October Goals

Hello,

Thanks for the likes and follows. For October, the flowers are marigolds and cosmos. The birthstones are opal and tourmaline.

September ended, and we are all still dealing with the unexpected. An author more successful than I has a 90-day method, and she suggests a reset 4 times a year. Evaluate what works and what does not. Establish new strategies and sustain progress.

Writing update: Dead Girl Tale 2: Nox (DGT2) has been on pause for at least 2 weeks now. The change perspective method did not work as well as I hoped; instead of forcing words, I have moved back into a thinking phase for the scene. It was a little disappointing. I don’t want to tolerate setbacks, especially since DGT2 is part of a series.

This is where I tell an odd anecdote. I have multiple stories in various stages of development. I decided to be practical and look up ways to produce short stories. An excellent site for generating short story prompts is Reedsy. There are even weekly writing contests with rules and an application fee, but it’s worth it if you win or get an honorary mention. I’ve been a member since 2022, I think. So I saw a prompt and decided to write with it. I had no intention of entering a contest; my writing has not been consistent enough for that. I took the prompt and started to write, and the story fit easily into the FM Monogatari (FMM) writing project. This is a series of paranormal/urban fantasy short stories and novelettes featuring the same characters: Fayte (Fate) Devoe and Maghnus Knight. Monogatari is a Japanese word for a story. I am not an expert, and this is just a working title that I borrowed from a book I liked. I may have written about this project before. The idea has been in my mind since 2016. It’s paranormal and feels appropriate for October, and I have at least 2 complete stories for the anthology. They do need some edits, tweaks, and clean-ups, but they are in the almost-done phase of the writing process. Which was a happy surprise for me. All this time, I thought I was a mouse on a wheel, going nowhere, when in fact, progress was hiding in plain sight, or in a file folder.

This does not mean I have given up on DGT2. I will review my notes and adjust the outline to move the story where it needs to be.

Media update: The C-dramas I’ve been watching have reached the arc where the male lead and female lead have become a couple, and the real antagonist is revealing themselves. I’ve taken a break from them.

Instead, I updated my account to the streaming service Peacock and found myself rewatching the sci-fi drama Defiance and the urban fantasy Sanctuary. During the early 2000s, these were my go-to shows. In later seasons, the narratives got muddled, and I’m wondering if I was wrong. I found more problematic tropes and potential story waste. I was not aware of this before, but Peacock has produced a significant amount of original content. Some of the Peacock shows are fascinating and appropriate for October. The shows I’m going to mention for now are Girl in the Woods. It is a horror series based on the short film “Door in the Woods.” I am not a horror fan, but this felt more YA than just horror. I was intrigued to see how it would end. The other Peacock original is Vampire Academy, based on the book series by Richelle Mead. The series was considered a contemporary of the Twilight series. There was a movie that did not do well. Someone thought they could make it a TV show. Similar to what was done to The Mortal Instruments, a book series by Cassandra Clare, which became the TV show Shadowhunters. I would like to write more, but that is a post all on its own.

Goals for the month are to write 500 new words a day on the project of choice. This could mean DGT2 or FM Monogatari. I will also continue to look into writing prompts and see if I can apply them to the other story ideas and characters. I know I mentioned this before, but in the future for this website, I plan to launch a story page. The logistics of it all have yet to be finalized. The other goal is to complete the scenes in FMM and finalize the outlines of DGT2.

That is all for now. I wrote more than I planned to. This is what accountability looks like, I guess. I hope this post finds you all doing well. Don’t miss any positive opportunities and remember to be kind.

The End

Updates March 28-April 01

Hello,

Thank you for the likes and follows.

Last week was a little difficult. Fortunately, I was able to post for 4-days it is one of my overall goals. The Accountable Wednesday will be there until I have decent reviews. When I am not home I will be using my tablet and that is a little difficult. I have relied heavily on Grammarly. The service is really great it even tells me if the posts sound friendly, informative, or disapproving. Which can change with a simple sentence about smiling. It is the best that can be done with the free service.

I mention Sacha Black writing craft book on writing villains, 13 Steps to Evil. I got the audiobook but I haven’t started to listen to it. I was preoccupied with my life that is not writing. Around that time I watched a couple of YT videos about the upcoming Camp Nanowrimo. At first, I thought I won’t participate. I intended to encourage anyone and everyone who would. Then I heard someone give some reasons on why they would be participating in Camp Nanowrimo, despite their very successful career in the writing and publishing industry. It had to do with accountability and comradery. I totally understand that so I reconsidering. The writing project would be Connection Lost and associated stories. I have a few more days to think about it and possibly the first week of April. However, I have heard you can enter Camp Nanowrimo or Nanowrimo at any in the designated months you just have to reach the goal set to win. The fun part of Camp is that you can set your own goal. For precise details please visit http://www.nanowrimo.org.

