T. K. Arispe

Today's writing notes:

Working on: Another revision of "Worth Fighting For"

I'd love to put "Worth Fighting For" up here, but it needs a lot of work. Even though I revised it back in 2017, taking another look at it recently I realized I still wasn't pleased with it. It was still too dark and I'm pretty sure I can do better with the prose nowadays.

So I am taking this opportunity to re-revise it, because I am the author and I can do these things. :) My revisions should make it a much pleasanter read and something I'll be proud to put on my blog.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to make sure it lines up correctly with subsequent stories. For example, in the beginning during the Battle of Sakhmet, Hyren is shouting orders to his troops through his helmet, but in a later short story it's established that he actually controls them through a neural link enabled by his helmet, being able to simply think orders that get broadcast to the other mutant Grundos under his command. So in "Worth Fighting For", I'm making sure to portray that correctly--but Hyren still occasionally shouts orders just because it feels unnatural to him not to.

I also added in an explanation for why Hyren, who was originally en route to Sakhmet Palace, decided to take a detour down an alleyway to loot houses; it also gives me an opportunity to better establish his antagonistic relationship with Commander Garoo, and set up better for when Garoo betrays him shortly afterward.