About a decade ago, I began a writing exercise meant to help flesh out a world I had created. I was to keep an ongoing journal of a wandering hero of an ancient world, documenting experiences that spontaneously appeared in my mind, stream-of-consciousness style.

Whatever happened in each journal entry would be completely made up on the spot - something that came natural to my ADHD-addled mind. I, as the hero, would react accordingly and write it all down, detailing his journey. Over a year later, what began as an exercise had become inspiration.

I'd created characters, developed relationships, fleshed out cities and geographic features, made connections between events, and... began realizing a plot had been forming. All on its own! The freestyle writing exercise became the skeleton upon which I'd build an entire novel later on.

The novel in question is still to be written, but the world it takes place in is one I plan for numerous stories, such as the one I'm working on this year: Auran Legend.

Now, I mentioned all that to give some context to what you're about to read next. I'm doing it again, with a new world.

Ever since I'd developed my Solkai species, I used similar exercises to place myself in their world as one of them (yes I have a Solkai-sona! I'll reveal him later) and see what happened as I wander through.

Interestingly enough, I didn't originally intend to use this as a writing exercise.

Rather, as I envisioned (or maybe isekai'd myself into?) this new world, the story began writing itself faster than I could record it all. I was a visitor and it welcomed me. Those two characters on the first page of the Solkai reference? They were the first to introduce themselves: Saturn & V.

They quickly became my guides as a newcomer, and before long I'd realized I was experiencing this in a loose form of "real time" as every day I was inadvertently discovering new things and experiencing life as a resident. New things happening nearly every day, as if I were there.

I decided I'd better write all this down before I forget, and maybe another story will reveal itself after enough time. Despite the fact I'm writing a completely different story at the same time as this, I can't help but wonder where my travels on Vaesera (the Solkai homeworld) might lead me...

So in short, I've taken up the writing exercise once again, all while I've got a separate novel and short fic project on the docket, to say nothing of all the art ideas I've got in queue. I've learned not to suppress inspiration while it's there, so let's see where it leads!