The Monthly Report: August 2023

How is it this month already?

This summer has been an odd one for me. The start of July already feels like it happened last year. And I feel that I made the correct choice in putting Battles Beneath the Stars on hiatus, as it has been more difficult than expected to find my ‘writing groove’ again after the events at the start of the month. Also because Pikmin 4 took control of my entire life for a little bit and missing a chapter because of that would have been embarrassing.

Battles Beneath the Stars will be back up and running this month with Nisha’s story. Its absence was definitely noticeable when reviewing the posts in July. Hopefully the short break gave people time to take in the prior stories and come in to Nisha’s refreshed.

A major milestone was also hit in July, the first paid subscriber. I’m deeply appreciative of their generosity. It gives extra security for being able to keep writing this, and affords some room to maybe even spend a bit on things for this newsletter. There’s a difference between doing something for free and doing it at a loss.

I’ve also been thinking about the use of images. I hate how image dependent most of the internet is. It’s a tyranny of images. Finding random stock images just so people will click on the website version annoys me, and when I say stock image I include public domain art in that category, anything that you scavenged somewhere. I’m a writer damn it, graphic design is NOT my passion.

I’m not against the use of images entirely, just the way that they feel mandatory. It makes me appreciate Archive of Our Own and how Fanfiction.net used to be even more, you just post fiction with no need or pressure for cover images. Meanwhile most other websites give me a complex about writing versus art. And I’ve reminded myself that plenty of people read these posts in their email inboxes where there are no thumbnail images either.

The conclusion I’m currently at is that I prefer no image to unfitting images or ones used just to break up text. When it comes to fiction it’s custom art or nothing, that’s my style. The one exception would be if it’s about a myth where there actually is relevant art.

Recap of Last Month

I like how there’s room for me to be a bit impulsive with this substack/newsletter, and writing about Murdle came from that. At first I thought these rambling pieces would be mostly about video games, but I’ve ended up with a good amount of diversity for subject matter.

Talking about the use of images, this is one case where they do have a proper place. Visuals do help with describing different pieces of media, even just showing the cover of a book helps set the tone. And I felt displaying the grid would be simpler and more effective than describing it.

I was pleasantly surprised by how positive the reception to this piece was, it was one I had worked on for a while and was unsure of. The piece started to feel clunky and pointless as I looked it over repeatedly, which happens to everything when it gets to that part of the process sadly.

I joked about it, but since this turned out alright, maybe a post about who I do want in Super Smash Bros is in order eventually. Partially because a Smash Bros fan game is on the list of projects I’d like to do some day, so it’d be a tease for that. And unlike most ‘top ten characters who should be in Smash’ lists it wouldn’t just be a list of random popular video game characters.

That’s all for now. Thank you for being subscribed to the Warthog Report.