1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at mjmunoz.com 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Welcome to Story Over Everything. This is Story Over Everything, episode 32. And one day I'll get over my difficulty saying that title. 3 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000 But anyway, you're not here to hear me be funny, because that's not the point of the show. 4 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:31,000 To talk about my journey as an author and as a creative, I'm currently working on Robug Tales Chapter 9. I don't know how much longer I'll be writing Robug Tales Chapter 9. 5 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:39,000 It could be a while still, we'll see. But it's a children's picture book, or actually it's a chapter book that is a companion to children's picture books. 6 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:48,000 And I'm specifically in Chapter 9, I'm bouncing a bunch of characters off of each other. And it's been really interesting and I've been having a lot of fun writing it. 7 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:56,000 So I'll go ahead and read to you my daily log. I have a goal of writing a minimum of 10 minutes a day. 8 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:02,000 A very busy schedule, so 10 minutes is all I can do right now, or is all I've been able to get myself to do right now. 9 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:11,000 How can I do more? I'm not sure, but if I think about it and I put that question to myself in that way, I'm sure I can find more time and get this book written more quickly. 10 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:18,000 So I'll just go ahead and share with you over the last week what I have been writing in Robug Tales. 11 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:25,000 So in just a moment I will find the correct date and I will share it with you. 12 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,000 By the way, I'm going to go ahead and just say the day of the week, or the day of the month, and year I guess. 13 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000 I'll include that and then I'll say, I'll read what I wrote and I'll just kind of quietly let it go by like that. 14 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000 So there's a marker there of what I wrote when. 15 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 August 12, 2023. I didn't write anything. 16 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 August 13, 2023. 17 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,000 Yon closed the circuit, the trail of light behind her overlapping with itself. 18 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,000 She called out, coming down, and dashed forward. 19 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,000 The structure collapsed in a few moments. 20 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,000 She reeled in the tendril as she surveyed her work. 21 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,000 Brunt laughed, nice work, cadet. 22 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Babel looked back and forth between the hardworking keeper and the least hardworking Robug cadet of his group. 23 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,000 How did you do that, Yon? 24 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000 What do you mean, Babel? 25 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:15,000 I mean, Babel sidled up to Yon and lowered his voice. 26 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,000 I've never seen you take a serious interest in any kind of work like this. 27 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:24,000 I usually love this kind of work, but as hard as I've been trying, I can't seem to get the hang of it. 28 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000 I don't get it. What's your secret? 29 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,000 Yon laughed and turned to her friend. 30 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,000 August 14, 2023. 31 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,000 The secret is that I don't want to be here doing this right now. 32 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:36,000 Come now. 33 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:41,000 If our lives weren't in danger, are you telling me you would choose to be here doing this right now? 34 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,000 Of course not. Why would you? 35 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:44,000 I feel the same way. 36 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,000 Well, you're trying hard to do your best because... 37 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:48,000 Because... 38 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Why do you always push yourself so hard? 39 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Babel exclaimed. 40 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,000 What kind of question is that? 41 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,000 Anything worthwhile is difficult. 42 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,000 So you have to do your best or else you won't do any good. 43 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,000 But Babel, are you saying that everything difficult is worthwhile? 44 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:06,000 Of course. 45 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:07,000 Really? 46 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:08,000 Yes. 47 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:09,000 Give me an example. 48 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:10,000 Quick. 49 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:11,000 Yon challenged. 50 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:12,000 Babel sputtered. 51 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,000 Clearly this is difficult and worthwhile. 52 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,000 Can you think of anything else? 53 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:18,000 How about all our training? 54 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Fighting hobgots is difficult and worthwhile. 55 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:21,000 There. 56 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000 What's your point? 57 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,000 This is my point. 58 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:28,000 What about watching the stars? 59 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,000 August 15. 60 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,000 What about enjoying the breeze? 61 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,000 What about enjoying a feast? 62 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,000 Aren't those all worthwhile and worthy things? 63 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:40,000 Babel admitted. 64 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,000 Well, yes. 65 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,000 And they take almost no work to do. 66 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,000 What is the toil in them? 67 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:53,000 Well, you have to make the feast before you enjoy the feast, but the other two are really good examples. 68 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:58,000 So we agree that worthwhile and difficult are two separate matters. 69 00:03:58,000 --> 00:03:59,000 I suppose. 70 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:02,000 But again, what's the point? 