Horror Stories, Star Wars and Inspiration

I’ve been working on re-editing a short story that I made a while ago called Shattered Glass. Now that I’m entering Short Story Competitions again, I’ve been focusing on re-editing short stories that I created previously. It’s been a good process, but sometimes I will get stuck too long on wanting to touch up a sentence and kill a lot of time doing so. Re-reading Shattered Glass is interesting because it’s one of a few horror stories that I’ve written, but I tend to lean more towards a Gothic horror than traditional horror.

I’m finishing up Shattered Glass, and I think that the story has improved quite a bit after the re-edit. I’m looking forward to re-editing more of these short stories and hoping that I’ll place in some of these competitions as well.

I also watched Solo: A Star Wars Story, and it was fun. It wasn’t particularly epic in scope like one would expect from Star Wars movies (no one’s trying to save the galaxy in this one), as it really did focus on the singular story of Han Solo. Ironically, my friends and I then watched some Akira Kurosawa films, Yojimbo and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, just a couple hours after watching Solo. If anyone knows Akira Kurosawa’s relationship with Star Wars, they’d know that a good amount of Star Wars is strongly inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress. 

As cliched as this sounds, but I really do feel that at this point, everything and everyone is inspiration for my stories. I’ll take a little from anime, Shakespeare, Dickens, movies, fairy tales, The Bible, Star Wars, Kurosawa, etc. Everyone has a different idea of how to go about things, or how to create a character or narrative. 
 

Distractions and Silliness

I made one little change to my writing/editing process, and that is that I put my phone away where I’d have to get up from my chair to get it. It may not sound like much, but distractions like that really do add up and take time away from writing/editing. I can see why it’d be better, for example, to have a clean work area to work at as the messiness can be something of a distraction. There is something to be said about aesthetics and ambiance in your work environment.

Speaking of distractions, I watched Deadpool 2, and it was a really fun movie. I personally liked the first one better, as there was one main, definite villain instead of having somewhere around four. However, one thing I like about Deadpool is that no matter how crazy he gets and the situations that he finds himself in, there is still a humanistic side to him. He’s also just very self-deprecating as well.

The Mustard Prince has a little bit of that as well as far as silliness, but also in the self-deprecating humor. There is something to be said about not taking yourself to seriously, and I think that Marvel has that down. They understand the world that their characters live in and the outrageous situations that they find themselves in and satirize it when appropriate. It works for them, and it works for The Mustard Prince as well.
 

Risks and the Legends of the Condor Heroes

I started reading the translated version of the first book of The Legends of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong (pen name of Louis Cha), and it’s said to be a Chinese Lord of the Rings. It’s good in that it is based on historical events and figures, has a high focus on martial arts and takes place over multiple generations. However, certain things about it surprised me, and maybe it’s because I’m more attuned to certain things about writing and grammar. For one thing, I just notice all the grammatical errors in the book, especially with commas. Also, when it comes to the writing, I can see when there is too much explaining when things could have been shown. Some of it, as far as the writing is concerned, could come down to the translation.

That’s not to say that I’m this particularly good author or flawless in my own writing. I’m just starting to find out what “voice” is, and I have my own style of writing. It’s just that I’m starting to see things that I haven’t before when reading due to the fact that I write and edit on a daily basis. The book, nonetheless, has managed to capture my interest.

It makes me think if my books will be able to capture the interest of a wide audience. I don’t think that there’s a particular formula as to why a certain book will click, and some just won’t. I’m always thinking about that though, in that I could get published, and my book ends up quickly in the bargain bin. Or, maybe it becomes extremely popular like The Legends of the Condor Heroes. I guess finding that out is worth the risk.
 

Challenges and Short Stories

I changed something up this week as far as my writing goes, and it has been good. I haven’t been competing in short story competitions lately, and I wanted to get back into them considering that I have twenty-plus just sitting on my computer. I decided that one day of the week, Tuesdays (which I just choose arbitrarily), will be the day that I look for various short story contests. I am also working on re-editing my short stories implementing “voice.”

