A minor announcement regarding the blogs, and what to expect in the future.

Hello, everyone. I’ve been doing some thinking recently.

Wait, wait, come back, come back. You, there, hiding behind the sofa. Yes, you, take off that damn helmet and put down the phone. No need to call the mental hospital or the police just yet. I outrank them, anyway.

I’ve been pretty much isolating myself from the rest of the fandom to try and get things back on track, and results have been a little bit mixed. I’ve had time to think and try to work on my own projects while also attempting to find actual, you know, work. Which is where this blog comes in.

I’ve come to realise that part of the reason I’m less creative now than I was in college is that I have less input to go on. I don’t have classes on diseases anymore, so concepts like quorum sensing aren’t as fresh in my mind as before. I don’t watch any TV shows nowadays, with only a few exceptions. There’s not as much content that I really thoroughly enjoy, and on top of that there are some practical considerations that keep me from just watching the telly. The only thing I watch on a daily basis is the news, and with everything that’s been going on regarding migrants and muslims and whatnot… well, it’s kinda depressing.

YouTube isn’t that much better. Most of the time I watch playthroughs, like Trump or Massan or Quill18, or Sargon of Akkad and those like him: channels that deal with the excesses of feminism or authoritarian leftists, as well as the utter stupidity of people sometimes, even those in charge of the news. Not exactly good feeding grounds for storytelling.

I also don’t network at all. I haven’t spoken to my real life friends in ages, but that’s nothing new. What is new is that people in this fandom that I consider on my good side haven’t gotten the attention from me that they really ought to. My content has decreased, my stories have been slower to come out and my blogs have been… sub-par. It’s that last one that really makes me feel like I should apologise.

But I’m not going to. Apologies are hollow like that. I’d rather try and fix things, or at least find a new compromise between interacting with the rest of the fandom on one hand and shutting myself off completely on the other. I do want to start developing my voice again, and using it for good, at least for what I consider good.

See, it’s weird, this whole setup that we’ve got here. The people who read my stories and take time to comment, some of those are regulars and I’ve gotten to learn some patterns in their likes and dislikes. I know what to expect, and I like to think they know what to expect from me. Not entirely, mind you, I do like surprising people, but you get the idea. There’s a sense of familiarity between readers and writers here.

And that’s what makes things awkward. If I’m ever going to be a published author making money off his wordsmithing and sentence-hammering skills, I need to be able to network with people, or at the very least not drive people away. But the thing is: this is a consumer and producer relationship, too. I have to imagine that at some point, going pro means that my readers are responsible for at least part of my income. Which is asking for awkwardness. Part of the reason why I don’t advertise the original work that much, either. You know, aside from the fact that it still sucks and isn’t fit for publication and I’m going nuts just thinking about i-GRAH!-*ahem*.

I’ve learned the past few weeks, or months, that depriving oneself of mental input is as detrimental to the craft as starving yourself is to athletics. So I will be returning to replying to comments, and just using common sense to not get into any big arguments I don’t want to.

How to go about it? Well, group posts are still kind of out, given that they are up-to-date on the new Season and I’d like to avoid spoilers. Obviously that’s never going to work perfectly, but it’s still on me to do so and I fully intend to keep at it.

So how about this: why don’t I start blogging more regularly and more qualitatively. Not necessarily about personal stuff, not necessarily about pony stuff, but just about stuff that might be helpful. Put more content out there, maybe some stuff to think about, and hopefully get… well, ‘good’ at it, let’s say. No more long list of updates that no one reads, no more titles that don’t really say anything about the contents, some actual stuff that’s ordered neatly. I’m going to try and learn *shudder* hashish-hashooo-hashtags, hashtags, that’s the one! So, basically, from now on blog posts will be separated by topic, not just date. Inkscape and Synfig stuff will only have Synfig and Inkscape, Blender will get its own dedicated posts, you get the idea.

This also means that when there’s a blog post about a certain fanfic, that will be the only topic of the blog. Make it easier for people to find relevant info without being bogged down with personal remarks or other such inanities.

So now you know. Still planning to wait until the whole season is finished to watch it in one go, but… well, I’ll cover the reasons for that in a future blog.

For now, what you can expect: some artwork of the rousette OC’s for part 3 of the Quorum Sensing sequels, and some remarks on how to prepare regular vector art for animation. I’ve also just now given Edward the Gargoyle Filly his new arms, so I may have another 3D model to show off soon. It’ll be awkard-looking, most likely, but hey, I’m still learning.

Oh, and the next story I’m writing is the Flight Camp sequel, so expect some more sneak peeks about that, too.

Take care, everyone.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

I've experienced a similar phenomenon. The increased interaction should be very helpful. I hope it will be.