The Conclusion of MY Epic Fanfic and My Writing Future

[davetheanalyzer]

At last, I’m done with my fanfic We Will Hold On Forever. It has been a long 7 years but earlier this month, I did a last couple reviews of the final 2 chapters and then posted them a week apart. I admit, it didn’t feel anything strong when I posted the last chapter, but I don’t mind that much. I want to thank those who read and especially reviewed the story over the years. It was my first long story that I posted and I learned a lot about editing and writing while doing it. I might post another fanfic eventually but my focus is now on my original fiction. 

Editing the third draft for my mon-inspired story is going glacially slow, since there are many sections I want to rewrite from the ground-up. I don’t know if I’ll do NaNoWriMo this year, since I thought it would be useful to complete my other book ideas including sequels. I was going to do it informally anyway since I didn’t want to have to use a website but I definitely won’t use any affiliate websites now if they’re going to continue with this AI nonsense. I would probably do it more than once in a year, since I want to complete more books, which’re around 100,000 words in length. I wonder if I could have breaks to write other stuff on weekends or if that would be too much for me. I would probably have to sacrifice a few other hobbies for those months to continue writing. Ah well, I’ll get to it when I can and see how I fare.

I decided to see My Father’s Dragon on Netflix. I was going to see The Wild Robot in theaters but decided it was releasing too close to the end of the month and I wanted to see it on a bargain Tuesday when I don’t have therapy. I know of Cartoon Saloon and saw the Secret of Kells many years ago but never got around to seeing another of their films until now. I liked and found the film interesting. It’s apparently an adaptation of a 50s children’s novel. The story stars, Elmer, a well-meaning and helpful son who always assisted his mother in their shop. But when what’s implied to be the Great Depression hits, they have to move to the city. I did like that Elmer’s mother kept attempting to be assuring to her son that they could get a shop like their old 1 even as she cracks under the pressure of finding a job. Elmer seems to think they could go back to their old life, so when his mother uses up all the change attempting to find a job, he feels betrayed. He ends up fighting with his mother for sheltering a cat in the apartment, which breaks the landlord’s rules, and the blowup causes Elmer to run away. It felt like a realistic fight with a parent on the end of their rope.

Elmer’s shocked when the cat starts speaking and says a dragon on Wild Island could help him. I was unsure with the talking animals if Elmer’s imagination got away from him or he was dreaming but judging from the cutaways to scenes with just the animals, it seems fortunately the opposite. Elmer frees a dragon holding the island up called Boris, a ditzy, happy-go-lucky teen. He was somewhat annoying but I did warm a bit to the charm in him. Elmer has to take charge to find a wise tortoise for an alternate way to save the island from sinking. I do like how most of the characters have shades of gray in some way and could change for the better. Saiwa’s forces Boris into the terrible role of constantly pulling the island up to protect the island but we see him stop and help other animals while chasing Boris. The other animals are hostile to Boris because they and their loved 1s survival is on the line. Only Kwan remained a jerk to the end and even then, it was the natural logic of seeing Saiwa delay chasing Boris for the island’s safety to help individual residents

But Elmer being the idea boy and helper in the household has made him think that what he says goes, so when Boris has a better idea, Elmer pushes against him. I liked Boris had insecurities about passing the trial, so when Elmer blurted he can’t that only reinforced them. Elmer wasn’t just being selfish though, there was also fear for his friend. Only when Elmer cedes control and expresses trust does Boris go through with the ceremony and save the island. His celebration with Elmer thereafter was sweetly joyfull. Boris didn’t physically change like the picture they saw earlier on a stone but he gained new abilities. The humor with that leads to an interesting theme that the dragon ceremony should be recorded more accurately so the denizens of Wild Island would know what to do. They have to part but by then Elmer has accepted things will have to be different. Even the landlord and the kids Elmer fought with have become nicer. The narrator being his future daughter might put some limits on where the story could go from here but at least it’s implied this doesn’t have to be the only time Elmer and Boris meet. The cat’s VA has made not-great rape apologia and Holocaust comments she later apologized for and there’s 1 fart joke but with that in mind, if you like picture book-esque animation and good story, feel free to see this film.

That’s all for now. I’ve been finishing this entry up after I got back from shopping with Mom.  Free Palestine and Lebanon. Free everyone held prisoner in this colonialist war. Until the end of the month of Halloween, see you!