For Whoever Is Interested - My New Author's Page!

[TMS]

Figured I would add a topic of my own to tell about what's going on in my life.

Things are pretty good at the moment. I'm on Christmas break through the rest of the month, though I will be having my wisdom teeth removed on the 14th, so that might suck a little.

I decided several years ago that whatever day job I have, I was going to be a writer of fiction. I'm not really interested in one particular genre, though looking over my list of stories to write I guess most would be considered horror. I wrote a few short stories in high school which are in bad need of revision, and have also just finished the first short story I'm going to try to publish, "The Other Lodger."

A few of you may have noticed that I also started a topic on the Writing board, with my Digimon/Cthulhu Mythos fan fiction The Call. I got three parts of it out, but now am having trouble getting back into writing. Being on Christmas break is making me lazy, I guess. I keep meaning to add more to that story or to resume work on Alpha and Omega, a novel I started forever ago. Hopefully my sense of responsibility will require me to finish The Call so as not to leave any potential readers hanging (the two responses I got to it were positive feedback).

I have so many ideas for stories. I have listed the ideas for 83 novels (not including The Call, if that ends of being as long as I expect it to be), 3 novellas, and 175 short stories. Hopefully I can get at least a few of those released to the world before I keel over one of these days.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you've made it this far. I'm glad to be a part of something like With the Will, but have not been very sociable up to this point. Might add to this topic later if anything of note happens in my rather uninteresting life.

 

[Jay Ukyou]

How did you get into Digimon in the first place? What has kept you interested?

 

[TMS]

My younger brother got me started on watching the first season of the dub. I watched the first three seasons in the dub. We didn't have cable at the time, so I was unable to watch season four once it switched networks, and I kind of grew away from Digimon.

Several years later, I was showing my brother the wonders of Wikipedia, which I had just recently discovered. As an example of its usefullness I showed him its complete list of Digimon. I decided then to look at "Dragomon," who I had always been interested in since episode 13 of season 2. I saw that he was based on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and so I started reading those stories. Basically from then on my interests in Digimon and the Cthulhu Mythos have fed each other, with the latter inspiring me to become a writer myself.

Savers was starting around this time, and I took to watching the episodes as they were subbed. After finishing that series I went back and watched the Japanese version of Frontier, then of Adventure, 02, and Tamers. I've never bothered to watch season four of the dub or Data Squad. The dub was good enough to get me hooked on Digimon, but now that I'm older the original versions are better suited for me.

As for why I like Digimon, who knows. Maybe it's the giant monsters, or all the information to memorize, or the way they evolve. Oh well. I just love it all, I guess.

 

[TMS]

Well, wisdom teeth out tomorrow. I probably won't be eating much the next few days. I'll be spending my recuperation time writing and reading, so more of The Call should be expected. I'm planning on updating that story every other day or so, working on my own more serious fiction on the off days. Hope everyone else is doing okay.

 

[TMS]

Been a while since I updated this topic, mostly because nothing has really been happening. Christmas and New Years have come and gone, leaving me buried in new video games, books, and DVDs that will probably take years to finish (I think there's some DVDs from previous years I still haven't gotten to). I'm back at school for winter quarter, which has added to the pileon with reading and writing assignments.

So, I've been busy. My writing (by which I mean the writing I actually want to do) has pretty much ground to a halt (a few of you may have noticed that my fanfiction on this site, The Call, has not been updated since the start of this month - the beginning of winter quarter). God, I miss summer. No school, I could wake up in the morning, do nothing but write 9 to 5, then enjoy the nice weather until the sun sets and I go to bed. Unfortunately, I'll probably have to take at least one summer class this year. I'm working sporadically on The Call, and have promised myself (and am now promising ukyouluvr, Lhikan, and any other readers the story may have) not to go a month without an update. I came close once already.

By the way, I've finally broken down and made With the Will my homepage. It was Google, but the forum is almost always the first place I navigate to. All the best.

 

[TMS]

Isn't it funny how all the tests and papers hit around the same time in a quarter? That's where I am now. As winter quarter draws to a close, all the essays need to be written. I really wish they would try to spread them out more, at least when multiple essays are for the same class. Anyway, it's going to be a busy week. I doubt I'll have time to write anything else before Thursday at the earliest. Oh well...

