Epic Fail

So I'm not really happy with the latest section. It's one of the things that has been giving me writer's block lately. But I decided to just plow through it, and I really feel like I failed.

It started good enough I think, but when it got to the end of Caden's conversation with Sam, it falls flat. It really lacks the emotion that it should have. And that was the problem. Sam's been hiding the fact that Caden's dad has been missing, and Caden just learned the truth. He should be ready to run out the door, grab Starlight and race back out into the world. But it just doesn't strike me as true when he does so. 

This section is in major need of a rewrite, if anyone has a suggestion for improvement, please leave a comment and discuss below.

Red Bull Kills? Not likely

Click the title to read the full article.

"Man killed ‘by 4 cans of Red Bull a day’
Thursday, April 24, 2008

Alfredo Duran
A night worker who drank four cans of Red Bull a day died of a heart attack that may have been caused by the energy drink, an inquest heard.

Alfredo Duran collapsed at the end of a nightshift at a supermarket, during which he regularly drank large quantities of Red Bull, advertised with the slogan 'It gives you wings'."

I love how the head-line and first two paragraphs blames it all on Red Bull, then the rest of the article clearly indicates that Red Bull had little to do with it and more so it was his heart condition, and that the Red Bull energy drink, "...would have no effect on people with a normal heart"

This is the kind of news article that has Koreans believing in "Fan Death."

New Story Update and News

Back up with a new story after a long break from writers block and tight work schedules. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to do with this section. I knew what I wanted, and there have been some changes. But everything seems to be working out now.

My schedule is very busy. (I'm actually working overtime) So I can't say that I'll be doing any kind of regular updates in the near future. But Caden's story is far from finished, and I still be updating when I can. So please subscribe to the story to know when an update is available.

Here in Japan, Cherry Blossoms are a really big deal, but there was a lot of rain this year, so the season passed quickly. Even still, I found the time to get out on a few nice days.

They are pretty, and it's a great time if you enjoy taking long walks and absorbing the scenery. Also a friend came down to visit from Hiroshima. 

And we had a gorgeous sunday with really nice weather. So we went to see some of the sites in Yamaguchi. The most famous is the five story pagoda. We got a little side tracked trying to find it, and wandered through a buddhist temple, and an old graveyard (From before they cremated everyone), but finally we arrived, and it was worth the search.

Writer's block

So I know where I'm at, and I know where I need to be. But I don't know how to connect the pieces at the moment. There are many things I want to write about here but I don't want to ruin any surprises. 

This is very new ground for me, the only thing I've written longer then the current Dragon Knights story has been screen plays, which I find to be much forgiving then novel prose.

So I hope I won't let anyone down as I allow Caden's world to be reconstructed, if only a little bit before he returns to his quest.

No Post

No post yesterday, that's because a lot of my classes all wanted to reschedule for wednesday this month. With my new class schedule, I have to leave my house by 8:30 am and I don't get back till 10:00 pm. (All Japanese time.)

Now, I don't work that whole time, that day only counts as a nine hour work day. But anytime between classes is spent driving to the next class.

So until I can get a buffer of updates up, you can expect a period were I don't post everyday. Life will just sometimes get in the way.

Updates on the story, Caden is better, and will soon be leaving his house again. I'm also starting a new system for labeling the chapters. Before I gave the chapter and section title. But if a reader happens to miss a post, they might not notice that they skipped a post.

So I'm changing the way I title the posts. Starting with chapter 11, I'm going to start numbering the sections. The section numbers will reset with every new chapter.

Chapter 11-1

Chapter 11-2

Chapter 12-1

etc.

The Dragon Knights: Chapter 9: The Road Home

The Dragon Knights: Chapter 9: The Road Home

New month, new story update. No I didn't finish the revisions, but things are putting me behind schedule and I really wanted to get back to the story.

It's surprising how much you can lose the pace that you have with a story when you take a break from it. I hope it will be motivation to not take a month long hiatus from writing in the future.

It's April, still not sure if I'm going to go for Script Frenzy this year. Might give it a shot, but my schedule is still very tight.

Still missing the last script I wrote. I think it was one of my best, but it's trapped in a busted harddrive along with the first draft of the Dragon Knights. But we've actually moved past where the first draft was, so this is all new grounds for me.

Wish me luck.

If you haven't read everything yet, Start at the Beginning

And Subcribe to the Story to be notified of the latest updates. (Hopefully there will be a lot more this month.

I hate moving

There is nothing worse then moving. Sure, at first it seemed like fun when I was 18 and going away for college.

Didn't mind having to move everything back for summer, then again for the new school year. Didn't mind switching dorms for the next summer. Thought it was great to move to my first apartment for my third year. Each year after that, I moved to a new place, each better then the last. It was great back then.

It was slightly annoying moving out after college. (I didn't want to leave the city.) But it was necessary, so okay.

Then in the past 13 months, I've had to move 6 times... Now I'm being forced to move again. So 7 times in 13 months. Wheee...

And the new place is horrible compared to my current place. I haven't found a single thing about it to actually look forward to.

So if you're wondering where those revisions I promised are? I've been given two days to move all of my crap and a bunch of stuff left by old teachers. Plus I still have to work every day.

Update

The Dragon Knights: Prologue

The Dragon Knights: Chapter 1

I've finished typing up the current revised version of the Prologue and Chapter 1.

You can click above to view them, and if you click on the post title, it will take you to the Archive and the original version. I'm hoping to have Chapter 2 typed up and posted tonight or tomorrow.

You can also find all the revised posts by searching the blog for the label Revised.

And if your blog feeder is subscribe to this post, be sure to also subscribe to the main story. I'll be returning to new story updates soon.

Subcribe to "The Dragon Knights" web-novel.

Paper

So I've printed out everything I've written so far. And aside from a few formatting issues, Dragon Knights is up to 73 pages. Wow, didn't realize I'd written that much already. Still a long way to go before the end of book one.

Why did I print it out? Because you see more things that need to be changed on paper then you do on a computer screen. And this also allows me to get my wife to edit and critique as well.

What does this mean for you? It means that I will get back to the regular updates sooner.

Wish me luck.

Update - Still Editing

So editing is coming along slower then previously expected. I apologize. 

I've been banging my head against the keyboard, but it just doesn't get any faster. :D

(Doesn't help that safari keeps crashing on me while using blogger lately.)

Although I've reformatted the Page Layout. What do you think?

I want to say thanks to Mr. McCulloch from hostingGANG for the advice that helped me tweak the code right.

Editing

The Sunday post never went live like it was supposed to. Sorry about that. It's fixed and available now.

Busy days at work, never let anyone tell you that teaching in Japan is an easy job with hours of free time.

So, with the start of March, I've decided to go through and line edit what I've already written. This is primarily a writing exercise to polish my skill up. So I need to go back once in a while to see how I've been doing.

I will create an archive with original drafts for reference.

Those who are regular readers, I hope you'll stick with me through this process. I'll post here as I complete the different sections, let me know what you think.

Sorry

Sorry, no post for today. Spent the day talking with Christina and working out different stories. Ones that, if we're lucky, will someday come to a theatre near you.

Secrets Revealed

The Dragon Knights: Chapter 8: The Road Home

Yes, that's right, Rilyn is a woman. She's a character that I took inspired by my wife. And no she isn't keeping it a secret from Caden. He's just that clueless and she doesn't realize that he doesn't know. 

I've been writing mostly from Caden's point of view. But I started to worry that maybe it would be confusing to the reader if I went too long before revealing the truth. So I ended today's section with a short scene from Rilyn's POV to make it clear.

Check: Chapter 5: Tinate and Chapter 7: Shattered Dreams and Dragon Knights, for the more obvious clues.

Missed Day.

Sorry for missing the update today. I have the next story element ready, I just spent all my free time helping Tina prepare a high school English test till one am. Sleep time now, I have elementary classes early tomorrow.

The Dragon Knights: Chapter 6: The Price of Redemption

The Dragon Knights: Chapter 6: The Price of Redemption

I know this is by far the shortest post to date. Yet, I'm focusing on writing the important points of the chapter sections. And this was the focus of the section. Come back tomorrow for the start of Chapter 7.