EP13: Where'd You Go? - TRANSCRIPT

 Hi! You're listening to HIW and I'm your host, Hyba. It has been a while, friends, and I'm glad to be back with this update episode! Lately, I've taken a sort of semi-hiatus from social media - and a full hiatus from Twitter - because I needed some time to allow my thoughts to regroup. I entered a bit of a creative slump about halfway through September, which turned out to be more than just a creative slump, and I've been dealing with that ever since. Lately, I've been feeling motivated thanks to my amazing friends who have been supporting me - so if you're listening to this, you know who you are, and I want to send you a special thank you for all of your support and for your friendship during this time! I've also been motivated as a result of trying something completely new for me creatively speaking!

You might know if you follow me on Tumblr that I have started working on a new passion project. It's a romance story, and if I'm being perfectly honest, I was first drawn to the idea when I saw a contest online for contemporary romance novels. It got me thinking about the genre and I decided I wanted to explore that particular genre. I thought maybe working in a genre that I have been avoiding ever since I decided to become a serious writer - a genre that I have admitted to not really being able to write in - would be an interesting experience, because it would allow me to learn more about writing. So, with that in mind, I decided to try and enter the contest and write a romance novel. Contemporary romance - and romance in general - is a genre I've never really written in, apart from some drabbles here and there in middle school and high school.

As of my recording this, the romance novel is over 22,000 words long. I started it on Monday, I believe, and so it's just about been a week, and I have been working like a madwoman on this thing. I'm surprised at how easily it comes to me, because I thought I'd be struggling and hitting a lot of walls given my relative inexperience in the genre. While it has certainly highlighted my areas in need of improvement, particularly when it comes to dialogue and character interactions, it's also been an interesting way to work on character development.

I won't be sharing or publishing this story under Hyba Is Writing. I've created a pseudonym and prefer to keep it under that pen name, because quite frankly, it might just be horrible, and it probably is. Still, this has made me realize that it could be a great idea to use this pen name to try different genres and styles that I'm not certain about or that I'm not very strong in without worrying that I'll create something so horrible that it'll be attached to my name forever. So, it's a very exciting experience!

That's what I've been up to lately, really. I did work a little more on my video game as well during these past couple of weeks, mainly focusing on creating graphics for the user interface and menus and all that good stuff. I've also recently read The Railway Children and The Secret Garden, which are two classics I've had in my bookcase for more than a decade now and that I haven't touched. I loved them both, and I'll try to make an episode discussing each of them.

Anyway, the weather is changing over here. Over the past couple of days, it's gotten colder, and for my that signals the official entrance of autumn, or fall, if you prefer to call it that. And with autumn comes the realization that it's probably time for me to pull myself together!

I hope to get back to a more regular podcasting schedule soon, but until I can say what that is for certain, I'll just do my best to continue creating episodes. There are a lot of things to talk about, and I can't wait to share them all with you!

Thanks for listening to this mini-update episode, and I hope you still stick around with me on this writing journey, despite the ups and downs!

Stay tuned for the next episode, and if you have any Qs, comments, suggestions, or requests, let me know via my social media, the links to which you will find in the description of the episode.

Until next time!