Changing it up has helped with breaking the monotony of what I was doing. Re-editing The Mustard Prince is great, but working on other things has been helpful to me as well as it provides variety and a new challenge. Right now, I’m working on re-editing my short story, The Next Level, where a nerdy guy gets roped into going to a homecoming dance with a nerdy girl, and it parallels the online RPG that they both play. It was already quite comical, but I feel that I’m making it funnier now that I’m editing it with “voice.”

When I submitted short stories to competitions, I got third place once, and that’s it out of many competitions that I’ve participated in. I look back and see that I really didn’t put my best foot forward, and if I can recognize problems now with my short stories, then I’d imagine that judges can spot these problems as well. I’m actually looking forward to submitting my short stories out there after they’ve been re-edited. I don’t expect to place in all of these contests or anything, but at least I’ll know that I put out my best effort.
 

Characters and Marvel

I watched Avengers: Infinity War, and I thought that it was amazing. I won’t spoil the movie, but they did a great job of making the audience care about the characters and the world that they all live in. They also built up to this event in a pretty intricate way using previous MCU movies to build up to this. I find that to be good, long-term storytelling. It surprises me that the DCEU cannot emulate similar results as they have so many iconic characters to work with and years of source material.

It makes me think of The Mustard Prince series, and how to go about it. I’m also going with the idea of building towards something by the end of the series, but I only have an idea of what that is right now. I always cared more about the characters, and it’s the characters that guide the plot for me, not the other way around. For me, personally, I tend to remember the characters more in a story than the plot, which may be why I am such a fan of the MCU.

I’m getting to the point where I really am believing that I’m getting good enough at writing stories that would entertain a wide audience. In that sense, it’s making me impatient to get published professionally. Maybe it’s like Avengers: Infinity War, in that the payoff will eventually happen as long as I build up to it.
 

Timing and Branding

I went to a smaller comic convention called the San Diego Comic Fest this week, and it was a lot of fun. There was a much more intimate setting where I got to talk with the vendors, artists and attendees a lot more. I wanted to show my support for some of these artists, so I bought some of their works. I can understand the hustle and appreciate it, so I like to show my support.

It did get me to thinking about me and what I want to do to get my name, or brand, out there. These artists and creators are really going out there to these conventions and whatnot to put their name out there. The most that I do is utilizing my podcast, Chris’s Storytelling Corner, to get my name out there, but I don’t feel that comparatively, I’m putting in the work like these other creators and artists. I’m submitting query letters to literary agents so that I can get professionally published, but I’d still need to put my brand out there somehow.

Timing makes this very difficult. Working a nine-to-five on weekdays and just unwinding and catching up on the podcast, writing, and whatnot on the weekends makes it where my time is very valuable. I should definitely get back to submitting short stories to various contests and think about collaborating with others to get my name out there.
 

The Future and Regret

I didn’t think that I’d actually enjoy the editing process. I’ve been re-editing The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom, and I set a time limit to how long I’m editing on the stopwatch on my phone. I have caught myself wanting to edit a little more even after the allotted time was over. Part of it is that I edit by paragraph, so it feels incomplete when I’m in the middle of editing a paragraph, and I don’t edit the whole paragraph that I’m working on. Another part is that I’m just “in the groove” as I’m editing, and this does apply to writing as well.

I’ve been sending query letters to literary agents for The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom for years now. I would send them sporadically, but I do look back at my approach with a level of regret. I really didn’t put my best foot forward by not knowing certain things like “voice” in my earlier submissions and received rejection. It has cost me as that becomes one less person to submit my work to in an already small group of literary agents. 

Thankfully, I do have other project in the works as I am making The Land of the Wooden Statues into a full-length novel, and re-editing The Wilderness, which needs a lot of work but is at least finished. I can only hope that The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom will be my first professionally published work, and I am still working towards that goal. However, I do have other projects waiting in the wings to also help me reach that goal as well.
 

Inpatience and Your Best Foot Forward

Last weekend, I sent two different query letters to two different literary agents. One wanted the first ten pages of a given work, while the other wanted the first twenty pages. Now, I’ve sent many query letters in the past, and still plan to, but this time, it’s with The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom being re-edited by me once again with a deeper understanding of “voice.” I really don’t have plans to edit it yet again, as I have other projects to work on.

