The Cat Days of Christmas

Merry Christmas, everybody! My sister and I wrote this last year.

On the first day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
A scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the second day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the third day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the fourth day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the fifth day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM)
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the sixth day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
6 cans of cat food
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM) 
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the seventh day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
7 cardboard boxes
6 cans of cat food
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM)
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the eighth day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
8 fluffy beds
7 cardboard boxes
6 cans of cat food
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM)
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the ninth day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
9 laser dots
8 fluffy beds
7 cardboard boxes
6 cans of cat food
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM)
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the tenth day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
10 little bells
9 laser dots
8 fluffy beds
7 cardboard boxes
6 cans of cat food
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM)
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
11 acorns rolling
10 little bells
9 laser dots
8 fluffy beds
7 cardboard boxes
6 cans of cat food
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM)
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my owners gave to me…
12 toilets flushing
11 acorns rolling
10 little bells
9 laser dots
8 fluffy beds
7 cardboard boxes
6 cans of cat food
5 FEATHER TOYS! (BUM-BA-DUM-BUM-BUM-BUM)
4 ribbon sticks
3 old strings
2 catnip things
And a scratching post shaped like a Christmas tree
(DUN DAH-DUN!) 

A Shadow Lullaby

(Featured in my novel Shadowbook, which you can read here)

Light has come, but still you keep
The Night in your folds, dark and deep
To protect you as you sleep. 
She holds you tight
Until twilight
When owls rise in silent flight.
Awaiting you is a moonlit field
A starlit grove, secrets concealed
Waiting still to be revealed.
Dream sweetly in Night’s warm embrace
Reposed in a hidden place
Til you see the moon’s shining face.
In the darkness, safe from harm
Night holds you in Her arms,
Night holds you in Her arms.

My Shadow

Sometimes I try to sleep

As the light fades,

Trying to see the shapes in the dark

Not fearing the creature that lurks behind me

I know who he is, I know his name,

That is a rare case.

The world tells me he is ugly. 

So ugly, I should lock him

Behind a door, with all the dark

So that no one could look upon his terrible face

But if I do, then he will be terrible.

Humanity has forever

Tried to conquer his kind,

To control them and get rid of them

But if you lock them up and ignore them, 

They will force their way out and take over you,

And then their terrible faces will show through you and your personality. 

The world thinks that they 

Will do this anyway

If you leave them out to frolick

That they are innately evil

When they really are just angry at being locked up and disrespected. 

We are told that we should fear them.

But I do not fear him. 

I opened the locked door to his lair.

Dared to look upon his face, and shake his hand.

I cannot see him,

Even if it was light,

I could not see him.

I can see him in my mind’s eye, though

And he is beautiful.

Beautiful!

Ethereally, terrifying beautiful, 

I may be told that this is a disguise,

To entice me, to hide his horrible true face

But I know who he is. 

And he is not ugly.

My anger,

My wildness,

Recklessness,

Sensuality,

Arrogance! 

I love him. 

I am not afraid.

And as I sit here

Listening to the night air, trying to hear

A voice, of a being 

That the world fears

More than they should

He wraps his dark wings around me

And genuinely, gratefully, loves me back. 

I sleep.

Jungian Shadow Complex summed up by a poem.

What do you know about me? -- A Poem

Nothing. 
I figured.

Could you possibly assume the way the sky was oriented?
You don't know the sky; you know the earth
I know the sky.

Can you sing?
You can sing.
Can you express?
I thought not. It's the way it is.

Ask me a question.
Any question.
I'm always honest.
I don't lie
And I don't tell half-truths, even if the truth might hurt.

Feel pain.
Learn from it.
Feel sorrow.
Overcome it.
Feel fear.
Face it.

Take my advice. I'm going Back, now.
First you will figure out what I am, and how you can speak to me



This poem just flowed out of me one day. After much contemplation, I have concluded that the speaker in this poem is God.

How to Be a Witch: Your Altar

Above is a picture of my altar. Although altars and magical tools are not strictly necessary to be a witch, they are very helpful to have. I've been putting this one together for two years, but they don't have to be anywhere near this extravagant. Before you can get to buying all the fun stuff, start with the basics.

