This post is a little announcement. It’s been a while, but it is fair to talk about it while I still can, while I feel motivated to say something about it. It’s already on record, so regardless of the number of people that have seen the project journals, I feel responsible for telling you what’s happening to the Black Fields project. It is unfair to keep on record that “I’m still working on it” when in reality, I reached a dead end.
I know there are times when we have what is called writer’s block. It is normal to lose your inspiration or have a mental wall that won’t let you move forward. It is not the end of the world. I didn’t trash the project; I am just going to pause it. I tried to bite off more than I could chew (was it the correct phrase?) The project started as a novella, but it turned out to have material for a long novel. As I kept writing, the problem was that I found it impossible to tell that story within a single book. To come up with more ideas and more words to add was a challenging task (at least for me), and I don’t want to keep unnecessary filler—this is why I have a blog. Laughs Out Loud
To keep this short: I’ll pause Black Fields for a while; I don’t feel like continuing if there’s not a good idea in my head. That does not necessarily mean it’s not going to happen. I have the whole picture, but not everything that goes in the middle. For now, I will move on to my next project, which I plan to announce very soon. No worries, that one is a little more…simple? You’ll see why I say it when it happens. I believe it’s not a good thing to talk about that much at the moment. I want to announce it and, of course, add it to the Project journal section of my web.
I’m looking forward to showing it to you! I expect to schedule the post in the following weeks.
How short is short for you? What is the definition of short when you read a blog entry? I’ve been wondering for a while. There’s not a particular reason I wonder, but it would be interesting to know from someone else’s perspective how short is considered short. Does it depend on the word count, or perhaps is the time an entry might take you to read it. If something’s tedious, I know from experience that even three hundred words will feel like three thousand words. It’s a feeling similar to when you are waiting to do something exciting, or when it’s Friday, and you look at the clock; that moment you have a single look at the clock, everything’s going to feel slow.
A blog has many uses. It could be your not-too-personal journal, or the beginning of your writing journey, or both; why not? Although I am always on the side of complete freedom (write what you like the way you like), I am aware that if we plan to share our words with the world, we won’t be able to please everybody. This is not encouraging at all, I know, but this is also part of being true to ourselves. And we also need to know that being too true to ourselves could be counterproductive, though I prefer it this way.
With the data, most bloggers will try to reach that word count, and although a lot of bloggers have a good way to make their posts interesting to the end, some others may add unnecessary filler to make their entries longer. I’m not sure if I’ve done it in the past; feel free to tell me if I did. I cannot speak about other bloggers because the few I read are very good. But I can tell you examples of fillers from YouTube videos.
Think about your favorite youtuber. Maybe you’ve been expecting that person to speak about the title; the video is called “Jesus Delgado Sucks” and you want to hear about that, but the youtuber starts talking about a dog pissing on the vloger on the way home and how the recording is going to blow off some steam. That introduction was almost three minutes long, and the video is ten minutes long. Obviously, that person is just trying to reach a certain number of minutes. Some people like it, for some reason, and that’s okay; but I prefer those introductions to be shorter, or not included in the first place.
I guess I’d be wasting my time if I’m not looking to stand out in search engines, making longer posts without feeling it. Maybe I should not be here writing random nonsense without a goal. Words are unattractive by themselves, and some illustrations help pick the eyes or a good number of followers. In the end, I am here to share a little bit about me; some of my stories, some of my literary projects, my opinions on books, anime, music, and videogames. Of course, I’d love to gain more followers by doing this, writing a lot. But who knows what’s going to happen in the future, right? For now, the only thing that matters to me is to share and promote my upcoming novel.
I will think about it some more. The only thing for sure is that I won’t try to self-publish until my book looks great.
Here. I come here to write again. It is a good day, it’s been a good week. One of the most beautiful things about these last few days is the inspiration that is coming. The muse has returned and I don’t plan to let it go. Sure, my brain plays tricks on me whenever it feels like it, and I’m vulnerable.
There’s something I want to tell you, though, and it is about my short stories. Yeah, I said I’d be focusing more on my novel, and I didn’t lie. Though I don’t expect many results at the moment, I plan to write short stories; specially when I have finished my novel. I am going to take a break from it before moving on to the next, so I’ll use that time to blogging and share some stories with you all to know what’s up.
