Koren Lesthe
Turrican, Terranigma and ESO lover
- Pronouns
- He/Him
NOTE : There wasn’t a « Books » in the Lifestye tags so I took « Fun Club » ^^
Hi everyone, for people who don’t know me, I’m Koren Lesthe / Sully McGuire on Twitter (both are nicknames).
I’m a french writer and I wanted to talk about… well, writing. Off course I’d love to talk about the stories I’m working on (none of them are published yet, one of them WAS but I had to cut the contract with my publisher after he did some sketchy things) and off course, yours too.
The thing is, I‘m not a professional writer (also I’m french so my english isn’t perfect) and I did not follow literature at school (went for the IT path, ended up with teachers that ruined my motivation for studies and quit school, yay). I’m well aware of my capabilities and to be honest, quite scared to go to a publisher.
Scalded cat fears hot water (french proverb)
I got a publisher in late 2010. A few months later, he published my first book, Denaris I: Les Seigneurs d’Yseïr and a few weeks after that, I had to ask my publisher to remove and destroy every single copie he released (I still own the one he offered me) because he decided to publish the unfinished manuscript instead of the much more advanced one I was working on -but still unfinished anyway-.
It took me exactly 5 years (from 2011 to 2016), while having my life and main job, to « fix it » myself because my publisher pretended he had someone to correct my manuscript but there was no one, nobody was proof reading my work (he thought that unlike the school books he was publishing, heroic fantasy would automatically fly off the shelves, even with « a few mistakes here and there ». And in early 2017, one month before the release of the Switch, I opened my « finished » script and felt something horrible : I wanted to redo it from scratch. And the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to stop writing all together and never open a text editor in my life.
Last night James Stephanie Sterling (& DrillQueen) saved my life
What saved me from the incoming burnout is, ironically, the fact that I started my book with way too much projects in mind, like having 18 volumes, six for each story arc. I was young and naïve when I started working on it, but while cancelling imaginary 14 volumes to only keep four on a single arc, I wanted to scrap some ideas and characters from the cancelled arcs. But I couldn’t start, I threw multiple drafts and characters at the bin, I had nothing to link the characters to the first book or even making this story their own. Nothing worked. I was about to stop writing for good.
Then I watched Stephanie Sterling on YouTube and thank God for them, I heard that lovely « Born Depressed » theme song they use for the opening of The Jimqusition. I decided to learn a bit more abour DrillQueen and then I saw the cover of their album. And instantly, it was like I had the answer to my writing problem. Yes I wanted to write something new, not necessarily linked to the first book, but seeing the photo of DrillQueen gave me lots and lots of ideas for my character, and her theme song « Born Depressed » did wonders to motivate me. Obviously I added both of them to the credits ^^.
Even the « This is what we look like » song made me think of a character reveal with the main one screaming at the public « This is what we look like ! » when I had friends asking me « Why is the main character a black woman ? ». I’ve been working on this new story for a long time and I’m only like 33% done with the first volume but I can tell my skill have improved a ton. So much so that it is still scary to look at my previous book without wanting to redo it from scratch (I even have a « Project ReDone » folder in case I start).
Then I played -a bit late- to Tales of Zestiria on PC and the main theme also sparkled in my mind.
Sorry, that’s a bit of a long first post. I already talked about this on my Tumblr and will keep my blog updated (Koren Lesthe too, I follow lots of furries but my blog is PG, no adult stuff). I would love to hear / read about you, your stories, your inspirations (I haven’t listed them all btw), your trials and tribulations… maybe we could give each others some advices.
EDIT :
Well apparently I had to proof read my own post because my memories about dates are like gruyère ^^;
Hi everyone, for people who don’t know me, I’m Koren Lesthe / Sully McGuire on Twitter (both are nicknames).
I’m a french writer and I wanted to talk about… well, writing. Off course I’d love to talk about the stories I’m working on (none of them are published yet, one of them WAS but I had to cut the contract with my publisher after he did some sketchy things) and off course, yours too.
The thing is, I‘m not a professional writer (also I’m french so my english isn’t perfect) and I did not follow literature at school (went for the IT path, ended up with teachers that ruined my motivation for studies and quit school, yay). I’m well aware of my capabilities and to be honest, quite scared to go to a publisher.
Scalded cat fears hot water (french proverb)
I got a publisher in late 2010. A few months later, he published my first book, Denaris I: Les Seigneurs d’Yseïr and a few weeks after that, I had to ask my publisher to remove and destroy every single copie he released (I still own the one he offered me) because he decided to publish the unfinished manuscript instead of the much more advanced one I was working on -but still unfinished anyway-.
It took me exactly 5 years (from 2011 to 2016), while having my life and main job, to « fix it » myself because my publisher pretended he had someone to correct my manuscript but there was no one, nobody was proof reading my work (he thought that unlike the school books he was publishing, heroic fantasy would automatically fly off the shelves, even with « a few mistakes here and there ». And in early 2017, one month before the release of the Switch, I opened my « finished » script and felt something horrible : I wanted to redo it from scratch. And the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to stop writing all together and never open a text editor in my life.
Last night James Stephanie Sterling (& DrillQueen) saved my life
What saved me from the incoming burnout is, ironically, the fact that I started my book with way too much projects in mind, like having 18 volumes, six for each story arc. I was young and naïve when I started working on it, but while cancelling imaginary 14 volumes to only keep four on a single arc, I wanted to scrap some ideas and characters from the cancelled arcs. But I couldn’t start, I threw multiple drafts and characters at the bin, I had nothing to link the characters to the first book or even making this story their own. Nothing worked. I was about to stop writing for good.
Then I watched Stephanie Sterling on YouTube and thank God for them, I heard that lovely « Born Depressed » theme song they use for the opening of The Jimqusition. I decided to learn a bit more abour DrillQueen and then I saw the cover of their album. And instantly, it was like I had the answer to my writing problem. Yes I wanted to write something new, not necessarily linked to the first book, but seeing the photo of DrillQueen gave me lots and lots of ideas for my character, and her theme song « Born Depressed » did wonders to motivate me. Obviously I added both of them to the credits ^^.
Even the « This is what we look like » song made me think of a character reveal with the main one screaming at the public « This is what we look like ! » when I had friends asking me « Why is the main character a black woman ? ». I’ve been working on this new story for a long time and I’m only like 33% done with the first volume but I can tell my skill have improved a ton. So much so that it is still scary to look at my previous book without wanting to redo it from scratch (I even have a « Project ReDone » folder in case I start).
Then I played -a bit late- to Tales of Zestiria on PC and the main theme also sparkled in my mind.
Sorry, that’s a bit of a long first post. I already talked about this on my Tumblr and will keep my blog updated (Koren Lesthe too, I follow lots of furries but my blog is PG, no adult stuff). I would love to hear / read about you, your stories, your inspirations (I haven’t listed them all btw), your trials and tribulations… maybe we could give each others some advices.
EDIT :
Well apparently I had to proof read my own post because my memories about dates are like gruyère ^^;
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