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: Drafting
Progress: Chapter 1
I’ve been stuck in a stalemate with this. It happens when there’s just too much. My notes are currently spread across Scrivener and OneNote, and I was drafting the story in Scrivener. I need to put all my notes in one place, and I decided I’m going to draft the story in Word like my other ones. So now I need to move things from OneNote. I haven’t entirely figured it all out yet, but I have a plan, and that’s better than nothing.
Update: Another artwork update from my lovely illustrator who now has an Etsy shop you should check out! I’m so happy the artwork for this chapter is completed, as I had to remove the one that was here prior, so I’m overjoyed to have a custom made replacement.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, its characters, and settings are all property of Square Enix so I can take no credit nor claim any ownership of that. I do take some credit for the story’s plot.
Banner Artwork Disclaimer: The featured artwork for the banner is entitled White rose I and was created by the very talented Deviant Artist RemusSirion who was gracious enough to grant me permission to use it here. The picture has been slightly altered from the original. All rights belong to the artist, and links are included for both the artist page and the work.
*******MAJOR CONTENT WARNING*******
Consistent and sustained graphic descriptions and mentions of rape/ sexual assault, sexual slavery/bondage, slavery, human trafficking, physical abuse, graphic descriptions of violence, mental abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, body shaming, starvation, torture, forced pregnancy, forced childbirth, miscarriage, forced miscarriage, abortion, and other potential disturbing and triggering topics.
Sephiroth returns to hunting for monsters on the outskirts of the town, though he reflects, in thinking of Aeris, that their boundaries exceed his borders. Monsters “hunt” her, too, and she asks him for something the fallen can scarcely believe.
The sea was as hushed as it could be and the stars above only spoke silence. In language unmeant for mortal ears, and he had no wish to heed them. The sky and him could never be friends, his guilt and its dark bound together. Nor did he need the moon to hunt, but that crescent still carved him a horn. It shimmered pale hair and paler skin and gave the stars something to mourn.
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: Drafting
Progress: Chapter 1
A little bit of progress? Like not really in the word count department, but any progress is good, I suppose? I left myself a note in a previous session to work on outfit descriptions in the next. I’m not there in the draft yet, but if I have a destination to strive towards, it’s possible I could “build a bridge” per se, so I’ve been working on that. So far, I’m in the midst of Maya’s (the female MC), and of course as per my brand, I’m adding more than I expected lol, but it’s alright.
*sigh* I also started going back to the worldbuilding, because of course I did. That’s okay, too. One of my lovely friends made an excellent point. She said that even just daydreaming about your projects is working on them, and I’m doing more than that. Because just thinking about them is solidifying things in your mind, so I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, especially in light of all I’m fighting against.
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: 613 Word Difference: +63 Status: Drafting
Progress: Chapter 1
I’m making progress even if it’s painfully slow. I at least wrote one line I’m proud of. “Promise the moon when you’re too short to reach the sky.” It’s not the vision I lack; it’s the concentration to put what I’m seeing into words. I haven’t even gotten to the part I micro-outlined. I’ve been going back through what I wrote before to iron some things out. Lots of writers wait until they’ve written the thing before they do any edits, but I always re-read what I wrote last time in order to re-ground myself in the story. If I don’t, I feel unmoored and disconnected (which…tbh is how I’ve been feeling in general with life). It takes longer, and I spend less time per session writing (or have to extend the session), but I get more out of it. I also get to spend more time with the characters and come to a better understanding of where they are. Like when I outlined this chapter, I had thought the air of it would be more playful and adventurous, but there’s an undercurrent of anxiety because my MC is really worried about something, and her BFF notices because she’s snippier than usual. I like where I’m going with it; it’s just…life/reality bullshit is getting in the way haha.
Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon Genre: Paranormal Romance Type: Original Length: Novel Current Word Count: 613 Status: Drafting
Progress: Chapter 1
Ughhhhhhhh *but forever* So first off, I was wrong about the word count. What I thought was word count was actually character count, so damn my myopic eyes. I haven’t broken the thousand word threshold yet with this, and I’m not sure how many more words I’ve written in the past few weeks. Not that many because I’ve really been struggling…like really. I’ve never had this much trouble starting a story once I have an idea of where I’m going. Direction isn’t the issue, nor is vision. I can 100% visualize the scene, but translating that into words humans can understand is where the pipe is clogged. I know it’s a “I don’t have enough energy to concentrate” type of thing. I also have this thing where if I don’t feel like I’m doing well, it’ll really put a damper on my ability to work. I’m not giving up on this project though. I…can’t really do that. I’ll just start obsessing over it if I don’t work on it. If you think this update is all over the place THIS IS EXACTLY MY FUCKING PROBLEM. I’ve started what I call “micro” outlining where I break down my outline even more so it’s sort of between an outline and a draft. I just sort of stream-of-consciousness what I want to happen in my notes and then later will go back and smooth it out. I did that last night with a scene, and I’m hoping to work on it today. I’ve also been talking to another author friend about it and I’m about to message my other about it. Sometimes I don’t even need a response; I just need to hear it aloud.
