selenicseas

Last updated: 29 December 2024

On the internet, I go by Lee Lacaille-Xing. I'm a perpetually-tired writer, artist, and lapsed conlanger. I also read a lot of short stories and play video games.

I predominantly use the name selenicseas online. If you see a selenicseas elsewhere on the internet, it's me. I'm pretty sure no one else is using this username.

I also have:

a website: Selenic Seas
a Mastodon account: @selenicseas
a Pillowfort account: zhi-long

What I post here:

Reviews, predominantly of video games (archive)
Recommendations of what I've been reading (end of every quarter) (archive)
Monthly summaries detailing my creative work and other goals (beginning of every month) (archive)
Thoughts on and about writing and other creative processes
Nonfiction posts on various topics (archive)

Tags:

about,
blogkeeping

Several of my previous novels have started out as scripts. I find that writing a fairly bare-bones script that gets expanded into a proper prose novel later on works much better for me than starting out with prose. I can mostly focus on getting words down and leave descriptions and such for later stages of revisions and editing.

But what if I don't expand a script into a novel? What if I leave the script as it is – obviously with a few rounds of revisions – and never do the prose conversion parts?

I think this is something I should seriously consider in 2026.

Tags:

writing

Unless I have a sudden burst of inspiration, I don't think I'll be done with the outline for The Sundered Worlds, part 2 by the end of the month. It's grown in scope from what I thought would be a fairly simple, faster-paced, straightforward story into something slower, mostly so I can actually explore the world I created. It's definitely for the best, even though it's added more work to my plate.

My original plan was to finish the outlines for all three parts of this story and then start writing. It was also to finish these outlines in a timely manner, which is looking less and less likely by the day. I will be surprised if I finish the last outline by the end of March.

I want to start writing sooner rather than later, I think – possibly at the beginning of the year. The only problem with this is that I'm not confident in my ability to write prose and work on an outline at the same time. I'm still easing myself back into creative work and I'm worried this might push me back into burnout.

I do have the rest of the year to think about it.

Tags:

writing

Last week, the trailer for Control Resonant dropped, and it's consumed most of my spare thoughts since. I can't stop thinking about it. The first Control remains my favorite video game of all time, and learning that there's a sequel coming out next year (and not in 2027 like I though it would) has me really wanting to replay the game.

I'm thinking about doing something akin to a text let's play, where I focus on anything that could possibly be relevant to Control Resonant. It would be split up into plenty of parts, updated perhaps weekly.

The only problem with this idea (well, the only problem I can think of at this moment) is that I have no idea when I'd have the time to do this. I'm still trying to get plenty of things done before the end of the year. Maybe I can revisit this idea in January?

Tags:

So, I assumed that each of the three parts of The Sundered Worlds would have a four-act outline. It worked just fine for part 1, so I assumed that it would work just as well for part 2.

Then I decided that since there are four libraries in part 2, each act should focus on a different library, with an introductory act that would be, well, an introduction to the story – for a total of five acts.

And now I'm thinking that I'll need to add yet another act to function as a conclusion. I don’t think I've ever done a six-act story before.

Of course, this could all change by the end of the week, so who knows how things are going to end up.

Tags:

writing

I've moved on to the outline for The Sundered Worlds, part 2. This part of the story is something I actually started thinking about back in 2014. Despite the eleven years that have passed since then, I never got too deep into the plot, setting, or characters. I actually redid the characters and setting entirely during Pillowrimo this year, so all I have to do now is focus on the plot.

I also need to come up with a title for this part. It was originally called Tenebres Library back in 2014, and while that titular library does still exist in the story, it's no longer the main focus of the story. So far, I've thought of at least five titles, and none of them are adequate.

Here's hoping I'll come up with something good by the end of the month.

Tags:

writing

Yesterday I sat down and finished the outline for The Sundered Worlds, part 1 in half an hour. I really didn't think I was going to be done with it this early into the month. In fact, I thought it would take the entire month to finish, so I didn't think about what writing project I'd move on to next.

I could start writing the actual novel now, but I think it's best to let it sit for a week or two while I think about any potential problems or important things I might have missed. I have zero idea what I'm going to work on in the meantime.

