<–The State of the Writer: 9/9/18 The State of the Writer: 10/7/18–>
A biweekly post updated every Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.
Finished Projects: 5
- Award: The Sunshine Blogger Award #4
- Writing: The Broken Rose – Update
- Writing: The Broken Rose – Chapter 11
- Book Review: The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau
- Book Review: Witch Hunt on Crystal Lake by B. Batiste
I wasn’t sure whether or not I should count finishing and posting a chapter of The Broken Rose as a project, since the story itself is one, but I guess I could consider it a finished part of a huge project so I’ll allow it.
Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction (FFVII) Novel
Current Word Count: 257,319
Prior Word Count: 258,319
Word Difference: -1000
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 12
It’s been over a year, but I’m finally back to editing and posting chapters. I still need to update the story on Deviant Art, and I’ve decided I’m just going to directly post from here onto tumblr. DevArt is already a pain in the ass to post to, and since I can take that shortcut with the little t I’m going to do it.
Aeris has a big choice to make in this chapter, which is currently entitled “Ways and Means.” I’m 90% good with that title since it fits with the happenings, but doesn’t give anything away. There’s a lot of extraneous stuff in this chapter, so the delete button has been my friend. I like how it tightens up the narrative.
I haven’t done a snippet in a while, but a comment I received this week made me think this one would be appropriate.
“Now, more than any time before, Sephiroth wanted to kill them all. Stalk through the slums like darkness incarnate, sword weeping the blood of the slain. They’d attempt to hide, but he’d seek out their thoughts and rip through their minds for the truth. Even death’s shadow would flee from the sight of an angel’s righteous vengeance.”
Project: Story Audio Recording
Title: Northern Lights
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction (FFVII) Novel
Status: Visual Development
Progress: Image gathering
“Visual Development” sounds super fancy, doesn’t it? I actually found a full recording of the blurb that I liked, and I was able to add in an audio track that works really well. Now this isn’t music I’m licensed to use, but I have used it before in one of my YouTube slideshows. It’s still pretty shaky ground. I’m utilizing it now as sort of a test run I suppose. I have signed up for EpidemicSound.com where you can license music for YouTube use, and it’s actually good music for like $15 a month. I think I’ve saved like 30 tracks. Yeah, I’m not just going to do an audio recording of myself reading the story; I’m going to include music and hopefully visuals as well. That’s why it’s a years long project. Once I finish the blurb, I can start on Chapter 1. I actually have a full recording of that, but since I don’t know how good the sound quality is, I’m not sure how much use it will be.
In Progress
- Game Review: Final Fantasy V – I’m so close to finishing up the story summary. Afterwards, I’ll give my analysis and review of it.
- Final Fantasy Character Assessment – I switched the character I was doing the assessment of to Freya Crescent from Final Fantasy IX. I still have the other one in my drafts, but I want to replay the game they’re from first before I do the assessment. I was having…weird feelings (aka doubts) about how knowledgeable I was about stuff, so I made a huge list of everything I need to watch, play, read, and research before I do any more serious writing on the subject. The list will probably grow, but I feel better since I’m reading two of them now. Anyway…I really love Freya, and I can’t wait to dig in and see how she fits into to those types.
- Book Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch – I pulled all of the stuff I said about this book while reading it from my blog this weekend so I can start to put together the review.
I’ve been back to work for a week, and most of what I’m doing there now is writing, too, lol. We need procedures drawn up for a number of functions, and since it’s pretty well known I write (plus I did the last ones), I’ve been the one to work on them. It’s different from creative writing of course, but I have a love for order and rules in terms of work procedures, which is weird because so much of my job is problem solving and thinking outside the box. But there are certain things like “This person should’ve been paid,” This person shouldn’t have been paid,” “Do a proof” that are pretty solid, and you can always write step by step for reporting stuff. I kind of see both it and creative writing as problem solving in one way or another, so it’s fun for me. Actually…the idea of who should/shouldn’t have been paid is more complicated lol. That’s why we have to do proofs :p
How are you feeling about your projects in the last quarter of the year? I should probably mention I’m going to repeat what I did last time and take a hiatus in November to do NaNoWriMo. This means all status posts will stop for that time, but I’ll pick them back up in December after which I’ll hopefully have the decent beginnings of a story. Are you planning to do NaNo this year?
<–The State of the Writer: 9/9/18 The State of the Writer: 10/7/18–>
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
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A finalized chapter certainly counts as a finished project! I am, as usual, very excited for more TBR. I’m almost done with my re-read. I started re-reading Northern Lights as well (I love that one too argh) but maybe I should be patient and wait for your audio version, which sounds so awesome. I love seeing/hearing the inspirations that go into a project so the music aspect is appealing . . .
I understand the appeal of work writing too–I weirdly enjoy legal writing (mostly ha) and hope that my writing brain will be enriched overall by any writing I do. I have been doing a teeny bit of creative writing when I can, but have a big paper to write in November as well as a test, so NaNo is probably not going to be super-productive for me.
All the same, I am looking forward to the collective sense of creativity it brings and am determined to make at least a little progress on a project, even if it’s small!
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That’s what I think, too! It’s not the finished project, but it’s part of a larger whole and it’s something I posted to yeah, I’m definitely going to count it.
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I have to write procedures and stuff for work too, even though it isn’t an official part of my job. Everyone at work knows I love writing, and they all don’t, so it works out well, haha. I also laughed when our IT department sent me a how to that I had written for them a few years back.
Good luck with NaNo!
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It’s not an official part of my job either! I’m the dork that just loves to do it :p The only “problem” is unlike other work I can’t really listen to anything while I’m doing it since I need to concentrate. Oh well, I guess sometimes you just have to work :p
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Ya know, I might do like you and take an official hiatus for NaNoWriMo as well. I’ve got a lot of writing I want to do during this last stretch of the year so I may just need to bite the bullet and do it. It sucks that so much of our day is spent sleeping and working. I just want to do all the hobby stuff all the tiiiiime!! lol
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It was such a good idea because I wasn’t stressed about keeping up with the blog while I was trying to write. It’s funny because I’m pretty much just attempting the same story I tried last year, so I guess I’m better prepared 🙂
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Yeah, I can definitely see how that would make it less stressful. 🙂 And best of luck this year! ❤ I'm sure continuing with the same story will help, too, since you're already so familiar with it. Looking forward to hearing how you do once NaNoWriMo is over.
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