Forget Our Memories

So I was recently doing some self-eval over my drawing.

Why am I so self-conscious? Why do I always feel like my art is so sloppy and childish? Why do I dislike my art style?

And I came to a conclusion that I think will help many writers out there.

--

Art is meant to be enjoyed, right? Well, you have a delectable piece of cake in front of you, you don't just devour the whole thing in one bite, you eat it slowly, bite by bite, and enjoy its flavor.

But for some reason writers don't treat their WIPs this way. We stuff the whole dang cake in our mouths and wonder why we don't taste the delectable flavors we could smell on the cake.

In other words, we speed through our stories, feeling like it's about speed and not about enjoying the process of creating The Thing.

And we lose the flavors that made us intrigued by our story in the first place.

We forget what was so exciting about that exotic angel character.

We forget why we were so passionate about our hellscape scenery.

We forget what made us so excited to write the thing because we're rushing through it like if we don't finish it next week, we're failures as creators.

And that's just not the case. You shouldn't have to rush yourself to feel like a good writer.

Going back to the whole thing with my art. I realized I was rushing through my art and it was making my art feel sloppy to me. I started to hate my art style and feel like I'd never improve.

But then when I realized that, I realized I needed to slow down. I had a friend recommend to me that I take breaks while making an art piece to force my mind and body to actually slow down. Let me tell you, it was a struggle. I had to force myself to put the pencil, the pen, the sharpie down... but the end result? It was so much better than I thought it would be!

You, as a writer, have the potential to be all that you want to be, but you hold yourself back by acting like you have to be fast, you have to put out 2k words per day every day. You don't have to. There is no writer handbook that says if you do not write at the speed of light your writing is worthless.

And if there is, and you own it? Throw it away, it's worthless.

What makes a good piece of writing is taking your time, enjoying the process, really working on it day by day. Taking breaks when you need to. When your head is swimming or your wrists start to hurt... take the damn breaks.

I don't just say encouragement for taking breaks more than any other encouragement for no reason.

You're going to burn yourself out, not just because you're pushing yourself to go faster and harder, but also because you're forcing yourself to keep going even after you've already burnt out and putting so much pressure on yourself to be better, do better, and be making constantly.

Take a couple months off. Go out, enjoy life. Let your mind wander. Don't force yourself to keep writing just because you feel obligated either to your readers or because you feel obligated to finish what you started.

The WIP will STILL be there when you come back to it.

1. It’s okay if you lose interest in your story. It doesn’t mean you wasted your time; it means you’re growing in your hobby.

2. It’s okay not to want to publish your work; that doesn’t mean your writing isn’t worth reading. It means you have different goals than some other writers.

3. It’s okay if you need a break sometimes. It’s frankly unrealistic to think you never will.

4. It’s okay to write fanfiction; that doesn’t make you any less of a writer but makes you that much more of a fan.

5. It’s okay to sometimes have self-doubt. After all, you are human and sometimes as humans it’s easy to fall into that trap. Sometimes the feeling doesn’t even have anything to do with the writing but has everything to do with being overwhelmed, mentally exhausted and ready to give up. Don’t give up.

6. It’s okay to feel relief and happy upon reading this. Give a like if you did and spread it to your writer followers and maybe make their day a little.

( Event Rules --- Prompt List )

We’re super excited to introduce everyone to Interactive Summer 2022 ~

This is a fun fandom-wide event to shake up the Interactive Fiction fandom this summer. We’ll be running our event between Aug. 1st and Aug. 15th.

If you’ve participated in events like this in the past, you know the drill. Check out our prompt list and get inspired. Just make sure to tag our blog @interactivesummer​ (or post in the tag #interactivesummer) so we can see it.

We welcome fanwork submissions based off of any piece of interactive fiction. This isn't limited to one or two larger fandoms, but rather an opportunity to show our love for the many fantastic IFs out there and connect with other fans and creatives.

But don’t forget to read our rules first!

Our prompts will be split into two weeks:

Week 1:  Aug. 1st -- Aug. 7th

Free Space: Aug. 8th (You can enter anything you like here~)

Week 2: Aug 9th -- Aug. 15th

Stay tuned as well for more details on the event giveaway we’ll be holding at the end of the event~

[Update: our giveaway post is here! ]

We will have 3 prizes up for grabs for the following achievements:

-- Week 1: Submitting an entry for every day of week 1

-- Week 2: Submitting an entry for every day of week 2

-- Completion: Submitting an entry for all 15 days of the event

Hey all! This isn’t really a proper progress update, but more so an announcement for the official CH9 release!

I’ve gotten to a point in the chapter where I feel confident enough that I’ll be able to make these deadlines, and while I initially hoped for an August release, I have to take into account that the chapter needs time to be beta-read and edited properly. The final wordcount will likely end up surpassing 60k, including the variations, so it will need at least a week or two to be edited properly!

Without further ado, the release dates:

Public release: September 19

Ko-fi subscriber 2 day early access: September 17

Patreon tier 1 early access: September 15

Patreon tier 2 early access: September 12

Patreon tier 3 early access: September 5, my birthday ✨

It may especially be relevant if you were planning on a ko-fi or Patreon pledge for early access, so if any of the other benefits don’t interest you, I’d plan it for September!