First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It hasn’t been that long, but with the holidays looming things seem to be moving faster than ever.

I know I previously mentioned (I think) that finished pieces would be released on Wednesdays. That was based on a school/work schedule that no longer exists. So, as a result, I will try to remember to move posts to Saturdays.

Depression has been a recurring theme this week. It feels like it takes way more energy than it should to make myself actually do things each day. I don’t want to be depressed; though that thought itself probably comes from a lifetime of people telling me I’m the “happy” one. I’m not allowed to be depressed or feel hopeless or want to wander off into the wilderness without telling anyone where I’m going.

I’m not going anywhere though. This time of year always makes things seem more exaggerated I feel like. Maybe it’s the holidays or how crazy everyone else gets around the end of the year, but it always feels like everything is dialed up to 11 in December. That is exhausting. Pair that with what feels like the fruitless effort of a job search and it’s not hard to see why I can’t quite motivate myself to vacuum or do laundry.

Anyway, commission for the fabulous Eviscerator is done. The last part of the seven part commission for IronDiver is…progressing? I don’t know. This last part was actually the piece I started first for their project and it has kicked my ass. I’ve restarted it at least five times now and still don’t feel like it’s unfolding right. Back to the drawing board, I suppose.

Very off schedule, but still alive!

The seven-part commission is almost done. I’m down to the last one…and it is kicking my butt. Ironically, this last part is the story that was started first. It’s gone through several rewrites, been restarted twice, and I don’t even know why its being such a problem.

My entire schedule did get derailed though, as I got talked into doing something I’ve never done before. Last month, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time. I’ve heard about this activity for years, never done it before, and it was actually a lot of fun. I was able to finish the challenge too. Not sure if I’ll ever do anything with the story, but it was fun all the same.

I’m looking forward to having time to focus more on commissions (and hopefully finish this seven-part job).

Another week, two if we’re going by journal standards, and I’m still alive. That feels like a very minor victory this time around, but a win is a win.

I am almost done with the seven-part commission. Yay! It’s been a fun project, as it centers around worldbuilding for a possible D&D campaign a friend of mine wants to do, but its still a lot of writing. Finding motivation and time, especially when there are other things going on outside of writing, is surprisingly difficult. Motivation has never been something I’m good at maintaining, so this has been a learning experience at the least.

Hopefully there will be new commissions to start soon. In the meantime, I have a handful of personal projects to work on to pass the time, not to mention the nonsense of real life.

So, realized I’ve missed a few journals…or a lot of journals. I figured today was a good day to kick-start the habit once more.

I am definitely one of those people that gets distracted by their own hobbies. In the last few weeks I’ve been teaching myself to use a sewing machine and trying to fit in some random foam crafting at the same time. All of this while working on commissions (the batch of seven is nearly done, just two to go!) and trying to make time for real life. It’s been chaotic.

Still, I want to keep trying. I am going to keep working on commissions (with some finished ones to be posted soon). I am going to keep writing. It’s what I want to do, so I’m going to do it.

Well, keeping to schedule is proving tougher than I thought it would, but it's getting done one way or the other.

I'm definitely looking forward to a long weekend. At the moment, I'm in the middle of changing careers, which involves a lot of education, and a lot of working for free. It's been a slow process, and this last bit has been especially worrying since it has required me to be a full-time student. Surviving off of whatever I had left in savings had certainly been an adventure.

The idea of writing, and learning to be a regular creator and exploring how to interact more with others, has taken a bit of a backseat this week, but I'm not giving up. Slowly, very slowly, I'm learning that you have to intentionally make time for the things you enjoy and want to do. As much as there is a part of me that would love to write full-time, I understand that reaching that kind of goal is a long way off. For now, it will have to continue to be something I do because I enjoy doing it rather than being an occupation. That being said, I am enjoying the new field I'm going into, so that'll help with keeping the burnout at bay.

Hope everyone out there is having a great week and, if not, I hope things get better soon.

Well, nothing to post this week, but the work goes on.

At the moment there aren't a ton of commissions to work on. Most of them are all coming from one source; a single individual that has asked for seven separate stories all in one setting. It has been a really fun project to work on. It's also been a little stressful, and it has sort of forced me to abandon my usual timetables in regard to this one project, but the end is near. Four of the seven stories are done, with a few undergoing reviews and edits, with only three left. Two are in production, one is still in the planning stages.

I think I will also start working in some personal projects again. Part of that could involve the creation of short (very short) stories based on random prompts. I also want to toy with the idea of trying to do some fan fics and similar mini-projects. I've never really written fan fiction when it isn't a request or commission. Doing so could be fun.

Anyway, despite the lack of finished projects this week, I am going to keep to the schedule. So, next week there will be another journal and the projects will roll on!

It's been a chaotic week, but we made it to the weekend!

At this point it's fair to say that I'm still very much in the "setup" stages of all this. Even with a couple of commissions to work on, most of my time is spent researching what I can do/should do to increase my chances of being successful in this particular endeavor. The more I learn, the more I realize this isn't going to be as simple as writing a few stories.

All that aside, it's time to lay out what will be my ongoing schedule until things change.

Wednesdays will be posting days, whether that be side/personal projects I've finished or completed commissions. Whatever I have done over the week will get posted on Wednesdays.

Saturdays I'll post a journal or some form of update on current projects. There is also a possibility that Saturdays will be a "second posting" day for projects that got done later in the week or that weren't ready for Wednesday and which I'm too excited to wait a week to post.

Any other day of the week I'll be focused on working on projects, both personal and commission, and connecting with some of the awesome people I've met (and hope to meet) as this journey goes on.

In short, I will be present and posting at least twice a week. Wouldn't want you all to think I've disappeared, now would we?

This is something I've been looking at doing for a long time, and avoiding, but have finally talked myself into doing.

I have been writing for a long time now, over 20 years. I am certainly no poet, nor am I a revolutionary in the field of literature, but time and experience have given me a solid understanding of what to do, and what not to do, when handling a narrative. Now, it's time to reach out and offer my modest skill to others!

For now, this profile is going to be a little shaky, and a little barren. With time, and as projects are successfully completed, there will be more to show and more to enjoy. In the mean time I will be doing all I can to learn how to make good use of this platform and set up other platforms where I can continue to grow not only a following, but also my art. Tools get rusty if you use them, and artistic skill is no different. As excited as I am to start working with new people to create new stories, I am just as excited to have a way of continuing to hone by abilities as a writer.

Later on I will begin the process of getting a journal pinned that better explains who I am and what I offer. I will set about making the page a little prettier and, as projects get completed, work on expanding my portfolio so anyone that visits has no shortage of material to read.