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: 1673 Status: Drafting
Progress: Chapter 1
I actually started drafting the first chapter last week. Well…it’s more of a reworking of the draft of the first chapter, but I still consider it progress. I’m doing something new and using Scrivener as my writing platform, going back and forth from the Word doc I already have. I’m a bit paranoid about it though and will probably make a Word backup. Scrivener hasn’t given me any problems and it saves automatically, but you know there’s always that one time.
Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon Genre: Paranormal Romance Type: Original Length: Novel Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener/Working on Chapter 1 Outline
I’m pretty much ready to start writing; I just need the energy and the time. I know what I want the first chapter to be about, and I’ve even started looking at my other beginnings. It’s really just finding the space to write.
Author’s Note: You’d think I didn’t have that much to do (an author website to build, a WIP to draft, another audio/video project), considering I’m now doing an audio recording for The Broken Rose, but I can’t seem to stay away from this particular fanfiction AU. I’m even back to expanding on the hurt/comfort aspect of one of the earlier chapters, but that’s a song for another day.
The one saving grace about this project is it took drastically less time than the first chapter of Northern Lights. I think I recorded and edited the audio in a month or less and the visual aspect took maybe two weeks. A combination of experience and not doing a full static image slideshow really helped that along. Because I used so few pictures, I was able to send notes to all of the artists asking permission…and it would be great if I’d gotten any responses lol. It’s possible they’re no longer active or as active on Deviant Art. I might just take my chances and post the link to the full video here. I’ve credited them all, though that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I’m…honestly not sure. We’ll see.
Even more so with this one I have to apologize for my “accent.” I kind of switch between two of them, and I know I’m going to burn the ears of some of my across the pond peeps, and I’m just so, so sorry. I did watch a few video tutorials on accents, but that’s not substitute for the real thing. I do like my typical recording voice, though, for what that’s worth. Mimicry is one of the highest forms of flattery or so I’ve heard.
Oh shit! I almost forgot about all the warnings o.O For this they’re even more necessary, because it is much, much worse to hear it spoken than it even is to read it, at least to me. Doing edits on this was difficult because I had to literally hear myself saying some of the most awful, dehumanizing shit imaginable.
*******MAJOR CONTENT WARNING*******
I cannot express enough the magnitude and myriads of warnings this story has for content. It is almost safe to say it has all of them. Please read at your own discretion and feel free to stop at any time if it becomes overwhelming. Even while I was writing and editing it, I had to take numerous breaks and/or switch gears for the evening because it became too much for me to bear.
Consistent and sustained graphic descriptions and mentions of rape/ sexual assault, sexual slavery/bondage, slavery, human trafficking, physical abuse, graphic descriptions of violence, mental abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, body shaming, starvation, torture, forced pregnancy, forced childbirth, miscarriage, forced miscarriage, abortion, and other potential disturbing and triggering topics.
Video
Author’s Note: As soon as I can, I’m going to add subtitles. I apologize they’re not there already. I don’t feel comfortable posting this on YouTube where you can make them, nor do I think YT has good options for posting privately and giving a link. I either need to figure out how to do it on Windows Movie Maker or finally learn Filmora or Da Vinci Resolve. I’ve been looking to teaching myself Filmora, though, and have already downloaded it, especially since WMM doesn’t like videos. I had so many issues using the one seen throughout. Since I’m going to using more of them going forward, I think I need to upgrade my program. I’m certain the more modern ones have subtitle capabilities along with other improvements. I’m just so used to WMM.
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 Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener/Working on Chapter 1 Outline
And I’m back to working on the chapter outline. I think I’m pretty much done with the notes, though there are some things here and there I can work on. I was talking to another author friend, and she made a really good point about how you can spend too much time working on the prep as a way to put off writing the story, and I think I’m starting to do that. I’m not sure when I’ll start writing, because I’ve managed to get myself wrapped up in yet another project, but I have been looking at what I’ve written before. I actually started writing it again about a year ago, so I’m not completely starting from scratch. It’s just that I needed to hash out the details of the world for my own knowledge before I continued.
Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon Genre: Paranormal Romance Type: Original Length: Novel Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener
Sometimes you take steps back in a process, which is why I removed “working on Chapter 1 outline” from the status. I’ve been hashing out more notes and trying to refine the connections between this and my first novel. I’m trying to decide if I want to make a Scrivener for that prior to starting work on this. Obviously The Serpent’s Tale is already written, but it needs a complete overhaul. Because it’s the foundation of this story, I have characters and settings from it in Scrivener under “Past Characters” and “Past Settings,” but there’s a lot of crossover, and it might just be easier to make it its own. Even if it wouldn’t help with this novel, it’ll help when I rewrite TST. It’s really just deciding if I want to do it prior to jumping into this, and this all started because I needed to make a map lol. I am absolutely awful at direction so a visual representation would really help; however, I’m also shit at drawing and measuring distances so there’s that, too. All of the online map creators are either too complicated or cost money, so here I am doing it freehand. I have notes about where certain places were located as well as the story’s starting and ending point. It’s just filling out the details between.
I’ve been stuck in a stalemate with this. It happens when there’s just too much. My notes are currently spread across Scrivener and OneNote, and I was drafting the story in Scrivener. I need to put all my notes in one place, and I decided I’m going to draft the story in Word like my other ones. So now I need to move things from OneNote. I haven’t entirely figured it all out yet, but I have a plan, and that’s better than nothing.
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