71 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:05,000 What does that have to do with me failing and you succeeding here? 72 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:14,000 Babel waved toward the piles of rubble Yon had felled with ease. 73 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,000 What have they told us? 74 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,000 Your focus determines your reality, right? 75 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000 Well, my focus is to get through this and get to the next good thing. 76 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:25,000 I want to survive so I can live my life and do what I love. 77 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,000 I'm not trying to keep myself dying. 78 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,000 I want to keep living. 79 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:29,000 Babel scoffed. 80 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:30,000 And I don't? 81 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,000 You don't think I have things I don't want to miss out on? 82 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,000 There you go again. 83 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Listen to your words. 84 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,000 What do you want? 85 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,000 What do you wake up for? 86 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,000 What do you mean? 87 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:43,000 August 16. 88 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,000 I mean exactly that. 89 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,000 What is the point of your life? 90 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:51,000 Babel thought and said, the point of my life is to protect kids from hobnots. 91 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,000 And that's it? 92 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:59,000 Well, I don't feel like it so much right now, but I'm supposed to protect you and all the other girlbugs, too. 93 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,000 Okay, I love you, too, brother. 94 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,000 But why? 95 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,000 Do you want us all to die? 96 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,000 No, I do not. 97 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,000 But we've already established that. 98 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:09,000 I want us all to live. 99 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,000 And I want to live. 100 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000 Oh, I want to live so much. 101 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,000 For what, Yon? 102 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:17,000 I asked you first. 103 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,000 Fine, Babel grumbled. 104 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000 I get up and do all this. 105 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,000 I want to try so hard because I just don't feel right if I don't. 106 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,000 It makes me feel good, happy. 107 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:29,000 Like I belong where I am. 108 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:33,000 Like I belong when I am doing my best to learn and grow. 109 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,000 I don't want to quit. 110 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,000 I don't feel like giving up when I meet a challenge. 111 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,000 I want to overcome it and conquer it. 112 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,000 What's so wrong with that, Yon? 113 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,000 August 17. 114 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:44,000 Yon chuckled. 115 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:45,000 Nothing at all. 116 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,000 It's good to see you fired up about something. 117 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:48,000 What? 118 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,000 Why the change of heart? 119 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,000 Because your heart changed first, silly. 120 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,000 You were all duty and doing before. 121 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:59,000 Now I can see that you're crazy about being exactly who you were meant to be. 122 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:01,000 What do you mean? 123 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:06,000 I mean you actually do love things right. 124 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,000 Like you do love things right. 125 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,000 You love stepping up and doing hard things because they are hard. 126 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:16,000 I don't get it myself, but I think I get you a little better now. 127 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:17,000 Wow. 128 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Yon nodded sagely. 129 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,000 And what do you love, Yon? 130 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,000 I love to just be here. 131 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,000 I love being here to take in as much life as I can. 132 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,000 That's why I like to do nothing. 133 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:34,000 Doing nothing leads me to so many great somethings. 134 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:44,000 I really want to just be a wanderer so I can see everything there is and do some of everything there is to do. 135 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,000 That could take your whole life. 136 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,000 How long do you plan to keep on doing nothing and drifting? 137 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,000 Until my last breath babble. 138 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:56,000 That's why I don't want to waste one moment of this gift they call the present. 139 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:58,000 You know what, Yon? 140 00:06:58,000 --> 00:06:59,000 What? 141 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:01,000 You're a real odd one. 142 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:02,000 Takes one to know one. 143 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:03,000 Sure. 144 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:08,000 So how does that thought process make you so good at doing this stuff? 145 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:10,000 I still don't get that. 146 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:11,000 Here's my secret. 147 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:12,000 I'm sorry. 148 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:13,000 August 18th. 149 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:14,000 Here's my secret. 150 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:15,000 Yon gestured elaborately. 151 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:20,000 I want so much to be doing nothing that I focus all my energy into doing something. 152 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:29,000 Getting in the way of my nothing and do it with all my heart for the least possible amount of time so I can get back to that sweet nothing. 