SUNDAY - SUNDAY - SUNDAY

Mini Update

Since I'm gunning for getting my manuscript proofread and all that good stuff, I've been setting up the rest of Shadow Genesis after Inception. Also toying around in Illustrator and Photoshop. I'll reveal what I've been meddling with soon.

SATURDAY UPDATE

Morning Situations

Today, woke around 7am’ish. Written just a tiny bit then fell back asleep. This winter season is nuts. It happens all the time – even during the fall – when I’m not out and about. I’ll wake up in the noon instead of mornings and write for an hour or two then jam elsewhere. Spring and summer I’m a whole other breed.

Or maybe it is because I’ve been mysteriously charmed in staying up an extra hour at night. Perhaps I should just switch my writing schedules to take advantage of it. Weekends is still ‘Free Days’, but I also write for a bit regardless. Just not heavily compared to the weeks when not occupied on other things.

SG: INCEPTION is still half done on 3^rd Draft. Figured I’d be finished, but I’m not. Fret not, this means that the New Year equals a new book on the horizon. Still contemplating on who to deal with when publishing. Traditional or Independent… decisions… and I already have several sites (like Bookbaby and Jukepop) on my list.

Will write a little bit more before 3:30pm hits.

RARE SUNDAY

"How I do I do it, one asks."

First I write quick mini drafts before getting into my main projects. I just started to write up short dialog scripts seriously between characters to get a better mood of what to do come time in manuscript work. In a way, I have been doing such exercises with The Multiverse Project for years, and never thought to implement such things into the Shadow Khan Project… which is quite weird of me to do.

Music is one of my powerful muses.

I am sure to have explained this once before, but I feel as if I need to explain just how inspirational music is to me when I write, and how not just any tune does the deed for me.

Often I set up a few music mixes when writing. Sometimes I don’t, but often I do. Some like to write in utter silence, which is commonplace, but I take to music or ‘noise’ more than silence. I suppose it is because I have been writing under the commotion of sound for long (back when I was just writing little story plot shorts and character summaries way back in middle school) that it doesn’t bother me at the least, plus, out here in the country surrounded by family is another reason. Kids can get wild, and I have a knack for multitasking.

Simply put, I can tune out other things and zone into what is important, and once I am in the zone, there is no stopping me… unless something major is up. When I go to bed, the earphones are in and the iPod is playing one of the many project mixes set up to help on whatever I plan to write on come morning.

As for my music mixes, they help for a particular scene, character, a time period, or a specific story mood when writing. It is one of the ways I submerse myself in both scene and sound, and helps the mood well. I find myself with more action sounds than anything, and just really updated softer, dramatic tunes. It is rare for lyrics to move me as much as pure instrumentals.

Earlier, a song called 'Into the Darkness' by The Phantoms caught my attention. I caught it off The Inquisitor trailer of Dragon Age Inquisition. It is a good song, lyrics are nice, though short, but it speaks to me when writing, especially when working on Shadow Khan.

At this moment, I am writing up a few mini event drafts now for Shadow Genesis Inception, to work off of. I have a few done, and been on for a few months (before the great computer/Office fall out). This blog was supposed to have been finished earlier, like an hour back… but a friend just popped up with that Ps4 Grand Theft Auto 5.

The first person mode is interesting.

STILL GOING: PROJECT UPDATES!

Yes, it has been a few days of me being ‘absent’, but with reason, minus the excuses.

Through the week I have been occupied. Writing at most and other life things people do with themselves than just sitting around, which is cool to do, for I can do just that too. I am a bit of a homebody. I don’t do clubs, nor do I run the streets like so many do. I am a gamer type and love a good show, and when the inspiration trickles in I sure do take notes.

But sometimes I wonder if what I learn is actually applying itself.

I suppose that is my own personal critic.

UPDATE

The Shadow Khan Project is coming along fine. Slow, but I am the type who can’t rush something I believe will be something good when truly finished in my eyes. I would throw in some sort of metaphor or other clever string of words, but I am feeling a bit raw (as always). 

Shadow Genesis is still in 3^rd draft and I am a few chapters in. However, I went back to chapter one and made a few tweaks and cut-downs in word count. Chapter one’s word total is around 8k (8,000something). Although there are no rules to chapter length, let alone having or not having chapter numbers in a novel, I have this thing that when I write, I write until a scene is done. Of course each chapter has several scenes, but sometimes the scenes are more than a few pages long. Composition thing… but it’ll sort itself out as I keep on revising. I do feel it should be shorter, but the other half of me says: “The story will reach its own limit as you write.”

Simply put, my work is freakin’ sentient.

SHADOW GENESIS INCEPTION 3^rd DRAFT PROGRESS: 20%

• SG Book II 2^nd Draft Pending
• SG Book III 1^st Draft 20%

 

 

Project Chosen One is very slow going, only because I continue to redesign (mentally) or change up plot for the script. Since I am writing in script format (like a media script but for graphic novel) I still find the style and format new to me in Scrivener. It is however a nice change of flow between projects, but in good time I’ll have everything done.

SLICKA GRAPHIC NOVEL SCRIPT PROGRESS: 15%

Project Multiverse received a change of narrative. I am looking to tell the seemingly infinite adventures of Ricven as he travels the multiverse and gets into all sorts of shenanigans and such with others, as well as the ole keeping the balance ordeal. It’s massive, bigger than any could imagine, so the first batch of stories (including those done on DeviantArt) will come in handy as planned.

