Weekend Sketches #6 - Crawling Into The Tomb

Haha hello! It's been a while!

I kinda fell of the posting wagon there pretty much all over the internet. I ended up taking a 3 week break from Twitter because it had put me in a bad brain space. I also decided to use this break to re-evaluate again how I want to use social media, and do a proper cut from platforms that just raise my anxiety.

One platform that I've been having a lot of fun on though has been Discord, because it's hard to be found over there and with it being chat rooms 2.0 it's actually about socialization rather than fighting the algorithm. I got invited to a fandom sever for The Locked Tomb Trilogy and I fell back into being in a fandom after feeling nothing but increased hostility towards them since quietly leaving the Star Wars fandom last year.

I had already read the first two books in the trilogy last year but hadn't interacted with anyone in the fandom beyond my friend Winter (who had a hand in getting me to finally pick them up). Then after replying to a couple fandom related tweets, in particular ones made by another friend Ren, I was invited to the server and I've fallen back into being in a fandom again.

Though this is different. Where my experience in the Star Wars fandom was just... people sending me inappropriate messages, the regular bombardment of racism, and then the disillusionment that comes from watching the franchise get bought up by a megacorp and then have the creative juice sucked out of it, being in a small book fandom is like a breath of fresh air. The air is especially sweet when the book series is explicitly queer. It's truly a whole other experience where I can enjoy a property that doesn't force me to pick at scraps.

Being in this small group has been fun. I have posted a few of my fanarts online, but most of my fandom interactions happens behind the closed door of the private server. I feel this is the best way to be in a fandom. In the free time that I've had between work I've also gotten back into writing fanfic and have imprinted on one of the rare pairs (typical). This is what the above illustrations are about. I might do a separate blog post about The Locked Tomb Trilogy. The third book has been postponed to early 2022 so I need to decide if I want to blog about the first two books and then do a follow up once the third comes out or wait until I've read all three.

Setting that train of thought aside, I've be approaching fanfic as practice for when I eventually pivot into illustrated novels once I finish my tryst with comics. I've seen some discourse about whether fanfic makes you a better writer or not. My take is I'm approaching it as a form of line making, the same way fanart got me to practice my drawing. There are ways that fanfic can help improve your writing, and ways it cannot. All in all it's been relighting the fire that went out when I experienced Burn Out #2 back in March.

This has gotten long so I'll cut this blog post here. I hope you all are keeping well.

Until next time!