Good morning, Readers!

Things are still going stupidly well with the whole writing thing.

Incredibly well.

I almost doubled my weekly goal once again. This, after writing a blog post talking about how I was feeling a little burnt out and was going to pull back a bit.

​Apparently, that was not within my ability to do.

I'm running into a new problem. You know, other than the "terrified it's trash and I'll be offending people" problem. The problem is this - it's going to be a long-arse story, and I don't know how else to tell it.

Because it isn't a typical three-act structure kind of story, because it's much more meandering, slice of life kind of story, I'm not sure how to trim it down to make it palatable to readers. Maybe I'll not attempt to publish it at all, even if it is given the all-clear by sensitivity readers. Maybe I'll release it as a serial somewhere, somehow.

I don't know. All I know is that this story is going to be looooong if I don't figure out a way to trim it without losing what I find so charming about this tale in the first place. I mean, I pass the 70 000 word mark this week, and I'm nowhere near done telling all that wants to be told. I am legitimately concerned.

For now, I'll just write as it wants to be written.

The length is a problem for future me.

(Dear future me, I am so, so, so sorry. Again. Sincerely, Me.)

Right, I have to go be a productive member of the workforce, so I'm off. Have yourselves a lovely day.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Are you ready or more of The Untamed? Tough. You're getting it. I've gotten a little wordy, so I'm going to try and shorten it this week.

HAH HAH HAH HAH!

Look, I said I'll try, alright.

​Anyway, episode six.

As promised by the end of last episode, where we see WWX sneakily buy some of the delicious Emperor's Smile liquor, drunk shenanigans occur, but in the best way possible. Nie Huaisang arrives, complete with a special knock, WWX lets him in after checking to see if anyone is looking. What follows are three friends - WWX, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng all drinking together. Of course, Jiang Cheng and WWX tease each other. In this instance, WWX teases Jiang Cheng about his impossible list of what he's looking for in a girl. This ends in a loud play fight on the bed. All three boys.

LWJ walks in, presumably because he heard the racket.

Awkward.

​Of course, he tell all three boys to go for punishment, whereupon Jiang Cheng and Niece Huaisang pretend to pass out. Then they pretend to be sick as a means of escaping LWJ. In the ruckus, WWX puts LWJ under a control spell and, well, makes LWJ drink some of the Emperor's Smile.

Insta-drunk.

Honestly, a cheaper date than LWJ you'll never find. Literally one minute after he drinks the wine, his head hits the table. It does make for a nice bonding moment, when WWX tries to help LWJ straighten his headband and is continually rebuffed. Even drunk, this is one rule LWJ will not ignore.

No one gets to touch the headband, you see, save one's family and significant other. WWX remarks how rigid all these rules are, and how that means LWJ will never find a girl to marry him. LWJ replies, "That's fine." BECAUSE OF COURSE IT IS. And WWX teases further, asking LWJ if his father is the same as he is, noting how bored his mother must be.

LWJ admits, perhaps because he's drunk, that he doesn't have a mother. After more teasing, before WWX realizes what that means, WWX talks of his parents, both of whom he lost when he was four. He talks about not knowing them, or really remembering them at all, save one scene he has in his mind. Some small bonding is achieved.

The next day, Lan Qiren (the Lan Clan teacher) returns from his travels, and reports to LXC that he went to visit the Nie Clan. They're having the same problem with spirit-snatched cultivators. The meeting is interrupted by a disciple coming in to tell the pair that WWX and company were caught being drunk. This makes LXC smile until he's informed that LWJ was amongst the troublemakers.

And we cut to a scene with LWJ kneeling before his uncle and his brother, admitting his guilt and readiness to accept punishment. In rushes WWX to explain that LWJ didn't have a choice and that he had fed the poor lightweight alcohol against his will. LWJ doesn't let this factoid deter him from seeking punishment, though, and WWX gets angry at him, wondering why the boy is so determined to get punished.

This is not making me relate any less hard to LWJ, by the by.