153 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:30,000 That's it? 154 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:31,000 That's it? 155 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,000 Babble real. 156 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,000 So you're telling me you are so good at this because you're lazy. 157 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,000 Lazy is such an ugly word. 158 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,000 I prefer to think of myself as goal oriented. 159 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:44,000 Doesn't that sound nicer? 160 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:45,000 It does. 161 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:47,000 But does it sound true? 162 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,000 If you see things my way, yes. 163 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,000 How would you describe yourself? 164 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,000 Uptight, breechy, stuck up, no fun? 165 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:54,000 That's enough. 166 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:55,000 Thanks. 167 00:07:55,000 --> 00:08:00,000 Babble tensed for a moment, seemingly holding himself back, then relaxed. 168 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,000 I would say I am persistent, tenacious, maybe passionate about precision? 169 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,000 Babble the precise. 170 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,000 Yon tried out the title and gestured approvingly. 171 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,000 I can hang out with the precise grow bug. 172 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,000 Can you stand to be around someone as goal oriented as me? 173 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,000 Yes I can. 174 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:21,000 But I think I have a better title for you. 175 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:22,000 Of course you do. 176 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:23,000 Well yes. 177 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,000 How do you like Yon the efficient? 178 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:26,000 Ooh. 179 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,000 Yon waggled her antenna. 180 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,000 I like that a lot. 181 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,000 Well Yon, will you teach me how to do this efficiently? 182 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:36,000 I'm not sure I feel up to it right now. 183 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,000 Yon dismissed. 184 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:46,000 And that is the end of my writing, so I believe that's six days worth of writing for this book. 185 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:51,000 And I gotta say, I feel so badly every time I say or think this. 186 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:52,000 I love my writing. 187 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:53,000 I love what I'm doing. 188 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:55,000 I love what I'm putting down. 189 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,000 The tone of... 190 00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,000 Man, it's funny. 191 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:00,000 It's so funny for me. 192 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,000 So I'm done talking about the reading of the book. 193 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,000 And now I'm just going to give an anecdote or a little story time. 194 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:16,000 So I really want to make a bigger superhero universe that has basically nothing to do with this kiddie stuff. 195 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:21,000 And yet I think these girl bug books are cool. 196 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:22,000 And I think they're interesting. 197 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,000 I think they're neat. 198 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,000 And I think there's a real good market in children's books. 199 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:33,000 And I almost am thinking about pivoting from doing my superhero stuff 200 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:38,000 as something for teens or young adults or whatever to making it be kid-friendly. 201 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:43,000 Because there really is not high-quality, candid media out there, in my opinion. 202 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:48,000 My wife has read so many books to our kids from the library, and there's so many of them that are so bad. 203 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,000 There's a lot of older books that we like. 204 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:56,000 And I'm trying to convince my eldest, and I think she's pretty much convinced of it basically, 205 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,000 that she should just read the classics. 206 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,000 I'm talking about Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne and I don't know who else, 207 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:05,000 but she wants to do Shakespeare as well. 208 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:09,000 And anyway, she at first read modern books and she kind of got into them, 209 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:12,000 but then as time went on and she tried to explore more modern books, 210 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,000 she had a hard time reading anything past the 2000s. 211 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:21,000 That met the family's approval, and she would vet them herself and tell me she rejected them. 212 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:22,000 So that's good. 213 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,000 And she finally gave in and started reading older stuff. 214 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:29,000 I convinced her to The Great Lord of the Rings, and she read all of The Chronicles of Narnia, 215 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:33,000 and the Bredain series, which is fabulous, and some George McDonald, which is amazing, 216 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:37,000 which I've talked about here in Skimming Leaves episodes of Story Over Everything, 217 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:38,000 so I won't belabor that. 218 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:43,000 But I want there to be more stuff in that vein. 219 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:46,000 And I was thinking about marketing myself and my books, my superhero books, 220 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:53,000 as like if Stan Lee and J.R.R. Tolkien had a son and he wrote books, 221 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:56,000 these are the kinds of superhero adventure books he would write. 222 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:59,000 And well, I think that's... 223 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:01,000 Well, I hope that's what I aspire to, right? 224 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:03,000 That's what I aspire to, and that would be my marketing. 