#a sneak peek of a project I've been working on since july for

[kirby-the-gorb]

[awkwardgtace]

Little bit of real life talk

Before you go ahead, just know I'm still trying to do gt july, still looking at the wonderful prompt in my inbox, and still plan to share a kaiju kyrie and melody sneak peek at some point. I'm just tired.

I kept thinking about whether or not I should make this post. I like to keep my real life stuff mostly separate from here. It's not something my writing ties to, but honestly it's making a big difference in what I can do this year so under the cut I'm gonna rant a bit.

This rant is specifically about the game industry since idk how obvious i've made it on this side blog, but i'm a game dev, for now.

Also no I won't specify my company cause then I can get in trouble for complaining.

TLDR: I'm bothered by the state of the industry, my own position, and it's making it hard to be creative.

I've been reeling since the layoffs this week. It was not something I was prepared for no matter how much I expected it. Friends were let go, friends I know had the skills the company claimed to want.

I hate sitting here and feeling so awful when I kept my job. I hate that it's making my brain just stop working. I had so many ideas monday night that are just gone since I walked into work tuesday morning.

I have to job hunt again, something I thought I wouldn't do for a few more years. I can't trust my safety at this company. I can't make that risky choice here.

It also sucks looking around and wondering if I was kept as a token. I'm a programmer, I'm a girl. Is that the reason I'm still here? Is that the reason others who were on projects weren't kept?

Game industry is rough. It's fucked my head badly this week. I can't come up with ideas as easily as I want or do much without thinking about it. My interests are games and now there's all of this.

This isn't a rant to say fuck games or anything like that. I just had to talk. Especially when it's making hard to write.

I want to be creative. I want to write stories that I'm happy to read over, that I'm happy to share. I'm sick of the way my brain works under stress. I need to go through a plot ten times to get it to a single story, something that doesn't usually happen

But I'm getting over it. I'm working on my gt july list, my little summaries before I start writing.

Just had to rant a little bit

[whumptimebaby]

Happy One Year to Turning Red!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since Turning Red released to the public, that is actually crazy. There are no words for what Turning Red has done for me as a person, but you sure as hell know I'm gonna try to explain 😎

I went into Turning Red as a new University student, at a huge transitional period in my life. I had a whole four friends, and more emotions than I knew how to deal with. I'll never forget the feeling of sitting next to two of my IRL's in my Pixar class, and scream singing Nobody Like U as the credits rolled. It felt like middle school again. It felt great to be Canadian, and neurodivergent, and queer, and it felt especially great to be in fandom.

I knew from the moment I walked out of that room that I was going to write fic for 4*Town. I'm a sucker for a boy band, it was bound to happen, but God, I didn't know what was going to become of it. I thought I'd write one or two fics and move on to the next fandom, you know?

I wrote You Know What's Up (It's Us), and about halfway through I had another idea for a fic. It was a commitment, a 15000 word monstrosity that took a month's worth of planning and writing, but finishing it meant the world. To this day, I've never been so nervous to publish a fic.

The plane crash fic changed everything for me, because now I had a universe to play with, not just an interpretation of some characters, so I sat down to work out how everything worked. I created a story spanning from 1995-2014, and chipped away at little moments from it. There was the beach music video, that time Aaron T got kidnapped, that time Jesse got in a car accident, all little snapshots and character studies that were part of something bigger.

I've been wanting to tell the whole story for a while now. There are so many aspects of it that I've been so excited to share, but for a while I just... didn't know how.

I know I haven't been posting fics like I used to, but I promise it was for a reason. I've mentioned a super secret project a couple of times now, and I think today is as good as any to reveal what that is. I've been working on it since July for fuck's sake 😭 It's been killing me not talking about it.

