State of the writer, January 2015! GET HYPE! · 2:28pm Jan 31st, 2015
Blugh. Let me describe my life right now.
I get up at 6:30 (6:15 right now for reasons), eat breakfast, listen to a fic reading as I take my bath, make a lunch and leave for work. It's a half hour drive each way that I can't do anything fic-related. Work is eight and a half hours of not being able to do anything fic related. Don't get me wrong, this is the best job I've ever had. I make temp wages, but the place is cozy, the people are nice, the work isn't overly hard (although I fear and loathe having to talk to people on the phone still) and it's even worthwhile, which isn't something I've been able to say about a job since the bookstore closed. We even got donuts yesterday! But I can't do much except read for a half hour during my lunch. Maybe a little on the way home, though I have to battle both carsickness and the current early sunset. I go home, I eat dinner, I internet, I get maybe an hour to Skype with people, during which I do things like edit video or maybe write, and then I go to bed at 10 PM.
On Saturdays (except today -- I spent last night being awake an hour later than usual trying not to throw up), I get up, eat breakfast, take my usual treadmill walk (that means 1.5 hours of uninterrupted fic reading or writing time), take a bath and go hang out with my friends all day. I can do writing during this time, but I'm super-distracted. I definitely wouldn't be able to read, not when we've got a half-dozen thirty-somethings getting drunk in the same apartment. (How did I suddenly get thrown into a large social group? I'm confused.) Sunday is then the only day during the week that is mine and mine alone.
The lesson is, don't get a job, jobs are the worst thing in the world. Unfortunately, writing fanfic won't pay off my student loans. :(
So that's why I had to tell three separate people this morning that no, I can't read your story. I don't have time. Because right now, not only do I have my normal reading load, not only do I have MMDGC on top of that (which I've at least resigned myself to not having to finish soon, so it's not stressing me out this time), but the writeoff is happening this weekend, and there's gonna be two weeks' worth of reading entries that are on a timer to come. I haven't even started on my entry (currently feeling like I'll be lucky if I get one done), but that's where my time is right now: very little available and too much to do with it.
But it's not all bad.
I got Dirty Prancing out before I started the job this month, and I even released Love Means Never Having to Say You're Hungry from the last writeoff, and The Cake of Aponyllado for MMDGC. (That's the best I can do over a Saturday, FYI.) If you liked Dirty Prancing, you'll probably like my shitfics (i.e., anything with the Random tag), especially things like Chrysalicksy. Same goes for Cake of Aponyllado, if only because I don't really have any other true dark comedies. Maybe Tomodachi no Kyoupon? Or if you want something darker, Fluttershy Goes to Hell or Civil Twilight.
So what lies in store for the future? Hype.
Are you hype?
You're not hype.
I need you to get hype!
HYPE DARNIT!
Tomorrow, I will be releasing chapter one of The Clock Is Ticking, aka "Pinkie Pie wants babies", an R63 comedy that I have literally been working on for two solid years. It's a huge undertaking, and a major event as far as my writing is concerned. So I want to see some hype! I'll be releasing one chapter a week until it's done, which should last until sometime in March, hopefully around when I'm done with this job.
As for other things, I plan to start Epic Unicorn History Chapter 5 once I have time to sit down and write. That's definitely the next thing I want to do, but don't expect it before March, for sure. As for The Elements of Awesomery, the next installment will probably be Walkabout, where things get dark (kinda like EUH!) and we learn about Johnniepear's tragic backstory. But I make no promises on a release for that.
Oh, and on that note, The Clock Is Ticking kind of takes place in the future of the EoA outer setting, if you squint. I'll post a journal when it goes up. :B
I think that's about all I have to say right now. Back to the writeoff. D:
I don't know if this would work for your fic reading methodologies or if you have the phone for it, but I get a fair amount of "reading" done when I otherwise couldn't (like on my commute, or during a run) by speech-to-text listening to fics. It does make it a little bit harder to comment and there's no easy way at all to make notes for a review, so it's probably not an approach for everyone.
