This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Welcome to Story Over Everything.
I am going to go ahead and jump right into my author's log, and I'm starting with Sunday, July 16th, 2023.
I wrote 109 words. This is what they are.
I think this could work, cadets, Shush said after watching a few volleys. Who has an idea for how to make this game work for us to line the cradle quickly, so we're free to help Humph Sooner. Humph Sooner.
Remember, guerrilla podcasting tactics.
Why don't we just throw all the bundles right into the cradle, Slurp offered, Chirp countered. How about you throw me the bundle and then I run it inside the cradle and spread it out?
What will I do while you're spreading the litter?
You can bring more bundles to the door? Chirp replied.
What then? How many bundles do you think Slurp can set here while you're in the cradle?
For Monday, July 17th, I wrote.
A lot?
Let's see what you can do, cadets.
Litter me, Slurp.
Okay, here it comes.
Slurp served a volley of leaf litter to Chirp, which she carried inside the cradle.
Shush corrected and guided Chirp in the ways of layering litter while Slurp worked at getting more litter bundles to the entrance of the cradle.
Slurp tossed a bundle just aside of the hole.
It promptly lost about half its mass to the ground.
Slurp shuffled over, his head hung low, and made the bundle whole once more.
Before Shush was satisfied with Chirp's litter spreading work, Shush had three bundles of litter waiting for her.
Who helped you, Slurp?
Nobody.
How did you do that so fast?
I'd like to say I'm fast, but you took a long time.
That was 132 words, by the way, for Monday. Sunday was 109 words. I don't know if I recorded that or not.
So moving on to Tuesday, July 18th, the reading is this.
Really? Chirp huffed.
So that isn't the solution. You will find...
Okay, sorry.
So that isn't the solution. You will find that you rarely make a perfect strike the first time.
You've seen the mistake. That's good. But it isn't enough. What do you do now?
Chirp and Slurp looked at Hush for a while before Slurp said,
Since I'm so much faster than Chirp, I say we work...
...to get as many bundles by the door as we can...
...as quickly as we can.
And then we can help take them into the cradle.
And then I was wondering if maybe you could, Keeper Shush, do all the cradle bedding, since we don't know how to do it.
Interesting. Chirp, do you like that idea? Any improvements?
Yes. Chirp responded.
That was 120 words. Now moving on to July 19th, the next day.
Continuing from Chirp responded,
It would be better if we learned from you how to dress the cradle.
So why not have us bring the bundles to the door by Slurp tossing them to me here,
and then Slurp can go inside with you, and I can pass the bundles to him while he's in there with you.
Maybe you could even tell him where to place the bundles, and he can move to each place,
and I can toss them to him, and he can set them there.
Once all the bundles are in place, you can teach us both how to spread them.
That way we both know how to do it, and can help get the job done faster.
So we have more time to help you get all the grow grubs in position.
Slurp took his chance to cut in. Then we can relax, because we will be all done doing our part to help the camp.
Team Shush, no, Team Keeper Shush is number one.
Not quite. Shush paused Slurp, then said to Chirp,
That is a good plan. Let us see how that improves your performance.
A pair of grow grubs gurgled and fussed as they had gotten into some sort of tangle.
Proceed, Shush dashed away to untangle the hapless pair.
That was 210 words. Again, this is all me writing within 10 minutes.
My writing length varies by different factors.
From the 20th, I wrote 61 words, and they read thusly.
By the time Shush had settled the pair of fussy grow grubs, and attended to a few more along the way,
Slurp and Chirp had placed all the bundles and were anxious for Shush to instruct them in the art of leaf litter laying.
When that was done, the three moved the whole lot of grow grubs to their new and safer home.
This is the reading for Cat and the Key of Kindness from the Grow Bug Tales series, written and read to you by M.J. Muñoz.
They're here! Cat yelled, jumping up and down on the couch.
Get down from there and help me greet your cousins.
Cat's mom called.
What are you guys whispering about? Cat demanded.
It's a surprise, Ava answered. You all talked in the car. You're supposed to be here to play with me. Cat responded sharply.
We're here so we can all have a good time, Harmony corrected.
Five more minutes, Rex smiled soothingly.
Fine! Cat yelled and stormed off. She slammed the slider door behind her.
They don't care about me. No one wants to play with me. They don't even like me.
