everything will be alright

How many times have I opened a journal (GJ waaaay back in the day, LJ also way back now I guess, IJ, and now DW) and said 'hey it's been a long time but I'll try to write more often!' and didn't follow up on that? This may end up being that many times plus 1 but we'll see.

Life goes on; work is work. Nothing new on that front and I've never been one to talk about work stuff online anyway, and that hasn't changed.

As for pastimes, they still come and go too. Currently I'm trying to jumpstart my writing with another writing class... I did several pre-COVID, found a group online shortly after the pandemic, but it died off again about a year or so ago. I did more online classes in April or so, and another round that's happening now and ending in a few weeks, which has been helpful. I'm about caught up with my WIP to where I was before, with revisions and edits, and the goal is to finish an extremely rough draft in the not-too-distant future. How far into the future, you ask? That's to be determined, but I'd love to be optimistic and say by year's end. Time will tell.

Reading usually goes along well with reading, and I've been doing more of that this year. I'm currently enjoying the first of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which just put out its seventh and (I think?) final volume, so that's a lot to work on. Not to mention the 3427623847 books kicking around the house, but as someone once told me, book purchasing is a completely different hobby from book reading. Guess which one I excel at the most?

Gaming is still a big part of things for me... Final Fantasy XIV is the largest part of that too. I've finished all the main story quests, but haven't gotten into the raiding scene and never will again I don't think. I roleplayed there pretty hard for awhile, but that's pretty much died off these days too. I still play it daily, working on leveling up jobs and things like that, which is still fun at least. Other than that, I enjoy Fortnite too and collecting skins / doing battle pass things there. Marvel Rivals comes out December 6th and I think that'll get some playtime from me too.

Guitar playing has almost ceased entirely, and I stare at my acoustic almost every day but still haven't changed the strings on it yet. My brother-in-law Nik was the last to do so in... 2015? Eep. I do have a newer electric from ~2-3 years ago but haven't taken that out in ages either. Maybe during my Christmas break, as I'm taking a few weeks off at my boss's insistance (he may be retired this time next year so he suggested I take the break while I can, haha). We will see.

What the subject says, yikes. I know it's been a while but I was very surprised to see just how long. Huh.

I don't think anyone is really using this any more, at least not the people I used to write/read with, but who knows? I do have a blog elsewhere that I also don't use, haha, so I can't say much I suppose.

But! I just signed up for the Yuletide swaps for this year, which is always exciting, so that's a good thing. And I think the actual Yuletide signups start this Friday, so that's good too. Hopefully that'll give me something else to work on writing-wise, and might get the ball rolling again. Time will tell! :)

Day 15

In your own space, write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, or to your flist/circle/followers. Share your love and squee as loud as you want to. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I have to give all of my fandom/RP love to x_project. This May marks fifteen (15) years since the game first started on LJ, having moved here last year. I've not been there that whole time, having joined in 2011, but it's still been a huge part of my life, and still is. I've made many awesome friends there and I'm extremely grateful for my time there. And we're still going strong! <3

Day 13:
In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Here are some writing goals I want to accomplish this year:

· Write 75,000 in 2018 (signed up for GYWO to help with this)

· Create and submit a short story for submissions ending Oct. 31st this year

· Take part in the 2018 NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge

· Continue to meet with my cousin on a weekly basis (as we did starting Feb. 2017)

· Win at NaNo 2018

Those are pretty big and broad goals, but I know I'll be able to at least take part in all of them. I'm hoping to succeed at all of them too, and a lot of them will feed into each other (i.e. word count goes up for things I take part in, meetings encourage keeping up with writing, etc.). So here goes nothing, 2018.

Day 11

Share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Unfortunately I can't share the fanwork(s) that most changed my life. That'd be an old, old RPG that used to exist on GreatestJournal (RIP). It changed my life in two major ways: first and foremost, it's how I met my wife, and second, it got me back into writing in a big way. I think I still have a bunch of the old logs saved on my computer somewhere, but the site is forever lost in time like GeoCities and Netscape. Good memories though, and I'll be forever grateful for it. :)

Day 9

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Will You Call My Name? - My first fic of any decent length, really. It was an assignment for Yuletide, and I was extremely happy with what I was able to come up with for the recipient. It was the first of many fics I'd write in this fandom, actually, and it's one of my favourite things I've ever done. Very fluffy and slice-of-life/meet cute, but I still like it.

Dungeons and Dungeons - Another Yuletide gift, I'm fond of this one because it was so fun to write. It was also better received than I expected, which is always a nice surprise. Archer is such a fun show, and writing in that universe is an extremely fun experience. This one is one of my favourite humourous works.

A Blank Slate - Ok, this is also a Yuletide gift. It seems my favourite things are all things I write for other people for Yuletide, hah. This one eclipsed Will You Call My Name? for my longest fic, I do believe, and it's probably the one fic I've worked the hardest on from start to finish. I even went to a beta for help throughout writing it, and I think that shows. It's a slow burn, which has become my favourite thing to write, and I'm very proud of how it all turned out.