<–The State of the Writer: 10/15/16 The State of the Writer: 10/29/16–>
A weekly post updated every Saturday discussing my current writing projects and where I stand with them. This will include any and all work(s) in progress (WIP) be they creative writing, essays/analyses, or reviews of any type.
Project: Story
Title: The Broken Rose
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Fanfiction (FFVII) Novel
Current Word Count: 279,446
Prior Word Count: 280,583
Word Difference: -1137
Status: Editing
Progress: 1st Edit of Chapter 6

The picture is yet another option considered for the chapter cover. I liked the house in the background, but (and this sounds so petty), it isn’t on the side I envision it to be in the story. The scene they’re in where it’s visible from the beach, the estate is more directly behind them not that far off to the right.
Chapter 6 is quite challenging to edit. It’s about as long as Chapter 3 at 25 pages (the third chapter has 26) and may actually have more or equal due to the additions. Regardless, it’s extremely heavy and verbose, and I’m trying to whittle down the latter as I’ve noticed some repeats. I don’t want to use the same phrase or word order too often as that will make a dull read, though repetition of safety’s assurance is an important aspect of trauma recovery.
I thought I would’ve discussed the chapter title in my opening post about it, but looking back it appears I haven’t. Heaven’s Gate is the name of the house/estate. It can be taken in two ways and indeed is viewed different by Aeris and Sephiroth. In being “Heaven’s Gate,” it could be considered the gateway to heaven/paradise, but there’s also the implication that it’s not quite heaven, but rather the farthest he as a fallen angel can go. Aeris; however, sees it as paradise itself as opposed to Sephiroth who views it as an edge he can never breach.
I’m on page 88 of 95 so I’m hoping to finish the first edit early next week and the second edit by early November. If fortune favors I’ll only need to do two…though that hasn’t been the trend especially for these longer sections.
Quote: “General’s estate sounds presumptuous,” he muttered and summer opened to his endless light. “And it’s not just mine anymore. It’s yours, too, my Aeris.” He squeezed her so gently, and the maid shook a quick tear from her eye. “Your ‘palace,’ as you would say, is called *Heaven’s Gate.”* He sighed in his turn for her look told him all. “Not a name I chose. It came with the house, a long time ago, when I first arrived…”
Project: Story
Title: The Threads of Sorrow
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Retold Fairy Tale
Type: Original Short Story
Prior Word Count: 6787
Current Word Count: 6787
Word Difference: 0
Status: Critiques reviewed
Progress: On hold
I’m officially waiting until I finish editing the first six chapters of The Broken Rose before I work on this again. I need to do the second edit based on received critiques then get myself prepared to submit. This will be the last week I include it on this status post unless I do something with it between now and then.
Project: Essay
Title: Half a Tragedy Is Worse Than Whole
Subject: FFVII Comparative and Meta
Status: On hold
Progress: Outline Completed
The same goes for this. It’s really hard for me to concentrate on more than one project at a time no matter how much I beat myself up. I’m also not just working on one project as you’ll see below. Either way, I’ll reevaluate when I’m going to work on this once the first six chapters of TBR are posted.
Project: Review
Title: Final Fantasy Friday: Final Fantasy IV Review
Subject: Review and analysis of Final Fantasy IV
Status: In progress
Progress: Introduction drafted

I started prepping and writing the beginning review of this last night. I finished up the introduction, but stopped before the Gameplay section. All of my game reviews are broken into four parts: Gameplay, Story, Music, and Rating. I wish I could show you the extensive notes I have for the story. That’s going to be the most involved part.
I’m planning on working on this this evening and at least drafting the Gameplay part. If I feel up to it, I’ll work on Story. I’d like to say I’ll have this finished by next Friday so I can have a double Final Fantasy Friday post, but I don’t like to promise things I can’t deliver.
Project: Editing
Title: The Editing of Northern Lights – Chapter 8 and an Ocean Full of Sads
Subject: Meta-analysis
Status: Copied and pasted three weeks ago
Progress: Additional analysis, formatting and proofreading needed
It’s been a while since I’ve posted an Editing of Northern Lights because I’ve been struggling to find the best day to work on it. I was putting it on Thursdays, but that hasn’t been working out since that’s one of my editing days. I’ve been trying to do it on Saturdays, but I have so much catching up to do on that day, it’s been nigh on impossible.
The things is I have all of the notes for Northern Lights written. Most of them are drafted on Google Blogger, because at the time of their creation I was posted the story on that site. Due to lack of interest (and one nasty response) I decided to discontinue posting the story there, concentrating instead on this site, Fanfiction.net, AO3, tumblr, and Deviant Art where there was an overwhelming amount of support. But since I’d already drafted the Editing Blog posts (as I called it at the time) there, I figured I might as well house them on the site for safe keeping. When I go to post the next, I go to Google Blogger, copy and paste it here, and then have to go through to fix formatting discrepancies, add in additional material, and proofread. That second one can be the most time consuming, and (of course) I have a ton of additional notes of things I want to discuss. Since I’ve been caught up in my current project, it’s been hard to do much of anything with this, but I definitely still want to, so this is probably going to be another I’ll try to work on once the first six chapters are posted.
Ugh, I seriously feel like that’s my life. I’m constantly and consistently waiting for when the next project is done so I can concentrate on the next. I wish I were better at multitasking and/or I wish I just had more time. Well better to work on my projects than complain I think, which is what I’m going to do right now.
What are you currently working on? Is it a creative writing project, essay, review, or something else? Have you just started something new or are you wrapping up a long term project?
<–The State of the Writer: 10/15/16 The State of the Writer: 10/29/16–>
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