July 20, 2021

Greetings and welcome fellow humans! At least I hope you’re all human. . .you’d tell me if you weren’t human wouldn’t you?

Right, well, back in the land of the sane — and what a strange land it is — I have news. Due to The Hippo Events revving up to go in a couple weeks, I’ve decided to postpone work on Echoes In Reed House until after the event’s completely over. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but just consider this a reiteration

In the meantime, however, I’ll not be sitting back and chillaxing (I think I can honestly say, I’ve never once in my life used that word until this very moment), no, I’ll be continuing work on my conlangs for my books. And, as I haven’t actually made the necessary changes to this site to incorporate my conlangs and characters yet, I think I’ll blab about that. I won’t go into the grammar of anything, though — I don’t want to bore anyone just yet lol.

So, without further ado.

When I first started creating this world of mine, I knew its inhabitants would speak different languages — as people tend to do in reality — but I hadn’t gone about creating them . . . until now. So I looked at the fantastical history of my world and drew up natural divisions where people split it, came together, or would’ve had time to develop accents and dialects which could become whole other languages. However, I had to keep one thing painfully in mind — human languages generally evolve quickly because people don’t live very long and we constantly having kids, so each generation can create something new. BUT, I’m not dealing with humans — every single race/species is immortal in one way or another, so their languages would take much longer to change or do so in very different ways, even incorporating conscious changes in a way that humans don’t tend to do with the desired affects.

With all that in mind, and because I can’t seem to do anything small, I got to work creating an entire language family.

So far, I’ve completed three languages and am working on the fourth which will lead to a host of actually important languages. None of these have names in-world, yet, as the language which would name them is currently the fourth and still under construction.

The first language, we’ll call it the Old Tongue, was, ironically, a constructed language — consciously created by the first and sole inhabitant of the world many eons ago. He named things with no knowledge of grammar, assigned basic classifications to the world as it benefited him, and assigned meaning to sounds as they came to mind — picking the ones he liked best. It was a nightmare, but it worked: the nouns were paired with classifiers, verbs had tense and were paired with other verbs for specific translations (aspects, moods, further tenses) and he could operate well enough.

The Old Tongue was filled with a ton of small words that were combined to give information that most modern languages can give in a few words. It’s verbs were simple but required a ton of helper verbs and nuanced analogies to convey any real meaning beside past, present, and future. The nouns were divided into three odd classes based on whether something existed before the first being woke, was himself, or if he made it.

It was tedious at best.

So, the language simplified into what I’ll call the Classical Tongue. At this point, verbs had full charts of morphology, nouns had cases, number, and gender all sorted into four declensions based on similar endings, and adjectives were essentially verbs. It was a well oiled machine, even if still a bit clunky. But, because of fantasy shenanigans, the first speaker was silenced and a new group of “gods” rose in his place.

Again, because of fantasy nonsense, this group inherited a broken form of the Classical Tongue in their memories — unevenly distributed between themselves. So, they cooperated to piece together as best a version of language they could. In the end, they had a functional language, but it wasn’t perfect: pieces were missing, knowledge was lost. This was, however, amended by the fact that their predecessor made a huge collection of writings they could study and learn from.

By the time they attained full understanding of the Classical Tongue, though, the way they spoke had already changed to suit their own needs. The old genders were reinterpreted and paired with new classifiers, verbs were broken into several conjugations and added upon with new helper verbs, adjectives were created in three different ways, and systems of deriving words from others were being cemented with regular patterns.

It was a new language, despite these speakers denying it, so I’ll call it the High Tongue. Given enough time, the speakers of the High Tongue conceded that their language and the Classical Tongue weren’t the same, so they appointed the Classical Tongue for official and religious matters, and left the High Tongue for their regular goings-on.

Later, however, another group would emerge and learn the High Tongue — some living with the High Tongue speakers, and others making camp around their settlement, preferring to be allies rather than integrate. Those that stayed on the outskirts further evolved the language, so much so they couldn’t call it the High Tongue if they wanted to.

I’ll call it the Low Tongue, as it was considered a bastardization of the High Tongue and something for the common people or outsiders to speak.

The Low Tongue merged the four new classifiers of the High Tongue into four new genders that interacted with the existing three to form a complex paradigm of classes within classes. Its verbal morphology grew ever more complex, not only with the creation of whole new meanings with existing verbs, but the beginnings of a verb class system wherein all nouns can lump into greater classes depending on physical shape but only if they’re unliving, plants, or groups of animals. This was optional, however, so it wasn’t a true verb-classifier system . . . yet.

This brings us to the end of the languages I’ve been able to make, thus far, but it doesn’t bring us to the end of languages I still need to create.

Due to clan rivalry, a small branch of Low Tongue speakers left and settled a new area, where the Low Tongue slowly developed into what I’ll tentatively call the Early Ancient Tongue. This only included a few changes to overall sounds, though — a few vowels changed here or there, word final consonants fell off sometimes, throaty sounds became more and more prevalent, etc., etc.

After the speakers of the Early Ancient Tongue went through a massive upheaval, another group rose in the shadows and generated their own languages based off the Early Ancient Tongue due to similar processes that formed the High Tongue. Eventually, their civilization crumbled and they were told to go to special refuges where their languages combined to form two macro-creoles that eventually diverged from one another and developed small dialectal differences based on geography — like the languages of Italy before the standardization of Modern Italian. These, I’ll tentatively call the Ancient Northern Tongue, and the Ancient Southern Tongue.

After the slow, trickling collapse of the aforementioned people, the speakers of Early Ancient reemerged and created the forefathers of the “gods” relevant to my stories after eons. Slowly, their language changed into what I’ll call the Ancient Tongue, which broke in two major branches that consist of all the important languages that actually appear in my novels — the Outer Branch, and the Godly Branch.

