UPDATE POST!
These are pretty rare for me these days, but 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for me. I read 52 books, flew to two different states (and I haven't done that in nearly eleven years), got a new job, and did a host of other things. Next year, I'm hoping to go to Japan, but that's still up in the air.
This post will be more about things on the blog next year, and other writing projects. I'll break them down in a numbered list, starting with...
5. More Random Manga Roulette.
Yes, more Random Manga Roulette is coming! I didn't get to every volume I've collected for the project, which I'd hoped to, but as it is, life happens -- and obviously because of Christmas money I have since added more... oops.
Regardless, Random Manga Roulette is a project I really enjoy, because it helps me with multiple things; one, is simply manifesting a coherent examination of a really short piece of media. This helps me in my writing for multiple reasons, and is a very entertaining endeavor because I get a taste of dozens of different kinds of manga. I positively adore manga as a medium, and I find it quite horizon-broadening to sample a ton of different titles. I'm pretty confident in my ability to thoroughly analyze the medium, and continuing strengthens that ability even more.
Some titles I have plans on talking about are...
- The Flowers of Evil
- Hellsing
- Persona 5
- Genshiken
- Record of Ragnarok
and many others. Obviously, stay tuned.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
4. Top Ten Books of 2022
I read a lot of books in 2022, and made an Instagram post about them on my personal (you can find that in the righthand sidebar). However, I plan on actually talking about each of these titles in a little more depth in a single post. I decided to momentarily halt on writing up a "media list" for all the stuff I consumed like I'd done in years prior, and maybe focus only on the positives.
If you want to see my top ten list of books I read in 2022, go ahead and check out my personal Instagram account. If not, then a post will be out sometime soon. I read a lot of good books in 2022, so narrowing it down to only ten was tough, so I'll be mentioning a few honorable mentions too!
But that begs the question; will I do a bottom ten? Worst books I read? Probably not. A lot of the books I read that I disliked this year are rather new, and I don't want to bring negative attention to people who are still alive and have careers in writing. If I read a book that's really old, however, and find it terrible, I might write about that one. Similarly, I won't hold back when talking about manga. You could see this as hypocritical, which I understand -- but there's a lot of nuance in the difference of foreign / domestic markets there, so what I say won't impact anything at all regarding a foreign import. I also have a lesser chance of embarrassing myself, since fiction is part of my trade, whereas comic making is not.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
3. Where Sky Meets Sea Arc 2
This year, I threw one of my manuscripts to the wolves on a website called Royal Road, hoping to see if people like my stories. I've been writing seriously for over six years now, and I figured hiding it this whole time is only holding me back. However, the actual process of traditional publishing is a beast I have not dived into for a MYRIAD of reasons, nor is it a good foot in the door for establishing an audience. So I figured, what the hell, let's give it a shot.
Last year, I completed the project "The Many Horrors of Windle Rock," a 10 part short story collection that explores the vile happenings of a fictional town in Ireland. And look at that! Three five star reviews!! As of the writing of this post, it's been visited about 1,200 times, and continues to gain readership. The stories are pretty amateur, but I'm proud of the project.
Meanwhile, as I have completed the first arc of "Where Sky Meets Sea," which is my fantasy-adventure story, I have a detailed outline for the second arc and a few chapters ready to go. I'll be expanding the world, adding new conflicts, and a host of new characters. I won't spoil it here, you'll have to read it...
