It feels like it’s been a month since I last went live. It was with Elden Ring NightReign and I enjoyed that initial conclusion. There’s more to finish Undertaker and Wylder’s story but there’s a step or two to finish off. Why haven’t I finished that? A lot of moving parts in my house happened and thus there’s some inner reconfiguration going on. If my camera space in my room is messy, I don’t like going live. Additionally, I needed to step away in order to rest, recover and focus on that which feeds my soul for inspiration. I needed to keep writing FireFrei and I surprisingly haven’t been able to write a single entry this month for Drafts either, to my surprise. I needed to lock in.
I got to enjoy the Bad Bunny performance at the Super Bowl and the Boricua in me appreciated all of it. I’ve said in previous social media posts that he is not the kind of artist I listen to on a regular basis but his last album and his live performance putting our Boricuas on the spotlight is some thing I dearly appreciate. It opened up the conversation online about who we are, our place in history and in turn showing how we mattered and fit in Black History.
I also got to enjoy A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, to which I believe is the best book to show ratio yet. In a time where things are chaotic, with indecent people showing their whole arse, a story about a mere hedge knight that lives by a code of honor to where a Hand of the King lost his own life to ensure he lived and won spoke volumes. I’m not sure if GRRM anticipated this 1st season of the adaptation to be an injection of hope on the belief of such moral principles during this time period but it definitely has been. It’s been a reminder that, although honor, decency and honesty are rare traits to find in everyday people, there are still those whom possess such traits.
FireFrei writing of chapter 7 has continued and as I write, there’s a sense of dread I have with the conclusion of this chapter. I’m not a believer in sudden destruction of tender-hearted souls that bring reprieve and relief to a group of characters that just went through some near-catastrophic hell in their city unless you give that character a chance to shine their light to contrast the protagonist’s journey. I need their shared memory with whom may be her father to add weight. You want Emmanuel Lucifer’s mind to open up to the reader. I believe it’ll add more to his connection with the ill-fated character. I feel it’ll also add more to her sweetness as a soul and so, if or when the moment comes, it’ll hit harder.
The conclusion of Act 1 from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also gave me that reminder when it comes to storytelling — don’t kill off a character for the sake of shock. If you do kill off a character, give it meaning, show the reader/viewer a reason to care and understand why that death matters and what it could mean.
We also now live in a world where people often need constant reminder of the main plot and stakes, which I despise. I still believe in telling a story and moving along but just leave bites in previous chapters or books so as to remind people “Hey remember that part a while back? Keep it in your head, it’ll mean something later”. In part, that’s what made a lot of earlier writings of Shakespeare so damn good— he sometimes just gave you the ending to your face but because it was vague and without context, you wouldn’t have known it was the conclusion he was putting in front of you until you took the whole journey of experiencing the story.
My goal is still to finish writing of FireFrei before October and same for Drafts. The former has a looser schedule while the latter has a mandatory schedule of writing a chapter every month, no matter how long or short those chapters are. Can it be creatively limiting? Probably but will it give me a sense of urgency? Yes, astoundingly so.