To create a basic altar, you should have these five things:

1. At least one candle. If specific colors aren't available or necessary for your spell, it should be white. If you're a Wiccan, having a God Candle and Goddess Candle would also be ideal. You can have two candles of the same color, but gold is best for the God Candle and silver for the Goddess Candle.

2. An athame or a wand. These are used for directing energy. They represent Fire and the South. Wands can be made of wood or crystal. Athames are knives, but they are not used to cut anything. They are used for the same purposes as wands and therefore aren't really necessary, but if you really want an athame and your parents won't let you have one, a dagger-shaped letter opener will work.

3. Incense and a burner, representing Air and the East.

4. A pentacle. Pentacles are used for consecrating objects, and represent Earth and the North. (If you're not Wiccan, don't feel like you have to have one).

5.  A chalice, representing Water and the West (this can just be a wine glass).


These items will create a very simple altar. You can enhance your altar with...

Crystals: Crystals radiate energy and are very useful for spells. Clear quartz will enhance all your magical items and is good for cleansing. Amethyst will keep away nightmares if you keep it beside your bed. Hematite will ground your energy. Crystals and tumbled stones are easy to get and inexpensive, and you should at least have a few.

A Talisman Pot: A container for your various talismans (stones, feathers, shells, jewelry, etc.) to preserve their energy.

A Cauldron: Represents the Mother Goddess, can be used for spells and to burn things in. I use a small charcoal grill.

Herbs and Essential Oils: Helpful for spells and healing

Objects Representing the Four Elements: Such as a nut or stone for earth, a feather for air, a piece of volcanic rock or a shark tooth for fire, and a shell for water.

Salt: Used for cleansing and spells.

Statues: Representative icons of gods, goddesses, animal totems, and other spirits. You can use them as symbolic representations of the spirits in spells, and they make your altar look awesome.


Feel free to ask about anything on my altar, and about any other magickal tools and items that you think you should have.

What is Wicca? (a rant)

(A follow-up to my post, What is Magic?)

Wicca is a made up religion. 

