May 26, 2020

Hey y’all! So . . . you remember how I wanted to write that short story and edit all the changes to TSOC I made last week on top of editing OHME chapter 15? Yeah . . . it didn’t pan out that way. But, I’ve gotten TSOC part 5 and 6 edited to their second drafts, so I accomplished roughly 3/4 of my goal — not so bad for an overachiever.

Now, given that the necessary changes in the earlier part of TSOC have been completed, I plan to use this week solely for editing — which is a bit of a vacation for me, given that I love editing, but still makes progress, regardless. However, all that’s left for me to edit and be back on the track before rewrites is TSOC part 7 and OHME chapter 15, which means I may very well have some time left over before the week’s out.

If this is indeed the case, I plan on finally writing the first draft of my first short story and editing it. After that, I’ll work on OHME chapter 16 and begin editing that before taking a crack at editing TSOC part 8. Then I will officially be back on track and able to work on all my projects together again — which is good because I miss my other characters. Even still, this two week hyper-focus on TSOC has allowed me to really flesh out the story and understand my characters on a much deeper level than before without the distraction of other, better plotted stories.

Aside from writing, I’ve been able to spend some quality time with friends lately — which is nice, given this whole quarantine situation. It’s good to step away from writing and just relax every once in a while and spend time with people that you enjoy even if it means you make no contributions to your projects — sometimes those are the best days in the world. I honestly can’t wait to spend time with these people again — their company’s so refreshing, so uplifting, so genuine and unstressed. It’s also nice to have someone to talk to about my books in person that knows virtually nothing about them and get some good emotional support and encouragement that what I’m doing is amazing and worth doing.

Also — between bouts of manic writing, binging in the kitchen, and friends and family — I have been glued to my phone almost every spare second rewatching the TV show Stargate: Atlantis . . . thankfully it holds up to the glorified mythic legends my young brain thought it was. Obviously it isn’t as grand as all that — it is just a show — but it makes me feel all nostalgic — not to mention putting me into a sci-fi mindset. It’s given me so many different ideas for my future sci-fi stories even though hardly any of them were inspired by the events or technology in the show itself — Lord help me, I’ll never be able to watch or read anything without being inspired to work on my stories.

And that’s another thing — inspiration. For the longest time, I assumed that taking inspiration from another’s work was almost like plagiarism because you didn’t invent the idea, or situation, or technology, etc. But that just isn’t the truth. Inspiration can’t be helped — it strikes you over the head and makes you pay attention — and inspiration is NOT plagiarism. And, in truth, what I’ve been calling inspiration in previous posts, is more like taking a certain mindset. Watching TWD got me in the mindset to explore certain aspects of my fictional apocalypse and thus fleshed it out — the inspiration came when I decided to write it from the perspective of survivors through episodic short stories. Watching Hannibal got me in the mindset to better explore the personality and backstory of a character I previously thought of as a background character — one that i realized had shockingly similar traits to our good cannibal doctor himself. The inspiration came when I decided to make this character inspire murder and madness in others and be a master of psychological manipulation for multiple reasons. Watching Stargate: Atlantis got me in the mindset to better flesh out and explore the world and history of my sci-fi setting for future stories.

The point is, that being inspired will always leave its fingerprints — it’s when inspiration is done honestly and tastefully that the writer will take an idea and make their own while still paying homage to their inspiration. While attaining a certain mindset by immersing yourself in similar genres and settings to better explore a facet of your world or story or characters or con-culture — whatever — is entirely based on your imagination. For some reason this just didn’t click in my head until recently — a little late to the game, I know, but still.

Alright y’all, that’s gonna be it from me in this update/diary entry. Make sure to check out my Instagram to see my progress between blog posts. Bye!

May 19, 2020

Hey y’all! I didn’t forget to update my blog within a week —give or take —it must be a sign of the end, lol.

But seriously, I have embarrassing news . . . I didn’t meet my goals I set in the previous update. I came really close — and would’ve been able to finish — but Sunday was Mother’s Day, and my mom’s more important than writing a book no matter how much I love this story. So, as it stands, TSOC part 9 is unfinished and Evercrown chapter 15 is still not edited, but this is for a good reason — I discovered my limits.

