Alicorn, lately the updates have been becoming later and (unless I’m imagining things) getting shorter. It may be worthwhile for you to switch from a M-W-F update schedule to a whenever-it’s-ready schedule in order to prevent them from becoming work that is unseemly to contemplate, because that’s the easiest way I can think of for this to end prematurely. And that would be sad.
I must not do that. Whatever I do, I have to not do that. Maybe it works for Eliezer, but I need a schedule and the sensation that somebody would notice if I didn’t update in order to stick with a project. Without that, I take unannounced hiatuses, ditch things altogether, decide to start over and never get around to it, and start to update slower and slower. Then there is project death. That was the fate of my first webcomic. Poor thing.
If I feel like I have to, I’ll change the schedule (I already did that once; when I first started Luminosity it updated daily) but I think I’m going to be able to catch up a bit over the weekend and stick to the thrice weekly thing. This is just leftover slippage from the holidays and an inconveniently timed plot bog that I think I’ve written past now. But thanks for your concern!
(As for the “shorter” thing, the goal has always been to clear 4k words. I’ve done that every time, but yes, when I’m cutting it too close, I clear it by a smaller margin.)
That was the fate of my first webcomic. Poor thing.
It isn’t HTHT, alright? You updated it quite recently. Also, I’m just here to tell you that HTHT is awesome. I looked at it a few months ago and I was put off by the rough artwork, however, after reading Luminosity my expectations got shifted upwards considerably, and then I read HTHT. It was the funniest thing I read in 2010.
HTHT was not my first. (I’ve never missed an HTHT update, or even gotten one up past Thursday.) Syzygy was. (There was also a short-lived collaboration between me and my sister on one called “Ensorcel”, but that ended because said sister became self-conscious about her art (which the comic was explicitly intended to practice) being online for all to see.)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fanfic that updated with this kind of regularity or speed.
Incidentally, Alicorn, I think that might be an interesting thing to add to your Luminosity sequence. Maybe make Seven Shiny Stories into Eight Shiny Stories(or add something like Ureshiku Naritai) and elaborate—based on your own example—how do you force yourself to write more, how you caught that without a schedule/that sensation of “somebody would notice” you don’t update regularly and so on. I think it might serve as an interesting example of dealing with akrasia, just like Ureshiku Naritai serves as an interesting example of dealing with depression.
I could write about this, but one thing that helped me write more prolifically was accepting how utterly idiosyncratic it is and ceasing to wrestle with techniques I’d heard from well-meaning others that didn’t feel right to me. So I don’t know how much use it’d be for anyone else. I guess I could go meta and talk about how I found the techniques that work for me?
So I don’t know how much use it’d be for anyone else.
Well, maybe you’re doing a sort of inverse of generalizing from one example in that you assume that your process wouldn’t be of use to anyone else, when in fact, it might be useful? :-)
Your Seven Shiny Stories are also very specific examples that theoretically apply to that one person only but can serve to highlight more general principles.
Going for the meta article with “this is how you find those techniques” with an example added of “this is how I found this” might be the best though, similarly to how the Sequence/Seven Shiny Stories work now.
Well, maybe you’re doing a sort of inverse of generalizing from one example in that you assume that your process wouldn’t be of use to anyone else, when in fact, it might be useful? :-)
Ha! Maybe.
All right, I’ve added this to my list of posts to write, but I don’t know when I’ll write it up.
New chapter is up.
Alicorn, lately the updates have been becoming later and (unless I’m imagining things) getting shorter. It may be worthwhile for you to switch from a M-W-F update schedule to a whenever-it’s-ready schedule in order to prevent them from becoming work that is unseemly to contemplate, because that’s the easiest way I can think of for this to end prematurely. And that would be sad.
I must not do that. Whatever I do, I have to not do that. Maybe it works for Eliezer, but I need a schedule and the sensation that somebody would notice if I didn’t update in order to stick with a project. Without that, I take unannounced hiatuses, ditch things altogether, decide to start over and never get around to it, and start to update slower and slower. Then there is project death. That was the fate of my first webcomic. Poor thing.
If I feel like I have to, I’ll change the schedule (I already did that once; when I first started Luminosity it updated daily) but I think I’m going to be able to catch up a bit over the weekend and stick to the thrice weekly thing. This is just leftover slippage from the holidays and an inconveniently timed plot bog that I think I’ve written past now. But thanks for your concern!
(As for the “shorter” thing, the goal has always been to clear 4k words. I’ve done that every time, but yes, when I’m cutting it too close, I clear it by a smaller margin.)
It isn’t HTHT, alright? You updated it quite recently. Also, I’m just here to tell you that HTHT is awesome. I looked at it a few months ago and I was put off by the rough artwork, however, after reading Luminosity my expectations got shifted upwards considerably, and then I read HTHT. It was the funniest thing I read in 2010.
HTHT was not my first. (I’ve never missed an HTHT update, or even gotten one up past Thursday.) Syzygy was. (There was also a short-lived collaboration between me and my sister on one called “Ensorcel”, but that ended because said sister became self-conscious about her art (which the comic was explicitly intended to practice) being online for all to see.)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fanfic that updated with this kind of regularity or speed.
Incidentally, Alicorn, I think that might be an interesting thing to add to your Luminosity sequence. Maybe make Seven Shiny Stories into Eight Shiny Stories(or add something like Ureshiku Naritai) and elaborate—based on your own example—how do you force yourself to write more, how you caught that without a schedule/that sensation of “somebody would notice” you don’t update regularly and so on. I think it might serve as an interesting example of dealing with akrasia, just like Ureshiku Naritai serves as an interesting example of dealing with depression.
I could write about this, but one thing that helped me write more prolifically was accepting how utterly idiosyncratic it is and ceasing to wrestle with techniques I’d heard from well-meaning others that didn’t feel right to me. So I don’t know how much use it’d be for anyone else. I guess I could go meta and talk about how I found the techniques that work for me?
Well, maybe you’re doing a sort of inverse of generalizing from one example in that you assume that your process wouldn’t be of use to anyone else, when in fact, it might be useful? :-)
Your Seven Shiny Stories are also very specific examples that theoretically apply to that one person only but can serve to highlight more general principles.
Going for the meta article with “this is how you find those techniques” with an example added of “this is how I found this” might be the best though, similarly to how the Sequence/Seven Shiny Stories work now.
Ha! Maybe.
All right, I’ve added this to my list of posts to write, but I don’t know when I’ll write it up.