My friend, HeavenlyEros, made this fabulous poster for TTSS! Eros also helped me create the cover for it, and performed many other feats of great art and friendship, some of which I mentioned before. The Mass Effect fandom is truly blessed to inspire such talented, devoted and kind creators — and so am I, to have such friends. ♥
In other news, I have been preparing for this year’s Nano — by doing literally no writing at all since the release of TTSS. It’s not writer’s block. It’s burnout. The summer was exciting both in my personal and professional life, and autumn in my writing life. After what felt like an episode of mild depression, I’m now in a mellow, lazy mood, and cannot be bothered to give myself any shit for anything.
That said, I do plan to write for Nano. But not per the proscribed rules. I won’t be working on anything new and I won’t be trying to meet a daily or monthly word-count quota. Instead, I’ll work on Ghost and my only goal will be to write every day until, hopefully, I’ve re-established the habit. I don’t know if I’ll manage to finish re-drafting the final ten or so chapters — I’ll try, but if I feel more like re-writing some of the existing material, I’ll work on that. So long as it’s Ghost, and it’s daily, it’s all good.
It’s a bit defeating to admit this, but the feedback so far for TTSS has been disappointing despite my very modest expectations. While I don’t regret a single minute spent perfecting it, I do question the wisdom of investing more of my time and energy into creating fanworks of that size and complexity. Several of my long-standing ideas for Saren/Nihlus stories could easily be novel-worthy, but I am now less motivated than ever to even attempt delving into them. Short stories, sure. Things based on a single idea or premise that can be completed, all with revisions, in a few days or at most weeks of effective writing.
Ghost is the exception, since I feel I owe it to the readers, but also to myself, to complete it; and to finish it the same way I started it — with Nano — would be a nice, if a little bittersweet, touch. But I doubt I’ll be starting any new Mass Effect novels.