Northern Lights

The State of the Writer: 1/10/21

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 4 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 12/27/20         The State of the Writer: 1/10/21–>

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
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener

I have reached the obsessive stage of my language creation lol.  I think I’ve found a pattern I like though, and I also think I can move on and back to other things while still working on this on the side.  I still have numerous items from my notebooks to work in, nor have I figured out some of the integral details of how the world operates.  It’s more hashing out how things work so that I can be consistent when I finally start to write.  Plus I want to go back to finding pictures of beautiful people lol.  I’ll start posting the ideas I have for the other characters, too.

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The State of the Writer: 12/27/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 2 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 12/13/20         The State of the Writer: 1/10/21–>

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

Finished Projects: 2

Project: Story
Working Title: The High Archon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener

Whew…creating a language is time consuming lol.  My plan was always to expand on what I’d initially started in The Serpent’s Tale, my first (and still unpublished) novel that this one borrows heavily from.  The male MC is a polyglot and fully fluent in the language of his background, and I’m kind of a doer when it comes to writing aka show vs. tell I suppose.  You can’t just say someone speaks a different language and not have them speak said language (it’s the same way how I had to literally show he’s an assassin by, uh, having him kill some people lol).  I made up more words in that language, which is called Rava, than any others, and it’s the only one where I even attempted grammar and syntax.

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The State of the Writer: 12/13/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 10 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 11/29/20         The State of the Writer: 12/27/20–>

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

This week’s pic is a dead ringer for the titular character of the story and the male main.  Not…so much the clothing, but the paleness and ethereal beauty.  If this artist took commissions (and if I didn’t already have an artist I wanted to commission first) I’d absolutely tap them to do work.

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The State of the Writer: 11/29/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 7 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 11/15/20         The State of the Writer: 12/13/20–>

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
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener

Besides finding the perfect artwork of my protagonist I’ve been very productive.  It’s all worldbuilding shit right now, but I purchased the full version of Scrivener, and I’ve been working on it bit by bit every day.  I tend to come up with ideas as I’m working, which is a bit of a catch 22 since I’m a plotter, so I need to know what I’m writing before I write it.  This doesn’t mean I can’t change, but I have to have some kind of vague idea of where I’m going.  Granted, I completely changed the end of my first novel and had no clue how I was going to end Northern Lights when I wrote it, but I had all of the necessary elements to start.  With this one I have a similar issue where I’m not sure how the titular character’s major issue resolves, but as I mentioned I come up with my best ideas while writing, so yeah…

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The State of the Writer: 11/15/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 14 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 11/1/20         The State of the Writer: 11/29/20–>

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
Status: Preparation
Progress: Setting up notes in Scrivener

Holy shit…there’s a new story in the status lol.  I’ve talked about this one before I shelved it for a while, but I’m back at it now that The Broken Rose is finished.  This is the story I wanted to use TBR as a test run for.  I attempted to do it for NaNoWriMo a few years ago, but I wound up scrapping the whole thing and starting over.  The first chapter was boring, and I needed to do something else.

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The State of the Writer: 11/1/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 13 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 10/18/20         The State of the Writer: 11/15/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Final Word Count: 249,902
Prior Word Count: 250,147
Word Difference: -245
Status: Finished

I wrote this in the authors note, but my god…this was an experience.  I learn something new with every story I write.  Among other things I realized something that’s supposed to just be an idea trial for something else could turn into the longest thing I’ve ever written and stand on its own merits.  I also expanded on my own person Aeriseph head canon universe in ways I never dreamed of, but even more so I realized things about myself I never considered.  Granted as I grow older I conclude more aspects of my identity, but with what I write and what I want to write it comes even clearer.

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The State of the Writer: 10/18/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 6 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 9/20/20         The State of the Writer: 11/1/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 250,147
Prior Word Count: 250,284
Word Difference: -137
Status: Editing
Progress: Finished second edit of Chapter 27

I spent entirely too much time trying to find another picture.  I swear to god I had it saved somewhere on my computer or at least on Pinterest or or Deviant Art, but I couldn’t find it.  I probably scrolled right past it because that’s how I roll, and I freaking know I’ll find it later when I’m not looking.  It also doesn’t help that my husband is currently playing FFVIIR at some seriously integral parts (plate drop, Aerith’s backstory by Elmyra et al), so my concentration is a bit off.

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The State of the Writer: 10/4/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 7 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 9/20/20         The State of the Writer: 10/18/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 250,284
Prior Word Count: 250,107
Word Difference: +177
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 27

I was able to add in some of the text from my notes the other day, but I still have a little bit more.  It’s…interesting to say the least.  I have this tendency to find myself writing/editing, at least thematically, about currently topical events.  What do I mean?  Well…there’s a conversation I’ve wanted to add for a while where Aeris asks Sephiroth if there’s anyone he didn’t regret killing, and the answer to that is, uh, well the person in real life in question is not…doing…well.  Anyway, I’m hoping to finish and post this within the next two weeks so I can at least participate in some part of Preptober.

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The State of the Writer: 9/20/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 20 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 9/6/20         The State of the Writer: 10/4/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 1

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 250,107
Prior Word Count: 250,448
Word Difference: -341
Status: Editing
Progress: First edit of Chapter 27

I’m always glad when I’m not the only one who sees similarities in paradigms as this week’s artwork attests.   I initially started thinking such due to this picture,

because it just brought the “lord of death and flower maiden” paradigm into sharp relief.  I want to do a rehashing of the myth myself at some point with Hades as more of a winter king, but that’s a song for another day.

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The State of the Writer: 9/6/20

/ The Shameful Narcissist / 7 Comments

<–The State of the Writer: 8/23/20         The State of the Writer: 9/20/20–>

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

Finished Projects: 0

Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 250,448
Prior Word Count: 250,199
Word Difference: +249
Status: Editing
Progress: Finished first edit of Chapter 26

I finished the first edit some time last week and added in all of the additional text I felt was necessary.  I am going to do a move explicit version (maybe I’ll password protect it or something, giving it out to anyone who requests?  Idk I’ll figure it out lol), but it’s not like this version is tame by any means :p  I’m on vacation for the next two weeks, and my goal is to finish editing and posting the rest of the story as I only have one chapter left after this.  I love this piece and I still have a lot of offshoot story ideas to explore with it, but I really want to have the main story up prior to November so I can focus on NaNo, plus I’d like to re-edit and start looking into self-publishing my short story in the interim and prep for NaNo as well.

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