 

[TMS]

Well, the week from hell is pretty much over. Now I can get back to writing. Unfortunately there are now new frustrations like trying to book all the classes I need for next quarter, and preparing for finals and a nasty paper. I'm living for Spring Break, at the moment.

 

[TMS]

Ahhhhh....

The big paper is done, next quarter's classes are signed up for, and all that I have standing between me and a week of freedom are two exams. This is great. I can put a bunch of time into writing, and can watch movies I've been meaning to see. I may even play a videogame. It's been over a month! I am in a good mood.

If only Xros Wars wasn't on hiatus, things would be perfect.

 

[TMS]

Huh. Guess it's been a while. Spring Quarter is virtually over. I have a take-home exam due Friday, exams on Wednesday and Friday, and then it's on to summer break. If I get any free time in the coming week, I'll be working on writing The Call. I still plan on devoting the entirety of my first week of freedom after exams to writing, so that I can start making amends to my long-suffering readers for the frequent (and lengthy) hiatuses.

 

[TMS]

Totally forgot I had this topic.

After my last post in spring I had a lovely summer, and then a fall quarter of school which is about to wrap up. Just this weekend I finished my last major project of the quarter, a full short story. I have a few 3-pages-or-so essays left to write for the same class, and a linguistics quiz, but the worst is behind me except for my comprehensive Spanish exam in a week or so.

My university is a little unusual in that after fall quarter we are free from school until after New Year's Day, so I'm really looking forward to having some time to relax and to get back to less important but more interesting projects such as The Call. I've also done some preliminary work on something else that I plan to eventually share with the forum, but I'm not ready to talk much about it yet. I also need to get back to work on my little Digimon fan wiki thing. My other plans you probably wouldn't find very interesting.

 

[Jacq]

Linguistics! What level are you at / What are you studying/interested in? If you ever need any help with that, I'm finishing my undergrad for honours ling (phonetics) this year and I'd love to try to help before I jump into TA-ing next year.

Generative/Chomskian, optimality theory, evolutionary phonology, or exemplar?!

 

[TMS]

[quote author=Jacq link=topic=15512.msg220075#msg220075 date=1320644886]
Generative/Chomskian, optimality theory, evolutionary phonology, or exemplar?!
[/quote]

Introductory. lol

I'm taking it as a requisite, but I don't plan to study it after this quarter. I have enjoyed it though. Now I know what pronunciation guides are trying to tell me.

 

[Jacq]

Aw man.
Well, good luck on the quiz. If you have an opportunity to take more of the "fun" ling courses (ie - things that aren't phonology, syntax, historical, or semantics) I recommend it, if for no other reason then it looks good at parties.

 

[TMS]

I've decided it's time for another sporadic update to my personal topic. As I outlined in my last post here, I am now on winter break until 2012. My brother is home from his college, and I've been having fun catching up with him. Unfortunately, I've caught a cold, which has left me feeling too crappy to get much done. Which is a shame, since I had a lot I was hoping to get done or make progress on. I picked up on Digimon World 4 again, and have been playing through Castlevania: Harmony of Despair with my brother. Besides the games I've been trying to do some reading.

As is usual on my breaks, I'm hoping to get a good deal of writing done. And while I love spending time with my family, the constant noise around the house makes it difficult to focus enough on the work. Looking back, I'm a little surprised that I got so much written back when my brother lived here full time. Being sick doesn't help. I've had trouble enough just writing this post. The rest of my family have all had this same cold, but are now recovered, so hopefully I'll get better quickly and find time to lengthen The Call a bit.

I've also been trying to get into making my own CCGs, starting with Digimon Tactics. Work on Tactics is progressing good. I'm waiting for Garith to get back to me with art for the cards, after which things should be able to get rolling. I'm also turning over in my head an idea for another game based on classic horror, fantasy, mystery, and science fiction literature.

 

[TMS]

Hello again. I'm trying to get into a more regular schedule for my various endeavors, some of which have suffered lately for lack of attention. I am still in school, and of course school must come first. I attend my classes, and I do any homework for the next time I have that class once I get home. While in class, I'm usually journaling, typically either figuring out what to do next in The Call or working on building the world of my more serious writing efforts. When at home without homework to be done, I'm either working on the Digimon Tactics card game (if something is distracting me, like my parents watching television) or writing (when I have quiet time to myself). Hopefully people interested in The Call and Digimon Tactics will start seeing the benefits of this more focused approach soon.