This taught me something though, and that’s that I really didn’t put my best foot forward in sending out my works. Part of it was just a lack of knowledge and experience, but part of it was just impatience. This really is a long and arduous process with the goal being very difficult to obtain. I did myself no favors though in wanting to essentially rush the process and send my works out before they were ready.

I’ve noticed that I’ve somewhat enjoyed the process a bit more having some level of experience writing. I can identify better what to look out for and what to insert as well. For example, I feel that I have made The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom funnier after this last re-edit. I’m just hoping that a literary agent will resonate with the work, and that eventually, it can be read by many different people.
 

Tediousness and the Finished Product

I watched Ready Player One in 3D last week, and I thought that it was really good. For someone like me who has a channel talking about things like anime, manga, movies, etc, and was/is a gamer, this movie resonated with me quite a bit. In what movie could I see Mecha Godzilla fight against The Iron Giant (from the movie, not Final Fantasy) and a Gundam? That type of creativity and nostalgia is why I really like “story” in general.

I just finished re-editing the first chapter of The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom. This is the third or fourth time that I re-edited it, but now that I have a deeper understanding of “voice,” it just felt that I had to do it to put my best foot forward to potential literary agents and the reading audience in general. I have a lot more to do, but this has taught me that the finished product is not going to look like the initial product, and that we obviously don’t do everything perfectly the first time.

The process is tedious, for sure, but it can be fun too. I do feel that I made the story funnier due to these re-edits and much more descriptive too. I also feel that I have a better grasp of what to look out for as far writing more descriptively and getting into the characters and story. I suppose that it is all just a part of the learning process.
 

Creativity and Originality

This week has been more good than bad. On Tuesday morning, I caught a minor cold, so I was not bed-ridden or anything like that. However, sickness makes it difficult to get writing, editing and all that other stuff going. Despite that, the good outweighed the bad.

On Thursday night, I went to see Cirque du Soleil: Luzia, and it was amazing. The creativity that they utilize was something else, and it surprised me to see what people can do with something like a whistle, or a soccer ball, etc. Then, on Saturday, I went to WonderCon in Anaheim and cosplayed as Bruce Lee from Game of Death. Once again the creativity there was off the charts. There were a good amount of artists, and they put their own spin on a certain character, series, etc.

In a sense, that’s what I’m doing with my own stories. Everything has been done in some way or another, but everyone has their own take, and I think that’s where the originality comes into play. This week, I got to see a lot of that.
 

Process and Excellence

I watched the newest Tomb Raider movie, and I thought that it was fun enough. It would be a good rental, but not something I’d particularly recommend to watch in the theaters unless one is looking for an action flick. I was talking to a friend, and we were discussing why the movie didn’t particularly stand out. As someone who is doing a lot of editing right now, as I have finished two books so far (The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom and The Wilderness), it’s a surprise that these movies don’t seem to have a high level of editing and fixing noticeable holes.

We were quickly able to notice the flaws in the movie, so why weren’t these flaws addressed in post-production? There could have a myriad amount of reasons, to be clear, but it just seems like a certain potential wasn’t reached because of it. Granted, there are time constraints, budget, etc. Maybe, they just wanted to make money more than aspire for excellence.

I find that as I learn more about writing, that I’m constantly having to re-edit my works. It’s a slow and sometimes tedious process, but I suppose that the goal is to aspire for excellence. That’s not to say that I’m trying to re-invent the wheel but just make my works the best that I possibly can.
 

Good Memories and Bad Moods

I can’t say that I had a great week. A lot of little things hampered my week, and in turn, affected my motivation and concentration to write, edit, or work on my podcast. Mood plays a role in the writing process and overcoming bad and/or negative moods is just one more thing that I have to learn how to do. This stuff does not write or edit itself.

I watched Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time and did a movie review for it. I read it as a kid back in elementary and liked it, and I think that this version is the second, or maybe third movie adaptation for this book. That’s what I want for The Mustard Prince in that a child could read it and still have good memories of it even as an adult. It didn’t help my mood though that I thought that the movie was just okay when in fact I was looking forward to it.

