sakarrie-creates

[sakarrie-creates]

Here’s my 2024 Art Summary, terribly late as usual! We’re back to including some black and white in this year and my months were very clustered, but all things considered I was actually surprised I ended up with as many decent samples for the collage as I did. I was kinda expecting them all to be messy sketches this year lol.

Just like with my writing summary, this year the questions are a bit abridged since I didn’t do a ton of art. That said, I’m still a rambler haha, so the reflection questions are answered up the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to use it!

What events did you participate in (with art)?Player Appreciation Week (old art), Fandom Trumps Hate (offered), CS Case Files Zine (comic!). Not really the type of art this summary is for, but I also created my first cosplay for RCCC!

What was your biggest challenge this year? Definitely motivation. Last year was a creative slump with a lot going on mentally making stuff hard. Mostly in start up energy, since once I got going, things seemed to go alright.

Did you try anything new this year? I got into a comic zine, which was new and exciting! My original plan was far too long for the creation period, though, so I spent a ton of time trying to widdle it down to 3 pages. I also did super messy spot art sketches for a friend’s fic, which ended up being a lot of fun! I also took some screenshots and then drew other characters into the show, somewhat trying to match the show’s style, which was definitely interesting.

Where do you think you most improved? I’m going to go with rendering again! I really love playing with color and lighting, and several of my collage pieces this year were just adding rendering to old pieces. I have a lot more confidence with it now, though I still sometimes feel like my pieces don’t end up as dynamic as I’d like. I also did a lot better at following inspiration and not being as perfectionistic this year.

What are you most proud of? I’m really proud of getting into a comic zine, even though it likely wasn’t that competitive. The fact that I got in for comics despite never having done art for a zine before is crazy to me! I was a pinch hitter, so I wasn’t originally selected, but I’m still honored I got picked eventually. I also am really proud of the August fully rendered piece of Player screaming. I did that one in almost one sitting, probably around 4ish hours, and it was one of my first times doing full color/rendering without cleaning the sketch much at all. Overall, I was very excited at how well it turned out and I feel like the messy emotions really come across!

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals?Shoutout to past Sakarrie for giving me a straight bullet point list. MUCH easier to work with lol.

2024 Goals Met:  -Number One Priority: Create for me and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music       2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail       3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin

The ones that don’t have strikethrough are a bit of a stretch, but I’m gonna give them to myself. While I haven’t added more pieces with backgrounds and need to reorganize my zine portfolio, it is in a decent place where I feel like I can use it and it will accurately represent my best work. I also didn’t really purposefully experiment with rendering or brushes, but it did happen naturally a little, so giving that to myself too. As for the ONE of the following list, I actually did digitize my 30 minutes thumbnails! It’s just not to music, so doesn’t count. Also holy dang, last year Sakarrie was ambitious with the proposal of manufacturing a pin haha.

2024 Goals NOT Met:-Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small

Yeah, these all I absolutely failed with. Oops. Probably gonna be using a fair few of these as my new goals haha.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! I think I want my main focus to be to try to draw more frequently. I’ve found that so much of what prevents me from drawing is startup energy, and once I actually get going, it all comes much easier. 

Specific goals: -Organize a go-to zine portfolio for comics, merch, page art, and spot art applications -Try to draw every month (even the tiniest phone doodle counts) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November?) -Design CS Charm-Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 5 times throughout the year) and maybe look into Cara or whatever the non-instagram art app is. -Experiment more with drawing in sketchy art style with full color/rendering -Experiment more with screenshot redraw/character replacements -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes put to music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics       4. Participate in an event with art       5. Draw and post for a new/niche fandom (Infinity Train, Sym-Biotic Titan, Irondad, The Flash, etc)

Overall, how’d the year go? Better than I expected when I first started pulling up my art haha. I didn’t push myself on anything but the CS comic, and that was pretty early on in the year. I also did a fair few doodle/sketch projects and followed the muse when it wanted to do rendering without drawing.

[sakarrie-creates]

2024 Fic Round-Up/Reflection

Hello y’all! I think this may be a record for me of how late I’m posting this lol. It’s been a rather lackluster year for myself creatively-speaking and a rough one health-wise, so many questions are likely going to be cut or abridged to make sure they’re relevant. Even though I didn’t write much this year, I did do a little and I think it’s good for future me to see there’s up and down years. Besides, I love reflecting and stat keeping, so I can’t miss a year just cause the numbers are low haha. Anyway, as always, my rambles are under the cut. Happy 2024 people!

2024 Stats:

Fics Started: 8 Fics Fully Written/Finished in 2024: 4 Fics Posted: 3 New WIPs: 5 Total WIPs: 25 (ish?) Words Written: 14,935 (16,927 if including non-direct fic writing such as outlines and animatic plans) Words Posted: 12,041 Fandoms Written For: 6 Events: 3 (+3)

Posted Fics

Supernatural (Gen): 1

Business As Usual (1,290): Sam and Dean deal with the aftermath of their latest hunt. Between the blood, bodies, and potential trouble from the cops, it’s turning out to be their typical Thursday night.

Merlin (Gen): 1

Through White and Drifted Snow (2,963): Merlin wakes up in a ravine, frozen and injured... He's not quite sure how he'll be getting out of this one on his own.

Irondad, aka Spiderman and Iron Man (Gen): 1

Breaking the Cycle (7,788): Shortly after the events of homecoming, Tony finds Peter in his medbay, freaked out and injured. Oh, and stuck to the ceiling. Tony has no idea why he thought he was cut out for this.

Specifics:

Events Participated In:

SPN Summergen (Fic), Irondad Discord Server Fic Exchange, Merlin Yuletide Gift Exchange, Mirage and Mischief Zine (Fic, Started 2023), Fandom Trumps Hate (Art/Fic offered), round robin writing for Constant’s b-day, and maybe a zine app here or there.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I don’t think I was expecting to write much this year, but I’m guessing I wrote less haha. I hardly did anything so it’s hard to imagine I had predicted lower. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

Actually a few of them!! Irondad came completely out of nowhere during the summer. I’ve always respected Tom Holland’s acting, but then I stumbled across the clip of him dying in Tony’s arms... Suffice to say, as soon as I realized just how much fic was out there, I was gone. I also had a brief time of Sym-Biotic Titan brainrot this year and while I only briefly started writing a fic for it, it certainly is not a fandom I would have predicted I’d be writing for. Infinity Train isn’t surprising per say since I had a suspicion I would enjoy it a lot once I got around to writing it, but the sheer force of my love for Book 2 was a bit unexpected, even if the fic I wrote for it was just in outline form.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Hmmm, not going to lie, I’m not a huge fan of most of my stories this year. They all felt forced or rushed in some way, which isn’t the best way to make me feel good about a story. I think Breaking the Cycle would be my favorite though. The irondad community so far has been so welcoming and accepting, even though the story wasn’t what I originally hoped to write. Plus I love the characters and even if I didn’t get to everything, it was a fun story to explore. 

