Cozy :
Sorry about that, eheheh. I guess the two consecutive fight scenes took more out of me than I imagined- Pfft. As if.
If I were to be tired from writing those, then the upcoming conflicts with Aozu Makoto, Roberia and Fastiel will be even harder to do. I can't shrivel up from this... I can't afford to.
But recently, it's been busy - I'm enlisted, and army life invades my planned schedules more than I am comfortable with.
So they say : Army is about serving the country. Taking initiative. Doing all the jobs nobody wants to do because everyone gives them hell for doing it.
Even if you perform one thing right for one warrant officer, another warrant officer would say otherwise. It's as confused as I am, apparently, and not everyone is united in heart, as one.
The standard is amiss. Not everyone seems up-to-date over the things going on around them, because everyone's too busy doing their own thing to see the problem from the 'problem-giver's' perspectives.
But alas, as much as I wish to rant on and voice my opinions, more important things lay before me.
Let's get to that, shall we?
*** ***
Today, we'll be touching on important subjects. Namely - What will happen to WoP Quest?
I've mentioned it before, but I signed up with a publishing company called Partridge Publishing. Naturally, it's a good thing and a bad thing.
I am finally doing it. Words of Power Quest and WoP Quest : Messiah are finally becoming real books registered in the Library Congress.
As such, it may not be possible for me to put these chapters up in public any longer.
... Still, it should be a good thing - I'll hopefully get a couple of readers that will take interest in the story, and earn a little.
...
I've come a long way to witness it today.
November 7th, 2012 was when Words of Power Quest first took off.
And, comparing the length of the earlier chapters to the length of the more recent chapters, it's like seeing myself improve every step of the way.
It's a euphoric feeling to see the journey so far - Both for me, and for my characters.
Mainly, Katachi and Roberia, of course - The story's told from their own understandings of the truth. But Bael's come quite the way as well, despite manning this sort of rather... Depressing role.
And, ironically, I have no idea what I am doing as the author of WoP Quest. Ha!
Well, I have the idea down and I know what happens next in the plots to come. But frankly speaking, as I write WoP Quest, I'm off wondering one simple thing - What am I writing for?
Is it for the action scenes, where they struggle and fight for their survival? Mmm, I certainly see how I've made a good job of that in Messiah 29, and in the Herald excerpt where Katachi faces off against Roberia. But that too pales and blands because people watch so much shounen/action manga/anime that they aren't moved by how difficult the fights actually are. They're used to the fact that you kicking off the floor puts you 6m from where you once were, and everything is too overpowered to matter.
Is it for the romance/drama, then? It's not that dramatic, nor is romance heavily emphasized - It's just something I put as a connector, a filler for the times I'm not writing parts of the story that I find interesting. I mean, Katachi and Roberia's feelings don't truly develop for each other until Endus Reignum arrives. Until then, they're stuck in the limbo of sort-of-like, hate, and don't-understand.
Is it the plot, then? Ahh, but a good plot needs to be savored slowly, fed bit by bit before the flavors can combine and explode violently, and blow the reader's mind. I haven't written far enough for anything of the sort yet, though - The Reincarnate is not found yet, Duke Harlot has not discovered Katachi's fate yet, the temporal distortion's effects between the routes haven't shown themselves yet since Sir Tact is still dead, Roberia hasn't been kidnapped yet and the whole of Rugnud hasn't been put to crisis as a negotiation chip yet.
There's so many things I want to slowly feed that I fear the audience won't have the time or attention to see them subtly - A plot is best when it's discovered by the reader, not when it's told in the face.
Then... Is it for the characters? No no no, that can't be. I designed Katachi in a way such that the reader would want to hate him, not love him. He's an Asperger's kid with a simple wish, in this drastically complex, cruel yet beautiful world.
Is it for the setting?... No way. Nobody reads a story for the setting. What is this, a documentary about Western Anik? No.
What exactly do people like about WoP Quest...? I don't really know, even today.
Moreso, I feel that my earlier chapters were lackluster. But if I spend all my time re-writing them, I may as well not write new chapters for a whole year.
...
... That aside...
I'll be removing my chapters. Or, at least, be setting some of them to 'private' progressively.
I probably won't touch the very first 32 chapters. Since, well, that's where the adventure begins. You can go buy Messiah since you didn't have the mind to go read it before I published it as a book.
And...
This blog will probably become a very rough skeleton for my later chapters.
*** ***
Let's not talk about the troublesome stuff. Let's look forward!
As in, what will I do after writing Messiah 31 and 32?
... Well, I have good and bad news.
The bad news is, if you liked Messiah, you're gonna have to put it on hold for now.
The good news is, Herald's starting! (Yay!)
Yep, that's the idea I came up with - Using 32 as a bracket for the no. of chapters a book should have, I have decided that every 32 chapters should mark the continuation of the story on a different route.
It'll alternate between Messiah, Herald, Messiah, Herald, etc. until I am finished with them both, before I start work on Endus Reignum.
Why 32...? I don't know. I stopped at 32 for the first book, so why not do the same for this book?
... Frankly speaking... I am not sure if I'd spend money to buy either of my books.
For some reason, I still feel disappointed in almost all of my earlier chapters, even when I go back and try to edit them up to standard.
Aww. Cozy's a perfectionist now.
...
... That's okay, though.
This story... It is the epic fantasy that I dreamed.
It may not be liked, or well-received at all, or even recognized as a real book. It might be burned, sullied, dropped in mud, fed to dogs, used as toilet paper, or even... Stolen.
But it is the dream I dared dreamed.
All I need to do is make that dream eternal - Immortalize that dream in a corporeal form.
... Perhaps that is the true answer to my question before - I write not for the action, not for the romance, not for the drama, not for the plots or setting or characters, but...
... Because the story deserves to exist. That is why I wrote, that is why I write and that is how I shall continue to write. Because it deserves to exist, no matter how many people chastise it or say otherwise.
No child is born into this world perfect. No story is created without flaws. In fact, art itself is the appreciation of the sum of all its flaws forming a perfect being from imperfection.
But when shall we look past those flaws, and embrace it for what it is, if we as the authors themselves do not do so in the first place? If we are not the first to see past the flaws of our own tales, who's going to?
This feeling, as though I were talking to someone I knew a long time ago, this sad, homely and familiar, yet estranged feeling...
... I wrote not for commercial benefit, but because I wished for the worlds in my head to become real.
Will that, too... Be taken away?
... It's times like these, that I wish I were born in 17th century Greece, or perhaps during the Reconnaissance Period...
...
... In any case... Look forward to Herald, everyone - It'll be a blast to write.
Especially, especially, ESPECIALLY because it's dark. And compared to the kind-of happier and more lively duck-like tone in Messiah, I am very good at writing stuff that's dark.
How will fate change to accomodate Katachi's choices at that one moment in time... ?
We'll find out.
*** ***
... Pray, that one day I too shall dream the eternal dream.
Dreaming away,
Cozy
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