Maybe that’s a lesson in itself, in that we don’t know how the audience will accept our works. I suppose that we cannot control that aspect and could only do the best that we can learning from criticism and other works. 
 

Cold Weather and Entertainment

I had a tough time getting to my routine of working on editing and the podcast this week. The cold weather here in California does not help as I just want to be wrapped in blankets. When that happens, I tend to just fall asleep instead of work on things. Aso, I’m already tired from doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu almost right after work on Mondays and Wednesdays.

I still found time for some entertainment, as I watched the Fullmetal Alchemist live-action movie on Netflix, and I also started reading the Princess Jellyfish manga. I actually have volumes one through seven just sitting in my room, and I decided to finally read them. It is really funny, and relatable to me since I tend to be all “otaku” about anything from anime, manga, MMA, Peanuts, movies, etc. The Fullmetal Alchemist movie, I thought, was good, and it really followed the plot points of the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime pretty well. I’m sure that it’ll have a few sequels as long as it’s successful.

I think that a lot of factors go into this whole writing thing. Distraction like the internet, television, movies, cell phones, etc. to the weather can all make it that much more difficult to write, and those are just outside factors. Internally, motivation comes and goes and a lack of a sense of urgency also contribute to negatively affecting the writing process. Finding your own process and structure and maintaining it is probably more difficult, for me at least, than actually writing.
 

Discomfort and Evolving

I watched Black Panther, and I liked it enough. Some are going to criticize things like the political and social messaging of the movie, but I thought that as a story, it was fun. It moved forward well and felt well-paced. I actually have a problem with my stories in that they constantly just keep moving forward, but I can’t seem to have my characters just stop and smell the roses. I always feel that my characters just have to always be doing “something” and always in a state of action, for the most part.

Maybe that’s just my style of writing, or maybe that’s something that I’m going to have to improve upon. My comfort zone in my stories is in constant action, so I may have to get out of my comfort zone and have my characters just sit around and tell stories or something. I guess that it’s good in constantly being uncomfortable, as that’ll keep my writing sharp and evolving.

I feel that movies and some media, in general, haven’t been evolving very much. We’re seeing a good number of reboots and a lack of new approaches at times. I don’t think that anyone has to necessarily reinvent the wheel, as I personally value execution and characters more than anything else in story. 
 

Childhood and Coming Full Circle

I went to the Long Beach Comic Expo on Saturday and cosplayed as Bruce Lee from Game of Death wearing a yellow track suit. I got some good pictures, and I had fun overall. It’s nice going to an event like that, and despite being in my mid-thirties, it’s not seen as childish at my age to go to an event like that these days. Families are now going to these events with people my age growing up with similar interests and getting their kids into those same interests.

I have hope that The Mustard Prince can be something like that for people. I’d like for a kid to read The Mustard Prince, have good memories of the characters from that book, and grow up still having a fondness for it. I actually feel that way about Puss-N-Boots, which is the book that pretty much taught me how to read. 

I find the journey of becoming an author as something that comes full circle, in a sense. I used to read and/or watch stories unfold through various media (tv shows, anime, video games, books, manga, etc.) when I was younger, and still do but just not as much, but now, I am going that next step as an adult and writing stories for others to enjoy.
 

Technique and Creativity

I’m not much of a sports person, at least when it comes to stick-and-ball sports, but I did catch the Super Bowl, and I try to catch as much of the Winter Olympics that I can. Being more of the creative type, I tend to gravitate towards things that utilize creativity. However, in most of my endeavors, I’ve made it a point to learn fundamental techniques before trying to be creative and unorthodox. With a lot of these sports, seeing them played at the highest level, I get to see one if not both (creativity and technique) utilized at its peak.

Creative writing and trying to become an author has been a process of technique and creativity. I feel that I received some level of fundamental writing from writing so many essays in college, and it helps that I’ve always liked grammar. However, as I’ve stated in another blog post, it really has hindered my ability to go to that next level of creativity, as it’s just recently where I’ve learned about things like “voice,” for example.