Tags:

writing

There's less than a month left in the year and there's still a ton of things I want to get done so I don't bring them into 2026. Some of them are related to my personal life, but I'm only going to focus on media and writing-related stuff here because that's mostly what this blog is about.

So, here are my goals for the rest of the month:

1. Write 6500 words toward The Sundered Worlds

This goal was originally "finish The Sundered Worlds outline, part 1". However, I'm 75% of the way through that outline at the moment, and at the rate I'm writing, I might be done with the other 25% in a week. There are two other parts to The Sundered Worlds, and I'd like to get as far into those outlines as I can before the year ends.

2. Finish reading all the short stories/novellas/novelettes on my TBR list

I've made really good progress on this recently. Now that all the magazines I read have released their final issues for the year, I have a (hopefully) non-increasing number of stories to get through. I'm hoping at least some of them will end up on my final recommendations list of the year.

3. Reach 30 books read for the year

I'm very close to finishing book #29 (Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer). Just one more after that and I'll get to 30 for the year.

4. Watch the rest of the moves on my watch list

I know I said I didn't enjoy watching stuff, but there are some movies I do think I would benefit from watching. And, like the stories mentioned in #2, some have been on my watch list for months.

This is the goal I am least likely to accomplish, as there are 33 movies on my watch list and less than 33 days left in the year.

Tags:

goals

I concentrated almost entirely on Pillowrimo this month. I organized all my notes, did a ton of very necessary worldbuilding, and wrote the first two acts of the outline for part 1 of The Sundered Worlds, which is a three-part story. It wasn't nearly as much as I wanted to get done, but I consider this past month to be a huge success in terms of writing – I wrote more in November than I have in any other month this year. I ended the month at 10,296 words for The Sundered Worlds and 12,630 in total (counting blog posts, work on various other projects, and miscellaneous things).

Aside from writing, I did very little in November. I read 19 short stories, re-read Snow Crash for the first time in 15 years, and finished The Diamond Age. I watched three movies and didn't do any gaming. I also didn't do any art or write any reviews.

I have some plans for December that I'll be detailing in this Friday's blog post.

Tags:

monthly overview

I wrote 2,329 words this past week, which was enough to put me at 10,015. I reached my goal ahead of time! I've been concentrating on outlining, and I'd say I'm maybe 2/3 of the way through at the moment. I'm going to continue writing for these next two days and see how close I can get to finishing it.

Tags:

pillowrimo,
writing

This was a pretty slow week. I wrote 2,049 words and my monthly total is now 7,686. I was hoping to reach 8k yesterday, but the words just were not coming to me.

There's one week left in this month (well, 9 days, if we count today) and I have 2,314 words left to write. Since it's Thanksgiving week in the United States, I have some time off and should be able to use that to reach my goal ahead of time! Well, hopefully.

Tags:

pillowrimo,
writing

We're halfway through the month, and I'm more than halfway to my goal. I wrote 2,530 words this week and am at 5,637 total. I did slow down quite a bit compared to the first week, but I'm not concerned about it yet. I'm still ahead.

I genuinely didn't think I'd be doing so well this month. I haven't written more than 5k since July. Of course, there's still plenty of time for me to not reach my goal of 10k.

Tags:

pillowrimo,
writing

I've written 3,107 words toward my monthly goal of 10,000. I was definitely not expecting to be almost a third of the way to my goal one week in. I wrote a lot in the first few days and have since slowed down, but I'm still a few days ahead at this point.

I had documents all over the place (this is a project I've worked on-and-off for years) and they've largely been consolidated into a single Scrivener document. No longer do I have to dig through folders looking for a weirdly-named document that might have the information I need. Also, yesterday I figured out how to tie a plot thread into the main narrative, which is something I've tried and failed to do for years.

Tags:

pillowrimo,
writing

Yesterday afternoon, I decided that I'd actually be participating in a writing challenge this month: Pillowrimo, which is held on Pillowfort. I didn't have a goal at the time, but I do now: 10k words of outlining, worldbuilding, and plotting on The Sundered Worlds, which is the name of the series of stories I'm working on.

I'll be making updates on my Pillowfort account every few days (if not every day). As for Dreamwidth, I think updates will happen weekly – it's what I did in past years while participating in NaNoWriMo.