225 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,000 If you love anything in the Marvel Universe, 226 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:09,000 if you love anything from Lord of the Rings, here it is. 227 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,000 But I really like The Hobbit more than I like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. 228 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:18,000 And to me, Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia are closer to The Hobbit than they are to Lord of the Rings, 229 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:24,000 whereas I feel like the Space trilogy is closer to Lord of the Rings than it is to Narnia or The Hobbit. 230 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:31,000 And anyway, I hope I'm not speaking esoterically about these books because they're great books, 231 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:35,000 but they're also...I'm okay speaking esoterically because these are my milieu, 232 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:40,000 and they're the things that I love in the literary world, 233 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,000 and they're the kinds of things I want to emulate. 234 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:48,000 And George MacDonald is behind...not behind Lewis and Tolkien, but he is a forebearer of them, 235 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,000 and they were both fans of his writing. 236 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,000 And I'm a fan of some of his writing so far. 237 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:59,000 The Light Princess was a little weird, which I think I mentioned previously, so I won't talk about it extensively here. 238 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,000 A bit of a weird book, or a bit of a weird fairy tale. 239 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,000 Most of it's good, but there's just some stuff at the end that's odd. 240 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:07,000 But I do like the imagery in it overall. 241 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:10,000 Anyway, so that's what I want to write. 242 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:15,000 But...and Stanley himself didn't want to write comic books, 243 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:20,000 and he wasn't proud of the fact that he was writing comic books because he wanted to be the next great American novelist. 244 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:24,000 And I sort of feel that way, but I also sort of don't feel that way, 245 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:26,000 because I want there to be tons of great books for my kids. 246 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:31,000 Like, I haven't read the Warriors series. One of my daughters would definitely be interested in that. 247 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:38,000 And there's like Redwall, so these are, you know, talking animal adventure stories, but they're a little bit more than that. 248 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,000 But anyway, I've been trying to read as much Kid-Lit as I can, 249 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:46,000 and basically get myself set up for success with that, 250 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:53,000 because I want to be a Kid-Lit author, to some extent. At least I want to have success in the Kid-Lit or children's books that I am going to write, 251 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:56,000 because I'm going to dedicate myself and write them as well as I can, 252 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:00,000 in the meantime while I'm waiting to move on to my, you know, bigger superhero stuff. 253 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,000 But again, I'm almost wondering if I should just pivot and say, 254 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:07,000 you know what, I'll write these books for kids. I'll write smaller books for kids. 255 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:14,000 And, you know, I can do more of them, and, you know, maybe I train myself. 256 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:19,000 I was going to train myself on the Grow Bug series and the Dragon fantasy series I have coming up next. 257 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:26,000 And maybe I'll just kind of slow down and, you know, read more fantasy and more Kid-Lit and focus on just, 258 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:29,000 take things one step at a time. I've got to finish Grow Bug Tales first. 259 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:34,000 Then I've got to move on to the, you know, kids and the Grow Bug books, 260 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:38,000 and just get all those projects done and then move on to the Dragon book. 261 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:44,000 And then see about, you know, am I going to make the pivot to writing, like, kids superhero books, 262 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:45,000 or am I going to move somewhere else? 263 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:53,000 Because I've tried to look at kids superhero books too, and they seem to edge towards silly nonsense. 264 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:58,000 And I would rather there be, like, an earnest kids superhero thing out there. 265 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:03,000 And I think books could be the place to do that, especially, I was planning on doing longer series, 266 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:08,000 like 12 book series, and they don't have to be incredibly long. 267 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:15,000 And I'm in the middle of, I'm almost, yeah, I'm about in the middle of reading through Harry Potter right now, 268 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:20,000 or listening to it rather, and that's an interesting one, because, you know, it's for kids, but it ages up with them. 269 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:24,000 And I could either do, I could do, you know, multiple series, one where it ages up with kids, 270 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:28,000 one where it doesn't age up with kids. I have a couple kids superheroes planned already. 271 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:33,000 And I thought, well, I'm thinking maybe I can just write those for a while. 272 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:38,000 And, you know, with each book's success, I could, you know, use that to egg me on to write the next one, 273 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:43,000 even though I'm kind of going to plan them all out ahead of time loosely so I have a direction, a trajectory, 274 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:47,000 and then I can fine tune it as I need to, you know, per book and for feedback from kids. 275 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:57,000 So, anyway, I think that would be good. But, yeah, I got off on a tangent because I was talking about how much I like my own writing. 276 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:02,000 And I think it's good to be pleased. There's definitely errors and there's definitely things I need to clean up and fix. 277 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:08,000 But I do like the character dynamics. And, like, it was funny, I was telling my daughter the other day, 278 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:13,000 it's kind of trite to say, like, oh, just, you know, make the cast as diverse as possible. 