I’m really hoping that I can reach a point where I can put it all together. Fundamental technique, in writing, seems to be more of a tangible thing where it’s about sentence construction and grammar. The creative part of it is much more difficult though, where it’s not so concrete. Writing primarily fantasy, it’s all about creativity, and also how one presents it as well.
 

The Past and Re-editing

With writing for a while and learning new things in regards to editing, voice and whatnot, I decided to edit one of my first fantasy short stories, The Witch’s Origin. I’m going to read it on my podcast when I’m done editing it. However, reading over the story, it is quite honestly not well-written. The funny thing is that when I wrote it, I thought that it was indeed well-written.

I’m a bit regretful that I didn’t know things like “voice” or proper editing in the past. It’s quite time-consuming to go over stories that I wrote and re-edit them. Also, in the case of The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom, I put it out as an eBook on Amazon a while back, and it’s not completely edited correctly. It still lacks “voice” right now especially since I am just starting to understand what “voice” is.

I suppose that this goes to show that it takes a while to put everything together no matter what endeavor one is trying to do. I thought that after college that I could write, and write well, but it turns out that writing creatively with my own “voice” as an author is another skill altogether. Also, I realize how important editing is to this writing process.
 

Voice and Learning

I was listening to a podcast, and the podcaster reviewed Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” He said how well-written it is, and I decided to read some excerpts. During this time, I remembered a criticism that I got from a literary agent talking about “voice.” I honestly didn’t understand “voice” very much and just wrote how I wanted to. 

Reading some excerpts of “Alice in Wonderland,” I was surprised by a lot of things. For one, the sentences that I read were particularly long, and I was under the impression of condensing and having a “less is more” mentality. The other thing is that I can identify the “voice” of the author in what I read. I can tell that the author’s “voice” which entails quirks, humor, knowledge, etc. was present in what I was reading.

In college, I wrote a lot of essays and helped many students with their essays. Now, I’m not saying that my writing is totally essay-like, but having essay writing being the primary source of my writing, I can tell that certain aspects of that such as rigidness and not really having a “voice” are present in my writing. I can write a grammatically correct sentence, and I can even describe the actions in a way that I’m “showing” and not “telling,” but I always knew that one couldn’t really tell who wrote that sentence. Hopefully, with this newfound knowledge, I can lend my own “voice” to what I am writing.

Simplicity and Reinventing the Wheel

I just watched Studio Ponoc’s “Mary and the Witch’s Flower,” and I thought it was solid. In my opinion, I saw a children’s story being made that was not trying to “reinvent the wheel.” In interviews with some that worked on the movie, they just wanted to create movies after Studio Ghibli closed down. I can relate to that as I wrote The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom with that same mentality. I just wrote something fun, entertaining, and with a focus on a simple story with memorable characters.

As an author, I still feel that I’m just scratching the surface. I’m still learning and utilizing what I’ve learned into my stories, especially at the time when I have to edit my work. Most recently, I just learned some new things about dialogue, for example. Because of that, I really don’t try to reinvent the wheel but just write about stuff that I like and enjoy. 

I don’t know how that is going to translate with readers though. I suppose that in order to find that out, then I have to become professionally published, which is the goal that I’m working towards. I can only hope that others will enjoy my works and give validity to what I’m working towards.
 

New Year and Small Changes

It’ a New Year, and my goals for this year, 2018, are the same as my goals for 2017. I want to get a girlfriend and get a literary agent. One thing that I am changing is my approach to things by making small adjustments. I think that there’s this idea that change needs to be relatively big whether it’s in dieting or other things, but I’ve learned that small adjustments make a big difference.

For example, with my podcast on Youtube, I’m going back to showing my face and talking to the camera instead of the viewer just seeing a picture. I’m changing the placement of where I advertise my website and my book on the actual podcast in order to get to the meat of the podcast instead of having this long, drawn-out introduction. With getting a literary agent, I’m making small tweaks to my query letters, but also doing more reading on how to make better dialogue in my stories. I then plan to re-edit the dialogue.

I’m hopeful and motivated, which is good. At the end of 2017, I was getting less motivated with how I was marketing my works and myself, especially through the podcast. I am going to look at 2017 as a year of just planting the seeds via practice and educating myself in order to eventually reach my goals.