These short stories, of course, will be available here on my blog on the Stories section on this humble website, blog, or whatever you want to call this place. All for FREE!!!
One thing, though, that might scare you all away, but I believe it’ll be the most honest way to show you my writing work before even think about selling my novel, is the fact that I’ll be working alone on each short story that is destined to be posted here. That means I am going to write, beta read, and edit each one before posting. The purest form of the author.
Unlike my novel, of course; that’ll get all the work that is necessary to make a quality book with my personal, self-publishing, and professional resources. I am not just going to increase my numbers here to sell any garbage. I have options available for me whenever I feel the novel is ready.
At the top of this website you’ll see the sections. I am going to do my very best to bring up a lot of writing. Blogs and stories. I’m leaving out the reviews for now until I take that break before moving on to the next fantasy project.
I am still not sure what to expect from all of this. But I am finally happy to find a good place and good hours to keep my novel moving forward. My eyes feel heavy; all the time I’ve spent in front of the monitor is going to leave invisible scars, and I don’t mind any of them as long as the novels advance to their destinations.
I can’t wait to write the next Black Fields report. I promise a new entry’s coming up next week.
Clues
Clues, I have none. The short stories that are coming won’t be directly related to any of the books I plan to release. There’s one directly connected to the project For Her Moon, and the story is called A Sight of the Moon if you want to check it out. Black Fields, though, I don’t see how to make short stories that’d be linked. I am keeping the mystery until the end of the last novel. Yup, Black Fields is going to have a sequel. More on my next Project Journal entry.
Relax
Taking my time. Yes, I am doing that. There’s a good song that comes into my head while I write. The opening song of the anime Boogiepop and Others is more than perfect. I won’t say Black Fields took any inspiration from the series, because it did not, but every time I write more on these characters, I can’t help it, that opening is just too good to ignore.
Honestly, though, this might fit a lot better with the For Her Moon original idea. I cannot explain why it emphasizes more with Black Fields that has, by FAR, a whole different atmosphere. Maybe it is a sign that something must be done with the story, Maybe I am pushing it towards the right direction, or the wrong one. Who knows?
I want to believe the direction I’m taking with Black Fields is the right one. I am putting my heart on it, but I can actually see people getting kinda bored at the beginning. There’s “nothing to see” there; you’ll know what that means when the time comes. I hope it’s going to be soon.
The more I think about it the harder it gets. I question myself all the time. There’s no way for me to tell how good or bad are the things I am writing. That will make the trip more interesting, in my opinion. Maybe a giveaway or something of the sort to make some honest reviews available for future readers. I don’t know!
The only offering I have available at the moment is this humble website and my future posts.
Notice with this blog entry that I don’t feel very confident with my creations. I want to joke about it. I try to laugh about it. I succeed and I fail at the same time. Perhaps this is the way it should be. The more I write, the better I get. I hope that also translates into my new stories and novels.
A good weekend. I guess that’s a good way to summarize my weekend. I wrote, I watched a few anime episodes, and I watched the Ju-On: Origins‘ six episodes. I’ll probably write a review about it. It’s not even new anymore, so I don’t mind taking my sweet little time.
I must tell you that this post was originally meant to be the second entry of my Project Journal about Black Fields but I discarded the idea to make it a random blog entry. The reason is that I did not see a point to make an entry when the new chapter has more spoiler material. I need to figure out how to write about it or just wait until the “waters are still” to talk without revealing too much.
I won’t complain. I know a lot of people feels kinda claustrophobic unable to meet in parties (assuming there’s an actual brain), or at least to gather at their favorite restaurants. I know there are more opportunities to go out and do more stuff in comparison to previous months as long as you take precautions and wash the very last corner of your being.
Introvert teenagers and adults like me and many others are in the paradise. It’d be a lie, though, if I deny that being a full-introvert is unhealthy, but it is what it is. There’ll be the opportunity to greet more humans when it becomes necessary. Until then, introverts can enjoy themselves and make the best out of it. The extroverts are having more trouble to cope; just hang in there, follow the rules, and I know this will be over, or at least controlled to the point where we’ll be able to go out without the paranoia of being infected with bat-illness.
