221206 December Plans

Domo domo, Author-kun des.

It's been a crazy month, things went from crazy to CUHRAZY here in Buglandia, where it's lockdowns, lockdowns, riots, then lockdowns again. Hmm? Oh yes, Author-kun is back on the Cyberse, but who knows for how long...?

Where Have You Been All Month!

“VPN died again. Yeah, sorry.” - Sasuke, he’s so cool

Last time I was here, I wrote that I was going to do National Novel Writing Month, and do it Author-kun did! I didn't quite reach 50k words, but wrote a tidy 50k, most of it in Webnovel format, or in shortform artifact descriptions format. I think it's some good work that I can release on HouseDelaroux.com, so I'll release it soon! (VPN willing)

A few choice words from when the VPN started working for the hot few seconds:

Hoo, it's the end of November, and the end of my journey to 50k words. To be honest I only wrote 38k in total, and a lot of it is split along alternate timeline scenes/ scenes from another story, but 50k does feel very reachable if I put in more time. Some thoughts:​ 

It's okay to switch genres - Originally I was going to write a romance, but then it felt really weird as it always does for me going into a new genre, and my writing started to resemble /Conspiracy/ Girls a lot, so I really had to pivot and give myself some leeway to write stuff that sticks a little outside the straight up romance genre (because I feel it's kinda corny). I ended up with a harem comedy, which is a little far from the 60//40 Tragedy//Comedy split I was aiming for, but that's how I naturally wrote, so I am quite happy with it.

The AI Influence - I started using AI to generate pictures out of my writing when I start to get writing blocks. I think I really spent too much time playing with this, but being able to see my words come to life gives me inspiration to keep writing; also as is Author-kun's habit, I tend to drift off into writing other stories and then create art for that too. It's hard to stay focused on a single story, and most of the generated art was terrible, but the keepers encouraged me to keep writing the story.

Writing in Short Bursts - 50k is a really long stretch to get to, and I'm not young anymore. I found that I'm much better writing in short bursts rather than going longform/ in sequence of events. Usually as the day starts I make one-sentence notes on the scenes I want to complete today (spoiler: I almost never complete the goals), and start developing them in order. This really hampered how I did things because sometimes I feel it's more exciting to do a magic scene first, so in the end I had to relearn an old lesson and start jumping around scenes and writing what I feel is exciting first, then tying it all up at day's end.

Podcasting @ House Delaroux Radio!

“Smug foxes demand you listen to House Delaroux Radio today!”

I realize that the only real way that I am going to get anywhere while still in Buglandia is through podcasting, which (thankfully) hasn't been completely blocked.

So here it is (temporary and terrible link!) :

I've actually been podcasting for some time, but rather inconsistently due to internet and personal issues. I think this is going to be my major groove going forwards because I really am only left with a chair and a microphone, and maybe one day I'll not have my chair anymore!

Throughout the month of November, I dabbled in making videos, but I really am not into it, it's too much work on an unstable platform that I do not fully trust to promote my stuff over all the globohomo garbage. Most of the time Algo-chan pisses me off, so if I AM going to be on youtube I'll be shitposting AI art "making of" videos or reading out 4chan threads for the lulz.

I'll kind of update the "making of" /Conspiracy/ Girls when I get around to it, but right now I am busy doing up a short gift exchange between the main characters for when the Christmas sale hits. (Demons Roots when, Kagura?)

AI ART SUPREMACY

While going through the month of November, I also kept at making AI art, yes yes, I know all about the controversy about stolen art, but it's so good. In seconds I can make concepts into reality instead of having to learn to draw, and draw badly. I think that a lot of it really boils down to: I can't see what's under the hood, and that art becomes too easy to make in too short of a time.

I'm just going to be here making Altergeist art to use in Master Duel for now, while mocking up images for the Princess Wars. Some day I'll have to train the AI to recognize characters from my Visual Novel, but yeah.

I really really am interested in this technology and (VPN willing) I'll have to get on youtube and learn all about how to make better art. I still greatly value real artists though, because the technology is FAR from perfect, but that's a scene for another day.

Last Scene

“EM-Four? Is dat you?

I can feel my VPN shorting out, but my number one priority is to get the hell outta Buglandia while the window is open. At the same time, House Delaroux Radio (the podcast) will be my main form of putting your ear to my mouth. The cold winter winds are now blowing in the north, with no end of the pandemic in sight. I hear that there are good things going on in the south, but the same old decision makers are still sitting at the top, and nobody has been punished; (((they))) even got richer how can it be that much better?

But I'll keep laughing at this sick world until Thermidor rolls around.

Then we'll have a nice rolling laugh in the wicker basket together!

Laugh, it's fun!

Author-kun

221206