Movie Review and a Personal Evaluation

This week I want to talk about Jiang Ziya. Or, at least, I want to start with it. If you haven't heard of it, I'm not surprised. Its a Chinese animated movie that came out recently and thus has a somewhat limited release. That said, this is the company that put out Ne Zha, back in 2019. While Ne Zha wasn't as good as The Legend of White Snake that was released later that year, Ne Zha was a fun movie. Sometimes the tone shifts were too frenetic for me and I wished they'd drop the fart jokes for a solid scene. That said, my husband loved those and wished the film would have stopped delving into seriousness as often as it did, so it really was a matter of taste, which part you enjoyed and which part you enjoyed less. 

Jiang Ziya doesn't suffer from that tone issue at all, I'm glad to say. Focusing on the story of the mythological general Jiang Ziya, the story is telling a simple tale that, as with everything ends up being a lot more complicated. To keep his place in heaven, Jiang Ziya is given the task of killing a fox demon. The demon fights back, even trapped as she is, and uses her abilities to show our titular hero that by killing her, an innocent will die as well. 

Thus begins an epic battle for the truth of the situation. 

I won't go further into the story, since the movie is new and spoilers are a thing. What I can say is that I quite enjoyed the story. I really liked that everything came down to one of my favorite tropes... the "from-a-certain point-of-view". The basis of this is the belief that everyone is the hero of their own story. The bad guy has his reasons, and so do the good guys, but the further you look into what these people have done, the more the issue muddies with all of the parties coming out as less than stellar morally-speaking. The animation was excessively good, unsurprising since as I said, this is the same company that did Ne Zha and I really enjoy the style. I suggest that if you haven't seen it yet, and don't mind watching movies with subtitles (or if you understand Mandarin), definitely keep an eye out for it. This is the second movie of a trilogy the company is making, so keep your eyes peeled for the third one. If you guys hear about it first, please be sure to let me know. I'll be waiting eagerly for it. 

My second topic is a bit of an apology. I've been quiet on my progress with my editing on Fox's Facade because I felt like I wasn't getting enough done on it for you guys. Today, I accepted that I had significantly underestimated the amount of work this story was going to need. So, while I'd prepared to write about 50% of the novel from scratch, I hadn't realized that trying to fit the two together would really mean rewriting closer to 80% of the novel. 

All that said, the story did need the change, and in the end, bringing you the best story is the name of the game. 

Having said all this, I will say that the editing shouldn't be significantly delayed, but it probably will take me longer than the two weeks I have left in October to finish it. Right now, I'll probably try to work on both during Nanowrimo, editing daily after my 1,667 words are finished. Or at least, that's the plan. As always, we'll see how the plan survives contact with the enemy. 

Woot! I have my first paid job!

This week, I am still waiting for my novel. It isn't late yet, but I can't wait to find it. I have finally started writing on my novel again. I think I finished another 4k and then got a paid editing gig from Fiverr, so now I'm working on that. While I can't talk about the actual job, I can talk about the task of actually doing it.

I think I've mentioned before that I really love doing developmental edits. I have done this three or four times now and I love it every time. One of my favourite things to do is looking at books and trying to think about how to fix them. It frustrates the heck out of my husband because I'll tend to do it while watching movies, too. I remember watching Moana in theatres with him and getting to the part where she hands Maui the Heart so he can return it. Within seconds I was excitedly whispering to my hubby that this clearly couldn't be the end battle of the movie since Moana is the character that needs to change and grow, not Maui. My husband grumbled since he prefers leaving the retrospection to the end if at all possible. Heck, I like figuring out stories so much that I've taken courses specifically on understanding how good stories work.

This doesn't mean that I don't think my editor isn't useful. It is, after all, a truth, rarely acknowledged outside of the writing community, that you are always too close to your own story to judge it correctly. The Rules of Being an Evil Overlord, #5, states "One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that they are able to spot will be corrected before implementation." Like that evil overlord, everyone needs somebody to cough slightly to gain your attention and then tell you kindly but firmly what your problem spots are and why they are causing problems in your draft.

Anyways, that is what I'm doing this week. I'm hoping to finish it before my editor sends me my manuscript because it will kill me to not be able to work on it immediately. I am super excited to do so!