I remember a man on Twitter that asked what would be like to live in a world without vaccines today. I cannot imagine it myself, but just take a look at it; a world without ONE SINGLE vaccine. Everything is going crazy. I am not sure if crazy is a good term to use here, but some chaos has been around while a virus is taking over some lives and control over the situation we’re living. I am not expert, or knowledgeable on medicine, and my bet is that everything is going to be like this for two years at least.
Let’s not get too deep into an area far from my knowledge, I hope I am wrong and tomorrow an expert goes to a big TV/internet channel and tells the world the vaccine is there and that everything is going back to normal for Christmas (dreaming is free, right?)
Entertaining myself, entertaining yourself
This is easy. I’ve talked about it several times on previous posts. If you’re “lucky” enough to work from home, and you don’t know what to do with your time, it is the perfect chance to try something new. A movie or a show on Netflix, a book of the genre that grabbed your attention, an anime, or videogames. Sure, it is cool to go back to the things you love, though the most interesting perspective to take is to try something new. Who knows, maybe you’re going to find a new favorite movie, song, book, or game! Whenever I try a show or anime, I watch two-to-three episodes (no more), and if I don’t like it, I just move on to a different show.
Never listen to anybody telling stupid things like “Hang on, the show starts to get good after the 500th episode.” I mean, this is most common in anime, and we know most of the shonen fans have no criteria; just put fights and lights and they’re going to be happy.
One Piece is great, though! It has everything! And Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is genius in so many senses! I heard a lot of good things about Hunter x Hunter as well, but I haven’t seen the series, so I won’t put my hands on fire for it.
Words, words, and more words
I feel so satisfied with the books I’ve read (so far) in 2020. Finally introducing myself into The Wheel of Time series, and everything after it feels strange. I don’t know, it’s like something within me is forcing me to go back and read the whole series before anything else. I would not mind, though I have said before that I usually take breaks between the books in a series and the next; even I did that with the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, I read Mistborn, then two different books, and then Well of Ascension, and so on. But The Wheel of Time series, my friends, is something I just cannot pass by. I am trying to read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, but Robert Jordan is calling me, pointing at his series. I cannot resist temptation anymore. I am going to finish Six of Crows first, but after that I am going for The Great Hunt (book two of The Wheel of Time series) and probably for the next after it.
The music I listen
I don’t listen to music as often as I used to. I do listen, though, to my favorite (instrumental) music while I write, and I listen to my favorite songs with lyrics when I feel bored or before sleeping. I haven’t discovered many new-old bands or songs, but I feel satisfied with the few things I found. I guess I need to share a music video here, just for the old times and love for this form of artistic expression.
This song is not very new and not too old either, and I feel very surprised this thing didn’t turn into a meme. Perhaps is my lack of interest on memes that I haven’t found any. Anyway, Alestorm is a Pirate Metal band (yeah, that’s what the genre is called) from the United Kingdom, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. They have several songs that are very interesting, and most of them, if not all, really feel that they were written by a bunch of lost pirates that got lost in time and found electric basses and guitars. I appreciate they do it. Though I heard of the genre in the past, this is the first time that I actually got into it, and I love it.
By the way, go to the comment section of the video. The comments are hilarious!
Gaming
Nothing to talk here. Nothing to comment. I’ve been focusing a lot on my novel and I don’t want to interrupt my rhythm with gaming. I beat a couple of levels in Warframe and a few Call of Duty: World War II multiplayer matches, but if I need to make an hour count from the beginning of the month, I doubt I’ve played six hours in total. Both games have short levels that you could just play in very short sessions.
So yes. I recommend you to play Warframe if you’re looking for a good sci-fi/action game that is available for FREE on PlayStation 4.
It is Monday already, let’s see what happens. New week, new opportunities to be positive, or negative. Both options are valid.
The way I see NaNoWriMo is like a game, ranked or just friendly. It lets you play a game in which you’re the protagonist trying to write a novel. In fact, you are your own protagonist in real life, but I know you get what I mean.
That are so many aspiring writers out there, waiting for any opportunity to start writing, or motivation from somewhere. That, unfortunately, doesn’t always come from family or friends; internet is a beautiful tool for artists to get their creative space, big or small.
