The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette

Volume 5, Issue 8 - Monday, March 2nd, 2020

Howdy, patrons!

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and I live in one of the many states that will be enduring a primary. Please send your best and most calming vibes my way if you have a moment. 

Politics has been contentious as always, even for those of us on the progressive left. We all have opinions about who would best be suited for the general election, and while I respect many of my peers for their choice it's easy to feel like that hasn't been returned. There's a general insinuation that my preferred candidate is untrustworthy, duplicitous, opportunistic -- a stealth moderate, even a Republican! While I recognize that she has her issues, particularly with her record with Native Americans and the perception that she backtracks for political expediency, I genuinely believe she is the best candidate for the job. It's frustrating to feel like the acolytes of the current front-runner believe that we're uninformed, careless, reckless, stupid, etc. It's a huge problem to me that so many of that candidate's supporters come across as patronizing, aggressive to the point of bullying, disrespectful and unsympathetic. It makes me worry about how ugly the general election is shaping up to be. 

I'll likely be taking a break from social media starting tomorrow, just to preserve my sanity. It's tough to wade into that stream when it feels so cold and toxic. Any chance for meaningful dialogue is over before it begins. 

On the bright side, that means I'll be free to tackle more writing! I've been trying to build a daily habit on a site called 4thewords, which I think I might have mentioned. Recently, I've been writing "Crushing The Competition" episodes on the site, then transporting them to Scrivener for compiling and safe keeping. The gamification for the site is a big draw for me; it plays like a web-based RPG, and the monster fights are effectively writing challenges. You have anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours to write anywhere from 150 words to 2500 words, and some monsters are basically time trials. Just keep writing for 15 or 30 minutes; word count doesn't necessarily matter. It really helps me keep focused during the times I only have a short window to work with. If I don't get this word count in by this time, I don't defeat the monster, which means my little adventurer dude dies. And who wants that??

It feels like I'm building a good habit, but so far I haven't quite been able to hit three episodes in a row this year. That's the next challenge. I'd really love to drill down on consistency in March, which means publishing at least four episodes this month. We'll see if I'm able to pull it off, and maybe even catch up a bit so that I can finish "Crushing The Competition" by the end of the year! We'll see how that goes, fingers crossed, etc. etc.

I know so many folks who are working hard on their side-hustles or self-improvement projects, and one of the things I've noticed is how stressful it's become to have a hobby. I think those of us in a certain generation have the expectation that everything needs to be optimized, even the things we do for fun. If you can get paid for writing about giant animal-people, why on Earth wouldn't you? Especially since Frith knows you're not getting paid enough at your day job…

But that attitude has been so destructive for my sense of fun with writing, and I can see that I'm not alone when I look at other people. It sucks when you pay more attention to your performance, or your patron numbers, or your likes, instead of how much you loved working on something. I think I've said THIS before, too, but the more I work on these projects, the more I start focusing on the things that bring me the most joy in them. That's a positive feedback loop I can get behind!

Episode 7 of "Crushing The Competition" is going up this Friday! If you're interested, I've also posted the first two chapters on SoFurry and Fur Affinity. I think I'll post on SoFurry about a month behind, and FurAffinity six weeks or so behind. It'll be interesting to see how those stories do with that cadence. 

I have a few ideas on stories for Macro March, but those will just have to wait until I'm caught up with the serial here.

Anywho, until Friday, buckaroos! 

-Jakebe