Let me tell you about Homestuck!

Productivity report at the end. 

Well, more like how I got into Homestuck, anyway.

I've known about Homestuck for awhile. I think that the first pages that I looked at were the quadrant pages. I skipped out pretty soon after that, about when Eridan showed up.

Fast forward. I don't think I've read more than a page more since then. I'm a little familiar with some of the tropes, though. I come across it here and there, and then I move on.

Enter Pandora. I'm listening to music, and eventually there plays Regina Spektor's Hotel Song. Later on I find it on YouTube to listen to it again, and then I try out Blue Lips. It's a Homestuck fanvid, so it's not too surprising that the suggested vidyas to the right are Homestuck too. Dirty Night Clowns sounds all kinds of interesting, so I click on it.

And I need more.

Just fanvids at first. I've no intention of getting into Homestuck proper. Too freaking long. 660,000 words and counting. Like I have that kind of time. Remember, I'm feeling guilty about reading anything at all when I could be spending that time doing something else. As if I'm really going to get myself sucked into a monster like Homestuck. Please.

But yes, I'll watch some videos. A couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there, I'm feeling okay. And I get curious about the possibility of people animating scenes from Homestuck. Come on, there's this massive fandom, why not? Somebody, somewhere, has certainly done a couple of scenes.

I find Let's Read Homestuck. It is The Answer. Or the final nail in the coffin. I don't know. But I started watching, and I got hooked.

"It's not fair. It's not just. It never should have happened. And you shouldn't have to do this. And it's not your fault and there's nothing you can do and this is probably just making everything even worse. And I'm sorry for that but it hurts. It shouldn't but it does." And Justice For All, by a_mere_trifle.

It's fanfiction, but it does a durned good job summarizing Homestuck in a single paragraph. Not what Homestuck is, so much, but how, how it feels.

It feels very existentialist to me, to be honest. Maybe that's why Homestuck strikes such a chord in me. Among other reasons, but we'll get to those at a later time, maybe on White Marble Block (and maybe not- I know everything: I know nothing).

Incidentally, this convoluted path isn't unknown to me. First time I can remember it happening is with Nietzsche, who I was introduced to via Alpha Centauri. I well remember memorizing one of the excerpts that AC provided: Fellow creators, the creator seeks. Not corpses, not herds of believers. Fellow creators, the creator seeks. Those who would write new values on new tablets.* Companions the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest. 

*After double-checking my work, it turns out that this sentence actually begins "Those who write," not "Those who would write."

Productivity report

I think that this is how I'll run things from now on. Hopefully I'll always have interesting things to say, but then there will be productivity reports, too.

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, really. Four outlines complete, and they're not really the longest ones. Some of the shortest ones, actually. But that doesn't mean that the week was a total wash. I was able, just barely, to make something presentable out of Brother G's Cyclopedia of Comparative Mythology, my short book of building blocks for worldbuilders needing to dabble in mythology and religion. It's not as big as it'll ever be (I can think of fifty more entries to add offhand) but it's a good start, and it's been of benefit to a few people already. Look for it Monday on White Marble Block.

I also made a good start on the outlines. Four done, and I think that I'll work on another one or two tonight (I'm writing this on Saturday). I still have to finish Perfect Engine before I go to any of those, too, so maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to keep ahead of the rush. Having a tablet will help with that since I'll be able to draw up outlines even when I'm away from my laptop.

I don't know how many stories I'll have done at the end of this month. Not a million, to be sure, but I think that I can get at least ten done. I also have to allot some time to write a few stories for White Marble Block, but after this month I'll have an entire month to build up a reserve for the month after that so I can dedicate it totally to for-market work.

I'm still trying to figure all this out, but I'm making progress. If I can manage an average of fifteen stories each of my for-market months then I'll have more than sixty stories flying between markets. Besides that, I plan to have a few other projects like the Cyclopedia done by that time. At this point in time I think that I'll take the Fall semester (September through December) easy. I'll work on a story or two for the market, maybe, but most of my creative energy will be focused on the blogs and on one particular project (I'm thinking a Cthulhu Mythos idea book). And, of course, studying.