<–The State of the Writer: 5/14/17          The State of the Writer: 5/28/17–>

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: 268,194
Prior Word Count: 268,651
Word Difference: -457
Status: Editing
Progress: 1st edit of Chapter 10

“With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.” – Isaiah 6:2

It’s the “covered their faces” part that made me think of that quote (I had to look it up, no shame).  Obviously Sephiroth only has one wing, and he’s using it to cover his face and not fly in the picture, while in the story, he was using it to shield Aeris.  This is where multiple wings could come in handy I suppose or multiple pairs, though Seph does have a seraph form, too, doesn’t he?  It seems contradictory that he could be considered a dark seraph since seraphim are literally beings made of light that just sit around God’s throne chanting “Holy, holy, holy” all day.  Why am I babbling about seraphim?  I really don’t know.  I do know that when I first played FFVII before I knew the origin of my favorite angel’s name that I thought it was a distortion of “seraphim,” which…isn’t too bad of a guess since he becomes a distorted seraph due to alien corruption.  “TSN,” you’re probably thinking/saying, “you think way too much about Final Fantasy VII/Sephiroth.”  Yes, dear followers, I do.

I stopped editing last night at a part where I’ll have to do significant work, cutting some things out and rearranging others.  The “love” issue has come up, and I want to make it more subtle instead of as blatant as I have it now.  Straight from my notes:

Love: Another thing I have to keep in mind is the love aspect.  I actually don’t think I need to make a big production about them saying it.  It’s pretty well established that they love each other and are in love with each other, but it’s currently a love without real sexual attraction on Sephiroth’s end, though it’s not because she’s not attractive.  Due to what he knows about her past and how traumatized she is, the Great General doesn’t have any thoughts about her like that (despite his “base” reactions about it, which is supposed to be ironic/incongruent to his thoughts), because he knows she’s not ready for that type of relationship.  Despite this, he does love/is in love with her, and in a way his love is completely unselfish due to this.  He neither wants nor requires her sexually and is more than happy with the chaste, little kisses she gives him.

Sephiroth loves taking care of her, because it’s a way for him to atone, even though he doesn’t feel like it will ever be enough.  Protecting and caring for Aeris becomes his life’s meaning (though she’d never want it to just mean that, she wants him to be happy for his own sake).  It gives the fallen angel a purpose.  His strength once destroyed what he now would give his eternal life to protect.  I’ve said before that angels have to have something to serve, and that’s what Aeris represents for him.  He was serving the Whispers as mayor, which was adequate, but nothing like how he serves Aeris’s interests.  Conversely, Aeris is becoming sexually attracted to him, though she doesn’t realize what that is, because she has no frame of reference.  She doesn’t know how to process or comprehend it.

There is nothing he wouldn’t do for her (just as there was nothing he wouldn’t do for his false mother), but unlike that entity eldritch, Aeris will never ask him to do something that would condemn his immortal soul.  They really are a perfect match.  He needs someone to serve and a purpose to live for, and she needs the most powerful protector that ever was.

My job is to figure out how to imply this type of thing without blatantly saying it, though of course if you’re reading this and you read TBR, you’ll know what I meant to do, so I suppose I’m cheating a bit.  Ah well, I don’t feel too terrible giving away my writer’s secrets…at least in this story.  I’ll be far more tight lipped for original work.

Quote: “I’m the luckiest man ever to breathe, my flower,” he said against her skin.  “Thank you for letting me be your protector, for finding some use for my strength.  Thank you for making this house less empty…for giving me purpose at last.”

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Project: Book Review
Title: Riddled With Senses
Author: Petra Jacob
Status: Drafting

I have this on my day planner to work on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays until it’s done.  I was going to work on it today, but we had a Mother’s Day dinner to go to for my husband’s mom.  It was pushed back from actual Mother’s Day because she and his dad were at a bowling tournament last weekend, and we also totally forgot about it.  The hubs remembered it while he was out shopping.  My sister-in-law texted my husband and said they (her and her husband) were leaving in fifteen minutes.  So he rushed home, while I put on clothes (it’s Sunday…my goal for Sunday is to not wear pants.  I usually succeed) and fed the cats.  I was supposed to do laundry, because I have nothing clean left, but I’m just going to wear the dress I wore tonight tomorrow to work.  What?  No one there has seen me today!  At least the dinner was nice, though I did wind up falling down the little hill on the way to my car.  Thankfully I wasn’t hurt though I’m pretty sure I flashed the whole neighborhood when my dress flew up.  Oh man, good times.

So because of circumstances, I’m not going to get to laundry or this book review until tomorrow.   I need to be caffeinated and awake enough to do it, because a book like this deserves the effort of a stellar review.

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Project: Book Review
Title: The Quantum Ghost
Author: Jonathan Ballagh
Status: Planning

I haven’t even drafted this one yet, but I finished the book yesterday, which means a review is forthcoming.  I review as I finish, so I have to post the above one first before I can start working on Mr. Ballagh’s.  I did rate it on Goodreads (with 5 stars), and I retweeted something from the author about it with my thoughts.  Reviews are so important to indie authors that I always want to make sure I take my time with them, and this applies to Riddled, too.

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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: 5/14/17          The State of the Writer: 5/28/17–>

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