        You can argue that all religions are made up, and that may be true, but Wicca is a bunch of different traditions thrown into a velvet pouch with a dash of Gerald Gardner's mind, shaken around randomly, and dumped out in a pentagram shape. Pretty much every Wiccan is an eclectic Wiccan; some just choose to give a bit more structure to it based on one person's ideas such as Gerald Gardner, Alex Sanders, etc. (notice that these people are men. This is a Goddess religion!) by adding unnecessary rules. 
        Wicca, oh, Wicca. I don't even want to bother to explain the history. It's that confusing. I'm going to use this post to explain what I like and don't like about Wicca, and to debunk the misconceptions-- not the misconceptions held by Christians that most Wiccans pay attention to, but the misconceptions held by Wiccans. I will also use this chapter to analyze neopaganism in general. I might rant a little bit (see above), so please don't hate on me. I do not mean to offend anyone who is Wiccan, just as I do not mean to offend any honest Christians with my debunking of certain Christian ideas in my writing. I personally do not fully identify as Wiccan, but it tends to be easier to describe myself as Wiccan and attach witchcraft to a religious practice, rather than have to say what witchcraft is. 
        One of the most common Wiccan misconceptions that is one of my biggest pet peeves is the idea that Wicca is "the Old Religion". Let's get this out of the way right now: Wicca is not an old religion. It's not. All the early books about Wicca (pre-1990) support the idea that Wicca is a revival of an ancient paleolithic matriarchal religion. This idea was created by Margaret Murray. As far as we know, this is false. There is no historical evidence of such a practice. If such a community did exist, it is unlikely that it would have remained completely concealed for centuries. As far as we know, Wicca started in the 1950s. 
        It is unknown if Gerald Gardner actually created Wicca, or if he just added to an already existing faith and publicized it. Until 1951, it was actually illegal in the UK to say you had magical powers (all of a sudden, the Harry Potter Statute of Secrecy makes a bit more sense!). As soon as that was repealed, old Gerald came forth and publicized a neopagan religion focusing on witchcraft. Wicca is mostly a combination of Celtic and Anglo Saxon ideas, with some things taken from Aradia, or the Gospel of Witches  and a bit of Freemasonry, but it has a lot of unusual elements that seem original to Gardner. For instance, there is absolutely no purpose for athames. Athames are ritual knives used for directing energy and casting circles. They do not cut anything. You could do all these things with a wand. They symbolize fire and masculine energy, just like wands. Athames were clearly added by Gardner, because he loved knives. He wrote whole books on his knife collections. So of course, he wanted to make knives part of his religion, even though there's no real purpose for them.  I should talk; I have not one but two, just because they're cool. Where did the word "athame" come from, anyway?!. The Oxford English Dictionary said that the word comes from the 1930s, with unknown origin. 
        Gardner also made up the term "Book of Shadows". He thought this would be a cool name for a witch's journal. He got the idea from an ancient book written on palm leaves that told a person's fortune by measuring their shadow. Of course, I use the term because I invented the word "Shadowbook" as the title for one of my novels. 
        Gardner took the classic Charge of the Goddess from a book called Aradia, or the Gospel of Witches, by Charles G. Leland. It is an account of a witch cult in Italy, which may or may not be based on any kind of fact. Personally I hate the idea of Aradia; she is supposed to be Diana's daughter, and the whole point of Diana's "character" (if you will) is that she's a maiden goddess! She is the matron of feminists everywhere! She does not have a daughter! 
        Whatever. The whole thing is a mix of Catholicism and Paganism, two faiths that quite frankly, do not mix. 
        When Gardner's High Priestess, Doreen Valiente, read his original Charge of the Goddess, she saw that it was almost an exact copy of the Charge that was in Aradia. Gardner replied that if she thought she could do it better, she could write it. She did, and that is the Charge as we know it. 
        One of the other things that bothers me about the Charge is the line, "to show that ye be truly free, ye shall be naked in your rites." Does anyone else realize how incredibly ironic that statement is? Though that line appeared in the original book, Gardner made the whole skyclad thing a much bigger thing than it needed to be. Gardner was a naturist, and threw nude parties in his concealed backyard. Of course he wanted this to be a big part of his religion. He even called it being "skyclad" to make people feel better about it ( and I might mention he lived in England, where it's cold most of the year and as a pagan religion you should ideally be doing rituals outside in nature). The irony of this line in the Charge is almost hilarious. Do I think that the United States should be a lot more lax about nudity than it is? Yes. Do I think we should not be ashamed of our naked selves? Yes. Do I think that a solitary skyclad ritual is a great way to connect to nature? Yes. But "to show that ye be truly free, ye shall be naked in your rites." HOW IS IT AN EXPRESSION OF FREEDOM IF IT'S A RULE?!!
        My other biggest pet peeve is the meaning of the word wicca. Wicca is an Anglo Saxon word for witch. It does NOT mean "wise one". It means "to bend or twist" (as in the forces of nature to your will) and is the masculine term for someone who does so. The feminine term is wicce. This really bothers some (female) witches, who refuse to call themselves Wiccans because of it. 

Now I will provide these two articles so I do not have to discuss everything in them. They describe the lack of historical background surrounding Wicca, Gerald Gardner's ironic sexism, the fact that the Sabbat cycle doesn't make sense, and other eye-openers. Sorry about the sparkles, but it's not my site and I can't do anything about it. I recommend looking through the rest of this site for more information on Witchcraft.
hecatescauldron.org/gardner_unvei...
hecatescauldron.org/Valentiee%20o…

There are things I do like about Wicca. I like how open and accepting it is of everyone. I like how it lets you believe what you want to believe. Wiccans have no set mythology because it is a very new and very eclectic religion, so you can honor any kind of god or goddess you want (if you want me to describe what I think gods, goddesses, and other spiritual beings are, I can). I like the duality of the God and Goddess. I like Beltane. I like Samhain. I like pentagrams. I like Drawing Down the Moon. I like the feeling of power. I came for the magick. 

