I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Carat_Authornim for promoting Blackmouth today <3 Check out her stories as well, I'm currently reading The Puppeteer and Fear(less)!

_{I think I'm officially titling these blogs as The Current as if it's a newspaper article. I'm inspired by my friend's idea on Wordpress where she posts weekly updates about her life in newspaper format; it's interesting but also the title makes it simple and easier to understand.}

The Current (Vol. 1)

November 28, 2023

I'm listening to Blackmouth's playlist right now; it's called Doomsday Countdown, and it's available on Spotify. I brought this up because I like it so much, I didn't even think I could curate a playlist like this. I always include playlists on my main stories (the multi-chaptered ones). This time I took the extra effort to kind of tell Blackmouth's storyline through the songs' lyrics, tone, and vibes, and whenever I listen to it while writing or rereading the story, it gives it that movie/TV series feel to it. I'm obsessed! It's meant to be played chronologically as it was intentionally curated in a specific order. Do check it out while reading Blackmouth (the link is on the Foreword)!

Speak of Blackmouth: I've already finally published the 11th chapter, but for full disclosure, the arc for that is not finished yet. If you can clock it, the start of this specific arc had began in the 9th chapter, but it's still going on up to the next, currently unpublished 12th chapter. This is an interesting writing exercise for me. This arc is literally 4 chapters taking place within the timeframe of more or less than 24 hours! As you may or may not know, Blackmouth is the first story I've written in the most detailed, planned out manner in my history of writing. This is a plot I've had for a while, and I've tried to write it three times before finally settling with the version we currently have today. 

The 11th chapter also contains one of my most favorite character intros I've written thus far. I've said in a previous blog that it had been Hoshi's character intro, but now it's taken over by Jeonghan's. And it's not even a full-on, exposé intro, it's really just a glimpse into his character's psyche. I was trying to read The Will to Power at the time, but I virtually got stuck on the introductory sentence, that I just felt like I was experiencing an epiphany in reel time. And I knew this is something I had to write about.

But more than these writing exercises, I think the part of writing a book/story that I enjoy the most is naming the characters. Currently, I've come up with more character names for my 3 stories than I have in the entire history of my writing career, if you will. The ones that I heavily focused on in giving the idol face-claims new character names are my multi-chaptered fics, Blackmouth, and Nevergod and Zero Kills, both of which are still in the process of their conception, lol. My favorite character names so far are:

Alaric Hsu, for Minghao's character in Nevergod. The names in this story specifically are intended to represent the "elemental" aspect of the characters' ancestral backgrounds. If you haven't seen the story yet, do check it out. But essentially, the fantasy part relies on the prospect of the elements heavily intertwined with all of the characters' Gestalt. It's kind of like in the Avatar: The Last Airbender, except it's not really. In here, there are five main elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air, and Time. The names I've picked correspond to these elements, or the concept of them, but most importantly I matched the names to fit the character's personality as well. Given that, Alaric is especially cool for me because it doesn't necessarily mean "fire" or anything related, it means "noble ruler", which is very telling of the character he is meant to play, but in a very twisted and cheeky sense. You'll see once I start writing and publishing the chapters. Another name I also like is Atlas, for Seungcheol's character in the same story. The name is heavy with the massive weight of duty and responsibility, much like his character and of course, Seungcheol's IRL role and personality as well.

The next one is Adalland, because aside from the plot aspect and all that jazz, idk, I just really think Vernon looks like an Adalland. LMAO. Because doesn't he? Tell me he doesn't. He looks so much like the name! And notice how they're all "A" names? Please don't. I promise the other characters names begin in other letters. But basically, all of Nevergod's character names are cool and match the members, imo.

I could go on about the characters' names in Blackmouth as well, but the names there have a plot-specific purpose that should be disclosed there and only there.

In Zero Kills, the names are mainly inspired by the naming process of Filipino people. The sound of them just instantly feels "Pinoy", if you get my drift. That's purposeful as well, because the story takes place in a universe much similar to (and have taken inspiration from) one of my most favorite Filipino works, a comic book series called Trese.

I say all this to say: I do think this is my favorite part of writing now. I used to write fics with just the idol's name, but now, and since I'm trying to venture towards publishing original fiction as well, I think this is a great help to hone my writing and creative skills, to practice making stuff up, basically.

There's more things I could talk about, but let's save it for the next The Current volume. If you have made it up until this last part, that's awesome. Thank you for reading my ramblings, lmao. I hope you have a nice day today, and I hope to see you again later, in my stories or in my blogs. Cheers!