Serelec

Usually it depends. If I hit a wall due to emotional issues I'm going through, I just take a step back and watch some old movies that I can turn my brain off to. It's essentially my form of meditation. The creative field is littered with "discipline" motivational speeches, but personally, I have 0 shame in bowing out every now and then, as usually it's during these meditative states that my writing problems get solved because I allowed my mind space to recover and relax. If it's because I've come at a point in the plot that I just don't know what to do, I have multiple projects running at the same time. Not just writing but other creative fields. I don't actually like doing this too often because I'm very one-track minded and tend to have difficulty getting back into things once I deep dive into something else. I also like to consult my how to write books. I answer random questions about my story based on the exercises in the book in no particular order. I made a post in the forums recently about this (about prompts). But sometimes all it takes is a bit of refocusing and remembering what your goals for your story and characters are.

@headtransplant Thank you for taking the time to share your encouraging words with me ♡ I am so glad you caught that little detail with the legalization of gay marriage. It took me a long while to decide which time period I wanted to go with (was even thinking in future tense at some point to make it "easy") but I thought these guys deciding to get tied to each other in less than accepting times, even if only by promise, coupled with the fact that Beck is willing to go so far for his fiance, was a strong hint as to the kind of relationship they share without me having to really spell it out. And sort of plays into the ending... As for finishing this piece in particular, I don't mind after seeing the feedback. It is a bit bittersweet to me though that of all things that triggered comments on my story, it was the comment I made without a second thought, which is fine of course, I got what I asked for 😂 In my eyes, it only makes sense to put my all into things that people are actually interested in. I am pragmatic in that way. Its not really a matter of motivation so much as, well, business sense? If something's clearly not working, then something needs to change and what not. I have finished stories in the past, passion projects if you will, but this was an odd one out as I decided to write it as an escape from my other stories. All the same, I am not afraid to admit that I do need the occasional headpat...such is the state of my ego unfortunately 😅

There are many wonderful lines in here that gave me some chuckles. "There's always something to complain about"..."maybe I wasn’t brave, partly, because their life was easier if one of their children wasn’t." I'm a slow reader, but I am most certainly looking forward to reading the rest when I can (PS the part about no one touching each other, well, I immediately thought of those hellish scenes of workers literally getting stuffed onto the shinkansen. I think Japan is just as guilty of touching each other, involuntary or otherwise ^^; )

I don't usually get into Alpha/Omega stories, but this one quickly drew me in by way of your character introductions in the prologue and world-building thus far. Thank you for sharing, looking forward to more

Ruthless honesty or otherwise, I still appreciate the fact you even took your time to point that out when you could have easily just kept silent and moved on. Even now I'm milling it over in my head, wondering if I'd let a little too much of my self-esteem show without meaning to. It's a valuable lesson moving forward, especially coming from an established author. Thanks for the feedback again, I wish you luck as well

I haven't thought of it that way. I figure if no one's reacted or offering comments, then no one's interested in reading, and therefore the story's either poorly written or has no appeal, thus it's no good. I take my craft very seriously and post them in the hopes that they are fulfilling someone's day, but if I see that it's only serving me and taking up valuable space, then what's the point? I'd rather change gears and work on something more engaging. That's all I meant by that comment. Thank you for the honest feedback. I see your point of view and will remove that tidbit for future readers, so I don't scare anymore away.

It had been a long while since the town of Wiccamore saw any tourists. The local fishermen on the docks, seeing me disembark from the ferry that made a trip to and from the continent only once in a blue moon, said that I was the first to visit in perhaps two or three years. Other than the captain, I was the only person to have arrived on the ferry. The men promised to crack open a fresh one in my honor, yet even as they said it, they didn’t sound surprised or excited by my sudden appearance.

One day, the letters from Beck's fiancé stopped arriving. Instead of accepting heartbreak, however, he decides to find out just where his fiancé had disappeared off to. It isn't long before Beck traces his lover's steps to Wiccamore, an old island town that most people in the world had never even heard of. At every turn, Beck finds himself at odds, either pushed to delve deeper into the island's madness or pressured to leave. If he hopes to uncover his fiancé's fate, however, Beck knows that leaving simply isn't an option.