Cat muttered to herself as she circled the yard.
Ow! she cried. She looked up and saw a wall she had never seen before.
Cat looked around and saw she was surrounded on all sides but one by the strange walls.
Mom! Dad! she called.
No one is coming, a wavering voice answered.
Who are you? Cat asked.
No one, just a spooktater, the voice answered.
What do you want with me? Cat asked.
A friend. No one wants to be my friend, the spooktater answered.
Let me see you, Cat asked, curious about this lonely stranger.
Have you seen Cat? Harmony asked Cat's mom.
She's cooling off outside, Cat's mom grimaced.
Remember, she's younger than you and she looks up to all of you.
We will, they all answered in unison.
They went outside and searched for Cat.
Someone is coming, the wavering voice spoke.
A spooky figure floated past Cat.
It was lumpy and misshapen.
It was pale and had strange eyes or mouths all over.
Some sprouting bizarre arms.
Like creepy tree branches.
It looks so sad, Cat whispered to herself.
The spooktater appeared to Rex, Ava, and Harmony, each in their own cell, like Cat.
If you can escape from my labyrinth of loneliness, you can go back to your world.
If you don't, you can stay here and be my friends forever.
The game ends at sundown, it told all four children.
As the four children wandered through the maze, they each had feelings of loneliness creep into their thoughts.
The spooktater searched each for precious memories.
It pulled one each from Harmony, Rex, and Ava.
He swallowed them and looked just as sad as he had before.
Cat arrived at a dead end and let out a cry.
I don't want to be trapped here forever, she wailed.
Cat, is that you? Ava? Was that Harmony?
Rex, you're here too?
What are you all doing here? Cat called out, relieved to hear familiar voices.
We came looking for you, Ava answered.
Thanks guys, Cat squeaked and sniffled.
The wall Cat was leaning on gave way, opening like a hidden door.
She ran down the tunnel it led to and reached her yard in a few minutes.
She stumbled over something in the dim light and saw that she was alone.
She called to her cousins, but no one answered.
She spun around and ran back toward the labyrinth of loneliness.
As she got closer, she saw three glowing shapes flying around her, headed in the same direction.
Cat burst through the door and called to her cousins.
The three glowing lights whizzed past her, and after much buzzing and flashing, her cousins stumbled into the no longer dead end.
They all hugged and chatted excitedly, happy to be reunited and nearly free.
What are these things? Cat waved at the giant glowing bugs perched on each of her cousins.
This is Yah, the grow bug who saved me, Rex answered.
Swoosh is here too, Ava answered.
You're kind of like guardian angels, right, Wisp? Harmony added.
But we need to hurry up and get out of here, she continued.
Not so fast, Spooktater shrieked when they were all back in the yard.
They all turned and saw its glowing eyes blaze.
In a flash, it had warped into a larger creature with stumpy legs and long arms sprouting all over its body.
Don't leave me alone, it screeched and rushed at them.
Yah, swoosh and wisp shot off towards the Spooktater like rockets.
They circled around, swooped over and under and bashed into it.
The Spooktater stepped back, overwhelmed by the shine, glow and sparkle of the brave little warriors.
The Spooktater swatted at the bugs and one by one knocked them to the ground.
But as one fell, the other two pressed the attack until the other one could recover.
Cat shouted, get its legs, get its legs!
Her cousins joined her and soon the three grow bugs made a new attack.
Wisp bobbed and wove through grasping arms and blared a brilliant light that blinded the Spooktater.
Swoosh twirled around one leg, wrapping in a band of light and pulling with all her might.
Yah hacked at the other leg with glowing arm blades.
Before long, the Spooktater was on the ground.
The kids cheered.
A desperate wail rose from the monster and it stirred again.
This isn't working, it needs help!
Cat said, then ran towards the Spooktater and vanished.
As the grow bugs continued to struggle with the Spooktater,
Cat ran through the labyrinth towards the sound of mournful sobs.
In a cell of its own, Cat saw a huge gray moth with drooping antennae that wiggled as it sobbed.
It sat in a locked cage.
Are you the Spooktater?
You have the same sad voice, Cat asked.
The moth continued sobbing and sputtering as if it hadn't heard her.
Hey, I'm here to help you!
Cat reached out cautiously to touch it.
It jumped and turned to face her when she rested a finger between its antennae.
Its wings fluttered, kicking up dust that made Cat recoil.
Who are you?
The moth asked in a sad, wavering voice, much like the Spooktater.
I can be a friend if you let me, Cat answered.
No one wants me. No one cares about me. No one likes me.
The moth groaned on.
I'm someone.
I know how you're feeling, because I felt like that too.
My name is Cat, and I want to help you. What's your name?
Hey, you are someone. You felt that way too, and now you're all better?
Well, hello, Cat. Nice to meet you.
I am Hiss, she responded.
Let's get you out of there.
Cat pulled at the walk on the cage, but it wouldn't budge.
It's okay. I'll figure a way out of here, Hiss said cheerily.
I won't leave you behind again, Cat insisted.
She pulled as hard as she could and tried to move the cage, but she couldn't.
After several failed attempts, she sat down to think.
Cat, I am a growbuck. I'm supposed to protect you.
You and your friends are in danger.
You should go help them and let me be.
I may be stuck in this cage, but I feel free thanks to you.
You're really sweet, and I wish we could have been friends, but it's time for you to go.
The walk on the cage rattled, and it fell apart.
The door swung open, and Cat and Hiss laughed for joy.
Now let's go help your friends, Hiss flew past Cat, glowing brightly.
Children, fellow growbugs, I have an idea.
If we combine our strengths, we can transform our shape and weed out this spooktater,
and the whole Sorrow Spud patch controlling it.
You can do that? Cat asked.
Yep, Ava answered.
No army this time? Harmony pouted.
I got it. You other growbugs ever heard of Aegistron?
Rex asked.
I'll fill them in, Rex.
Shaw said.
Then the growbugs called out together.
With radiant might, growbugs unite! Growbug gladiator, fight!
And they transformed from four magical bugs into one mighty multicolored robot to match the spooktater.
The growbug gladiator rushed at the risen spooktater.
They spun and crashed and thrashed through the scene as the children watched on in wonder.
Finally the growbug gladiator ended the fight when the twin mantis cutters cut deep into the spooktater,
and light from the blades entered its monstrous body and burned it away like the flame banishing darkness.
After the battle was over, the cousins and the growbugs had a lot to catch up on.
The sleepover had almost been ruined, but in the end the whole group enjoyed laughing and talking and sharing stories with each other.
After everything that had happened, Cat and the growbug made it a good night for all.
The End
Thanks for watching!
The strange creature slid down the sphere and focused its attack on one area.
The shimmer began to dim and flicker, and it looked like the force field was cracking,
where it had been hit repeatedly.
It's Dr. Decay! the critterbots cried in unison.
This is a safety zone, the electronic voice repeated itself.
Not for long! Ava called out.
The others scrambled to a defensive position, but Zev saw something strange by the weak point
of the barrier. A small form hopped up and down. Zev felt it was calling him and ran towards it.
The others ran after Zev and tried to pull him away from danger.
Zev touched the strange creature and the kids and critterbots all disappeared from the safety zone,
moments before Dr. Decay burst through the barrier.
Guys, is this my critterbot? Zev asked.
Try to give him the high five, Cat encouraged.
Buddy up! Zev called.
The critterbot who helped them escape lifted one insectoid foot and Zev tapped it with
his gloved palm. Nothing happened. Zev tried again.
The grasshopper critterbot turned around sadly and jumped away.
Sorry, Zev. Ava tried to comfort him.
Must be some sort of glitch, Rex said.
Zev...
I'm sorry.
While the others fought off waves of attacking critterbots, Zev tried to make himself useful,
needed to be rescued, got lost a couple times, and learned to keep his distance to stay out of
trouble. He spotted the grasshopper critterbot a few more times and had tried to befriend it,
but it never stayed around. Everyone was exhausted from days of traveling and battling, everyone but
Zev. He stood at the edge of the firelight and looked away from the happy group of companions,
wishing he wasn't alone.
This world has rejected me too. A soft voice broke the silence.
Zev froze, gripped with fear. He swallowed hard and asked,
Who are you?
Nobody.
Someone with no buddy, just like you.
The sad voice answered from the shadows.
Cat and my cousins are here for me, Zev responded.
The voice chuckled softly.
Are they really? You don't belong. You have no part here.
That isn't your fault, but still, they will resent you and reject you.
You're wrong. I'll prove it, Zev retorted.