I could continue on down to each individual language in these branches, but that would make for a much longer post than I planned on . . . or that I want to type, haha.

So, as you can see, I’ve got my work cut out for me. HOWEVER, when do I ever do anything small? This is a lot to do, but it’s what I love to do, and it’ll make my languages seem all the more real and make my world come to life.

With that, I’m back to work. See y’all next time!

June 24, 2021

Hey y’all.

My last post was quite a while ago — sorry about that — and pretty different compared to the norm, so to amend that, I’ll be quite regular this time, haha.

Unfortunately, life’s required my attention more than my writing, this month — things need doing around the house, family needs help, friends want to spend time with me. It’s all quite annoying — I’m joking, I’m joking. And, while I’ve accepted setting my writing aside until my life’s a little more copasetic, it’s still unsettling to me that I’ve only written one chapter in Echoes In Reed House, this month. It was a good chapter, though, so i shouldn’t despair entirely — besides, I’ve been working in other ways.

Even still, with something like thirteen chapter left in the novel, the pace is speeding up. The puzzles I’ve put in place are coming together. The veil is slowly being parted to reveal pieces of the mystery. Characters are either falling in place or stumbling deeper in. Everything’s set for the story to go from a steady jog to a fierce gallop through the last chapters — rather like being chased by a murderer, wink-wink.

It’s been amazing to see my characters evolve and grow — for better or worse — and to see the world flesh itself out in ways I’d never intended. I can’t wait for the fourth and fifth drafts after everything’s finished so I can equally disperse all the worldbuilding nuggets I came up with on the fly. But, if I’m being honest, the past year-and-a-half has been exhausting — moving from first to second to now third novel with two more in production has wrung my mind half to dust. Which leads me to something I’ve been debating for a while and finally made a decision to go forward with.

Once EIRH is done and shelved until the next round of edits, I’m taking a break from staring new work to focus on what I have and get it all done. For the three finished novels, that means editing — which is always so much easier than writing the dang thing. For Our Holy Mother: Secrets (book 2) and Project Apocalypse, that means working one one to two chapters a week to dedicate my time to editing The Seat of Cath (it really should be Kath), Our Holy Mother: Evercrown (book 1), and soon-to-be Echoes In Reed House.

I’ve never reached this stage in the writing process before, but my mind’s so spent from all the past work that I want to make sure I do it right and devote myself as much as possible to the editing — no distractions, one book at a time, cover to cover. It’ll mean a year’s work without pumping out another five books — good Lord when you look at it like that — but it’ll good work by the time I’m through.

Not to mention, It’ll also give me time to write out the history behind my grand world and weave it all together. I can make a proper world-bible — God bless me with the money for ink and paper, haha. And that’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing, anyway. I can refine the rough edges of my world while I flesh it out on paper, which will lend itself nicely to my stories — I might end up renaming a few things once the languages and cultures are fully assembled.

However, I should be honest and say, I’ve started a bit early on the wind-down.

Most of this month’s been dedicated to world-building — namely creating the language family that trickles down into the godly tongue heavily used in TSOC, but also the ones that trickle into my other works. It’s been good to bend my mind on creation again, and not just fleshing out the details of a scene I already outlined a year ago. It’s become something of a project what with the creation of grammar, gender, syntax, sentence structure, accent, sound-changes, and trying to do all of it while keeping my fictional history in mind, but it’s a labor of love. (It’ll also make writing much easier, as I don’t have to make something up on the fly anymore.)

The first novel I ever finished, The Seat of Cath (it really should be The Seat of Kath, I’ll fix that later) actually includes quite a few languages, but none of them so much as that spoken by the god, Kath, and his people. However, even this is only a regional dialect of the official language, and that’s just the official language — there are something like twenty-three or thirty regional languages that naturally arose given the enormity of Kath’s territory.

But, firstly, I’ll only be focusing on fleshing out the the languages that appear in the story! Yes . . . Yes I will . . . I promise.

Aside from working on this language, there’s more and more to this world, which I’ve decided needs to be a comic — I do love to make things more complicated for myself, don’t I? The world’s rich with history and culture and people. It’s shaped by its hardships and secrets — hard-won peace barely held together by people who never knew anything but peace and never knew the terrors that displaced the gods and might threaten them in the future. But, more than the world, the characters are so interesting — if I do say so myself. There’re relationships I never thought would occur, characters I never thought would be important or meaningful, one’s I thought would have more impact that are actually just filler, and others I never expected to go down the paths I foresee them taking.

It’s so interesting to see a world and characters unfold in my mind with absolutely no idea what the story’s going to be. I’ve never had it take this long to get a coax a story out of a world, characters, and plot — of which, I have all three — but that just means I get more time spent daydreaming and sculpting the wet clay of an idea into something I can finally transfer to stone.

That’s what’s kept me away from my blog and other socials. It’s all fitted a bit to my teeth and steered me like a dumb ox, haha, but I remembered this morning that there’s more to this writing business than just writing. So, I’m sorry I’ve forgotten to update, but I’ll be doing so more regularly again from here on.

Has this month gone according to plan? Absolutely not. Am I still dealing with my depression and sometimes fighting to find a reason to get out of bed? Yep. Am I giving up? You better believe that aint the truth!

Slow and different as my progress has been, it’s still progress — I can’t let myself forget that — and one step, even if I could’ve taken twenty in the same time, is better than a step backward.

Bye, y’all!

May 21, 2021

Hey y’all, this isn’t going to be a normal post.

