I haven't updated my journal for a VERY long time, and for some reason I thought today (at 1:30 in the morning) would be good day to do it.

"So, you're going to talk about The Elemental Master?"

"Yes, I'm going to talk about TEM."

"What about it?"

"Well, for those of you who don't know, I'm going to give you the history of the Elemental Master and how it's become what it is today, and I'm going to explain what's currently happening with it."

"That sounds BORRRRRRRRING!"

"Yeah, it does."


A long time ago, a friend of mine, who goes by the nickname Zeltor Daeon, were taking a hike on a hill. I had picked up a blade of grass and started twirling around with it. After messing around with it for some time like it was a sword, I asked my friend how cool it would be to have the power to take a plant and be able to shape it into anything you could imagine with only the power of your mind. He thought that it would be awesome and we traded some idea's. The first seed was there.

Weeks later, I had gone to English class and was given a very simple assignment: write. And don't stop writing for ten minutes. DO NOT STOP WRITING UNLESS PEOPLE BEGIN TO DIE OR THE BUILDING IS ON FIRE. I believe that was an exact quote. Mr. Potts was bad ass, and still is to this day. So I did, and what did I write about? I wrote about an eleven year old who has the power to fight off evil with plants by manipulating them. That first piece of paper was lost forever, but that little seedling had begun to sprout.

I had been an avid reader for years, much more content to read a good book than to dribble a basket ball, and after that first writing exercise Mr. Potts gave us, I found that writing was both fun and addictive. I got a 70-page spiral notebook and filled the entire thing, finishing the entire original draft of The Elemental Master by the last page. The plot was what you would expect from a 14 year old: very simple and blunt, with one clear cut theme and not a lot of development. It was, to say the least, terrible. The idea was still good, though. So, a year later, I started from scratch. Version 2.0 was much better, with more developed characters and MUCH MUCH more plot. The main character, who always kept his simple yet effective name, Andrew Redroad, seemed to age as I did, and matured as well. Major plot elements were forming, six elements became eight. Major Character's changed names, the timeline became... workable.

By the time I was a sophomore in High School, I had rewritten TEM 5 times, two of those versions didn't make it past Chapter 10, which later became a running gag amongst my friends ("If you ever make it to Chapter 10 again, I'll give you a dollar!") "Spirit Worldians"(gag, I know), the alternative race in TEM, became "Andalicians", and a number of sophisticated connections and plot were begging to take shape. My little seedling was a small tree now.

Toward the end of my Senior year, I began to write Version 7.o. This is the latest and most up to date verion of The Elemental Master yet, and I believe it to be the most worthy. I look back at all those years that TEM has been a part of my life, and how it's evolved, and it's a good feeling. This will be the last version of the Elemental Master, unless I can't help it.

Now, I am 20 years old, I've been working on this project of mine for over a third of my life (intermittently), and I'm starting to feel a mix of dread and pride. I feel dread because I'm afraid that once I've finally finished it, that it still won't be polished enough to be published, and I'm proud because at the back of my head I know I have a really epic idea in this book.

So what am I doing with it now? Currently I'm on Chapter 12 (I got my damned dollar BTW!), but I've gone back to the beggining to polish parts and massively overhaul some areas of the story. Simply put, I want every word to be worth reading. I want every sentence to convey exactly what I want it to say. I'm on Chapter 2 of this massive revision.

That's my story, I hope you enjoy.

P.S. I have another love, and that's creating games. I'll talk about that next time