Heya friendos! After emerging victorious from battling the cold, I have some updates on what I’ve been working on and thinking about. Let’s practice some gratitude today and read what I’ve been up to!

How Am I Doing?

I’m doing good now! I contracted a nasty cold last week and it really took me out of commission for a few days. But after a few days of blanket-wrapped gaming, I’m feeling good as new. I often feel refreshed after recovering from illness, for some reason. Since then, I’ve been enjoying the autumnal storms that come and go as the back half of the year is settling in. Right now, I’m the prime target for those ‘lo-fi beats to study to’ playlists with actual rain ambiance in the background. Luckily, there’s still enough sun around for me to take my (semi-)daily walks as well.

What Am I Doing?

As I said last week, I’ve been chipping away at a new YouTube video. I’m now putting the finishing touches to it, and it should be ready to go online. However, if I want to become eligible for ad revenue, which I do, I will to publish a few videos in a cluster. I don’t have a cluster of videos, so I will have to make them while I sit on this one. If I want to publish them this year, I will have to start launching them in October, which is next month already.

So basically what I’m saying is, if I want to do all that, I will have to focus this entire month on making and editing videos again. That directly interferes with my initial plans to make a Rumorweaver demo. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that yet. On one hand, I’m excited to get stuck into making content for Rumorweaver and get it to a point where I can show it to people. As of yet, it still lives mostly in my head. On the other, now I’m in the flow of making videos and I already have a bunch of scripts raring to go. I’m also curious to see the responses they get this time around.

So, I’ll ponder that for a while. I’ll probably stick to making videos, and doing some Rumorweaver tooling on the side when I get frustrated with editing. That’s what I’ve been doing to cope with this last video, anyway.

Oh yeah, and I’ve also been writing a horror short story. Not the one I mentioned last week, mind you. It wouldn’t be in character for me to stick to my first idea. But this new one is going quite well, I would say I’m about 70% done with the first draft. The end result will be somewhere between 4k and 6k words, I think. If everything goes well, I can share it in next week’s newsletter!

Why Am I Doing? (this)

I’m really glad that I’m getting some hands-on experience with writing. A lot of the stuff I’ve worked on for fiction in the past was conceptual, high-level, worldbuilding, or technical. Writing these short stories makes me reflect on my voice as a writer, and creator in general. I’m still trying to disentangle what parts of my writing are remixed from my inspirations and what parts are truly my own. It can take years for a writer to figure that out.

This past year, starting with the first edition of this newsletter, I’ve been taking the first steps on that journey. I’ve been enjoying it thoroughly, even though it’s not always easy, and I’m grateful that the fates have granted me the opportunity to explore at my own pace. I sincerely hope you will all receive that chance too someday!