<–The State of the Writer: 9/19/21         The State of the Writer: 10/17/21–>

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

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Finished Projects: 1

• Book Review: The First Fiften Lives of Harry August by Claire North – 10/2/21

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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: 774
Word Difference: +4
Status: Drafting
Progress: Chapter 1

I honestly thought I didn’t have any extra words this week, but I wrote four?  Holy shit!

Most of what I did the past two weeks was trying to figure out clothing materials so I could describe what a tie was made of.  Am I babbling nonsense?  More than likely.  I’ll try to explain.  So in my first novel The Serpent’s Tale I came up with this system of telling a man’s status by both the material and method of how he ties his ascot/tie.  While I didn’t go into too much detail about the knot in TST, I did decide that the “highest” material was silk.  Well in attempting to describe her BFF’s outfit, I had to stop and do some world-building on this whole system, which meant researchng fabrics and reaching out to my fabric/historian friends on FB lol.  I’m still working on it, and because I am how I am, I can’t move on until I have the foundation laid.  I have to know why I’m picking that particular material.  It’s…weird.  I think a lot of this comes from me needing to justify why I do/think things, and that’s carried over into my writing.  Even if I don’t put all the details into the story itself, I always consider, “What if someone asks me why I did this?” so I always want to have an answer.  World-buidling based on trauma responses, y’all!

I’m hoping to get over this hump and get back to writing Maya and Caemlyn’s flirty BFF dynamic.  It’s really fun to explore.  Like I obviously know the “male best friend with a crush” is super tropey, but it’s how their relationship plays out in my head, and I wanted to see if I could do something slightly different with it.  Because I made the world like I did, it gives me more room to explore it in ways many standard settings don’t.  She’s 100% aware of the crush, and he’s 100% aware she’s aware.  He’s obviously aware of what her future is going to be.  They’ve had conversations about all the situations and have done PG/PG-13 stuff.  I also really like it as a juxtaposition to what happens to her later 😦  I really want to get back to exploring that, so I need to get this ascot thing tied up.

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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: Second edit of Chapter 3

This is one hump I was at least able to get over.  I finished the first edit and started the second.  I still need to plan out time to finish recording the rest of Chapter 2.  I might try this Tuesday.

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

I…think I’m on the second edit of Chapter 3?  But then I feel like I already did a second edit.  Lol I’m honestly not sure.  Actually no…I’d say I did the second edit, because I did the first before I split the chapter then I did another one after I split the chapter.  I think I’m good to do the next step with this one.

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In Progress

• Game Reviews: Final Fantasy VI – I’m almost finished my second edit of the World of Balance section of the Story Summary.  I’m going to do a third and hope it goes smoothly.

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Mm drinking some Dunkin’ Donuts ice coffee that’s sweet AF French Vanilla.  I’m really going to try to actually record this week.  Once I have the audio for NL Chapter 2 finished, I’ll work on teaching myself Filmora.  Since I decided to go with more video than static pictures (because that shit takes a long time; two years for Chapter 1 y’all), I need a better program than Windows Movie Maker and Filmora looks decent.  I learn better while doing, so I want to have the audio done before I start learning the program so I can work on it while I go.  I do still want to use some pictures, but not do the entire chapter with them like I did for the first, though I am proud of the work I put into that.

Alright, I have some health/exercise plans to write up for myself.  Also, it’s officially Spoopy Season.  I’m thinking of reviving an old, classic costume for myself this year, so I need to do some work for that, too.  What are you planning to be/do for Halloween?

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<–The State of the Writer: 9/19/21         The State of the Writer: 10/17/21–>