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Same as the last two years! Last year I thought Fragmentation’s views had started to slow down, but that doesn’t seem to be the case after all as it’s 23.9k now (3k higher that last year)! Still absolutely wild to me that so many people are still reading it. Next is still The Problem With Good Intentions at 14.3k (2k more than last year), and from the fics I posted this year, Breaking the Cycle is sweeping the board at 2.7k despite being posted only a couple months ago! The amount of kudos I get coming in on that thing daily is insane to me. It’s so fun being part of a giant and active fandom again!

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Business As Usual has fallen pretty flat at only a couple hundred views in the last 7ish months. I wasn’t super attached to the story, so not too upset, but it’s pretty clear that the number of people reading new SPN fics has shrunk a lot.

Hardest story to write?

Hmmm well none of my fics were particularly easy to write this year for sure. I think my CS WIPs were probably the hardest. I was not in a writing place that night, so it was hard to work on demand. If I had to pick between the three I posted... I’d go with Business As Usual. Most of them I was alright once I started writing though!

Most overdue story?

It’s Only Natural is my forever WIP that I really should label as indefinite hiatus if I haven’t already. Other than that, my only posted WIP is A Long Ways Home, which I think about often. Comments have continued to be very kind and patient, which I’ve seriously appreciated! It brings me a lot of comfort knowing it’s all technically written in outline form, so there’s no danger of inspiration failing me. I just need to catch myself with writing inspiration and CS mood at the same time.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I wrote for three new fandoms this year, so in a way all of those were risks! I think my biggest though is actually that I wrote for Irondad before watching any of the Iron Man movies. I was absolutely terrified that my characterization was going to be bad, especially since it was for a Christmas exchange. Thankfully everyone has been very friendly and my giftee enjoyed it!

How’d this year compare to your goals of last year?

Here’s my favorite part! I doubt I exceeded any goals or met any stretch goals, but I was in a creative slump both last year and the previous one, so hopefully I was reasonable. I had started to feel like interest was returning at the end of last year, but unfortunately my mental health tank of January and long covid starting in February completely ruined that. We’ll see how I did though. 

Here’s what last year’s goals were: -Have a solid zine portfolio-Make pinned update post -Post at least 4 stories -Embrace/follow the inspiration -Finish first draft A Long Ways Home -Gencest Bang -Summergen Exchange-Code:Swap -Player Appreciation Week -Apply to more zines

Easy Goal Word Count Goal: 20k (at least 10k posted) Stretch Goal (aka, if I don’t die from school agAIN): 60k (at least 30k posted) Ultimate 2021 Word Count Goal: 38k

...

Ouch.

Okay, so I didn’t meet any word count goals other than 10k being posted lol, and also didn’t meet many of the specific goals either. Geez, that’s the roughest I’ve had since doing these. Even the “following inspiration” one is a stretch since I always exclusively wrote for events and had very little inspiration in general. To be fair... it was definitively a rather bad year in many ways so I’m not upset at myself at all. Still a bit of a bummer though.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Welp, since I so terribly crashed last year's goals, I think I’m gonna try to go really gentle on myself this next year haha. I am hopeful things might be a bit easier though! I’ve gotten used to my long covid stuff for the most part and my mental health is at least better than half of last year’s... low standard but still improvement lol. 

Specifical goals: -Keep zine portfolio updated -Make pinned update tumblr post -Post at least 3 stories -Embrace/follow the inspiration -Work on A Long Ways Home -Summergen Exchange -Code:Swap -Irondad Exchange (if there is one) -Post a fic for one of my niche fandoms -Apply to more zines

As for word count goals...

Easy Goal Word Count Goal: 10k (at least 5k posted)

Stretch Goal (unexpected, but hopeful): 45k (at least 30k posted)

Ultimate 2025 Word Count Goal: 22k

[sakarrie-creates]

Hello all, long time no posting! I know many of my followers did so for CS content, so I'm very excited to share this preview for the @carmencasefileszine being released soon! Be sure to follow that page to see the rest of my comic exploring Carmen and Player's relationship immediately after Carmen leaves the island!

[sakarrie-creates]

2023 Fic Round-Up/Reflection

Got an early start this year! I technically was shooting to get it done before the new year but I feel like I’m still within a reasonable window, so I’ll take it! Here’s my 2023 Writing Summary! Overall, I think I actually did okay! As usual, my rambly reflection stuff is under the cut. Happy 2024 people!

2023 Stats:

Fics Started: 12 Fics Fully Written: 12  Fics Posted: 5 New WIPs: 0 Total WIPs: 20 (ish?) Words Written: 53,686 (55,598 if including fic outlines that haven’t been turned fic) Words Posted: 34,805 Fandoms Written For: 3 (+1 for Merlin FTH outline) Events: 4 (+3)

Posted Fics:

Supernatural (Gen): 2

When it Rains, it Pours (13,779): As part of Chuck's "reliving of his greatest hits," Sam starts having his painful visions again. He doesn’t want to believe it, but the nightmares keep coming true and now, he's beginning to worry it’s not just visions. During their last hunt, Sam could have sworn that the machete he was reaching for threw itself. Dean didn’t seem to notice anything but later that night, Sam finds a small trail of blood coming from his nose.

He needs to tell Dean—he knows that. But Dean’s been struggling a lot between Chuck and losing... well, most everyone. He's just barely beginning to bounce back, and Sam was his only constant right now. He’ll just have to keep a handle on it until they can take care of Chuck. Set around s15e4 Atomic Monsters. 

Whatever it Takes (1,875): Gadreel's possession of Sam has more serious side-effects than Dean ever imagined. Now, his brother is sick, hurting, and close to giving up. But Dean is determined to make this right. 