        I enjoy my solitary practices. That way I can do things my own way. Things like coven structure are frustrating to me. There are three degrees (which were taken from Freemasonry by Gardner), and basically only the High Priest and Priestess get to do anything. Sometimes I wish I had a coven to celebrate Sabbats with, but for the most part, I'm happy. 
        Wicca's confusing history and layers and layers of practices, and at times unneeded rules, make it so that every Wiccan's practices are different. Ask any two Wiccans about their beliefs and practices, you will get a different answer. Wicca's lack of mythology means that everybody follows different traditions. My practices tend to be Celtic, but until recently, I have only honored Hellenistic gods. Some Wiccans place not as much emphasis on witchcraft as I do. For me, Wicca is about spiritual discovery and magick, not the following of a pagan religion that flips everything on its head.
        It seems as though paganism (or more correctly, neopaganism) in general  has similar problems. The year before last, while trick or treating on Samhain Eve (I'm fifteen and I still trick or treat; deal with it!), I met a Stregan witch (Strega is the Italian order of witchcraft) who was handing out candy. At first I was shocked and excited that she was wearing a pentacle, but I said "pentagram" instead of "pentacle" (a pentacle is a physical object; the pentagram is the design of the star in the circle). She immediately corrected me. When I wished her a blessed Samhain, she informed me that due to quatrains of the year or something like that, Samhain was several days later. (I was quite sure I was in the right; traditionally, Samhain is on November first. It is a British and Irish Celtic tradition, not an Italian one).  I felt naive. I was sure that I had presented myself as an ignorant teenager, interested in witchcraft without knowing what it was. It did not end well. This interaction haunted (pun intended) me for the rest of the night. When I looked up Strega on Wikipedia, I learned that the whole quatrain thing was part of their tradition, but not part of mine. 
        The cartoon below is my cautionary tale. 

       Like the girl in the cartoon above, some neopagans can be hard to take seriously. There is a stereotype of neopagans as being religious hippies with our heads in the clouds. Of course, that isn't true any more than the stereotype that all Christians are homophobic bigots is true, but it's definitely true of some people. (My question to them is, if you don't want Christian fundamentalists to let every aspect of their lives involve their religion, why should you?). Some pagans will have "More Persecuted Than Thou" syndrome, believing that the so-called "Burning Times" (the European witchcraft hysteria that started in the late middle ages and lasted through the renaissance) was a pagan holocaust. Regardless of how many pagans actually were killed during that time period, Wicca did not exist at the time, which means that Wicca has never been mass-persecuted in human history and Christianity has. As another example, the infamous pagan author Silver Ravenwolf claimed that nine million people were executed on charges of witchcraft. To be fair, she didn't create this statistic, but the number was actually closer to 30,000. 

On a somewhat irrelevant note, I didn't think that Silver had an airy-fairy style of writing, until I realized that "To Ride a Silver Broomstick" was written for adults. I also guarantee that no real witch has ever ridden a silver broomstick. Ever. At least not on the physical plane.

Thank you for wasting your time to read my ranting. In a follow-up to this post, I will explain what I think witchcraft really is, aside from a religious context.

What is Magick?

Though I've always been a very spiritual person, as a kid, I was a scientist. Many of my friends online and in real life would find that extremely hard to believe now. I think I wanted to know as much as I could about this earth that I had come to. I said that I believed in magic (I was a self-proclaimed unicorn expert, and I still am), but I don't think I did. I didn't believe in magic, but I wanted to. I wanted to with all my heart. I used to look for unicorns in the woods behind my house (as though unicorns would live around houses, with noisy Main Street at the bottom of the hill). I know I'm not the first kid to feel this way, but usually kids start feeling wistfully doubtful (and eventually, seriously doubtful) of magic as they get older. I started out wistfully doubtful, and now I'm a witch. 

        In a compendium of stories about witches called Under My Hat, there is a story by Holly Black about a girl who goes to a Beltane ritual (it is the only truly realistic story in the book). The girl is sixteen, and feels exactly like I did as a child. She didn't believe in magic, but she desperately wanted to believe, and like me, she was drawn to Wicca by the very possibility that magick might, possibly, be real. In church she expected the angel statues to come to life and start singing, just as I expected unicorns to come out of the woods. 

        As a kid, I thought you had to stumble across magical lands to get to one, like all the heroes and heroines in books do. I expected my dream catcher to turn into a portal, but it never did. Now I know that to reach the Otherworld, you have to create it yourself, which is what I did. Does that make it not real? As a kid, I thought that if it's just your imagination, that means it isn't real, because that's what adults always say. 


        "Of course it's all happening inside your head, Harry, but why should that mean it isn't real?" -Albus Dumbledore

My favorite quote. 

