All posts by Kendra Short

Monologued Dialogue

Doing What You Love And Loving What You Do

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It’s been a bit. We haven’t had a public chat in quite a while.

No, we haven’t. Haven’t had much private chatting either. You’ve been discouraged lately.

Well, when you start a writing blog and one fitness review gets all of your views for months on end, it kinda wrecks your motivation. Plus, writers block for the stuff I’m thinking of putting up as much next project… I kinda feel lost as a writer.

That’s fair- to work hard on something and see nothing for it, that can break a person. So, what will you do?

Keep on keeping on. I didn’t start this blog for exposure or to become famous. I did it to break out of my head, share my writing with whoever would find it, and maybe inspire others along the way. Through my chats with you, I want to help others see how to look in a different way at things. Or, at least how I do it.

And if nothing else you put out gets views?

It’ll be here if someone wants to view it. I don’t write because I have to, or I need to be seen. I started writing because I love it. I started writing because I love it. It’s freeing, a release from stress, and a way to explore myself.

So, you’re more worried about doing what you love?

Yes. I want to eventually publish a book. That will be for other people. This, though… this is mostly for me. A sort of public diary, public workbook.

Then that’s the important thing. Do things for you, not because it will make you look good. You’ve grown a lot lately, and mostly on your own.

I’m never on my own, really. You’re literally part of me, so I’ve always got you, too.

Updates

The Irony – A Nerd Talks Up Fitness

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Starting this blog was an adventure. Finally, I would truly be putting my writing and my talents out there for the world to find!

And I feel like I have, for the most part, had some small success. I’m a small time writer, sure, but this blog has helped me finally complete a writing project. It’s helped ease my fears that my abilities aren’t as good as I think.

It’s also shown me that success can come from the most unexpected places.

Just under a year ago, I wrote a review of Nerd Fitness overall. Starting in December, that has been my most viewed post every month, every day, continuously.

I’m certainly not complaining- Nerd Fitness is amazing, and I hope my review helps people! I’m more startled than anything. I feel like my other posts really aren’t getting any traction. Heck, the final part of Taking Back the Kingdom got way less attention than previous parts, and it was posted well after this trend began.

At first, I actually understood this trend- it was around the new year, and resolutions and all. I’m honestly really surprised that this has continued this far into 2022.

That said, I do have a couple posts I plan to have up soon: a new MD and a review of Nerd Fitness Academy. I’m quite curious to see how each do when they come out.

Updates

Planning For The Future – What Are Your Thoughts?

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I’m working on refocusing myself in my free time right now, and part of that is going to be setting aside specific time each week to work on, and preferably post, a new post here on the blog.

But I’ve got several projects or post types on here, and with almost all of my recent traffic being on my Nerd Fitness review, it’s a little hard to tell what people are actually enjoying most on my blog.

So, here’s your chance to weigh in, if you’d like! I’ve opened a poll below with what I currently have for projects, and an option to suggest a new project. You can select any or all of the projects you like most. If you’d like to see a new project, what kind of story prompt would you have? Or is there some other project type you think I might be good at? Suggest it via the comments below!

I like all of my projects I have at least started on here, so don’t worry about any “Oh, you should just work on what you like” type things. I legitimately can’t decide what I like most, so I’m more than open to opinions.

Do you have specific insight you want to give on my projects? Feel free to leave that in the comments as well! I’m certainly open to constructive criticism. (None of that, “You just suck and should give up.” That’s not actionable, folks, not when I want to grow and improve!)

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any feedback you give! While this is currently just a side hobby for me, it is still important to me and I love what support I get for it.

Kendra's Thoughts, Updates

Pushing Your Boundaries And Setting Ever Higher Goals

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I finally completed a full story. Yes, it’s all still in a rough draft form, but people on the internet have read it and I’ve gotten decent reception for it. At least, decent if you go by the fact I get few visitors and even fewer likes.

Either way, it was a huge win for me. For several people, maybe even many, my goal of finishing just one story may have seemed small. I imagine that for people who have been writing for a long time, people passionate about writing whether they’ve ever published anything or not, they fully understood my desire for a completed story and perhaps once had a similar struggle.

