Selkie's State of Writing - Good News! (Patreon)

Hey all!Just wanted to give you all an update!I burnt out earlier this year, and as I slowly stumbled around, I managed to burn my entire backlog. Oops.

I changed my posting method, I took some breaks, and I'm feeling much more human and alive now. Instead of the relentless pressure of 'I will do X chapters a week' (which, granted, I kinda need now and then), I moved to a much easier (on me) 'I post what I post'.

Which has turned out to be 2 chapters/week, pretty consistently, because I've been rebuilding my backlog! It's finally back at a whole, full, 10 chapters! WOOHOO!

Now, onto projects!

1) I just finished the rough draft of Song of the Gift-Giver. It's going to be one stand-alone book... for now. I do have the potential for an entire series, but I'm not sure I've got the chops for it. I think I'll be keeping it as-is, and leaving it open for me in the future if I want to write fluffly school slice of life drama.

2) Countless Joyful Dawns//Confoam Grenades is wrapping up as well! I've got 2-4 more chapters to write on this one before it's done

3) I've off-handedly mentioned this here and there, but Shadow of the Phoenix Rings is started! My (hopefully triumphant) return to Pallos! We'll be following Thalia's journey as Pallos is invaded by other dimensions - the portal war arc I started to lay the groundwork for in BTDEM, before going 'wait this works so much better as its own book'. I've learned my lesson about making promises. I want this to be a large epic, but who knows what'll happen.

Some details:1) Thalia's a kitsune

2) We open by playing 'Wheel of reincarnation'

3) Kitsune are associated with Mirage, and I really liked the idea of a 'Northern lights illusionist'

4) She is going to get a minor divine blessing! Being able to turn into a fox

5) We are going back to Remus (I like the name more than Exterreri...). When plotting out Shadow (SPR? - Hey wait, if I can squeeze a Q in there, I can have the abbreviation be SPQR!), I spent a lot of time trying to play out if I could have the story take place in Lithos. I did all the things. I made maps, people, culture, plot - the whole nine miles of worldbuilding. I had story, I had basically everything.

Except a good way to execute the A-line plot. The culture is GENERALLY more of what I described as a 'Warrior' culture. A great war against otherworld invaders requires armies and logistics to combat, and it just didn't fit with the culture. I couldn't make it work, and it was lurking in the back of my head as 'huge plothole here, problems occurring, caution, caution'. I've learned to listen to that voice.Also, getting there was hugely contrived, and a bunch of extra steps. A dev editor described it as 'wait you're doing double isekai? Putting her in one place, then immediately moving her? tricky', so yeah.

Alas. The smokey mountain won't be covering the island in a fine layer of ash. The dwarves in their hold won't be resonsible for the bridge. The troll jarl is sir (or not, he's not knighted) not-appearing-in-this-book. The huscarls, the thanes, the moss and the milk farm. The band of 'expendable' kids they take a-viking. Survive? Excellent, turbocharge your class. Die? More room for slaves and loot!

Again, aggressive invading culture VS otherworld invaders... every time I tried to game it out, it was 'everyone dies horribly'. The best I could come up with was 'retreat into the dwarven hold, siege against the invaders'.Except now we're changing setting SO FAST. Watch:1) Reincarnate2) Setting A! Thalia learning kitsune things in Nippon-koku3) Raiders capture her and her village4) Thrall in Lithos. 'Oh god milk farm sucks. This is my life!?'5) Join the raiders, ethical issues. 'I'm making someone else's life suck so mine will suck less'. Wrestle with the problem 6) Become comfortable with all that. Explore and integrate7) Now the invaders come. You know this setting we just became comfortable with? Our 3rd setting? PSYCH. We're going to a 4th setting now. It's too much. My instincts are telling me it's a really bad idea. I shortlisted all of the 'these civilizations could reasonably have an army' along with 'these civilizations could have a kitsune' (Read: Mortal civilziations), and landed on Remus again. I just have so much more details and information about the setting and the culture that I can bring in, versus 'generic English-French medieval setting #4828'. All the taverns. All the bars. Ah yes, the Baron is a dick. Woo. or even worse 'I have no idea about this setting or culture and I'm just going to bullshit it all', which is about as thin and transparent as it sounds. Also, the math worked out where I could write "IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE 40th MELLENIA", which was fun. I'll let you all speculate what math could result in me picking those numbers.Cheers all! I'm going to try and pace myself better this time round. If I'm writing a ton of 'frantic early book energy' chapters, I'll try and restain myself to a consistent schedule, and give myself some extra breathing room if I exhaust myself again. Learned that lesson from Song. I'd like to say 'never again', but I can be a bit of an idiot sometimes...

Cheers!Selkie