Map #2 - Three Countries and an Island

     As promised, Map #2, zooming in on Planet #1 from "the Sword in the Sky."

These are roughly the shapes and sizes of the countries Waklei (WALK-lay), Mukrone (Muhk-RONE), Pevna, and Ancern Island (ANN-kurn). The main character, Winara, lives on the tail of Waklei - the tip facing Pevna. 

I fished up a couple acrylic paintings I did a few years back on little pieces of card-stock paper. The picture above is of the sunset on the White-Sand shore of Waklei. 

The picture below is of a Hiikter plant (huge rubbery-feeling plants that glow at night) from Mukrone. There's also a few star-flies in that picture - translucent purple-winged insects that feed off of nectar stems during the day, making a field of what looks like shaggy purple flowers. After feeding off of the nectar, they take flight at night and fill the sky with glowing purple wings; hence, the name "star-flies." ... I overthink details, but it's fun.

     Just to give you a glimpse into the world in my head:

     Waklei is typically pretty dull in color, but the colors in the water and sky have their moments of brilliance. For the most part, Waklei is just made of lots of stone, a bit of moss, and plenty of white sand; not very colorful, but striking in a strange way.

     Pevna is just the opposite! It's almost always warm and windy there, and it's pretty much the land of eternal Autumn. The colors of the trees are crimson red, gold, fiery orange, and deep brown. It's probably my favorite place to write about. But if I were to go to one of these countries I would probably choose Mukrone.

     Mukrone is the greenest of the three. It gets plenty of rain and has the widest variety of exotic plants and animals. There's a sort of magical element that seems to live in the very air of Mukrone. It could be the influence of the elves that live there...

     This world has existed for me since I was about twelve years old. To me, it almost seems like it does exist in some dimension.

     End of spiel.

Return of the Word Count

                                                       What am I working on?

     I'm still working on that story that doesn't have a name (the one involving "the Sword in the Sky").

     I've also been coming up with titles for poems - not the words, just titles.

                                                 How do I feel about the process?

     Quite frankly, I'm sort of surprised at the way chapter one of this story turned out. Originally, I didn't have a fully developed storyline so I created one. The new plot influenced the characters to do things I didn't expect them to, and certain characters came into the story that I tried to kick out in the past.
     Very intriguing...

                                                         What am I reading?
   
     I better not bore you with my reading list again this week cause I'm STILL reading the same ol' books. That is, those same books have not yet been finished. I really don't spend a ton of time reading books during the school semesters.
     I find that ironic.

Total Word Count: 2,400+

Map #1 - The Sword in the Sky

Three planets, four moons, one star=The Sword in the Sky.

     In this constellation, there are three planets that make up the hilt of the sword (numbered 1, 2, and 3 in pencil). There are four moons between planet #1 and the star that makes the tip of the sword. The story I'm currently working on takes places on planet #1 in the constellation, but I have a story for each one of them. I haven't named planet #1 yet, but planet #2 has a name: Ersta. From the viewpoint of planet #1, Ersta looks just like a purple star in the sky, and people fondly and simply call it "The Purple Star." Most people believe it is just a star, except for a select few who have their reasons for thinking it's more than that.

     Planet #3 is another one without a name, but it does have a story all its own. The sun only shines on top of that planet; it never travels to other parts. Unless they live in the permanently sunlit lands, the only light people get on this planet is either from their moon and stars or from fire. 

     Because of its partial lighting, this planet is thought to be a moon. The first of the five smaller circles is planet #1's moon; hence, planet #1 people are very proud of their Purple Star and two moons.

     Well, that's that. I hope you're thoroughly confused.

I'll be back with another map zooming in on the first planet.

     

Word Countless Wednesday

     Last week I didn't post a thing, and I'm pretty sure that was because I was daunted by the actual word count portion of these posts. As I've said, a lot of my writing is done by hand so it kind of makes word counting hard. Hence, the "Word Countless Wednesday."

                                                            What am I working on?

     I've been dabbling with two very different stories. One is about the so-called heartless Kent Higgins and a family crisis involving his little sister Jenny, who had a bad accident with one of the family-owned horses.
     The other story is about way too many things. I'm considering separating some of it's side plots into further books of the same series.
     Or not.
     I don't know.
     The main idea is that, on anther planet, three countries are faced with the possibility of war as they are discovered by a fourth power-seeking country, and they would call upon their king for help except that... they're not exactly sure he exists.
                                                   
      That is REALLY nut-shelling it!



                                                   How do I feel about the process?

     There's so much going on in this story, so much to each of the three countries, so many details about different creatures and plants, so much to the history of the characters that... I'm excited! But also overwhelmed (I know that's a sentence fragment).

                                                             What am I reading?

     As far as novels go, nothing new.
I have been reading over some ancient drafts I wrote of the second story mentioned.






I'll post a map of a constellation in a bit. It'll explain part of what I mean when I say there's way too much going on in this story.

The Flight of a Moment - a Poem

     Good thing I tacked on that "hopefully" to my last post (the one where I said I'd post tomorrow...which is now yesterday). Ironically, the reason I didn't post was because I was feeling pressed for time while writing a poem about time. I finished that poem this afternoon, which so happens to be very windy. The wind may have influenced pieces of the poem. See if you can guess which parts those are!

                                                         The Flight of a Moment

Recall, if you can, while we watch the sun die
Those moments that fled from us, thundering by.
We ran and we gasped and we snatched at the air;
In vain, we attempted the speed to impair.

But we could not catch them; the speed never thinned,
And time was an element riding the wind.
Pursued as it was while we chased it uphill,
Time laughed o'er its shoulder and flew faster still.

Or do you remember much different times?
The silence, to us, was like magical chimes.
Though it was one hour, we felt it was years,
And in that still moment we eased from our fears.

Our lives are so full with the quick and the slow.
One hour may glide or else speedily blow.
Breathe in and breathe out. Watch that crimson gold glow,
And let life go on with its ebb and its flow.

An Extremely Short Word Count Wednesday

                                                          What am I working on?
I'm still working on that story I mentioned last week (the one I was being very vague about). My goal for this week is to post a few things to introduce this story - things like my character drawings and descriptions, maps, and perhaps a bit of the first chapter...We shall see.

                                                   How do I feel about the process

So far, I'm still really enjoying working on this story again. It's been a long while since I've gotten it out and "dusted it off," except that you can't exactly dust a virtual manuscript.

                                                           What am I reading?

Quite a few things, but nothing new.

Total word count: TBA

About 415

I will post again tomorrow!

Hopefully.

Thursday Musings

                                                           What am I working on?

     I finally got a relatively substantial amount of writing done over Spring Break. As many years as I've had this story in the making, I still don't have a title for it. I could give a summary of the story, but it might get confusing cause I'm still figuring out names for people and places.
     Drawing has been very helpful to me in cementing my characters look like, especially since they're from another world and have a somewhat different look from people on Earth.

     I also wrote a very strange "poem" today that had no rhyme or reason. It was just one of those things where I couldn't stop, and then I read it over and the result was like: o.0

                                                How do I feel about the process?

     Now that Spring Break is over, I'm having a hard time getting up the gumption to write. Somehow, it seems like it should be the other way around...  

                                                            What am I reading?

     My reading list is the same as last week's, with the slight adjustment of replacing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

     As for the "Total Word Count," I really don't want to hunt up my penciled drafts and count each word. Suffice it say I wrote somewhere near a thousand words...