Personal Digest Saturday: September 10 – September 16

Life news this week: 

• Saturday I of course did not have work to walk to, so I got my daily steps for the "Step-tember challenge" on the treadmill. But the air conditioning was broken in the fitness room so it was pretty hot. 92ºF hot. And I did it anyway. Kind of a bad idea. The only thing I really did besides that was play my ukulele a lot! And I posted a video of the very first song I've learned on ukulele after one week of teaching myself. I know it's not good, but I just started!
• Sunday was a semi-productive day. I made a video for my writing channel, played ukulele, did laundry and dishes and karaoke, made a birthday cake for my mom, set up a new computer for my mom's birthday present, went to the store for soda, did some reading while on the treadmill, and did some editing on my book.
• Monday was busy at work and I had to do a bunch of research and phone calls. I also helped a friend with some agent advice. Then it was pouring when I was trying to leave the office so my office manager drove me home! Then I had my mom over and we ate rice and birthday cake. (I don't think she really liked the cake though.) We did a Skype session with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew so they could watch my mom open her present. I did a silly thing where I had her open the power cord and when she didn't know what it was I was like "Oh it's the power cord to this" and gave her a new laptop. She was surprised!
• Tuesday it was busy at the office again. I did my grocery shopping after work and got a compliment on my Keep Beach City Weird shirt from the bagging person. Hooray for cartoon nerds! Then at home I did some processing on the video I recorded over the weekend, and did some relaxing.
• Wednesday I was busy with admin stuff, and met Jeaux for Chipotle after. We didn't really do anything--just lazed around with no agenda. And I let him read my copy of The Answer. After he left I drew a picture for the next day's cartoon.
• Thursday was a weird day. I had fallen asleep on the floor and got myself up and into the bed for a few more hours of sleep, and then I got awakened early because my office manager called to remind me that we had a lunch celebration for earlier in the day than I'm usually there. I jumped in the shower and walked to the office with plenty of time to spare, and then we ate at Outback. (I had a potato and broccoli!) Then I did a bunch of stuff for our projects and watched Steven Universe at Jeaux's house after work. It wasn't that exciting of an episode ("Onion Gang") but whatever. Then I chatted with Victor on the phone and drew my webcomic.
• Friday's walk to work was weird because some dude tried to follow me and talked a bunch of nonsense along the way to get my attention. He eventually abandoned the attempt and I got to continue in peace. I had a short work day, went home, finished my comic, and played my ukulele. I also spent some time on the treadmill during the wee hours, 'cause that's fun.

New reviews of my book:

• Goodreads says I have one new review this week, but I can't get it to show me anything newer than a review from two weeks ago. Can I just say I hate that you can sort reviews by "newest first" and it will literally still just put them in a random order?

Interviews, Features, Mentions:

• Tumblr user gruntledandhinged quoted my book.

Reading progress:

• Finished this week: How to (Un)Cage a Girl by Francesca Lia Block. Three-star review.
• Currently reading: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

New singing performances:

This week's performance was "Broken Strings" by James Morrison.



New drawings:

Episode doodle for "Onion Gang."

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0592: "Where It Came From."






New videos:

My writing channel has a new video: Writing Characters with Special Skills.




My "Giant Woman" ukulele cover: 

 

New photos:

Don't really have any pics this week but here's Mom's cake.

And the haircut comparison photos:

Front, February 2014	Front, September 2016
Back, February 2014	Back, September 2016

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,348 for swankivy (9 new), 595 for JulieSondra (2 new). Twitter followers: 830 for swankivy (4 new), 1,295 for JulieSondra (7 new). Facebook: 294 friends (no change) and 198 followers (lost 1) for swankivy, 642 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 56 likes for Negative One (1 new), 126 likes for So You Write (1 new). Tumblr followers: 2,462 (lost 3). Instagram followers: 86 (no change).

Wednesday Factoid: Writing By Hand

Today's Wednesday Factoid is: When do you write by hand?

I write by hand every day, but that's mostly because I have kept a handwritten daily journal for the last sixteen years.

