<–The State of the Writer: 8/8/21         The State of the Writer: 9/5/21–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

---

Finished Projects: 0

---

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 676
Prior Word Count: 676
Word Difference: 0
Status: Organization
Progress: Chapter 1

I wracked my brain for a week over what to do and where to put my “false” starts.  I wound up making a separate section for them on Scrivener.  I have two more to sort out, but one of them occurs later in the story when the two protagonists meet, so I might just hold off on putting that anywhere on Scivener since I don’t know what chapter that will be.  I’m not sure when I’ll start drafting again, but I am on vacation for two weeks in September so I might plan it out then.  I’m hoping if I can get over this beginning hump, things will be easier.  This chapter has a radically different tone from the rest of the novel, which could be one of the reasons it’s giving me so much trouble.

---

Project: Story Audio Recording
Title: Northern Lights
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Length: Novel
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 3

Whelp…it happened.  I hit tht wall I knew I was going to hit in editing this story.  It’s the same wall I hit when I was reading M. J. Gallagher’s Norse Myths That Inspired Final Fantasy VII.  There is a bit of internet wisdom I’m recalling at this moment.  It was a post that went along the lines of “If you hit a wall it means you need to lean against it and rest,” and I guess I’d have to agree.  It’s frustrating though to be stymied and stalled by your own mind.  It’s like the parts of yourself aren’t in accord or rather one part can’t handle what another part wants to do.  I knew there were sections of this story that were like getting kicked in the stomach and then when you’re doubled over from the pain getting kicked again in the face, so I knew what I was getting into…I mean wtf it’s about and the reasons behind me writing it soooo.  Anyway, it’s not like I don’t have a million other projects to work on or I’m not stubborn enough to eventually push through, so I’ll attempt to not be too bothered by my brief (for now) lack of progress.

Project: Story Audio Recording
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Length: Novel
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 3

Holy shit this is a long ass chapter lol.  It’s an easy edit though.  I maybe change one or two words each session if I even do that.  I’m now debating if I should break the chapter up though.  It’s currently 27 pages long, which isn’t too terrible (still under 30), and if I did break it up then I’d have another chapter, which would throw off what’s going on with the illustrations (I am not going to let my lovely artist do more than she already is), though I could just use the other picture she made.

Also I just realized I was using the image from Chapter 2 *smacks forehead* and have been even since I started editing Chapter 3 *sigh*  Now I need to decide if I’m going to go back and replace them all…my neurotic ass probably will.

---

In Progress

• Game Reviews: Final Fantasy VI – I’m making good progress on this section.  One of the things I’m doing is cutting out things that would more readily belong in the Story Analysis or even the Conclusion.
• Book Reviews: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North – I don’t think I’ve done any work on this these past two weeks.  I know I finished adding in the other stories with time loop paradigms within the review instead of just listing them, but past me failed to mark where in my notes I should’ve picke up lol.  I guess present (or I suppose future) TSN will have to figure that out.

---

As mentioned prior I need to figure out what projects I’m going to work on during my vacation.  I usually try to write an essay, but I don’t know if I’m going to attempt that.  I do have some that I want to rework, but I also still have years of research to do.  I made it a point to put some of the things I’d want to read/research in the notes for each particular essay, but there are some foundational things I really want to have under my belt first.  Like I’ve said before, I could probably get a Ph. D if I were going to school…and if they gave Ph. Ds for such a specific thing..

I’ve also been thinking a lot about my first original novel, the one The High Archon is arguably a sequel for.  There’s a lot that needs to be changed in it.  I mean I wrote it over a decade ago and younger TSN was, um, well not as enlightened we’ll say hehe.  I had a lot of less than stellar ideas and subscribed to certain toxic romance tropes among other things.  There are definitely things I subverted, but there are also definite cringe moments in The Serpent’s Tale.  It’s going to be quite an undertaking because once you tug on one story thread, you have to figure out how that affects others.  At the very least I want to give it its own Scrivener file.  I already have characters, locations, etc. in the one for THA since there’s some obvious cross over.  I’m wondering if you can do links between Scrivener projects.  I suppose I’ll have to look into that.

---

<–The State of the Writer: 8/8/21         The State of the Writer: 9/5/21–>