P.J. Loop

An image of how I think Victoria Distance appears (doesn't mean I'm correct). Started as hand sketches, scanned, then upscaled using my own trained models, and then digitally worked using my trusty XP pen and (rather buggy) Photoshop in black and white (because I can't do colour very well). Black and white artistic illustration showing Victoria Distance with curly auburn hair and glasses on the left side, with a lit candle in an ornate holder on the right. The title text reads 'THE END OF WORTH AND DISTANCE EPISODE ONE' in serif typography against a dark blurred background.

Now that #teowad is well and truly with some beta readers, I have to distract myself.

And what better way, than by obsessing over marketing paraphernalia.

hand sketches, upscaled using my own trained models, and then digitally worked in photoshop.

#amwriting #teowad #writingcommunity #indieauthor

An image with bold white text on black that states "Thus ensued many years of trying to rebuild the lost bird; Using a wide range of scientific charms, talismans, calculations and the sheer magnificent power of trial and error."

Never realised quite how tiring self-editing a manuscript would be.

There's almost too many things to keep track of when doing it.

I'm sure there are tricks to be learned.

But this time I just did the 'trial and error' approach.

Still lots to learn.

#amwriting #writingcommunity #teowad #editing

'The Institute' is finally getting somewhere too.

Still work in progress, but it'll be the main interface tying all the online parts for #teowad together.

Been working on everything for so long, it's intense to see things take shape.

{ SOUND ON }

#amwriting #writingcommunity #indieauthor #webdev

A composite image combining the teowad logo 'The End of Worth and Distance', with its blue resonance wave. This is layered over the top of a coloured hand-sketch which was upscaled using self-trained models. The sketch is how I see one of Latium Onaia's ClockSource towers. Essentially a tall tower, on a rocky outcrop, that is responsible for sending out a timing signal waves across the city (through the land and air) —keeping many conventional and Harmonic devices in sync.

Ok, so how do other authors... those who have achieved a finished manuscript, keep their brains and being from spooling off into the cosmos?!

Just sent #teowad 'episode one' to my first beta readers, and my heart has already leapt several tonal levels. 🤯 😅

#amwriting #writingcommunity #indieauthor

Supposedly we sigh on average 12 times an hour, 340 pages (paperback) takes ~10 hours to read. Which = 120, but the scenes average on 2.8 characters (call it 3) so that's 3x120 = 360 (full circle of sighs).

#teowad only has 75 sighs, so perhaps I need some more? 😂

Or perhaps that's enough already.

A picture of unintelligible symbols.

How do you know if your book has too many sighs?

Asking for a slightly OCD-embaffled cerebral cortex...

#teowad #amwriting #writingcommunity #indieauthor

Thanks! I don't really do DMs I'm afraid, happy to chat through posts however. Especially in terms of tips and tricks, as I wouldn't say I have enough to warrant an entire DM conversation 😅 — the main one in terms of writing (as many will say) is to keep writing, every day, and never be discouraged.

It's all too easy to procrastinate and create polarmenable things when I should be finishing something else.

I think this comes from sometimes lamenting I didn't carry on with video production—I always enjoyed it, but that's another timeline.

SOUND ON

#teowad #amwriting (honest) #writingcommunity

Last weekend I discovered that video can be transparent now?! Well... where supported.

Browsers are ridiculous in their capabilities these days.

Whilst it may not look it, the edge beyond the blue flame is fully transparent.

Meaning it can sit as the site's header above anything.

#webdev #teowad

The Institute is supposed to be library/visitor centre type place where people can learn about Onaia. I've built a number of other web interfaces that are grounded in the book's world. But the way to thread them together has always been escaping me, until now. This will act as the landing index for the site —using this base sketch as the starting point. Still working on it however, the lighting seems weird. Description of the picture: A black and white sketch of an elegant Victorianesque entrance hall with tall arched windows. The drawing shows ornate architectural details, with a prominent Gothic Revival tower visible through the central archway. The interior contains lush tropical plants, period furniture and storage cabinets, bookshelves, and GlowLamp fixtures. Solarlight streams through the large windows, casting dramatic shadows across the tiled floor.

Got the entrance to The Institute worked out!

That means I can finish off the site now.

Which also means I can thread together the other interfaces I've built.

Finally getting places... 😌 ...as usual, all at once 😂

#teowad #amwriting #writingcommunity

a vibrant picture of a wheelbarrow in front of a mansion, the wheelbarrow contains some pretty flowers. It's one of those odd wheelbarrows that has a single point of failure —something that no designer or engineer worth their salt would entertain these days.

"Hang on, is she able to tie back her hair right now?"

*Thinks back over her recent adventures of dodging guards, detecting Harmonic traps, and narrowly avoiding wheelbarrows...*

"Yes, I think we're good."

— this is not a chain of thought I ever expected to have.

#amwriting #teowad #indieauthor

An image of stormy clouds and blue sky with the book title 'The End of Worth and Distance : Episode One' written in an experienced font —really, the font's got decades under its belt.

What weighty themes does #teowad discuss?

- 🏠 What defines a room?
- 🪴 Where should people stand on cruelty to pot plants?
- 🎒 How much is too much to pack or carry for just-in-case situations?
- ⚡ Should people with great responsibility have such large energy bills?!?

#amwriting #writingcommunity

I don't do DMs at the moment, too many things to be sorting, but I may do when looking for advice. Thanks for the interest.

Thank you for the feedback, definitely makes sense. I've been working on such things, although this'll be my first foray— & fitting that in amongst everything else is /interesting/.

The nature of the book makes it tricky to convey quickly. But I can fit more in this format.
bsky.app/profile/pjlo...

A white image that has the text "Is that it?" floating next to blood splatter.

I entered The Novelry's 'The Next Big Story' prize what seems like ages ago now.

Will be interesting to see if anyone though that idea interesting enough 🤞

It's a story I've had in my brain for longer than #teowad.

That's saying something..

www.thenovelry.com/prize

#amwriting #writingcommunity

A stylistic graphic of Victoria Distance (or at least, how I see her) from my book #teowad. It depicts a picture of a woman with round porthole glasses and a shock of curly hair. She's wearing a shirt and tie with a waistcoat. She's holding a book-like-device that is glowing.

I'v been playing around with print styles again, taking a sketch and solidifying it into stronger blacks and whites —having fun with bold colours as well.

Don't mind me, just tinkering.

I think she stands out quite well.

#teowad #amwriting #writingcommunity

An example shot of my blog design for teowad. Follows a standard three partitioned segment design, with wide banner separators. The header is emblazoned with blue Resonance.

Finally put together the design for my blog, a place focuses on what it has taken to put my #teowad book together. Like most blogs it will probably have a short life and fade away, but my head needs a place to express all the bits and pieces at the moment..

#amwriting #indieauthor #writingcommunity

It's fine to have a 'save the cat' scene for a main character in the third book, right? —I mean, by this point it is purely fictitious if there'll be any readers at all. So, its effect will likely be diminished anyway..

Apart from helping out the cat, ofc.

#amwriting #writingcommunity #indieauthor

Image looking up into the tree canopy, with letters definitely hidden in the edges around the leaves secretly.

Does anyone else worry about getting affected too much by other people's ideas? I guess that's partly the point of being artistic, we consume happenings & thoughts from everywhere making them our own. But sometimes I find certain concepts so good they run away with me..

#amwriting #writingcommunity

A quote stolen from a particular scene in #teowad, it states: "It has a few kinks." Worth said, with the utmost seriousness.

One of the best qualities about writing is you can have a scene you've been disliking for ages —with no clue on how to fix it— but with only one small idea, you can rectify its whole shape.

Just takes that thought...

One of my most disliked scenes is now my favourite.

#amwriting #writingcommunity

A screenshot of #teowad(s) manuscript in Scrivener, with its colour labels showing the state of each chapter. Each chapter holds a number of scenes, which have the same labelling (but I can't show that here). A yellow on a chapter at this point only means there's one or two scenes in that status (as the colour takes the lowest status). Can't believe I'll be beta reading soon. /Madness/. The image also show the settled chapter names (at least until I'm told they are all wrong by an official editor). Chapters: 1. In the dark 2. If at first... 3. All the little things 4. Too early for toast 5. Echoes 6. An interesting morning 7. Faded 8. Due Diligence 9. Forgotten 10. Quandary 11. Quintessential 12. Quiescence 13. Quell 14. Resounding 15. Revealing 16. Really? 17. Recalling 18. Spiralling Out

Getting closer and closer. #amwriting #writingcommunity #indieauthor

[ 💛 ] yellow = needs iteration (a few scenes left)
[ 💚 ] green = revised draft
[ 💙 ] blue = pre-edit draft
[ 💜 ] light purple = reader critiqued

[ ❤️ ] no more red TODOs = 🙌

Never expected finishing #teowad would be so emotional.

A picture of a water dragon hanging on a wall. First drawn, then painted on wood board, and finally cut out and sanded –over a while... It's about 80 x 80cm (bigger than I planned originally).

Finally finished the Water Dragon I started —long ago— for my son's bedroom wall.

It had exactly the same issues as writing a book.

I started off way more ambitious than I should have, took ages on the fiddly bits, and then realised cutting it out was even trickier.

Will it hold up? 😂

#amwriting

Thanks! it's very nice and helpful to get feedback.

A pen and pencil illustration of how I see Victoria Distance, with her shoulder-length wavy hair and glasses, wearing a white shirt, waistcoat, tie and dark trousers. Created using a mix of sketching, scanning, digital stylus and photoshop effects. Trickiest part was the detail in her clothing, which I think now might be a bit too noisy. She's standing on a leafy Onaian street with a lamppost and trees in the background. She has her hand extended forward, triggering the start of a blue Resonance field —emanating from her wrist device. This is another mini advert for my book 'The End of Worth and Distance' with the accompanying humorous text about technology being integrated into lampposts to create a more resilient society.

Further playing around with format and content for these marketing elements.

I like the text here, taken from part of the #teowad book, but not sure if the drawing is quite the right energy...

Problem is the drawing takes a lot longer than the writing :)

#amwriting
#indieauthor
#writingcommunity

Mini advert for 'The End of Worth and Distance' showing Victoria Distance with her glasses and auburn hair projected in a blue Resonance light. She's reading a glowing book/device. The image includes story text describing a figure moving stealthily through a garden landscape and a footnote explaining how a new word had to be invented to keep in keeping with the Onaian language. Here is that footnote: Translators Note: Another word we had to invent to keep on par with the beauty of the Onaian language. flaffed: /flæft/ verb (past tense) To become so good at one's job that you can make your actions look utterly chaotic and beautiful at the same time.

Been playing around with colour and text layout again for my #teowad adverts.

These are not as engaging as the short videos, I don't think. But.. they do give a better feel for the actual book—and if people like to read, then they probably will.

Perhaps?

#amwriting
#indieauthor
#writingcommunity

Something no one tells you about writing... is "you don't talk about writing."

(Works best said in the voice of Tyler a.k.a Brad)

Funny how there are certain subjects people will happily waffle on about till the cows have started purchasing hotels on Mayfair...

But other subjects, not

#amwriting

Created a more immersive video header for my author/store site (this one is more mobile friendly too). What do you think? Still a bit of work to do on the site, but every evening I'm pushing things forwards just that little bit more..

( SOUND ON )

#teowad
#amwriting
#indieauthor
#writingcommunity

First version of my attempt at a 30s video advert for my soon-to-be-something-like-a-book #teowad. An easy to tweak/modify format with interesting results.

What do you think?

I'm just testing to see what works and what doesn't at the moment...

(SOUND ON)

#amwriting
#indieauthor
#writingcommunity

Hah, well... I definitely need something to lighten that part of the story up a bit. Perhaps encountering an antagonist hell bent on dye sublimation printing could be just the ticket... /poster/mug/mousemat. 😂

Yes, absolutely. Always find it odd how—in terms of creativity—different disciplines have separate energy. I can tire myself out in one, and still pick up fresh in another.

No, there's no domain context on print in the book, I think I'd truly glaze people's eyes if I did that.. Perhaps in book 4 :)