The Owl House (Gen and Implied/Background Ship - Huntlow): 2

What Doesn't Kill You (Gives You Trauma) (1,737): With the reconstruction of Hexside finally complete, a sense of normality has been restored. Fortunately, that includes Grom. Unfortunately one of their own has been declared King. Hunter doesn’t even know which fear he'll have to face. He certainly has enough painful memories for Grom to take its pick. With a bit of luck and support from his friends, though, he might just make it through the night.

Frenemies (1,737): Hunter gets a mysterious message telling him to meet them at the night market. He really should have realized Luz would be behind this. Or: Post-ASIAS, Luz doesn't like the idea of Hunter suddenly showing up at Hexside and almost kidnapping her friends.

Code Lyoko (Gen): 1

No One’s an Island (7,612): Yumi is tired. XANA's attacks have been relentless and it's wearing her down. Between school, home life, and Lyoko, she's not sure how much more she can handle. After all, there's only so much weight one person can take. Except, it's not just Yumi's burden to carry, and her friends are going to do whatever they can to remind her of that. 

Specifics:

Events Participated In:

SPN Summergen (Fic), Player Appreciation Week (Art), Weird People MEP (Edit), Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), SPN Gencest Bang (Fic), Fandom Trumps Hate (Art/Fic), Mirage and Mischief Zine (Fic), and LOTS of zine apps (Fic, Art, Mod).

Best/worst title?

Best title: None of them super jump out at me, but Whatever it Takes and Between the Lines of Fear and Blame both come from songs where the song vibe/lyrics match the fic PERFECTLY. The latter is a bit long for my tastes, but it’s grown on me. What Doesn’t Kill You (Gives you Trauma) makes me chuckle too, but it’s got the same length issue as well as trying out a new style from my norm which I had mixed feelings on.

Worst title: Oof, well as usual, I didn’t particularly like most of my titles this year. I think Frenemies has to take the cake though. It started as a working title but then I got lazy and just left it when I posted. It feels so generic and not... aesthetic enough? Poetic enough? Literally no idea why it bothers me so much but it does.

General Questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I honestly can’t remember what I was expecting this year (and it’s tradition that I can’t look back at my goals ‘til I answer these questions, so it will remain unknown). I certainly hoped to be able to do more since last year was a fairly barren year creativity-wise, but I’ve also been quite aware for a while that being in school sucks out my soul makes it difficult to create. With that, I think I probably was in the ballpark of what I was expecting. I might have predicted it being more spread out, though, which is a rookie move considering that my classes are clustered haha. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I think I’d just barely gotten into TOH at the start of the year, so that wasn’t COMPLETELY unpredictable, but I did write some Huntlow (aka, romance) fics, which is abnormal for me! Additionally, I can’t remember if I discovered The Sentinel this year or last, but that definitely wasn’t expected. Just got the DVDs so I can finish watching the series! Oh, also writing Code Lyoko was a new experience (not counting my random 6th grade fanfiction I wrote in notebooks lol).

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

I’m split quite a bit on this one. On one hand, I really like my Grom fic (so far) so I’m hoping that will continue to flow as I wrap it up. I also like my unposted fic about Willow dealing with Hunter’s near-death and Camila comforting her. Of those that are currently posted, though, I think I might go with No One is an Island. It was a lot of fun trying to figure out how to write Yumi and the other Code Lyoko characters, and considering the small size of the fandom, it was fairly well-received too!

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Same as the last two years! Fragmentation’s views are hard to really predict since view counts have been down since September, but the total views has officially surpassed the overall word count at 21.4k views (vs 20.7k word count). Which is AMAZING. It’s always a bit wild to me to consider, but I’m so great people are enjoying my fic. Next is still The Problem With Good Intentions at 12.6k, which surprises me less now that I’ve seen just how alive and well the Once and Future Fandom is haha. From the fics I posted this year, it would be When it Rains, it Pours at 1.5k.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

A Letter to Never Be Read on FF.net never really got any traction, but I think I’m over it by now. As for more current underappreciated fic... I think I might actually go with When it Rains, it Pours again. Even though it had the most views, it’s a fairly long, multi-chap story and didn’t get many reviews in between chapters. That’s part of the challenge with bangs and posting dates, though, so nothing too shocking there.

Hardest story to write?

It’s really hard to say! I was struggling with burnout a lot during my zine app timeframes, but most of those fics haven’t been posted yet. It might be Whatever it Takes just cause I had such a hard time coming up with something that matched the prompts as well as my preferences. When it Rains, it Pours was also a challenge at times, but mostly in trying to find motivation to write anything.

Most overdue story?

It’s Only Natural is still very very overdue, but it’s not super popular (and is on FF.net), so it’s not one I’m stressed about. I think about A Long Ways Home a lot, though. I wanted to work on it recently, but unfortunately my writing energy needed to go towards FTH so that continued to be put off. People have left some very supportive comments on it recently, though, which I majorly appreciate!

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

It hasn’t been a very writer-heavy year, which means less opportunities for writing risks. Writing for Code Lyoko was something of a risk in that I had no idea how it would turn out, but it wasn’t actually that adventurous. I also explored different types of grief in an unposted zine app piece, but I think in the end it turned out solid! My biggest risk was probably a different ficlet I wrote for a zine app. It was of young Eda and Grudgy, so both about characters I’m less invested in and in the sports genre, which is totally new for me. Unfortunately, that risk didn’t pay off. I actually felt pretty good about it, but when I sent it for feedback from a mod friend, they really didn’t like it. Everything’s subjective so it’s possible that it would still be enjoyable for some people, but suffice to say, I didn’t use it for any apps in the end.

How’d this year compare to your goals of last year?

Okie here we go! I think my goals were fairly reasonable last year if I remember correctly so I’m tentatively optimistic I’ll have some stuff to check off! 

Oof last year had a bunch of paragraphs of reflection here. I think I’m gonna focus more on bullets this year haha.

Goals from 2022:

-Unfortunately, keeping my scholarship has to be my biggest goal this year again so gonna put that here in case it's the only thing I can check off come December.

-A Long Ways Home (at least 1 new chapter) -SPN Summergen-At least 3/7 Player Appreciation Week days-Catch up on comment replies -At least do some more brainstorming for bigger CS aus -Huntlow/Owl House fics?-One zine?