November 2019, my story began (the real life story, not my novel) when I decided to participate on NaNoWriMo. My motivation reached a very tall peak, I told myself that was the perfect opportunity to challenge myself. It was, truly, but sometimes life smacks you out of nowhere. I stopped. Not only my novel; also my blog, all of its activity stopped because I had matters to attend. Everything’s fine now, but it does not excuse the fact that I wrote an entry for everyone to participate, when I was destined to fail. No, I am not proud of it. Still, I know real life stuff is more important, I can’t help but feel bad about it.
Nothing about me, though
You have no clue (or maybe you do) how small things like this affect a portion of aspiring writers. Not being able to complete a personal challenge as it is NaNoWriMo. We all know that NaNoWriMo isn’t meant to make the writer prove anything. Although the admins there have always clarified that, some of these independent writers start to feel that they have no talent at all. It is sad, I was like that once, I thought if I’d tripped once I would not be able to run anymore. Our thoughts are our worst enemies the majority of time. Damn you, brain!
I think this is the best tweet for them:
If you write 10k a day, you will end up with a book. If you write 1k a day, you will end up with a book. If you write 500 words every Tuesday, you will end up with a book. If you write 100 words before bed, or 50 whenever you can, you will end up with a book.
I am 99.9% sure my words are irrelevant to any aspiring writer, but how about a published author? This is the best tweet I have ever seen on Twitter. Why? Because she’s right, she’s telling you that if you only write 50, 500, 1000, or more words, you’ll end up with a book. Everyone has different responsibilities, and as soon as you’re determined to write anything every day, then someday you’ll have a story written. Time is gold, and that time should be spent wisely; prioritize your health and family, and then your writing. Also, remember, if you believe your writing sucks, that is not the end of the world either; anything can be edited, EXCEPT the words YOU HAVE’N WRITTEN. Editing is the most important step!
Cheater, you ask?
Indeed, I am a cheater, because I am back. Just in time to keep writing my novel while I keep this blog active. I am also working on short stories that’ll be available for FREE here! Some of these stories are going to work as a prelude for my novel, so I encourage you to keep reading and, if you like my stories, share my work to your family and friends.
Ah, cheater, yes. I am going to participate in 2020’s NaNoWriMo. Of course, my novel will be finished by then (I hope), or at least close to an end. So this is the way I’ll be cheating NaNoWriMo. I won’t get a reward, but I’ll lie to myself to feel better about my writing speed. Am I proud of my ideas? No.
In the end, what matters is the final revision of the story.
I’ve been working on the world building again. I am glad my English debut novel is set in a well-known town. One of the things about urban fantasy is that, unlike high-fantasy, the world is not as big; you only need to describe whatever needs to be described, and give a few hints about the city’s background. Of course, that depends on the story, I don’t intend to name a rule here.
Even though I have mentioned the world building as an easy thing, I believe there’s a lot more to work on my novel. I am liking it so far, and I know someone else’s going to help me edit, but if I want to start a series of novels, the least I MUST do is to do something bigger with that world of mine. There’s always opportunities for improvements, and hell I plan to take them all.
No, I don’t think I’m writing a revolutionary novel; it is just a fantasy novel in which I’m putting my heart and soul. I hope you like my characters!
So yeah, in summary, I’ve been doing a few more outlines before continuing where I left. I don’t know, I’m probably thinking too much about it, but the moment I fell in love with my own characters and the events that are occurring there, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more demanding.
Why am I here now? It is a good question, it’s been a while since that last time I posted something on this blog. I know it looks like mere procrastination, and indeed it is 50% true, but I am also having a lot of difficulties writing.
I’m trying to write a novel, a project called For Her Moon (also created a hashtag). It was intended to be the first book of my urban fantasy series, which I rather not reveal anything yet, and that is because everything I had written as my “first revision” was TRASH to me. I need to RE-do the whole thing. It’s funny that the fact that I’ve been reading a lot of books lately, like Sanderson’s, Kristoff’s, among others’, it’s not helping me write, BUT actually improve the whole writing. I should be grateful and frustrated at the same time.
For now, I’ll keep writing a lot. Not only that, but also write about the things I’m doing and entertaining myself to; make reviews or impressions out of them. I know it’s going to be fun! I added an Entertainment section at the top of this not-blog for it!