Anyway, LWJ and WWX ended up getting punished heavily, while the other accomplices, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang get considerably fewer beatings. By the by, WWX trying to act as tough as LWJ, who doesn't react to the pain at all, is genuinely adorable.

Afterwards, LXC proves to be the absolute best big brother and most excellent wingman, because he directs WWX to a cold spring where WWX can bathe and speed up his recovery time, KNOWING FULL WELL THAT'S WHERE HIS YOUNGER BROTHER WILL BE. Damn, LXC.

Of course, LWJ is there when WWX shows up. WWX notes, and I'll quote here because it made me laugh out loud, that, though at first he thought LWJ was "rigid, pedantic and depressing. And a little boring," he's changed his mind since their duels always ended in a draw, and he approves of LWJ and wants to befriend him. To which LWJ says, "That's not necessary." JFC, dude.

In a move that I don't think was a coincidence at all by the writers/director, WWX then declares that there are a lot of benefits to being his friend, and immediately begins to undress. Every shipper ever: 

But then, LWJ is all like:

Long story short, when LWJ's back is turned, WWX is pulled under by something. LWJ has just enough time to grab his sword before he too is pulled under the water. Together, they fall into an ice cave, where they find a qin on a pedestal. The instrument goes on the offensive, striking WWX with a magical attack we learn is called Killer String. In order to stop the attacks, the instrument must recognize WWX as part of the Lan Clan. How is this achieved? Well, with LWJ's headband of course. LWJ wraps it around his wrist and WWX's wrist in something that feels suspiciously like a hand binding.

So... they're technically married now, right? That's how this works, right?

Oh, and there are rabbits everywhere. I'll mention that again later.

Also, it's noted that WWX and LWJ are missing, and the whole of Cloud Recesses are out looking for them.

Anyway, once WWX is safe from attack, the pair meet Lan Yin, the only female head of the Lan Clan and the inventor of the Killer String technique. We learn her history, and how it is tied with the Yin Iron fragment she guards to this day. I'm not going to go into every detail, but here is a summary:

Yiling Mountains (a location that will become important later in the series) was once the seat of the Xue Clan (pay attention to that name, because it only just clued in on this rewatch why that name is both important and familiar). The grandmaster Xue Chonghai was the most powerful of them all, and no one knows why he turned to the Yin Iron, corrupting it with human sacrifice and filling it with malice and rancor. But he did. The five families we know today - Wen, Jiang, Jin, Nie, and Lan all joined forces to take down Xue Chonghai and his slaughter tortoise. You read that correctly. He had a slaughter tortoise. Yup.

However, by that time the Yin Iron had become too powerful to disperse, and so the five families elected to try and suppress it. They broke the Yin Iron into pieces, and hid each piece away in a place filled with powerful healing or otherwise positive energy, thereby containing it, and never spoke of it again.

Lan Yin tried to use the fragment she discovered to rebuild the Lan Clan, losing a most profound friendship (with Bao Shan, no less, whom WWX seems to know. I highly suspect that, like many of the relationships in this series, "best friend, dearest to my heart" may be code for lover in this case). She found herself out of her depth. Unable to either use it or replace the seal she broke to get it, she sealed it away in the Cold Spring Cave at great cost. She used her own spiritual energy, and can never leave, or the Yin Iron will become unsealed again. But, she mentions early in the conversation that her energy is fading.

Aaaand that's the end of the episode. Another weird place to end, but oh well!

What I Liked

Can we talk about the rabbits for a second? This series is chock-full of hints that it is a gay story. Super gay. The rabbits are one such layered hint. You see, there is a deity whose role is to manage love and sex between homosexual folk, and his name literally means 'Rabbit God.' So... there's that heavy-handed symbolism. Also, thanks for that information, YouTube commenters! You rock.

The headband here was far more obvious. Not the wrist binding, though the headband did bind them together, but the fact that LWJ used the headband at all. It's only supposed to be touched by family and significant others. Which makes WWX LWJ's significant other, I guess.

I'm loving all of these little hints. I don't know why, but I find it almost sweeter when it's so bloody obvious but not overly explicit. I have the same issue with many explicit heterosexual romance depictions. If it's too in your face too soon, I don't like it. But I digress.