If crazy inspired year: -All of A Long Ways Home -All Player Appreciation Week Days -WIP Bang with It’s Only Natural -Post More CS One-shots -Write out more big AU scenes -Other Zines

Oof, okay so apparently I was not crazy inspired this year lol. To be fair, I did do a bit more exploration in art and lots more in merch, so it wasn’t a totally uncreative year. And I doubled my word count overall from last year! Plus I did apply to a LOT of zines this year... I just unfortunately didn’t get in to nearly any of them. Next time maybe though! I’m a pinch hitter for a couple so that’s something at least!

It’s also been a year with lots of burnout and anhedonia for me, so brainstorming has been completely unachievable for most of the year. It’s been sad and I feel a little bad for my poor friends who love to brainstorm with me, but thankfully they have other sources. I’m scared to say anything, but I’ve felt more recently like maybe some interest is returning, so I’m crossing my fingers that it will still be there by the time FTH/Mirage&Mischief stuff is finished and school starts.

I actually met my goals this year too! In fact, my stretch goal had 25k posted, which I doubled in total and surpassed in written too, which is really impressive for me! Not to mention, I finished EVERY SINGLE fic I wrote this year!! That’s WILD for me. To be honest, it’s probably more a sad reflection on how I was writing purely for external deadlines rather than myself, but hey! Still got them all done and wrote a lot of words. Overall, thank you last year Sakarrie for keeping things achievable cause I actually did meet/exceed my goals! 

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Well, I was a little relieved to find that I’d met them this year, so I think I’m going to try to keep things not too high again. Overall, though, I think I want to have a little more room for creative freedom in what I’m writing this year. For how little creative work I was doing, I did a TON of events, and at many times, those obligations stopped me from working on something I was feeling more inspired by. My fandom interests jumped all over this year (main focuses include: TOH, Merlin, Code Lyoko, The Sentinel, Dragon Prince, She-ra, Handplates (Undertale), and Centaurworld). Honorable mentions to Amphibia, SPN, and Miraculous Ladybug too... and that’s all just the stuff I’ve had long hyperfixations on this year. There’s tons of fandoms outside of those that also grabbed my attention on and off this year.)

Anyway, my hope is that I’ll be able to write similarly or more this year, but based on my own fickle inspiration, rather than only writing when I hate to for events. With that, I think I’m going to just stick with the Gencest Bang and zine obligations as the only writing events I’m planning on this year. I also hope to do Player Appreciation Week and Summergen again, but both of those could be art if needed. 

I also 100% failed in my comments goal from last year, but my mindset is slowly getting healthier I think. I do leave comments occasionally, but they still feel like way bigger deals than they should be. I’m getting better at letting old tabs go, though! I’m also fairly behind on responding to comments of my fics, but that one’s a lot more manageable.

Additionally, I want to have a pinned post on my tumblr page and ao3 profile page where people who are interested can see my current status on projects. I don’t expect it would be updated all the time, but it might help me keep track of everything.

Okay so! Goals for next year: -Have a solid zine portfolio -Make pinned update post -Post at least 4 stories -Embrace/follow the inspiration -Finish first draft A Long Ways Home -Gencest Bang -Summergen Exchange -Code:Swap -Player Appreciation Week -Apply to more zines

So, finally work counts goals are...

Easy Goal Word Count Goal: 20k (at least 10k posted)

Stretch Goal (aka, if I don’t die from school agAIN): 60k (at least 30k posted)

Ultimate 2021 Word Count Goal: 38k

[sakarrie-creates]

It’s that time of year! Here’s my 2023 art summary! After two years of having to include non-colored pieces, I finally did enough ‘full’ pieces to fill my art summary template! I did have to get a bit creative with the months since I was able to draw a LOT more during the summer, but I’ll take it! Sorry it's a bit blurry. I'm not sure if that's just for the preview or not, but it was a smaller file than normal and since these reflections are 99% for my own interest, I decided it wasn't worth trying to change.

As usual, I got rambly so reflection questions are answered under the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to make their own! My fic summary will be coming in a week or so, so stay tuned for the stats and round-up there. :)

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Fandom Trumps Hate, Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), Weird People (Editing), SPN Comfortably Queer Zine (dropped), and lots of zine applications for page artist, merch artist, comic artist, and spot artist roles!

What was your biggest challenge this year? While time, like last year, was still a challenge, I think my biggest challenge was a mix of low motivation and an intense perfectionistic mindset. At the start of the year, I got super into TOH and was super hyped about all the zines with apps opening. I really REALLY wanted to get into them and figured I should apply for art too just cause it would increase my overall chances of getting in. After the finale, I did a screenshot redraw that ended up being absolutely fantastic for where my skill level is. I went deeper into rendering than ever before, and somehow it worked for me. 

That probably was the start of my unreasonably high expectations, and I got it into my head that maybe if I could make a whole portfolio of artwork at that quality level, I actually stood a chance at getting into a zine as an artist. From then on, I was hardcore crash-coursing perspective, rendering techniques, and generally trying to improve without allowing room for mistakes. While I do think it helped me grow a lot, it burnt me out so I struggled to work on stuff past summary (when all the zine apps were) and even dropped from the SPN Comfortably Queer Zine cause my imposter syndrome was so strong. (Though that was also partially because it was a ‘sign-up and you’re in’ zine, so they never saw my art during the application process and had no way of knowing if I was good enough.

What was something you were surprised by? I’m pretty sure I discovered the perspective tool is CSP this year! CSP has so many tools I’m not aware of (despite watching tons of tutorials and guides), so it wasn’t super surprising but it was nice. I have to say, they’re a serious hassle to work with and require a higher understanding of vanishing points and such than I currently have, but I could see it being very useful for future scene art pieces.

Did you try anything new this year?

Yes! This year I kicked down the door to the merch world and have been collecting and designing throughout the year. Though the designs have mostly just been for zine app portfolio’s, everything has worked out really well for me and I hope to produce charms for my collection as I improve my skills. Where do you think you most improved? Definitely my confidence in rendering! And probably my rendering itself too. I did a ton more pieces with it this year and it’s definitely a favorite part of the art process for me. I think I’ll have a lot more fun with it this year too, since I’m trying to keep it lower pressure, so I can experiment more to find out what brushes and styles I like most. What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of how ambitious I was with my zine apps. Though I didn’t get into any for art and it burned me out a fair bit, I did a lot of hard work and made pieces I can be mostly happy with. As for specific pieces, I’m very proud of my animatic clip for the Dear Fellow Traveler MAP (which is what the Belos art from the summary is from). My portion was about 5 seconds with 24 fully colored and shaded frames. A few of those were moving frames too, so the end result is the closest thing to actual animation I’ve done. I also really like the rendering on the Huntlow Epilogue art and generally how the Steve&Matt hug turned out.

