Zenith

The Zenith is an all-encompassing project given to us at the end of our senior year, meant to incorporate all that we have learned over the past two years into a self-directed project. According to Google, Zenith means “the time at which something is most powerful or successful.”

Introducing my Project

For my Zenith Project, I decided to write my own full-length novel.

I want to write a book because writing a full-length, original novel has always been a dream of mine and this is an opportunity to write one and share it with my peers and get feedback on it. Due to the fact that writing a book will take a long time, I will not finish the book by the due date. I plan to have a good chunk of the book done for the due date, with most if not all of it edited. I will also create a map of the world, as well as a cover for the book. I am also planning on creating a figurine of the main character of the book.

This Zenith project is a new challenge for me because I have always had trouble writing a full-length novel, as well as creating a plot to span the length of a book. While I have written lots of short stories, the pacing of a story has always posed a problem for me. Creating fully-fleshed out protagonists and antagonists will be new to me. By not finishing the book by the deadline, I ensure I don’t rush any of the scenes just to get them done. I will also be able to develop my modeling skills in Maya by creating the character to 3D print and create molds.

For my Animation Class, I will be creating a set of complex characters. This has to do with character design, which is a critical feature of creating an animation. I will also be creating a world for the characters to live in, which somewhat relates to set design because all of the things in the world should have some significance to the story even if it is tiny. I will also be working in Maya, which we learned in Animation and learn how to 3D print something and create a mold for an object.

The Process

Creating the Plot

I began by brainstorming names for different characters and creating the world the story would take place in. For me, I find creating the characters and the world are easier than creating a plot.

To help create a plot, I created a Pinterest board to gather ideas and advice on writing. Within the board, I have different writing prompts that I liked, as well as advice and tips on writing in general for easy access. I had previously compiled tips for my own use, but went through and selected what could be useful for this project and book specifically. (The counting crows poem can be used for foreshadowing!)

Once I found the names for the characters and the plot of the story, I began to develop the characters and world. To do this, I used a website called WorldAnvil, which is free to the public.

This allows easy organization of characters, cities, plot points, battles and everything in-between. Within each category is a series of boxes available to be filled out. For example, there are places to put a character’s failures, successes, goals, relationships with other characters, names, titles and more.

Designing the Characters

To create the design of the characters, I used Adobe Illustrator. I began by outlining the face before coloring it in using the fill tool. I repeated the process for the bodies of the characters. I followed this process for all the main and supporting characters in my book.

Designing the World

After I had some characters flushed out and the general plot line figured out, I began to develop the world that they would live in. To do this, I asked a friend to help me draw a map, giving her a rough sketch of where I wanted everything to be and the environment.

Once I had the world, I came up with different ideas for animal species that could live within the world. I drew the different ideas to get a general feel for how they would look and where they would live within my world.

Creating the Figurine

To create the Figurine, I am modeling it in Autodesk Maya. I am taking inspiration from Funko Pops. After I decided how I wanted to shape the figurine, I create the front view of the figuring in Adobe Photoshop, using it as a reference when I began to model within Autodesk’s Maya. Once I finished modeling the character, I 3D printed it.

Writing the Book

While I was modeling the figurine, I began writing the book. I started using an online service to help write, telling me how complicated my writing was, along with giving estimates for how long it would take to read what I had written. However, it didn’t allow for online saving, so I switched back over to Google Docs so I could access it anywhere and on any computer.

My goal was to have each chapter I wrote be at least 3000 words, to help control the pacing of the story and reach the average length of a fantasy novel, which is around 120,000 words, which comes out to 3000-4000 words per chapter.

As I started to write, I began to encounter writer’s block. I stopped writing for a little, to give myself a break, before I started to pick and choose what scenes I wanted to write. I decided to write the climax of the book, as I knew what I wanted the scene to be and what I wanted to happen. It would also give me a solid goal to achieve, instead of an abstract idea about where it would happen and what would go down in the scene. Once I had the climax figured out, I returned to writing chapter by chapter to see how far I could get with that.