Besides that, I hand-write phone messages and calendar entries while I'm at work, and sometimes I hand-write letters to friends, but not often. I used to write my novels by hand but I've pretty much phased that out. Sometimes I write a webcomic storyboard by hand if I'm not near a computer but want to write one. (I prefer to write the storyboards on the computer now so I can cut and paste them into my program where I render the talk bubbles, but I used to write every storyboard on the back of scrap paper.)

And then sometimes I'll just write a caption or comment on a drawing I did, so I guess that counts!

Remembering why

I did some work on my Bad Fairy project this weekend and dipping back into it reminded me VERY STRONGLY why I love this story and why I want it out there.

And the really effusive feedback I'm getting from my test readers is encouraging, so there's that.

I think there's still some work to do on the beginning of the book. Not just to tune it up, but to rethink my strategy entirely as to how I introduce this character. As many of you know, this was written as a sequel, but now I may be pitching the sequel as a first book (you know, with the option that they could always release the trilogy as I originally imagined), and the book has to be able to survive that. Right now, I think it does feel like a sequel in a way I don't really want it to.

Yes to making it seem like the character has plenty of history; I like the idea that readers are only seeing a piece of her life and aren't meant to fully process everything she's been through without context. I think the way she acts like she has a lot behind her can be carried forward as clear baggage without sounding too much like I'm a) rehashing what happened in the first book or b) focusing on establishing her past at the expense of her going forward.

No to extensive flashbacks, spending four chapters on casual exposition, and making the second book about the first instead of letting the events of the first be reflected clearly in the second.

I have a lot of work to do on it but sometimes when I step back into the story it becomes so clear why I wrote it and how much I expect my audience to enjoy it. 

I really want to get that part done but it's intimidating sometimes. :(

Personal Digest Saturday: September 3 – September 9

Life news this week: 

• Man, this was an active week on my feet! I'm participating in the "Step-tember Challenge" at work, wearing a pedometer and counting steps that we're all entering into a spreadsheet, competing against the other offices. So I'm doing a bunch of walking, including walking to and from work to get more steps. It's been . . . hot. And tiring. But very good for me, I think!
• Saturday, in search of steps, I walked to the bus stop and rode to the mall. I got a bunch of reading done on the bus and got a number of things accomplished at the mall--including doing an exchange for when I bought the wrong toy, buying some new clothes, and eating a pretzel. Then on my way home I stopped in at Sam Ash Music to buy some violin rosin and ended up seeing a ukulele display that inspired me to buy a ukulele. I've never played ukulele before (except for a single lesson on the blues in a college class), so it was a brand new instrument for me! I got home, bought some pizza to be delivered to my friend who had no food, took a shower, and ate candy I bought at the mall. I finished the book I'd been reading and reviewed it online. Whee!
• Sunday I did MORE walking!! I walked up the other side of the street and stopped to do some errands. I bought new bike lubrication for my chain, stopped at the craft store to get some art supplies (including a few new Copic markers!), got some new folders at the office supply store, and picked up a few groceries. Also, the art I'd dropped off at the craft store to have framed was ready, and a friend who works there offered to deliver it to me for free since it is big! HOORAY! I got home and showered, then taught myself a few songs on ukulele and drew a picture. Yay!
• Monday I had Labor Day off from work so I did stuff at home. I tried to play DDR to get steps but the pedometer didn't record them very reliably so I guess that's out. I also did some reading--actually read and reviewed two books (though one was a children's book--The Answer came out and I read it immediately because Steven Universe you guys). Also did some blogging, did laundry, bought clothes online, and joined a place called Imzy. If you want an invitation, let me know. This is my (teeny) profile and I was invited to participate because there are some good asexuality conversations happening there.
• Tuesday I got to work and found out we won a project we worked really hard on, so we were pretty excited. After work I went grocery shopping. Still walking so I was just walking my bike so I could carry my groceries in the basket. My mom was in my house when I got home so I unpacked and had a sandwich while she ate some cheese. We hung out and chatted about life. She didn't stay that long though. I made a clay statue and baked it in my oven, and then I tried the exercise room at my apartment complex's fitness center for the first time--to use the treadmill. I got my first recording of over 20,000 steps for the day! Beyond that, I played my new ukulele and watched YouTube.
• Wednesday was super hot. I didn't do a lot at work, and met Jeaux after to eat at Moe's. He offered to walk so I would still be able to get my steps, haha! We hung out, watched a couple episodes of Stranger Things, and after he left I drew a picture for the next day's cartoon.
• Thursday I did some of the usual tasks at work, then walked to Jeaux's where we finished off watching Stranger Things and got to see that day's Steven Universe episode, "Last One Out of Beach City." It was really cute. Then on my walk home I got some food from Chipotle, which is the first time I've eaten there, and I had a chat with Victor on the phone while drawing my comic.
• Friday wasn't too eventful. I worked, walked, and posted a comic. And watched some YouTube stuff and played some music. *shrug*