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals? I honestly couldn’t remember what my goals were, but all things considered, I didn’t do too bad! Thankfully past-Sakarrie was wise and made it a bullet list so I can just check things off. Met: -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Pull out some old WIPs -Build more consistency of style

The checked off ones I definitely met, so good for me! This was a very zine-focused year, so I way exceeded those goals. The last two I did do, but they’re a bit subjective. Specifically, I think the ‘WIPs’ I was referring to were old sketches, but most of the old WIPs I revisited were already colored and I was either adding rendered or cleaning them up for zine usage. As for style, I’m REALLY bad at telling haha. That said, my characters seem reasonably similar when I draw them, so I’m going to tentatively count it. Kinda: -One fully colored piece per month

I’m gonna give myself a half check on this one. I didn’t have a fully colored piece every month, but I did have over 12 fully rendered pieces in the end, several of which had backgrounds. So while I didn’t meet the letter of the goal, I feel like I met the spirit of it.

Did Not Meet: -Finish Huntlow comic -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics

These don’t shock me. They’re all personal projects and this was a very external-goal-driven year for me. The Huntlow comic is a big love of mine but it’s definitely ambitious for where my skill is. I’ve got the whole thing messy-sketched and most of it has been clean sketched, but the jump from that to lineart is gonna be hard, and I have no idea what I’d be doing with color since the panels don’t have a background. That said, I do feel like it’s some solid work and I adore the angst vibe of it, so maybe I’ll get it done one day. I could also see myself posting it as a messy lineart comic so that others could enjoy the concept being executed in case it never gets finished.

As for the 30 Minutes animatic, I still 100% intend to complete it eventually. I love the way it fits to the music and I’m so proud of the thumbnails. Even if it never becomes a full animatic, I want to digitize the frames and line it up with music so I can share the concept I see in my mind with others. My brain was somewhat overtaken suddenly by TOH this year, so now that that’s settled and I’m hoping to follow my muse more this year, maybe this will be something I can get excited about again.

The fanart for favorite fics is no surprise since it’s kinda the tack on. With low motivation and projects with deadlines that needed my focus, personal art like this was buried way below other priorities. It’s a nice though for sure though.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! Oh goodness, I really don’t know what to expect of myself. I definitely am going to try to allow for more personal projects with lower pressure, but I do still have some goals. Hopefully most can be accomplished without applying big pressure though.

2024 Goals:

-Number One Priority: Create for my and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items Overall, how’d the year go? I think I did well! I didn’t meet all my goals and I pushed myself too far, but I learned and improved a LOT this year. All things considered, I made pieces that last year me would be blown away by, so I think that’s an automatic win. I’m pretty uncertain on how this next year will go (even more so than last year, which is surprising since I was changing schools last year), but I’m hoping to enjoy what I do and create art semi-regularly. Here’s to 2024!

[sakarrie-creates]

Here's my @fandomtrumpshate gift for @mcbangle, who wanted a piece with Camila and Hunter at a convention! As I mentioned, I'm not sure the wip messy background adds or distracts more, so I included both haha. Thank you so much for your patience and flexibility with me during this process. You ideas were all SO cute, and I hope you enjoy the final result! It's been a pleasure working with you, and happy holidays!!

Below the read more is process pictures and my personal reflection notes for future Sakarrie to read. Feel free to ignore it :)

CSP Active Time: 9 h 1 m

Overall, I think I'm happy with the results! I got really excited about possibly turning this into a full-background, fully-rendered art piece, but time ended up getting in the way. That said, I still like my sketch a lot and think it could be a really strong zine portfolio piece if I were to complete it. Ideally, I'd be including booths for Cosmic Frontier, Azura, and generic stuffed animals (where Camila got the husky after noticing Hunter eyeing it) along with Luz and Amity in their cosplays and perhaps the rest of the Hexsquad in the crowd. So many details would be involved, so it would be a HUGE project, but it still feels like it has lots of potential if I could pull it off! Definitely on my hope-list, but without active zine apps coming up, it's probably a fairly low priority. The background colors are also not feeling right, so might help if I return to this project after learning about color theory a bit more.

Major Techniques/Tools Used: Reference Pictures (Screenshots and Online), Color-Picking, Straight Line Pen, Perspective Gridlines

Concept Sketch:

Progress Shots:

Full Sketch/Background Plan:

Initial Flats:

[sakarrie-creates]

Title: When it Rains, it Pours

Author: @sakarrie-creates

Artist: @hellhoundlair

Rating: Teen

Length: 13,779

Warnings: Canon typical violence, panic attacks

Summary: As part of Chuck's "reliving of his greatest hits," Sam starts having his painful visions again. He doesn’t want to believe it, but the nightmares keep coming true and now, he's beginning to worry it’s not just visions. During their last hunt, Sam could have sworn that the machete he was reaching for threw itself. Dean didn’t seem to notice anything but later that night, Sam finds a small trail of blood coming from his nose.

He needs to tell Dean—he knows that. But Dean’s been struggling a lot between Chuck and losing... well, most everyone. He's just barely beginning to bounce back, and Sam was his only constant right now. He’ll just have to keep a handle on it until they can take care of Chuck.

Link to fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49679605

Link to art: https://www.tumblr.com/hellhoundlair/726853188469293056

[sakarrie-creates]

Yo I have probably spent more hours drawing than sleeping in the last few days haha. I LOVE the new character designs and this scene at the end consumes my thoughts constantly. I wanted to draw them being happy together cause jfsdkfjlaskdjfkasld happy Hunter and wholesome Huntlow makes me cry tears of joy. They deserve all the happiness!!! Anyway, I’ve always wanted to do a screenshot redraw so I decided to go with that and I think it turned out okay! If nothing else, it’s good practice for clean lineart and such cause I often get lazy for when I’m just drawing for myself haha.

Also, I wanted to see the progression of how this looked stage to stage (sketch -> lineart -> flats -> etc), and actually remembered to save those this time, so that’s included below the cut! It’s got a fair few pictures that are relatively similar, so I’m more posting it for my benefit (same as to why I always write these mini reflections when I post haha, sorry if its annoying), but if you’re interested, feel free to click the keep reading button!

