One of Those Nights · 3:54am Jul 19th, 2023
Hello my fine feathered friends.
It's been one of those nights again - the kind of night where a google doc sits open on one monitor, that damn blinking cursor taunting me and the utter lack of fresh words, while a random video that was supposed to be "background noise" captures my focus on my other screen. In this case, a 4-hour pikmin 2 speedrun. We're getting a pikmin 4 soon literally this friday oh my god all of my free time is going to disappear. That's super fun.
Point is, I figured, it's been a month, I should blog. Not like I'm making progress on anything else.
But also, this isn't even really a "hey, I'm still alive" blog. Cuz like, Instinctual happened. And is indeed still happening - though the intro to this blog may make it seem grim I am actually past the halfway point for the next chapter. Give it... I dunno, prolly a week and it'll be done. Or I'll suddenly get bit in the ass and it'll be done in a day. Hah, wouldn't that be swell?
You know, looking back, I've kind of been popping off this year, haven't I? Like... ten stories, and we're only half way. Well okay, just past half way. And... 4 of those stories were 1000 words long for that contest. But... okay you know what I don't have to take this. I've done a lot of writing this year, and dammit I'm proud! Not even of the quantity - it certainly feels good to be productive, but the quality? Man I dunno if it's just me but I swear I don't think my stories have ever been so... just, like, good? Obviously I'm still terrible - literally the worst writer I know. And other such self-deprecating things my anxiety loves to throw at me. But honestly - I've hit a stride, it feels like, and I can honestly see the improvements in my writing. Even from, like, just a few years ago. Things seem to flow a little better, pacing is... a thing at all, and my characters are character-ing.
It's times like this I find myself looking back. I don't think it's much of a secret that I was pretty bad when I started writing. Some of you old-timey followers of mine should certainly be able to back me up on that. Like I was never truly terrible, but man is my early work rough. It's actually got me thinking recently about doing remasters of my old fics. Some of them I feel like I really like the ideas and just need to... tune them up a little. Upscale them to 4K.
Perhaps, if only time wasn't finite.
Speaking of old-timey followers, though, I was surprised to see a fair number of my older ones are still active on here. Several names I used to love seeing popping up on my stories are... still popping up on my new ones. That's a good feeling.
Of course, several I saw all the time... are no longer around.
And to our fallen comrades, we pour out a shot and move forward with their memories! I'm not gonna let this get sad on me. Truly and honestly - I wish nothing but the best to those who have moved on and away from our little pocket of the internet. Well shall keep the fire lit, and maybe one day they will return to find this place again, smaller, but no less welcoming and brimming with life.
Although, my particular corner seems a bit barren at the moment. Truly, the heyday of Twidash is behind us, it seems. The biggest and greatest twidashers among us have left for greener pastures, whether that be other ships, other genres, or other places entirely. For whatever reason, Twidash is not the force of nature ship it once was. But then, how many are? When was the last time you saw an octascratch fic in the featured box?
With no shortage of great stories and art to look back on, I find myself thankful that I'm a Twidash man, and not someone into a far more niche ship. We have fresh blood show up, from time to time, and King Ice has put out his fair share of Twidash tomfoolery recently, but the ship is definitely slowing down.
But I'm an old, stubborn fart. Ya won't be chasing me off so easily. Pretty soon I'll be the only source for your Twidash fixes, and then you'll have no choice but to come crawling back to me! Yes. My plan all along - if I can't be the best Twidash writer, and shall be the only one left! Ah-hahahahahahahaaha!
....
Man I really need to go to bed apparently.
Look, here's the point of this whole thing - I'm really happy with my writing right now and am leveraging that to keep the steam engine chugging along on Instinctual. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the year - it was supposed to be a birthday gift, after all. After that, I plan on switchign most of my focus to Fallen Angel, and possible a few more one shots before delving into another long-form story.
We mourn the fallen, but celebrate their time here, and we remain grateful that we are still here, at all. For there is only ever here and now, and to live in the past is to miss the present and be blind to the future.
Until next time,
Kodeake out
Twidash forever!!
Twidash life is the only life, I am always thankful for your continued dedication
While I agree that things have certainly calmed down since the heyday (or is it hayday here
), I would say to look at the bright sides of life:
Sure, not that many stories are added for now, you and King Ice are the ones mainly reponsible for those. A very big thank you to both of you, I could not agree more to Celysus in that regard.
5738529
But we still have some other authors continuing their long-running series, mainly silent_user's Changing Our Destinies and Epsilon-Delta's A Witch in Broad Daylight. Also, shameless self-promotion, I have my first story coming up that has something to do with our beloved pair
. So while there are not so many faces nowadays it is still going remarkably strong for a show that reached its conclusion four years ago, mainly thanks to the continued dedication of people like you.
Also, I have to agree, your writing is really good, you can be really proud of your work
.
So as a reference to an earlier blog post of yours, just be happy how much of this awesome community is still here with new faces like myself still showing up, or I'm getting the spray bottle
.