Another thing I watched on Youtube was a commentary video about TV reboots, it was on MelinaPendulum channel by Princess Weekes. I don’t always agree with Princess but in this episode, she was on point. It influenced me to watch the CW reboot of Charmed 2018. I believe I have said this before, what annoys many fans about live-action shows and reboots like Charmed, is the potential wasted. The blatant audacity that something like that can become canon. This is how avid fans flip tables. I don’t agree with inappropriate behavior, I only understand the emotion, not crappy actions. This was most of my weekend and it was fun because I was analyzing narrative and character motivations.

This week will look similar to last week. I will be either writing on a non-fiction writing project or Connection Lost. I have not decided on a word count. It will be something I start up again next week in April the first month of the 2nd Quarter. I will also discuss what I thought about the first 3 months.

That was all for this update. If you have any comments on any of the subjects mentioned by all means share. I hope these last few days of March go well for you all. Remember to be kind.

End

Essay #008

Korean Dramas and how I started to love them.

Normally, I attempt to post a review of books or films that I am interested in on Wednesday.

I don’t know the exact numbers, but K-dramas are very popular in the US. The popularity grew steadily over the past ten years or so. This is a brief story on how I became familiar with them.

I was an anime fan since I was a kid and watched Robotech (called Marcross everywhere else), Voltron, and G-Force a.k.a. Battle of the Planets. In the early 2000’s, I resigned from my job and moved to Atlanta Georgia with my family. Mostly unemployed I had time to indulge in more anime than what was offered on Adult Swim and Toonami. My cable company offered the anime channel and the AZN network, there were also the bootleg websites. I avidly dived in for the anime. AZN was an Asian American channel like BET and Univision, while exploring the channel I came across Korean dramas.

AZN offered two shows that I remembered fondly, Rooftop Cat and Secrets (or at least that is what I think the name is).

Rooftop Cat was about a playboy taking advantage of an underestimated girl, until he realized he loved her. It was a romantic comedy, and my description doesn’t sound like fun, but that is what I remember about it. I loved watching it because I am a sucker for romance. Rooftop Cat had it all the beta male and female, the love quadrangle. The girl realizing, she was smart and worthy to get anything she wants in life, make her family proud and choose the love she wants. The playboy realizing that it is better for him to get serious with his life and stop deluding himself on what he thinks is important.

Rooftop Cat left me with good feelings, and it was followed by Secrets.

The gist of Secrets from memory, there will be spoilers. Two sisters, the older sister is raised by her grandmother and the younger by the father. For reasons, the father mistreats his older child and spoils the younger. The sisters both aspire of being fashion designers, but the older sister has the talent. They are both are hired by big fashion company owned by a woman. The fashion Boss is ill and regretting the hard decisions she made in life. She is looking for the daughter she abandoned. She gives this to the second boss in her company the job of finding her lost daughter. As the story unfolds, the younger sister schemes to get ahead in the company and in the heart of the second boss. She makes the fashion boss believe she is the lost daughter, knowing that it is her sister. The second boss loved/ the kind talented older sister. Drama ensues because schemers are never happy with what they get. The truths were revealed in the end. The sisters reconciled in a fashion and the fashion boss mom also met with her real daughter and emotionally adopted the second daughter. I even think the father and daughters made peace.

These two stories had me hooked on Korean dramas from then on. Unfortunately, AZN folded as a channel. I had to go online to get my K-drama fix, I found episodes on Daily motion, Veoh, my soju and Crunchyroll. They were fan subbed and sometimes had grammatical errors, but I understood it. My soju offered shows from all over Asia, I saw the Zhanshen Mars on it from Taiwan and the earliest live-action Itazura na Kiss from Japan as well as Hana Yori Dango. Alas my Soju fell because of copyright infringement, Viki became Rakutan Viki and Crunchyroll survived the Asian drama/anime distribution wars and other distributors were formed later. I don’t even know if the Anime network channel still exist in some form.

Anyway, I am still a fan of this type of entertainment. The stories are always interesting, emotionally charged and sometimes filled with unbelievable cliches. It is always interesting to see how other places in the world, how other people tell stories; what values are pushed aside or upheld. In the future I will review a K-drama or Asian drama along with books, films, anime etc.

End