Note: Please don’t repost my art. Likes and reblogs are always welcome and appreciated though. ;)

First Sketch (after bubbling the positions):

Clean Sketch:

Lineart:

Flats:

Basic Shadows/Background:

Basic Rendering:

And the Final Piece (after adjustments and filters):

[sakarrie-creates]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Owl House (Cartoon) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hunter | The Golden Guard & Luz Noceda, Minor or Background Relationship(s) Characters: Hunter | The Golden Guard (The Owl House), Luz Noceda, Flapjack | Cardinal Palisman (The Owl House), Willow Park (mentioned), Gus Porter (Mentioned) Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s02e13 Any Sport in a Storm (The Owl House), Pre-Episode: s02e16 Hollow Mind (The Owl House), Protective Luz Noceda, Protective Hunter | The Golden Guard (The Owl House), They both love their friends, Even if Hunter doesn't quite know what that means yet, emerald trio, background lumity, Implied pre-Huntlow, Luz and Hunter use their words, Hunter | The Golden Guard and Luz Noceda are Siblings (The Owl House), or at least they will be, Bad but Sad Boy Hunter | The Golden Guard (The Owl House) Summary:

Hunter gets a mysterious message telling him to meet them at the night market. He really should have realized Luz would be behind this.

Or: Post-ASIAS, Luz doesn't like the idea of Hunter suddenly showing up at Hexside and almost kidnapping her friends.

[sakarrie-creates]

Final piece for @playerappreciationweek! This is for day 5, “For Carmen’s safety, right?” To give a little bit of context, this is set during the time when Carmen has been missing for awhile and they know she’s not herself. Player’s getting desperate for anything that could get them answers... and last they saw dark!Carmen, Crackle was with her. Basically, this is Player with no leads and realizing that he has Gray’s number from past capers and deliberating whether or not to call. Player is NOT a fan of the dude right now and he knows this would very likely be outing his existence/identity to VILE, all for the smallest sliver of a chance that Gray might be able to help them save Carmen. I like to think that Player probably got pretty reckless by the end there in his attempts to find a lead, so I think he probably would call eventually. That doesn’t mean he’s not terrified of actually clicking the button though.

[sakarrie-creates]

Am I really so indecisive that I’m posting three versions of the exact same, uncleaned picture? Yes, yes I am. Feel free to judge. This is for @playerappreciationweek’s day 4 prompt, “I’m happy in my dark little cave”! To no one’s surprise, I have no self control and am turning all of these prompts into opposite-of-actual-context angst. Those are supposed to be The Cleaners in the back, but the general concept is VILE violating the presumed-safe space that is Player’s room. There’s something so personal about them invading his home and I love it. Also I will never be over the fact that they nevER foUND hIM in canON.  This was mostly experimental but I think for the most part it worked out decently! I completely skipped the sketching and lineart phases at first, which was interesting and definitely made things harder, but I think it also made me more willing to go with the flow and be messy. Maybe one of these days I’ll actually post something I’ve fully sketched, lined, colored, and rendered but today is not that day haha. 

[sakarrie-creates]

This is for @playerappreciationweek’s day 3 prompt, “Who’s laughing now, Troll?” I know it’s lowkey the opposite of the quote’s actual meaning/context in the show but the mental image was just begging to be drawn, and I’m pretty happy with how it came out too! This might have been the teeniest bit based on a WIP I’ve had sitting in my drive where The Troll hacks Player’s computer and uses an ai voice modulator thingy to continue talking to Team Red and pretending to be Player. It’s not super planned out and who knows if will ever be written, but this reminds me of it in a more metaphorical way, so if you’re wanting context, hopefully that somewhat satisfies haha.

I’m hoping to post more Player Appreciation Week art/fic this week or next but we’ll see! Things are, as always, hectic with school but I’ve definitely got ideas I’d love to make! And I love seeing everyone else’s PAW content too! Click for better quality!

[sakarrie-creates]

Quick sketch dump! I’ve been jumping head first into comics and all sorts of stuff lately only to realize that I still hadn’t drawn most of the characters. After a lot of resistance, I finally decided I needed to figure out how to draw these guys before continuing. Style and quality are definitely still wips, but this way I should be able to have a little more consistency when working on my comics so the characters don’t look different in EVERY PANEL (looking at you beloS). I’m excited to share more art of these guys in the future! The numbers are more for my own sake, but they correspond with the order I drew the shots of each character in. I was mostly drawing the characters multiple times as practice for their many designs and such, but on some of them you can very much see the difference between the first and last haha. By the way, for anyone interested, @fandomtrumpshate bidding period is open until March 5th! I highly recommend you check it out if you’re interested in any sort of fan content because the prices are impossible to beat and all proceeds go straight to a donation of the bidder’s choosing.  I’m offering both art and fic this year for The Owl House, Carmen Sandiego, Supernatural, and Merlin. Bidding starts at $5 so if you’re interested, check out my offers here. There’s plenty of other incredible creators contributing their talents to the event as well, so feel free to browse around the other listings too! Note: Please don’t repost any of my art without explicit permission and full credit. Likes and reblogs are always welcome and appreciated though. ;)

[sakarrie-creates]

Super messy Huntlow WIPs for Valentine’s Day! I have ADORED season 3's angst and this mental image has been haunting me for like two weeks. I was listening to Home by Phillip Phillips (which man that artist name is hilariously fitting to some Huntlow angst lol) and the lyrics just felt SO much like these two to me that I had to draw it. Of course, at the start, I had no intentions of posting or coloring or anything beyond getting the concept onto paper, so now I’ve shot myself in the foot cause I never finished the lineart stage oops. Hence the messy everything. xD Anyway, not sure I’ll ever finish these cause adding details and cleaning up lineart post-coloring/filters is such a pain, but I wanted to make a Huntlow post in honor of Valentine’s Day! Please accept my humble offering. Hopefully I’ll be posting some cleaner Huntlow art soon cause I don’t think this brainrot is going anywhere lol.

[sakarrie-creates]

2022 Art Summary

Sooooooooooooooooo, how late do I need to be to be considered fashionably late? Do I need to wait another month?

Anyway, here’s my 2022 art summary! I had to get a little unconventional just cause this year really wasn’t an art year haha. These aren’t in any specific order. My reflection questions are under the cut!