But first! I want to say that the thing I'm most grateful for from this whole thing is meeting @5town and @wondero28. I love both of you so much, and you've really made this community a home for me. Thank you for putting up with my bullshit 🫶🫶

Now without further ado, have a teaser, a sneak peek, a tiny glimpse at 4*Town: The World's Most Tragic Boy Band

A documentary on 4*Town's career spanning from 1995-2004, and taking place 10 years after they officially disband. The boys talk about the things they've gone through year by year, with behind the scenes footage from their tours, music videos, and rehearsals.

The current plan is to finish the damn thing (💀) and then release each year one at a time with releases twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays, which means the whole thing will be out over the course of five weeks. The format is... to be determined. I have a feeling formatting this for AO3 is going to be hell, but I'll figure it out!

So yeah! That's the super secret project! I'm so excited to show you all the whole thing, because I'm really, really proud of it!

[chattercap]

June 2024 Monthly Devlog

Hello everyone,

Phew, we're already entering June, and it's getting HOT! I hope some of you have relaxing(?) summer plans!

WHAT DID I DO?

Overall I worked on a variety(?) of things this month! On the art side, I've been steadily working on Actala. I've finished setting up the base for most of the backgrounds and done around 1/3 of the renders, and I've also done a little over half of the CGs for the demo release I'm planning for the end of June. I also did some brainstorming for my fall/winter projects.

On the coding side, I've made several updates to MMM, Kanau, and TDW, including: -Added a click VFX. -Fixed bug if you clicked "Continue" before ever starting the game. -Implemented text box animation and typewriter effect toggles. -Implemented fix where the VA stops if you progress to the next line. -Minor script fixes.

For TDW, I also implemented some fixes for bugs that I addressed in Kanau. I also added a content warning screen and a custom end screen.

I also worked on porting Karamu to Godot! While I would have liked to keep it in the old engine, I would be porting it anyway to create the trilogy release for Steam, and unfortunately it's unrealistic for me to continue working in multiple game engines. Along with the Karamu port, I implemented support for multiple languages! This month I was working on a French language translation for both Karamu and Kanau. I've received the files, and they've been proofread as well (by my very kind friend chimeriquement)! I implemented the GUI and script language toggles so all I need to do is create new translated versions of the script files. I won't promise the French TL anytime soon since I'm focusing on Actala and the MMM and TDW Steam releases, but I'll get it out sometime this summer!

On the writing side, I worked a bit on Hanasu, as well as one of my secret projects. I fully outlined one of the projects that I plan to work on in the fall, and I also did brainstorming for the other project (GAH I really want to announce them already so I can stop referring to them in such vague terms…)

WHAT'S NEXT FOR JUNE?

For June, well…I'll be releasing the Actala demo, so whatever needs to get done for that…will get done! Unfortunately it won't be nearly as long as the original demo, but it's…well…understandable. The original demo was over a year's worth of work, and six months on assets alone, so it probably makes sense that I won't be able to get it all remade in 2 months, haha! (Especially since the current assets are much higher quality, and, as a result, take longer to produce.) Still, the demo will be very chunky (at least 2 hours) and will introduce all of the love interests.

In addition, I'll definitely be releasing MMM and TDW on Steam. TDW will also be part of Steam Next Fest on June 10th, if you're interested in checking it out!

I'll also be finishing up the Hanasu script in June so I can get it beta read and in recording by July, hopefully!

am very excited to announce the jam projects, but I'll restrain myself! I post most of my major announcements on here and Twitter! If you want to hear from me more often or see the WIPs, I post frequently on my Patreon with sketches, writing snippets, sneak peeks, high resolution art, and weekly devlogs.

Chattercap

[identitiesyourself]

"Fill the world with music, love, and pride"

Born July 16th, Lin-Manuel Miranda has inspired many theatre fanatics worldwide, from theatre kids to critics. This incredible man has achieved massive success in the entertainment world since being a composer and actor has made him have many protagonist roles in his creations.

Yesterday, we had the privilege of having an online interview with him. So, in today's entry, I, Jp, will ask the questions that fans have been wondering about his impact on his fandom and overall fans.

Jp: Hello Lin! Thank you for accepting this meeting. We're very excited about the interview.

Lin-Manuel: The pleasure is all mine! Ever since IdentitiesYourself hit the internet, I've been dying to participate in this blog.

Jp: Thank you, we won't let you down! So, to start, you've become one of the greatest artists who has inspired a whole subculture. Did you ever think theatre fanatics would be so in love with your work?

Lin-Manuel: I have considered myself a part of that subculture since I was a kid. When I was 7, I saw Les Misérables performing onstage, the pure emotion deposited in the musical really left a mark on me to work in the music industry.

Jp: Musicals really are beautiful, many of your fans have connected emotionally with the songs you wrote. Hence, let's talk more about the musicals you made, what was your inspiration for them?

Lin-Manuel: Oh wow I love this question! Well, In The Heights was the first musical I ever wrote, it was released on broadway in 2008. It tells the story of the struggles of a Puerto Rican guy who got stuck in the economic problems of Washington Heights. I wanted to transmit Latin American culture through the cruel reality of immigrants, but also how things do get better with the right people and attitude, for we all live once and we need to enjoy it. As you may know, Puerto Rico is a place rich in music and dance so it has really grown in me during the years. That's how through dance, music, and vocals the In The Heights musical was made.

Lin-Manuel: Moving on, Hamilton. The story of one of the founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton: the first secretary of the treasury of the USA. I was inspired by his biography written by Ron Chernow, from his life as a poor infant to being murdered by his best friend. I didn't want to project the musical as the life of a perfect man, but rather someone who struggled since his childhood to get to the top, hence why I used various musical styles to set the mood of the situation like rap for tense moments or ballads for sad ones. The set of characters was fantastic and everyone who worked in the parts really made the musical alive, it's something I'm really proud of!

Jp: Huh, who would have thought you'd have such a history behind it all! The lyrics, the dancing, the acting, everything is just glorious. Kids worldwide love your work, and school theaters are eager to perform the musicals you wrote. An example of this was the High School Drama Institute in Washington DC, where as you'd guess, they performed Hamilton and won the yearly national musical theatre competition! Lin-Manuel: Oh delightful!

Jp: Later on, they heard about the interview and asked some very interesting questions: "When will your next musical arrive? What would it be like? Will you write more songs? Will there be a collaboration with Disn-?" Lin-Manuel: Whoa! I think that's all the time I have, however, I will say a thing: Colombia will be enchanted with this... Jp: Ooooh okay, well thanks for the sneak peek, and thank you for joining us! I hope we meet again sometime and we'll see each other at your new musical premiere!

Lin-Manuel: Of course, the pleasure is all mine, stay safe everybody, and don't let anyone make less of your musical preferences!

~Posted by Juan Pablo Rodríguez

[author-a-holmes]

October Monthly Update

Hello everyone!

We're slap bang in the middle of autumn, and on the lead-up to spooky season. It's also the lead-up to Nanowrimo!

So I'm all sorts of busy! Do you want to hear about what I've been working on?

Alright then! Let's dig in…

Since my last update…

I have been stuck in an editing spiral.

My self edits have five layers I have to go through for each chapter. This means I can spend anywhere from 2-6 hours working on one chapter at a time.

If I wasn't literally watching the final product improve, and tighten up, right before my eyes, I'm sure I'd have given up by now.

But it is improving. The prose is getting tighter. So I just keep on keeping on.

I don't have a whole lot more to say about the editing. It's taking me painfully longer than I estimated. That's something I'm going to have to keep in mind moving forward, and for future projects.

While I'm a little over 50% of the way through my edits, I did have to battle lots of health problems at the beginning of the process, and I have sped up considerably since the beginning of October.

Plans for the coming month…

Simply put, I plan to continue editing until the end of October.

But once November 1st hits, finished or not, I'm gonna be switching gears to continue working on Darkling.

My Nano record word count is 74,000 words, and I'm hoping to beat it by trying for… well, honestly, I'll be trying for as many words as I can possibly cram it. But I'll treat myself to a nice bottle of White Zinfandel if I can hit 100k in 30 days.

Just like I did in July, I'll be updating my word counts every 5-or-so days on my social media platforms, and my website.

If you'd like an opportunity to see some early sneak peeks about Darkling's story progression, you should consider signing up for my newsletter too!

[myheartisbro-ken]

Hi! 💙🌹 Hope you're​ doing well. How's the power reading going? I hope it's not too boring. I once had to read my professor's book because he made it required for the course (kind of self promotion-y) 😐. Anyway, no I've not read the Cursed Child, but yikes...It sounds bad based on your description. I couldn't even get through the first chapter of My Immortal. 💀That's the goth, er uniquely written, fanfic, where the girl loves Draco, right? I haven't read much HP fanfiction though. (Pt 1).

I actually don’t think I’ve read any. No, I read one short one I think, but it was for a crack ship, so I’ll not mention it. ❤🗡 Anyway, yeah. I don’t really like the extra things JK is doing. I feel like the additional school is kind of pointless…I would prefer she just deepen the history of Hogwarts etc. or better yet, maybe just stop adding stuff? I like Harry Potter, so I don’t want it to become distorted. 😅 Probably an unpopular opinion. Idk. I had class today, it was boring. (Pt 2) I don’t know how your semester is going, but at this point (bc we’re almost finished) there’s a lot of wasted time. I hate wasting time. My professor only spent 25 minutes on salient content and wasted the rest. Also, he let people present late–I’ll stop.😥 I hope you and your puppy had a nice day. It’s almost time for the SuperCorp centric episode! I’m excited, especially after that sneak peek/extended trailer. Lena has to know imo. She’s made wayyyy to many Knowing comments/looks. 💙 (Part 3 Hmm, I would be a bit disappointed at this point if she didn’t know. She’s way to bright to not know. Do you think she knows? If Maggie figured it out, so should Lena. 😐 Hope you have a fabulous day and night. 💙🌹😊😄 (End) [Hmm, FMK (if you’re okay with fuck, mary, kill or french? Idk. Whatever you���re comfortable with: Kate Foster *cough* too hot, hot damn, Red K! Kara, she’d have a bit of a soft spot for you, Alex Danvers, before the DEO, so she’s more of a party girl/irresponsible). 😄

Hey!! 🌹  I haven’t started reading (shame) but I did write the article I had to for Monday and I’m pretty proud of that because I was really thinking I couldn’t do it, but then I sat down and wrote it in like two hours. My semester ends in june/july so we’re in the middle of it and starting to prepare for the big group project, and I only have two classes, so it’s kind of random for me, not really rushed or anything and I only have the cool classes without much to do, so I feel like I’m not really a student, it’s kind of like when you take like a language class after school. I hate wasting time but more in the sense of I don’t like when there isn’t class because a bunch of people decided to have a party or when the end of the class becomes a filler wasted hour because everyone decided to leave to go drinking. Since my classes are at night, this happens a lot, especially on Friday. Next month I’ll have morning classes on Saturdays, those are the worst.

My immortal is the greatest thing ever written because it’s the worst thing every written. Does that make sense? It’s ridiculous and hilarious and really really bad. So it’s amazing. It’s that thing that I think everyone should read to know what’s the worst thing someone could possibly write, it’s good to have that comparison. and when you write it’s good to have that in your head like ‘this is terrible, but at least it’s not My Immortal’ and then you keep that in mind to not do that, like you work as much as you can to not make another version of it. Yet it’s kind of brilliant because it’s so bad there are articles to this day, actual journalists, people who get paid to write and analyze stuff, debating if it was made on purpose to be the worst thing ever written and if the author is a character herself, or if it’s for real and the girl is just that brain damaged as to have a love triangle between her self-insert and Draco and Harry “Vampire” Potter and at the same time her self-insert with Draco and Satan/Voldemort who is not the same person as Tom Riddle. So it’s kind of epic.

