#i'm sad really..

hey guys. i know it's been a long while since i last updated all the bells say, and i've come here every now and then to tell you guys that the next chapter is still on the stove, but honestly... it's not. it hasn't been on the stove since 2 months ago, and even then i only popped in the document to write maybe 2 lines. as much as it saddens me to say this because 2023!me hoped to finish this longfic in just a few months... all the bells say is indefinitely on hiatus.

i'm gonna be honest with you. the reason for that is because i'm simply burned out--creatively, mentally. last year i started taking art commissions, and while it's been fun drawing mostly zelda art for a living, it has made me kind of jaded to this piece of media i was once so obsessed with. my personal life also just hasn't been that easy, and it has drained a lot of my creativity. i'm still fine with taking comms and drawing for others, but writing has always been a medium that requires a lot of focus, emotional investment, and frankly, hyperfixation-filled love. and i don't have any of those for my longfic right now.

whenever i have free time to draw anything other than comms, i want to do/write things that aren't really related to my job, y'know? sadly, zelda for me right now is just so tied to that, because comms are work after all.

i hope to one day return to all the bells say, but i'm truly sorry that i can't say when that will be. if i do come back, i want it to be because i've missed writing it, i've missed that world, i've missed zelink. i don't want the reason to be pressure, to be "god, it's been going on for so long so i must write something."

it really is saddening me to write this, but it is what it is, and i think it'll help me move forward creatively if i'm finally honest with myself about the state of this longfic. and of course, i want to be honest with you, too. i'm really sorry, guys. i wish it hadn't turned out this way.

nonetheless, thank you so much for all the love you've shown me since i first posted on AO3, for being patient with me, for cheering me on. you have no idea how much it means to me. truly, zelda will always be so dear to my heart because it's given me a space to express my creativity through fanfiction and fanart, it's helped me get through really tough times, and it's introduced me to people who would become my good friends--even find love. so i want to personally take some distance from it because i want it to feel special again.