This Place Will Grow

But brushing your teeth for 30 seconds is better than not brushing them at all when that 2 minutes seems exhausting.  Doing ten minutes of yoga is better than 10 minutes of sitting when 30 minutes of cardio sounds impossible.  Changing my clothes is good when a whole shower is impossible.  Standing on the porch for a few minutes is worth it after being in the house for three straight days because I don’t have the energy to go anywhere.

oh yeah i'm in the deadass middle of it LOL perpetually, it never ends 💀😆

tips tho, that may or may not help depending on the severity and context of the writer's block you are experiencing:

if you have a ton of ideas in your head but can't seem to get them written down, then open a dedicated full-screen writing window (or a fresh sheet of paper if you're writing by hand) and set a timer. 5 minutes, 15 minutes, doesn't matter, just pick a number that seems reasonable for you. then just write until that timer runs up. this not only holds you accountable to actually write, but it gives you certainty that you won't have to write forever if you're not having a good time (while also challenging you to write as much as you can within a limited time frame).

set up a designated writing space! oftentimes I find if I'm struggling to make time for something, it's because I'm trying to make time for it in the same space I do other things like drawing or gaming. if you have a laptop or phone or a journal, take it to another area of your house, or go outside to a cafe / library / public space! I find switching environments can do a lot to motivate / trick my brain into being productive.

if while writing you keep finding yourself stuck at impasses and in corners you've written yourself into, then go back a few paragraphs. oftentimes the solution is hiding in the set-up.

regarding the above ^^^ if you can't find the solution within a few paragraphs, isolate the idea itself and take it back to the drawing board. sometimes an idea feels good but in practice isn't actually suited for the story you're trying to tell.

remember: your first draft is just to tell the story to YOU. it doesn't need to be anywhere near perfect, it doesn't even need to be descriptive or well-written, you just need to make it exist! once it exists, then you can do your revising and additions and other stuff that makes the story both understandable and enjoyable for other readers outside of yourself. let writing just be writing, save the revising for when it's time to refine the story for others. (< especially if you're someone who has a tendency to get stuck because they start editing at the same time as writing)

find yourself some accountability buddies! other writers, people who enjoy reading your work, etc. they can help give you pointers / feedback, but most of all, they can help motivate you and keep you focused :>

Make sure you have BOTH small goals and big goals. Don't make your immediate first goal "finish an entire first draft" because that can feel too difficult to reach right away. Instead, set a bunch of smaller goals that will eventually build up to your bigger goal, like "write this scene" or "write 3 chapters".

create a reward system for yourself! something to look forward to especially when the writing gets tough. Keep the reward relative to progress, so like, small rewards for small goals, big rewards for big goals :3

remember that writing doesn't always look like dedicated work. a lot of writing happens in your head and that's okay! whenever ideas come to you, keep a notepad handy or open the notes app on your phone and WRITE IT DOWN! or if you're really not feeling like taking notes, record it instead! progress is progress, simple note-taking and dictating is still a more tangible way of writing than just thinking about your ideas over and over again; and most of all, it'll help you get your ideas OUT of your head, so that they'll actually feel real (and you won't forget them for when it finally comes time to really sit down and write!)

And I'm offering a super special ✨ DISCOUNT ✨ on my Mystery Doodle commission slot! Starting today and running until June 25th (that's a whole Rekindled update of time!) the Mystery Doodle request slot will be reduced by 25%!

This commission slot is perfect for people who want something spontaneous and simple, with all the fun of the finished product being a surprise and none of the back-and-forth business talk ~

But what you get is what you get! All slots are paid for upfront. So please make sure you read all the terms and conditions carefully before putting through a request! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

There are 15 SLOTS OPEN! If and when those 15 slots are reserved, then the Mystery Doodles will be CLOSED and the discount period will be over! And once it's re-opened at a future date (i.e. after all those requests have been fulfilled) it'll be back to its standard rate. So it's first come first serve!

(this discount should be applied automatically at checkout but if for some reason it doesn't and you get hit with the normal $40 rate, please for the love of god let me know, this is the first time I've ever used VGen's discount feature lmao)

Mine was buried even deeper, under Devices -> Typing -> How AI has helped you.

In a complimentary way, I think LR wouldn't have been a hit with early LO fans because it requires a more mature audience who can recognize the messiness of the situation and NOT blindly love the main couple. But it's certainly found its footing among its people (us).

aww it genuinely brings me so much joy when people tell me they've binge-read LR or are re-reading it etc. especially when there are so many little secrets we hid throughout the episodes that might not be noticeable first read-through (some of which still haven't even been discovered / pieced together yet ;33) That's why I encouraged people to re-read in preparation for Episode 86, I just knew that opening segment replaying crucial scenes from Apollo's perspective would hit so much harder with those scenes fresh in people's minds >:)

It's funny because while I DO have fans of LR who were early LO fans, many of them were fans who fell off the series partway through (the trial arc especially has become its own Great Filter™️ where it seems to be the common drop-off for many readers who were following along back then) and seem to share the same feelings as I had back then when I first started envisioning LR.

I also have a shocking number of readers (not a lot, but enough that it's shocking) who haven't even read LO, period. So it definitely makes for an interesting combination 😆

There are times when I worry the old habits of the LO fandom will die hard in a way that will affect how LR is consumed (one of those times is literally now as I'm working on Episode 87 which has some scenes which I feel are going to be... divisive) but I'm honestly super grateful for the audience we've built here and I'm hoping the trust can go both ways between what people can count on from me in terms of content, and reversely, what I can count on from readers when it comes to discussing the content.

I understand that the trust many people - former LO fans - are putting in LR is extremely damaged from years of disappointment, and so I take what I'm doing here very seriously, even if it's just making a fan comic on Tumblr and "not that serious" in the grand scheme of things. And while that may be true because LO is just a webtoon and LR is just a fun Tumblr project, I know how big those feelings towards LO were back when I was still a fan (it's what's manifested in my Big Feelings™️ towards it now) and so I understand those feelings are worth respecting in others, too, because I've lived those feelings through and through, and still feel them today.

As much as it takes an indescribable amount of work and effort to make something like this, the people who have taken a chance on LR have given me so much of their time and attention and energy over the past 3+ years, and that pales in comparison to the time and attention and energy they put into LO beforehand (myself included). So my biggest goal, if nothing else, is to ensure that they don't all have to go through that same pain again. I know I sure don't.

The way I see it, we're all in the same boat here, manned by scorned former LO fans who have been frantically scooping water out of a sinking ship for years. LR is its own little ship made out of the dismantled parts of the original, keeping what was strong and discarding what was weak. But the crew still remembers what it was like being on that sinking ship, and so we're all still nervously eyeing the bail buckets waiting for any opportunity to use them.

Another one is the verb "perceive" i.e. "don't perceive me" "I am perceiving" "I am being percieved." That's something that feels very specific to tumblr parlance.

There's the thing where people on tumblr have an emotional reaction to something and instead of, or in addition to telling you how they feel about it using emotion words, they will narrate a fictional action in the present progressive tense. "I am gnawing at the bars of my enclosure "I am kissing you on the mouth" "you are going into the soup" "you are getting all of the awards"

I once saw someone use that response format in ... I think it was a restaurant review, or a doordash review, or something like that. It was very unexpected seeing it outside of a tumblr post.

sadly my project is lost due to the website being wiped from the university database after graduation and my then laptop having a major hardware failure. backup your backups people! but the crux of the entire module was that the internet is full of communities using language not only as jargon for specific purpose but also to signal membership in said community. I even wrote a bit about non capitalisation and punctuation useage as a visual cue on tumblr and how including information in the reblog body or the tags indicated different levels of importance or intimacy of thought