What needs to be said...

So... I've been slacking again.

I'll be honest, despite the way I normally carry myself, I can be really illogical at times when I should just take what's being said in-stride. And that's been happening for a while now.

You've probably noticed that I haven't updated EoaA for a while now. All I've done with IP was the short about what happened during 175 in the IPverse. Otherwise, it's been pretty quiet, aside from mentioning it in journals. And the reason for that is a sudden lack of confidence. Or rather, it was sudden when it started, and it's been weighing on me for a while now.

Because sometimes, even when you know the people criticizing you don't know what they're talking about, it can still cause some doubts. 

Now, I have, for a long time, said that I really want criticism of my work. And that's still true. When THerix tears something I've posted a new one and tells me all the fuckups I made, I appreciate that because it gives me pointers to improve on, even if I don't agree with them all the time, though in fairness, the only real difference there is that he likes the pronoun game and I prefer to just use a character's name half the time, because while it make break the flow a bit, having to reread a passage to figure out who's punching who if the characters are the same gender and species is probably worse.

Unfortunately, the only other criticism I've received is from people that stopped reading what I post during State of Decay. And I'm not going to name names. If you're reading this, you know who you are. I'm sorry, but if the only thing I've posted that you've read is Chapter 1-5 of Possession, a few oneshots, and Chapter 1-4 of State of Decay, then you don't get to call my stories repetitive. Or you do, but I can just say "Read my damn stories before you say that". 

I'm aware that I've repeated plot elements. It happens. But as I said to Kiva in the comments of And Another Thing yesterday, Fiona is one of my favourite characters, and I like writing about her, but if I want to do that, then I have to justify her being there. Her story with Tails and Nic was what I wanted to tell in Possession, but to get there, I had to write her turning good. But then I look at what I've done with her since:
What it Takes to be a Hero: Set before she joined the FF, and is her firt meeting with most of the other characters in it.
Alterniverse: The truth of the Heart: Set at the same time that she turned evil in the comics.
Zonerunner: Kiva's story, not mine.
State of Decay: Sonic knows Fiona as an ally when he encounters her Robian form in Chapter 1, her turn to good happened before the prologue. 

The only times I'v really treaded old ground with her with the IP rewrite and the Uncivil Trilogy. And the IP rewrite is, well, a rewrite. Of a story that the person saying this didn't read. And the other person saying this didn't have to. Hey, if you didn't want read re-done versions of Shattered Minds and Turnabout... then just skip straight to EoaA. It's not that hard.

So how about the other element: The mind control thing. Okay, yeah, I do slightly overuse that. But hey, maybe if I'm writing an Alterniverse of the Mecha Sally arc, someone's going to get brainwashed. Maybe if I'm writing a story called Possession, someone's going to get possessed. That's the whole fucking point. And I've gotten tired of overusing it. The IP plans will be staying the same, as will the UT and SoR plans. That's settled. And I will use it in the reboot, but that's a long time coming.

Now, I know that I should've just said "Well, this doesn't really mean much to me because you haven't actually read what you're complaining about," and carried on. But instead I stopped writing EoaA, stopped replying to the notes for SatFF, Sigma, and Reign of Chaos, and generally just sat here, not doing much, while wondering if I was actually getting anywhere with my writing. I haven't been in the state of mind to continue for a long time. THings started picking up with Uncivil Union, but now THerix is busy with his AI and I series that's probably had more chapters posted lately than UU has had notes, so that's going nowhere fast.

So that's where I am at the moment. I'm sitting here and not doing much, with two half-completed stories and not a lot else. I know for a fact that Inked Puppetry: Origins, is going through a format change, and will now be a sort of editorial instead. Other than that, I don't know.

If you want good news, my collabs with are picking up speed again, and the comic script with is coming together nicely. We've got one or two issues of the first arc to go, and all of these are getting regular updates.