With it being NaNo tomorrow I am doing update posts, and planning posts, and basically sorting everything out. It’s also something I do at the end of/start of every year. It’s part cleaning house, part goal setting.
This has been a funny year with moving house dominating all of it. I was just going to update my art goals, only to discover I didn’t make my customary end of December post because that was during the madness. Then I remembered I didn’t think I updated here either. I checked the archive and I did say I’d finally moved on September 13th but as to my fandom plans not a whisper. So I’m going to talk about it now!
Mid-April I made a post in which I said:
SO! My mission, should I choose to accept it bwahaha is to write EVERY SINGLE fanfic idea on my list (that I still want to write when I get to it) before the end of the year. Deadline December 31st. After that the slate is wiped clean.
This started to go off the rails when I stopped writing in the summer. Some people write more when they are stressed as an escape. I wish I could say I was one of them but alas I unfortunately do my best turtle impression instead and basically very little gets done.
When I moved into my house that was a fresh start in the biggest way possible. I want – no I need – to make the most of that. I had to think about what serves me, and ultimately I decided to make my clean break then. So yeah, no more fanfic from me.
I have a few WIPs on my HD but thankfully due to my policy these days of not posting until stories are complete, that doesn’t matter. I do feel… I wanted those ideas to be brought to life as I do like them, but I had to make a choice about what was best for me, and wistful thoughts about what could have been aren’t going to change my mind.
So am I quitting fandom?
No.
I’m still co-mod of Saffi Prompts and I intend to help with that if it comes out of hiatus. I’m still running Saffi Bingo, in as much as I sent out the cards months ago but nothing seems to have happened. I’m helping put together the 13th anniversary event for Bering and Wells next April.
I also just signed up for a Leverage Bingo Card because you see while my fanfic days are over, my fanart days are not.
I want to get into art in a big, big way. I feel like fanfic helped me a lot with my writing journey. Fanfic helped me see projects through from beginning to end, helped me produce on a schedule, helped me keep up the practice when my mental health wouldn’t permit me to write other things. I owe fanfic a lot. It’s my hope that fanart might fulfil the same function in terms of getting me started.
Now I know I’ve promised I would do art in the past and then haven’t done it. For years I have made it a goal to do 1 piece a month and I’ve never got close. I think the best I ever did was at the start of 2021 when I think I made it to April before I stopped.
That was before though, and the start of my writing journey was a similar tale. I went through a time when I wrote once a year – for NaNo – and didn’t write at all the rest of the time. It’s unthinkable now but that’s how it was. So just because I didn’t draw on the regular in the past, despite saying I would, doesn’t mean I will always fail at that.
TLDR
No more fanfic from me. Expect fanart – eventually. I want to work through some art courses I have first before I go back to trying to draw what I imagine. Hopefully this will mean when I attempt those imagined pieces they will be better, and not as cringeworthy when I look back later as to how I ever dared post them on the internet.
P.S. What about gifsets?
Nearly forgot about that. Fandom Friday will not be returning. I don’t have the time. However, I’m not ruling out making sets when/if I feel inspired to do so.
