ErnestREDeer

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Project Plan

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Hello everyone,

If you're reading this, I hope you've been enjoying one or more of my stories. For those who are following me, THANK YOU Love

I tend to say what's coming next in the artist's comments sections rather than post journals, but I thought having something on my front page to say what I'm working on might be helpful. So here it is:

    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 hate how Deviantart removes all my formatting when I paste into it - this is why I have to upload everything into PDFs! Rage

Anyway, I hope that gives you an idea of what I'm doing, and I'll update it as I go. Sorry about all the abbreviations, this was originally more for my own reference - I'll explain in more detail when I get to the projects properly on here. Sweating a little... 

Last updated 28/08/16
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Okay, it's confirmed. No-one's got back to me, so I'm going to assume that everyone's fine with me starting over. I'm moving all of my old posts with my old story into scraps, and I'll start posting my revised version instead. I'll try and post something every week like last time (on Saturday midnight), but I've only rewritten the prologue and the first chapter so far, and there's a lot of work left, so that schedule might slip. By about a year, depending on how busy I am and how much I can fit in around my job.

For now, I'm posting the last segment of the old version, just to tie it off a bit more neatly.

Happy New Year everyone!
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Hi all,

Just in case someone doesn't see my author's notes, once I've finished posting the next chapter or so I'm considering doing a major re-write of the story I've written so far. In particular I've come to dislike the 'omniscient narrative' style of the story, and I think I've got too much telling and not enough showing. Trying to stick too closely to the in-game dialogue has left some of the scenes clunky and laboured, while others just seem to drift with no purpose. I've tried to fix some of these flaws as I go, but that just seems to create bumps in quality and further breaks the flow of the story.

Naturally, a re-write would mean my schedule of posting once a week is probably going to slip. A lot. I'm going to be taking some time out over Christmas to think things over and get the re-write started, but I've been working on this story for five years and fatigue's beginning to set in - I beginning to feel like I need a break from it, so that I can focus on the many other projects I've started but haven't been able to fully focus on.

I don't want to be one of those authors who starts a project and then disappears and leaves their readers hanging, but on the bright side I don't seem to have all that many readers yet, so now's the perfect time for a rewrite. Just to reassure everyone, I do intend to continue this story but... it might take a while. I mean, it's nearly been a year since I started posting, and now I'm going to start all over again. Then again, maybe the anniversary is the perfect time to look back and start again.

As always, comments and advice are greatly appreciated.
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Happy New Year!

At long, long last I have submitted something to DeviantArt! Woohoo! And I've only been a member for a year now...

Unfortunately life has gotten in the way of writing fiction, so I've put off publishing anything until my story (0103) was more complete. I haven't actually written the final few chapters, but I've got them planned out - hopefully they should be finished by the time I come to publishing them.

I plan to publish a small segment every week-end until it's fully uploaded. I'm aware my story still needs a lot of work, and I may make changes as I go along, so please bear with me. If you see anything that looks wrong or needs attention, please message me or comment and let me know. I can't promise to fix it straight away, but I will eventually get around to it. I'm only to do this part time though, so if it takes too long I might not be able to change it, but I will take everything on board for future stories.

This story (0103) is essentially a novelised version of the game Dragon Quest 8, which I originally started as a summer project on the lines of 'how hard can it be?' - and promptly found out. Because I only work on it in when I have a lot of free time (the holidays, or if I'm between jobs) it progresses in fits and starts, it's taken several years to come to fruition, but is more or less finished. I do plan to follow on from the end of the game with a story of my own (0104) which follows the consequences the first story (0103) has on the main characters and the world around them through the eyes of other characters.

As you may have guessed from the numbers, I do have a couple of prequels planned as well: a couple of (short?) stories detailing the lives of the ancestors of some of the main characters (0101), and a series of interconnected short stories following the main characters as they grow up (0102). So what about the other 100? That's to leave me room for stories for the creation of the world they live in, who the Goddess is, how she came to have a Church dedicated to her, and the adventures of the Seven Sages and Pirate Captain Crow. I only have very basic outlines for these though, so don't expect them any time soon.

I also have a few other stories being planned/written, including story 5101 (it's a loooong way in the future) and a couple of non-related stories that don't have a place in the timeline. Yet.

But all that's a long way off yet. So until then, I hope you enjoy the story!

Oh, and Happy New Year!
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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!

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