An effort in record keeping · 2:06pm Dec 1st, 2023
Once upon a time, I had the bright idea that I would write a big ol' superhero story. I wanted weekly releases, I wanted it to be serialized like a shounen jump manga (I.e. the people that produce one piece, chainsaw man, dragonball etc.). When I came up with this idea, it was the story of an AU Applejack who was sometimes a super hero based on the song, I'm no superman by Lazlo Bane, and this image by NCMARES.
This would be the single greatest undertaking I had ever set out for in my life, and to the surprise of mostly me, I actually managed it. On April 26th, 2021, I managed to sit down and get the thing done, writing something like 20K words in about a day. What's funny about the blog post I made that day was how little of it I actually stuck to. Never got published but published the books myself, didn't reread the story, never went back and did any edits. To be completely honest I think I have at least some level of dyslexia because, man, learning Japanese has been hard. There are three kanji I hate with a passion, them being time, wait, and hold (時、待、持). There are many kanji like this with slight differences in them, and these, in the grand scheme of all the ones I've learned, are not even that bad. English for me is the same way, specifically with the letters 'd' and 't' and how I have trouble getting displaced line to line when I'm reading something. I have a very bad habit of skipping from quote to quote and I think that's in part my brain trying to compensate for my actual ability. Author is really the worst dream/hobby I could've possibly chosen.
However, the thing I did stick to from that post was that I'd step away from this site for a while. Between Super's last chapter and the next pony fic I wrote, Ghosting, an entire year passed. Not that I hadn't been doing anything since then, I spent about five months trying to get somebody to take up Star Overhead (the first three volumes as one book) before I gave up on that and released them myself. I still hand out copies of Volume 1 to people I meet when I can afford it, but a lot changed for me in that year.
I quit a job I hated, found a new job I also hated, but not as much as the previous one, and took the step to end up here in Japan. Still, I kept writing in all that time and I've been keeping track of it since then. A majority of the work I've been doing goes into OF Star Overhead, and today I logged 2k into Volume 6. However, on occasion, I check in here to see if there are contests about and sometimes I get ideas from those to write about. In 2021 I started to really get into Gundam, and by the time I was applying to come to Japan, I was really into Gundam. It is a great big money hole to fall into, especially if you're an artist like I am and you decided that it's a great idea to spend 20KJPY (about 200 US) just to build a Santa Claus themed Gundam to show the kids before winter break. cough
Anyways, this obsession has come into contact with my other ones in the form of Bionic Titan. This was not actually the first time I've done this, I realized the other day, and I have a story hidden away in my drives about one Princess Applejack that apparently never left my head. Reading my entry for Imposing Soverigns IV, I realized that I was, beat for beat, rewriting that old story in my initial draft for it and added a bunch of things to make it more solid of an idea. I'd forgotten the previous story until a friend reminded me of it when he gave me his first comments on it. Apparently, I like this idea a lot and my writing is miles better than it was then, but something about me needs to have this story happen, so for now, I'm going to add 'bionic titans' to my plate.
Since It's been about two years since I wrote a blog like the last one I posted, I figure I ought to come back and start these again. During the composition of Super, I wrote a 'weekly editorial' like you find in the back of manga volumes, trying to stick to that style of 'author rambles about shit.' I'm not about to go all Fujimoto on you and talk about my strange spiritual encounter with a dead pet goldfish that I ended up eating instead of burying, but I do think that 'daily life in Japan' should be a thing, so it's gonna be a thing. On Fridays in Sun Rise Land time, from now indefinitely in the future, I'm going to start posting blogs like this. Mostly to beef up that daily word count, since I can't always be fucked to do anything, but as any narcissist can attest, an artist will always find time to write about himself.
If you're new here, welcome to the Crossbone Vanguard, and if you're not, welcome back.
Anyways, more Star Overhead, more Bionic Titan, and more rambling to come.
Until next time~
-KCZ
This is so very true. Everyone's favorite subject is themselves.
So in the case of Bionic Titans, do you intend to stick to short stories (for a certain definition of "short") for it or can we expect a larger single piece someday?
I would suggest putting Sometimes They Call Me Super into book form, but it's awfully large for that...
Seeing your commentary on how you lost so much time trying to get a publisher to accept Star Overhead reminds me of why I have zero intention of even trying with those people.
5757474
Of course! I would know. I wrote it.
I legitimately don't know. Short to me these days is about what the original story was (50K) since I literally wrote that in a month, and I don't have anything in mind yet where I could do this again. I have one story which is mostly written and just needs to be finished (a direct prequel to the original) and another which would be a sequel to Operation Damocles focused on Twilight and Dusk set around Christmas that I hope to get out before then.
It is awfully large for that, but luckily, it is separated into arcs and I could definitely have it split up into separate volumes (Origin/Harmony/Persona/Finale) Maybe I'll make that my side project going into 24. I redrew the cover so many times that I think I actually have enough cover art already made to just slap one on each and move on. Only... it needs work. The janky formatting needs to be corrected, and some of it needs to be adjusted for the first person story it is.
I don't think it was a totally vain thing to attempt, but I've learned very quickly that if your story doesn't tune to the modern liberal agenda, then you will have a difficult time getting anywhere with anyone, and more open minded publishers are more selective and harder to get a hold of. E.G. I sent it to a published I know would let my ideas be published, they took a year to review my manuscript, and then, of course, came back with a rejection. I learned things, so it wasn't useless.