Hey guys!
I know that I have been offline for quite some time. I will admit, I have had some great ideas on what to write about in terms of future blog posts, and they are in the progress. But some things had stalled me into updating this site for quite some time. In fact, it has been part of the reason why I hadn’t updated in some time.
What’s been happening?
Unfortunately, this site had a few hiccups, and it was unsafe to enter. I placed it on maintenance mode for about a week to make sure everything is ok beforemake it accessible again. I want to this site to be a safe place where I want to write, express myself, but also for this place to be a space where ideas can be exchanged. This is especially in consideration as I am creating my story.
It was a shock to me at the time, some dangerous code got through and was in my website. I spent the rest of that day after I found out to remove the code, changed all the passwords I had connected to it, added lots of plugins. Then later realized my website’s appearance isn’t what I expected it to be due to incompatibilities of plugins. Fortunately the website is fixed.
If you want to save the stress and potential sanity, please change in the login address. Specifically, for those who have the ‘wp-admin’ at the end of their slug, remove it! There are plugins such as ‘WPS hide login’ that can hide it, but other plugins do have that option too. Look around for it before it happens to you.
I will not ramble into this topic any longer, because now here’s the sweet and important stuff.
Writing Progress
I have finally finished writing through draft 9 of Conjured Secrets. I combed through all of the scenes that needed editing, the extra scenes I need to add, let it sit for about a week and a few days ago, I have recently picked the story back up on the kindle and am slowly reading through it. On the side, I have a few pieces of paper where I write notes on the improvements I need to make.
You get kind of warp into thinking if you wrote everything correctly or the things you need to write. Below are the notes of me raving on about Braedon’s appearance throughout one of the chapters, because why not?
Noticing that there are pacing errors, it makes me have lots of questions on where I want to take this editing journey. Whether Self-editing or asking an editor would make sense for my story. I am starting to consider getting a few people to read this story and give feedback if they are interested.
Showing people my work gives me mixed feelings… There’s a part of me that thinks “Wow! It’d be amazing to have a few readers looking at my work and giving their feedback.” Which it has happened! 2022, I had a Tumblr community who looked into my work! And I do appreciate sharing this journey! But on the opposite side, I do also have that scary thought if people would want to read it this sort of book.
Thinking about my story, a YA fantasy novel with anthro characters, with the 9th draft clocked close to 90,000 words. The finished product I hope could be about 80,000 to 85,000 words… I would think it is a not so high target, but again. As someone who looks in bookstores and libraries frequently, I haven’t come across a book within this sort of format. If you have, give a shout! Part of me wonders, “Who would read about some anthro characters in a novel?”
Where I see anthropomorphic characters around is in games, manga, smut, drawings of furries, kiddy shows and children books. Fanfiction may count, and I don’t want to say that it is not writing. It is. And this sort of literature is a great way to experiment with characters! But in a form of published original books? I haven’t heard of any. If there is such thing, please give a shout. I’d be happy to hear about it.
Here’s the brighter side.
As much as I am doing something different that can be rather risky, this may be a good thing. There could be a new audience where other authors are inspired to create characters in a book like capacity. The character’s can be pretty animalistic that can appear different to what human centric characters may have.
Yet at the same time, they are all there to tell a story. A story, which serves a similar purpose to plenty of other books on the shelves. It is to carry a truth, a experience that is different depending on the author, yet similar. Readers may carry their own thoughts to understand the story you are trying to convey, and honestly, who wouldn’t like that sort of mission?
I’ve currently held onto the story for so long. Long enough that it’s become a bit of wonder on what the story would be like when it’s complete. But I will try, in whatever way I can to complete this story within the next five and a half months. Even if the perfectionism in me is expecting the best, I think with working on the story for a solid five years and a dose of writer’s block slugging throughout the process, it may be more beneficial, not just for me, but you fellow readers too to see what I have to share, for better or worse.
Conclusion of thoughts.
I did not expect myself to ramble so much in this post. If there is one thing that I can admit, is that besides having a rather busy life that has turned somewhat quiet, I will focus as hard as I can to complete not just this story, but also some other personal goals I have on the side.
There are some goals that I want to complete this year, and this will surely be one of them. Others is within the next few months, half a year… I feel like a lot of things are stacking against me towards the end of this year. And I will try to welcome to get as much done as I can within that time.