So i've been trying writeoffs. · 7:02am Jan 5th, 2020

_{Part of the process, of course, is starting.}

Specifically, Jaxie has a group dedicated to writeoffs, called Quills and Sofas. I considered joining it very early on, when it seemed to have no contest elements whatsoever; just a bunch of people writing around a prompt and giving feedback, no rankings attached. Rankings and competitions got added in pretty quickly, and i left just as quickly - there's a difference between getting feedback and getting ranked, and I've always been open to the former while leery of the latter. But a couple of days ago, I decided to bite the bullet and head back.

Why? Honestly, I'm not sure. It just felt like a thing to do, so, hell, I might as well do it.

_{"If it feels good, do it" is the sort of philosophy that should probably only be used when constructing horsewords, though.}

So how's it been?

Well, it's useful. That's the big thing I want to say about it. Amazingly enough, if you force someone to sit their ass down in a chair, they'll write. I've been forcing myself to keep my ass down in a chair and write. And, shockingly enough, it's made me write.

This is productive. Productive is good. Productive is progress, and progress is how things become good.

It's also great for meeting new people! I mean this both in a "getting to know folks" and in a "getting to know the stories folks have made" way. Both are good - turns out that there are plenty of friendly, nice, creative people on the internet and that they've written tons of wonderful stuff. (Note to self: update favorites list and front page accordingly.) In particular, The Seer has a goddamned beautiful voice and wonderful narrative flow, while wishcometrue has some of the most raw, relatable content out there, especially their poems.

Overall, solid experience! Met new people, read new quality content, practiced writing some more - exactly the sort of things I hope to do when I meet up with people from Fimfic, remotely or otherwise, and so things couldn't have gone better in those regards at all. It also means that there's going to be new content coming out of my account - a short story to be published shortly, and a new super-short thing I'll be throwing on a separate blog because it's too small to fit minimum story length standards and I can't think of anything else to add on to it.

So yeah! Good things coming out of this all around. Good experience! Recommendable.

Recommendable on objective and logical grounds. Honestly, it's also been a reminder repeatedly spelled out on paper that I'm a fucking shitty writer, absolutely lacking in talent compared to the plethora of much better writers out there, I don't have anything new to add to the site or the fandom in general and that my attempts at constructing stories are horribly amateurish and useful for nobody but myself. I'm going to bed.