279 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:21,000 And I mean that in the right way. And it'll automatically be exciting because having a diverse cast, 280 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:28,000 having a cast that is from different places in whatever way and thinks differently from each other, has different cultural backgrounds and things like that, 281 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:34,000 it will create, it should create conflict. However, if your people are good people, your characters are good people, 282 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:41,000 they should be able to resolve the conflicts morally and it should be exciting and interesting and compelling. 283 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:50,000 And it should be, you know, not freaky but educational and informative and illustrative to kids or anybody, really, reading your books. 284 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:57,000 It's illustrative to your audience of how to deal with that kind of conflict. And I think that's a good thing. 285 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:04,000 So the primary goal is to make the stuff entertaining. The secondary goal is to make it impactful in a positive way. 286 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:10,000 I don't know, I guess the third goal is to make money. And I think if you make it entertaining and it's impactful, it should make money. 287 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:17,000 And I don't know if more of the money or the success from the books comes from making sure that it's entertaining versus impactful. 288 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:21,000 But I definitely think for myself, all three things are important. 289 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:32,000 And I'm being entertained by the character shenanigans that I have going on between my characters or interactions, not shenanigans. 290 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,000 There are shenanigans, but the shenanigans are just part of the interactions. 291 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:40,000 But I mean, you know, I read it to you. Of course, it needs to be edited and I pause a little too long in some places. 292 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:46,000 But overall, that's the intent. That's what I was intending to write. And it's sure to undergo revisions. 293 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,000 But I mean, I like it. I think it's fun. I think it's cool. 294 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:58,000 I like using these characters or interactions and the fact that they're, you know, if you don't have the context for the rest of the chapter, 295 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:03,000 basically, the grow bugs are under threat. They're magical bugs that act as like a guardian angels to kids. 296 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:15,000 And they are in danger because something, one of the types of creatures that comes and attacks kids sometimes is actually coming for them to attack them and kill them, 297 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:19,000 or to stop them so that, you know, they murder all these grow bug guardians. 298 00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:29,000 Then that means that in their little section of the world, they'll be able to attack children and harm them better and have more success and more, you know, 299 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:33,000 more flourishing at the expense of the suffering of the children. Right. 300 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:37,000 And the grow bugs are trying to defend themselves because they're in danger from this threat. 301 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:44,000 And they've paired off and they're working in teams to do everything that they need to do in order to prepare themselves for the coming attack. 302 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:55,000 And I decided I'm going to pair off kids with the older, wiser instructors who are leading them in doing different things to prepare for the attack. 303 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:05,000 And I'm just I'm having a blast. And, you know, I'm not writing as much as I want to as far as the volumes, volume of words per day or whatever. 304 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:15,000 But what I am writing, I am enjoying. And like this is my passion. This is, you know, like like John is talking about with with Babel there. 305 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:20,000 Like this is what gets me going. This is, you know, I feel wrong. I feel bad if I don't write. 306 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:28,000 And so, yeah, as much as I want this to be successful and I want to sell it and market it and, you know, make money off these books, 307 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:33,000 I'm also writing them just for my own my own happiness, my own sanity, my own joy. 308 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:41,000 It's pretty awesome. So anyway, I hope that my passion comes through and helps yield me success. 309 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:51,000 But until it does, until I'm ready to release stuff, I'm just going to have to keep hammering away, chipping away and putting in the work because there is no other way to get the results. 310 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:57,000 You have to put in the work to get the results. And I don't know. I don't really have a lesson. 311 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:05,000 I'm just kind of telling the story and sharing some of my thoughts on my own process and reflecting on it. And it's funny because, you know, there's the thing life imitates art. 312 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:15,000 Well, I guess talking about the passion and all that other stuff, I am kind of, you know, my life is now mimicking or copying or, yeah, 313 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:21,000 mimicking the art that I'm putting down. So anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say for now. 314 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:32,000 I thank you for your time and attention. And I ask that you come back for another story of everything. I am playing with the idea of doing an interview every now and then. 315 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:42,000 And I have an idea for somebody who I'd like to do an interview with and I'm going to buy my time and see if it's if it's the right move or not. 316 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:58,000 And I like doing this show by myself. I think it's better to do it that way for a lot of reasons. But if you're listening to this and you think there's somebody I should interview or if you like the idea of doing interviews or dislike it strongly, 317 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:12,000 leave a comment and let me know. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. So that's all I have to say for now. Until next time, folks, take care. This is MJ signing out. 318 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:24,000 I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have. There you can find all of my analysis, art and fiction. 319 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:36,000 I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more. Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a Story Over Everything production.