Where have you been?

[Angel]

So, first up, I'm sorry for dropping off the face of the planet for the better part of a year. Towards the end of last year, I wasn't in the best place in my personal life. I hated my job and was consumed with trying to get a new one. Then, when I did manage to get a new job at the start of this year, two and half weeks into said new job, coronavirus hit. So fun. I've been furloughed since then.

This is very much the tl;dr of it all but you get the gist.

In amongst that, there wasn't an awful lot of time for writing. Or if there was, it wasn't writing I felt I could share with you guys because, honestly, it was all fanfic. For a really long time, I didn't write anything because of one reason or another. The tap for my creativity was just out of order. My head was empty. There were no words. But slowly, when it started to come back, it was easier to write with characters and worlds I already knew. It's still like that if I'm being honest, but it's invigorating to have any kind of passion towards writing again. There were half-formed 'original' ideas I played with that never went anywhere. These are ideas I still love and might still do something with but for now, they're on the back burner. Willow & Foxglove is one of them. Lumen too, to an extent, but if I was to write Helena's story again, I'd want to start from scratch.

Anyway, I've missed you guys and I'm sorry for being a shitty friend and disappearing. If you want a link to my AO3 so you can see what I've been working on then DM me and if folks are posting, I'll try and be around a bit more to give as much love and feedback as I can.

[newchinaren]

Hey Angel!  I hear you.

Well, I can hardly talk can I?  LOL.

Hope you drag yourself into the light again.  I am too, slowly, one hopes.  TBH, I'd forgotten to log on here for ages.  I've been, ah, in my new place.  I should work to catch up a bit here, try and produce some life again.

Anyway, don't give up striving!

[Phoenix]

 

Heyyy guys, randomly checked Tome for a change and saw this thread.
I haven't been active myself much at all online since end of Feb as I started a job. Technically classed as part time, so can get away with only one day a week off so it's been rough.
Hours are silly, currently up at 4:30 am most days of the week, so I'm either catching up on sleep or trying to play catch up on things during the day when I have the energy to do it.

And, of course I started just before lockdown. Worked all the way through as I was classed as an essential/key worker.
And, due to headaches at work, our supervisor left us, leaving us short staffed, meaning we had to work over one of our rest days. So for two-three months or so we were out working 13 days in a row, with one day off.

Our stores now opened up more sections that were previously shut for three odd months so we're trying to cover what we can before it opens but we're already stretched thin as it is. Dreading when it all opens up...Even with our current supervisor it's a heck of a job to cover it all.

Been itching to work on some stories myself but until now it really hasn't been feasible to do anything other than plan them out in my head.
Just the other week someone was off so I covered her hours, plus working over my day off as overtime too. I was mentally shattered by the end of it, as that was when the store opened up a whole floor, so the stress to cover it all was unreal. Anyway...    enough ranting from me for now.
Glad to see people posting again.

[Saint]

I have no such excuses, I've just dropped off the face of the planet voluntarily.  I have been dabbling in visual novels in the interim, so maybe you'll see one  of those pop up soon.  Not too sure on that one since I'll basically have to upload it as an unsigned unverified program that you'd have to install to run.

[Angel]

Thanks guys. 

I’ve missed you all a lot. I head back to work on Monday so that’ll be a bit of a change come next week. I’m looking forward to it though I think I’ll be a struggle to readjust. Writing has been such an outlet the past few months and so I’m hoping that that will continue. The one really good thing is that this time gave me the space and time to complete the first long form piece of work since I was about 13/14.

It was something I started last year which I got stuck on for months but then over the course of the past few months I worked on it bit by bit and finished something. It’s almost 60k words and I couldn’t be prouder of myself. I won’t lie, it was a struggle at times but I had the support of a few dear friends that were both super encouraging and also called me on my bullshit when I needed it lmao. I’m in the process of posting it over on ao3 and editing a few of the chapters that need some work. It’s by no means a great work of art but hell, I love it and made something and finished something I feel proud enough of to share. So I’m taking that as a win.

Through that I got another idea for a work based in the same universe so I’m doing some research into that at the moment. Who knows what will come from it but the idea is super compelling to me right now and the research is fascinating.