The whole reason I set that simple goal was because I was scared. I was terrified that I would never see any of my ideas to completion, doomed to forever begin an engaging and exciting story and stop just as things were starting to take shape.

Taking Back the Kingdom was my first completed story, mostly because it was so easy to write. I gave myself a prompt and, while the story evolved heavily away from it, knowing the goal I was after in the beginning really helped me develop the characters and the story line better than I’m used to.

This is also one of very few stories that I’ve started specifically from a prompt, rather than other stimuli. In fact, most of the stories I begin come to me as ideas I have based off of dreams I remember. I have three different projects I want to work on right now that are also based on either dreams or daydreams.

That brings me to setting a new goal, a bigger goal. You see, while one of those three projects is likely one I won’t start at all, the other two I feel have potential. The tricky thing for me is that they both feel like multi-book projects. Hell, one of them is already a minimum of seven books if I do it how I want to. The other one I currently only have ideas for two books for, but that project is a much more vague concept to me.

Now, as I work on either of these projects, I’m not sure if they’ll end up on here at all. They’re much larger and more involved, and the writing I’ve done for the seven book project has been more fragmented than things I’ve posted here have been. In fact, I already have segments written from four of the books.

I’ve currently titled that project “Hero’s Spirit”, though that’s certainly subject to change. It’s set to follow a total of six teens in as they grow, and possibly save the world. I know, not the most original description, but I don’t want to give too much out about it on the internet. I think I’ve already given a few descriptions of it on the blog, but I think I’ve kept them relatively vague.

The reason for that vagueness is that I intend for these to actually be books, books that I publish and sell. While I’ve been a bit slow to fully work on the project, I’m allowing myself to focus more on it now that I’ve finished another project.

Now, that’s not to say that I won’t be working on any other projects in the meantime. For example, I would like to revisit and possibly finish my Minecraft fanfiction, Journey in a Strange World (or whatever the hell I called it) at some point in the near future. Originally, that was going to be a journal that was entries long. It was also originally started as a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo/NaNo) project, and my goal was to write about an entry a day for it. We see how well that went.

I think trying to stretch that out to 30 entries is going to be slow and tedious at this point, so I’m probably only going to need a few more entries and the epilogue to actually finish that story. But, that is another goal I have, to finally finish off that project.

Likewise, I will in time be revisiting Nameless, another NaNo project of mine. Much like Taking Back the Kingdom, that one started as a prompt, and I still think it would be a fun challenge to finish.

Revisiting both of these is going to take time, however. I need to evaluate where I can go from where I ended with them, decide if my plans for them need changing, or if I feel like I can truly finish them in the way they deserve. In the mean time, I might try a short story here or there to give the blog a little more variety, and I do intend to start a few more Monologued Dialogues before long as well.

I’m also toying with the idea of donation incentives, should someone wish to offer monetary support to Short and Scorch. Specifically, I’m considering setting it up so that if someone donates, they can request that I do a short story for a specific prompt they give me, within reason. There are certain things I’m not knowledgeable to write about, and others that I simply refuse to write about. I would also have to work out if this would be a donation for things to be posted to the blog only, or if I’d allow the option to have them submitted privately to the donator.

I also have to contend with the fact that I, quite frankly, don’t know that I’m talented enough that anyone would even pay me money to write them a short story. Likewise comes the problem that, should someone actually pay me to write a story for them, how easy would it be for them to try to pass it off as their own if I allow the option to give them only to the donator?

Between the confidence issue and the logistics, it’s likely an idea that won’t happen unless I begin to really get popular for some reason. It’s more likely that I finally get my act together and start producing videos for the TikTok account I created for the blog. I have plenty of ideas for it, just nothing I’ve actually taken the time to make yet. (If I do make videos, they’re not going to be about my stories unless they’re updates. They’ll just be me and Shorty, and probably some representations of struggles from the past few years as I battle depression and self-image issues.)