Also, throughout this whole thing, you can see LWJ very, very slowly warming up to WWX. VERY SLOWLY. But it's there and it makes me happy.

What Could Have Been Better

The abrupt ending to the episode is again something I'm not all that used to. It might be a pretty common  convention for Chinese dramas, but I am entirely unfamiliar with them, so it feels very odd to to have the conclusion of at least one arc in an episode.

Other than that, I have no complaints. There's not as much action in this series as the first episode might have suggested, but I don't mind at all. This world, the history, and the characters are all fantastic enough to keep me watching... twice (so far).

​Right, I'll let you go now. Episode seven next week.

Good morning, Readers!

I'm going to get real vague in just a minute, so if that's not your jam, stop reading right now!

Okay, so, this week, a confluence of things happened that sparked in me a new story idea that I'm rather taken with. To be fair, with the exception of Human for various reasons, I'm usually quite taken with a story idea when I first meet it. I'm so taken with this idea, though, I'm shuffling my writing schedule around to accommodate it. But I digress.

Unlike other story ideas I've had, with the exception of Skylark (there are always exceptions), this one struck suddenly and out of the blue. Normally stories kinda stew... they congeal in the back of my mind until they're fully cooked and ready to be written. Not this one. This was all, like, BAM! HERE I AM BITCHES!

That's my best explanation.

Moving swiftly along...

This means that unlike any of my other stories, again with the exception of Skylark, I can definitely point to these events as the, for want of a better term, inciting incidents.

What events? Asked absolutely no one. Well, I shall tell you.

Something in the news that cause ample waves and made me quite stroppy with the state of the world. And a music video of an artist I quite like dropped. The two seemingly unrelated things shared a vaguely similar theme; a tiny, barely visible thread that connected them. And suddenly...

BLAM! POW!

Story idea.

I have the main character, and I have his physical attributes. I have the world in which he lives, what happens to make him the man he becomes near the beginning of the story. I do not yet have the actual ending. This one will require some research and a little stewing to achieve. But the bones of the story are there, and I'm excited to get started on it.

For now, though, I'm sticking with The Lioness of Shara Mountain. It's a slower character piece, that is potentially problematic, so might never be published, but I'm loving the story and the characters, and it just feels so good to be writing again. I will be finishing this manuscript before I begin writing the next one.

Next on my list before being ambushed by this new story, was completing the manuscript for GTFO, which was another one that I was unsure would be published. I'm pushing that back, though, in favour of this new story, because, lords, ladies and everyone in between, this story is screaming at me and making life difficult.

Insistent stories are the worst.

Anyway, I just found the two events that combined to create this story amusing, because they are so different from one another, and yet... and yet... here they both were, combining like some demented story Voltron, to slap me upside the brain.

Inspiration comes from the strangest of places.

Right, I have work to do, so I shall see you all next week - Friday for those of you who watch my streams.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm over at Black Gate Magazine today, talking about what I've noticed in writing Twitter this week. To be fair, I haven't noticed much. I've been terribly busy.

There have been a few hot takes in writing Twitter since the last time I posted. Most of them I’ve already made comment on in older posts either here or on my personal blog; mostly refuting these hot takes… though sometimes with caveats.

Let’s see, there was the ill-conceived screed against fan fiction by an author whose published work is ironically a ‘retelling.’ I don’t have the time or the energy to go over her nonsense and point out all the ways it is, in fact, nonsense, not least of all because writing Twitter did such a thorough job of it on Twitter. It’s highly amusing, if ever you want to seek it out.
​
The other one I’ve noted is the recent wave of harsh writing advice (™). Twitter immediate took the original poster to task, writing some of the funniest, silliest harsh writing advice (™) I’ve read of late. This gentle mocking of the idea of harsh writing advice is, to my mind, the perfect way to deal with harsh writing advice (™).

Good morning, Readers!

January ended at the end of the week, which is convenient. So I have two reports to make. The first is how my weekly goal went, and the second is how my monthly goal went.

I'm thrilled to say that I have far exceeded my writing expectations on both counts. This week, the third out of the four this month, I managed to double my word goal. It wasn't by as considerable a margin as I've done in other weeks, but it was enough.

Not too shabby.

I cannot speak to the quality of those words. That's what editors are for. For now, I'm going to pat myself on the back for a job well done.

Since I exceeded my goals on all four weeks of the month, that means I did, indeed, manage to also double my monthly goal. Instead of around twenty thousand words, I managed to get just over forty thousand.

I am legitimately feeling good about my efforts so far, and with just over sixty thousand words written in my novel, I'm thinking that this is one that will get finished this year. I just need two more bumper months like this, and I'll be golden.

​Laughs in crippling self-doubt

To that end, my goals are not shifting. I don't think I'll be able to keep up this pace forever, and I want to manage my expectations.

As you can probably see in the last picture, I'm keeping my monthly goal the same - twenty thousand words. This breaks down in February to the same thing as January - roughly five thousand words a week, or a thousand words a day.

I can tell you that it's already been off to a rocky start, thanks to a non-functioning iPad keyboard at lunch yesterday (working full time, writing at lunch and after work is the only way I've been able to hit my word goals). I've also been going at such a breakneck speed with everything that I'm feeling a little burnt out. That will, no doubt, slow me down.

So, this week, I plan on doing the bare minimum. If I have the energy and brain power for more, then I will do more. But this week especially, I'm needing to take it a little slower.

Still, writing is a marathon, not a sprint, and so I will go whatever pace I need to in order to preserve my sanity and health.

Right, I'm off to do things.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers.

It's time for episode five! Are you excited. I am. Because of course I am. Right, on with it.

So, we begin right where we left off. WWX, who should be in the library writing out the Lan Clan rules until his fingers fall off, is somewhere behind the compound, trying to figure out what is going on back there. He tries to rope LWJ in, and avoid punishment, by trying to convince LWJ that he heard a noise in the hills, and asking LWJ if there's anything in there. Unimpressed with it all, LWJ grabs WWX by the arm and drags him to the library.

Here is one of my favourite scenes, mostly because of the music. As with all good scores, there is a refrain that plays only when the lovers are together or thinking of each other. That music plays in this scene, as WWX writes out his lines and LWJ practices his calligraphy. I love this refrain, by the way. One day, when I can afford a lever harp, I will learn how to play it on that.

Naturally, WWX gets über bored and starts to harass LWJ. He calls him first by his courtesy name (Lan Wangji). When that doesn't work, WWX opts for his formal name (the birth name - reserved only for family and close friends - Lan Zhan). This gets LWJ's attention. WWX then tries to apologize for his missteps, while not really taking any responsibility at all. In response, LWJ casts another silencing spell on him. I wish that one were real.

We cut to Wen Qing and her younger brother, Wen Ning. It's a very sweet scene, highlighting the sibling love and showing Wen Qing and her brother to be unlike the rest of the Wen Clan. Wen Qing expresses her regret that, though she is a doctor, she cannot cure her own brother of his affliction (he is of a particularly weak constitution). She promises to take her brother away from the Neverless City - the volcanic city that is the seat of the Wens.

We're back in the library. WWX has his voice back and once again attempts to get LWJ to acknowledge him. This time he does so by delivering a portrait he drew. This is the very first time you see LWJ's features soften just a little. Don't worry. It doesn't last. WWX uses the drawing as a distraction to replace the book LWJ was reading with porn. HOY BOY does this upset LWJ, who first demands a duel (it's against the rules) and then forgets all decorum and tells WWX to piss off.

After, we find WWX, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng together. Nice Huaisang is extremely amused by WWX recounting what happened in the library. WWX apologizes for getting his porn all ripped up (apparently he had borrowed it from Nie Huaisang), but Nie Huaisang isn't upset. He's got plenty more, apparently. The frivolity dies down when something in the trees opposite them gets their attention and is discovered to be the Wen Clan Owl - a bird that is mostly made up of black smoke. It flies off.