Similarly, when I tried to astral project, I was imagining what was going on instead of nonphysically experiencing it, and I remained fully conscious of my body. I thought I must be doing something wrong, until I read in a book that this always happens at first; the actual experience of it develops overtime. I also realized that I tend to underestimate my own capabilities. I thought I wasn't good at meditation, but actually I was so good at it that I didn't recognize it! And who said you had to sit still to meditate? I can't sit still for long periods of time! I meditate by pacing. 

        My ultimate fear as a child was that by the time I reached my current age, the magic would be gone. I knew full well that most children lost their belief in magic and fantasy as they got older. No portals to secret worlds. No unicorns in forests. No magic. Not real. Only children can believe. 

        But since when have I been like everybody else?! Instead, the opposite happened. I had to get a little older to understand magick as it really was.

        So now that we've gotten that out of the way, always remember that you can do magic and that you're never too old for it. Ever. So what is magick, and how does it work? 

        We don't know. That's the point. Precisely the point! As soon as we figure out what magic is and how it works, it's not magic anymore. Being able to send a message and have the recipient get it instantly, and to get a reply in a few seconds, was magic less than a hundred years ago. Being able to make carriages move without horses was magic about 200 years ago (now we use them every day; we call them "cars"). Being able to cross an ocean in a day was magic. Being able to cure diseases was magic. Thunderstorms were magic. The rising of the sun was magic. 

        Science is wonderful, but it can really ruin things sometimes! I could write a whole other document on bridging the gap between science and magic, but we don't need to talk about that now. 

        Magic is ambiguous. The human brain hates ambiguity, which is part of why science exists. But as soon as we figure it all out, the mystery's gone. The fun is gone. So I can't tell you exactly what magic is or how it works. But I can tell you what it does. 


        Before I explain that, let me quickly explain the spelling. Witches spell it "magick". This is supposedly to distinguish it from stage magic, but I don't see any need to distinguish magick from magic tricks! I use the "ck" spelling to distinguish it from fantasy magic. I believe all the kinds of magic we see in fantasy novels are possible on the Astral plane (going back to "of course it's happening inside your head..."). Unfortunately, though I might feel a tingling, purple fire will not actually shoot out of my fingers on the physical plane.

        Contrary to popular belief, magick is not hard, nor does it take eons to learn. Everyone-- everyone-- is capable of it, but it requires a certain kind of understanding. Sadly, magick is not as dramatic as some people expect it to be, but it makes a huge difference in your life. I'll give you an example:

        Have you ever been told-- by parents, teachers, friends, or anyone else-- to be positive? There are studies showing that optimism can make a significant difference in your life. It will make you happier and even improve your health. It will make your day go well. (Chapter 14 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a GREAT example of this!) Don't worry, be happy! There are actual studies showing that this works... but no one knows why. 

        This is magick. 

        A bit of a buzz kill? Maybe, for those of you that were expecting whizzes and bangs and flashes of light, riding on broomsticks, and turning people you don't like into toads. But it actually is quite incredible. All of a sudden, you are living a better life, just because you chose to be happy.

        Magick is about setting intention. This was a small example, but the same idea can be used to influence much bigger things. There are many different methods of setting intention. In this example, the intention is set with the choice alone. It is set with the changing of your mindset from negative to positive. But there are more powerful ways to set intention. It has long been believed that words have power. Speaking your desires aloud, whether in a cute little rhyme or just a statement, will set the intention more strongly. Preforming a ritual and invoking/evoking spirits will set the intention even more strongly. It will summon a powerful energy (the spirit) and direct the energy to create the change that you want to happen. If the outcome is physically possible, your intentions are good, and you have no doubt whatsoever, it WILL work. 

        Magick is one step up from prayer. Prayer is the exact same idea, but magick is stronger (there's also quite a difference between begging a spirit to do something for you and respectfully commanding it. Witchcraft is based on the idea that you DO have power!). 

        People often ask me if my spells work. I can't usually answer that question. I tend to do rituals more often than I cast spells, and when I do cast spells, they come into effect as soon as I forget about them (which is just the way they work). Magick has a rather indirect effect.