PROJECT MULTIVERSE MANUSCRIPT: 10% (Revised)

 

As for Slumgarde, it is still in plotting phase. Experimenting with the snowflake method on that one.

I know things are taking awhile. People ask when the next Shadow Genesis is coming out, and I tell them like always "In due time". There is no way one can just rush a good story. Yeah one can write a book in a month, but that is just a first draft... and I've proved to myself I could do that on my own. I even went further and written a 50chapter novel out of that. That is adding twenty more chapters to a book I first drafted in a month. My schedule was early mornings if not away from home, and if occupied elsewhere I make it up at night or in between. Everyday I write, but I can no longer stress myself on it for I have overexerted myself once. Is why I do other things to keep from hitting a pit again.

I am not always-always writing, but I 'AM' writing!

I keep my blog updated just for them, those who actually support me, and for myself, since building a author blog is essential to me, and will pay off in the long run. It's not easy doing what I do, even when some say what I do is a cake walk, but it is a challenge everyday writing, re-writing, researching, note taking, all that, just so this major project gets what it deserves... for Preludes of War was my first book, my own personal achievement, and a piece of work I knew I could do better with.

Hence the reboot.

Now if you can excuse me, the Inquisition is calling.

Overcoming The Shock

"The hard disk's file system is corrupted and will be restored."

So, what really came crashing down quicker than a weighty ton of bricks a few days back (the Saturday before this past weekend), was the discovery of my Playstation 3’s system file succumbing to corruption. I still cannot believe it happened.

Like seriously, after all these years, it has finally taken its unwanted course upon my gaming life.

It all started with that Auto Update feature that only Playstation Plus Users (if not mistaken) have the privilege to toggle if actual members to PS Plus. I use to be a member, but sadly my membership expired and I chose not to re-subscribe, for reasons of my own. Store has some nice free games though. Not to further digress, I noticed it cut on, and then turn off. Okay… odd, for I no longer have PS Plus. But as I went to manually cut it on, that is when all hell broke loose… on the inside of my inner geek-self, that is.

I stare blankly at this message of a error and suggested restoration method, which I could not bypass. Realizing I will lose everything, content since 2010 plus all my game saves and so forth, I started anew as forced. Now everything is gone. No Skyrim, no Dragon Age, no Mass Effect, no Saints Row, no Assassin’s Creed, no Uncharted, no Final Freakin’ Fantasy… see where I am going with this?

Everything is wiped clean, like one big mass nuke of ultimate digital ethnic cleansing.

If those three words could even serve as a trio of descriptive representation to the utter technological genocide I just committed… and could not control. I do not know if this is some sort of punishment act dropped upon me, or just a common thing that happens to all gamers (okay, I am exaggerating for dramatic effect). However, I do know one thing, every time I speak of a game I have or looking forward to playing/replaying (under the mental impression I have save files… new game pluses, etc.), I am painfully reminded that nothing exists on my console and I have to literally replay anew, let alone reinstall, every game touched.

It also hit me like a sniper-praised headshot ‘Duty Style’ that I ‘accidentally’ traded Dragon Age Origins long ago in the batch of 360 games I ‘murdered’ for profit when deep sixing my Xbox, which earnings went to PS3 versions of the games I once had for the ‘Box’. Games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition, Mass Effect Trilogy, and Saints Row (got Saints IV) and Grand Theft Auto V (which was really just a pre-order pay off instead like Saints IV) now grace my Ps3 collection.

On the upside, I can just replay, nothing to be sad about (aside from Skyrim and Mass Effect, all that hard work), but the content I had like movies, music, and stuff, stuff I failed to back up… my fault… GONE!

Then again, I do have a few copies I did not erase from the computer, so, there. Not too bad at all… sort of.

Dragon Age III: Inquisition is coming out November 18, next month. Playing Rage’s Wasteland Legends with my nephew, I was conversing about how Inquisition will pull from the last two Dragon Age installments and the reason I got the Deluxe Edition for Ps3 and not Ps4, is because I have both DA: Origins and DA: 2 for the Ps3 instead.

Then I remember that Dragon Age Keep site coming up, where I can fix events from both games for DA: III. So I am not SOL after all in that area of ‘muckery’ I call it.

November 18 is going to be a busy series of events onward for me. Now that I am done with Shadow Genesis: Inception’s second draft, as it is under critique and review by others, I can take some time to calm the brain in that spot, game out, enjoy life, and show my face in the public wilds before getting back to work on that third draft. I know I will be chiseling the crap out that inevitable draft once the reviews and critique result comes back to me. I have already written a few notes as it is, while helping a few others on their own… although I am not so great in critiquing when it comes to all that grammar stuff, but I am good at reviewing on a intrigued reader’s perspective. You know, like picking up a book and reading for the first time.

But enough on my ramblings.

Here is a peek at what else I am working on the side:

MAIN PROJECTS:

• Shadow Khan Project: SG:I 2^nd Draft Complete
• SG:I 3^rd Draft Pending
• SG:I Book II 2^nd Draft Pending
• SG Book III 1^st Draft 20%
• Project Chosen One: Graphic Novel Script 10%
• Project Multiverse: Novel Manuscript 15%

MINOR PROJECTS: (Bonus News)

• 15 story ideas (separate book series) noted and in conception
• 2 old story ideas (handwritten manuscripts from the late 90s) salvaged and pending for future revisions (one horror and one dark erotic fantasy)
• Grim (Modern Horror story): 50% handwritten (awaiting revision – new title pending)
• The Devil’s Ring (Dark Erotic Modern Fantasy): 50% handwritten (awaiting revision – new title pending)