#december update

Dec ✮ 12 ✮ 2024 – update

Part of me hates doing these mostly because it's a whole lotta nothing and me just repeating everything I said the last update (lol) but I do like doing it because I like keeping people updated, even if it's a non-update. I may sound like a broken record (pun not intended) but I know a lot of people don't catch my updates every time so it's nice to just keep people informed yk yk

✮ — Part 2 + rewrite

Fun fact: I had written an entire essay about my excitement for the rewrite and chapter 3 and beyond but it got too long!

It boiled down to me wondering why I'm so excited for this rewrite and realizing it's because I feel comfortable enough to approach it with complete creative freedom. I wrote the first iteration of the demo with the constant worries swimming in my head like "I hope people understand what I'm trying to say here" and "I hope this situation is being read the way I intended for it to be read." And I think I sort of had those thoughts tenfold while writing Part 2. If you paid attention, you can probably see where I was trying to shut down certain discussions in the narrative lmao

Recently I had a tiny epiphany and reminded myself that it's not always about what I intend to write, but what is being understood by each reader. And yes this is basic writing 101 but let me have this moment of clarity okay. Embracing that means I can proceed with Infamous without holding back and sticking to my guns in regards to what I want for this story aka I'm just going to write what I write and like....not worry about the rest you feel (while of course integrating the common critiques and suggestions and improving on the things Infamous falls short in—I am not Shakespeare lmao)

ANYWAY my point is that I'm excited to fix up the demo !!! and just go back to it with complete confidence in myself and write whatever the heck feels right to me (and write the rest of the story lolol) and return with a better story than I have now for everyone!!

✮ — December will be for

planning what I'm going to improve and squeezing that in a reworked outline so it can flow much better narratively.

Outlining Chapter 3 and hopefully have the bare bones first draft drafted up which is mostly just be writing blocks of descriptions

I'm not sure I'll have anything substantial to justify looking for beta testers so soon yet but maybe!

work on my spice writing babey writing/reading spice makes me actually physically recoil but im determined to get better! which reminds me to finish the 6k follower gifts!

And also take a small breather because I am moving!

✮ — Patreon

I've already mentioned this on Patreon and a few times on here, but I do want to reiterate that Patreon content is coming out in bulk this month, in case anyone was wondering why I'm not posting as frequently. The content is still the same in terms of the quantity, it just won't be released every few days! thank you guys for being understanding of that <3

✮ —

My activity has is decreasing little by little due to my move but I do read every question and try to at least answer one question a day. I get quite a few mentions lately so I have to sort through those since I do get tagged in things, but I miss them due to my notifications. Usually I hope for the best and hope tracking the tag puts it on my dashboard <3 im not ignoring anyone!

I went into this month with an agenda of about 2 fics a week for December, but I’m realizing I bit off more than my brain can comfortably chew, especially while I’m also pouring so much into Fault Lines. Between juggling both, I’m not hitting the deadlines I set for myself, and I don’t want to force chapters out when they’re not ready.

Echoes on my Mind is still on hiatus, and for my own sanity I’m going to rest for the remainder of this month. I do have one more holiday fic I’m hoping to finish by the end of this week, but after that I’m stepping back to recharge and come back with a clearer head.

I don’t want to force words that feel rushed when these stories deserve better, and I definitely don’t want to run myself into the ground.

I'm still going to be around, interacting, reading and reblogging, but you just won't see anything new from me until maybe mid January, when chapter two of Fault Lines gets posted. It's almost there, just need to read it a million times and hyperfixate on little things.

THE WAY THEY ARE SO READY TO FIGHT FOR THEIR HAPPINESS 😭😭😭

This update was so good for Mikael Romancers. I wanted to cry every 5 seconds, but it was a good cry.

Added:

"Oligoarthritis" category and tag

"Unspecified Depressive Disorder" category and tag

"Panic Attacks" category and tag

"Panic Disorder" category and tag

"Unidentified Panic Disorder" category and tag

"Double Amputee" category and tag

"Leg Brace User" category

"Vascular Conditions" category and tag

"Thoracic Outlet Syndrome" category and tag

"Allergies" category and tag

"Ovarian Cancer" category and tag

"Ataxia" category and tag

"Pernicious Anemia" category and tag

"Ostomy" category and tag

"Unidentified Seizure Disorder" category and tag

"Trauma" category and tag

"Osteogenesis Imperfecta" category and tag

"WLW" category and tag

"MLM" category and tag

"Transgender Author" tag

"Clean Romance" tag

"Welsh MC" tag

"Chinese-British SC" tag

"Sri-Lankan-Canadian MC" tag

"Clean Romance" to "Themes & Tropes" page

"Brothers Best Friend" to "Themes & Tropes" page

"Only One Bed" to "Themes & Tropes" page

"M/F/M" to "Themes & Tropes" page

"Christmas" to "Themes & Tropes" page

"Dinosaurs" to "Themes & Tropes" page

"Roller Derby" to "Themes & Tropes" page

"Robin Gow" to "Disabled Authors" page

"Mattie Bukowski" to "Disabled Authors" page

"Johanna Hedva" to "Disabled Authors" page

"Lizzie Huxley-Jones" to "Disabled Authors" page

"Natalie Lloyd" to "Disabled Authors" page

"1930s" to "Settings" page

"The Virgin Islands" to "Settings" page

Entries:

'The Undaunted'- Hart, Alan L.

