• Blog,  Blogging,  Fiction,  Personal Posts,  Tourist

    Tourist | Postmortem

    Content warning for discussion of depression and suicide.

    Two nights ago, I decided I would arbitrarily pick a day to celebrate finishing Tourist. So, tonight, I am going to celebrate exactly that, even if I technically posted the final chapter a couple weeks ago. I don’t know if I’m happy with the serial as a whole, but finishing any decently-sized project is worth celebration. We all need to be proud of the things we do achieve.

    Tourist began with a thought: how would another person experience depression and asexuality if they were to suddenly find themselves in my brain and body? I had lived with depression for so long that I had grown used to it. I’d forgotten how much all of us with mental illness fight to exist every day. That realization hit me hard as I showered in my best friend’s bathroom, staring up at the bright blue sky through a skylight.

    I dried myself off and quickly opened Keep—as I do—to scribble down my idea.

    I wasn’t exactly looking for a new serial project after finishing Mountain SoundTourist just kind of came to me. A very different sort of story to Mountain Sound, which had been something I’d been thinking about for a few years before starting. Tourist would be first person, have a bigger cast, a more complex mystery, and would be leaning more YA. I knew from the start how the story would resolve and very quickly figured out an outline with key events and brief descriptions for characters: the AI, the Original, the Best Friend, the Girlfriend, the Sister, the Sad Girl, and the Douche. Audrey came in a little later as a character, so she never ended up with a nickname.

    I was like, “Oh yeah, this is easy, I can churn this out with no problems.” Haha, oh, how naive we all are when we begin a new project! My outline for Tourist was finished very early 2016. I finally posted the final chapter (the epilogue) in October 2018. What happened? What went wrong? How the hell could I screw up my own plans so terribly?

  • Blog,  Blogging,  Guest Posts,  Star Wars

    Blog Squadron – Mission #6: Sharing and Social Media

    Blog Squadron is a series of posts from a handful of Star Wars bloggers sharing insight into how we got started blogging, what inspires us, how we succeed at our goals, and our approaches to blogging and writing. We hope that by sharing our knowledge, we can help others join us as Star Wars bloggers, and make it easier for newer fans to write about their love. Join us as we discuss sharing content, building audiences, and how social media has helped us as bloggers.


    Blogmatis Personae

    (Or, who the heckie are all these awesome bloggers?)

    Matt ApplebeeFar, Far Away Radio.com

    Jessie StardustTatooineDreams.com (Personal Blog, mostly Star Wars flavored) and PassionatelyCasual.com (Star Wars: The Old Republic podcast site.)

    Patty Hammond: I currently write for my own EverydayFangirl.com and also for The Future Of The ForceStarWars.com and TheBeardedTrio.com.  I have previously wrote for The Cantina Cast and The Detroit News Geek Watch Blog.

    Bryan:  I’ve posted on a few blogs along the way, but I’m exclusively on hyperspacepodblast.comnowadays.

    Sophie: My personal blog is outerrimreviews.wordpress.com where I am chronicling my journey through the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I also write articles for farfarawayradio.com

    Johnamarie MaciasTheWookieeGunner.com

    Saf: I write sporadically for ToscheStation.netMakingStarWars.net, and TheWookieeGunner.com. I also write about Star Wars on my own site, NotSafForWork.com.


  • Podcasts,  The Intergalactic Express

    Intergalactic Express 03: Death & Grief in Edith Finch and That Dragon, Cancer

    In a continuation of their lighthearted topics, your intergalactic crew look at death, grief, and loss in games, specifically Ryan and Amy Green’s That Dragon, Cancer and Giant Sparrrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch. Content warning for discussions of suicide and depression.

    Follow The Intergalactic Express on Twitter and subscribe via iTunes or your fave podcast app!

  • Podcasts,  The Intergalactic Express

    The Intergalactic Express 01: Workshopping As We Go

    It’s finally here! The Not Saf For Work podcast network launches today, and with it one of its new shows, The Intergalactic Express, a podcast hosted by three writers as they discuss the creative process and the works they love, hate, love to hate, and hate to love.

    All aboard for the Intergalactic Express’s first episode, which briefly introduces its hosts, the show itself, and the new Not Saf For Work podcast network. Includes: weird accents, huge nerds, sarcasm.

    Art by JVCA, theme by Memphre on Bandcamp

    Subscribe to the NSFW main podcast feed on iTunes Feedburner Podbean to get new shows.

  • Blog,  Mountain Sound

    Mountain Sound | Postmortem

    When it comes to my own personal work, I view deadlines as more of a guideline than hard law. I’m not bad at time or project management, I just have 0 accountability when I know I only have myself relying on me to finish. Mountain Sound was one part testing my ability to start and finish an on-going project, one part forcing myself to share creative writing, and one part actually making myself consistently write my own story.

    My initial goals were to post chapters on time and to write a story I could be proud of. Whether or not it gained an audience wasn’t part of my plans, so when people did read and enjoy Mountain Sound, that was just a super cool bonus!

    What worked:
  • Blog,  Personal Posts

    State of the Blog (and Where It’s Headed)

    April was the second birthday of this blog (April also happens to be the birthday month for both me and my Twitter, too) and at the time, I didn’t have much to say on the fact. Plus, last month ended up being impossibly busy—the coolest thing being volunteering at Play by Play (NZ’s first international games festival), running a Twine workshop and doing event photography.

    So, where is Not Saf for Work headed now that it’s in its terrible twos? Well, for what feels like the first time since I first posted here, I’ve actually got a somewhat solid plan.

  • Blog,  Blogging,  Mountain Sound,  Writing

    Letting Your Character Grow

    You have a character, and she’s your new baby. She has a picture-perfect face, and a name researched for days that exactly sum up her personality and her role within the narrative. Three chapters into the story, and she’s already pulling at the leash, wanting to turn left when the plan dictates turning right.

    Sometimes, a character grows beyond their creator, forming opinions and traits that alter their trajectory. If you’re unprepared, an especially rebellious character can entirely throw a story’s path into turmoil.

    Not every writer experiences their characters suddenly gaining a will of their own, and others will very seriously state that these characters must be kept very firmly on their destined track—you are in control!

    No two people write exactly alike, nor will they experience the writing process the same way. I’m going to talk about how I—as someone who throws the reins free the instant I begin a story—approach character creation and growth.