I’m trying to limit my breaks with this series to roughly once every 5 chapters, and like I mentioned before, even when I’m on break I’ll try and give you something relating to the story. Today, I would like to talk a little bit about the previous few chapters as well as what I’ve been working on for the first volume draft I’m rewriting. I’m also listening to Lazo Bane’s Superman at the moment. If you’re as big a Scrubs fan as I am, you’re probably also carefully optimistic about the reboot. Anyway, let’s talk about this silly story I’m writing.
And it’s a proper dungeon crawl, this one. I’ve been wanting to delve into this part of the story for a while now. I’m highly inspired by an anime I watched years ago – and recently rewatched – called Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic. This anime is about dungeons where whoever conquers them with the help of one of these Maig becomes a king candidate, someone who has the power to become a king. The anime deviates from the dungeon delves themselves pretty quickly, but the idea has always stuck with me. As an avid D&D player, I love a good dungeon. Traps and puzzles, enemies coming out of everywhere and dire situations where you have no choice but to fight. And at the end of it all will be a pile of treasure or a wealth of knowledge.
I put a little bit of this into the mage’s tower on Sharktooth Island when I finished up volume 4, knowing that this was likely where the story would be headed for a while. I wanted to also take a bit of time away from Mana and Cobal and follow some different characters. There are some very big things happening in the story in the near future that I will not spoil, so I wanted to explore the calmer times we have before things start getting out of hand rapidly. And of course I hope you, dear reader, are also a little bit curious about what Mirgia and Kimi have been up to lately. Speaking of Kimi, she showed up in chapter 9, although in the next draft that will have been swapped out with chapter 10 as I mentioned at the top of last week’s chapter. I didn’t initially plan for Mirgia and his team to fall for the magic trap, but then I changed my mind as I was writing it, as them figuring out the solution to it and then not getting stuck felt boring. Of course, you have to wonder how long it’ll take for them to be freed now that there is a spirit of music in the building. They just have to hope Kimi and her companions don’t pick the other hallway.
I wanted to start getting some more involvement from the church as well. I developed the Arpentara early on in the story and I was really proud of that name, and although they’ve come up now and then, they’ll be more present in the future. I have plans for Arana, Owlana and even Abreloka to show up a lot more – albeit indirectly – in upcoming chapters and volumes. As a longtime fantasy enjoyer, I love a good pantheon. I’m also developing one for my other story that is a lot more deep and wrapped in mysticism which has been fun. My inner nerd is just frothing at the possibility to write the nerdiest, densest lore possible that no one but myself is ever going to really care about, but it’s the process that’s worth it right?
I’ve been reading Serj Tankian’s Down with the sickness which is this wonderful book about System of a Down’s lead singer as well as many of his activism around the Armenian Genocide. Very interesting stuff, not something I remember learning about in history class. Then again, I never paid attention during history class, so for all I know they did teach it, but I just didn’t pay attention. But in this book he talks about something I’d heard about before but never put much thought into. The monks that do art with sand, and then as soon as they finish, they wipe it all away. The creation of art is what’s important there, not the result. If you enjoy making your art, it doesn’t matter if a million people see it, if three people see it, or if no one sees it. As long as you make it, it is art. At least that’s what I tell myself to sleep better at night.
Jokes aside, as enjoyable as it has been to write these stories, my inner child would be beyond happy if I could ever see my own books on a shelf in a bookstore, so that goal is still there. But I think I’ve accepted a long time ago that even if someone were to tell me with absolute certainty I would never sell a single book, I’d still be writing these posts and stories. It’s a way for me to express myself that I wouldn’t have otherwise. It also helps that I’m happy with my job now and financially – somewhat – secure. So I’ve been going back to the first volume and tidying things up a bit more so that I can finally send it to a publisher without feeling ashamed about the lack of consistency. I like the story itself, nothing amazing by any means, but I like the characters in it and I like what I’ve shown of the world so far. That’s not too arrogant to say, right?
Anyway, that’s my quick update for the week. I hope to be back with chapter 11 next week. It’s a bit more difficult this time around than other volumes because before now I at least had a rough outline for the entire story, and often an entire first draft. This volume was more of a concept. So even I don’t fully know yet where the story is headed. I only know a few story beats I want to hit before it’s over. So let’s hope I can come up with some good connecting tissue on the fly. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 