 

[Py687]

Wow, sounds like you're really focused on this. When you say you want a day job as a writer, have you thought about what medium you're going to publish in (and how far away that might be)?

Seems like you have a busy life. You don't play sports or anything?

 

[TMS]

No, no sports. About the extent of my exercise is climbing stairs and swinging down at my old grade school's playground after class when the weather's nice.

I'm trying to stay focused, but I'm a veteran procrastinator, and this isn't the first time I've made resolutions like this, but hopefully this one will stick.

When it comes to writing as a career, I'll have to start out small and work my way up. I'm optimistic about my chances, but it pays to be realistic. I'll begin by trying to get short stories published in whatever paying medium will take them. I have a few written, though I haven't tried to publish yet, mostly through laziness, though I'm slowly getting around to it. There are a lot of good books out there which can help writers to find the markets they want to break into, and others that give advice on how they should go about doing it.

I know that I won't be able to support myself as a full-time fiction writer. I will need some kind of day job to provide me with a steady stream of funds while I work on writing and publishing my first efforts. Since I plan on living alone for quite some time into the future, if not always, it hopefully won't take much to keep me comfortable. Right now I live with my parents, commute to school, and work a minimum wage job on the weekends. After I graduate in the spring I'm going to see about getting a better-paying job and trying to move out.

I'm going to start out with short stories, but I have a novel that I'm working on, and there's much more to do in the future. At the moment I'm playing catch-up, in a way. I have a list of ideas for novels, novellas, and short stories (though the lengths of those may change as I write them) which may very well take up the rest of my life. Right now, at the most conservative count, I have ideas for 50 novels and 106 shorter works, set in the same literary universe, with ties between the vsrious stories. It will take a long, long time.

Right now in the publishing world it seems like literature is shifting away from print to electronic stuff like the Kindle. Publishing works on the latter is easier and more lucrative, though I'm not convinced yet that a Kindle writer can build up a reputation like that now enjoyed by franchise writers like, say, Stephen King. Kindle will probably be my backup plan if I have trouble breaking into the market of printed books. I'm trying to think big on this, and try to be as optimistic as possible, something that doesn't come naturally to me. In fact, I would love to spread out into other materials as well, particularly as a gamer. It would be cool to do a card game, like Fantasy Flight Games' A Game of Thrones LCG, or a tie-in video game.

But that's years away, if anywhere. Right now I can just stick to the current plan and work my way up.

 

[Py687]

Yeah, but at least it sounds like you have a plan. Not sure if you know about it already, but every November there's an event geared towards writers called Nanowrimo, and during that month you aim to write at least 50000 words to create a novel. I think for some years a printed manuscript/book was the reward, but I'm not too certain. Ice has more info, I believe.

Honestly, I'm sort of interested in the literary profession as well, but being only a high school senior, I don't really have plans for the future, nor do I want to commit myself on a career yet. And things like writing the storyline for a video game or creating a card game sounds pretty good as well. I guess journalism is the one thing I don't see myself doing.

Good luck on this, dude.

 

[TMS]

Thank you. I wish you success in whatever you decide to do. I had heard of Nanowrimo from instructors and classmates in my fiction classes, though I'm not sure whether I would want to participate. It would help me finally get some writing done, but I wouldn't attempt it until I've graduated. The Call is approaching 100,000 words, but that's taken me two years. Hopefully things pick up when I no longer have school to worry about.

 

[TMS]

Spring break has come and gone with little progress on forum-relevant projects. I'm now into my Spring quarter, the last before I get my bachelor's degree. Most of the lack of progress can be attributed to the fact that I've taken an interest in the Kingdom Hearts series of video games and was trying to get through the first one before school started back up. This was fun, and I was successful, though it came at a cost. Last quarter I had three classes that were both writing and reading intensive, so I was forced to virtually shelve The Call and Digimon Tactics. This next quarter should be easier, with only one 400 level class, and two of my classes being low level electives like History 101 and Geography 202. If I can stay focused I should be able to get some stuff done. If anyone has been waiting on me, thanks for your patience.