2024 Writing Log, Part 26
Jul. 13th, 2024 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynling- I finished Chapter 19 of my original gothic fantasy novel, An Unfound Door. This chapter was supposed to summarize the story thus far from an outside perspective, but it ended up going to some interesting and unexpected places. It’s always fun to learn new things about your own story.
- I edited and posted Chapter 13 of Lay the Gods to Rest, a fanfic story set a few generations after Tears of the Kingdom. Sometimes you write an entire novella just for one scene, and this is that scene. It’s on AO3 (here).
- The essay I wrote about the Japanese graphic novel Cocoon is live on WWAC (here), and I posted a short intro on my public-facing blog (here). This is a good essay; but, despite my best efforts, it got zero attention, as did my social media posts. I expected this to happen, just as I expect that the piece will start gaining traction when the Studio Ghibli anime adaptation comes out next summer.
- I got invited to give another panel at Casa Con! I felt that my panel last year didn’t go so well, so I’m very grateful for the invitation. I put together a proposal for a panel titled “Paranormal Tourism in Japan.” It should more properly be titled “Rural Depopulation and Dark Tourism in Japan,” but I get the feeling that might be a bit too heavy. And everyone loves ghosts, right?
- I also got invited to give another panel at Otakon, but I had to turn them down. As much as I’d love to, a month isn’t long enough to prepare, especially for something that big. I made a note to myself to get in touch with my contact person in March to see if they’re interested in me giving a panel next year.
- Anyway, speaking of Casa Con, one of their sponsored artists, Otacat, finished a commissioned illustration of Ceres, the morally ambiguous queen from The Demon King. It’s been almost a year since I requested the commission, and it’s wild to remember that I was still writing The Demon King last summer. But better late than never, which is the same attitude I’m going to bring to the novel itself once I eventually return to it. Otacat’s illustration, which has a pitch-perfect retro anime vibe, is on Tumblr (here).
- Back in May, there was a writing prompt on the Zelda Creators server on Discord that was something along the lines of “What are the essential elements of a Zelda game?” I wrote a rambling draft of a long essay before realizing that they probably weren’t looking for actual analysis, so I boiled everything down to a haiku and sent them that instead. My haiku is the first page of their post on Instagram (here).
- I kind of want to organize another Legend of Zelda haiku zine, but I should probably wait until after I launch the Strange Philadelphia zine. One thing at a time.
- Like the very serious writer I am, I wrote and pitched a listicle for Sidequest titled “10 Reasons Why A Link Between Worlds Is a Perfect Spooky Summer Zelda Game.” I know everyone likes to poke fun at listicles, but I actually had a lot of fun writing this.
- I finished the third panel (out of ten) of my nonfiction comic “Trees in Video Games.” This panel is an illustration of a section of the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time. I posted a textless version on Tumblr (here).
I spent a lot of time with Elden Ring this week. It is too damn hot outside. I love the summer, but I hate the extremes in weather caused by climate change. It makes me want to burn empires.
- I edited and posted Chapter 13 of Lay the Gods to Rest, a fanfic story set a few generations after Tears of the Kingdom. Sometimes you write an entire novella just for one scene, and this is that scene. It’s on AO3 (here).
- The essay I wrote about the Japanese graphic novel Cocoon is live on WWAC (here), and I posted a short intro on my public-facing blog (here). This is a good essay; but, despite my best efforts, it got zero attention, as did my social media posts. I expected this to happen, just as I expect that the piece will start gaining traction when the Studio Ghibli anime adaptation comes out next summer.
- I got invited to give another panel at Casa Con! I felt that my panel last year didn’t go so well, so I’m very grateful for the invitation. I put together a proposal for a panel titled “Paranormal Tourism in Japan.” It should more properly be titled “Rural Depopulation and Dark Tourism in Japan,” but I get the feeling that might be a bit too heavy. And everyone loves ghosts, right?
- I also got invited to give another panel at Otakon, but I had to turn them down. As much as I’d love to, a month isn’t long enough to prepare, especially for something that big. I made a note to myself to get in touch with my contact person in March to see if they’re interested in me giving a panel next year.
- Anyway, speaking of Casa Con, one of their sponsored artists, Otacat, finished a commissioned illustration of Ceres, the morally ambiguous queen from The Demon King. It’s been almost a year since I requested the commission, and it’s wild to remember that I was still writing The Demon King last summer. But better late than never, which is the same attitude I’m going to bring to the novel itself once I eventually return to it. Otacat’s illustration, which has a pitch-perfect retro anime vibe, is on Tumblr (here).
- Back in May, there was a writing prompt on the Zelda Creators server on Discord that was something along the lines of “What are the essential elements of a Zelda game?” I wrote a rambling draft of a long essay before realizing that they probably weren’t looking for actual analysis, so I boiled everything down to a haiku and sent them that instead. My haiku is the first page of their post on Instagram (here).
- I kind of want to organize another Legend of Zelda haiku zine, but I should probably wait until after I launch the Strange Philadelphia zine. One thing at a time.
- Like the very serious writer I am, I wrote and pitched a listicle for Sidequest titled “10 Reasons Why A Link Between Worlds Is a Perfect Spooky Summer Zelda Game.” I know everyone likes to poke fun at listicles, but I actually had a lot of fun writing this.
- I finished the third panel (out of ten) of my nonfiction comic “Trees in Video Games.” This panel is an illustration of a section of the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time. I posted a textless version on Tumblr (here).
I spent a lot of time with Elden Ring this week. It is too damn hot outside. I love the summer, but I hate the extremes in weather caused by climate change. It makes me want to burn empires.
