What's up with the catchphrases?

Hey there guys,
 It's that time of the week again! - Or that random time of the week when I can write you guys.

Here's the next answers to some popular questions-

First off, congratulations to my readers in Germany for bringing home the World Cup!! You guys make a pretty good football/soccer team!



Moving on...





What's up with the catchphrases/ random signoffs/ nerdfighter rip-off?


1) I guess I'm just making a sort of atmosphere for my content, something along the lines of "dreaming positively". That's why I've called you, my audience, "dream flyers" at some point or another, because I'd like to think that we all can still fly in our dreams. It's a metaphor from the book, sort of.
Now it's not meant to rip off of the nerdfighters- I'm actually a nerdfighter too, and I have nothing against it-, rather just to enhance the group in some way- which I can't think of at the moment. Let me know what you think of that.



2) You've probably noticed that I sign off some of the blog posts and FB (Facebook) posts with the phrase "see you in the sunlight".


Well, it's a really great line I stumbled upon while writing the book. David's friend in the Orphanage says it the most out of anyone else in the book and I thought it was too good to hold on to until the story is published. Also it means that I hope to speak to you later on brighter terms; not because I'm always in darker times, but rather that it can always get better.



3) Finally, people also have asked me why "David" is the name that I sign off with on FB. Well that's because "David" is the main character's name, and it IS his book's page.



Plus, the name will change to Peter after 12 days in publication. You know, Peter Pan? I think that would be a nice touch.



Hope that helps answer some questions.



See you all in the sunlight!! ;-)

-Zach




P.S.- These Q & A posts will probably be posted once a week on... which day is best? Comment down below.

Other behind the scenes stuff will be posted as the book finds progress besides for the current revision.

So...Why Peter Pan?

As the book nears closer to completion, I should begin to explain myself, especially after all of the questions I've gotten through FB and email.

Consequently, the next few posts will be answers to the most common questions. Feel free to email me at zzoan37@gmail.com for any others.

So why did you decide to write about Peter Pan?

Well, it feels like a huge amount of closure for me to write about one of my hidden childhood heroes.

I have been making different stories ever since I was able to doodle- to put down my thoughts into pictures. 

One of the first characters I drew? Peter Pan. 

The first story to ever incorporate already made characters? One where Peter Pan played a HUGE role.
One of my favorite movies growing up? Peter freakin Pan.

I even used a specific rescue technique based on the Disney version of the book- the "no splash" technique, where Wendy is caught by Peter before she hits the water, hence the "N-No Splash, Captain" dialogue. 

In fact, that was one of the ways how I got the idea to make an origin story for Peter Pan in the first place.

Another point: I use something called "creative routing", a technique for new and current projects. When I see/hear something that catches my eye/ear, I immediately try to route it to one of my projects, to make new ideas and plot points for the story.

This is what did it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHohWh5likw

Yep. One song. That's all it took.

It was from a movie trailer; The second trailer for Hugo-based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret-to be exact.

It came out a month before it released in theatres and I was hooked. For an entire weekend the images and sounds of that trailer swirled in my head like a catchy jingle that refuses to be forgotten.

At the time I barely had any projects and had nothing in mind but for one idea (a pokemon fanfiction, currently under construction). Then I remembered the usage of the technique I mentioned earlier- the "no splash" technique.

That's when it hit me.

Peter Pan. A story like Hugo...but for Peter Pan...wait, how he became Peter Pan! Not like Hugo, but from an orphan boy just like him! That's it!

And the rest is history. That happened in October... I'm going to say 2011?... And if you want to see, the earlier drafts had almost direct references to Hugo, from clock tower scenes to dialogue to how the boy even acts in the story.

Then it went from Peter Pan to The Last Pan to The Second Star to Second Light and finally to Second to the Right. 

So essentially, it was accidentally on purpose. I've always thought of Peter Pan as a quintessential fantasy character, and to stumble upon a premise I had never thought of before was very refreshing and let my creativity go full circle.

Also that trailer music now is being put to good use for another project (not fanfic, but not for now).

I actually use this for inspiration now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwZ5-P3FnEk

Anytime I'm stuck with a part of the story, I just play this and let the ideas swirl around until something new solves the issue. Also the fact how I play my stories in my head like they're movie trailers helps too.

Hope that helped answer the question. Another answer will come up sometime next week.

See you all in the sunlight!

-Zach

P.S.- That first track got me into trailer music.
You should check out the genre sometime. You never know what you might find that could help you find your next big idea.

Unexpected expansion

Hey y'all,

So this was my thought process recently:
Yes! Now I can FINALLY get back into writing. After a pretty hectic finals week, with barely any time to write it, now I can get back to editing the wonderful...uh, oh.

That's where I'm up to at this point- realizing the huge mistakes in the manuscript and methodically fixing them.

I realized that there were parts that I didn't even embellish on. I had glanced over huge opportunities to expand the story with more characters and to help carry David's story along. So now I'm not only busy beautifying the content, but adding whole new scenes, breaking up the chapters, and putting as much description as possible.
So let's consider this phase the "unexpected expansion". I like the sound of that- it's got a nice ring to it.