He spun around and marched back towards the camp.
I can't believe he has no critterbot buddy. Why is he even here?
Have you seen how he just gets in the way? It's probably because he's too little.
Shh, here he comes.
Zev came into the circle of the firelight and saw a ring of guilty faces.
With tears running down his face, Zev returned to the voice in the darkness and called out,
Let's buddy up.
Finally, the soft voice turned cruel and bellowed, Now I shall have the power I crave.
Dr. Decay grabbed Zev. The many eyes merged together into an enormous sphere that formed
around Zev, trapping him. The monster warped into a humanoid form and marched to attack
the wardens and their critterbots while they were off guard.
Zev wailed in pain and terror as the monstrosity attacked his sister and cousins.
It was too powerful, too fierce to be stopped.
The children and their critterbots lay on the floor amid the destruction
wrought by the bad doctor.
Dr. Decay stood victorious over the foes destined to defeat him.
He laughed maniacally until several things happened one after another.
The glitchy grasshopper appeared inside of the eye where Zev was.
He and Zev jumped out of the great eye.
They buddied up and the grasshopper critterbot unleashed a powerful attack on Dr. Decay.
The whole island shook and the sky flashed red over the landscape.
Deep cracks formed in the island and seawater shuddered.
Large chunks of island began to break away and disintegrate.
Zev and his critterbot gathered with the rest of the group and with a bright flash
they all passed through another hole made by the glitching critterbot.
The cousins landed with a crash back in front of the TV.
Sounds of the party went on and the kids did their best to recover.
Sounds of battle carried over the wind and rain and the five kids ran to see what it was.
Dr. Decay was slipping and falling.
The four guardians tried to keep him back.
As they did, other critterbots slipped through, but Decay remained their focus.
Dr. Decay destroyed all four guardians and captured the children.
Each trapped child cried out in anguish as the village grew larger
and turned its attention elsewhere.
Glitch! Zev called out to his critterbot buddy.
Glitch flew to Zev and the two merged to become an armored grasshopper soldier critterbot.
Zev and Glitch took Dr. Decay by surprise and kicked him so hard he flew back to the critterbot world.
The kids were set free and the cracks in the sky vanished like a cloud.
Zev and Glitch separated and ran towards the others.
They tried to stir them, but they could not.
Four glowing spheres trailing like... trailing light like comets zoomed to the sad scene.
Each light turned into a giant glowing bug and perched by one of the critterbots.
The kids were revived. They thanked Zev and Glitch for saving them.
After they were back inside and introductions had been made, they recounted their adventure.
The growbugs marveled and declared that Glitch was truly a fellow growbug.
And that is the end of the story.
I have since rewritten the mid to the end or more about like the last quarter of that book
and I changed the story to a new one.
So I will have to rewrite and update that.
But that's basically the story.
I think anything in the newer version is just really improving upon what I had put there.
So I'm going to let it slide.
Again, this is part of the project of chronicling my progress as an author.
And I've been very... actually I'm going to pause and make comments after.
So that's the end of the story.
Thank you very much for listening and I will have an updated version of this within a year.
No, really. I don't know when I'm going to make the recording, but I have the notes written down for the corrected version or the updated version of this story.
So you can look forward to seeing that.
Go to the website and look for it in the show notes.
I'll have it up in the author tab and maybe even on the front page that you see all the time.
I might have quick links to the five growbug picture book.
Manuscripts as part of my website restructuring to help focus on the fact that I'm an author and I'm writing these things actively.
So thank you for your time and attention.
So here is the section where I'm going to do commentary on what you heard earlier and wrap up and close out the show.
So I failed in my goal to write every day.
I believe there were two days within this week that I did not write at all.
And then I got going on a roll and I wrote for a couple more days and then it didn't happen again yesterday.
I don't know if today, the day of the recording, which is actually the release day of this, the 21st, if I will do a recording or not or if I will do writing.
I want to and I want to believe I will.
But I didn't get to draw yesterday either.
I didn't write or draw yesterday.
Well, I sort of wrote. But anyway, it's complicated.
But yeah, I didn't get to draw yesterday and I'm not sure I'll write or draw today.
Like I said, I very much want to.
But just it's only 20 minutes, but 20 minutes is still 20 minutes and time is precious.
So you heard.
So that's not good.