Tags:

writing

Unfortunately, I did even less writing in October than I did in September. I started doing some outlining for a series of stories, but didn't get too far. I wrote a review for Mutual Aid and completed two pieces (out of a planned four) of pixel art.

I ended up reading six books this month (more than the planned four), bringing my total for the year up to 26. Due to concentrating so hard on books, I only read 4 short stories. It doesn't matter too much, as I'm well over 100 short stories for the year.

So, November is typically when I'd do NaNoWriMo, and as of now, I have no plans to do something similar. I think I'll continue working on outlining.

Tags:

monthly overview

A pixel art depiction of a pumpkin patch with a scarecrow.

I actually created the palette used here for my previous pixel art piece, but realize it would work better for something like a pumpkin patch because of how orange it was. Thus, a pumpkin patch.

This one took two hours, mostly because of the lineart.

Tags:

artwork,
pixel art

I've been doing some writing prep for a story (well, a series of stories) recently. I'm still in the very beginning stages, where I'm working out how the stories are interconnected and what the plots will be, but I'm actually working on a creative project again.

To be honest, I don't feel too positive about it. I feel like I'm still trapped in writer's block – like my brain isn't working the way it used to, or is supposed to. There's a gigantic wall I keep running into, and I have to get over it somehow before I'm back to "normal". I don't know when or if that's going to happen.

Tags:

writing

A pixel art depiction of skeletal trees in a field of grass. There is a crescent moon behind clouds.

First of the four Halloween-themed pixel art pieces I hope to get done in October. This took 1 hour 15 minutes.

Tags:

artwork,
pixel art

As the weather's now cooling off, I've found myself wanting to get back into gaming. I don't have any particular games in mind; I just want to be playing something that isn't Minecraft.

The problem with this is that I have a little too much on my plate at the moment. I'm trying to finish another 10 books, watch everything I have saved on Hulu before that subscription expires in a week, and get through the 70+ short stories from various SFFH magazines I've let pile up over the last few months. All of that is taking up most of the time I could otherwise spare for gaming.

So, it's looking like I could potentially start a new video game in early 2026, provided I manage to get through all the other stuff first.

Tags:

gaming

…I've decided that I'm going to do Halloween-themed pixel art in October. Right now, my goal is four pieces – one per remaining weekend. Should be easy enough.

They'll be posted here as I finish them, just like with all the other art I've done this year.

Tags:

pixel art

This book can be read in its entirety on the Anarchist Library.

I went into this book not knowing what it was going to be about. It gripped me from the beginning; the descriptions of animal behavior in the Mutual Aid Among Animals sections made me want to look more into nonfiction biology texts to see if I could possibly learn more. I highly doubt that was Kropotkin's intention.

The mutual aid chapters relating to humans are divided into different types of societies – savages, barbarians, the medieval city, and "ourselves" (then-present-day Europeans). Yes, those are the actual words Kropotkin uses; he was a European writing in the late 19th/early 20th century. Kropotkin doesn't focus entirely on European cultures – there are descriptions of mutual aid and cooperation in cultures from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia. He references plenty of other scientists and their work (the book comes with an appendix). Some of them, I assume, would be familiar to the reader in 1902, but the only one I was able to recognize was Charles Darwin.

Speaking of Darwin, it's obvious through Kropotkin's writing that social "Darwinism" was a problem back then as it is now.

The state's role as an antagonist to mutual aid is discussed in later chapters. What's also discussed is now communities continually turn to mutual aid and cooperation despite that antagonism, as mutual aid, rather than competition, is (what Kropotkin believes to be) the natural state of humanity.

Tags:

Profile

selenicseas

Website

December 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Style: Radiant Aqua for Venture by onlyembers

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Dec. 27th, 2025 05:20 pm

Recent Entries

Sticky: About

What if I just leave it as a script?

To start writing, or to wait

I can't stop thinking about Control

Increasing the length of the outline, because why not

What I've worked on this week

Well, that was fast

So, it's December

November 2025 Overview

Pillowrimo update #4

Pillowrimo update #3

Pillowrimo update #2

Pillowrimo update #1

I'm doing something this month after all

October 2025 Overview

Pumpkin Patch

Back to writing prep

Skeletal Trees

Maybe I want to get back into gaming

Instead of Inktober...

Book Thoughts: Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin

Profile

December 2025

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags