My journey started years ago but, more recently has it had full impact. I graduated Highschool with honours in English and Creative Writing. I had received several letters of recommendation that begged me to go into journalism, or some other medium where my passion wouldn’t be wasted. I honestly didn’t think much on it. I couldn’t make a living off writing, could I? I liked to write stories. I could do one hell of a review but, people wanted news articles and biographies. They didn’t want more LOTR or anything like that!
For YEARS I put my writing on the back-burner. I always had ideas, and plots floating in my head day and night. I turned my creative outlet to that of Cosplaying in late 2008! I could recreate costumes I had seen in Anime, Video Games, or Movies, or even create my own. A bit of planning, some supplies, and a little elbow grease and I could bust out costumes like Tifa from FFVII, Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War, Angela from Spawn, and even the Dragonborn!
Yup. I nerded out – HARD! But, I loved what I created. I made many friends, and visited many places in my Cosplay adventures. It was Art! It still is! I still love it but, I missed expressing myself more freely. So in 2018, with some encouragement from friends, I took to Fiverr to offer my services. They’d both taken commissions from there before, and were very successful, so I figured I’d dip my toes in the water and give it a shot.
I didn’t see much traction for 6 months. I was offering 1000 words at $5 a piece! That’s right! A fiver on Fiverr! But, eventually one individual picked up on my offers and took a chance. Her name was Libby! She is a Mother, and Journalist in Australia and she wanted help in expressing the full creative content of her stories. With my help we created beautiful landscapes, in-depth characters, and passionate backstories. We still work together to this day creating more and more stories she reads to her sons! She’s been with me through price increases, holidays, big breaks, and even turmoil. She even stuck with me when I changed names (some of you may remember me as 0xshedevilx0 or just Shedevil). She became a regular client of mine, just like a few others you can see below!
So, what exactly is it that I do?
Well, that’s up to you, really. I’ve done editing, ghost-writing, world-building, concept creation, outlines, character creation, and even lyrics!
In late 2019, I started working on the passion project of Fabienne Erni, created with the help of fellow Eluveitie member – Jonas Wolf! I was contacted two weeks after attending one of their concerts, actually, and for the longest time I didn’t believe it was real. Even now, I still think it’s a dream some days, even if I do wake up to 4AM voice messages.
I came in as a concept writer – the person who could help bring dreams and ideas into reality with assistance in creative writing. Together, with the help of other band members, we created our Tribes, and our World – The Teshay, The Faeva, The Hallusia, The Vaiya, and The Yagun! The rise and fall of our beloved crystal and so much more! You can check out the world we created on the Illumishade website and even take our Tribe quiz to see where you may fit in! After helping out on the concept end, I was consulted on lyrics for some edits and repair. To help make things flow and sound the part! We worked well together, and we had a ton of fun but, my first co-writing experience went to our release on January 1st, 2020 – “The Endless Vow” where I co-wrote with Fabi for our upcoming second album! You can check out the video below!
This was my first taste of lyric writing, and well… song-writing overall. The feedback was something I feared, and despite a few similarities being called out by people, the reception was generally very positive. I was relieved, excited, and still so very very scared of what awaits in the future. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop! I’ve been working on Illumishade for nearly two years now and we definitely aren’t letting up anytime soon. 😉
So, what is it I can do for you?
Up for some lyrical inspiration? Or perhaps we just need a concept to work with. I can cover that too! Need an album review? Check out my submissions page for details! For all professional inquiries, feel free to e-mail me at valkyrjia_@hotmail.com or drop me a DM on one of my socials below!
Valkyrjian 