Usually I like to use my blog as a pseudo-diary where I can work through things or cement them publicly to help hold me accountable. But, the only thing I have to say about writing, today, is this: the method I put forward last post to increase my productivity will work beautifully going forward. Getting four chapters done a week felt like it’ll be much easier, and having the freedom to take a day in the middle of the week — whether for relaxation or urgency — is liberating.

Having gotten that out of the way . . .

I want to talk about something much more personal, something I’ve decided to not discuss on my other socials as it requires too much explanation and Instagram isn’t really suited for an audience willing to read paragraphs of serious content. Today, I want to talk about the D-word: depression . . . I have it.

Now, I haven’t been clinically diagnosed, but I think going from top-of-the-world enthusiasm and happiness to hollow disparity despite one’s successes that leaves one bedridden and unable to feel anything qualifies as depression. Whether I have a condition or am simply more prone to neuroticism is something beyond me, but I know what I’ve felt, observed in myself, and heard from others, and I can confidently say that I battle depression.

It’s a little different for everyone — like most things — but my depression comes in waves. I’ll feel fine, even normal, for weeks or months and then my fight-or-flight slowly kicks in and stays at an eleven out of ten.

Anxiety — my hairs stand on end, my body says there’s danger in every corner, every noise and sudden change in light is the roar and shadow of a monster I need to run from or fight. All my primal instincts are screaming, “there’s a lion right there! It’s getting closer! Run or die! Run or die!” and no matter how much I know there’s no threat, no matter how many times I reason with and explain everything to myself in minute detail why there’s no danger, I can’t banish the feeling that I’ll be eaten alive.

Then comes the panic. Every sound becomes white noise, my heart pounds, my skin goes clammy, my only thought is, “get up and go. Just get out of here. Just make it stop.” but I can’t because it follows me. Panic comes when my depression is breathing down my neck, when it’s able to whisper my name, when it touches my shoulder and says it’s missed me. Panic comes when I retreat from the world — the noise and lights and people — and seclude myself in my room, or the bathroom, or the shower, or some tiny, uninhabited corner of the store, and I think I’ve found peace only to see depression peeking around something and waving at me.

Then comes the dread and sorrow. It may sound melodramatic to say “sorrow,” but “sadness” doesn’t cut it. That chill of dread that worms out and wraps my spine, twisting in my guts, chuckling as it tells me of all the horrible things to come, the despair I should feel for the coming doom. The burning shard of growing ice that wriggles in my chest — poking me however I wriggle to get away — and reaching for my face to drag me down, deep inside myself to grovel with the dark, to mewl, to tremble and shake as my ears ring with all the voices telling me the horrors to come. And the ice melts and comes out of my eyes, trialing down my cheeks until there’s nothing left inside but a hole where the sorrow had been.

Then comes the depression. It doesn’t stalk up to me — it doesn’t need to. It walks and sits beside me, resting its head on my lap, and says it can help me. It promises to take the pain away, to make the ache inside stop, to drown out the noise, the cold, the fear, the anxiety — it’ll swallow everything. And, in my shaken state, I believe it — like a fool, I believe it. I tell it to make the pain stop, to take it all away, and then it opens its mouth and swallows me.

Depression nestles me in its stomach and dissolves me. I become nothing. I am its food — all my molecules separate and spread around depression’s body until I’m no longer inside it, I’ve become part of it. It wears my skin and walks around in my body like the undead — cold, numb, eternally existing and not knowing why. It drives my body and determines my every choice.

“Don’t get up — the bed is still warm and today’s just going to be like yesterday.”

“But I have a lot to get done,” I’ll say.

“No, those things won’t matter. You can do them later. Besides, they weren’t any good anyway — you’d just make a fool of yourself or let someone down. Don’t do that. Stay here with me — I’m lonely.”

Sometimes I listen, and others I don’t. But even when I get up, it follows me, it drives me, it tells me how little it all matters, how unimportant everything is, how unimportant I am and that I should just sit here and exist. It says the world will pass me by anyways, so why bother trying to keep up?

Sometimes I listen, and sometimes I don’t.

And then the depression leaves. I never know how long it’ll stay — it’s like an unwanted uncle or cousin, like that, always popping up unannounced, always needing a place to stay, always asking for help or money, and we’re always too nice to say no. Even if we aren’t, they bug us anyway. Sometimes depression only pops in for a visit, other times, it keeps me company for days, weeks, or even months, and then it leaves. It leaves when it’s digested me and spat me back onto the floor. It leaves after I’ve lost all nutritional value. It leaves once it's toy isn’t fun to play with anymore.

I’m left on the floor, stinking, dirty, covered in filth and starving — a shadow of myself — and feeling everything. The pain, loneliness, ache, fear, sorrow, shame — it’s all back, and cold, and hungry for my attention. But so is my passion, my zeal, my love, desire, hope, trust, happiness, excitement — they’re all back, too, and they’re like little fires. They’re hot and friendly and wrap me up in the arms of my friends and family, in the kisses from my dogs, in the kind words from everyone I love — because I can love again, thank God — and they remind me just how good it is to feel. They remind me that, yes, pain is there, but so is gladness and I’d have no appreciation for what was sweet, if I’d never tasted something bitter.

Anyone who doesn’t have depression always mistakes it for sadness or grief — it’s the farthest thing in the world. Depression isn’t a ball of sadness that overwhelms you, its a bottomless hole — a human-shaped pit where every emotion falls in and never stops falling. Depression isn’t the presence of negative emotion, it’s the absence of every emotion. It isn’t sadness — I don’t care, so why should I mourn? It isn’t dread — I don’t care, so why should I fear? It isn’t pain — I feel nothing. It isn’t loneliness — I don’t care, so why should I want to be with people?

Depression is absence.