'The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet"- Arlow, Jake Maia

'The Christmasaurus'- Fletcher, Tom. Devries, Shane

'A Not-So Holiday Paradise'- Mitchell, Gracie Ruth

'Make You Mine This Christmas'- Huxley-Jones, Lizzie

'7 Days for Fae'- Eisen, Lior

'Bruised'- Boteju, Tanya

'Dear Mothman'- Gow, Robin

'Hummingbird'- Lloyd, Natalie

Fixed:

Updated:

Categories and tags on 'Connection Error'- Albert, Annabeth

Categories on 'Back in the Saddle'- Kincaid, Beth

Categories and tags on ‘City of Strife’- Arseneault, Claudie

Categories and tags on ‘City of Betrayal’- Arseneault, Claudie

Categories and tags on ‘Icebreaker’- Graziadei, A. L.

Tags on ‘A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability’- Andrews, A

Tags on ‘The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability’- Barker, Clare. Murray, Stuart

Tags on ‘A Game of Thrones’- Martin, George R. R.

Tags on ‘A Spindle Splintered’- Harrow, Alix E.

Tags on ‘Beasts of Prey’- Gray, Ayana

Tags on ‘The Bedlam Stacks’- Pulley, Natasha

Tags on ‘Blood Price’- Huff, Tanya

Tags on ‘Borderline’- Baker, Mishell

Tags on ‘Bound to the Monarchs’- Winters, Brooke

Tags on ‘The Broken Kingdoms’- Jemisin, N. K.

Tags on ‘Carry the Ocean’- Cullinan, Heidi

Title and tags on ‘Growing Up Disabled in Australia’- Findlay, Carly

Tags on ‘Cinder’- Meyer, Marissa

Tags on ‘Conventionally Yours’- Albert, Annabeth

Tags on ‘Counterpoint’- Zabo, Anna

Tags on ‘Crooked Kingdom’- Bardugo, Leigh

Tags on ‘Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots’- Sebastian, Cat

Tags on ‘Dead in the Garden’- Donovan, Dahlia

Tags on ‘The Right to Maim’- Puar, Jasbir K.

Tags on ‘Deathless Divide’- Ireland, Justina

Tags on ‘Earth Girl’- Edwards, Janet

Tags on ‘Uncanny Bodies’- Smith, Scott, T., Alaniz, José

Tags on ‘The Extraordinaries’- Klune, T. J.

Tags on ‘The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict’- Stewart, Trenton Lee

Tags on ‘The Faithless’- Clark, C. L.

Tags on ‘We’ve Got This’- Hull, Eliza

Tags on ‘The Outside’- Hoffman, Ada

Tags on 'Iron Widow'- Zhao, Xiran Jay

Added:

"Spotlight Index" button to "Xan West" Author Spotlight entry

"Spotlight Index" button to "Elsa Sjunneson" Author Spotlight entry

"Spotlight Index" button to "James & Lucy Catchpole" Author Spotlight entry

"Spotlight Index" button to "Lillie Lainoff" Author Spotlight entry

"Spotlight Index" button to "Eliza Hull" Author Spotlight entry

"Spotlight Index" button to "J R Moon" Author Spotlight entry

"Spotlight Index" button to "Shayla Lawson" Author Spotlight entry

Aesthetic:

Something like Vicky somehow travels back in time and she has a chance to fix everything — an one-time opportunity to change the events so that a war doesn’t erupt and those who died have a second chance to live.

So, all the new skin tone options and the sliders in the new update are AMAZING, but it doesn't seem like they fixed the colorization issues that the old skin tones have. It looks exactly the same to me. 

The biggest issue I see that needs to be fixed still is around the T-zone on the face. It also seems like longer face shapes are the ones having issues and rounder face shapes are fine. This is just according to my sims, though. 

I haven't really done much playing around in CAS with the newer skin tones, 'cuz I'm not really playing Sims 4 all that much lately, I've just been posting old screenies 'cuz my blog is behind on where my save is at. But, I wanted to compare some of my older screenshots from before I got reshade to what my Sims look like now after the update, and I tried to re-create the same lighting for those sims in the 2020 pics I just took, and ofc these pics weren't taken with reshade, they were taken with the in-game screenshot function. 

The two sims featured in this post are Pierce Delgato and Sage Berry, both are from my Sims 4 Legacy. They're father and son and they have the exact same skin tone. And just to clarify, all the 2020 screenshots are taken AFTER the December 7, 2020 update. I took all these new screenies and made this post on December 8, 2020.