Welcome aboard! I just joined as well. It's been wonderful so far.

I would have totally kicked Johnnys ass if he touched any Rayfield like that ahaha. It's funny that youve made Kerry rather modest here but in the future Kerry will totally come out of his shell to do the same thing if not worse LOL

Oh gosh a fellow choom. I was fixed on it as well. But the direction they took their romances generally disappointed me so I went and wrote a whole series of my own out of frustration lol. I have so much Cyberpunk merch and zero regrets haha (even got me that chair...) anyways I would be happy to give your other Cyberpunk stories a try!

Wasn't expecting to find a Cyberpunk fan fic in the wild today!! I am ecstatic. Kerry doesn't get enough love. Your dialogue is great. The way you portray Kerry's insecurities in tandem with Johnny's loudmouthed confidence made my skin crawl. Since we mentioned being bi here, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on River. I seriously felt like they had originally planned for him to be bi but decided to scrap it...but anyway, JORRY 4EVAR!!! 😘

Caught up so far! I must echo Jeffrey a little in that the titles and politics are a bit difficult to follow so far. This type of issue tends to be characteristic of fantasies with many characters, especially where heavy politics are involved, so hoping things will become clearer with more chapters. The nature of Michael and Iain's relationship is very alluring...the way they handle blurred lines is entertaining, to say the least xD I hope these two get more screen time soon !

My thoughts on imperialism in fantasy is a bit complicated because like systematic racism, imperialism in its modern form is so evasive as to be nearly invisible, so I'm not sure I can eloquently explain it...I grew up with a very "post-colonial" education and come from an immigrant family with a turbulent political background, so I was taught to look for little nuances in our western society from early on. I'll just cut to an example to help me illustrate, the easiest one I can think of being Indiana Jones. To the mass, the movie is simply about a man trying to save the world...But underneath that narrative underlies this rather blasé treatment of another culture. It speaks about this excessive need for outsiders to own pieces of another culture for their own gain, an outright objectification of an entire people and their legacy. This drive is so great that these outsiders are ready to outright destroy generations of ancestral history and preserve only the things that they see beneficial to their own causes. I know Indiana Jones as the hero is trying to do the right thing, but I also see both him and the Nazis as prime examples of academia's long history of speaking over and silencing the real cultural bearers. It is still a problem that exists today across the entire world over, and it has very real, tangible consequences. To this day, indigenous people still have to put up a fight to convince others that they do in fact know their own culture better than an outsider who only read about their history in books. People more readily believe old white men and people in western-style suits. It's just how it's been throughout history, at least in the states. Movies and books like that are all mindless fun, I totally get it, and of course you'll find that any culture is guilty of "othering" and outright eradicating cultures and peoples outside their own, but pop culture can serve as powerful clues at to what a society's paradigm looks like. I know post-colonial perspectives/studies can be a hard concept to swallow for many. This is partly because it makes people feel like they are being accused of something or are being told they are part of the problem. I've seen full grown, adult students walk out of college classes because they get so upset over these things...But that's not at all what I am trying to say here. I would never dare tell someone they can't like Indiana Jones or write their own dungeon crawler because of blah blah blah reasons. I would never go up to someone's face and tell them they are part of the problem unless they are, in fact, part of the problem. I just think people don't always realize the power they have at their fingertips when they craft their narratives. One movie that has an incredible post-colonial narrative and handles the matter so gracefully that I don't think most people even realize how nuanced its take on it is is the live action Dora the Explorer. I know, weird, but I love it for that very reason. I'm not sure I did any justice in trying to explain the post-colonial narrative and my take on imperialism, especially because this is a perspective that, at least for me, was decades in the making, but I hope I at least provided you with some interesting insight. Also, I'd be happy to give your story a read

Asher’s lover called one summer’s day. He said to meet him at the house by the sea. House? What house? Asher was immediately confused. They didn’t have houses in his small island town. Well, not like the ones where Hendricks was from, anyway. Oh, but of course Hendricks could have only meant that one house on top of the rocky hill. It had very recently been built as a vacation rental, the first of its kind in town. Most of the locals, including Asher himself, thought it a bit on the ex