The State of Things on my Profile - August 2024

Hey, you. You're finally awake.

*snore*

Huh, hmm, what? I wasn't asleep, I swear! I was just resting my eyes.

Where have I been?

On a slightly more serious note, I am back. I have been writing a bit more sporadically as of late in addition to having been totally absent for nearly a three-month span.

The question remains: where have I been all this time?

Rather than jumping down a long list of recent diagnoses, it shall suffice to say that I have not been doing well. My physical health is the lowest it's been in a while and my mental health hasn't been too far behind. Thankfully, I am surrounded by friends and family who are helping me get well and supporting me. With that said, I am proud to announce things are looking up for the near future.

While I've Been Gone

In spite of having been gone much of the time, my profile has grown to (as of publication) 102 subscribers (insert applause here)! To be honest, I did not think I was even going to get that far when I started this account back in 2021. Since a A Good Citizen came out, I have grown a lot as a writer and creator and have reconnected with my love of writing. Though, in hindsight, this process received most of its impetus a little over a year ago after the worst event of my life (if you know, you know).

Recovery is unfortunately not a finite thing. Thankfully, Vocal was one of the first communities that I involved myself with in that sensitive period and it remains a place of safety, acceptance, and creativity to this day. So once again, I am happy to announce that I am indeed back.

Inspiration from the Lows

In some of my more productive stints the last few months, you might have noticed some darker themes appearing in my work. Blackrot and Beneath display this influence most noticeably in my opinion. There are similar works in my WIP folder, I just think that they are not ready for the light of day quite yet.

So, as a part of my ongoing growth as a writer, I am adding dark fantasy and dark/gothic themes to my ever-growing repertoire. When you live with mental illness, fear and melancholia are things with which you become quickly acquainted. Dark writing thus becomes a method of release, a ready catharsis for the things I actually feel and see others around me feel. Grief, loss, regret, fear, paranoia, delirium, isolation, weakness and fatigue; these are all subjects with which I am experimenting in these darker pieces.

Concordantly, I will still be releasing the same old whimsical, surreal, and humorous content that you love, it will just be mixed in with the more serious content, such as I did with The Light of the Solstice. I consider myself an eclectic writer, and I hate the idea of limiting myself to one genre or theme. I am a lover of life, and life is a journey of not only lows but highs.

Inspirations from the Highs

This is serves as a perfect segue to one of the other changes that's arisen over this partial hiatus. Things haven't only been storm clouds and rain. For the first time in years, I feel I am really exploring my personal and social lives to the extent that I am beginning to feel connected again. From new friends to a new relationship, I myself am feeling like a new man for the first time in a long time. To balance the darker themes of some of my new works, I will be exploring stronger optimistic themes like love, fraternity, hope, and renewal. For examples of this, see Forever and Always and Dawn.

What to Expect: More Activity and Exclusive Stories

As a part of my own personal goals, I am endeavoring to publish articles at least once every two to three weeks to start out. Most of what I am planning will consist of poetry, micro-fictions, short stories, and the odd commentary.

An equally large portion of this will continue to be my serial stories. Many of my series are passion projects which I feel challenge not only my creativity but my narrative ability. The only problem is that over the past year my readership for these had slowly begun to fall through leading up to my hiatus. Most of my demand had been for micro-fiction and vignettes (which I consider easy) and poetry (at which I am admittedly a novice as it is typically not my preferred milieu). This is ultimately why planned chapters of highly-reviewed projects like Voyage of the Chevalier and Secret Little Wars were left to silently collect dust in my WIP folder. As much as I love writing fantasy series, it didn't seem that very many people were interested in reading them beyond chapter one and maybe chapter two.

Nevertheless, I will never surrender! The recent update including Exclusive Stories for paid subscribers offered me a unique opportunity. Why not include subsequent chapters as exclusive stories? Now, this would ordinarily go against my ethos (because honestly, who likes a paywall? Come on now, put down your hands, everyone), but it does take tremendous effort to plan, write, edit, and keep continuity with these series chapters that I would honestly love to see a return for. Consequently, I shall be experimenting with this feature with a new chapter to Blackrot in the coming weeks. If all goes well, I will be reviving projects like VoC and SLW and considering new series. Once I figure out the new features, there will also be insider looks and exclusive content of an as yet to be determined form.

Now, I recognize that the exclusive stories feature has become controversial since its release. I will not be fully broaching this subject here, but I would heartily recommend a recent top story by my ardent friend and sporadic co-conspirator Amanda Starks that covers it most insightfully and responsibly (link here). My opinions lie in that I am a small author and content creator whose time and energy is valuable. Writing for pennies is ultimately unsustainable, yet I love Vocal as a medium and an outlet. Because of this, I hope this feature will bear fruit for me and provide meaningful interaction with you, my audience.

Thank you for making it this far

I appreciate each and every one of you who has read to this point. You all are what give online writing its unique appeal. Now I must dust off the desk and wet the quill. Now is the time to forge worlds and kill off develop characters!

Here is the section of the article for shameless interactive plugs for my other content. Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, say no more, eh?

Did you know I stream games on Twitch? Check out my channel here!

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You can also check out my full Vocal catalog using the embedded link below.

Thank you all once again, you all are great! I'll see you in the comments.