...unfortunately, I don't know when I'll be posting any new chapters. When you get down to number 1 on this list, you'll see why. It could end up being a long time before we return to Owin and Caspia's adventure on the high seas, and I can't guarantee it will be soon... hopefully next year I can balance my projects like Brandon Sanderson, but that man is a nutty genius and has all the time in the world to do so. I, unfortunately, do not. So we will see.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
2. Attack on Titan Essay
This is an incredibly important project to me, which I had started last year and intended to finish within a few weeks, but the scope of it absolutely got away from me. It's a thorough, detailed analysis of the entire manga series, arc by arc, then character by character, then theme by theme, and hits on common criticisms, symbolism, the ending, and my history with the franchise. Given that the story is 34 volumes long, and is absolutely packed with ideas, this makes my essay, which is TWENTY SEPARATE PARTS LONG, a bonafide doorstopper; so far, I've clocked in at 55 pages at that 35%, which means it could be 150 or more pages long. Which is absolutely batshit, I know, but writing my novels took precedence. Regardless, here is a taste of the sections and my completion with them...
i: Introduction (DONE)
ii: Disclaimers (DONE)
1: Arc One - A Grim Reminder (DONE)
2: Arc Two - The Battle of Trost (DONE)
3: Arc Three - Female Titan (DONE)
4: Arc Four - Clash of the Titans (DONE)
5: Arc Five - Uprising (90%)
6: Arc Six - Return to Shiganshina (65 or 70%)
7: Arc Seven - Marley (50%)
8: Arc Eight - War for Paradis (no progress)
9: Arc Nine - Ragnarok / The Rumbling (no progress)
10: Characters and Themes - (10% with extended outline)
11: Motifs - (started a few)
12: The Division of the Nine Titans (60%)
13: Victim and Perpetrator: The Price of Propaganda (maybe 35%)
14: We Are Our Own Worst Enemies (a few sentences, not much)
15: Give Up Your Dreams and Die - Breaking the Cycle (a few sentences, not much)
16: The World is Cruel, Yet Beautiful (no progress)
17: Hajime Isayama and his Inspirations (a few notes jotted down)
18: My History with Attack on Titan (DONE)
19: Criticisms and The Ending (DONE)
20: Closing Statements and Credits (90%)
It might end up being the most thorough examination of the series on the entire internet.
I am not kidding.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
1. New Novel and Novel Updates
And here we get to the biggest project of all: a new manuscript.
That's right. Last year, I completed the third novel in my first trilogy, Letters to Soldiers. It's the conclusion to the first part of a two part series, which I plan to be six books long. So far, I have three. Take a look at this awesome photo. And yes, feel free to screenshot.
While I plan for there to be a big timeskip and three more books in the story... the Over the Dust and Snow series is a project that launched this entire endeavor. It came to me suddenly in 2016, when I was a Junior in high school. I was just sitting on the couch, and when the thought struck me, I ran to my room and wrote it down.
Now, I have three whole books.
Book one, which I call Over the Dust and Snow, is a fantasy adventure story about five teens who wind up together by accident, and must travel the world in search of a magic kingdom, all while being pursued by a devious band of mercenaries. It's about 360 manuscript pages. (138,000 words).
Book two, which I call Eight Sacred Blades, is a continuation of the story with more magic, more mystery, and the inkling suspicion that something is very not right with the goings-on in this otherworld... it's about 380 manuscript pages. (140,000 words).
Book three took me two years: I started it in February of 2021, and just finished the third draft (a readable copy, essentially) in late November of last year. I call it Letters to Soldiers, as stated above, and it's the breaking point of the narrative before things change forever.
As of now, it is around 760 manuscript pages, and 280,000 words.
I'm very proud of myself. I've come a long way. On top of Where Sky Meets Sea, The Many Horrors of Windle Rock, and a stand alone novel I wrote in 2020 titled Kill the Wizard, the Over the Dust and Snow series is my longest and most rewarding project. I hope to have it published for all of you one day.
Until then, however, I need a break, and have come up with a different idea. I don't have a name for it yet, and while I plan for it only to be one book, it is my most ambitious project to date, with a whole new solarpunk science fantasy world, a magic system I'm making entirely from scratch, and a whole band of new characters. That's all I will say now, but I'm getting hard to work on building this story and world. Here's to hoping it goes well, and you stay tuned.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
That's all I got for ya! 2023 is gonna be a big year for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment