Sunday, March 29, 2020

Break Year

So, I'm just going to call it, I'm taking the rest of this year off. There's a chance I'll change my mind in a few months, but as it stands, I'm in a hard case of burn out when it comes to writing erotica. I think the last couple years were maybe a little too productive (by my standard), and now the muse needs a break!

More seriously, though, I had a really bad start to the year mentally, which set me back a lot harder than I anticipated. January is usually my bounce-back month after the holiday work load, but instead, I ended up in a deep funk for various reasons. I'm doing alright now, but the fact of the matter is, I'm not feeling the spark for erotic content returning to me. I think this is a little beyond my usual need to "recharge my batteries". I think I need a solid break from even engaging in this material creatively for a while.

Beyond that, as far as writing in general goes, I really want to focus on building my non-erotic work again. I have been struggling with it for years; it has always been substantially harder for me to write "normal" genre fiction, despite that being where most of my writing passion lies. In 2018, I managed to write a web novel, but I have done nothing but flounder since then, and I want to get back on the ball.

One of the reasons I've been as prolific as I have been with my erotic writing, despite it supposedly only being a small part of my creativity, is that sometimes I have just used erotica as a crutch to soothe the manic need to write. Sometimes, after tearing my hair out over my genre writing, I turn to erotica in order to write literally anything just to get the demon out of me. And that, I think, doesn't do either sides of my writing any favors. I end up with unfinished genre stories that get binned, because I bled out the creative fire elsewhere before I could finish them or at least fix what was wrong. Likewise, I end up with unpolished throwaway filler erotica that I could have done more with if I'd actually gone into it with a full passion for that story, instead of using it as a bleed-off for the frustration of a failed project.

So, as something of a self-discipline measure, I would like to give myself a significant chunk of time where that crutch isn't there. If I write anything this year, I want it to be focused on honing my genre work. Maybe nothing will come of it this time, either, but at least I won't just be diverting that frustration into sub-par smut.

Rest assured, this does not mean I've quit forever. In fact, I'm sure I'll probably sit down and pop out a couple erotic shorts on whim this year regardless, but if I do, I think I'll hold off on posting them. If I do a batch of Captioned Images, I may post those, but there's no plans for it. Likewise, I'm not going to worry about any other media projects right now, so no comics or audios this year either. I will return to writing erotica, I always do, but for now, don't expect any more content until 2021.

That all said, I'm going to leave my Patreon active, but of course won't be charging. Drop your pledges for now and come back later when production resumes, if you like. I will still be on the Discord, where people can share their own supernatural femdom erotica, be it Sex Mage World stories of their own or other similar content. Otherwise, I'll see you all again next year.

4 comments:

  1. Totally get where you're coming from. I've had a mainstream novel idea for years, but when I go to write it the erotic element sneaks in and makes it creepy. Best of luck to you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, good luck to you as well.

      The reverse I think happens with me: I think a big reason I kept throwing superhero and cosmic horror shit into the SMW was because I wasn't managing to express it elsewhere very often. That was fine for the Erotic Adventures stuff, but it really derailed my thinking on the SMW for a while. And yet, I both never fully gave it up, nor did I fully embrace it enough to actually make something substantial going that direction.

      Delete
  2. I am certainly going to miss you and I think so will a lot of other peeps, but sometimes you really need to take a break and do what you got to do!

    Your frequent updates and continued dedication had to have their price after all.

    It will be nice to still be able to talk to you and about your work on Discord.

    Good luck and godspeed on your other projects!

    ReplyDelete