<–The State of the Writer: 9/5/21         The State of the Writer: 10/3/21–>

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

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Finished Projects: 0

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Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 770
Prior Word Count: 676
Word Difference: +94
Status: Drafting
Progress: Chapter 1

What?  Drafting progrress??  An increased word count???  WHAT???!

While I didn’t fulfill my goal of drafting Chapter 1 on my two week vacation, I did at least make progress, and there’s actually a lot more done in the background.  Even though I added less than 100 words, I did a lot more work with the world-building, organization, and micro-outlining.  I’m also having an extreme amount of fun writing the dialogue for the main character Maya and her BFF Caemlyn.  It’s this friendly, flirty banter that’s hamstrung in the beginning by the MC’s anxiety about something happening tomorrow.  I’m very adamant about showing as much as possible, so I’m trying to have his reactions to her perceived grumpiness reveal that this isn’t their typical dynamic.  I’m also being a presumptuous prig by doing this sort of metatextual foreshadowing (I implore you to try using that in a sentence without sounding like an elitist ass lol), and I just hope it works out.  I know drafting is just supposed to be about shoveling the sand into the bucket for castle building (editing) later, but I have to make sure I”m laying the groundwork for exactly what I want to build with maybe some surprising embellishments.  I do feel like I can move forward now and continue drafting (when I have the time/energy), and I actually look forward to it, too 🙂

The pic above is what the MC is wearing with some alterations.  Her skirt is shorter because it’s high summer, but I love having visuals for description.  It makes it so much easier.

Also this story is queer AF lol.  I didn’t have that idea initially, well it wasn’t solidified in my head, but after spending over a month writing the details for multiple gender pronouns (there are 12 as of now) and also having an author friend who is publishing all the queer romance (you should read Katherine McIntyre’s stuff), it’s hard not to come to some realizations.  So you know how the default in our reality is cis-hetero-monogamy?  Yeah…that’s not how this world works lol, and it’s going to be fucking delightful writing in it.  There is so much I can do with this.

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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

I adamantely refuse to put this project on hold.  I will get back to it once I can figure out how to get past the wall I’ve been leaning against.  I think I’m getting closer to a breakthrough.  I mean I was able to figure out how to continue reading Norse Myths That Inspired Final Fantasy VII, so I know I can do it.

What I could do is finish recording Chapter 2 since I’ve already done the first part of it.  I only started editing Chapter 3 because I didn’t have the ability to record.

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

So I did split the chapter.  Chapter 3 is now called “Care,” and Chapter 4 keeps the title of “Measure” (for now).  I’m going to use the pic above for Chapter 3 since it best exemplifies the chapter title (even though it’s technically “measuring”), so I might also change the name of Chapter 4 to handle that issue.  I can actually record now again on Tuesdays and Fridays, so I’m going to try to start that up once more.

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In Progress

• Game Reviews: Final Fantasy VI – I’m in the second edit of the first part of the Story Section.  Since I split it into World of Balance and World of Ruin, I’m going to edit them like that.  I…think I’ve been working on this review for over a year.  It might even be two lol.  Okay…I just took a little constitutional through my blog and it looks like the first SOTW I talked about reviewing this was all the way back on December 1, 2019 so holy shit it’s been almost two years for this review lol.  Just to give some perspective, I published my review of the first Final Fantasy on 12/26/15 so when I said this was a long term project, I wasn’t kidding :p
• Book Reviews: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North – I did indeed decide against the Story Analysis.  I didn’t need it to say what I needed to say and wound up using spoiler tags instead.  I’m in the midst of editing/proofreading it, well the first edit.  I’m going to do at least two since I’m still changing a bit and tweaking things.  I have so many references to other works lol.  I might make a list in the beginning of every one I talk about just to do it.

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So vacation is over tomorrow, and I usually feel disappointed in myself for how much I didn’t accomplish.  While I can’t say I’m entirely devoid of this feelings, it’s not as bad as it usually is, or rather there’s a veneer of understanding (?) about why I can’t.  Like it took me two hours to clean our four litter boxes and that fucking wiped me.  I hate it, but it kind of is what it is at this point.  I’m finally seeing a spine doctor this week.  I was hoping to do so while on vacatoin, but my “hates making phone calls” ass didn’t call for an appointment until the last week in August and this Thursday was the first one they had available so oops lol. 

I am really happy I made progress with The High Archon.  Like I said, it’s much more than just the additional word count, because just getting any more words is an accomplishment since prior I was still in the organizaton/world-building phase.  This is different from any story I’ve written before, which, tbh, is the case with every story I write.  I do something new with all of them even if, surface level, it might not seem so.  Writing is an exploration for me.  It’s all about “what can I do with this concept?” even if the concept is something that’s been done before.  I at least try to spin it a different way, or write something that I’d want to read.  That’s honestly what it usually comes down to.

Anyway, I just had a thought that I might add State of the Watcher to my State of the Gamer post.  I had a little brain tangent because I really do want to talk about the shows I’m watching, but I know I don’t have time to do a whole other State post, but I could add to an existing one, and I think the Gamer one is the best candidate since I usually alternate between watching Let’s Plays and shows, while writing about the former.  Of course I’ll have to iron out the details, but it seems like it might work in theory.

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<–The State of the Writer: 9/5/21         The State of the Writer: 10/3/21–>