Journal Entry #1

Hi everyone! This is the first post on this blog and will serve as an introduction to what it is and the more intricate details within that. 

My name is Danielle. I am a writer and content creator. My primary focus online is a magazine I create and write called Level Story, which is about story in video games. Each issue focuses on a different game. In addition, I have my own blog/website where I sporadically publish my random thoughts, run a small podcast network with my friend Brittany, and write for an awesome website called ZeroIndent. I like to keep myself busy with creative projects. Something that I continuously come back to in all of the content I create online is focusing on storytelling. 

This blog is titled "Birth by Sleep Fan Novelization" which is exactly what it alludes to. I am writing Birth by Sleep as a novel which will result in multiple entries by the end of all this. This blog is where chapters will be published along with journal entries about my progress and other things relating to the project. I do not expect anything to come of this novel beyond posting it online for free for people to read. Square Enix and Disney hold copyright on the characters I am writing, so I think it is safe to say this will not be publishable material. When this project comes closer to "publication" (publication being posting chapters online for free), I may open a Ko-Fi page for support but doubt it will go far beyond that. I should also say that at this point I have no clue where this project will take me so this is all speculation.

This is a huge project and I want to talk about my reasons for putting myself through it. If I am being honest, I don't have much time to be writing a novel, especially a novel that can't be printed and published, and it would probably be smarter if I focused on my current projects and my own original material. But as it is, I feel compelled to write this and I really just want my version of this story to exist outside of my own head. So here we are. I love the Kingdom Hearts series. They are among my favorite video games of all time. Birth by Sleep exists in this weird space for me because all at once I love it and hate it. I think it is ambitious and a nice shift in tone for the series, yet at the same time the story feels like a first draft and many elements it tries to develop are unrealized and empty. Ever since playing the game I have been trying to wrap my head around it. I began to form my own ideas about the story in my head...about what it could have been had it utilized and followed through with the ideas it set in place. This led to me forming an outline, writing, rewriting, trashing, outlining some more, taking a break, and to where we are today...outlining, outlining, outlining in hopes that one day I can have all my ducks in a row and begin writing. 

My goal is to have an outline complete by June. This is a self imposed date I literally just came up with as I type this, so it is likely to shift to sometime sooner or later depending on how my time ends up being distributed over the next few months. I desperately want my version of this story to be told and so hopefully this will motivate me to complete the outline sooner but I don't want to make any promises. 

If you have any questions, leave a comment on this post and I will either respond to it directly or write a journal entry about it if it is warranted. I may also create a FAQ page but that will come closer to "publication." 

If you want to stay updated about this novelization, feel free to sign up for email updates on the left hand side of this page.

Thank you for reading this! I am extremely excited about this project and can't wait to share it with you.

Danielle