Labor and Rewards

I labored quite a bit on Labor Day and the weekend in general. I didn’t have work, but I did a lot of cleaning and put more of my manga and anime for sale on ebay. I am always getting new anime or manga series, so unless what I have is just excellent, I tend to sell it when I finish it. I just do not have the time these days to read a lot of older titles that I have, and lately, I’ve been really getting back into watching a good amount of anime as well.

I made good use of Netflix as I was cleaning or doing other chores, as I would put the anime, Fairy Tale, in the background. While I prefer to watch international media in its native language and just read English subtitles, it’s just been very convenient for me to play Fairy Tale on English dub. It’s a fun series, and I used to own the creator’s manga series before this one, Rave Master, so I knew what to expect as far as art style, comedy, characterization, and whatnot. It doesn’t hurt that the world of Fairy Tale seemingly takes place in the same world as Rave Master, as Plue is a minor character in the series. 

I have also been watching Hunter x Hunter in Japanese with English subtitles on Crunchyroll. It’s getting pretty dark and grim with characters getting killed and eaten by insect-like creatures. The storytelling’s good, and there hasn’t had any real filler episodes yet. 

I kind of gave up watching anime in my pursuit of becoming an author, as it took a lot of my time. Now, with good discipline, I can use it as a sort of reward for after I finish writing or editing. In the case of Fairy Tale, it makes for good background noise for when I’m doing chores or some other work at home. For a while, if I did was television, I would just watch MMA fights or professional wrestling, and that got a bit monotonous after a while. Seeing something with an ongoing story, in different genres that I like has been much better.
 

Movies and Anime

. I watched two movies this week with one being an anime movie, and the other being a Korean movie. The anime movie was The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, and it was crazy in a good way. The animation and premise of a night in Kyoto was absolutely surreal with some very memorable occurrences. The overall creativity of the movie impressed me, as it’s sporadic nature, which is in stark contrast to how I write stories.

The Korean movie was The Spy Gone North, and I felt that it was solid and relevant. It got into all the spy stuff, but then it also got very political as well, which I don’t mind. It wasn’t as memorable as The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, and it would be difficult to truly compare an animated movie to a non-animated movie based on a true story. It was nonetheless a good yet long movie. 

I’ve also been getting back into watching anime, specifically Hunter x Hunter and Naruto. I’m trying to avoid the temptation to watch anime instead of writing or editing, as it would be pretty easy to get lazy. I’m still sticking to the routine, but watching anime as something of a reward for after working on writing. It also just gives me good ideas and whatnot.
 

Genres and Darker Tones

I had a bit of a struggle when making the query letter for The Wilderness. The story’s main character is Cain from The Bible, so I figured that the it would fall under the “religion” genre. Looking at the literary agents who represent religious works, they generally want something softer without blood, gore, sex and violence. The Wilderness starts with Cain killing his brother, Abel, in the beginning of the story, and it also contains sex and a good amount of violence. It also takes place in various environments with some pretty fantastical characters, so I decided that this would better be suited under the Adult Fantasy genre.

I have a propensity to lean towards writing things that are a bit darker in tone. Even with The Mustard Prince, the villain’s backstory is pretty dark, and I’m not exactly kind to the main character. I actually have a very hard time writing happy endings to my stories. That’s not to say that I haven’t written a generally happy and good-natured story here and there, and The Mustard Prince is generally a light-hearted story, but I seem to lean towards putting some sort of darker tones here and there as well. 

I plan to watch a couple movies sometime soon like The Spy Gone North, which is a Korean movie, Crazy Rich Asians and maybe The Night is Short, Walk on Girl. I like the variety with international, animated, and mainstream as it’s always good to see different stories in various types of media. 
 

Nostalgia and Letting Go

I am a huge fan of Japanese anime, and books that I wrote like The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom are inspired by anime. My friends and I have been watching anime titles that we watched when we first started getting into the platform, and the amount of care put into those past titles contrasts with what looks like a quick money-grab of today. From background animation to just having memorable characters, I feel that anime back then had more soul than much of the stuff out now.

I also watched Disney’s Christopher Robin, and I liked it. There was a huge sense of nostalgia along with humor in a story with similarities to Hook. I can relate to the idea of someone growing up and casting aside things from one’s childhood only to revisit them when that person becomes an adult. Writing fantasy has been something that is full-circle for me, as I am now writing stories using stories from my childhood and growing up to create something new. 

I think that there is something about nostalgia and being an adult that’s important. For me with writing, I don’t really want to totally let go of the child-like self, so writing kind of preserves that, and I think that various media has that same effect. We yearn for something to hold on to that’s relevant and memorable. 
 

The Rut and The Wilderness

I have to admit that I am in something of a rut. I would say that it comes from the fact that I have three goals: get a girlfriend, get a literary agent, and get my own place. I think that I just don’t feel any closer to any one of these goals, and I’m just grinding away which creates a rut. I realize though that these are relatively big goals, life-changing even, and maybe I should step back and see if there are any smaller goals that I can pursue. I’m in something of a routine pretty much every day, so anything that would bring me out of this routine such as joining some sort of group and meeting new people, trying a new hobby or something else may help me get out of this rut.

