Another book complete! · 1:14pm April 12th
So, as of Wednesday, the rough draft of Star Overhead Volume 6 is complete! The current word count comes out to about...
Yeah, it's got a few words in there. This is of course without all the formatting, afterword and foreword that I usually write for the completed books, so it should be around 300 pages when it's done by virtue of it being about the same length as Volume 4. On the one hand, I'm so glad it's finally done. On the other hand, now I have to: Buy cover art, make the back cover, perform the first pass of the last section of the story, and the second pass of the entire book, then the third pass where I record the audio book. All in all, I'm hoping to have it done by early or the middle of May, but my arbitrary deadline for publishing the book on Amazon should be May 31st, or realistically, May 28th so that the book is actually available for purchase by the 31st.
Being alive with debt is expensive, so if you could buy the books, that would help me a lot. Personally, I think Volume 6 has some of the more... crushing emotional moments for the series and resolves just about everybody's arcs who aren't named Dawn or Poppie. Unlike all the previous books which focus almost exclusively on title character and Dawn, I took a different approach this time and the flow is Poppie > Character > Poppie. This only breaks for the big Dawn section of the book because it's a lot. I had to go back and basically reread the whole series just to make sure everything was tied in the way I wanted it to be.
If I wanted to compare it to the original story here on fim, it's kind of like chapters 6 and 7 of that mashed together with a much more distressing conclusion. It's very much not the last book in the series, I can say that at least. It was also very hard to write because, as I've learned, I get depressed writing depressed characters. Being stuck in that mindset and actively trying to be the most negative I can possibly be about everything is a good way to burn myself out. I don't know if I just find Pinkie too difficult to write or maybe too real to write.
For instance, having Grounded and Ghosting reviewed made me want to pick up an old idea and write a story about Pinkie's family in the Bright Future series. Only, I got a little bit into it and it just wasn't clicking for me. I think, what it comes down to, is that I don't really know what to do to motivate Pinkie or even how she ticks all that well as a real character beyond 'lol random.' Because when I do write her, 90% of the time, it's Party of One Pinkie with major self image issues, a dash of schizophrenia, and a good helping of depression and trauma. While my body of work may allude otherwise, that isn't a super fun place to be trying to write a character.
Dash is easy because her problems are almost always her own fault.
Applejack is easy because so much of her personality overlaps with my own.
Rarity is easy because she's such a well defined character with obvious interests and motivations.
Shy I generally have to spin one way or another. S5E21 where she tries to scare her friends with anime girl cut outs turned her into a closet weeb for me, so that's where I usually take it. She was actually schizophrenic in Super, and a hentai artist in Star Overhead, and her personality in the little bright future shorts I wrote with her she's just 'mom.' It helps that I have a strong voice for her, but more often than not she gets assigned interests and motivations rather than already having them.
Twilight has to be my most consistent character across everything. Introverted sarcastic angsty nerd turned politician is unsurprisingly not hard to work with.
With all that said, It's always Pinkie that I struggle with, and I'm never sure why.
Onto other topics, I finally start work Monday and I literally don't know who I'm going to be working with. I was supposed to have an 'online meeting' with the teachers of this city today, and it was more like they showed us off like zoo animals. "Look, we have white people for your English class!" we each spoke like a single introductory sentence, then it was onto the real meeting where they prompted about 40 faceless teachers on how to use my company's systems. It felt kinda bad to be sitting there for an hour just to do nothing, but like, that's a japanese meeting for ya. this_could've_been_an_email.jpg
Also terrible: sushiro doesn't close til 11 on weekdays, which means any time I don't feel like making dinner on any day, I can just walk five minutes down the street and get as much sushi as I want. this is the wrong kind of terrible, but I'm sure it means my spending habits will be going to shit very quickly. I told myself I'd just get the cheap plates and just get sushi, but when they run new items, I like to try them no matter what they are, and they had yuzu karaage this time. I don't think I like yuzu, and I was about full by the time I got the chicken. I didn't need to spend that extra money, I just did because ooh, shiny! I hate that I'm like this, but what can you do. Eight days till I get my last paycheck from the previous contract, and then we begin the new contract's start period.
I know this is strange to say, but I think, regardless of who this year goes, I'm done with this company by the end of this contract. Teaching is fun and easy, but it doesn't pay the bills and keep me fed. I'm tired of money being tight all the time, and I know I can get a better job and still not leave japan, even without improving my Japanese. I do plan on getting conversationally fluent this year, but man I want a better job, and the more I realize how much I'm being ripped off by this company, the less I like it. Shocker.
Still, there are a lot of bitter, jaded people stuck in this job that don't hate it enough to leave it, and I refuse to become one. My goals for the year (April 24-March 25) are as such:
- Pass N3 on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (I can get several jobs this way.)
- Star Overhead Volume 7 (I want to get this one out faster than V6. V5 came out months after V4, but V6 took a year and a half.)
- Actually make some youtube videos. I keep saying I'll do this and I still haven't even with all the time I've had these past few weeks.
- Make some Japanese friends. (I made one last year, and this sunday, I'm going to join a local community conversation practice thing. I'll let you know how that goes.)
- Draw consistently every day for at least a hundred days. (I'm behind and I've done a couple catch up days, but It's just not consistent.)
- Learn guitar, for real. (I know a little, but I want to know a lot more than I do.)
- Read all the damn manga I bought last April that I haven't so much as touched. (Seriously, I have 8 volumes of japanese manga that I attempted to read like, twice.)
- Finish all my paint projects. (I've bought so many to paint, and I only seem to build them, stand them up, and then never touch them again. I did finish a project today, actually, kinda, but I've literally painted five of this same kit because I have a problem.)
For now, that's it. If I can get even half of this done, I'll be happy. Probably, if I get better at using japanese and my reading level goes up, it might not be as hard as it is to get through that manga. High tide raises all boats, as they say. Too many hobbies, not enough motivation. Oh well.
Anyways, that's all from me. Expect more Star Overhead news in the near future, and if you want to see all my drawing that I have forgotten to post for the past several blogs, we're up to 45 on my Twitter and I really only post my own stuff there.
Until Next Time~
-KCZ
Oh, cool, and I just ordered Volume 5 last week!
My sister had similar problems when she started work as an English teacher in Japan. She bounced from company to company for a few years, trying to find one that wouldn't screw her over in terms of money. She finally landed in one she liked, worked there for a couple years, and then the whole thing went belly up when it was discovered the executives had been cooking the books and ran off with all the money (the CEO was arrested on some tropical island where he'd hoped to escape extradition). Then she found the company she works for now, and has been (generally) happy with them for over a decade, but she was heavily dependent on the Bank of Mom & Dad in those first years.
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Sweet! Thanks, that helps me a lot. I hope you enjoy the book.
Yeah, I'm not that desperate yet, I've managed to get by on my own money for the most part, but the line is thin. All things considered, i should have more money to play with this year generally because of a number of things (gas not being relevant one of them) but I am still paying off a short term loan from my apartment, and this year, I have to pay city taxes which is somewhere in the thousand dollars range. Not looking forward to that come January, but at least I'll be ready for it. Job hunting is my least favorite thing, but it must be done, and I'll probably get on that by august or so. A lot to do this year.