1. First major project (DQVIII) - What I'm working on now
a. Rewrite
i. Volume A – Finished (for now)
ii. Volume B – Finished (for now)
iii. Volume C – Minor progress (major work on chapter 1 needed)
iv. Volume D – Pending
v. Volume E – Pending
vi. Volume F - Pending
b. Finish
i. Volume F (final volume... I hope) – major progress – on hold, pending rewrite
c. Write side stories (Concurrent) – Original!
i. B+M – concept
ii. WTW – concept
iii. R+B – partial progress
iv. E - concept
d. Storyboard sequel set-up – Original! (Concurrent/Sequel?) - I haven't decided how to write this yet, but I've got several threads I want to follow
i. J+M – concept
ii. J – concept
iii. C+C – concept
iv. B+M – concept
e. Storyboard prequels – Original!
i. E-X – pending
ii. J+M+Z – minor progress
iii. Y+R – pending
iv. J+A+B+M – pending
v. A+M+F – pending
2. Other writing projects summary - various other pojects I'm planning on writing - I admit I may have bitten off my than I can chew!
a. Second major project (PK) – sci-fi/fantasy adventure/coming of age/world exploration – major progress - :S
b. Fifth major project (FFX) – fantasy adventure – significant progress
c. Seventh major project (AT) – fantasy adventure – concept
d. Ninth major project (SW: OR) – sci-fi adventure – significant progress
e. Twentieth major project (LoZ) - fantasy/adventure - considerable progress
f. Thirteenth major project (RW) – fantasy/coming of age – minor progress :/
g. Fourth major project (RA) – war adventure – minor progress
h. Third major project (RG) – sci-fi adventure – minor progress
i. Tenth major project (O) – fantasy adventure – pending :/
j. Eighth major project (FFXII) – fantasy adventure – concept
k. Twelfth major project (DQIX) – fantasy adventure – concept
l. Fourteenth major project (J+D) – fantasy/sci-fi adventure – concept
m. Fifteenth major project (SC) – fantasy/crime adventure – pending
n. Sixteenth major project (DC) – fantasy – concept
o. Eleventh major project – Original! fantasy/coming of age/world exploration – concept
p. Seventeenth major project (A) - romance/coming of age - concept
q. Eighteenth major project - Original! - post-apocalyptic world building
r. Nineteenth major project (MN) - fantasy/adventure/coming of age
s. Sixth major project (O) – fantasy adventure – minor progress
t. Twenty-first major project (FoZ) - fantasy/adventure/politics - minor progress
u. Twenty-second major project (PSU) - fantasy/sci-fi/adventure
3. Bonus projects - Things that I may do, but are less of a priority and more if I get stuck on Section 2
a. Minor project (PM) – fantasy coming of age/world exploration
b. Writing class project – Original! :/
4. Planning - Stuff that I should do to help my stories tie together
a. Write coherent timeline
i. For the Family
ii. For the Goddess
b. Storyboard
i. AW – finish writing timeline – further world-building needed
ii. N – significant progress – rewrite/continue?
iii. KH – concept – plot-building and world-building needed
5. Read - Stuff that I should read because it'll help my own stories, but also because I enjoy them - feel free to make recommendations
a. Mutius’ (PK + original) – pending
b. BoM (DQVIII) – complete
c. SW – expanded universe + Wookiepedia - pending
d. ???
6. Watch – compiling- again, stuff that I should watch because it'll help my own stories and because I'll enjoy it - feel free to make recommendations
a. Star Trek original series – cancelled
b. Doctor Who original series - in progress
7. Play - again, stuff that I should play to help my stories
a. DQVIII DS version
b. Finish DQIX
c. Finish LoZ OoT
d. Finish LoZ TP
I've been told that today is my six month anniversary of joining Deviantart! Whoo-hoo!
I apologise for the exceedingly obvious lack of activity. Unfortunately a mixture of prolonged illness and my final year at university have conspired to prevent me from indulging in my fantasies too much, or at the very least prevented me from writing them down. However that is (hopefully) behind me now, so let me tell you of a few things that I have been working on.
First off, I must explain that most of my projects are very long term – writing takes me a very long time (like most people I assume), and I like to have time to review the finished product several times before I show it to anyone. So that I avoid embarrassing myself. Or at least, limit the embarrassment. I am admittedly a novice at the whole writing thing, and haven't had any previous experience or practice. With this in mind, my first works are likely to be a little weak, but I hope you'll bear with me. Constructive criticism is of course welcome, and I will do my best to improve as time goes by.
Now the first project I've been working on since before I even started university (it was forced to take a backseat to my academic life) was an adaptation of a video game called Dragon Quest 8: the Journey of the Cursed King. I love this game, I really do. It was one of the first games I ever got when I first bought a PS2, and I felt that it never got as much love as it deserved. I really came to love the characters, and I've looked for fanfics before, but I discovered that there aren't very many, most are oneshot romances and any bigger projects tended to be left unfinished after only a couple of chapters. This annoyed me. But rather than just moan and complain, since I had some free time after my exams and during my gap year, I challenged myself to do something about it. After all, how hard could it be?
Obviously, the genre-savvy among you will realise those words doomed me from the start. Suffice to say that I have great respect for artists and those in creative and artistic jobs, and that I have a new appreciation for video games that I did not have before. The very fact that a summer-project that I started when I was bored and between jobs four years ago is still ongoing is proof in itself that it's been much tougher than I imagined, but I've also enjoyed it more than I thought I would as well.
Note that I do intend on going further than the game – partly the reason it's taken so long is that I've tried to fill in details of the life the heroes led during the main plot events of the story. I've also made a few changes that fans might dislike – places are further away than in the game so that the kingdoms are bigger, and some locations have been moved around to reflect this. This probably won't be addressed in universe, but I do have a map for self-reference to keep a scale for journey-times which reveals just how much has changed. As a result I've also magnified the timeframe (which is never really referenced in-universe) and speculated a lot to fill in unmentioned details. Whether they are canon or not is mostly a matter of opinion, but if anyone objects to them then this story can be considered to be part of a alternate universe. A lot of OCs will appear as minor characters, but other than that I've tried to keep the main characters in character as much as possible within my ability, with the sole exception of the Player Character, who was voiceless during the game. He's probably my main OC. As I've said, I then intend on continuing to write beyond the end of the game, dealing with the consequences of events in the game before finally starting my own story arcs. Obviously this will take time, especially as this is only a hobby that I do in my spare time, which will become significantly less once I get a full time job (hopefully).
I have two other projects ongoing, but they are very much in the preliminary stages so I won't go into any further detail here. Suffice to say that one is of a much more well known game series and turned from a writing exercise to a project that has actually outgrown the Dragon Quest story, and the other is a very obscure game few people have heard of that I started as a stopgap between projects and turned into a project of its own. There are also a few other concepts that I've done a little background planning for, but I haven't started work on yet. All challenge me in different ways and probably appeal to different audiences, so I'll hold off talking about them for now until I have more to show for my work.
That's all for now. Hopefully it won't be another six months before my next update. I've not quite finished the Dragon Quest story yet, but if I get enough interest I might post a prologue.
Until next time!