Sleep has been my biggest enemy as of late in regards to writing and editing. I’ve fallen asleep on my chair as I’ve been editing a couple times now. I definitely need to find a way not to let that happen as it’s slowing down my already-slow progress in re-editing The Wilderness. Just the other day, I fell asleep on my chair, and I seemingly woke up the next day on my bed. I don’t know how I got to my bed though. 

The Wilderness is going along pretty well. I am trying to make it very descriptive, which makes it where editing takes a long time. There is a lot that needs to be deleted, as I repeat the same sentences but just word them differently. Some sentences just don’t work in context to the paragraph with the idea or situation in that paragraph. I also have issues with using past or present tense. Despite this, I am interested in seeing how the final product turns out.
 

Filipino Movies and Impatience

I am re-editing The Wilderness lately, and I have noticed that the editing process has been taking longer than I thought it would. I then realized that there really is not much dialogue in the story, and I am trying to be particularly descriptive. I’m not really sure if there is a quicker way to do this outside of paying someone for editing. With that, I am also growing impatient as I really want to send this to literary agents. 

I watched a Filipino romantic comedy called I Love You, Hater recently. It’s interesting because the comedy and acting is just different than what I’m used to here in the U.S. There is just this over-the-top type of acting in Asian movies that I’ve seen, whereas things seem steadier over here. I thought that it was fun enough, but it would be more of a rental than see in the theaters, in my opinion. Thankfully, I have a Movie Pass, so it was no skin off my back.

Things have been something of a grind, and I can tell that I am just getting more impatient in achieving my goals. I can only hope and pray that it’s all worth it, as I have sacrificed a bit, mainly my time in trying to achieve. 
 

Opportunity Cost and Unwinding

I saw a good number of movies recently such as Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Skyscraper. However, the anime movie, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms easily stood out the most. By the end of the movie, we saw the full journeys of many characters with gorgeous animation and a solid, original plot. I really cannot recommend it enough, and it helps that I came into the movie not knowing anything about it except for the synopsis, so I had no expectations going in. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult just to find good stories these days with so many remakes, reboots, money grabs, etc. 

With watching so many movies, I have a tough time finding the time to make my movie reviews for them in my Chris’s Storytelling Corner podcast. Finding time though has always been an issue with me especially having a full-time job and other extracurricular activities. There really is opportunity cost as one gets older, and doing things like writing, editing, podcasting and whatnot takes away from doing something else.

One thing that I lost sight of was dedicating time to just relax on my weekdays. I would go to work, go home, nap, do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or go to church, eat dinner, write/edit, then go to sleep with no time dedicated to just unwind. I think that it is important to do that and healthy both physically and mentally as well.
 

Perspective and Bouncing Back

I saw two movies this week. One of them was an anime movie called Fireworks, and the other was Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. Fireworks was interesting in that it looked into the idea of “perspective” and had a middle school love story going on. Ant-Man and the Wasp was a fun movie, but it was not as good as the first Ant-Man movie. It still contained the humor and absurdity that I expect from the Ant-Man franchise.

I am pretty much in full swing of re-editing The Wilderness, which is the story of Cain from the time he was exiled by God into the wilderness to when he meets his sister, who becomes his wife. It is a bit more challenging as there is not that much dialogue, and I am trying to make it a more thought-provoking and descriptive work. One thing that I have been doing though is removing a lot from it, as certain things get said twice but just in different ways, or there are just things that ultimately do not need to be there.

I am slowly but surely bouncing back from the constant rejection that I was facing just a couple weeks ago. The only thing I could do is continue to grind and press forward. I have to accept that in trying to reach certain goals, I am going to run into rejection quite a bit. 
 

Bad Weeks and The Bible

I watched Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom recently, and I did not think that it was very good. There were these cliched villains of evil businessmen motivated by money and characters who simply made poor not-thought-out choices throughout the movie. Many movies have some sort of social commentary, and I am fine with it, but for some reason, I just could not overlook it with this movie. There was a strong animal/dinosaur rights motif throughout the movie, and I just felt that it was beating me over the head with it. 

I have to say that besides not being too fond of the movie, I just wasn’t too fond of this week in general. I faced a good amount of rejection from literary agents and from women as well, along with the first time that I caused a car crash. Everything that went wrong this week in some form negatively affects my three goals: getting a literary agent, getting a girlfriend, and buying my own place. It is very difficult and my motivation is not exactly high right now, but I know that I must continue trudging forward despite this so that I can reach these goals.

One positive of the week is that I finished the Old Testament of The Bible. Here is what I observed from reading it:
1. If I were to sum up what The Bible is so far, I’d say that it’s a story about the human condition. Reading through The Bible, people seemingly made the same mistakes over and over again. It seemed that the natural inclination of man was to sin, starting with Genesis and continuing onwards. 
2. Liberty was not a natural value or instinct for mankind. There was always a sense of bondage that could either be physical captivity or some sort of personal mental imprisonment. 
3. People had a natural predisposition to worship, whether it be the one true God, or other gods. One king seemingly made a golden calf and started to worship it simply because he could, for example. 
4. This was not a particularly nice or kind book in regards to humanity. I think that many people get it wrong thinking it’s all about miracles, supernatural things and do’s and don’ts.
 

