sierralee
patreon
July 30 Update
🕑 Added 2023-07-30 16:56:07 +0000 UTCAnother meme, this one from the Discord, I believe. There aren't many left, but this has been quite a run of fan content!
One thing I've had to work on as a creator is dealing with slower times. It isn't productive to bang your head against a wall, but it is possible to be lazy and not re-engage when you could. Are you courting burnout or do you need to push yourself? It's a difficult process of discernment that's probably a little different for everyone.
Over the past decade, I've tried to be kinder to myself at low creative ebb, because I know energy and inspiration will come back. I find myself worrying and trying to document these periods, though. Are they getting longer now that I'm in my 30s instead of my 20s? It's very easy for confirmation bias and a lot of other cognitive biases to create narratives.
But it does come back! I've had a great week this week, making blazing progress on one of the next harem quests. It's gone from a bunch of finished pieces and ideas I wasn't sure would work to a functional event. Not finished, and this one will probably take more balance polishing after player feedback, but it feels great to see everything coming together.
The problem is, I worry that it took too long. I don't work in an environment where I can follow my inspiration 100% of the time and I'm going to run into previously planned events that will interfere with TLS work. Now, at high creative tide I can do a ton of things at once, but not everything. I didn't need a decent July with a great week at the end, I needed to be in top gear for at least half the month. So I fear I won't hit my August target.
Anyway, one harem quest is mostly done, but it's not a quest that can stand alone. I continue to work toward a bigger update that will take a while longer to release, hopefully not too long.
Meanwhile, since it worked so well last week, anyone want to help out? I want this overlay fog converted to gold:
I can do minimal image editing myself, but I don't know how to convert grayscale into color. =/ If somebody could help me out with this, another map for the next update would be done!
Comments
Sierra Lee
Good question. I wasn't sure how much demand there was for such, and I somewhat suspected the most invested fans probably have access to those images directly.
Rachnera
Random thought of the day: Any plan about adding a gallery for images like Vhala's archery shot, the entity's first appearance or Orcent's bar crawl?
Dubsington
I've been reading your concerns about your creative process and it's lack of predictability since 2017, and I think it's safe to say you worry about it a lot more than the rest of us do. Objectively looking at it from observable data, your creativity is a hell of a safe bet. I'm glad you've been making an effort to go easy on yourself lately. Also, I didn't realize you were that young. You are one hell of a composed person for your age!
Darthjake
Don't worry Duke, I just hit the milestone highlighted by Sammy Hagar.
Sierra Lee
Yes, there's more creative space in a wide open project than in one that's closing down and executing its final steps. That said, these sorts of ebbs and flows have been a constant throughout my career. A number of prominent authors have spoken about slowing down significantly as they've gotten older, and while that hasn't happened to me, I'm paranoid about it.
DukeLeto7
Sierra is in her 30s? I feel old at 45. You know someone I went to grade school with is now a grandma (by virtue of a VERY unwise 18 year old)? I should just start picking out retirement communities now...
Mycroft
I'm not sure if it's the case for you but inspiration is also far easier to find on a new project than on a project that have existed for a long time. I have always found that begining a story is easier than concluding it. I do not find it more difficult to write now that I'm 40 than it was when I was in my 20s. But I never written professionaly, so the situation is not really comparable.
