Summer Term and update on Light from the Dark and something new.

Hello, all you readers! It is now time for my update. So, I started the summer term at the start of the week and I have quickly realized... I am way over my head. I still haven't adjusted from semesters to quarters, and now I'm in the extreme shortened summer term. I also decided to take three advanced psychology courses. So, what does my workload look like? Glad you asked!

I am taking evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, and psychology of creativity. Evolutionary Psychology has its midterm on July 10th and final on the 29th, plus a required reading of 90 pages and three quizzes per week. Cognitive Psychology has three exams on 7/8, 7/21, and my final on 8/4 with roughly the same amount of workload except only one quiz a week but final paper on top of it. And then creative psychology lasts until 8/28... but I'm so overwhelmed I haven't even looked at the course load yet! And none of that includes other assignments tied to each class. So... what does that mean? I have little free time to write now, less than before and I was already overloaded. So, I had to make some cuts to my plans...

All those fimfic ideas that I really liked? Goodbye. Instead, to ensure that I get myself to write at least four times a week, I decided to take the idea I had for the novel I hoped to one day get published, and turn it into a fimfic. I've had to make a few tweaks to the characters so they can be EqG characters, and I've had to completely redesign the first chapter... but that's about it.

Solar Flare is probably my favorite idea I have ever created. It would work as a novel, an anime, a TV show, a manga, and even a really good video game. Over the last 12 years, I've filled up about two entire notebooks of settings, characters, scene ideas, and countless other things. Personally, I would love to turn it into an RPG epic as its own IP, but that's just never going to happen.

So, what is Solar Flare? It is an idea I started working with when the first Sword Art Online released all those years ago. I never liked SAO, but the basic concept was something I was intrigued in. While the genre ballooned, there were certain concepts and ideas that were avoided, and I don't necessarily blame them. I remember watching a video about how much harder and longer it was to design Nihlus for Mass Effect, compared to Saren, even though he was only actually in the game for those few brief moments. And that's kinda what it felt like writing the opening.

Over the years, I have added several ideas and concepts that have become popular in mainstream anime/manga or media. While a decent amount of those ideas were originally created for other stories. I decided to merge them with this and I think it has worked for the better in a lot of ways. What are those ideas? Well, to be honest I don't want to say. Spoilers after all. I know it seems like a case of "believe me, I have a plan and when I tell you, you'll see." And yet, you know the person is so full of shit. I get it, my track record for publishing stuff is... nonexistent even though I've repeatedly said I would.

Honestly, I have no idea how long this will take to write, and I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually loses it's qualifications as a fimfic and I look to submit it somewhere else. Turning it into a fimfic has made the story different, but not substantially so. My goal is, currently, to try and write 500 words every time I get out of the shower. I do most of my thinking internally during the shower so my hope is that I can carry it over onto paper.

One of my biggest problems with writing is that I constantly rewrite on-top of my writing while I write which means I tend to have 10 iterations of the same chapter that is never completed, it is a majority of the reasons as to why nothing ever gets published. My hope is to completely scrap that problem and just focus on getting words down. Let the editing stage come much later.

So, when can you expect it to be published? Hopefully by the end of the year. This is a multi-arc epic that will take a long time to write. I want to wait until I have the first arc completely written and about 75% completely edited. That way, if I decide to eliminate the fimfic aspect, there will still be a complete story here for everyone.

Based off early projections of what I want to include, expect that first arc to be around 150k in length with about 12-18 chapters, including a prologue. My eventual plan is to get around 2,000 words a day (I take a lot of cold showers since I have no air-conditioning).

So what does that mean for the co-writing of Light from the Dark? Well, no idea. We've both been stuck on this one specific scene that is vital to the story. Because it is in the first unreleased chapter, we can't actually publish anything else. It honestly would not surprise me if we finish all other chapters before that one specific scene. We've also toyed with the idea of completely re-writing the entire story from the ground up... but that is highly unlikely. That being said, Nobodyslament is also really busy too. Just got married, new job, and much more, so the amount of time to write together has been ... slim. But the story line is complete, it just needs to be written. Hopefully, I can find some extra time too.

Anyway, it has taken about an hour to write this thing so I am really running late. the library closes at five PST and it is nearly noon here. It's also closed on the weekends because it is summer. I've yet to eat today and I have a bunch of stuff to do that is due. I wouldn't be concerned if the internet actually worked where I live (seriously, 50kbps speeds? This isn't the early 2000s! Meanwhile, the school internet downloaded Assassins Creed Odyssey, X-Com 2 [with all DLC], Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and SAO Fatal Bullet in under two hours) because then I could just do my homework here... but It rarely does. Over the hour I spent typing this, I've been trying to download a video for class --140MB -- it STILL isn't done. I hate this internet.

I should sign off now, but one last thing before I go.

Now that I have a gaming computer, I've decided to start adding to my old steam account. If you'd like to add me on steam, this is my account link: BluexXHorizon. I have also created an EA origin account to play Apex on my laptop when I have free time and am at school. I may not be the best, but, I've found that I can be pretty dominant with a controller (and aim-assist turned off) when I have a good internet connection. That is also BluexXHorizon.

I also have a PSN if you ever what to chat and play games on PS4 and a Switch (though no online stuff). My PSN is BluexXHorizon. And if you ever want to check my Twitter, which is mostly ponies or sports, you can find it at @BluexXHorizon ... yes, I use BluexXHorizon for everything even though my new OC that I've designed is Cadenza Star (since I'm no longer using her as a character, I just made her my own).

Either way, thanks for taking the time to read that (if you actually did). I hope you all have a good day/week/month. Hopefully some of you will drop me a line and I'll see you soon.

And remember, go Browns!