I made more progress on Chapter 18 of CeleKing2. I usually have to spend more time choreographing fight scenes, but we’ll see how far I get over the next couple days. Stay tuned.

I started on Chapter 18 of CeleKing2. Made a little over quota but not quite as much as I’ve been doing the last few days. I’m quite satisfied with the progress I’ve been making, though, which is a nice counterweight to some of the slower weeks I’ve been having lately. More to come. Stay tuned.

Because it’s difficult to write an insertion when I’m separated from the main manuscript, I skipped the bit of Chapter 15 I have left and went ahead to knock out Chapter 17. At this rate, I stand a very good chance of meeting my goal for the week. Stay tuned.

I made more progress in Chapter 15 of CeleKing2. I’d been a little stuck on the first section of the chapter, but inspiration struck and I was able to get through it. I just have to finish the opening of the second section and I’ll be done. Things are moving along nicely. Stay tuned.

Without FE Echoes to eat up as much of my free time at work, I get all sorts of writing done. I skipped ahead to complete Chapter 16 of CeleKing2, then backtracked to work on Chapter 15. I’m going to be ambitious and make getting through Chapter 18 by the end of the weekend my goal. At very least, Chapter 17 is highly viable. Stay tuned.

I made some more progress on Chapter 29 of TBP but fell short of my goal of finishing the chapter. C’est la vie. It’s time to move on to CeleKing2. Speaking of the CeleKing series, I need to finish labeling the map before it’s time to post it when CeleKing1 wraps. Stay tuned.

I only made a little progress on Chapter 29 of TBP. Don’t ask me where the rest of the time went.

Since I haven’t done much in the way of progress, I thought I might share a bit about the side project I’ve been working on this week. The basic idea’s been rolling around in my head some time and I finally decided to start developing it as a potential Else Arc story. You see, playing Cinderella Girls I couldn’t help imagine Producer-san as an irritable sort who’s lost all patience with the world around him and particularly the nonsense of the girls he’s managing. For instance, there’s this one S Rare card of Kaoru with her holding up her empty bento box looking so proud of herself and I can just imagine Producer-san crabbily snapping at her, “Well, whaddya want, a cookie!?” To which the reply should be, “She’s a nine-year-old girl who made a happy plate, you dillweed. Yes, she’d probably like a cookie.”

Mostly because I ignore the threadbare plot of the actual game, I tend to imagine the character dynamics and I was seeing all this opportunity you’d never see explored in the actual game. For instance, pretty much every girl in the game comes on to you. Every girl. Given that more than half of them are minors, it’s a big problem. The anime plays with this somewhat by having Producer-san spend a lot of time with the cops, but I’m thinking about a darker look at the concept as a deconstruction of harem romcoms. Prodding at the seedy side of the entertainment industry is another part of it.

This ties into a recent trend in my work where I’m setting up fairly unlikeable leads but still trying to make them engaging. Now, I think with the poor talent agent in this story, his life is in such shambles and he’s so pathetic that you’ll probably feel a little sorry for him, but what do I do in the Nell series if the black comedy approach I’m going for falls flat? Well, I’m obviously not going be going anywhere as an artist if I don’t try pressing the boundaries. If something doesn’t work, I’ll just learn from the experience and move on.

Anyway, that’s just a little glimpse at what’s going on behind the scenes. A little more work and I might put up a teaser in the near future. Have to decide if I want it to be a one-shot or a series. Maybe a one-shot with an option for a prequel.

Hopefully I can get my story progress back on track. Stay tuned.