MONTHLY WORK UPDATE ā APRIL 2026
Hello starlings! I had a GREAT month. However, it was not a productive one in terms of word counts. I don't actually think I did anything in my book document this month, which is shameful, however I did work a little bit on the second project, Senoia!
Order of the Fourpoint
I thought about it really hard.
Word Count:Ā
Overall: 11027 (Last Month: 11027)Ā
Senoia
I got a lot done. The plot is laid out, everything is neat and organized, and I've even been getting some help with coding it! Renpy is hard to learn, but I joined a group which is also helpful for me to commit. I also figured out one of the more prevalent plot points, which is great news!!
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This isn't super vulnerable, at least in the form of a work update, but there are always going to be damp points in yoyr creative process. As ashamed as I am to share this and as tempted as I was to crunch in a bunch of work on the book, I realised that it's important to be honest and true.
I also feel like a lot of my work has "fanfiction prose", as it's called, which stresses me out a bit! I love to read fanworks as they're great encouragement for me (if a random teen on the internet can write this absolute art, I could write well, too!), but in the midst of that, it feels like I am forgetting to read published works that have been through the professional editing process, and I've been far more lenient with my work. I saw some conversation around the topic on social media a while back, and quite honestly, it was a bit disheartening, as I feel like I see it a lot in my own work when I read back! I always thought it was nothing or unnoticable, but people seem to agree that it is, which stresses me out. I don't think a work sounding like a fanfiction is any testament (good or bad) to the quality of a storyline, but it's just not what I'm going for, so there's a chance I will go and rewrite my first draft from the beginning after a small reading hiatus. I'm not sure.Ā
In other (much lighter) news, I should be releasing a small short story (potentially publishing into a flash fiction publisher I heard about) sometime this month, so stay tuned! I feel very proud of it, and I hope you all love it too. Thank you, starlings! Stay tuned, stay curious. <3!!
Signed Sincerely,
I.A. Starvale