Really, this has all been a long and ranty way of saying: Now that I’ve completed one big thing I’ve been worried about never doing, I’m looking at doing bigger and better things. I’m no longer thinking about projects in terms of “If I can finish it” but instead of “When I finish it.” Hero’s Spirit and the other multi-book project, which I’ve currently dubbed “Rose Queen,” are both projects I know that I can finish. Rose Queen might not ever come to fruition only because I’m not as settled on how good of a story it would actually be, not because I don’t think I can do something as ambitious as multiple books for the same series.

I would be willing to bet that, should I ever publish anything as a full book, it will likely be my Hero’s Spirit project. And while I likely won’t post it on the blog as I have other stories, I don’t see why I can’t give updates on it and possibly post excerpts as I work on it, so my readers can get a sneak-peak on what kind of project it is I’m working on.

So, as I proceed to set bigger, loftier goals, I hope that those who have come back again and again and shown support through following the blog or leaving a like on various posts will continue to enjoy my stories, reviews, and discussions with myself. I have a couple of posts I’m working on now that I think people will enjoy, including a far overdue review of Nerd Fitness Academy and a new Monologued Dialogue.

Thank you to those who have been here for any of the journey to my first completed story, and to those who have given me a chance to entertain them so far. I hope you like what I have yet to come.

Kendra's Thoughts, Taking Back the Kingdom, Updates

Taking Back The Kingdom Reflections, And What Comes Next

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With the official end of TBtK written and posted, I wanted to take a quick look back at the process of writing it, and to talk about what might come next.

First, I want to thank everyone who read and enjoyed my first completed story project. I may decide to edit and publish it one day as a book. All I currently know is I have no intention of a sequel to this project. I really didn’t ever intend one, and I didn’t give myself much setup for one.

I want to talk briefly about the process that creating this story took. It started with a prompt: What if the hero we follow is actually the villian?

As readers will note, that premise did not hold through the book. I could have kept our main character antagonistic to the king, but it just didn’t feel like it fit the young man I’d written. I may revisit that prompt one day, I may not. It was a lot harder to try to write convincingly than I thought.

The reason it took me so long to finish was my difficulty I’m deciding how to end it. Much like our main character, I had several paths to choose from. He could have simply returned home and bowed out. Or, I could have had him single-handedly talk down the rebels. That felt like such a cop out, and very unbelievable, so I ditched it pretty quickly. Eli could have died I’m the fighting, or fought for the king and become a war hero. Ultimately, I did choose this route, but I decided to leave his fate to the readers. That also felt like a cop out, but a more satisfying one.

I’m personally satisfied with the ending of the story, and how I got there. Each chapter was written and posted without any major editing or anyone reviewing it first. That alone was pretty intimidating, as I had no way of knowing how anyone would receive it. I just wrote what felt most correct and fitting at the time and rolled with it.

As for what’s next, I’m not 100% certain. I’ve got a couple of potential projects to work on, and some on here I’d like to continue. I don’t know just how frequently I’ll be posting for a while as is. Life’s pretty busy at the moment, and what free time I do have to devote to projects will likely be dominated by the biggest project I’ve ever attempted, which I don’t intend to put on the blog in its entirety.

That project is currently planned to be 7 books in total. I don’t want to go into too much detail about it here, but it will be a book based in a world of magic, interdimensional travel, and an upcoming war.

I will be trying to finish off the Journey story this year, however. I know how I want that to end, I just have to get it there.

I want to seriously thank all of my readers and my handful of followers. This has been an amazing accomplishment for me, someone who’s been writing since they were 7ish yet never finished a full story. I hope some of all of you will stick around for more of this journey, and support me as I continue to grow as a writer.

Let me know what you thought of TBtK. I’d love to hear thoughts on the ending and the story as a whole. Did you read it from the start? Did you find it part way through and go back? Was the ending satisfying for you, as a reader? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for sticking with me. Let’s hope the next projects are just as fun!

Stories, Taking Back the Kingdom

Taking Back The Kingdom – Chapter 9 – End

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I spent a week in the area, learning how people lived and how the changes to the laws were affecting them. People were happy to talk to me about it, and I had several dinners with various families in the area.

There were jobs to be done while we talked, and I certainly helped where I could. I even learned a few new skills while I educated myself.

