3,000 words in/Life Happens

3,000 words in/Life Happens

Thursday, April 21, 2022

 6%...

It really doesn't feel like much, but it's more words than I've written for any recent projects. 

How I am feeling about the content: It's usable at least, I have a few lines and ideas that are definitely going to stay in until the final edit, even if I move them to a different scene.

Speaking of this scene, I feel it is going to last too long. Besides the length of it, I hadn't quite thought of the repercussions for severely injuring a large predator. But hey, this will make for a great trial for him/them to overcome.

I feel like my supporting character is becoming the protagonist, the past 1,000 words have been entirely in his POV. I do really love all of my side characters (4 so far).

As i'm writing, I keep neglecting the mission of this book, that is to make it more true to nature than other books of this genre.

How I am feeling about it all: I haven't been as consistent as I'd like to be, and I'm not doing very good on my platform building.

Life Happens

A large part of why I haven't been as consistent as I could be is because life happened. I haven't been in the best place to write, and stress has zapped my mental energy, so I got stuck in a rut of depression and ended up binge watching Karens on Youtube. 

Looking back, even though life was hard, there were still things I could have done to help me with my mental energy:

1: Take better care of my hygiene. I haven't shaved in weeks, brushing my teeth isn't a high priority, and all I want to do when I get home is sleep. I don't know what it does for y'all, but for me, if I feel clean, I'm more likely to be happy, and the happier I am, the more mental energy I have. Philautia has a way of doing that.

2: Cleaning my room. Same as no. 1, even though I'm awake at home for max 4 hours (and I really shouldn't be staying up that late (no. 3)), your surroundings make a huge impact on your mood.

3: I should be getting to bed earlier. Now there's nothing I can do if my family tells me to do chores at 8 PM, but when I'm able, I should be going to bed at like 7 or 8, that way I don't end up sleeping in the car at 6 AM.

4: Pray. My faith is a huge thing for me, and if I'm not building it constantly, I end up feeling like garbage. In the past 6 months, there was no better time than when me and my roommate were praying every morning and night. When I pray, I no longer have an Internal Locus of Control (which according to most is a good thing, and it is, but when you're overwhelmed, it can be a real pain getting out), instead I am looking to an outside source for strength, so it's not all up to me.

I think that's all I have, ciao!

-Malachi-

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2,000 Words In (Finally)

2,000 Words In (Finally)

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

I'm 2,000 words in. Do you know what that means?  

I'm at the 4% mark for my 50,000 word count goal.

How I'm feeling about it: 

Thanks to my writing mentor, I was able to get a rough plan for how I want this to go.

I've never had as much fun writing a side character as I have these past two weeks. Developing Idney V. has been a wild ride full of cackles and kidneys.

Writing animal non-verbal communication is getting hard as I'm adding new species to my story, it requires a lot of knowing how the animals work, and a good bit of imagination (especially for Idney).

I completely flipped the feeling of the story, I'm not focusing enough on the description of the setting, and it make's things a bit confusing for the reader.

My favorite quote so far:

Idney stopped short and looked at Chaiyæm in complete shock, “it’s the Kidney Dance you nut.”

My favorite thing that was said in regards to my story:

There just aren't good pictures of kidneys out there.

Art courtesy of Jessica Stephens, a fellow YDubber. You can see her awesome blog here.

-Malachi-

P.S the drawing is a charterer concept that I REALLY want to implement.

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Madness of My Method Extra!

Madness of My Method Extra!

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

I made banana peel bacon.

Yeah, that's pretty self explanatory... most people who heard me say that have offered a handful of colorful expressions ranging from "gross" to "why?" to "yum." 

So, I present to you, Method of my Madness Extra #1!.

-Malachi-

Why would anyone in their right mind eat banana peels? Well, that's a long story.

Photo by Julia Kuzenkov on Unsplash

I was eating kiwis on the couch and my friend, Mr. Crouch (he's still a teen), said that it was weird that I was eating them with the skin on... at which point I had to give a good reason for eating the skin (of which I had none at that point), so I googled it, and found out that kiwi skin supposedly has fiber, folate, Vitamin C, and vitamin E.

He rejoined with, "that's like eating banana peels."

SO....

We looked that up, and after learning that banana peel is high in potassium, fiber, and antioxidants, we looked up how to eat them, and we ended up with banana bacon (without a recipe) and blueberry peanut butter banana peel smoothie (also without a recipe).

We experimented a little with the bacon:

The control group was a strip of banana peel that we did not peel the white stuff off of.

Then...

We had three that we did scrape the white stuff off of:

Another control,

One with Cayenne,

And my personal favorite, the one that I dipped in honey butter (made without a recipe).

Anyways, it is now a thing, and a great conversation starter!

Over and out,

-Malachi-

P.s. Both controls had garlic and salt xP

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Method of My Madness #4

Method of My Madness #4

Monday, March 7, 2022

 Nothing insults wolves of the Wolin's Paw Pack more than an insult to their breeding. 

Photo by Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash

This was really the focal point for coming up with my post about Wolf Culture. So, I might as well elaborate on the madness behind this, -Malachi-

All a wolf pack is is a large family of wolves. The "Alpha" pair are the parents and the only ones with the right to reproduce.

How I came up with them hating illegitimate breeding is merely a tie between that point mixed with a hint of the aristocratic class in the 1800's.

The caste system that I described is based on the structure of a wolf pack which is usually based on strength and age, but considering my wolves are intelligent, I made it like this:

At the top are all red wolves, next are those with only one color or red mixed in, then those with mostly one color, and finally, those who are a mottled mess.