It scoops out your insides without anesthesia, sews the husk back together, and sends you on your way. You expect you’ll die, but you oddly don’t mind one way or the other. And then you live, and you keep on living even though you should be dead. You’re hollow and empty, cold and stagnant, you feel timeless, and at the same time you feel the weight of the ages. You’re aware of your immortal soul and your mortal body all at once . . . and you just can’t bring yourself to feel.

I’ve spun that little tail to say this — this month has seen me off with a two week long episode of depression. I don’t know what caused it — maybe my own overly self-critical nature latched onto the two days I had to take off for life-reasons and said, “you’re a failure, now.” — but it’s finally starting to lift. The beast is spitting me up, the unwanted uncle is packing his bags, the hole is beginning to spill my emotions back out and close.

And I’m relieved.

I haven’t had a long lasting depressive episode like this in a long time, and I hope to never have one again — unlikely as that is. It effected my life, my relationships, and my work. It’s why I’m making the first blog post of the month on the twenty-first, it’s why I haven’t bothered maintaining my socials, and it’s why I’ve hardly gotten any writing done this month. I have done some work, I have socialized, I have tried to live my life and not burden down everyone with this unspurred, pointless emptiness, but it’s all something of a half-measure. It was done, but not as much as it could’ve been. And that’s okay.

I’m not going to get done as much as I want when I’m depressed — in life, relationships, work, writing, family, fitness, in everything — and I’ve come to accept that. I can’t give up, but I can’t expect perfection either, so I work and I live and I learn to love what I can manage to do.

Like I said, this isn’t a normal blog post, but I felt like I should say this — I don’t know why, but I do. I hope none of you ever feel like this, but for those of you who do or ever have, remember that life doesn’t pass us by if we move with it. It may not bring us joy in the midst of depression, but it may bring joy to others and that means one less person who will ever feel emptiness like we do. Depression, like misery, loves company but deserves solitary confinement. Deny it the pleasure of depressing others. Deny it the pleasure of scooping out someone else’s insides. And, if you can, deny it any victory with yourself, no matter how small.

Remember that you’re loved by someone, that you love someone even if you don’t feel it, that the pain and sorrow don’t compare to the happiness and passion that you lose to depression. Life is cruel, but the starlight of joy and compassion — even if it’s a trillion lightyears away — is worth the living for. Give yourselves a reason to keep living, even if you don’t want to — dance, sing, work, make others smile, write, make a routine, keep your friends from crying or hold them if they do. There’s always a reason to keep going no matter how hard depression makes it to seem.

You are loved.

I love y’all.

April 29, 2021

Hello again. With the second quarter a third gone — good Lord, time flies — I thought it was time for an update, a progress report, a spillage of beans, the release of the cat from the proverbial bag . . . y’all get it.

First off, in my last blog post, I discussed the need to reorganize my schedule because of the abundance of time afforded me by working from my phone. Well, in this post, I’m happy to bring said new schedule. But, there aren’t any major changes from my last reshuffle of work — which was fairly recent, haha — so don’t expect any life altering stuff.

1. I’m still separating my weeks by project — two weeks are dedicated to Echoes in Reed House, while one week will alternate monthly to work on the second book in Our Holy Mother and the collection of short stories in volume one of Project Apocalypse. However, with my increase in time, I’ll test myself by striving for four chapters a week instead of three. The daytime will see the first drafts written, while the following mornings will see them edited to draft two on my walks. If I can’t finish editing the chapter by the end of my walk, I’ll set it aside to finish after I’ve drafted that day’s chapter. This means Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday will be dedicated drafting days (baring emergencies, of course).

2. With my weekends now blown wide open, I plan on filming at least one video for my YouTube channel (the one I’ve been planning on doing for a year but haven’t touched? Yeah, that one) every Saturday. Video editing can take place throughout the weeks in my spare time (‘cause I’ve got plenty, obviously) possibly Sunday afternoons, or Monday evenings after I get off work.

3. The drafting days will be flexible. Because I’m not dedicating an entire day for editing, anymore, It actually gives me Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays as optional work days, meaning I have some wiggle room. I.E., If I have burnout on Thursday, I’d allow myself to work on other things besides drafting — making a blog post, writing character bios for the site, etc. — but Friday and Saturday then become dedicated drafting days to compensate.

And that’s it.

I’m still giving myself the freedom to choose which week is dedicated to the secondary project — whether I start the cycle with the project, squeeze it between ERH (Echoes in Reed House) weeks, or end the cycle with it. I’m still editing each chapter I write in the same week it’s written, I’m just editing it the next day and adding one chapter load to the week.

If this works — because, I’ll readily admit, this is still just an experiment and could change very quickly — then it’ll increase my chapter count from nine to twelve per cycle and take off a good deal of work in the final cycle before my seasonal job, The Hippo Events.

O God . . . it’s the end of May . . . that means the end of ERH is only a couple of months away. I was so wrapped up in my scheduling I didn’t even notice the dates. My baby is almost ready to walk . . . y’all, I don’t think I’m ready for this . . . hold me, haha.

But, setting writing aside for a moment — my Lord, what madness is this? — let’s chat about filming YouTube videos on Saturday.

Filming doesn’t equal uploading — I had to pound that into my own skull for months. I plan to film the first video next Saturday (promises, promises) and edit as I go, but I won’t upload videos until I have around ten edited and ready to go.

This is to make sure I, 1) get into the flow of filming, and 2) generate a stockpile from which to grab so I don’t have to film, edit, and post the same video all in the same week. If I tried that, I’d get no writing done, and I might as well become a lets-player or something. Not the worst thing in the world, but not my passion either.

If anyone has ideas for things that would make for interesting, writing related video content, leave a message and let me know I’m the only one on here.

