rynling | 2024 Writing Log, Part 22

- I edited Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 of Unfound Door, and I also devoted a significant amount of time to editing the chapter outlines that I’ve been putting together as I write the story itself.

- I commissioned the lovely Twolipsart to create pixel art of Agnes, the heroine of An Unfound Door. She posted the piece on Tumblr (here). This illustration has exactly the sort of 16-bit dark academia vibe I’m aiming for, with lots of lovely moss for texture.

- I posted Chapter 11 of Lay the Gods to Rest, a fanfic set a few generations after Tears of the Kingdom. This chapter was just as awkward as I feared it was when I first finished it, but two weeks of editing worked wonders. It’s on AO3 (here).

- I started re-editing Lay the Gods to Rest from the beginning. It gives me anxiety to look over recently posted work, so it’s been slow going. This week I took care of the first five chapters.

- I also edited When the Moon Didn’t Fall, a short multi-chapter novella that imagines Zelda and Ganon in the world of Majora’s Mask. I wrote this back in 2018, but I updated it so that I can use one of the opening chapters as a writing sample for my application to the Whispers of Hyrule zine. I’m not sure whether the story is any good, but I appreciate the fact that it was written specifically for me. It’s on AO3 (here) if you’re interested, and I posted an illustrated story promo on Tumblr (here).

- The announcement of the Whispers of Hyrule zine filled me with inspiration, so I commissioned the ever-amazing Frankiesbugs to draw a silly comic about Wind Waker Ganondorf. This comic is based on one of the more confounding scenes in the game, wherein Ganondorf is blamed for the emergence of monstrous plants on the Great Sea. I mean, sure. I can get behind that. So (here) is a comic about Ganondorf and gardening. Evil gardening!!

- I posted a 250-word review of The Hunting Gun, a classic work of Japanese fiction, on my book review blog (here). This short novella reads like Jane Austen but is filled with Brontë-style melodrama. It starts off slow, but it quickly becomes way better than it has any right to be. There aren’t many characters, but every single one of them is a beautiful walking disaster.

- I made a simple illustration of the Philadelphia skyline based on the Welcome to Night Vale aesthetic. I posted the piece on Tumblr (here).

- This illustration is going to be the inner cover of my Strange Things Happen in Philadelphia zine. I finally started putting the zine together, and I now have the outer and inner covers, the title page, the colophon page, and a tidy working draft of the table of contents.

- I drew the first panel of my “Trees in Video Games” minicomic, and I posted a textless version on Tumblr (here). This panel is a quick redraw of a screenshot from the opening of Secret of Mana (my beloved).

This week I’ve been filled with an oppressive sense of dread and anxiety, both about stupid shit on the internet that affects only me and about the unspeakably horrible things happening in the world at large. I’ve been playing a lot of Elden Ring and taking long walks through West Philadelphia while thinking about what I can do. I don’t have any answers, but I’ll get there eventually.

In other news, the Pomeranian puppy has taken to riding the corgi around the house like a horse.