For once in my life, I recognized how privileged I had been. Mom and Dad never once struggled to support us, and our farm was plenty prosperous. How many other rebels were like me? How many thought they were lower class or poor, just to have a similar background to me?

Well, one way to find out was to return to the rebels camp and attempt to enlighten them. I certainly didn’t think I could talk down an entire rebellion this way, but if I could convince a few people they were wrong, it would be a victory.

So back to the camp I went. I was welcomed back easily, as every hand helps, but it didn’t stay that way. I set myself up in the center of camp to announce my findings… and promptly found myself booed out and running for my own safety. I did see a few looks of consideration, but not many.

Oh well. I tried. The next question was what I would do now. Return home and continue my comfortable lifestyle? Or join the king’s army and defend the work he had started?

I suppose, by this point, it wasn’t really a question for me. A letter to my parents later, it was time to talk to an army recruiter.

Army training wasn’t particularly eventful. The rebellion went on for quite a while, and I proved myself capable as I worked. Before I knew it, I was promoted through the ranks until the king himself asked me to join his personal guard. It wasn’t exactly an offer I expected, being a previous rebel myself, but I took it willingly.

Now, I help coordinate movements by the king to try to bypass rebel hotspots. Tomorrow, we’re heading to a talk the king is to give. Word came in yesterday that a rebel party planned to ambush us on our previous route and time frame, so things were moved up by a week. Something still feels off about this.

I guess only time will tell if this is just paranoia talking, but I intend to remind the others to remain on alert at all times. The rebels could easily predict this move. Protecting the king has to be our top focus at all times.

If all goes well, maybe we can wind this rebellion down in another couple of months.

Marcus fought the two guards who had moved him from the fight, trying to return to where he and his men had been ambushed. “I have to help them! I can fight too, you know!”

“We all know you’re more important to the kingdom than we are,” The older guard sighed. “We must wait until things calm. If you die, all of this was for naught.”

“Besides, Eli took charge of it. The boys a natural leader. Let him do his thing,” The other guard smiled. The king sighed and stopped trying to get away from them, waiting.

When the fighting calmed down, the older guard went to investigate before returning. “We’ve won- three dead on our side, the rest are in various states of wounded but look likely to recover.”

“Good- let’s go get them out of harm’s way, and decide our next move,” Marcus ordered, heading back to his men. The two guards followed, on alert for more attacks.

Updates

Deadline Extensions – Or, An Update

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I started a new job in August, and it’s been a bit hectic for me. So, I haven’t had a chance to write much or post anything here, so here’s a quick update.

(It’s also my birthday, so there’s that.)

Taking Back the Kingdom’s deadline for completion is being pushed back to December. I’ve been too busy to work on it at, though I at least know how I want to end it now. I just haven’t been able to prioritize writing lately. Now that my schedule is starting to settle, I should be able to find time to write.

My next project after I finally finish TBtK will be a long one, and I’m not yet sure if I’ll be posting any of it here. I have seven books planned so far for this project, making it my largest project I’ve ever planned. I may post updates about it or excerpts, but I’m not sure about the whole thing.

I’m considering starting some TikTok videos for shorter Monolouged Dialouges, but I’ve yet to decide or determine how I’d do it. All I know is that, if I do, there will be a specific TikTok account linked to the blog.

As for blog projects, after TBtK I plan to try to finish Journey. That was originally meant to be 30 days long, but I don’t think I can stretch it that far without it getting boring to both read and write. I know exactly how that one will end, just need to sort out a few final details of filler scenes.

Life Is Super is on indefinite hiatus while I ponder what I want to do with it. Originally, I wanted it to be a comic. As I can’t draw for beans and have no money to hire an artist, it will either have to wait or I’ll need to rethink the medium and how I present it. If it goes to comic format, I’ll probably upload it to Webtoons.

For my other works on the site, we’ll see what I decide with them. I’ll of course be writing new Dialouges and mental health posts as I can, and maybe some reviews. Past that, we’ll see.

And as for the paranormal site, that’s also on indefinite hiatus. Neither of these sites are currently making any money, let alone enough to live on, so work and self-care have to come first.

