Writing Is Hard | WIP Writing Update | July 2020 | (Guarding Space and Time)

Previous Post: Writing is Hard | WIP Writing Update | June 2020 | (The Beginning … & the End)

I don’t know about you but for me age nine was a very impressionable age. My family life turned upside down right around that time. To compare it to writing, the universe had been foreshadowing and planting plot points for years right up to that pinnacle point in 2004 when my parents’ divorce was finally settled and done. So, of course, when life hands you something ugly we humans immediately want to gravitate towards things that make us happy. Which at that time for me was Pokemon, as I mentioned in the previous post, and then right after that…Sailor Moon.

I loved Sailor Moon.

I would storm home from school just to see if I could try and catch it on Cartoon Network. (I didn’t always find it, mind you, but when I did… let me just say… I was so happy.) I don’t think I comprehended that it was probably on at a specific time because I was a kid and I just wanted to watch it when I wanted to watch it. Everything about the show I loved. The girl power, the heroics, Tuxedo Mask lol… I must have gone through phases for each Sailor Scout. Jupiter initially, then Mercury later on… Venus here and there and Mars from time to time. Sailor Moon herself … believe it or not I did not like at first (I know, right?? How could I not love her??) but now she is such an integral part of my being I don’t know what my younger self was thinking.

I can recall really specific memories from that time period of my childhood. I remember watching the Negaverse attack on a dark snowy night sitting on the floor in the living room while my Great Aunt (now passed) was in the background speaking to my mom. I remember running across the street to my neighbor’s house when her grandchildren were visiting and going to watch Sailor Neptune and Uranus after we played catch in the backyard with Max, my neighbor’s border collie. I remember going to our local video rental store regularly and always renting the Promise of the Rose movie whenever I had a chance…. that all seems like a lifetime ago.

Nowadays, I love each and every one of the Sailor Scouts having read the manga and seen the 90’s anime adaptation too many times to count. Sailor Pluto holds a special place in my heart today. Maybe because of all of the scouts she seems the loneliest to me and I just want to help her and be her friend. If you think about it… she had the loneliest job of all guarding the Space-Time Door…. and isn’t writing also one of the loneliest jobs sometimes too? Like all of us writers at some point are looking to the past or the future, gaging the current state of society, picking up cues from everything all around us and compressing all that and everything into the written word to guide and protect others… like we are all guarding that very same door….

Sorry lost myself there for a second, lol.

My next step into writing was of course to write Sailor Moon fan fiction turning my childhood obsessions into stories at the ripe age of twelve. I was so hardcore I wrote it all by hand in this pink notebook I found lying around. I remember watching the shows on YouTube over and over. Back in those days there was a limit to how long the video could be so one episode of Sailor Moon was broken down into about three or four YouTube videos. After, I made outlines about how I wanted to change the story, and did character analysis’ for each of the scouts and all the new original characters I wanted to add in. I named it Love Bright, Sunlight… and yes I am internally cringing right now.

Needless to say I never finished this story either. True to my track record. On the other hand though, this was another stepping stone to eventually realizing what I wanted to do with my life- become a published author.

Since my last update, life has been hectic. I’ve been working a lot and then coming home and trying to work as hard at my WIP but falling short on doing everything I want to do. I’m still in the pre-writing stage working on world building. Can I just say too- trying to make your own religion is HARD WORK, WOW. I knew it would be hard but due to my overcritical nature this part is taking a long time. It’s all part of the process though (at least that is what I keep telling myself). (You had to want to write a fantasy, didn’t you Jai???) I know, I know. One day all this will pay off. I also spent some time on the main characters this month which was a lot of fun! The Lowell Saga has a lot of characters and character arcs to navigate but I can tell you I can tie it down to seven main characters. Which sounds like a lot, especially when they will all get their own POV sometime down the road in the four books I am planning to stretch out this story into. If I want to narrow it down even further then I guess I can tie it down to at the core three specific characters as the main trio, at least for the first book. Anyway… back to researching interesting marriage ceremonies and racking my brain for weird funeral ideas.

Thanks for hearing me out for my writing update this month! Writing these posts is definitely helping me stay on track and keep working, so I hope if you read this far you got some enjoyment out of this post too.

Till next time,

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