[progress] end of month check-in (Aug.)

While waiting for further instruction for the paid freelance gig, I started working on chapter 10 draft. It’s a chapter about the main character trying to continue living, choosing what to sacrifice so they could achieve their goal, and maybe find some truths that they couldn’t otherwise obtain through conventional methods. Generally I prefer to keep my stories as grounded as possible, so I want to stay closer to wuxia instead of xianxia (genre). However, involving the underworld or the spirit world definitely crosses into xianxia territory a little.

The fantasy element is based on folklore that I’m not that familiar with, but it’s still cool to learn about pre-Buddhism beliefs regarding death (apparently no reincarnation?) in Chinese culture. Somehow I got the impression that it’s similar to what I learned from the movie CoCo, that there is a “second death” that people fear more - to be forgotten by the living, especially when their bloodline ends and they have no descendants to “keep the incense burning” (offerings of food or wealth would supposedly let the spirits in the underworld continue living their “second life”). This fear made sense when the belief at the time was that there is no reincarnation. It made me realize that the popular trope of souls reuniting after different lifetimes wouldn’t work in this context.

So far…

• 158,719 words (based on illume proofing method calculation)
• Made minor detail changes, such as changing Hexi Corridor to Wester Corridor (easier to say for non-Chinese speakers and know from a glance that it’s about some place in the west), and changing the gesture of forehead-to-floor to more forehead-to-back-of-hand-on-floor (as I see more such depictions in some period-drama TV series that are about life closer to that era; examples: The Advisor Alliance, Nirvana In Fire 2)
• For the sake of trying to have a more “distinguishable” title, I came up with a different Chinese title for the project, and the associated English translation might be “For Whose Majesty.” But I’m not sure when I should fully change over, as site URL and save files are tied to the current title.
• Received my first donation from an anonymous visitor. Thank you for your support! 💖