For inspiration within each chapter, I looked at the Pinterest board I had created. I found writing prompts that could serve as a scene or a snippet of an already established scene.

A Reflection

For my Zenith Project, I decided to write a book. This idea had stemmed from my passion for writing, and I wanted to use this project as a way to jumpstart my goal of writing a full-length fantasy novel. For the initial research project, I decided to focus on stereotypes within novels, and how they can have both harmful and beneficial effects on the readers. My goal for this research paper was to learn about these stereotypes, and how I could create a set of characters that defied these stereotypes, or played into multiple, seemingly opposing stereotypes. This initial research paper helped me develop Katelyn, the main character of my novel. I wanted her to be strong-willed and one of the best fighters in her world, while still being into the “stereotypical” activities girls enjoy. The research paper also allowed me to analyze the characters of some of my favorite books and how they both adhered to the stereotypes while defying the stereotypes.

Next came creating the actual project. For this project, we had to work with at least one other person. I decided to ask one of my friends in Design to help me create a map and cover for the book. This collaboration, while it took some stress of creating the cover and map off my hands, didn’t work out as well as I had hoped it would. Since she was also part of Freestyle, and a senior, she had her own Zenith project to work on, along with all of her normal classes. Since I knew that her workload was going to be similar to mine, I didn’t want to bug her too much about getting the cover and map done, as she was doing me a favor. This meant that the cover was done at the last minute. I think to remedy this situation, I could learn to communicate with my collaborators more and not worry about nagging them about something they agreed to do. Along with more reminders, I think that I could also improve on the directions I wanted the project to go in. As it was, I didn’t have a solid idea about what I wanted to the cover to be. I told her to do what she wanted with the cover, as long as it related to the book in some manner or form. This was vague and unhelpful in hindsight, and I could have come up with a general idea of the cover myself and asked her to follow that, with some creative liberties.

I would do a fair amount of things differently if I had the chance to redo this project with the knowledge I have now. For one, I would plan the book out more, including fleshing out each chapter and the book as a whole, instead of just having a general plot line I want to follow. I would also try to force myself to stay on schedule better and set aside a time of day outside of school to just sit down and write, whether it was the next chapter of the book or a chapter that would go into the book later. I would also try to communicate with my peers better, so everything that needs to get done gets done.

This project was also meant to help develop our 21st Century Skills. I would say that I improved my creativity, as I was able to generally flesh out an idea for a book, as well as develop multiple characters, and draw them. I wasn’t much of a drawer before this project, and it motivated me to practice drawing people the weekend after the project was due. It still takes me multiple hours to get a good person drawn, even just a sketch of one, but I am better. However, I wouldn’t say I improved my self-direction or my collaboration skills, as well as my ability to be productive. I found myself unable to motivate myself to write the actual book once I ran into writer’s block and the chapters that I hadn’t planned out fully in the beginning. I also didn’t do anything about it for about a week and a half, opting to draw more creatures rather than find scenes I had inspiration for. I didn’t work well with my friend, as I was too worried about adding more stress to her workload and bugging her than getting the cover done by the time I wanted it done.

At the end of the project, I didn’t exactly accomplish what I wanted to do. I didn’t get nearly as far into the book as I wanted to at the beginning, and I didn’t edit it like I had planned to do. However, I did start writing the book, had an actual plot for the book, and a set of developed characters, which is further than I’ve gone in the past. While I didn’t accomplish what I wanted to do, it allowed me to learn how to better plan a book and motivated me to work on my drawing skills.

Overall, this project left me with the motivation to learn how to draw people better and pushed me to improve my time-management skills. It also motivated me to make sure I stayed on top of things, even when I get stuck on something. I learned that I needed to find a way to get around an obstacle, even if I couldn’t get rid of it completely, such as finding the scenes I did have inspiration for and writing those, rather than writing the book linearly.