Links to previous chapters:
The story as a whole is more or less safe for work -- aside from some swearing, it's nothing that couldn't air in prime-time on network television. (There's some violence, but it's mostly bloodless.) That said, if you have some moral objection to fiction featuring anthropomorphic animal people, you might wanna pass.
Incidentally, I've been considering going back through the stories and picking out a scene or maybe two from each chapter to get drawn by an artist, just for the heck of it. If anyone's got any suggestions, I'm all ears.
And now, for those of you interested, here's a bit more of what I've been dealing with writing-wise as of late. (Some of you may have already seen a version of this next bit or aren't particular interested in this sort of thing, so feel free to check out now, I won't judge.)
I've had a real creative struggle these last few months. A real crisis of confidence in my abilities, and it's been taxing:
I busted my ass on a writing sample to try and impress another RPG publisher, because I've been meaning to expand outwards from Onyx Path for a while. Didn't pan out, and I was really proud of what I sent in so that hit hard.
Another RPG project I thought I was on the short list for, one I thought I had in the bag and really wanted to be working on, passed me over. Fact of the matter is, there's a difference between 'being good enough that people are willing to pay you to write,' and 'being good enough that people want to pay you to write,' and more often than not I wind up in the former category (a fact that I only really came to accept in the last couple of months). So when that project had far too many writers wanting to work on it, they picked the ones they thought would be best and I wasn't on that list.
And this is a big one: In the last year and a half, I've submitted four stories to anthologies. Three of those were accepted for publication (Roar 8 and Fang 8 last year, and whenever it comes out Fang 9 of this year). The stories that got accepted were ones where I only figured out what I wanted to do at the last minute, and/or otherwise had the absolute bare minimum time to work on, and I had to absolutely bust my ass to get them finished -- I didn't even have time to get beta readers for one of them. The story that got turned down is one where I knew what I wanted to do pretty far ahead of time, did some research, was working with characters I knew and liked, and had time to do it at a pace I was pretty comfortable with. I probably put as much effort and thought into that story as the other three combined. And that's the one that got turned down (it was good, according to the editor, just not as good as the others, which is also something I hear a lot). Considering the implications of that has been a real blow to my confidence.
And then, there has been some personal stuff that's made it hard to write or enjoy writing (romantic trouble of my own making and gaming industry drama, mostly), and then the constant onslaught of bullshit news and the effect that has on writing.
This has all combined to hit me with some pretty wicked burnout. And unfortunately, when writing is your usual release and becomes the thing from which you need release, that's not a great situation.
So I've started just relaxing, cutting back on anthology submissions (which is hard, because practically as soon as I decided to take a break, an anthology seemingly tailor-made to me popped up on the radar), and just trying to write more 'for myself' without any plan to publish. (That said, if things line up that said material is something that falls into someone's submission guidelines, what the hell I'll give it a shot.) So that's led to a couple of stories that aren't really furry at all, but that's helped me decompress enough that I'm making progress again. I mean, I got that new chapter of Conversion up and I'm feeling better about the other stuff I'm working on.
I mean, I'm coming out of this, but it's been a struggle and I know some people feel better getting these sorts of updates from me.
Aaaaand, I can't think of a clever or witty way to wrap this up. So I'll see you folks around. Enjoy the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment