-- The First Madness
...What do you even use a blog for?
Madness of Blogging
To be honest, I just kind of created a blog because that felt like a very website thing to have. You know how it is. You look at your homepage and you think: "hmmmmm, this looks kind of empty. What could I add here to make it look less empty?"
The answer is a blog. Just think about it! Where else are you just going to talk about random things at length, fucking twitter? Maybe tumblr. Oh, dreamwidth is still going on. Shame about cohost though. They announced they were going to close literally the day I decided to create an account to promote Mariwa. Odd, inconsequential coincidence that was.
Alright. Made a blog. Now I got to post on it. Like, what?
Well, I did have a couple ideas beforehand, so coming out with topics isn't too hard. Problem: I'm generally a pretty low energy, slow person. I do my real life duties, then write a couple thousand words of Mariwa, maybe do some art, maybe do some programming, devils know there is always something or another to clean around these parts, then I think to myself: "Okay, when am I going to make a blog post?". Then I think myself: "Well, not today, today I don't wannaaaaa."
But gotta keep posting. Gotta have some exclusive stuff here. Otherwise, why did I even make a website? To learn programming, to have a central hub all my things connect to, to cut a little corner for myself on the internet? All those things, but I do still want to have some exclusive stuff here.
Madness Of Serials
At the time I started writing this post for the second time, again with feeling, I'm closing in on 5 months since I started posting Mariwa. That's 29 chapters, almost 150K words posted, plus a hundred something thousand worth of drafts, kept to myself.
Shit's tough. Who would have thought?
I did.
Lots of blood, sweat, and on top of all that tears to very little interest is the most common song and dance around creative circles. Art, novels, youtube videos, you name it. It's why the advice of "get a job before you dive into the thing" is evergreen to all of them, and why the same "how to get rich quick doing the thing" sort of advice turn out in a lot of them. Know the market trends, remember to make a catchy thumbnail, and then SLOP SLOP SLOP SLOP SLOP.
Still, it's hard not to feel some pride at what I have going on now. My feet is out the door, I'm keeping a steady pace, and I'm not slipping all over as I used to! Speaking of.
Madness of Fumbling
One thing I didn't know is how hard planning things week to week would be.
If I drop this clue here, am I kicking the entire mystery out into the streets? Am I being too hasty by dropping some foreshadowing here? Should I go ahead and reveal everything now?! And who the fuck is this character, how did they get in?! Security!
A common saying in writing circles, paraphrased, is that your characters come to life on their own. You think you were guiding their hips when they had the wheel all along. It's fun, it's fulfilling, but they are going to rear end a couple cop cars on the way home, I hope you don't mind.
One of the weirder problems of serial posting, not entirely unrelated to the previous, is when you come face to face with a ravine without bridges.
You had this arc planned from start to end, you executed it to the best of your ability, you're happy with your work! Now, you have been planning the next arc carefully, you know what scenes should show up, you know the character beats you want to hit, you're eager to get started!
Welcome to the chapters that connect one to the other, the ones that get no cinematic scenes in your head while you shower. Didn't think too much on them, did you? Well, here is the rope and the boards, good luck asshole. Not that careful in the end, are ya?
I don't know what are the recommended procedures here, so don't ask me. I'm not even sure how to word in a way that would make duckduckgo spit out an inkling of an answer rather than every English dictionary page ever written. What I do when I'm called to the stand is faff. Faff, faff, faff. Feels like the kind of thing I should be more coy about, but why bother? Not like you can't go and read all my faffing yourself.
Which you should! It's very good, very quality faffing, I assure you! You won't be disappointed!
Madness of... what else?
Blogs can be three things: Hot in a Weird Way, Hot in a Kind of Boring Way, or Obscure Media Essays.
Now, you might have seen blogs that are a mixture of two or all three, and that's fine. Now, you might have seen blogs that are none, and that's where you are wrong, you just found a blog that tried to be one or a couple of those and failed. This, I sourced from the Great and Objective Authority on Blogging, and is therefore unquestionable.
My apologies, I do not make the rules, I simply decipher them from fragmentary memories and horrifying dreams.
All this to say: I tried my hand at being Hot in a Weird Way, now Obscure Media Essays come next. Maybe not this years, depends on my schedule before the Hiatus.
Oh, wait, I didn't mention the Hiatus?
Mariwa: An Ivian Tale will be going on Hiatus after December 14th until late January. Until then, regular posting schedule will remain.
But the soul of posting is slopping, and I do have a couple slops in me yet. Look forward to that, and remember to indulge in hedonism in very shameful ways.
Have a good week!