And that's that's a failure.
And again, I'm not happy to share, but I'm open to sharing the failure as I stumble along my way and figure out this writing in a professional manner,
you know, treating writing like a business so I can turn it into a profitable business thing.
And I'm doing the documentation of it here for your benefit and for mine.
And yeah, I'm not happy with that.
I'm really disappointed.
I'm also very unhappy with how unorganized all my notes are and yeah, I'm very unhappy with how unorganized all my notes are between Zoho and Google Drive and the Campfire app as well.
And I either need to.
I'm moving towards either wanting to buckle down and just pay money for Campfire so I can have its full functionality because it looks like in addition to the modules and all that stuff,
you have for the free account, you have limited access to using like you have access to X amount of resources and it's a finite number less than 20, I think.
And I haven't played with it enough to see exactly how it is, but I have a character naming sheet.
I have the five bro bug picture book manuscripts there and I have some other stuff.
But because I mostly write and I was writing for a long time in Zoho and then now I'm back to going into Google Drive and I'm writing for the first time.
I'm going into Google Drive because I just I wanted to be super concerned about privacy and things like that.
And then I realized I'm just not going to be afraid of the beast and let that slow me down and stop me.
So I'm going to use the best tools I have, even if they're from the devil, because I can use those for good.
And I think like that's a kind of a complex moral or kind of a state.
That's kind of a complex statement to make if you're going to dive into the morality of it.
But I mean, I'm not using literal weapons of the devil.
And like, you know, if a villain is trying to kill you with a sword, you don't want to have a sword to fight back against him.
That doesn't make any sense. So it's what you do with the tools that matters.
And I just think, you know, I think the big tech companies are not good, but it's kind of like my best.
The best thing I can do is use their tools, knowing what it costs me to use those tools and use them as effectively as possible.
And also notice that I'm probably not the target of their data mining.
And even if I am, so is everybody else uses the stuff.
And I don't know, it's a silly excuse.
It's like almost creating the toolbox fallacy for myself or, well, I don't want to use these people's tools because I think that they're morally corrupt or wrong or evil.
And therefore I will make it harder for myself to do the good that I'm trying to do in the world.
I don't think that makes sense.
And I think it's morally consistent with the rest of how I feel about things, but I don't want to have a big long talk or discussion about it and like a philosophical thought about it.
I just I think using the most effective tools that help me to be the most productive while I'm doing good things in the world, it justifies me just saying, OK, I'm going to go back to Google Drive and just do all my stuff in that.
Because me, my wife, my daughter, we're all writing in Google Drive. We can all share with each other.
We can all check each other's documents. It's just a very normal, very accessible thing to do.
And I'm not going to argue with the functionality of it.
So I like I said, this Grow Bug Tales project is it's interesting because it's teaching me how to write in multiple ways.
And one of them is just with my organization, which is something I mentioned before in past story over everything episodes.
And now that I'm at the end of reading, doing the five readings for the five Grow Bug books, which I will I will again, because I'm stumbling and fumbling and figuring this all out as I go along,
I will have to reissue those off to put the posts out and clean things up.
But at least now I have good clean recordings for all five of them.
And I don't have them all backed up somewhere yet, but I can.
And I now I know I have to back up my audio, which I mentioned the previous episode or maybe it was two episodes ago.
I'm not sure. But I'm figuring things out.
I already have I already have the Princess and Curdie story over everything chat like the bulk of it recorded.
So I'm going to have to do minimal recording for next week's story over everything episode.
And the reason I need to be concerned about my efficiency in handling my recordings and my setups for things is that I should be spending a lot of my time writing.
Now, I need to be well read to be well.
I think you need to write. I think you need to be well read in order to be well written or to write well.
And I think it's very important.
And I think my whole strategy makes sense. I might be doing a little too much in areas of trying to get content produced other than books.
But again, that's something I have to wrestle with myself.
But at least I can argue for myself in this way, saying that I'm consistently working on chipping away at the grow bug tales chapter book.
And that as I've been as I've written, as I wrote each of the grow bug books, they all added to each other and reinforce each other.
And they added elements to go into the chapter book and actually like the in the grow bug in the cat book when there's like the sweet, the like tentacles of light and the sweet, the blades of light that the praying mantis has that stuff actually came from me writing the chapter book.
