Guava Continent Outpost

Prompt: Talk about why you participated in Snowflake &/or what you got out of it.

At last, the final day of this year's Snowflake Challenge has come. I was resolved to complete all the prompts yet I didn't think I'd actually do it and even stayed up late to finalize my posts. It's a good time to reflect on what I've achieved through the past two weeks of daily posting and sharing.

More content for my long neglected DW. Like many other DW users, I've created my DW years ago to participate in a fandom event and never bothered to fill it up with entries. Now, I've got my thoughts and a few fanworks up, and even hosted some discussion in the comments of my original posts.

Picked up new skills. I thought I'd just practice writing casual entries for an audience. I'd never have expected to have picked up vidding - an activity I tried once and thought I'd never do again due to its time intensive nature. Yet here at the finish line, I've managed to complete a couple of video edits, a shippy one and a non-shippy one which I've shared on Youtube. In looking up and tinkering with the code to share my vids on DW, I managed to practice some coding as well!

Connected with fans from my small fandom. A big shoutout to evilinsanemonkey and silveradept! I really enjoyed our conversations on tokusatsu. Us meeting made it worth it for me to just pile on the squee and thinky thoughts for tokusatsu (and the 2000 Sentai that's my current obsession) despite being unsure how many people out there would know the fandom.

Before today, I found myself redoing a couple of Snowflake prompts. I guess you can find me doing that at one point or another in 2019 to show my love for my fandom no matter who's watching. Until next time, everyone!

Prompt: In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

Writing a traditional 'to-do' list makes me feel like I'm forcing myself into doing things I actually want to do, which doesn't make sense. So instead of listing 'to-dos' for the year, I'll write a note to self of the habits and practices that I know has helped me apply my skills and create what I want since I've been an active contributor in fandom.

My ultimate goal is to keep up as best as I can the following habits and practices:

(01) Binge watch less than 15 episodes a day.

Despite the strong temptation to finish a series, especially a 50 eps show, as soon as possible, I need time over days to pick up the little details to enjoy both the worldbuilding and characterization.

(02) Write 10k words of fic for a ship before declaring said ship to be my OTP.

Shipping is srs business for me as it's the central pillar of my fanwork creation activities. Before comitting to one ship, I'd best make sure that I can think a lot and have enough to say about it for a significant amount of time.

(03) Never 'vanity google'.

Peering into social media (mainly Twitter) to see what non-commenters are talking about my work is like looking back at the ruins of the city and turning into a pillar of salt. I'd get salty from reading comments on my writing and creative choices that weren't left on my fics themselves, and so aren't meant for my eyes in the first place. I used to be able to know how to find those hurtful tweets through Twitter's advanced search, going back in time to the painful moments even if the critics have long moved on.

I've taken care to avoid vanity googling even in moments where I crave more concrete feedback for my work. Anyone who cares about my writing and my ship--my intended audience--will have left actual comments for me to read and reply to, and there's no reason for me to seek more validation from strangers who don't really care.

(04) When starting a new web account, create text/written content first before graphics.

Otherwise, it's too easy to endlessly avoid the hard work of writing in favour of tinkering with Photoshop/Canva.

(05) Write smut regardless of whether there's an audience for it.

Same with shipping, writing smut is integral to my fannish identity and mental well-being. As long as I can be left alone in my own space, I shall allow myself to write as much smut and kinks as I want as an act of self-care.

Since December 2017, I've (mostly) fulfilled a daily quota of 500 words or 1 page a day for days when I've decided to work on my fanfics. Writing is seldom as straightforward an act as I'd like it to be - just sit down, bang out my 500 words and move on to non-writing activities for the rest of the day.

Here's how my writing days often go:

Wake up, try to plan the next 500 words

This'd involve rolling around on my bed, either while surfing some random site on my phone or just thinking. I get impatient sometimes and try to write entire paragraphs in my head. The words flow better for me when I deliberately focus on imagining the characters' actions and interactions, instead of fixating on choosing which words to use right now.

Open Evernote app and write 100 words

I type the next bit, then check the word count. I check how much of the fic is written more often than I like; it can motivate me to know how close I am to getting done for the day but has the opposite effect when I realize I'm still far from the next ~100 mark.

Before starting a new story in a blank note, I get ready to at least put down 100 words in one sitting. Otherwise, I doubt my ability to sustain the momentum for finishing that piece.

Write ~250 words

On most days, the first half of the quota feels the hardest to write. Once I get this half out of the way, I get the confidence to finish the entire quota for the day. Even if I finish the first half early in the morning, and only leave the rest to be written late at night.

Write ~387 words

This is when I'd check the total word count again and find that I'm a few words short of the next ~100 mark. Closing this gap and reaching the next multiple of 100, one sentence at a time, builds momentum and the joy of creation.

Write ~510+ words

Though my daily quota is 500, I like to conclude the writing routine by writing a little bit more to give myself a headstart for the next session.

Sometimes I subconsciously treat myself as the enemy that keeps me from getting what I want to be written, that is due to my insecurities, lack of ideas and skill etc. Giving myself a boost/cheat code is a neat way of ending the day with the self-compassion essential to making myself happy through writing.