We cut back to another lovely brother moment between LWJ and LXC. LWJ tells his brother that the wards at in the back hills have been weakened. When LXC asks if LWJ knows who is responsible, LWJ replies Wei Ying. This is important because Wei Ying is WWX's formal name - the birth name supposed to be used by only close friends and family (Wei Wuxian is his courtesy name). It's a small signal of the way LWJ regards the young troublemaker. LXC smirks, and then talks of the person trying to break the barriers, using the pronoun 'she.' Because he knows what's going on, and knows it's Wen Qing. LWJ catches the pronoun, and questions it, but never gets an answer because the pair are interrupted by a Lan Clan disciple coming to tell LXC that the villagers have called for help; water ghosts have been killing many people of late, and an exercise is required.

Eager to prove himself, this disciple, who we learn is Su She (remember this name), tells LXC that he can perform the exorcism himself. Knowing that it's probably not what it seems, LXC tells Su She that it may be more complicated than a simple exorcism, and to tell the villagers that he will go first thing tomorrow. Turning to LWJ, LXC asks him to come with him on this particular mission. Of course, LWJ agrees. I love these two siblings so hard.

We return to WWX and Jiang Cheng who are in search of their sister. Surprise, Wen Qing is with Jiang Yanli. Apparently, the latter was feeling unwell, and as a doctor, Wen Qing helped. Oh, hello. Jiang Cheng has a bit of a crush on Wn Wing, I see. In this scene, we see Wen Qing react to Jiang Yanli and WWX's obvious sibling affection for one another, and how it reminds her of her affection for her brother.

That's where she also learns that LWJ and LXC are going to exorcise water spirits, and that WWX and Jiang Cheng hope to come alone. Yunmeng, where they're from, is a very watery place, and so they have a lot of experience with water ghosts.

They siblings do just that, with Wen Qing in tow. They beg to come. LWJ notes that it's against the rules. WWX gets annoyed and beseeches LXC. LWJ insists they don't need help. WWX gets annoyed and begs LXC. That SMIRK of LXC's. The Clan Leader agrees to let the boys come. When Wen Qing also asks to come, WWX points out that she is a doctor, and that would be useful in case any of the villagers get hurt during the exorcism. LXC also grants this request. Oh, here comes Wen Ning, excited to see water ghosts. As he grew up in a literal fucking volcano, he's never seen one, and would like to. Wen Qing promises LXC that they'll both stay out of the way, and LXC relents, letting the now four petitioners come along.

Later when LWJ asks why LXC permitted WWX and the others to come along (this is not time for jokes), LXC says that he looked at LWJ, and it seemed that LWJ wanted them to come. Didn't he? LWJ doesn't answer because I don't think he's ready to admit what LXC so very clearly sees.

En route to the lake with the water ghosts, WWX asks LXC if the sudden appearance of problematic water ghosts is related to the spirit snatching that is turning cultivators into puppets. LXC does not admit to it, but there is some hesitation when WWX mentions to LWJ that he thinks the Clan Leader is hiding something. In retaliation, LWJ takes the bottle of liquor (WHY IS THIS THIRTEEN YEAR OLD ALWAYS DRINKING?!) and pours it out. Liquor is not allowed on a night hunt (which is, as far as I can tell, what they call ghost hunting no matter what time of day it is).

Okay, so I'm jumping ahead to the action on the lake, now. The group is out in several pats, two to a boat, more or less. WWX, being the brainy sort, notices that LWJ's boat is lower in the water than it should be, even though there is only one person on. So he takes his oar and makes a wave at the boat, turning it over. LWJ, for his part, flies off his boat to land on WWX's boat, and both turn to see the water ghost... which actually looks like an animated clump of seaweed.

Being LWJ, instead of being outwardly grateful, he tells WWX to stay away from him. Adorbs. Anyway, they fight a couple of water ghosts that aren't really water ghosts, and LWJ's curiosity gets the better of him. He asks the name of WWX's sword. "Whatever" is the reply. Apparently in this world, swords are spiritual tools that kinda have minds of their own, so LWJ notes that he can't insult the sword by calling it whatever her wants.  No, no. WWX named the sword Whatever. That's it's name. Not something cool like Soul Cleaver or some such. Nope. Whatever. Gods, I love WWX's chaotic goodness.

