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<\/a><\/p>\nI am a writer.<\/span><\/p>\n I mean, we <\/span>all <\/span><\/i>are. Reading and writing are two huge components of what it is to be human, and especially in this modern age, the ability to write is almost universal. With the ubiquity of texting as communication, I believe we now write more than ever. Emails are sent in flurries, and being a writer is nothing special. Everyone is a writer. I\u2019ve been a writer since I was five; most people tend to learn somewhere around that age. But I desire to be, and I am, more than just the average writer that anyone can claim to be. When I say I\u2019m a writer, that means I <\/span>write.<\/span><\/i> I am a storyteller, a poet, and a novelist. Writing for the sake of writing, to tell a meaningful story that can connect and teach. Writing as an almost sacred task, trying to explain and understand myself. <\/span><\/p>\n I am a <\/span>writer<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n For my Zenith Project, I wrote my third novel, <\/span>The First Warpings of the Girl Shein.<\/span><\/i> It is not finished, in the way that none of my novels are finished. It is a third draft, and I think it needs some time, and then one last array of revisions before it is finished. But the story it tells is complete, and it is about the length that it needs to be. Compared to my first two novels, it is neither the longest nor the shortest. It is not the most complicated nor the simplest. It is, I\u2019d like to think, the best, because my skills as a writer have grown leaps and bounds in the process of writing. I am tremendously proud of it, proud enough that I have self published it on Amazon, so that if anyone is so inclined, they can read it in its quasi-finished state. This is my third book.<\/span><\/p>\n My first didn\u2019t get a name. It was just <\/span>The Book<\/span><\/i>. I wrote it in eighth grade, when I learned that the definition of a novel is ~50,000 words. I wrote a novel that was ~50,017 words long, and no matter how winding the plot or how nonsensical the sentences in the book, it is a book, as it is more than fifty thousand words long. That was my thought processes, anyways. The story is ludicrous, the characters ephemeral, and the setting, cast, and conflict all abruptly change half way through what was already a very short novel as I became bored of my initial plot and didn\u2019t have any idea what to do with it. It is tremendously bad, and I don\u2019t think I have it anymore. <\/span><\/p>\n My second was first called <\/span>Necromancer,<\/span><\/i> but upon revisions and advice from readers, I changed the name to <\/span>Biomancer<\/span><\/i>. This one is also, frankly speaking, a mess, but there is a core of it that is wonderful, novel, and worthy of being fixed and published. It is nakedly ambitious and massive, coming in at 240,000 words. It tells the story of the planet Vontil, in the nation Tenras. There are four different main characters; Ardin, Tek, Galdirn, and Kanmar. The novel is the first in an unwritten trilogy that eventually involves other planets, gods, and kings, all on a timeline spanning thousands of years. There is a fairly complex system of magic, where feudal lords are able to interchange the amount of life left to their serfs. The novel explores themes of reincarnation, immortality, death, universal health care, violence, and romance. It is a stuffed novel, and is, as I said, a mess. But I love it dearly, and intend on doing a third rewrite, to fix it up, probably make it longer, and to help it achieve the goals that before it reached for. I wrote it as a freshman in high school.<\/span><\/p>\n My Zenith Project was <\/span>The First Warpings of the Girl Shein<\/span><\/i>. It too takes place on an alien world, with strange rules and strange creatures, but all of the complex worldbuilding takes place in the background. It is primarily a story of the coming of age of a young girl, Shein, and of her strange adolescence. It is heavily metaphorical, inspired by Kafka and the Bible and The Graveyard Book. I wanted this novel to feel like a mix of those works, and so I researched. I read them all, and I noted their style and use of language. I outlined their plots and outlined the novel using elements of those that I thought were interesting, mixing and synthesising to create a new whole. That is not to say that <\/span>Shein<\/span><\/i> is merely a Frankenstein of other works; there is just a great deal of purposeful allusion, and there is plenty in it that is original and its own thing. I researched the process for publishing, as from the beginning, I knew I wanted to write a shorter, more manageable book that I would be able to revise enough that I would be happy publishing it. I wrote it all in about two and half months: two weeks for outlining, a month for the actual writing of the thing, and a month for reader feedback and revisions. I sent out the novel to friends and family, and I incorporated their feedback to make the story tighter and the world more clear. Overall, I am tremendously proud of this project. I wrote it during a very busy time for myself, but I got it done. I would not change a single thing about it, though I would\u2019ve set my consumer product goals a fair bit lower, since all other things took a backseat to the writing of it. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For My Zenith Project, I wrote a novel. I am a writer. I mean, we all are. 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