I haven’t read many HP fics, although I did start my fic reading life with them, but I haven’t read anything since my first year of highschool so like 6 years I guess. I do like a good HP AU though. I also don’t like JK making all that shit. I would be happy with just what she was doing with Pottermore, developing the Hogwarts universe and shit. Like eventually release a book of the history of wizards and all, like George RR Martin with ‘A World of Ice and Fire’ she could have written some of the books that are mentioned as the Hogwarts reading throughout the series, or short stories of the Marauders adventures and even their kids adventures like Rick Riordan did with the Demigod Diaries. That would have been better than whatever it is she’s doing.

Lena has to know. Someone finds out, so I really think it’s Lena, there’s only Snapper and Lena to find out now, and Snapper knowing brings nothing to the story, and Lena has scenes at the DEO and with Kara and her trusty sidekick so it’s kind of logical if she does know, not to mention she’s brilliant and close with Kara and Supergirl, which is how Lois Lane finds out in all versions, she’s close with both personas and she just puts things together. Kara is Lena’s best friend (and only friend in the city since no one wants to get close to a Luthor, especially now) and Supergirl is always around saving her and giving her speeches and all shit, so it’d make sense if she knew. she is a genius after all, and she had that alien detector (I think that could come into play) and Kara is a terrible liar. Maggie knowing still rubs me the wrong way, to be honest, to me it reads a bit like an offense to the 79 years of Superman and Super mythology. The glasses aren’t dumb and the glasses are also not the reason why people don’t know, the show was trying to be a bit self-aware and funny and have Maggie be smart and a good detective, but to me the way they did it was wrong and bashing on what Jerry Shuster and Joe Siegel created. They could have made her joke about the glasses with Kara, tease her about it, but just tell Alex that she found out because of Alex’s relationship with Kara/Supergirl.

Lena is someone who could help a lot, the DEO and Kara, by knowing it. I think it could be good for their friendship if she knew, I feel like they both need that friendship, outside of their line of work (and family crap) but not too far from it. And her quips are too good for her not to know, let’s be real here. 

What are your thoughts on this?

She looks SOOOO GOOD in the trailer, I’m… ugh, I love her, she’s so pretty *cries*  also she’s wearing so much blue (in this trailer they are going to the conference and she’s wearing a blue jacket and in the photos of the conference she’s wearing a blue dress) that I’m a little offended no one made a parallel/comparison with her looks and Cat telling Kara to dive. just saying.

oh god, that fmk is hard because none of them are really my type, like personality wise, I’m not really into that whole wild aggression not caring for anything and anyone above feelings kind of thing they all have. I love Kate, like a plus congrats to her parents for making all that but I wouldn’t date her, so definitely fuck. Although we don’t really know much about Kate, so I could be wrong on that, but she’s too… intense in most of the ep so. Party girl! Alex has room for a redemption and getting better so maybe marry, unless I can take away the redK from Kara then it’s definitely Kara to marry. I’m not gonna say I’d kill Alex or Kara, so…. okay. FMK Morgana, Lena and Kate (take that)

Devil puppy and I hope you have a fantastic day or night 💙 (I don’t really have time to get emojis rn, sorry. heart and flower are copied from you *wink*)

[nekojitachan]

Do you plan on posting raven!neil any time soon? I've been expecting it since you posted that sneak peek, can't wait to see your take on it!!

I’ve worked on it a little, but to be honest things have been so busy the past month and so (moving and a project from hell at work that won’t wrap up for another couple of weeks). I’m hoping that come July I’ll finally be able to devote some proper attention and move this into rotation w/ Heartlines.

The fact that I’m writing some Ravens AU stuff now for the Exy or Death zine is really making me want to devote attention to this fic, which is good!