Been a bit since I wrote a serious story, so let's fix that, shall we?

Some extra tidbits about this one:
The original title of this was "Art Is Hard", after a Cursive song since it fits my theme of naming my stories after songs I like. But after thinking about it for a bit, I decided on "Disillusionment" for the obvious meta aspect, but also being less on the nose. Also, while I like the song, it is far more cynical than this story which is meant to be more uplifting in the end.

Also, that line from Anaïs about having started from scratch twice already? Yeah, that's me being cute because I actually had to restart this story twice over to get it to where it felt right. Previous iterations felt either too ambitious and unfocused for their own good or too morose for their own good. Yep. The story about an artist struggling to make something ended up causing to struggle a lot in making it. Go figure.
Never let anyone tell you this shit is easy. Even the fetishy stories take a lot of time and effort usually.

But yeah, hopefully y'all enjoy this one. Maybe some of y'all will relate to it as well. I think it's a subject anyone whose ever done creative work can empathize with. Thanks for your time as always. Peace!