        The first lesson a witch must learn is that he or she has the power to influence the world. Witches should look for magic in everything. Science has explained what thunderstorms are. But why do they happen? Why does such a show of power appear in the sky? Why is the sky so beautiful when the sun sets? Nature is designed so expertly, adapting to environments so precisely, that it's like someone designed it. What is fire made of? Yes, we all know its combustion, and combustion is a chemical reaction, but what is that and why does that happen? Humanity does not like these questions, this ambiguity. We like to know everything. But as soon as you know something, you don't believe in it anymore. It loses its magic. If someone were to actually see a unicorn, the unicorn would not be as mysterious and beautiful. It would just be another animal with some cool abilities, like the thousands of other animals whose unique abilities and diets and shapes and phosphorescence and locomotion and methods of reproduction were once magical. No wonder Santa Claus never lets anyone see him! Belief is the most important thing. Belief is key. As I explained above, it's easy to mistake wanting to believe with actual belief. If you actually believe, you will need no validation. If there is any doubt in your mind, your magick will not work. The signs you're looking for will appear, but you'll miss them, and say they weren't there at all. One time I saw a pure white dove perching in a tree at my Congregational church camp. I thought it was Jesus watching us. A skeptic would tell me that the bird was not a sign, but just a bird. Of course it was only ever just a bird! What makes it a sign is that I noticed it. 

        Skeptics will be skeptics. Haters gonna hate.

Nyx's Complete Guide to Character Development

Your characters are one of the most important parts of your story. They're more important than the setting or plot. There are two types of characters: "Round" characters and "flat" characters. A flat character is an insignificant, undeveloped character. A round character is a significant character that has enough depth to be relatable and realistic. Developing well-rounded characters is not easy, so here are some ways to add depth to your main characters. 

First, there's what I call the Harry Potter Method. If you're a Potterhead, this is a GREAT way to round out your characters. To have a well-rounded character, you must know three things about them:

1. Their Erised

2. Their Boggart

3. Their Patronus

        Figure out what they want most of all, what they fear most of all, and some kind of symbol that represents them. If you've figured out these three things, your character will automatically have a lot of depth. Your character's desires and fears should ideally be relative to your plot, and they should dig down deep into your character's psyche. That's why I use the term "Erised" and "Boggart". Your character's "deepest, and most desperate desire" should be something that your character secretly wants more than anything else. You don't have to figure out these things right away. They don't have to be stated openly at any point in the book, but should become evident as the book goes on, to you as well as to your reader (characters DO take on a life of their own). Same goes for fears. Your character's greatest fear should be something like the fear of death, the fear of inadequacy, the fear of being universally rejected. Not something like the fear of the dark or the fear of heights, although if these are relevant to your plot, you should make them important (like Ron's arachnophobia).

         You can practice working with these elements by identifying the desires, fears, and symbolic representations of characters in some of the books you read. Unlike in Harry Potter, these elements are usually portrayed more subtly. What does the character want and fear most of all? How can you tell? How does this relate to the plot? 

        Figuring out a character's Patronus isn't strictly necessary, but it does help to establish a character's attributes and personality traits. 

    

        Speaking of personality traits, rounded characters have dynamic personalities. List the personality traits of your character. If a character has all positive or all negative personality traits, they are not well-rounded. This is fine for minor characters or characters used as plot devices, but your main characters have to have both positive and negative personality traits to be realistic. This was easy for me to do with my Shadow characters, but not so easy for some of my other characters. In one of my books, I noticed that one of my main characters was almost entirely virtuous. He was valiant and kind and loyal. Isn't that all that matters? No. Many of the secondary characters in the book were more developed than he was. In the rewritten version, I also made him sarcastic, easily irritated and cynical. This makes him seem more realistic. Descriptions of characters emotions and responses to situations will also make them seem more realistic, and allow the readers to relate to them even though they could not possibly have been in the same fantastical situation. 

        

        Not all characters have to be this developed, but you should work to determine which ones to develop and which ones not to. Character development takes time, effort, and a lot of thought, but your main character should not be the only round character in your entire story. In my books, my main female character almost always has a circle of friends that offer opinions and support, but are otherwise flat characters. Depending on plot relevance, these characters sometimes develop, but usually do not. IBe mindful about which characters you want to add depth to and how. Also, be mindful about how long you want to drag out character development. 

        So there you have it; a complete guide to basic character development. Like I said, characters have a mind of their own, and once you kick-start them, they develop steadily as the book goes along.