Right, back to the water ghosts. They've been rounding up the boats to the centre of the lake, where they begin to conglomerate into the aqua demon. Su She, who also came along to the exorcism, eager to prove himself, doesn't fly up into the air with the rest, and tries to throw his sword at the creature (swords are a little like boomerangs here, and can be cast from their scabbards and will return when called). Only this sword doesn't return. Seeing Su She in trouble, Wen Ning jumps to his boat to help, only to be so affected by the ghosts that he freezes.

WWX dives down to collect Wen Ning. Seeing his love in danger, LWJ dives down and ends up hauling not just WWX, but Wen Ning (who is held by WWX) and Su She. Everyone kinda just hovers in the air while LXC plays his magic flute and then seals the demon away.

We cut back to the Cloud Recesses, where Wen Ning is unconscious in bed. WWX is there at his side, only to be dismissed harshly by Wen Qing. WWX, being actually lovely, leaves a gift for Wen Ning - a protective talisman. Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng is convinced to buy a comb - a fine gift for his girl. We all know he's thinking of Wen Qing when he buys the comb. Then we have a lovely boat ride through the river that cuts through the town beneath the Cloud Recesses. WWX tries to share his loquats with LWJ and throws him one, but LWJ says he doesn't want one, throws it back to WWX. LXC, being LXC, tells his brother, "You want loquats. I can buy you a basket of them." And once again my heart melts.

HE'S SUCH A GOOD BROTHER.

The last scene promises mischief for the next episode, because WWX sneakily buys two bottles of the Emperor's Smile liquor.

And so ends the episode.

What I Liked

So, there's actually a lot with this episode that bears mentioning. The first is that LWJ says "boring" a lot when it comes to WWX's antics, but, according to the YouTube comments, while the translation of the word is technically correct, colloquially it means something closer to 'nonsense' or 'ridiculous.' So, thanks for that YouTube. I like that LWJ says that repeatedly. Kinda a bit too much in the, "Methinks he doth protest too much" kind of way.

I also really loved how far the director of the series went this episode to make it as explicit as possible that this was a gay story without getting himself and the crew all arrested (remember, no gay stuff allowed in Chinese TV). First, the porn book that WWX pranks LWJ with is very much gay porn. The drawn picture there was definitely two men doing... stuff.

I also really, really, really loved how queerness was simply a part of the world. It was not the central focus of anything, but it was there as part of the lived reality. WWX, for example, is surprised at LWJ's reaction to the porn, wondering why anyone would be ashamed of partaking. Nie Huaisang notes that he has plenty of other gay porns, and so isn't so upset that LWJ tore up the copy he leant to WWX to prank LWJ with. Oh, I forgot when I did the episode, but this is hinted at much earlier when Jian Yanli and Jiang Cheng are waiting outside the gates of the Cloud Recesses after WWX has gone back to find the invitations where Jiang Cheng tells his sister not to worry, WWX is probably entertaining some Mianmian or Yuandao (feminine and masculine). All of which points to the fact that queerness is not unusual here, nor is it reviled.

That, and LXC's obvious copping onto the fact that LWJ clearly has a thing for WWX, and it not bothering him a single bit. In fact, he fully supports it.

I adore how queerness is handled in the world of this series, and I wish more shows with queer folks in it would follow suit. Queerness might be a trait of a character, but it doesn't have to be a defining characteristic.

What Could Have Been Better

I feel like the encounter with the water demon could be a bit more involved. Not that I think it was done particularly poorly, but it all seemed a little too... safe? Is that what I'm trying to say? Yeah. I'd have liked to have seen more done with the aqua demon. I mean, the episode was great. And it didn't end nearly as oddly as the last one, so there's that. The intrigue is slow to build, but the character moments and interactions are so great that I don't mind at all.

Listen, I know I'm gushing, but this series is genuinely wonderful and I love it. So... you all are going to have to suffer through my gushing. Speaking of which, I'll be back next Monday with the next episode.