its my job to figure out how to do what i want

lots of alone time, lots of introspection, lots of insight, etc, you know the deal: discovery of the self internal.

FAITH by Vic Atlas (listen here)

Man of Stone by Matthew Theissen & the Earthquakes (listen here)

boys, bugs and men by Paris Paloma (listen here)

good news everyone! as of the 10th of this month (june), i have completed the milanote board for each subregion of northreach! each subregion includes:

• 1 hand-drawn map of the entire region (with named locations, settlements, geography, and POI)

• 1 general moodboard (~20-30 images depending)

• information on temperature, climate, geography, resources, and natural phenomena (a sentence to short paragraph each)

• vague cultural values of the area (bullet points)

• 1 moodboard on local food

• 1 moodboard on local fashion

• each location named in the map gets its own sub-board, each of which require their own moodboards and, sometimes, notes on the area, too.

  • most regions have between 5 to 10 named locations requiring sub-boards

• i only require one sub-board in the “Legends, Myths, and History” category, but there can, and will, be more depending.

• i didn’t do this for every board, but i also like to make a sub-board for a local species, or the food web for the region, or something similar.

if you read my last update, you might remember i started this project in 2022 and haven’t really touched it in awhile. so this is excellent progress to make in a few months tbh!!! i’m very pleased :-)

earlier this week, i finished up the second Major Divinity and Primordial Element of Wind’s (Lioel) world anvil (wanvil) article. you can give it a read here. it’s chock full of fantasy mythos and artwork, and i’m quite proud of how it turned out. esp cause i worked quite hard on it!

this also means my next wanvil article and Major Divinity to expound upon is Elyon, the Primordial Element of Heat. heat here is referring to temperature overall, rather than specifically warmth. Elyon is found in fire, sure, but she’s also at the center of every iceberg, every glacier.

anyway, i’m very excited for her deep dive. i already love her so much!

i started my next youtube video a few days ago. i’m trying something different this time, in terms of what i’m filming, why i’m filming it, and also the structure of how i go about editing the video itself. which shouldn’t really affect your viewing experience, unless it is to make it a better, more comprehensive and cohesive video to watch. in which case, that’s a good thing. but since the video isn’t done yet, i will wait to say for sure.

this video is all about refreshing my personal library, which is a set of shelves literally attached to my desk (where i am 24/7). the books on these shelves are integral references for my practice and my favorite parts of my collection. it’s almost like a working syllabus, for me. at least, that’s what we’re working towards with this video. for now, i’ve taken all the books off the shelf and am going through each one slowly. i really want to take my time with these books and this project.

i’ve got some pretty janky book towers going on right now, though. its getting unwieldy lol.

i’ve been working a lot on rehashing my novel (code name: handler au), especially the backstory, underlying structure, and character development. i’ve written around 55k words of a first draft, about halfway through the story, and i need to reconsider what i’ve already done so that i can ensure it fits with my current vision.

i’m a discovery writer, which means i started the first draft without knowing where it would go. and i’ve been working on this manuscript since october 2024, so its safe to say my conception of this novel has changed quite dramatically over the past two years.

some things i had never worked out until now are crucial to the story’s further development, like the internal working structure of the Agency, the regional government set up and the history that lead up to this moment of revolution, etc.

i’ve been whittling away at Cyrus’ (main character) emotional breakdown, too. and not emotional breakdown like what happens in chapter 34, lol. more like, how he views and understands his own emotions, what his baseline reactions are, things like that.

i’ve also completely redone my moodboard on milanote, here’s a screenshot:

anyway that’s it for me, i’m reaching email length limit lol

if you’re interested in this format, i’m trying to do it at least once a week moving forward. this one is free, but future ones might not be. keep an eye out!!!

love, reuven

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