Writeblr Re-intro

Hello, hi! I don’t think I’ve actually done an intro post for myself since my very first one a billion years ago so this is a little overdue. 

Whomst am I:

What’s my blog content?

Projects:

Nix’s Plan (NP): Thought I’d be done with this years ago but nope, it’s still my main WIP. High fantasy, plot that goes all the way into the afterlife and back, very “we’re taking the scenic route to character development.” Like literally, a big chonk of the story is wandering around looking for shrines. An Evil Doer kidnapped basically every child of every aristocrat at once and like they’re all accounted for but none of them are returning home at all

Mains: 

Mirsen: the main main, middle prince who was kidnapped many years ago and is now interested in a revenge arc... but also discovers that all of his enemies are basically just pathetic so that kinda takes the fun out of it. High-strung, analytical genius, has to learn to chill tf out. Is actually kinda funny once he’s learned that being funny isn’t evil.

Laron: the other main main, bastard son of the main villain, thinks he’s on a revenge arc but isn’t mean enough. Really passionate abt everything, especially comradeship and community. Definitely a water sign now that I think abt it. Has to learn to stop undermining himself because he’s actually very emotionally intelligent and is right about most things

Nensa: the oldest prince, prepared to fake his own death rather than inherit the throne. But he doesn’t have to because Mirsen :) right? :) Squishy on the outside, Angry AF on the inside, history nerd to the extreme. He has like a reverse cult following where a ton of deities in the afterlife think he’s hella funny, follow his life like a TV show and randomly grant him various blessings. 

Cusa: youngest of the royal children, character arc directly reverse of Mirsen. She is absolutely feral and has to learn personal accountability in order to handle her self-destructive tendencies. She’ll still be a pastel goth pirate princess with a bite record, but a very responsible one. Has the most powerful magical gift of literally any character I will ever write. The only character who actually gets any revenge. 

New Life (NL): my other main which is now badly under-developed compared to NP. Themes of rebirth and renewal, infinite history, the non-permanence of evil.

Mains:

Aaven: literally the most messed up soul u will ever meet. Reincarnates and gets resurrected multiple times. An absolute little shit, can’t take his own story seriously at ALL. Like the whole rest of the cast is just trying to keep him alive or just do whatever is best for him and he’s driving them all spare.

Cadri: very literally sharing a brain cell with Aaven. Has memory glitches between this life and the last and doesn’t notice, just takes it for granted. Comic relief best friend.

Alsua (due for a renaming): angsty teen but it’s because she FULLY remembers the horrific past life she, Cadri and Aaven shared. Unfortunately, is in love with Cadri. 

Kinsmet: the morally-grey dad who resurrects people for his government job. Is like the most feared mountain man ever, but he’s hella good at exterminating the Soul Eating Monsters so like if he ever died the whole continent would panic

Lorr: Aaven’s trusty birb. Bops in and out of the afterlife like it’s nothing. Pretends to be an omen of death but he’s modeled after a Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and he’s like. Less than an ounce. With a long flouncy tail.

...most of the stuff I’ll actually post will be worldbuilding or character backstory shorts off the main WIPs. My main WIPs share a world, they’re just set on different continents in different times. Easter eggs abound.

Anyway, hi, hello, and welcome to my blog!

I told myself I was going to re-learn how to talk like a normal person after years of philosophy classes making me unintelligibly pedantic. Changed my mind. I miss being absolutely intolerable and I want it back

lol so I was talking to one of my coworkers today about writing and like. he's not a writer, but he was doing his best to relate, so he was all like "yeah it really sucks when you sink, like, 30 hours into something, and then you realize you still have to do more. Like, I play the guitar, and sometimes I'll play that long and then realize that I haven't even gotten any better."

And like, putting aside the apples to oranges comparison there, it got me thinking about exactly how much time I do sink into a singular writing project, if we put aside all the time I spent getting to my current skill level to begin with, or the time invested in reading so I can stay inspired.

If I've got a consistent writing habit, I can reliably do 5k words in about 7 hrs of work, spread out throughout a day. My average manuscript comes out to about 120k words in total. Plus, I've so far always done at least two revisions by re-writing the majority of it from scratch. That usually goes faster--maybe more like 12k in 7 hrs if you average out with the sections that don't need to be re-written.

So. 120k divided by 5k is 24 total 7hr days of work. Meaning, the first draft is worth about 168hrs of work, assuming progress is happening fairly easily the whole time. The next two drafts will be 10 7hr days each, so 70 hrs. 168hrs+70hrs+70hrs is 303 hours in order to get a draft that can now enter the beta stage, assuming I'm satisfied with the third draft. My day job is 35hrs/week, so if i was doing this like it was my job, that would be about 2 months.

And tbh my math is absolutely insane now that I look at it, because if you assume those numbers that means you can get a 120 page manuscript to the beta stage in 44 continual days of work and ffwehrhwegv what. Never in my life. Most likely I wouldn't be in a good flow for most of the drafting process. My words per hour could be half that number part of the time. This also isn't including the time spent planning, daydreaming, and worldbuilding for the story. Sinking 600+ hours on a single project before anyone even sees it in its entirety is the most realistic situation tbqh. This really is what they mean when they say that writing is a lifestyle and a labor of love and not a job.

Anyway I cackled in my coworker's face