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Pidge Angst Bang (raffle art), Code Secret Santa

What was your biggest challenge this year? I think my biggest challenge would have to be time. Just like with writing, school kind of swallowed up my chance to draw pretty effectively. That being said, I also had a rough time because I literally had 6 months of no consistent device. Trying to art while having a rotation of laptops that didn’t work right was very not ideal. And searching through all my files to find the art pics to compile for this kind of sucked too haha. Oh, and there was period of time where I legit thought I was going to need to leave CSP cause they were making some very questionable decisions. They’ve since gone back on the most important one though, so I think I probably will at least try.

What was something you were surprised by? I got to try out drawing with a 2 in 1 laptop/stylus which was interesting! I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected, even with lower pressure sensitivity and such. I also think I was surprised this year by just how much of a different filters can make. I’d messed around with them some last year, but hooboy, they’re a toolbox I feel like I’ve barely opened now.

Where do you think you most improved? Maybe my coloring? I was a lot less shy about coloring in different ways this year and I think it worked in most cases! I also think that I’m slowly getting more comfortable with just saying screw it with anatomy, which might not actually be improvement per se, but it means I’m more willing to try and fail which is always good for art.

What are you most proud of? I’m really not sure, tbh. I really like the lighting in the star wars au art, and I was proud of the Code Lyoko group picture just because I went for a huge group picture on a tight time frame and tried shading. That being said, I think I’m most proud of myself for storyboarding my 30 minutes animatic. That thing makes me so happy when I look at it and I really do like how it turned out, especially considering it’s my first time actually creating full thumbnails. I don’t actually have the thumbnails included above but the mountain/Player one in the bottom row is a concept sketch I created for one part of the animatic.

How’d this year compare to your 2022 goals? To be honest, not very closely haha. I was expecting art to be easier to combine with school since its lower brain power for me, but it was about as limited as writing. I do like what I did make though! In terms of specifics, I’m just going to go list item by list item from my last year’s reflection.

-Brushes: I’d say for how little art I did this year, I think I actually did try a fair amount of new brushes! Particularly with coloring, but also in doodles. -Shading and Lighting: I think comparatively I did okay in this area too. I definitely didn’t do as many colored pieces as I’d like, but I did almost as many colored/shaded pieces as doodles, which is a huge step forward from last year! -More Dynamic Scenes and Positions: Hmmmmmmmmm this one is hard to say. I do think I was a little more adventurous this year, but I definitely could have branched out from my comfort zone a bit more. -Experiment With 3D Sets!!!: Hahahhhhhaahhahahhahahahhahaa yeah, I don’t know that I even touched these this year oops. So gonna have to go with a hard fail on this one. -Post More: Mmmmmmmmm yeah no, this one also was not great. I think everything I posted was part of an event. Most of the art in my summary hasn’t even been shared outside my main 3-person discord server haha.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2023 goals!! Okay, so I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to do more this year. I missed creating a lot last year and I’ve got so much I’d like to do. It’s really hard to say with the uncertainty of a new school/program, but so far I’ve already created more art than last year, so my fingers are crossed. Having my Acer Spin with its built in wacom stylus really seems to have made a difference, so here’s to hoping! Specifics: -One fully colored piece per month -Finish Huntlow comic -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Pull out some old WIPs -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics? As an author I’ve always been so flattered by those so I’d love to do the same for others -Build more consistency of style Overall, how’d the year go? I definitely don’t think it went the way I was hoping for it too, but at the same time, I made so much progress on animatics and really did try some new stuff out, so I don’t think it was too bad! Cutting myself some slack for quantity, I think I’m proud of most of what I did and have continued to gain experience/confidence. I’m looking forward to this year! Also as a reward for anyone who got this far, please take this quality finger art I did while trying to get a feel for angles of an angst scene. It was late and clearly my brain was not in angst mode by the end lol. Obviously, this is my true best art of the year.

[sakarrie-creates]

2022 Fic Round-Up/Reflection

Am I over a month late? Yes. Is that going to stop me? Nnnnnnope.

Another year gone and another end of year summary! Yeash, it’s been a rough creative year haha. I’ve practically done nothing but school and work, which has certainly been problematic for writing. It’s been a productive adulting year though, so hopefully this dead period will help me find more opportunities down the line. My gosh I’m ready to be done with school already.

Since I’ve really not written much this year, this will be an abridged version of my reflection from last year’s template. That being said, I’m still very rambly so you can see the details below the cut!

2022 Stats:

Fics Started: 11 Fics Fully Written: 3 Fics Posted: 2 New WIPs: 7 Total WIPs: 20 (ish?) Words Written: 25,950 (33,176 if including documents of pure brainstorm ramble lol) Words Posted: 9,541 Fandoms Written For: 2 Events: 2 (+1)

Posted Fics

Carmen Sandiego (Gen): 1

So Long As You're With Me (7,804): It's been several months since Team Red rescued Player from the clutches of VILE and snapped him out of their control... mostly. His base personality is back, but he still doesn't remember them from anything other than the false memories VILE created for him. And it's just their luck that VILE painted Carmen and company in such a way that Player thinks that their attempts to help him is all some elaborate form for torture, and it doesn't help that he's currently recovering from an injury she caused. Carmen is near her wit's end, but she refuses to give up on her oldest and best friend.

Supernatural (Gen): 1

Still the Same (1,737): After a hunt, Sam and Dean watch the stars for the first time since Dean came back from Hell. Things are finally starting to fall back into place between them, but it's impossible to ignore the ways things have changed. 

Specifics:

Events Participated In:

SPN Summergen, Player Appreciation Week (Fic and Art), Code Secret Santa (Art), Miraculous Magic Zine (Revamp Fic), and Fandom Trumps Hate (Offered Art/Fic).

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Oof, hard to answer. Definitely less than I’d hoped and maybe still a fair bit less than I expected, but I did know that my life was about to get swallowed by school and I wasn’t wrong. I definitely wish I had been able to participate in more events for sure and I’ve had a lot of inspiration for all sorts of stuff that I just haven’t had the brain power for unfortunately. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I mean, looking at posting, I only have two options lol. In general though, I stuck fairly close to my norm for all that. I poked around time travel AUs which was fun but most of that was brainstorming/animatic storyboarding rather than writing.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Definitely So Long As You're With Me! That AU lives in my head rent free and boy howdy I’d love to share it all one day but there’s just so much to it. I swear, the pieces I have shared are hardly recognisable as the same story haha. Anyway, it’s definitely a little rushed at some points, but it was a very crammed piece that just kept getting longer, so I’ll take it!