* Picks up writing and cradles it * I’ll never set you down again, baby — no I won’t. * Stares at y’all * what? Don’t y’all love your children?

. . . in . . . other news. I have something exciting to announce! I must’ve eaten something that imbued me with the glorious power to give names to my work, because OHM b2 now has a working title! May I proudly introduce y’all to the book formerly known as Our Holy Mother book two, Our Holy Mother: Secrets! Or, OHMS for short.

It’s so good to finally have a name for this thing, especially considering it’s around half finished — it saw an increase in chapters from thirty to forty, so it’s still around half finished despite the progress, haha. Now, all my most important babies have names! (Don’t worry PA, you’ll get a name one day . . . eventually . . .)

And, last but not least, I have an update on when exactly I’ll be adding the lingo info and character bios to the site . . . I don’t know. That’s a sucky answer, but an honest one.

The reality is, it takes a long time to create detailed character bios that don’t give away the juicy bits of their story, the devices I use to cast my characters through the plot, or the dadgum plot itself. Couple that with a cast of six POV characters and something like five important secondary/side characters in one book in a series of four — each introducing someone new — and that I plan on making art for them all? It’s quite a bit of work for me to get done in just my spare time (there’s quite a bit of things I’m relegating to my spare time . . . I won’t have much of it if I keep that up.) It’s work I’m happy to do — I love worldbuilding more than writing, sometimes — but I am only one person, and I only have so much time.

That being said, character bios and lingo pages will be created/updated, but slowly. Some will be finished, others half so, and some will be completely blank until I can get around to drawing and typing up everything. It’ll be slow at first, but I will get it done — one way or another — with the amazing assistance of my friend Shelby, who’s helped me with my website from day one . . . literally.

Tech support, alpha-reader, idea-bouncer, hangout pal, a girl that helps me improve this site every time I ask — Shelby, you’re a cool cat. I hope you read this, haha.

Alright y’all, I think that’s everything I had to unload today — if not, I’ll vomit it somewhere else, haha. Stay creative, keep up the good work, and never beat yourself up for your shortcomings — we all have them (I have the most, but that’s my opinion) so don’t feel alone in failure. We’re all failures at something, so who cares? Just stand back up and try again. If the inventor of peanut butter can fail to make a lightbulb one-hundred-something times and still persist with a positive attitude, so can we.

Bye!

April 18, 2021

Hello and welcome to this episode of Charlie’s Chat: the slow progression of insanity we all know is coming, but ignore with all our strength. I’m your host, Charlie Thomas, and on today’s show, we’ve got a few topics planned.

Right, so first off, how I plan out my days might just have to be altered. I was finally able to start working on my books from my phone so I could take my work with me — so long as there’s WiFi — and not lug around my laptop and risk the destruction of my babies. I initially thought I’d hate it — and where drafting’s concerned, I do — but after the first week, I must say, editing from my phone has become my preferred device to edit on.

Usually my days would begin with a walk for a few hours to get the blood pumping and prevent my hours of sitting to give me blood clots. I’d plan out the work I needed to get done that day and project into the week so I could mentally prepare myself, and then I’d watch a little YouTube, some news, and check out the socials. After reaching 10k steps, and only then, I’d sit down and start working on my stuff — drafting, editing, plotting, worldbuilding, marketing on my socials or here on my blog, whatever.

The thing with having access to all that on my phone, means I can start three hours earlier while I’m on my walk and be done with my editing goals for the day before I’d usually sit down to start.

This has revolutionized my work. It means that I can get more than twice the work done in a day than before — edit on my walk, work on other projects when I actually sit, or I can work solely on my marketing, or on character charts for future stories, or working out plotholes, finishing conlangs, whatever I so desire. It’s liberating . . . but, in classic human fashion, there are too many options at hand at once and it’s leading me to doing less. I don’t like that.

Hence, my schedule needs tweaking. I have yet to actually plan out a new schedule, but I only just decided to do this this morning, so give me a hot minute to think this out, y’all haha. This probably means that every day will be dedicated to drafting something in one form or another — so the first three days are for drafting one project, then the next three days will see those edited in the morning while other projects get written afterward. It would increase my productivity and, despite sounding like doubling the work, it shouldn’t feel like too much more work.

Mind you, I’m basing that entirely off an ideal, unpracticed image in my head, so it very well could feel like twice the work. But I won’t know until I try, so I’m giving it shot.

In other news, two major things to come from the extra time by working on my phone has lead to some exciting progress. Firstly, I think I may have a title for Project Murder House — it may not remain the title i put on the cover when it’s published, but it feels good as a working title. So, may I introduce y’all — with no small amount of pride — to Project Murder House revamped: Echoes in Reed House.

Like I said, I don’t know if this the final title that’ll see it through to the published cover, but it just feels right — it makes sense in context, it aligns to content in the book, it’s based on a reoccurring element of the story that might as well be the thing that launches the protagonist into his plot. And, not to mention, I like it.

Secondly, but just as exciting (for me at least) I’ve been fleshing out the world, history, and characters of a story that’s sat in the back of my head for a while. It’s not something I’m prepared to write at the moment, nor something I’ll allow myself to write — too many spoilers for my shared universe — but it’s good to do the leg work now so I can pick it up and start writing when I’m ready. Although, I may have to start drawing with this one, too.

I was struck by inspiration years ago when I was browsing Deviantart and stumbled onto an artist called Reykat — give them a look, their style’s amazing and content is interesting (it sent me into story building mode, so maybe it’ll inspire you, too.) I could see characters and events so clearly in my head, made things so distinct and visually appealing to me, that I knew I couldn’t scrap the idea — so I didn’t. However, it wasn’t until this year that I’ve toyed with the idea of a heavily illustrated book, or possibly a graphic novel to communicate the visuals in my head with precision, which words may fail to convey. But I’m nowhere near the skill level required to create a graphic novel, so that’ll either mean I need to practice my art, or look into hiring a professional artist. Although, with the popularity of webcomics, maybe I could work with an artist to create my vision there and publish it later?

Who can say?

But, speaking of new stories to consider for the future, I can’t help but think of what story I’m going to write next when Echoes in Reed House is finished . . . and I have no idea. So, let’s talk about that.

(DISCLAIMER, I have no idea what works for your process — I can only tell ya what generally works for me and my process thus far — so take this with a grain of salt.) Alright, picture this; you’re nearing the end of drafting a project and you need to start considering what you’re working on next. You’ve got some ideas written down — maybe even a few you’ve fleshed out a little because it was gnawing at your head — and nothing new springing to mind (which is fine and normal, by the way) so you look through them. But, there’s a problem — you love every single idea equally.

Here’s where we, as creatives, need to remember that if we’re trying to sell what we’re making, we’re not only artists making something we love for the heck of it — we’re entrepreneurs, running our own business as boss and factory line, and thus we must act the part. So, switch brains from “artist who loves all their children equally” to “business owner who needs to hurt feelings to meet the bottom line.”

1. Separate your ideas. What categories you choose is ultimately up to you, but I divide mine twofold — how complete is the idea (is it a premise, just a world, a collection of scenes, is there a plot?) and how much am I drawn to the idea. For the former, this is a practical decision. The less work I have to do to get another project going, the better — there’s plenty of time between now and the end of the new project to work on developing existing ideas in the background, but the project that’s consumed you for months is going to be done in three weeks and I need The New Hot Thing, asap. For the latter, this an artistic decision that has practical ramifications. The more I love the idea, the more it revs my engine and sends me barreling down the plot at a million mph, the more effort I put in, the more attention to detail I give — it’s all connected. And, with all that, the story’s better for it — readers can tell how much a writer loved a project by how much care and effort went into it. Like with food, books written with love will always be better than not.

2. Once you’ve decided which project you’ll work on after the final word’s written in the old project (for now. C’mon, y’all know you’re coming back to it a hundred more times), assess what needs to be added to make it a story. If you have a plot idea with a general setting and an amorphous blob of a cast, then develop what’s there and grow it — see where it takes you. You may start out with a contemporary that has three main characters centering around a love triangle in a small town when a bad-boy comes to town claiming to be a long-lost relative, and end with a sci-fi trilogy surrounding a cast of twenty, spread across planets as three characters fight to reunite and help the long-lost, rightful heir to the galactic empire seize control away from his his dead father’s former bestfriend. Plant a seed and see what it becomes. But whatever your idea’s lacking — plot, setting, characters, themes, character arcs, etc. — work on adding one and the rest should come naturally because every element of a story, like in real life, is connected to every other in ways we wouldn’t expect.

3. Got all your parts figured out? Think you have everything? Good. Now plot the daggum thing! Write down everything that happens to/by every character so long as it’s relevant, even if it doesn’t have page-time — the author needs to be as close to omniscient with regards to their story as possible. Organize that stuff. Decide what you want to be in the book. Divy it all into chapter content. And do the writer thing.

Now, all that will only apply to plotters, but I am one, so sue me. To all the pantsers out there, I know you hate it, but a little plotting, even if it’s just a basic outline, can help keep you from writing a 900k word tome that no one will read. Regardless of your writing style, that’s how I recommend going about choosing your next book. Follow it, or don’t — I’m not your mom or personal assistant. You’re capable of making your own choices :D

Alright y’all, I hope you enjoyed this post, I hope you found it a little helpful — heck, I hope you found it hahaha. See y’all later! Bye!

April 8, 2021

With the start of a new quarter, comes the start of a new cycle, but things'll be a little different…

I've found some kinks in the writing schedule I built at the end of last year, which was expected given how green of a writer I am, and most welcome — if I know what's wrong, I can fix it. In the previous method, I contributed to three projects a month — six chapters of PMH, and alternating between two and one installments of PA and OHM. This fulfilled its purpose — I got nine chapters done every month — but it stretched me thin and kept me flipping between worlds; words were written, but I couldn't focus enough on one project to animate it, so to say.

My solution, then, is this:

• Focus on two projects a month, alternating PA & OHM monthly instead of weekly.

• Dedicate an entire week to one project instead of filling each week with both — two weeks for PMH and one week for PA or OHM. The order of the weeks doesn't matter right now, so I could begin or end a cycle with a project other than Murder House, or sandwich it between. (This may change if I don't like it in the future.)

• Each week must still see the writing and editing of three installments, barring emergencies that require my attention, so I don't lose the amount of work — it's just spread around.

This format is much simpler — on paper and in practice — and will help me focus on one world at a time for far longer, therefore adding depth and attention to the story and characters. It won't cost me any time or work — it's still nine installments a month, and PA and OHM will still be produced at a rate of three chapters every two months — it's just…nicer.

However, this week, which I have dedicated to OHMb2, will not see three chapters written — it will see two. This has nothing to do with implementing my new schedule late (I thought about the changes last month), it's because of glaring errors in OHMb2's timeline.

When I created the timeline for OHM, plotted out everything, and divied up the chapters…well it turns out I had no idea what I was doing. OHM: Evercrown didn't suffer from this because it's based off a novela I wrote years ago — everything's already laid out — but its sequels are totally new. At the time, I wasn't even considering writing books, so how I wanted to progress the story was amorphous at best. When I finally sat down and laid everything out, though, I knew what I wanted…I just didn't know how to put it on paper yet.

Everything crucial, it turns out, is there — sometimes in the wrong places, but at least I wrote it down — but there are gaps of literal months between chapters for some characters and only weeks or days for others. It's a hot mess (dare I say dumpster fire?) of a timeline that I didn't even realize was burning. So, today, and the reason why this week will only see two new chapters in OHMb2, I will be putting out the dumpster fire and organizing the timeline for Our Holy Mother book 2.

Wish me luck, y'all, I'm gonna need it.

Bye!

February 10, 2021

So, as one tends to do when doing new things, I’ve realized my limits by reaching them.

I worked myself raw last month and blundered into Feb. with the same mindset, which drove me, face first, into burnout. I don’t experience burnout often because I’ve tried to be more realistic with my goals of late, but necessity gave my determination an inflated ego . . . that exploded in the form of a mild depressive episode, questioning my career choice, my motives, the quality of my work — it was an altogether not fun time last week. But I stepped back and assessed.

“Is this the mindset you want for yourself before Hippos?” I asked myself.

“No, of course not!”

“Then do something about it!”

And thus I did, lol.

I took Thur. through Sun. off from writing to spend time with family and friends and just relax for a bit — it’s easy to forget when consumed in one’s work, but your mental stability and emotional state need to be attended to from time to time. And now, on this fine Wed. morning, I’m back at it and ready to tackle my projects . . . although, with the little time I have left, my plans have altered slightly.

All six chapters in Project Murder House for this cycle have been drafted and edited to draft 2 — which is what I was most concerned with — but the two short stories in Project Apocalypse and the new chapter in Our Holy Mother book2 have yet to be drafted, let alone edited. AND PMH still needs 3rd draft edits. If I allot a day for drafting and a day for editing each new installment, plus the two days needed to edit PMH a second time, that gives me eight days of nonstop work . . . I only have nine days (counting today) before we set up for Hippos and I’m forced to set writing aside.

So, to keep myself sane and still get work done, I’ve decided to make PMH’s 3rd draft edits, and the drafting of PA’s 6th and 7th short stories and OHM B2’s chapter 12 mandatory, while the latter’s 2nd draft edits will be icing on the cake. That’ll leave me with just five days of nonstop work and a leisurely few days leading up to The Hippo Events. That’s manageable, attainable, and still a butt-ton of work to have accomplished in a workweek (~ish).

Well, having written it out like this quells some of my anxiety — it really is something that can be done, and I’m someone who can do it.

It’s so easy to fall into a negative spiral of doubt and self-hatred — that why so many people with amazing story ideas never do anything to bring that story into existence. So many creatives have beautiful worlds cooking at the back of their minds, and stories, characters, surprises, narratives, themes, pros that could smack people in the face and earn a “thank you.” But they don’t think their idea’s good enough, or they aren’t talented enough, or no one would be interested in their work — horse apples! There isn’t a single creative in the history of the world that ever went into a project and made what they saw in their mind’s eye on the first try — there’s always twists and plotholes that need addressing, fixing, tweaking, but that’s what makes it fun!

When I write the first draft, it is absolute garbage — better garbage than when I first started back in 2019, but garbage nonetheless. If you don’t expect a carpenter to tap their chisel on a piece of wood and it become a table, then you shouldn’t expect a masterpiece to appear when you first touch your computer keys/pen/pencil. Art takes time. Art worth looking at, more so. Art worth admiration, even more. And good art . . . well, that could take a lifetime. Patience, endurance, persistence, stubbornness, determination — these are the pressures that make stories great like the pressures that crush carbon into diamonds. But — little known fact — diamonds require intense pressure and heat followed immediately by a lack of pressure and heat to become diamonds. So, we’ve got the pressure and heat, but the violent vomiting from the belly of the Earth that finally makes a diamond? That, dear reader, is excitement, love, and passion.

Drive your creations with steadfast perseverance and bull-like determination against all that the world tells you, but do it in love of your creation or else your diamonds may turn into volcanic glass — beautiful, yes, but common and nowhere near as valuable or memorable.

Alright, y’all, that’s it from me today. Bye!

February 1, 2021

So, I intended to write one last blog post in January . . . the days got away from me. But, here I am , so let’s get on with this.

As I’ve addressed before, January’s cycle flew by without many hitches and I’ve been able to launch headlong into Feb.’s with only a few minor hiccups. Four chapters in Project Murder House have been drafted, leaving only two more before I begin draft 2 edits on the whole project . . . well, that isn’t entirely true. PMH chapter 19 has been edited and chapter 20 will be edited after I post this — Monday’s are my normie-job-day and I love editing, so this helps me relax. But, then, the rest of the week will be dedicated to finishing and editing PMH chapters.

Much akin to my normal division of labor in these cycles, however, next week will see the birth of two more short stories in Project Apocalypse and another chapter in Our Holy Mother book 2, quickly followed by their second draft edits. Then, and finally, the “ultimate week” — no more than three days immediately following my draft 2 edits — will see Feb.’s PMH chapters to the third draft before my seasonal job, The Hippo Events.

It’ll be difficult, tight, and stressful, but, if I can tough it out for just two more weeks, I’ll have not only completed two cycles in 3/4 the time, but with a few days to spare before Hippos. I plan on taking it easy and relaxing, letting my mind rest before being bombarded with the troubles of retail . . . but I think we all know, I’ll likely sneak one or two edits in somewhere. But, then again, maybe not . . .

I’ve been kind of getting into a few new Netflix shows, so maybe I’ll just binge some series or something. Maybe I’ll hang out with my friends before the call of the void is too strong. Maybe I’ll knock out a few more chapters in George R. R. Martin’s “A Clash of Kings.” Who knows? But it’ll be good to escape to somewhere for a brief while, regardless of whether it’s someone else’s world, or my own.