Thanks for following, and look forward to more!

Kendra's Mental Health Central

What Does It Mean To Feel Lost?

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Why do we feel lost? Scientifically, I can’t answer that. But emotionally, I at least have an analysis of my own situations to offer.

Feeling lost, to me, has meant being frustrated with a good job, my own house, and my own car. It means trying to fill holes I think I have with needless things: new tech, new games, new adventures.

Feeling lost has meant not knowing why I get up in the morning, or go to bed at a reasonable hour. (Well, usually reasonable.) It has made me wonder if it’s worth answering messages and texts, keeping connections with friends and family.

Feeling lost has been a sense of desire to pack up without a word and leave.

But feeling lost has also been encouragement to learn new skills, find what I really like, and begin restructuring myself around these interests.

I never realized how much I loved to learn until I wasn’t doing it anymore. It took stalling in a profession I genuinely enjoy to convince me to consider other professions, and thereby new educational opportunities.

If I never felt lost, I never would have found airsoft and just how much I enjoy it. I wouldn’t have finally started learning a second language, or really writing for myself with a goal.

Without feeling lost, I never would have started this blog. I would have found the money sink to start it to be too risky. I wouldn’t have started doing paranormal research stuff with my mom. (We’re just doing tours of places at the moment, but I hope to eventually join or start a research team around here.)

If I never felt lost, I wouldn’t have realized that where I’m at is not the limit of where I can be. I can grow past what I thought was my limit. I can learn to draw, I can learn auto mechanics, I can learn languages and physics and music.

I can get in shape and start becoming more badass. I can find a new career, and learn to manage my money. I can take charge of my situation, mental and physical, internal and external, and be in charge of it all.

Feeling lost happens to everyone at some point. You begin questioning what you’re doing with yourself and where you’re going, you get fed up with where you’re at and want to grow.

From what I’ve seen, you have two options: you can let it lead you to burnout or rash decisions, or you can try to focus that energy into making yourself more like the you you thought you would be.

Updates

Achievement Unlocked: 500 Total Views

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Hello, my wonderful readers! We’ve met an awesome goal for a small blog like this, and I was so excited I wanted to share it with you guys!

We hit 500 total site views yesterday! As of the time of writing, we’re sitting at 503 views.

I want to take this time to thank those that have come back time and again to read my stories, reviews, and ramblings. It’s repeat viewers and readers that tell me I’m doing something right. We’ve been live for about a year and a half, and I’ve certainly been more active over the course of about a year.

Looking to the future, I want to explain some goals I have for this site.

The first is to finish Taking Back the Kingdom by the end of November, specifically my birthday. How I want the story to end isn’t as perfect as when I started it, so while I’m feeling out how it’ll go from here, I’ll be working on other projects.

I also want to start integrating some of my work with other media. The only definite plan I have right now is my annual charity livestream on Twitch, where I plan to do some gaming and some writing. More details will come later on that plan. I’m still looking at turning the Monolouged Dialouge into a video series or podcast one, but haven’t decided for sure on that yet.

If I can plan out what my incentives will be, I also plan to start a Patreon at some point. Once I have some art of me and Shorty, I’ll consider looking into small merch items if I have a bigger following.

I am also planning out a novel series… ish. I don’t want to spoil too much of it, but the project will be 7 books total by my current plan. I don’t know how long it will take and if I’ll try to find a publisher or self-publish, but I’ll figure that out as I go. I’ve already started work on the stories, and I’ll give any important updates here.

I do have plans for my next review, after I’ve used the tool I’ll review more. For those curious, the tool is currently called Campfire Blaze, though the name will be changing soon. I also still need to do reviews of the individual Nerd Fitness programs, so be on the lookout for those!

I’d love to have some more reader interaction, so if you have any suggestions for things I should check out and review, let me know! I’m also considering doing short stories for commissions, so hit me up via the contact page if you’re interested.

That’s all I’ve got for today, so thanks again for your readership and stay awesome!

Kendra's Thoughts

Magic Vs Tech – A Nerd’s Personal Choice

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I was thinking recently about writing that I do, writing that a friend does, and writing we do together. And I came to a realization or two, which I’ll share now.

