it's been a while

Okay a while may not be the best description since it has been 8 months since I last updated - oh horror of horrors, whatever happened to my resolution to write stories the beginning of last year? (buries face in palm)

But it's been an extremely interesting and incredibly busy eight months; interesting because I've become so enamoured with real life human stories of extraordinary strength and resilience as part of my ongoing research year and incredibly busy because of my uh ongoing research year. Hah!

So yes, I've been watching the human spirit; if the past eight months of my life were a story I would say the moral of the story is this: imperfect as it may be, the human spirit can endure the harshest and cruelest of blows that it amazes me. So hopefully, after being regaled with all these fantastic stories, I'd be able to write stories that make people feel for the characters?

Anyway, I do believe an update on my writing life - or lack of it - is in order...

Works in progress (WIP)
I hereby define WIPs as writings that are actually being actively pursued. Though this obviously means writing the actual story itself, it also means drafting out storylines, creating the story worlds, ironing out loopholes, plotting character arcs, editing drafts... you get my drift. :)

WIP #1 Dark Lily (tentative name)
Expected type: Novel length

So this is the story that I've been raving on about in the last few posts lol. But to briefly resummarize...

The country of Ventyn experiences a political nightmare after the murders of two prominent ministers. As the crisis escalates to the point of crippling the nation, can a team of four young investigators beat their own mounting inner demons to solve the case in time?

If you want an introduction to who said four investigators are, there's a description in one of the older posts.

Current status: Partially planned, further planning and writing put on hold till beginning of June.
Character arcs and backstories completed. World building (including the justice system, political system etc.) of Ventyn and mystery details uncompleted.

I know it's cruel to leave people hanging on a summary! Actually, I'm assuming it's cruel. For all I know some of you might just be like: And why do I care? LOL But I'm just extrapolating my own reaction of when people leave me hanging on summaries :D

And I say beginning of June because I seriously don't have the brain power to finish the planning especially since I'd be crafting the entire country of Ventyn from scratch! Hopefully after my research thesis is completed, the bulk of my brain power will be freed! -.-

But fret not! Let me introduce you to my other WIPs who have sort of cut the queue on Dark Lily in getting written. :D

WIP #2: Tipping Point
Expected type: Short story

Can we ever put a finger on exactly when we fall in love? Does love happen because of that one unforgettable moment in time that shone above the rest? Or does love happen as a slow buildup; where something finally tipped the balance in favour of love...

You know, the funny thing about this story is that it came out of nowhere. Literally. It arrived in my head as a premise of: Can anyone ever tell precisely when they fall in love? And with the opening story line: "You've got cooties!" :P

Current status: Partially planned (and within a week I'm proud of myself!), planning continuing. Writing to start shortly after.

The story will be told in a series of short chapters which, fingers crossed, turns out to be heart warming aww sweet, not sickly cheesy sweet. There's a difference. And hopefully when I'm writing I'd know how to delineate said difference -.-

Also, it'd be lighter and brighter compared to Dark Lily. The inner demons and character arcs they go through in Dark Lily is honestly something I would never ever wish on a living being. Never ever ever.

I'm treating Tipping Point as a writing exercise in romance  since that has always been my weakest link in writing. Other than physical spatial descriptions. Both might have something to do with the fact that my spatial imagination is glaringly retarded and I hardly read romance.

WIP#3: Happily Ever After (tentative name)
Expected type: Medium length - novel length

Babysitting is turning out to be worse than Gail, Haley and Harper had imagined it. The plan was to earn some extra cash, not to survive in a world of fairytales gone wrong. Now, to get back to their world, they've got to discover how to reinstate happily ever after endings...

So yes! I'm planning for this one to be a light, humorous read. It will not be a fairytale parody, which I reckon has been a bit overdone these days. It will be my first attempt at writing humour so I do not exactly know whether or not this story will fall flat on its face because the wit turns out being lame. Oh dear (face palm)

This idea has been floating around for a bit - probably almost as long as Dark Lily - but it never really materialized until recently. Again with the opening line: "When I find that little idiot ..." ;)

And really, that's about it! Well, there are two other ideas which I call Backburners (BB for short) - because that's exactly what I do with them. I put them at the back of my mind and let them burn until they're a bit more mature in terms of plot and characters before I upgrade them to WIPs and work on them actively :)

One of the BBs is a little more developmentally advanced than the other - it's tentatively named Cursed. The reason why I say that is because I've actually pinned down a premise for Cursed unlike the other BB. That said I haven't figured out the major plot arc yet but when I do you'd be the first to know! :)

And the other BB will be something set in high school ... and I do not know anything beyond that lol.

So yes! Watch this space for updates on any of these stories; Tipping Point will probably make its debut first followed by Happily Ever After and then Dark Lily. And we'd see what'd happen with the two BBs.

I used to be able to work on multiple stories together (and I'm contemplating doing that for Happily Ever After and Dark Lily to speed things along) but I'm not sure whether I'm able to switch between dark and light that easily. In the past my stories were all happy-happy-joy-joy so switching between them didn't really impact the writing style.

Anywho, they'd all be posted on Fictionpress - I will blog with the link once any story becomes available and then again everytime a new chapter gets uploaded. Remember to review when it happens! :D

I have also decided to update this blog every week (on Sundays except for today) with something writing-related. So the posts will either be about writing in general, my writing journey or my random writing pieces. So when I say random pieces I mean not full, at least once-edited stories (those go on Fictionpress) - I mean writing exercises e.g. me describing a scene, an experience I have etc. Feel free to unleash honest feedback and your opinions on any of my blog posts!

So until next Sunday, keep well and for those who love writing, keep at it! For those who love any other art form, keep at it too! :D