2025 Writing Log, Part Fifteen
Apr. 12th, 2025 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynling- I’m back to work on my Legend of Zelda x Arthurian legend story, “The Last Green Knight.” I’m at something of a loss concerning what to do with this mess. It needs time to breathe, but I’m working under a deadline. I think I should probably figure out how to wrap up the story in the fifth (and hopefully final) chapter.
- Struggling with this story for so long has made me desperate for feedback and validation, so I went ahead and posted the first two stories in “Time Flows Like A River,” a series about bittersweet relationships in Ocarina of Time. The first story (here) is about Navi comforting Link as he dies, and the second story (here) is about Malon giving Link her blessing to go to Zelda.
- Although I’ve set this story idea aside for the time being, I commissioned the mighty King of Red Dragons to create a Zelda x Bloodborne character design. He created a marvelous piece of artwork, which you can check out on Tumblr (here).
- Whispers of Hyrule, a Legend of Zelda forest zine, is now open for preorders (here), and I posted my story preview on Tumblr (here).
- This has been a fun project. Everything has been moving smoothly, and there’s been zero drama (which, if you’ve ever worked on a zine before, is nothing short of amazing). Still, I wish this zine had been able to accept more people, especially more writers and spot artists. Perhaps over the summer, I’d like to organize a similar nature-themed project that accepts everyone who’d like to contribute. Maybe I’ll call it “Autumn in Hyrule” or something to that effect.
- I’m working on an essay about FFVII Remake + its prequel novel, Traces of Two Pasts. My essay is called “Tifa Lockhart vs. Medical Debt: How Final Fantasy VII Confronts Capitalism.” Which is admittedly a stupid title, but I just think it’s interesting how someone as sweet and level-headed as Tifa became politically radicalized. I love her, and I support each and every one of her crimes.
- This week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about a 2023 short story collection called Tsumidemic. This is an unsettling but still very fun book about the bad behavior enabled by the social isolation of the pandemic… except there’s actually a really wholesome story about a clueless dad trying to be kind to his pregnant teenage daughter right in the middle. This one story is not like the others, but it ended up being my favorite.
- I posted an edited and expanded review of the fake strategy guide Vermis on my public-facing blog (here).
- I’m still working on the page formatting for my “Strange Tales and Modern Legends” zine. To send out as a small gift along with the zine, I designed a sticker featuring a nine-tailed fox. I posted the artwork on Tumblr (here).
I finally figured out how to take care of succulents. To my dismay, this means that all of my cute baby plants grew into giant monster plants over the winter. Now that it’s warm again, I took them out to the backyard, repotted them, and left them outside to enjoy the sun and rain. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all these plants next winter, but that’s a problem for later.
- Struggling with this story for so long has made me desperate for feedback and validation, so I went ahead and posted the first two stories in “Time Flows Like A River,” a series about bittersweet relationships in Ocarina of Time. The first story (here) is about Navi comforting Link as he dies, and the second story (here) is about Malon giving Link her blessing to go to Zelda.
- Although I’ve set this story idea aside for the time being, I commissioned the mighty King of Red Dragons to create a Zelda x Bloodborne character design. He created a marvelous piece of artwork, which you can check out on Tumblr (here).
- Whispers of Hyrule, a Legend of Zelda forest zine, is now open for preorders (here), and I posted my story preview on Tumblr (here).
- This has been a fun project. Everything has been moving smoothly, and there’s been zero drama (which, if you’ve ever worked on a zine before, is nothing short of amazing). Still, I wish this zine had been able to accept more people, especially more writers and spot artists. Perhaps over the summer, I’d like to organize a similar nature-themed project that accepts everyone who’d like to contribute. Maybe I’ll call it “Autumn in Hyrule” or something to that effect.
- I’m working on an essay about FFVII Remake + its prequel novel, Traces of Two Pasts. My essay is called “Tifa Lockhart vs. Medical Debt: How Final Fantasy VII Confronts Capitalism.” Which is admittedly a stupid title, but I just think it’s interesting how someone as sweet and level-headed as Tifa became politically radicalized. I love her, and I support each and every one of her crimes.
- This week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about a 2023 short story collection called Tsumidemic. This is an unsettling but still very fun book about the bad behavior enabled by the social isolation of the pandemic… except there’s actually a really wholesome story about a clueless dad trying to be kind to his pregnant teenage daughter right in the middle. This one story is not like the others, but it ended up being my favorite.
- I posted an edited and expanded review of the fake strategy guide Vermis on my public-facing blog (here).
- I’m still working on the page formatting for my “Strange Tales and Modern Legends” zine. To send out as a small gift along with the zine, I designed a sticker featuring a nine-tailed fox. I posted the artwork on Tumblr (here).
I finally figured out how to take care of succulents. To my dismay, this means that all of my cute baby plants grew into giant monster plants over the winter. Now that it’s warm again, I took them out to the backyard, repotted them, and left them outside to enjoy the sun and rain. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all these plants next winter, but that’s a problem for later.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-16 09:35 pm (UTC)As much as I dislike machine-generated writing, it's at times like this...
...by which I mean, the inevitable point when I get stuck 80% of the way into a story...
...that I wish I could just hand the manuscript off to someone else to finish. Like, I wish I could feed a program my draft and my outline and be like, "Okay, asshole. If you're so smart. What comes next." Many writers use assistance for this stage, and their strategies range from writing retreats to ghostwriters. I'm given to understand that Stephen King used cocaine.
I recently saw a post on Bluesky arguing against generative AI that was like, "Writing is not a forklift meant to move words; it's an artistic and cognitive process." But like sometimes? A bitch really needs a forklift to move some fucking words. It's really too bad that LLMs suck on every conceivable level.
Sorry for venting. Why were writers put on this earth to suffer, etc etc. I just wanted to say that I really and truly appreciate the good wishes!
no subject
Date: 2025-04-17 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-22 11:59 am (UTC)For this particular story, the plot and scenes of the final chapter are already set. The challenge is to mix the language and stylizations the original poem into my own prose. This was fun when I started back in January, but I've since run out of steam. It's also the end of the semester, and I'm exhausted.
All I need is to take a break and come back in two or three weeks, but alas. The deadline looms.
Something I used to do back in DC was to use Hotwire to book a fancy hotel room for a night. The change of scenery was a mental hard drive defrag that would give me just enough energy to push through to the end of the assignment. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, hotels got super expensive. Even on the off-season at the Jersey Shore, nothing is affordable.
How are starving writers supposed to be difficult and unreasonable these days. Honestly.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-22 04:00 pm (UTC)* by this I mean those of us who don't have the resources of a bezosmusk. You know. Actual humans.
Yeah, the mixing of styles isn't the sort of thing a rubber duck works for XD Godspeed with it!