In my last post I was talking about the upcoming November writing challenge. In the end, I managed to write 38,620 words in November, which is short of the standard 50k you're expected to do for that challenge in its 'official' form, but a lot more than I thought I would achieve. (I refrain from naming it because during the course of the month I heard there had been some controversy with the 'official' organisers so for that reason and also my own pursuit of this as more of a personal challenge, I am not associating what I did with that name any more. (never liked the name anyway)) This was at least a couple of hours after work most days except when I was literally not at home to do so, and and spending most Saturdays doing it. If I am engaged with something then I can focus on it more or less indefinitely, which I was able to do with this, but you have to make sure you are meeting other needs like remembering to eat and drink(!) After November I decided to carry on with that particular project and am currently on about 71,000 words which is well on the way to a decent-length novel with plenty of story left to write. What has been written is nowhere near definitive- some elements I feel I haven't developed as well as I could- but I think I need to get down what I feel like even if it's complete nonsense and tosh. It can be changed. There's a lot I'm proud of in there but also a lot I am not!
It does mean my other project has been neglected a bit. I made a rather radical decision to change the tense it was written in so did a bit of work to revise what I had done already. It was more difficult to do this than I thought, but has the intended effect of making the narrative voice feel more like a storyteller who is guiding the reader through the point-of-view character's present actions (previously it was written in past tense). There's a book series I like that does this and I don't really know how but it really helps the tone feel whimsical. I can only hope that when I go back to this project I don't find it too difficult to write in present tense on the fly.
All of this means I haven't really been doing any other hobbies and I still don't feel like doing them either. It always seems to be too dark or too cold for doing manual crafts like sewing, but I'm okay with waiting until spring to do them. Besides, in the summer it doesn't always feel great to be indoors on a computer. I like the idea of having a seasonality to what hobbies I'm doing.
I also haven't been doing a lot of gaming. About a month ago I was considering a PS5 for series like Spiderman and Final Fantasy which together would be sufficient to justify a whole new console, but I told myself I would clear out my Switch backlog first before making a decision. All I have done is added more games to it in the sale! I'm on a personal ban from playing Suika Game because it is DANGEROUSLY addictive. It was only yesterday I kicked myself in the arse a bit and started to get through this digital pile. I spent an hour playing the uncanny Paratopic, which perfectly captures the energy of NPCs in the HP game I played when I was about 10. I started 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim which has been highly recommended. It's certainly intriguing but I'm wary about how Difficult the (semi-?)RTS gameplay might get. I'm far too aware by this point how complex gameplay is a bit beyond my interest. I just want to mash a bit and enjoy a good story. It makes me think, will this be a good use of my time? Should I retire from gaming altogether rather than try and keep up when it seems to take me years to get around to games these days? I didn't even beat Tears of the Kingdom. The thought of Ganon in his pit of malice was stressing me out too much. What an awful mechanic.
However, sometimes I think about becoming a streamer. I think this would better motivate me to play games knowing there were people enjoying it with me, but I just do not have the space or time to invest in the equipment needed for anything like that at the moment. It's something I'd consider when or if I have my own home (in THIS economy???) along with other hobbies like music-making. What that kind of creativity would tie into is what I have more definite plans for, which is developing a persona/pseudonym I have for potentially publishing writing under. What else has this element of anonymity? Streamers and especially vtubers. I don't know if the projects I have been working on this year will be publishable in any form- certainly not traditionally publishable. I have been lurking on Instagram a bit. It horrifies me how advice for writers seems to talk more about marketability and fitting into boxes than actually being creative. It's not bad advice for anyone who wants to make money from writing and have it as their main job. I would not knock anyone for earning money for doing something they are good at. Get that bag. But where is the space for merely expressing oneself? There's definitely a lot I can learn about telling stories in an engaging way when it comes to pacing and story structure, but my motivation would be to tell the story I am wanting to, not to fit it into hyper-specific genres and trope boxes. I'm not planning on making writing my main job but it would be nice to get some of it out there one day.
I like my day job a lot but it couldn't be more different from my hobbies. I do want to mention I recently got a professional qualification and I'm pretty proud of myself for this. It doesn't feel like I'm finished developing in my career so I'm excited to think more about my future paths. I say there's no relation to my hobbies but when I was doing some reading for work I noticed some of the language used was similar to how they talk in certain video games. I would really like to do a bit of writing about this and publish it somewhere appropriate. I'm starting to think my personal interests may have influenced my interest in this career more than I thought it had.