Now, I haven’t read a ton of this friend’s solo writing. Mostly, I’ve just read some of her NaNoWriMo projects. But, that’s been enough to help me with something. Because, I realized that our writing we do together, our role plays, are almost always based in magical worlds or worlds like our own. We really don’t do sci-fi writing. Occassionally, we’ll go down a more technologically advanced route.

My own writing is much the same. I’ll tend more towards magic, demons, and the supernatural despite being a techie. I can’t speak for my friend and why she also seems to tend towards that side of things, but I’ve been considering why I might.

To understand my thought process when thinking about this, you have to know a little more about me. As I said, I’m a techie. I love tech, new and old, and playing with it and learning how it works. I went to college for computer networking, then got a job doing computer programming so I could understand all sides of how a computer works. If I could afford to, I’d find a good, old fashioned typewriter for my rough drafts. (I really love the sound of a good typewriter, same with mechanical keyboards.)

I also love to write. You may have gathered this, if you’ve been around here before or seen any of my other posts. I love the sound of pencil on paper, to the point that I will simply write the alphabet out over and over when I’m stressed or need to clear my mind. It’s soothing, that soft scratching noise, as is the smooth glide of pen or pencil on paper.

Writing goes hand in hand with reading, in a way, too. Both give me an escape into the related world, and escape from the insanity and fear and anger of the world today. But then, that begs the question: If I love tech, if I’m a techie, then why do I prefer to write about magic and worlds with less tech than ours, and read medieval fantasy?

I think it’s because I love to learn. I want to learn everything I can. I’ve yet to find a field in which I have no interest. Mechanics, lockpicking, art, music, voice acting, game creation (both video and board), cooking, aeronautics, science of all kinds, tech of all kinds, and the list goes on.

This is part of why I love the Great Courses, now Wonderium, so much. There are so many different things for me to learn about, just by listening to lectures. (And so much more, now. They’ve expanded to many extra ways to learn, hence the name change. Seriously, def check it out if you haven’t.)

But, I think this is also why I prefer magic. I understand tech. I may not understand exactly how each piece of tech works, or the science behind it, or what have you. But I do understand tech. Magic is different. The kind of magic in stories, I can’t easily study that. But I can create it, in my own worlds, and I can learn how each story works with it. Where tech is finite and knowable, magic is infinite and impossible to truly master.

Tech is also man, where magic is nature. That might not be a direct connection, but that’s how I feel about it. Man makes tech, but, much like rivers or wind, man can only use magic. Even in the real world, magic is in nature. It’s a natural process. A breath-taking scenery, a chance encounter in the forest with a majestic animal, the first breath of a new life… All of these are magic, but they are made of nature. We have “magic”, too, but it’s really just skills and science that we utilize. The real magic is in the little things. A human can master tech, but a human cannot master magic.

And that’s appealing to me. Something that is both knowable and unknowable, that can be learned but never mastered. Something that one can see, but never hold, never truly have. I love the idea of it.

I also get too drawn into tech, because I get caught up too easily in trying to discern how exactly it works. With magic, I let it do its thing and pull me along for the ride. Tech, I try to hold in and sort it out before we can continue.

Tech, then, becomes another lesson, and magic… Magic becomes an experience.

Magic is also something that I cannot be wrong about. If I’m creating magic, I cannot be incorrect about how my magic works. I cannot create something that would never be possible by the real rules of magic because there are no real rules of magic. Tech, however, I can be wrong about. I can mess something up in a way that slows people down. I know I get tripped up if I’m reading a story and see something that I know just does not work that way. That happens with tech, but it can’t happen with magic.

Magic is different from story to story. People don’t expect you to follow the same rules as a different story unless your story is set in the same world. Tech, people expect tech to follow the rules of the world. They might set aside a few things for futuristic tech that might work that way one day, but there’s a limit to how far you can go with that.

I think this is all pretty good for explaining why I prefer to read and write stories based in magic. In its own way, it can also be explanations for why someone else may prefer tech. But what about you? What do you prefer, and why do you think that is? I bet you’ll find the answer more interesting than you expected.