That’s it from me, y’all — stay creative, stay yourselves, be all you can be, and never let go of your talent even if it isn’t what supports you financially. Bye!

January 10, 2021

Hello fellow humans, there is much to say in this post . . . so let’s get started.

First of all — as I’ve stated in my socials — there’s been a major development with OHME . . . I split it into two books. Now, I didn’t want to do this initially, but, after a week of consideration, I knew there was no other avenue I could take safely. I’d intended to split the first book into two parts — each with their own arcs but obviously related — but that split was more severe than I realized. Part 1 (now book 1) is fast paced (it covers about a day) with several things happening simultaneously and POV characters that are physically close to one another in-universe, thus mingling their subplots. Whereas part 2 (now book 2) is slower, spanning several weeks or months, with several subplots that separate and unite the POV characters in completely different ways. The two are just so different that to keep them in the same book would create massive whiplash for the reader — to be honest, the only reason I didn’t notice this earlier is because of my hiatus in writing Evercrown when I buckled down on TSOC last year.

So, now Our Holy Mother is a four part series with Evercrown still being the name of book 1. For the moment, the second book is as yet unnamed and will just be referred to as OHM book 2 until I think of a working title.

As for everything else . . . my schedule has been invaded with busy weekends, which is fine in and of itself — I enjoy all the things I have to do — but it means my editing days are a little strained. To amend this issue I’ve decided to majorly screw with my system. Firstly, I wrote two chapters in PMH before Jan. 5 — the intended beginning of this cycle — and then wrote two more this week and have since edited them all to draft 2 status as of last night. Now, because of my head-start with PMH this month, I decided to prioritize it, which means — secondly, I will write the last two chapters in PMH for this cycle tomorrow after work and Tuesday. Then, thirdly, I’ll write two chapters in OMH book 2 followed by a short story in PA.

These changes aren’t directed at the content — that remains identical — instead focusing on the order of their development based on importance of completion (with Project Murder House leading the race, obviously). The real change to this cycle will be with my time spent in the ultimate week.

Because my seasonal job, The Hippo Events, demands my undivided attention from mid Feb. to mid March and I’m determined to get those six chapters of PMH in for Feb. AND March, I’ve scheduled every day before and after for writing. Which means there will only be two days to edit PMH chapters 13 - 18 to draft 3 (no problem — I do it in that time anyway) before I start in on 19 - 21 and follow it up with edits only to tackle 22 - 25 the same.

Feb.’s and March’s schedules are similar to my scheme for Jan., but extremely crunched to let me finish it in 2 1/2 weeks each month instead of four. However, this will not become my normal routine. God help me. I’ll fall right back into my lovely, evenly distributed 2 chapters of PMH a week with alternating a chapter in OMH book 2 and a short story. So, this quarter will be insanely busy, I’ll probably overwork and exhaust myself, but I want to get PMH done and this is how I can do it.

It’s harsh on myself, but I’m the only one who can write my books; and if I can’t motivate (or force, if I’m honest) myself to get the work done, how can I ever hope to be an author? Having the support of others can be crucial — validation and encouragement are fan-friggin-tastic — but the ability to be the harsh boss that puts you to the grind and makes sure you do the work even if you hate doing it? That’s what it takes to see a dream happen, sometimes, and that’s what I’ve got to do at the moment to ensure I don’t lag behind.

Alright, y’all, that’s it from me today. Big changes are ahead, but if we persevere, then we shall reap a bountiful harvest. I love y’all, and as always, keep writing, keep creating, keep striving to bring your dreams into reality.

January 1, 2021

I know I promised to write another blog post before the end of 2020, but the editing got away from me yesterday and then . . . well, New Years Eve happened, lol.

Anyway, as of right now I’ve only edited one more chapter in Evercrown than my last post on my socials, but it was as long as two — I wish y’all could’ve seen my face when I read the page count — and I think that today’s going to be a rest day. However, the writing will continue tomorrow and thereafter as I start the next cycle. Because January starts in a weird spot of the week for me, I decided to extend my ultimate week until the fifth — I usually begin writing on Tuesday’s anyway and it doesn’t cost me any days in the next ultimate week. So Saturday, Sunday, and maybe Monday evening are going to be filled with editing mixed with writing new ideas or fleshing out scenes that’ve randomly started coming my way.

I get these visions (the non-magical kind) of enormous supernatural battles between individuals, dialogue between characters I don’t know, budding romances and friendships, found families, grief, death — everything that makes for the best stories. But it’s weird how this stuff just came from nowhere — well, I say nowhere, but I’ve been binging My Hero Academia, and it’s rife with all the above lol. But even considering that, I’ve started watching and reading a bunch of other new things lately — Sweet Home, iZombie, The Expanse, Clockwork Orange (novel), & A Clash of Kings (novel) — but they haven’t inspired any new visions that I know of. I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with the Viking war music chants I listen to to put me in a pagan mood for ritual/magical scenes in my books — they do just as well to put me in fight-mode lol.

Regardless of how my weird brain works, the new year brings me closer to finishing Project Murder House (my second ever novel) and getting that much closer to completion in Our Holy Mother: Evercrown and Project Apocalypse — not to mention starting another round of edits with TSOC. Gosh I miss that thing — it’s like my baby moved out to college. And, with the addition of a few new alpha-readers, maybe I can reach my goal even faster. Who knows.

Right, so I’m chillaxin’ today, gonna edit Evercrown and do a little world-building Sat., Sun., and maybe Mon., and then continue on like nothing happened while screaming at the heavens about ALL the things that happened — sounds like a plan to me. Alright, I’ll see y’all later — happy New Year, keep bein’ you, strive for a goal, work toward it, and earn your place as the best artist possible. Love y’all — bye!