Monthly Progress Update [May 2018] (Panthalassa + A Bit Of The Drifting Chariot) · 8:08pm May 3rd, 2018
Albums I'm Listening To This Month [May 2018]
May the 4th be with you! *lightsaber rave party sounds from another time zone*
Another month, another update. It'll be a really busy month for me, especially as I have a performance to put on this Saturday. Picture a spectacled, bony Asian dude banging away on a keyboard while singing this bloody song until my throat gets pulverized.
I'm also still a bit giddy that The Drifting Chariot bagged an award from the latest Scribblefest. Not sure what that actually means in the grand scheme of things, especially since doing contests aren't exactly my forte, but I'm sure as heck glad that I gave it a shot. I do wanna share a bit of the thought process behind it though, since it's kinda funny how it all turned out. Mind you, I'm technically spoiling the story a bit, so if you don't mind that, go on ahead.
But first, to the utterly devious:
Panthalassa
Okay, few things I wanna unpack here for a bit.
Story's still running smoothly, especially with how little free time I have left, though I definitely could spare a bit more if I wasn't so demotivated after a few thousand words or so. Spent a lot of brain juice mostly thinking up names and quotes and random scientific + magical mumbo jumbo does that, which really is the reason why I wrote The Drifting Chariot and my Vignettes collection as a way to outweigh the coldness of doing that.
One other way I'm thinking of doing so is to just get rid of the whole 'release it altogether' plan I had for it. I wanted to do that initially cause it's the kind of story that works better as a whole than it being fed part by part. I didn't want to spend the better part of the year working on it either like I did with Mamihlapinatapai. Conversely, however, what really drove me onward to finish the aforementioned story was me getting excited by the views and comments and some such. I'm certain Panthalassa wouldn't get as big of a reception, but if I do get any, it'll become a motivator nonetheless.
As for the actual content, there have been some major changes made which I think will solidify the overarching theme of the story better. Of course, you guys have no idea what changes I'm talking about anyway 
. Basically, the scope of whatever happens to Moondancer in the story would be broadened a bit, for reasons you'll find out as soon as the story's published.
How soon? Quite soon, actually. Either in the next few hours of me typing this, or in a few days.
Alright, now for The Drifting Chariot.
Honest to goodness, didn't expect a win. As I've mentioned few times earlier, this story was written as a conduit to outbalance the cold, hard logic oozing from Panthalassa, so everything vivid and emotive I could conjure up was channeled into that story. In the beginning, I knew that I wanted to write a fairytale-esque story regarding family. This was all before they've announced the prompt for Scribblefest, so you can imagine how surprised I was when that came out.
I've also wanted to write a SugarMac story. It became canon, so I thought 'why not'. That's when I started thinking about how a lot of ships were made with Big Mac throughout the years, so I also thought 'why not'. On that note, I'm pretty sure anyone who's read the story knew who Melody's real mother was. Didn't mention it, but I think it's kinda obvious who it was. I did want to make it vaguer, but eh.
I still think the last bits of interaction at the end between Sugar Belle and Big Mac can be done better. Conversation felt a bit stilted. That's really the only gripe I really have with the story.
Anyways, I just wanna say thanks to EverfreeNorthwest, more for the opportunity to participate rather than the win, honestly. Also, to everyone doing the judging as well! I'd list your names out here if I knew them all.
Also, do check out my fellow winners and the other nominees . Haven't read all of them yet, though I'm certainly liking some of those that I've read already. Don't know if I'm gonna do this again next year though. We'll have to see.
So yes, Panthalassa will be unleashed for the masses soon. Those who liked Chariot, Atomic Number and all my other fluffier stories, this story is the polar opposite. It's freaky as heck, that's all I can say for now.
Until then, WritingSpirit, signing out!
