Kassie N (dear-llama) - Writer's Page

Okay, not exactly true, because I have still been writing — or trying to. 😅 You know, I think I feel bored when I don’t post my stories somewhere. I may actually need the external motivation of posting and updating a story to feel like I’m getting anywhere with what I’m writing.

At the same time, since I’m planning on publishing this novel-length rewrite of Something Better, I don’t feel like I should be posting it on FictionPress or Wattpad (or Inkitt, I keep forgetting I have an account there) anymore… The stories I’ve posted on FP and WP have been plagiarised several times (I think more than ten times in total) and I don’t want my novel manuscript to be readily accessible before I publish it. 🙃 But maybe this is the reason I keep waffling on the story and keep starting over and over. It’s like I can’t make up my mind what I want to do with this story. I now have 4 versions and I really do still like the 2nd and 3rd ones. 😆 Though they all go in different directions — Emi and Aksel’s interactions and the way they behave are all at least slightly difference in each iteration. It drives me nuts when I look through the written scenes and want to use some of them but they no longer fit with where Version 4 is going. Ugh.

Not to mention I’ve already started a Version 5, hahahaha. Well done, me. 🥴

Also, thanks to some messages from two readers who are apparently still reading Auld Lang Syne, I’ve decided to dig it back up and work on Chapter 16 this month. I’ve written a little bit (435 words) of it so far, so… yay?

But before I get ahead of myself with my September goals, here’s a quick recap of what I’ve done in August:

• Started writing a fluffy, light romance story
  From an old plot, though. I already wrote 15 chapters of it in the past, but it’s so absolutely silly that I want to rewrite it 😅 Fun fact: it features a side character from Fades In The Summer, an old story of mine (that I also want to turn into a novel sometime in the future).
  
  
• Got Shirt Design 2 printed (finally!)
  

  

  This was actually the very first design I was working on, before I ran into issues getting it printed. Apparently, it’s hard to print a wrap-around image (part of it in front and part of it at the back, joined at the seams), even if the image is really minimalistic. In the end, I compromised and went with a printer that did it with 2 cm gaps to the side. Ah, well.
  
  I made a reel about the process!
  
  
• Started learning 3D modelling
  I wanted to learn to use the software Blender because I wanted to do some 3D modelling, but it turns out you can do a ton of things with the software. 😲 The range of it looks really impressive, but since I have a specific goal in mind, I’m still going to focus on the 3D modelling to start with. I learnt to make a donut:
  
  
  

  (while I was baking some real-life bread 😂 which was easier to make than the virtual donut…)

  The learning curve sure is steep. 🥲 But it’s okay, I do enjoy fiddling with new software, so I’ll keep at it. Haven’t touched it since I made the donut (distractions in the form of writing and the shirt design), but I’ll get back to it hopefully soon.

• Printed and sent out Shirt Design 1 to some friends as gifts

  Two of my friends said they liked my shirt when I was done with Shirt Design 1, so I offered to print them one each and sent it off to them! 😎 It delights me to think that someone across the world is wearing my design — imagine! 😆 I hope the image doesn’t fade too easily. This is my first time printing shirts, so it’s all new to me. I also drew a little card to go in the parcel — you know, like when people include little thank-you cards when you buy something from them. 🤣

  

• Started drawing Shirt Design 3
  The last design for my shirt-printing project! (Whew, it’s been a long journey. I started this in June and I’m still not done… 😅) It’s meant to be an emblem on a polo shirt, so you’d think it’d be easy… but no. I keep changing my mind about how I want the emblem to look. I want to do embroidery printing for this and I’m hoping I don’t run into printing issues like with Design 2. But first, I need to finish drawing the design already. I’ve been a little stuck; hopefully I’ll get it done in September. This project feels like it’s been dragging on forever.

And that’s it! I seem to have started a lot of things in August, but not finished them. 😂 Then again, what’s new?

There are a couple things on my to-do list that I really want to do:

• Revamp this website (utterly and completely. I’m sick of the way it looks and functions)
• Finish Shirt Design 3 and get the shirt printed
• Learn to do more 3D modelling
• Finish the GIF of Cornbread the blue dolphin that I’ve left hanging since… June?
• And I just came up with an idea for a (quite tedious) new project this morning 🫣

Not to mention writing Something Better and Auld Lang Syne. I’m going to have to decide which projects to prioritise. 😐 I always want to do everything at once but that’s sadly not possible. 😩

September is my favourite month, because that’s when my birthday is. 😜 I can foresee myself getting distracted and unproductive right around then, haha, so I’d better buck up at the beginning of the month when I’m still feeling inspired and motivated. And I am quite motivated all of a sudden! There’s just something about the idea of a new project that makes me feel pumped. 💪 I’m still not sure if I’m going to work on this new project yet, though, because it requires learning to use another software. 😂 I feel like I should focus on Blender first, but… we’ll see how it goes. I’ve found that I’m much more productive when I just go with what I feel like doing, rather than forcing myself to work on what I think I ‘should do’. 😬