So writing the chapter book and focusing exclusively on the grow bugs and in their world, it allowed me to discover information and abilities and different things about the grow bugs to add back into the other stories, to add unity to them, to make them cooler and more interesting and to better understand why I'm doing certain things with them and how they're able to do certain things.
And a lot of it I've learned to just chalk it up to its magic and be vague, be vague, but consistent.
And I feel like that's very much what I'm doing.
And I like that.
So, you know, reading through these manuscripts, I picked up a couple things in each of them that need to be corrected.
Cat has very little that needs to be altered in it.
Zev has a lot more and I don't know what my process needs to be, but I definitely I either need to.
I'm scared to throw stuff away, so I need either need to get rid of that fear and just start throwing away stuff or I need to start doing a more rigid, more rigorous system of dating my documents and turning them into backup files.
So if I wrote yesterday, July 20th, and I decided to go in a different direction today, July 21st, and it's in, you know, document X or book X, I need to make a copy. I need to rename the 20th and make it, you know, 23, you know, whatever.
07, 072022, sorry, you know what I'm doing, right? 07202023, underscore, back or maybe back underscore at the front of it.
I need to organize that somehow. But then I'll have my document that was, you know, that's the copy.
And I'll continue working on the new document and make all changes going, make all hard changes going forward in that.
And then when I come up with something I need to change from the document modified the 21st, then I go ahead and whatever.
If it's on October 7th that I decided I need to change that, then it'll be 10072023 to distinguish it, designate it as a backup file, and then use the core document that I, you know, split off of to keep moving forward and making my changes.
I don't know if that's enough or if I need to look into like Scribner's for Apple only. If it works just like Campfire, I'm not going to like it because I haven't gotten used to Campfire.
And I don't like it almost seems like too many tools for me to utilize. And my wife is doing great. She's written several books. She's like over like close to 10 now, I think.
And she isn't doing that. She's just using a Google document. She's not even organizing. To be fair, there's sweet romance. There's not a fictional world that she's making.
She's making it very much, you know, true life in a lot of ways. And that makes it easier for her.
And we've kind of had talks about what I'm doing, what she's doing. And I said, you know, she's like, it's because you're writing about bugs.
I said, no, it's not because I'm writing about bugs. It's because you're writing about real life and you're not having to make up all these things like I am.
So it makes more sense. But I definitely need to learn from her and be humble and not say, oh, I've been interested in writing for years and you haven't been.
So therefore I'm no, she's being more effective of a writer than I am. And yet I need to just learn from that and take lessons that she's taught me in her writing process and figure out what exactly to do for myself.
So like I said, I'm trying to figure out what it is. It's just, I have all these different new ideas and I don't know if it's because I didn't develop enough in the pre writing stage.
Like, I don't know if I need to just have a massive like drafts document or brainstorm document and just write and write and write and write in that thing until I'm ready to pull things from it and say, okay, this was all my big bag of ideas.
And now I'm going to pull certain threads from that. I'm going to keep the bag of ideas closed over here by itself. And if I ever need to, I can go back into that one and then I'll come back here to, I'll come back here to do what I will come back here to.
I guess I'll continue in this other document. I need to figure that out. So I think I need to buckle down and after I'm done with these five books, I, well, so I'm basically done with the five books.
I just need to do minor revisions to all of them. They're pretty much have unity now. I need to finish book six, which is the grow big tales chapter book, right?
So once I'm done with that, I think I was going to say, I think I might start developing the typhoon system before I go ahead and finish grow bug tales, the chapter book.
But I don't know if I should put all my mental energy into just developing the book faster and spend more time writing on it or what.
That's probably the smarter thing to do. I'm trying to think about like the snowball effect. You know, what makes more sense? What do I add my energy to? Do I spread myself then?
Or do I attack the smallest thing first, then take my energy from that and add it to the next thing? I should probably do the snowball thing and just focus on getting grow bug tales written faster.
I'm only writing 10 minutes a day pretty much when I do write the 10 minutes a day and I am adding to it. I'm about, I don't know, a quarter into chapter nine out of I think 16 chapters of what my outline has the last time I looked at it.
And I'm liking what I'm doing, but I'm just I'm dealing with a big cast. I've got seven grow bug cadets. I've got three keepers. I've got the camp's guardian plus the five guest guardians. And then I've got the seer who's kind of overseeing the whole thing.