I thought I could do all that at once without planning out each and every single day — I couldn’t. I thought I could handle juggling multiple stories on the precipice — I couldn’t. So, while this is a failure, all failures teach to those are willing to listen. I now know that I can’t juggle that much at once and expect to reach my goals without dogmatic scheduling and fierce determination and sacrifice.

In the meantime, I had to stop working on TSOC part 9 because I still hadn’t rewritten part 4 and 5 like I needed to, and one of my beatareaders was on point with the schedule — they got to part 4 before I did, lol. So, I had to set the end of my novel aside and concentrate on part 4 for a week . . . and I got it done! Which brings me to today.

Last week I completely rewrote and edited part 4, and this week I’ll be tackling the new part 5. The beautiful part? I just finished rewriting the ending of part 5 moments before composing this update and will be more than able to edit it tomorrow! It blew by so fast, I don’t even know how it happened. So, the rest of today will be spent editing a few things in part 6, spending more time on my socials, and possibly writing the first short story in Project Apocalypse — but we’ll see how things go. And after that, I plan on moving forward with working on TSOC until I hit the new part 8 because that’s where I really need to get it edited to draft 2. Once there, I should fall back into my normal rhythm of writing Evercrown and editing those chapters alongside TSOC — hopefully I can work in time to write a short story at least every other week and edit that alongside Evercrown and TSOC . . . phew, I’m gonna be a busy bee, lol.

Alright, y’all, that’s gonna be it from me! Keep an eye on my socials to see the goings-on, watch out for more updates, and don’t forget that any of you can submit to be betareaders if you like one of my available stories! Bye!

May 7 2020

Hey yall! So I’ve been working behind the scenes again — I need to get into the flow of updating my socials, good LORD — but I’ve decided on a set schedule for the week, which is * drum-roll * . . .

• Write draft 1 chapter 15 of OHME (Our Holy Mother: Evercrown).

• Edit chapter 15 to the second draft.

• Edit a previous installment of Evercrown to the third draft.

• Write Part 9 of TSOC (The Seat of Cath).

• Write the first short story in my newest writing project: Project Apocalypse.

Now, I made these plans on Monday, May 4, during my morning walk — you know . . . when I usually talk to myself for, like, four hours? — so this is somewhat of an update on my schemes somewhat a progress report. I’ve already edited Evercrown’s prologue to the third draft (check), I’ve written the first draft of chapter 15 (double check), and, after I’m done writing here, I’ll start writing Part 9 of TSOC (kinda triple check). That just leaves writing a short story and editing chapter 15 to draft 2!

This may not look like a lot to have accomplished at first glance, but — as the person making all the words a thing that happens — trust me when I say that these five little things are certainly enough to fill up my week and give just enough time for me to have a life away from the keyboard, too. And, with 3 days * looks at calendar * correction, two days . . . just two days left in the week, I think I can do it. Besides, I haven’t included the work I’m going to do today — and, honestly, if I don’t manage to get the short story written this week it isn’t such a big deal.

And, because I’m the writer of this blog and I can do whatever I want on it — within reason, of course — I thought I’d add a little more personal detail in these things so they don’t just come off as progress reports . . . ‘cause who wants to read those for fun? When I wasn’t writing, walking, or spending time with my family this week, I’ve been in a binge of the Hannibal series. It’s been ages since I’ve watched it, but the moment I flipped on the first episode I was transported right back into my love for it and the characters. It’s a wild ride, with wild characters, and a wilder story seen through the eyes of crazy or crazy-by-proxy. I found the love I had for the characters again, the appreciation I had for the story, the mixed feelings over the beautiful art of the murders and their intricate interwoven connections within connections.

Besides that, through watching Hannibal, a seed has been planted in my mind for a story. It’s still very young and very close to the source material, but I think I’ll gestate on it a little while, tweak it, see where it takes me, what characters I cook up, what plots arrive as the first sapling. I can’t wait for this to grow and blossom into its own creation.

It just goes to show: “there’s nothing new under the sun”. Everything’s been done before, but how it’s done is what makes something authentic and original.

Alright yall, that’ll be it from me today. Keep an eye on my socials and the blog for updates and peeks behind the curtain. Bye!