<–The State of the Writer: 4/2/17          The State of the Writer: 4/16/17–>

A weekly post updated every Sunday discussing my current writing projects and where I stand with them.  This will include any and all work(s) in progress (WIP) be they creative writing, essays/analyses, or reviews of any type.

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Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction (FFVII) Novel
Current Word Count: 269,263
Prior Word Count: 269,439
Word Difference: -176
Status: Editing
Progress: 2nd edit of Chapter 9

This is not the picture I’m planning on using for Chapter 9 (still searching for that), but I found myself staring at it last night while going through my Pinterest looking for just that particular thing.  I always liked the rendering (any picture of Sephiroth carrying Aeris is good in my book..so long as it’s not her bloody, dead body), but I was always a bothered by how childlike she looked, because in my head canon, I’d only put him eight years older than her.  But last night, I remembered that his exact age is never known.  The best estimation is that he’s in his thirties during the events of the game, and that started the wheels in my head turning.  Permit me this coffee infused indulgence.  I love the unity of creativity with problem solving (and math).

We know that Aeris was born in 1985.  This is canon according to her given February 7 birthday.  I don’t think she has the traits of an Aquarius, though that sign is the “water bearer,” and, well, Aeris does kind of “bear water” (DON’T KILL ME!)  Aquarius is an air sign though, and “aeris” means “air” in Latin.  This is neither here nor there (plus I’ll talk about it more when I do my Final Fantasy Astrology project), and the most important thing is since we have her birthday and her age at death, we know that FFVII took place in 2007, which was ten years in the future when it came out (1997).  It also took place during December, according to the timeline, so all of the events of the original happened during Advent, but again, this is just another random tidbit of interest that doesn’t have anything to do with my main point (I just love talking about the symbolism of Final Fantasy VII).

I kind of changed “Sephiroth is in his thirties” to “Sephiroth is thirty,” so I put him at eight years older than Aeris, but if he’s in his thirties that makes their age difference a range of 8-17 years (30-39), which means she could certainly be as young as she appears in that picture, which to me looks around seven or eight.  He’d be 20 or 21, which is utterly feasible.  He was a child soldier, and while he might not age physically, the emotional and psychological toll would be devastating, explaining both the darkness beneath his and laying a foundation for his later breakdown (Vincent is in his 60s when you find him.  So is Lucrecia preserved in her crystal).

The alien cells, while corruptive, are also regenerative and must keep people from aging, which, while it sounds sweet in theory, is hell in reality considering Vincent was locked in a coffin for 30 years, as Lucrecia was (self) entombed in crystal.  Whosoever believes FFVII isn’t a tragic story clearly did not pay attention..

So I think the picture of Sephiroth holding young Aeris is quite accurate, and the circumstances around it sets my mind a-whirling.  Maybe he was ordered to fetch her for some cruel experiment.  It’s clear from her posture (leaning into him) that she trusts him, and his face carries death in its expression as if daring someone to harm his little flower.  From that conclusion, it’s also possible he’s attempting to spirit the Cetra away from the cruel experiment to which he was ordered to carry her…

I finished the first edit of Chapter 9 last night and started the second.  So far I’ve only done some minor corrections involving missed words or messed up tenses.  I still need to find a picture (as mentioned above), and I’m not overly fond of the chapter title “Excursion,” even though that’s exactly what happens.  I’d prefer something with a bit more finesse.  I’m hoping a better ones comes to mind as I work on the edit.

Quote: If she stood on her toes, Aeris could lock her fingers around his neck.  “You’re so tall, master.”  And then she squeaked as he suddenly swept her up.  She placed little kisses on his lips to Sephiroth’s low laugh and smile. 

When she re-opened her eyes, they were upstairs, and the Cetra gave a little, “Oh!”  Peering around to a corridor seen, but never once traversed.  “M-Master, I thought were going to walk.  A-Are you taking me to bed?”

The Great General’s chuckle vibrated her skin, and the little Cetra quivered and blushed.  That lifted a brow.  Fear was something Sephiroth understood more than he ever wished, and even gratitude made sense.  But for this he had no name, though he still laid a kiss on her cheek.

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Project: Game Review
Title: World of Final Fantasy
Status: Drafting
Current Word Count: 1374
Prior Word Count: 720
Word Difference: +654

I think I’m done the Gameplay part; there was a lot to explain in that section.  I’m obviously not going to go over every little detail, but I would like to discuss the things I missed when I initially started playing, and hopefully save future players from some pain.  I’ll probably start on the Story section tonight if I get some time, but I actually don’t think that will be too elaborate, a bit ironic considering this is a Final Fantasy.  Not that the story isn’t Final Fantasy-esque in hitting the same beat points for the most part, but because WOFF has a lot of side quests, the narrative is a bit more stretched out between.  I might just go through the basics and preliminaries, because WOFF’s story isn’t as elaborate as Final Fantasies before.  It definitely has the Pandora’s Box paradigm that permeates VI, *spoiler* the time loop that started in I, *end spoiler* and more spoilerific ones that populate the others.

I’d like to say I’ll have it done by this (Final Fantasy) Friday, but I make no promises.

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Project: Book Review
Title: Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Status: Planning

The third book in The Raven Cycle is now in my Read (and Favorites) pile.  It is just as good as the prior two, and I’ll be working on my review for it this week.  Needless to say I’ve already started the final book, The Raven King.

Project: Book Review
Title: The Illustrated A Brief History of Time
Author: Stephen Hawking
Status: Planning

I finished this today, so I’m going to write a brief review of it.  Since it’s astronomy, quantum physics, and string theory, I can really only talk about how little I understood hehe.  As you can see from the picture of the cover, the volume actually consists of two books, the second being The Universe in a Nutshell.  I decided I was going to take a break from such topics though, count History/Time as one book (which it technically is), review it as such, and put Universe/Nutshell on my TBR – Reference list for later.  I already have the next reference book planned, as well: The Hyrule Historia, which is exactly as awesome as it sounds.

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What are you currently working on?  Is it a creative writing project, essay, review, or something else?  Have you just started something new or are you wrapping up a long term project?

<–The State of the Writer: 4/2/17          The State of the Writer: 4/16/17–>

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