I wanted her to be in my story, and thus this Lilly came to mind. She might honestly go through more changes in the future if I do rewrite this story, but who knows!

7. I almost completely scrapped this story. As I've mentioned, I get writers block very easily, and when that happens, I get discouraged and beat myself up over it. There was a time in 2019 when everything I wrote, I just hated it. I couldn't get a good paragraph, and I never even made it to chapter two. It was making me so frustrated, so I dropped it. I left it in my google docs, and tried to forget about my failure. But that day in 2020, it just all came to me, and I pieced it back together, and now I have it published on Wattpad! I'm still not the biggest fan of it, but I'm proud of myself to have even gotten this far!

and I think that's about everything interesting! I hold Lilly very dear to my heart, and one day I hope I can finally do her story justice. I can't promise this story will be rewritten, as I'm a little funky with writing now a days, but I do plan to try sometime soon. I just recently got a new laptop after having my old one for 8 years, and it types so much smoother, so I might just get back into writing my stories! I hope you all enjoyed these little silly facts, and I hope you have a great day/night! 

Much love!