Incredibles 2 and Reevaluating

I watched Incredibles 2, and it was a lot of fun. Fourteen years is a long time for a sequel to come out, but it was worth the wait. I like character-driven stories, and Incredibles 2, in my opinion, was more character-driven than plot-driven. The plot is pretty standard superhero fare, but the characters make the movie memorable. Hopefully, if there is a third one, and I’m sure there will be one as Incredibles 2 made a lot of money, it will not take fourteen years for it to be released.

I am starting to think about my future moves as far as being an author is concerned. I have to accept that I was sending query letters for The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom to literary agents far too early before the story was a finished product. I have submitted to many literary agents who represent fantasy-adventure novels, and while there were those rare times that I got positive feedback, I have never been asked by any literary agent for further material for The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom. The way that sending query letters work is that these agents generally ask for a query letter and the first ten pages or so of the work, and if they are interested, they will ask for more of the work. No literary agent has asked for more, and it’s getting more difficult to find literary agents that represent middle grade, fantasy, action-adventure.

I have another completed work called The Wilderness that is unedited that I haven’t submitted to literary agents. I also have some novels in the works that have the first thirty-to-fifty pages completed that I can work on as well. It is disheartening to put The Mustard Prince in the backburner for the time being, but I have to be realistic. I’m hopeful that it will get published eventually, but right now, I have to present another one of my works to get my proverbial foot in the door. 
 

Rejection and Comfort

I have been receiving a good amount of rejection as of late, from two literary agents and even a woman. While it is not ideal for me, it tells me that I need to improve. I’ve been sending query letters for years, but one constant is that I’ve been improving my craft along the way, and also improving my discipline as well where I have made writing and editing a daily routine. I actually wish that I didn’t send those early query letters because my books were quite honestly written badly. 

I never thought about it, but I read some stuff online. It said that you do not want a literary agent that does not have a taste for your writing, but also, you do not want a literary agent who already represents so many authors that the agent would have little-to-no time for you. I have always just wanted representation but did not really think about what specifically fits me, or what I would want. 

There is something about this journey in reaching this goal of becoming an author that works in opposite of what is comfortable. It is as if one needs to suffer a bit in order to progress. One needs to go against what is natural and what is comfortable, in a way, as for example, one seemingly needs to get used to rejecting. That alone is not enough though, as one also needs to predicate that rejection with a want and willingness to improve and reflect. 
 

Confidence, Insanity and Russian Ballet

I watched Russian ballet for the first time, particularly the Bolshoi Ballet: Coppelia, and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It was comical, artistic, and well-crafted. I think that the eye has an ability to recognize difficult movements, so it was not hard to see that what they were performing was of a very high level. The story was fun and more light-hearted, and even though there are no words, the actions speak quite loudly.

I sent another query letter, and I did something that I haven’t done in a while. I changed the query letter to appeal more to the particular literary agent instead of sending the generic one that I send to all the literary agents. I’m regretting not doing that before, and I’ll admit to having gotten lazy in the whole process. There is also a newfound confidence in my writing where I can put a little more ‘oomph’ into these query letters. I’ve been rejected so much that I’m kind of feeling that I have nothing to lose. There is that saying where insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and I kind of fell into that due to complacence.

I started reading Tale of the Genji, which is the first novel ever created, and it is a beast of a novel clocking in over one-thousand pages. It is very well-written, and I’m looking forward to reading more. Seeing different and sophisticated writing helps my own writing, after all. 
 

Reading and Moving Forward

I finished reading A Hero Born: Legend of the Condor Heroes, which is the first volume in a three-volume story. The second volume is said to be coming out in January 2019, so it’s going to be quite the wait for the next book. The first book ended in pretty much an impasse, so that was a bit disappointing. Overall though, I really enjoyed it. In the meantime, I am waiting for my copy of the Tale of the Genji, which is the first know novel ever made. I also have Tintin in the New World to read as well. 

I honestly forgot how fun it is to read actual fiction books. I know that sounds crazy, but the only books that I’ve read recently are non-fiction, autobiographies and my own works that I am editing. Also, I read a lot of manga. There is a certain aesthetic and ambiance from holding a book in your hand and turning the pages. I can see why readers still prefer traditional books even though something like a Kindle is more convenient, and the books tend to be cheaper on it.

I got another rejection from a literary agent recently, and it’s unfortunate. This agent’s interests seemingly coincided with mine, so I thought that he’d show interest in the work that I submitted. It is disheartening, but I suppose that it’s on to the next one. 

Speaking of on to the next one, I am now re-editing a short story that I created in college called The Frog of the Crown, which is based on the Frog Prince fable. I finished editing my horror short story, Shattered Glass, so it’s on to the next one. It’s a fable with a lot of comedy, so I hope to make it funnier with this edit. 
 

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.