New reviews of my book:

• No one cares about my book this week.

Interviews, Features, Mentions:

• No one cares about me this week.

Reading progress:

• Finished this week: A Year of Ritual by Sandra Kynes. Four-star review.
• Finished this week: The Answer by Rebecca Sugar, Tiffany Ford, and Elle Michalka. Five-star review.
• Currently reading: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

New singing performances:

This week's performance was "More Than Words" by Extreme.



New drawings:

This week's cartoon: "Last One Out of Beach City."
They're going to a concert. Where Pearl will be a nerd
and try to talk to a hot chick.

Character request from Facebook:
I drew Jenny and her grandmother Nanefua.

Hey Steven Junior
Why did I draw this

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0591: "How We Honor."






New videos:

Not this week!

New photos:

Replenishing protein from all that walking!

Expensive art, expensive framing--it's hung!

Make sure you don't forget your Moon Goddess statue when you go on adventures.

Here's a better look at her--the goddess statue I made.

They MADE me eat cheesecake to help celebrate the win at work!
What outrageous treatment!

My new ukulele is aqua colored!

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,339 for swankivy (lost 2), 593 for JulieSondra (4 new). Twitter followers: 826 for swankivy (1 new), 1,288 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 294 friends (friended Emmanuel) and 199 followers (lost 1) for swankivy, 641 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 125 likes for So You Write (lost 1). Tumblr followers: 2,465 (lost 4). Instagram followers: 86 (1 new).

Wednesday Factoid: Family Hobbies

Today's Wednesday Factoid is: What hobbies have been passed down in your family?

Hm. Well, this is an odd one maybe. My parents are both a little artsy--my mom is handy/crafty, and my dad is musical. But it seems like the arts my mom was into never stuck for me, while the ones that came from my dad's side seemed more natural for me.

My mom's good at sewing, can make stained glass crafts, has dabbled in all kinds of stuff like revamping furniture and arranging flowers, and had her own macramé business when I was a kid. I learned a little macramé from her but didn't do anything with it.

But my dad was from a musical family, and he played a few instruments, while both his parents were singers and his sister was a visual artist (painting, drawing, photography). I got the music bug pretty good and learned piano from my father, played violin in middle school, later joined the high school chorus, participated in audition-only competitive All-State choirs, and majored in music.

And one of my sisters is artsy the same way my dad's sister is in a lot of the same things. I like to draw and do crafts too but I don't think it's really on that level.

What's also kinda interesting is how ALL of us are language nerds of some kind. My grandmother (on my dad's side) taught English, and a bunch of us have somehow ended up in editing or writing-related positions, and language glitches tend to drive us up the wall. So I guess that counts too!

Beginner

I've mentioned a couple times in the last few entries that I consider myself to be primarily a writer but also enjoy being a hobbyist in music and visual art. Lately I've been spending a LOT more time with my hobbies--and spending more time with them than I have been with my "primary" art--but I know it won't lead to anything professional. Probably not even if I wanted it to (which I don't). I just basically want to be confident in these arts. For them to be things I can do. Things I won't claim to be able to do and then feel embarrassed of how much of an amateur I am when people look at or hear my product.

So I have to keep in mind the lessons I learned as a writer. Progression generally requires two things:

1. Practice

2. Guidance

Over-reliance on either leads to crashing and burning. (Or at least not getting anywhere.) I've been practicing drawing for my whole life, and have been maintaining a tight schedule on a webcomic that requires 10 drawings a week for over ten years. But except for occasional peeks at references and even more occasional consultation of a drawing book, I have had next to no guidance on my art, and I think it shows. For instance:

Here's a drawing I did when I was eleven.

