The Monthly Report: September 2024
The 7 + 2 month
Welcome to the Monthly Report feature of the Warthog Report, where I go over what I published here in the past month. And on that note, last month had a weird way of going by for me. Surely this month will be the totally normal one where I get everything done with no interruption.
But while all that was happening I did make an executive change to The Warthog Report. I decided to add a little explanation of each feature to the start of the posts. I think that will help new people coming in find their footing. It’s something I noticed plenty of other substacks do, and mimicking it doesn’t disrupt me the way shoving in random images from Unsplash would.
I decided to get back in the groove by covering something a bit small scale for Let Me Talk To You About. I was not in a place to do justice to longer works. It helped that Apple Quest Monsters DX is highly relevant to my own writing. Revisiting it for the post helped me pick up on something I overlooked on my first read/playthrough.
‘My Uncle’s Garden’ was definitely the highlight of this month writing wise, first piece of non-fiction to have made me cry in the writing process. For obvious reasons don’t expect much like it in the future. I wrote it in one day, maybe touched it up a little soon after, then knew it had to be preserved as it was until publication. Didn’t even add in an editorial note about the section of the newsletter.
I’m grateful for all the kind comments I received here and elsewhere after posting it. Usually I tend to feel invisible after publishing something here, but the reception to this made me feel seen.
It took longer than I would have liked, but I was able to get Metrophanes’s story started last month. He’s an interesting character to work with for me, and the timing of writing his story now relative to my personal life is almost too appropriate considering the themes I’ve known from the start he would cover.
While there was a bit of a struggle to find my footing at first, I’m confident in Metrophanes’s story. And I’ve gotten into future chapters enough for them to have surprised me.
That’s all for now, thank you for reading.
I enjoyed your Uncle's Garden piece!