I've got the watchers and the watchers are this like high level of exalted. They're like Jedi Master or like Gandalf Wizard basically level characters and they're in the narrative as little as possible so that they can be advising and not intervening.
But they'll kind of be my, you know, when the things get dark, they'll appear to turn the tide.
And I like to go to the races, you know that? Anyway, so that's what I'm doing with them. And I just, I feel good about what I'm doing. It's just perhaps a little too ambitious.
Like if I had just been writing the five grow bug books, I don't know, maybe I need to change the nature of my campaign. But the thing is this sixth grow bug book is just, it's just a chapter book. There's no real illustrations except for maybe a cover. Well, yeah, I'm thinking a cover illustration and then like chapter headings, which that could just be like a grow bug for every different chapter and just show off the different ones because they're all, you know, they'll have their own cute, you know, cross between a Digimon and a I don't know what.
Yeah, but that's the design idea. Cross between a Digimon, a Pokemon and a bug. You know, they're all bugs. They're either going to look like a little like a Pokemon or a little like a Digimon and, you know, be cute or whatever.
And, you know, how do I do that? And how do I, you know, maybe I just commissioned my artist, my artist who I've talked to, hey, can you just give me black and white drawings, one for each chapter, you know, let's make the villain even, wow, repurpose the artwork.
I wanted to show the grow bug cadets in a circle and have the seer, the moth seer glimmer showing the bird, the mist bird thing that's going to be attacking the camp that they need to be saved from.
Show that thing she's projecting with her, you know, seer powers or seer magic where she's using light to make the thing appear and they're all loud around it.
So my artist could do that design or that sketch and just show glimmer, chirp and quiver, which are a cricket and a moth respectively and glimmers a moth as well.
Show the three of them for sure. Maybe have silhouetted the other characters. The other grow bug cadets would still in their proper forms for their, you know, whatever type of body type they would have for whatever type of bug they are based off of.
And then show the bird in the middle and then he can repurpose those. If I have 12 chapters and I'm showing there's seven cadets, there's the bird, many birds, whatever.
That's eight chapters worth. Maybe show the keeper. That's actually not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea.
And I can have them showcase them using their magic in different ways, like throwing the leaves around for chapter nine or whatever.
So I'm saying maybe I shift to really focusing on getting the grow bug chapter book done as soon as possible.
Having the artist help me develop the designs, the final designs for the characters for the picture books by commissioning him and paying him for the cover for the chapter book as well as the chapter images.
That could be cool.
Black and white, less expensive, helps me and him develop our rapport in developing the look for these characters and then sell, you know, get that book published, get it selling and then use it as
a bonus added thing to the launch campaign for girl bug book, you know, picture book one and kind of go from there.
And then after all that's done, then I can develop my typhoon system so I can really understand how exactly I want to structure my writing so that it's efficient and I'm not wasting time and I'm not going back over and over and over again.
Because that's the problem. It's not that I'm not creative, it's that I'm like I need to figure out how to limit myself and stop adding things to the stories so that they're manageable for me to write in the smaller stints that I do now.
That's a lot to think about.
I'm going to go ahead and wrap up here. I thank you for your time and attention. I thank you for listening. I appreciate any feedback you have for me.
I'd like to know what you think about the stories.
You know, I told you that I'm going to do minor tweaks to Kat and bigger tweaks to Zev, kind of shifting the direction and changing some of the context of it.
But tell me what you think about the stories now if you listen to them.
And, yeah, do the kids feel consistent in them because in Kat and Zev are brother and sister.
They're like a little brother. And he wasn't included in the sleepover because he was at grandma's or he was having fun with mom and dad or whatever, ignoring his big sister while she's off doing whatever with the older cousins.
And, you know, I don't know, maybe he was having popcorn and, you know, who knows what.
But, you know, he's somewhere else so he's not involved in that story.
But you get back to back these books and they all take place over the course of like a year, basically, and, you know, nine months to a year.
And you have the four cousins interacting and then you have them again together in the Zev book.
But I shifted the focus away from Zev enough where you don't get too much of them but you get just a touch, a taste of their personalities, which I think is sufficient.
So, I don't know. Tell me if it made sense, if you liked it, if you didn't like it.
Any feedback you have would be appreciated.
Until next time, folks, be well. This is MJ signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that.
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