Mackenzi Lee

The State of the Writer: 6/26/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 6/12/22         The State of the Writer: 7/10/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 2

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Figuring out more terms and definitions

It took me a bit to locate a good source for this picture, and I actually had to find one that’s the same model in a different pose.  There is also artwork based on this by Âu Trung at Artstation that I almost took for the actual image.

So who is this anyway?  She’s a minor character from the first novel in the series who’s only mentioned once or twice lol; however, as I was fleshing out the details about my protagonist’s father, I realized I was writing a lot about her and granting her more importance.  I realized I needed to make a page for her, too, but then I ran into a problem…

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The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings #1)

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Title: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
Series Title: Montague Siblings
Author: Mackenzi Lee
Date Added: August 18, 2018
Date Started: September 24, 2018
Date Finished: October 16, 2018
Reading Duration: 22 days
Genre: Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Romance, Historical Fiction, Young Adult (YA), LGBTQ+

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and VirtuePages: 513
Publication Date: June 27, 2017
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Media: eBook/Kindle

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores. 

CW: Contains discussions of homophobia, biphobia, racism, sexism/misogyny, ableism, and physical abuse

“Because I want you to know…that there is life after survival.”

Henry Montague or Monty, as he prefers to be called, has been allowed one last hurrah in the form of a Grand Tour of Europe by his dickhead dad before being forced to run the fore mentioned’s estates in England on pain of being disinherited.  Prior to the birth of his little brother, dubbed the “Goblin,” Monty’s status, though unwanted, was still secure as the earl had no one else to pass his title to, his only other issue being a daughter, Felicity.  Even if she could inherit, the house wouldn’t remain “in the family” insofar as she’d take the name of the man to whom she was wed.

Gif of Zendaya, a light skinned Black woman with her hair up in a bun, rolling her eyes and giving a side eye while looking off to the left

Just in case my thoughts about this were unclear…

It’s a similar situation to Samwell Tarly in ASOIAF with his father except “at least” Monty’s father isn’t threatening to kill him, only cut him off if he’s found “mucking around with boys again” (Lord Montague has no problem beating the shit out of him, though, but we’ll get to that).

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The State of the Writer: 6/12/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 5/29/22         The State of the Writer: 6/26/22–>

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: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Finishing up and polishing section about Semprians (winged humanoid race)

It’s a blessing and a curse to work on world building, because now I have even more story ideas based around just this particular demographic.  I had to make a new section for it, because I’m not going to risk forgetting about these potential plots.

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The State of the Writer: 5/29/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 5/15/22         The State of the Writer: 6/12/22–>

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: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

There’s been much worldbuilding in TSN land, and I’ve started migrating some of the information back to Scrivener now that it’s organized.  I’ve also decided to reorg some of my Scrivener templates because I love self-abuse.  I really wish I could figure out how to do things from the get-go, but unfortunately I’m more of a trial and error person, so I often don’t know what will work until I figure out what doesn’t, but by the time I do, I have a ton of information I then have to incorporate into the new way.  It’s frustrating but it is what it is.

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The State of the Writer: 5/15/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 5/1/22         The State of the Writer: 5/29/22–>

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: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

I didn’t update the story collage yet as I mentioned in the last update, but I did want to start using different pictures to reflect what I’ve been working on, and oh boy, have I been working on laying the foundation.  The above picture perfectly encapsulates the Sky World, which, along with its inhabitants, I’ve been furiously working on fleshing out.

I usually try to keep this stuff vague because there are so many details involved, but if people want me to make posts about specific details in my WIP I can find a way to do that.  All I need is the go ahead to talk about my writing and I’ll never shut the fuck up lol.

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The State of the Writer: 5/1/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 4/17/22         The State of the Writer: 5/15/22–>

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: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

I decided I wanted to use Scrivener only for fully fleshed out ideas, so I removed a lot of things from there to put on OneNote while I figure them out.  OneNote is more for brainstorming/stream-of-consciousness and the step before I put it on Scrivener.

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The State of the Writer: 4/17/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 4/3/22         The State of the Writer: 5/1/22–>

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: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,282
Word Difference: 0
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding

I spent the past two weeks organizing my Pinterest board for this story.  I’m trying to get all of my image ideas in one place.  I need to make Scrivener pages for several more characters, but more importantly I need to make a timeline of sorts on the world’s history.  There are bits of this in my first novel The Serpent’s Tale, but I always feel better when I have adequate notes to fall back on.

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The State of the Writer: 4/3/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 3/20/22         The State of the Writer: 4/17/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Prior Word Count: 11,211
Word Difference: +71
Status: Outlining
Progress: Reorganizing

I’ve never struggled so much with a story before, and it’s due to a variety of factors.  I’m sure if I was writing this a decade or so ago I would not have the issues I’m having now because a decade ago I had more energy.  While I have no shortage of ideas, the application of them takes more concentration than I can usually muster, and it’s frustrating AF.  Thank god I take notes on things, because I literally forgot an explanation/story I wrote about a major religious belief that makes perfect sense for how people would see the world, and it’s like 🤦🏾‍♀️ wtf are you doing??  So I need to stop and reorganize…again.  I need to figure out how OneNote and Scrivener are going to function in this story.  I’ve been using Scrivener for notes and OneNote for checklists, but I think I need to define better parameters.  I just hate feeling so unmoored, and I hate how I have to constantly reorganize.  It’s like my methods prior aren’t good enough and shit just becomes chaotic again.  I suppose I should expect the constant fight against entropy with the expectation that entropy will always win.

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The State of the Writer: 3/20/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 3/6/22         The State of the Writer: 4/3/22–>

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: 11,211
Prior Word Count: 11,215
Word Difference: -4
Status: Editing Chapter 1 and adding in macro edits from notes
Progress: Chapter 2

I did add some words, but it looks like I cut out a few more than I did, which I’m totally okay with.  My note to myself is to just keep editing from where I left off, but I feel like I might need to so some organization sessions.  I just don’t like how my notes are currently on OneNote.  It probably doesn’t help that I have this both there and on Scrivener.  OneNote is mostly for “To Do” lists and reminders whereas Scrivener is for more honed and organized thoughts.  Because I can update OneNote on my phone and it’ll sync to the computer app and I haven’t figured out how to do that with Scrivener yet.

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The State of the Writer: 3/6/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 2/20/22         The State of the Writer: 3/20/22–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count:  11,215
Prior Word Count: 11,228
Word Difference: -13
Status: Editing Chapter 1 and adding in macro edits from notes
Progress: Chapter 2

The word count went down because of the editing, and I’m already planning on cutting some more extraneous things out.  I know it’s weird to be editing when I just started drafting, but I’ve mentioned before I need to iron some things out prior to continuing.  I just can’t have it sitting “wrong” even though of course I’d fix it eventually.  I’m just like that lol.  If I know it’s wrong and it’s an integral part of the story, I have to fix it.

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