Sometime within the next couple years, I met an art teacher and got a few tips from her. This happened.

Clearly still not high art, but there's a huge difference--and it didn't come from just trying the same thing over again. 

A couple years later I reproduced the cover of a book I liked, paying a lot of attention to the source material. I got this.

 
Years later, I can do a decently sophisticated, but not-anything-special piece of pencil art.

I still pretty much have no idea how light really works and really suck at doing clothing that looks like clothing and what are backgrounds anyway but . . . I mean, that's not too bad for being self-taught except for one art teacher who wasn't even actively giving me lessons. (I was helping in the art room at my after-school program, and I picked up some stuff.) 

Nowadays, in my pencil sketch webcomic, most of the characters are drawn hastily and sketchily, but the idea of them comes through for the purpose. There are a lot of frames like this.

A lot of scribbles, more or less nonexistent backgrounds, and low on the detail. But it serves the purpose. I'm happy with it. I probably plateaued with this a long time ago.

When I started drawing more cartoons as of recently, I was kinda tossed back to the drawing board (haha). It was a new style for me and I was much more used to working in pencil. Color is hard. It's a whole different dimension of being confused by how light works, and it's so cool when it works out right, but most of the time it doesn't. I was paying a lot more attention to very small things that I wouldn't on subjects I felt more comfortable with, like exact proportions and little bitty details. And the end product was much more satisfying than the sloppy, stagnant cartoon doodles of the Simpsons characters I used to do in middle school.

(I'm still clearly baffled by how light works tho guys.)

I used references for all of these little sketches, and after a while of playing with them, I now have a handle on some of the shapes that make up these characters. So I can give them different expressions or try different angles, or put them in different clothes. But I had to start with something not too ambitious, and just . . . draw shapes. Draw faces. Play with colors. See what comes easily and what doesn't.

And now, though I'm not going to go into details, I'm working on some music stuff I've never tried before. The progress is . . . well, slow. I'm brand new to it, and with my music theory background being quite solid, I guess I expect more from myself. I expect to be able to plunge forward and pick things up quickly, even though this category of music stuff is nowhere in my vocabulary. I have an advantage only in that I know how to read music already and I have a very good ear--I know if I'm doing something wrong instinctively, and can dig around to figure out how to fix it. 

But I'm also looking up and reproducing very, very basic beginner stuff. The stuff I can imagine child beginners being taught--not actual how-to-play-this-song instruction, but positioning, best practice, terminology. Of course an impatient music nerd expects to be able to jump right into the part where you play songs. I'm working on that, but I'm also a complete beginner and I have to remember that. I'm at the point where I can't do anything without a lot of guidance, but that's good because it means I'm constantly checking in to make sure I'm not learning bad habits.

And now, I'm dealing with an awful lot of practice.

I literally started with this less than two days ago and I've already seen practice work wonders. Things that seemed ridiculously difficult--things I couldn't really imagine seeming natural or easy for me--fell into place with repetition. I keep reminding myself of that every time the next step is hard. Practice will smooth the edges off. Practice will make impossible into difficult into doable into easy. Practice will build the stairs for me. I can't climb by skipping too many stairs. It's just going to make the journey up the staircase harder if I don't build every step.

Writing is like this. There are so many steps. You have to learn letters, then learn words, then learn how to use sentences. There's so much right at the beginning that we master readers don't even think about anymore. But then we use those skills to tell stories. And storytelling also has its alphabet; there's sentence structure and punctuation to worry about, and there's character development, and there's plotting, and setting, and bringing a message the way you want to bring a message. It's so much and it doesn't come fast--or it doesn't seem fast while you're building that staircase. But once it's built, you can use it to climb up and down, turn around, pause where you want to, focus on where it takes you rather than what the steps are.