I'm seeing some mixed messages here.
Jeez. Hey, don't OVERhype us. Our brains might explode. But yeah... yeah. This is somethin', ain't it?
But anyway, jokes aside, man. You really gotta do what you want to. Ultimately, it's about satisfaction, fun, and if you ain't in it because you enjoy it, then what's the point? So I'm not saying don't do stuff or 'make sure you like it nag nag nag'. What I'm saying is, when that point comes when stress starts etching in and you feel your fun get ragged around the edges, it's time to pull back a little.
But I think you'll be aight, right?
You're PP after all. I'll be keeping an eye on your blog.
P.S. Read my new fic, man. It's amazing.
Aww, a job's not that bad. It beats not eating or the shame of living on welfare, right?
I'm rather looking forward to this Clock Is Ticking. Good luck on your vast number of projects!
Having a job sucks, mang. This week in particular sucked me dry of any enthusiasm to put keys to digital text. And now I gotta start my taxes.
It's a grind!
Anyway, nice to see you have a schedule and manged to mostly stick to it. Having a daily routine may not produce much spontaneity, but it sure does take some pressure off the mind.
Holy crap! I'm glad I got in when I did.
Good luck out there!
Also, two years? Geeeeeez. And I thought spending 6 months on EdA was dedication.
I just started the writeoff for the first time this week :V We'll see how it goes. It's looking like a lot of the people aren't going to be participating now >.>
New PP comedy :O The gods have shined down upon us!
At my last job, if it was a slow day and I didn't have any ongoing projects to work on, I could get tons of ponyfic writing done at work!
...
Maybe that's why I'm currently unemployed...
This is why I love taking the bus/subway. It is one hour each way, but it gives me a great timeslot in which to read fanfic.
Too much Hype! Going to explode!
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I tried that once upon a time, and it has two major drawbacks: you can't pick up from where you left off, and unless you're willing to copy every chapter into a file yourself, the T2S will start by reading the page header and everything on the sidebar. That's why I started going to Youtube for readings.
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We'll see if I'm any good at comedy without a Random tag. :B
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Best job I ever had was working in a parking booth, because I could read and write all I wanted. Downsides were jumping through hoops to go to the bathroom and lack of livable wage. :B It's a tradeoff.
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YES
THIS IS ACCEPTABLE
You used to work in a bookstore?? :D
I am not alone!!
On a serious note though, and I thought my life was busy.
2759874 Yeah, those are very familiar drawbacks. Since the addition of the sidebar I've had to share the text over to the app I use by selecting the full text of the chapter, dragging the start of the selection down to the beginning of the chapter, and then copying it. It's much more annoying than my old method of just sharing the chapter as a whole over and have all the content I want show up at the top. I've bugged the admins about this as an accessibility issue once or twice, but no dice. For the other, my driving/running is typically long enough that it's usually more a question of having to dial up new chapters in the midway through than having to stop in the middle.
For example, I just finished my morning run and have seven story updates I now need to look at and either dig up my mental notes or move on without commenting.
PP. You listen to audio readings. Don't tell me your car can't play CDs.
Also, driving is a great time to write. Not the typing part. The thinking part.
2759968 Phone people are the worst. I had a friend once who only wanted to talk on the phone, and I only wanted to talk thru email. He'd leave me voice messages saying "Call me!" and I'd send an email saying "What?", and he'd call back and leave another voice message saying "Call me!"
I check my phone about once a week. :P
2760011 Yeah, I'd only talk on the phone if my mom or dad gives it to me to talk to my grandma or if it's a friend I've never seen in a long time.
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Two of the three college bookstores in my town. :B The second one closed, which is why I'm not working there anymore.
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When I'm not the one driving, I must be mindful of others. :B And thinking is no good if I can't write down my thoughts.
I shall hype for you, get hype!
Ugh, I can sympathize. My day-to-day schedule isn't that different, as is the reason I put up with it: my job is awesome. Plus, since I lack discernible a social life, I can cram in some writing time in the evenings and weekends.