If you guys want to hear why I chose red, you can either do some fancy guess work or tell me to write a Lore post.

The whole, Alpha and Omega social structure thing is a construct of Rudolph Schenkel in 1940, and was supported by David Mech in 1970, but David has since reverted his theory.

The Alpha/Omega structure of a wolf pack is what happens to wolves in captivity, but in reality, wolves don't quite act that way in nature.

I chose to keep it with the Alpha/Omega structure because it is 1: what people are familiar with, and 2: it is more in line with the culture of this more "civilized" pack.

Concerning 1: Since I want to accurately portray animals, I plan on having a pack that has a social structure closer to that of a wild pack.

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Wolf Culture #1

Wolf Culture #1

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Chaiyæm smirked and snarled back, “you finally have some of Wolin’s blood, good job Demerin.” 

Demerin licked at the blood trickling down his face and growled low, “leave Chaiyæm, and never return.”

For now, I have very little wolf lore, but I'll put down what I have for Chaiyæm's pack.

Art by Incognito Classified, a fellow YDubber. You can see her shop here.

Wolin's Paw Wolf Pack

This pack is one of the largest wolf packs, consisting of three families, all ruled by the male and female of the most prominent.

Nothing insults wolves of the Wolin's Paw Pack more than an insult to their breeding. 

A wolf of illegitimate breeding is of the lowest caste. They are the rejects and runts of the pack, scorned and abused at every turn. They are most often the ones who become wanderers and thieves of the wolf world. 

Wolves of the mottled and multicolored sort are spurned almost as bad as an illegitimate pup. The only reason this rule can be broken is if they have red anywhere in their coat. The wolves of Wolin's Paw Pack regard red above anything else, kinda like how Hitler preferred blonde hair and blue eyes.

The wolves of pure coloration (meaning all one color) are the most favored upon the supposition that the purer their colors, the better genetics they have. 

According to tradition, every Alpha of the pack, all the way back to Wolin himself, has had red in their coat.

I’ll make a post explaining a bit more of their Lore in the future, and if I get enough traffic i’ll do a special side project to explain who exactly Wolin is.

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Imagery Exercise Rules

Imagery Exercise Rules

Friday, March 4, 2022

Whenever I get bored with writing, or want to liven things up, I start to play games with it. This is one of those games, -Malachi- 

The instructions for this game are simple, write the longest sentence you can (it's okay if the grammar isn't quite up to par at this point).

First Run:

The dancers’ bare, travel-hardened feet pound out of rhythm, out of sync on the hard packed street while four minstrels singing different tunes on apple laden carts are guiding the dancers one by one into their rhythm, into their tune, and slowly as the sun sets, the minstrels intertwine their songs, and suddenly, when the sun's last rays disappear over the cottage covered hill, they all STOP.

After you write your crazy long sentence, break it up into several pieces and make each of those sentences into two. EG:

The dancers’ bare, travel-hardened feet pound out of rhythm, out of sync on the hard packed street

Becomes.

The dancers’ bare, travel hardened feet pound out of rhythm, out of sync on the hard packed street. The dancers’ bonnets, caps and loose pigtails jiggle and flop without reason to stop.

After you do that, add one long sentence to the end, then repeat until satisfied. Feel free to ignore the first parts after you get a few runs through.

Second Run:

The dancers’ bare, travel hardened feet pound out of rhythm, out of sync on the hard packed street. The dancers’ bonnets, caps and loose pigtails jiggle and flop without reason to stop.

Four minstrels singing different tunes on apple-laden carts are guiding the dancers one- by- one into their rhythm, into their tune. Each one is singing their own bold adventure or touching love song. Slowly, as the sun sets, the minstrels intertwine their songs to sing a similar chorus or the same catch phrase. They strain their brows to keep their tune perfect for the occasion.

Now the whole crowd stomps in rhythm with the minstrels singing in sync. Suddenly, as the sun's last golden rays disappear, they stop. 

Now all eyes are turned to the doorway where the young battleborn knight takes his bride’s gloved hand and leads her through the sunset silence to his coach where together they head to the west, followed by a procession of candle bearing peasants, all drifting to the village square lighted by fireflies from the starry fields where the marriage feast t’will be held.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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1,000 Words In!

1,000 Words In!

Thursday, March 3, 2022

I'm 1,000 words in. Do you know what that means?  

I'm at the 2% mark for my word count goal of 50,000. 

How I'm feeling about it: 

I'm getting confused about where I want to take it. This is probably the biggest problem I have in my writing. I feel super excited about a project until I realize I have no plot, then things get rocky unless I get a plot out.  

As a discovery writer, I have the hardest time plotting or outlining my novel. We'll see how that goes after I go ask some friends for help.

As for the writing itself, my body language for the animals is solid, save the fact that many non-verbals can't accurately be translated through text. For example, this sentence can be taken many ways:

He flicked his tail high in contempt at the secret escort.

When I had a friend read through it, they said that it was amusing to imagine. What they saw was more of a skunk flashing its tail (a warning), rather than a wolf holding his tail high (a gesture of superiority).

My action scenes are too fast-paced, and leave the reader wondering who's who and where they are now. Also, since they are wolves, I'm wondering whether I should try to keep it more accurate to the way wolves fight or if I should keep it the way it is for sake of entertainment. If you have thoughts, please comment below!

I love my character dynamics, but my character portrayal is weak.

I absolutely love a side character that me and my roommate brainstormed. I'll develop him some more and write a post on him in Interviews or Me Geeking.

-Malachi-

Art Courtesy of Mackenzie Ren, a fellow YDubber.

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