I can do a lot for my eventual competence and mastery by focusing on my own individual stairs and the next few ahead--while still admiring people who have already nailed down their stairs and are climbing to places I want to go. Sometimes watching them and the ease with which they use the stairs as a tool can be a little intimidating: why can't I do that? How long will it take before it's that effortless for me? Where will I even go once I have enough stairs? Why is this one stair giving me so much trouble when the previous ones weren't this bad?

Practice. It won't be like this forever. Keep looking at the people who have benefited from practice, and respect that countless hours you didn't see are behind that effortless ascent. If you want to follow in their footsteps on your own path, you've got to be the one crafting the stairs.
 

Personal Digest Saturday: August 27 – September 2

Life news this week: 

• Saturday was uneventful--I read a book, processed blog stuff, and watched YouTube. Nice relaxing time.
  
• Sunday I took care of Sunday stuff and played my violin. I had bought a new bow but it didn't work very well. That's what I get for buying something cheap.
  
• Monday was a little hairy. I expected to be buried in a proposal but after I did a bunch of background work for it, my office manager agreed with me that it wasn't a very good project for us to chase. I also got a certificate that said I saved the presentation last week, which I kinda did. Wrote e-mail and played violin that night.
  
• Tuesday I saw my mom and we ate some tater tots and popsicles because we're healthy. I configured a tablet my friend Cara sent us so she can have a device again--her old one was cracked. She was happy! I drew some pictures and watched YouTube.
  
• Wednesday was a rainy day. I met Jeaux for Five Guys after work and we hung out at my place and watched two episodes of Stranger Things. I took some drawing suggestions on Facebook and drew some cartoon characters I hadn't drawn before.
  
• Thursday we started a "Step-tember" program at work so we're recording our steps with pedometers and trying to walk more. In honor of this, I'm walking to work instead of biking! I started a new blog on Tumblr so I can have a place to dump all the Steven Universe stuff I'd like to post but don't because I only want to be sort of obnoxious, not really obnoxious. But not a single person started following it even though I posted a bunch of stuff in the tags. Turns out new blogs don't start having their posts show up in the tags for two weeks, which is actually kinda cool because stuff I write on the Internet usually doesn't fly under the radar so much. I wonder who my first follower there will be. I went to Jeaux's after work for a new episode of Steven Universe ("Future Boy Zoltron," not a big whammy episode but pretty cute). Also I talked to Victor on the phone (he was moving out of his place and was sad), and I drew my comic.
  
• Friday I walked to work again. I did some typing for the office and some drawing, and posted my comic, and played with my blog some more before going to bed. I have not had a hugely exciting week I guess.

New reviews of my book:

• Erin gave it a five-star review on Goodreads.

Interviews, Features, Mentions:

• cl0setpunk got my book and claimed to their mom that they'd bought a fantasy book.

Reading progress:

• Finished this week: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Three-star review.
• Currently reading: A Year of Ritual by Sandra Kynes.

New singing performances:

This week's performance was "Who's Crying Now" by Journey.



New drawings:

The week's episode drawing for Steven Universe: "Future Boy Zoltron." (Drawn during a work meeting.)

I took suggestions for characters to draw on Facebook and ended up drawing Sugilite.

 

Another Facebook suggestion: Yellow Pearl and Blue Pearl.

Another Facebook suggestion: Opal hangin' out.

Another Facebook suggestion: I did a crappy colored
pencil sketch of Rainbow Quartz.

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0590: "Slippery."






New videos:

Letters to an Asexual #38 is about how people sometimes suggest it's great that we're asexual because freaks like us won't reproduce and we'll all die out.



New photos:

Playing the violin.

Wearing my bow inspired by a certain cartoon character.

Only indescribably cool people wear clothes like this to their day job.
The kind of people who wear sunglasses all of the time.

I saved the presentation.

Got a little caught in Hermine.

Social Media counts:
 
YouTube subscribers: 5,341 for swankivy (lost 8), 589 for JulieSondra (1 new). Twitter followers: 825 for swankivy (4 new), 1,287 for JulieSondra (2 new). Facebook: 293 friends (no change) and 200 followers (1 new) for swankivy, 641 likes for JulieSondra (4 new), 55 likes for Negative One (no change), 126 likes for So You Write (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,469 (no change). Instagram followers: 85 (1 new).