I am also debating myself into writing my very first novel that was originally in Spanish as monthly web series (translated to English, of course).
Cover of the original release of El Bosque Donde la Vida No Cesa
Well, it was a quite calm journey. Can’t deny one of my biggest weaknesses, and that is the motivation. If something does not go the way it was intended from the very beginning, everything goes down.
Everything changed this year, though. The moment I opened this webpage/blog, I realized how much of a stress reliever this is. Therefore, I went back to my writing. One of my goals is to translate my first novel. I wanted to leave it behind and take a “fresh new start,” and keep on writing the new project called For Her Moon, there’s a post about the new project already, if you wish to read it to know more. Now, the problem of just ignore the first novel, as that this particular work was intended to introduce something to the audience; that something is relevant as a prologue to my following works—though not necessary to understand or enjoy them, so don’t worry about it that much.
Yes, I plan to talk more about it. But first, I’d like to get more reaching from this place. I can’t talk a lot about my books, and I wouldn’t mind, to be honest; but I rather gather more people to let you all know more, and see exactly what I am doing, with my WIPs and my preludes.
A fragment of the Spanish prologue of my novel
For now, the only thing I want to say about my novel is its genre: fantasy. I enjoyed the writing process a lot, and I’d love to share my stories to the world. You don’t know how excited I feel for the illusion of getting more people to know my works.
Ah, this is a marvelous place to say whatever we want, share our trips, our songs, our photos, experiences and more. One of the most beautiful things, though, is the fact that we’re able to schedule posts and keep this place active for you and your friends or viewers; the purpose of each blog is different, and this is another world yet to be explored. I must admit that most of the upcoming posts are scheduled, except for this one, and the reason is that I have a normal life like you and a good percentage of population. So, now that I have a few scheduled posts waiting to be published by themselves, I am here to let you know that I will be available to focus on my short stories. This blog, indeed, has its main focus on my fantasy, and now I want to pay all of my attention to do it the right way.
It’d be easy for me to just write anything that sounds good enough for a blog and get feedback, comments, or whatever you’d be so kind to give; but that is exactly why I want to do things the right way. If you’re taking your time to read my posts (reviews, journal, stories, or anything from me), the least I need to do is make things as professional as possible for a single person. A journal, might be something completely random, but my stories are like my babies; my own characters, my own worlds, my own building and destruction of it will be all mine, and I want it to be properly done.
As soon as I have one scheduled, I’ll let you know with all details!
Okay, so this is going to be one of these posts that serve little purpose, needed to be honest. I am not a professional writer, and this blog, as I shall explain on a scheduled post, it is to show you my writing style and my improvements. There are still pending short stories yet to be published, so hang on!
I have a personal advice for everyone. I had been struggling to write comfortably, not due artistic block or anything like that. It is something with the easiest solution on earth for any creative mind, and that is a clean environment; in my case, a clean desk. It does sound absurd from afar, I know, buy you should know how this helps. Imagine your laptop among stacked papers, water bottles, cans of soda, random coins, two headphones, a wallet, snacks, keys, and you favorite books. Now that you’ve pictured it, imagine yourself, coming home from a hard working day, and you have a lot in your mind to let your muse flow with your art. I don’t know, maybe you want to write a story, write a song, paint, or edit photography, and the first thing you see on your creative space is a hell of a mess. Just as I thought, you’d be adding a task after a hard day. Probably you’re going to end up doing something else instead.
So, try to keep your desk clean every day. Do not procrastinate when it comes to cleaning or create something. Do not let your muse see you’re not a clean person; she’s going to run away from you until who knows when!
November 2019, my story began (the real life story, not my novel) when I decided to participate on NaNoWriMo. My motivation reached a very tall peak, I told myself that was the perfect opportunity to challenge myself. It was, truly, but sometimes life smacks you out of nowhere. I stopped. Not only my novel; also my blog, all of its activity stopped because I had matters to attend. Everything’s fine now, but it does not excuse the fact that I wrote an entry for everyone to participate, when I was destined to fail. No, I am not proud of it. Still, I know real life stuff is more important, I can’t help but feel bad about it.