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Since I’ve only posted two new works this year, we’re going to go overall. Which would definitely still be Fragmentation. It’s got 20.3k views!! That’s only 400 less than it’s total word count and it seems like the hit count keeps going up slowly, which is wild to consider it’s on FF.net in a faded fandom and has been complete for like a year. Next up would be The Problem With Good Intentions at 11k, which also blows me away a bit cause Merlin ended a decade ago but I’m proud of the fandom for staying alive! XD

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Probably still A Letter to Never Be Read on FF.net. It’s a pretty niche fic, so I can’t really be surprised but I felt artsy writing it way back when lol.

Most overdue story?

Welp, It’s Only Natural is certainly overdue, but I don’t think anyone is really following that one so it’s not in a rush. A Long Ways Home on the other hand drives me crazy cause I’ve actually been wanting to write for it, but brainpower’s been too low from school. Can’t believe it’s been a year. :’(

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Tbh, not really? I pushed myself in what I did, but it was all relatively in my comfort zone. I guess I tried writing in S4 of Supernatural in Still the Same, but that doesn’t feel much like a risk. I also tried out some writing from screenshot prompts which was super fun and interesting, but unfortunately that was sniped by lack of time/energy too. So I guess not really this year.

How’d this year compare to your goals of last year?

Oh boy, I’m so intimidated to read these paragraphs haha. I bet I did like none of them. We’ll start with the bullet list though since that should be fairly straightforward. -Unfortunately, prioritizing school is honestly my biggest writing goal this year. So if I do that all successfully and get through any more than like, 1-2 of these, it will be a success haha. 

-A Long Ways Home (Gonna break it up into Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and if that’s not the epilogue, then an epilogue. I’m determined and really think it’s doable, I just need to be careful not to overestimate again) WIP Bang if not done by Summer. -SPN Summergen -PAB if enough interest -February week event -Loyalties AU Plotting/Drafting -SQZ Zines -Comments

If crazy inspired year: -Gencest Bang -WIP Bang with It’s Only Natural -Post More CS One-shots -Other Zines

Okay, so some of those crossings are a little generous, but I wanted to at least check off the school one haha. Tbh, though, it wasn’t as bad as I expected! I did a decent job of having low expectations lol.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Oh boy. See I wish that this last year being so sad would mean this year would be back to creative rush, but I’m already a month in and I haven’t even tried writing anything other than school papers. I’ve been getting surprisingly into Huntlow (omg, Sakarrie having a romantic ship that she’s like legit into????? whacK), so it’d be fun to experiment with some fic there! Willow needs more angst fic to balance out our traumatized golden boi. Trying to find some zines would also be fun! And I’ll be sad if I ever have to miss Summergen cause it’s 100% my favorite event of the year. Oh, and of course I’m hoping to be able to participate more in Player Appreciation Week this coming month!! Shameless plug.

I’d also like to make some progress on A Long Ways Home, so hopefully in my Summer break I’ll finally have a chance to sit down and write. I’m not going to be dumb enough to put time frame estimations on it again though haha. I also am not a huge fan of having WIPs just sitting out there so if I could knock off It’s Only Natural sometime, that’d be great, but it’s honestly not a priority and I haven’t been feeling Voltron for a bit.

As for other plans, Loyalties AU and EverYOnE is bROkeN AU both haunt me at night and then there’s the time travel au that just has my brain zooming whenever I think about it. They just all get so intense and I WANT to share that intensity cause I know they could be epic, but first I gotta finalize the details, then I gotta have the skills to pull it off, then I gotta actually write sooooooooooooo we’ll see where those get me.

Okay so comments. Bah that project is such a mindset monster haha. I want to be supportive and express thanks to those who write and comment, but also the more pressure I put on it, the harder it gets. I feel like it makes reading new fics very intimidating and makes leaving chill comments harder. I think it would be nice to get through, but I think my goal for this year is to let my 1000 tabs go and just comment/respond in the moment whenever I can and not overthink it. I do want to catch up on replies though so that can be my comment goal for this year. In terms of my numbers, though, I did meet my generous goal of 20k written and 10k posted this year! (Rounding a little but close enough.) And I met my ultimate wc goal if brainstorming essays count!

Bullet list time!

2023:

-Unfortunately, keeping my scholarship has to be my biggest goal this year again so gonna put that here in case it's the only thing I can check off come December. -A Long Ways Home (at least 1 new chapter) -SPN Summergen -At least 3/7 Player Appreciation Week days -Catch up on comment replies -At least do some more brainstorming for bigger CS aus -Huntlow/Owl House fics? -One zine?

If crazy inspired year: -All of A Long Ways Home -All Player Appreciation Week Days -WIP Bang with It’s Only Natural -Post More CS One-shots -Write out more big AU scenes -Other Zines

So with that, I’m gonna set my word count bar pretty low again haha. In fact, I think I’ll just leave it as it was last year.

Easy Goal Word Count Goal: 20k (at least 10k posted)

Stretch Goal (aka, if I don’t die from school): 40k (at least 25k posted)

Ultimate 2023 Word Count Goal: 30k

[sakarrie-creates]

Here’s my gift to @cidnets for the @codesecretsanta event this year! I actually participated in this event via DeviantArt back in 2016 so it was super fun to stumble upon it again. I think my last event was the first and only time I’ve ever drawn these characters so it was super fun to try out a group picture! I was trying to do Christmas colors for the colors but in messing with it I realized the red/green mixture was just not working, so I went with this gradient instead. As soon as I saw that my giftee wanted something with the whole gang + Sissi, this image came to mind. I think some of the eye lines and other details aren’t as clear as I’d hoped for, but hopefully it’s still understandable. Basically, I was going for a group game night (maybe Super Smash Bros?), probably at Sissi’s house in the summer since everyone else wouldn’t have this kind of couch haha. In my head, Sissi and Aelita are both kicking butt, which has led to them being in the big show off. Odd’s super into it, Yumi’s enjoying the competitive atmosphere, Ulrich is somewhat surprised to see how cut throat the girls’ gaming is, and Jeremy I’d imagine wasn’t expecting to be very into it but Aelita’s gaming skills have distracted him from whatever project he brought along to work on. Not super sure how much of that actually came across, but it was a fun mental image so I had to go for it!  Anyway, I had a total blast! My apologies if its no longer Christmas where you live, cidnets! I forgot to factor in time zones and have only just gotten back from family activities haha. I hope you enjoy your gift regardless though and have a wonderful holiday season!