On the bright side, the book is, so far:
-Pushing 60,000 words... wait, scratch that- 63,000 WORDS!!! (whaat?!?)
-15 Chapters,
-and 250 pages! Crazy, no?

I hope it's normal to have this, or if any of you have had this issue too.

Let me know if you've ever had one of these and how it affected the book as a whole.

Meanwhile, I just started getting back feedback from one publishing house in particular! That's HUGE!! And until a deal is solidified, I won't say which one.

Until further notice, the book is not done, unfortunately.

But it's very close. It just needs a little bit more time and effort. Thank you all for the support, especially those new readers.

See you in the sunlight!!
-Zach


UPDATE: The biggest additional scene has been completed! Now we're on the final lap to finishing!!

Another Update

Hey there! If you're new to the blog, and interested in reading the content, for some reason I can't bring old posts up early, so it's further down. Enjoy dear friends and don't forget to comment!!  -Zach


So I just watched the oscars, and MAN is it inspiring to see how art is celebrated! 
Really great works were awarded tonight, but I had only seen three of the nominated movies- Gravity (In IMAX 3D) Despicable Me 2 and Frozen. 

Even though I thought Leo was going to win it for best actor, all of the other winners, especially "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life", deserve their wins and their golden statues. Congratulations!

On another note, I'm happy to say that more was added to the manuscript and I'm still stuck on writing the query. 

And BIG NEWS. As of March 18th, Second Light will have a BRAND NEW BEGINNING! After finishing it, I'm really excited how it will change the rest of the book and really bring home some of the themes that I intended for it.


Plus, the books name has been changed AGAIN- To "Second to the Right"!!!!!

BIG Shout out to my readers in Canada and Poland!!! To my readers in Ukraine and Venezuela, stay safe and stay strong! Hopefully we'll see the end of the madness soon. 

See you in the sunlight,

Zach

Another Hurdle

Hey guys! Hope you're having a great weekend. So I found out from a contact of mine that I don't need an editor, but rather an agent who'd represent my book to the big 5 publishers: mainly random house, penguin, scholastic, simon and schuster and hachette. So I've been using a blog known as queryshark to help me improve my query letter- you know, the one that agents read to see whether or not they'll represent the book or not. It's been quite overwhelming how much work I need to fix up my letter, but hopefully it will be good enough to go.

I suggest going to that queryshark blog to help with your own query letters, if you're into that sort of thing.

Thank you for letting me vent to you, and hopefully we'll see this through together. Don't hesitate to ask questions or give critiques- I'd really like that.

Big shout out to my readers in China!

-Zach (Might as well not hide my name anymore...)

P.S. To my readers in Ukraine and Venezuela: I hope you're safe and away from the chaos. May it stop quickly and pleasantly for all.

Another update

So it's been a week since I finished it, and the high is coming off. Here comes the tricky part; finding a freelance editor that can make this manuscript a book. I've already sent out emails to four of them, and they haven't responded yet. I guess it's all about the wait. I'll keep you posted on what happens next. Until then, enjoy the story!

-Zach

P.S.- How do you like the new chapters? How are they better or worse? Sound off in the comments section.

Happy (Belated) New Year!!

Hello World!

Hope you all had a great new year and that you've got great resolutions to make this year a fantastic one.
I honestly can't believe that its 2014 already. Crazy how fast time flies, no?

I remember when I first started the rough draft of this work, almost 2 full years ago. It's amazing how much different it is now. That being said, this is the year that it will be finished and hopefully be brought to the rest of the literary world.

So far, the page quota has been passed, but the word count is still too low, and the plot just got deeper, so I need to rewrite some parts of the book via readthrough. When I finish it, I'll put up the new and improved first two chapters- to see what you guys think.

I realize that a blog like this might not make it to "viral" status, so I'm not going to ask you guys to, I don't know, SPREAD THE WORD, SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT HAS AN EMAIL, PLEASE MESSAGE ME WITH ANYTHING ABOUT THE STORY you know, to do stuff like that. It just doesn't seem fair of me to not only sound like a starving artist, but one that's also desperate for attention. It sounds too degrading.
Besides, my writing still needs a LOT of work, so the crazy thing is that this book might never be completely finished.

Yet there's a thrill to writing what's on my mind, to write down things I only had in my dreams, and I've experienced that over this span of time.
This story has been dreamed about for years, and I hope that you have liked it. Anyways, that was my little message to my fellow light seekers, so hang in there. Once the book is finished, I will post those improved chapters, and I'll keep you posted on how the book is doing, agent/publisher-wise. It's been pretty hectic around here, so I haven't been doing much writing/posting, but I'll definitely keep you guys in the know.

Hope you have a great week- I sure hope I do. As for now, I'd really like to give a shout out to my readers in:
Germany, 
Israel, 
Russia, 
United Kingdom, 
Ukraine, 
Australia, 
United States, 
France, 
Malaysia,
and other places around the world that continue to read "Second Light". It really means a lot to me that you come back to read the story,send me reviews and add traffic to this blog. Thanks for sticking around and for coming with me on the ride!!
-RayL