I have a job interview tomorrow (cringe job. not a job I want. fail employer). wags my tail so so sadly.

saw a post criticizing lore rekindled a while back, and one of the points made was "it's unfair to rachel that someone else can profit off and make money off her work"

do you profit off lore rekindled??? i don't remember if you ever said that you were monetizing lore rekindled, so i'm unsure where this piece of information came from

I literally do NOT profit off Rekindled in any way shape or form, it's a Tumblr comic that's free to read, zero subscriptions, paywalls, or ads.

I did just recently open a Patreon and apply my Twitch channel to become affiliate, but 1. my Patreon doesn't have any paid members yet , 2. my Patreon won't be offering rewards that limit the reading experience of Rekindled (it's gonna be like random doodles n junk), and 3. I haven't even streamed since I applied for Affiliate and people are watching the streams for art and lo-fi, not for any sort of exclusive reading experiences that wouldn't also be accessible on Tumblr (you just get to watch me slowly work on Rekindled while playing FF XIV LMAOO) All of these restrictions I have in place is to prevent exactly what folks assume or accuse me - profiting off Rachel's IP. At the end of the day I just wanna create an AU fanfic project, even if it's created out of disappointment for what could have been.

I *do* spend a few hundred a month though for my assistant. So I'm working on Rekindled completely at a loss, out of my own pocket. So in that regard, even if I were to monetize any part of Rekindled... it wouldn't be for my own profitable gain, I'd maybe be able to cover some of my assistant fees 🤣 (but that's just hypothetical food for thought, because as I said above, I don't want to monetize Rekindled because of the potentially legal and ethical issues in doing so. Making money is also just not why I'm making Rekindled because it's something I wanna just do for fun! Money complicates things, turns shit into a job :'0) And let's be real, in that hypothetical scenario, I don't think any money I could generate on my free to read Tumblr project would come anywhere close to threatening Rachel's bottom line 🤣

And this isn't to throw anyone under the bus but when people get suspicious of Rekindled profiting off LO, I can't help but think of the actual fans of LO selling handmade LO merch on Etsy and LO-style adoptables and other arts and crafts dedicated to their favorite comic. And I'm not gonna judge them for that, more power to 'em if people wanna buy their cool stuff (and some of it is really REALLY cool, like I wanna buy their stuff too LOL), I just think it's ironic that people separate the two because... I'm not a diehard fan? Or because Rekindled has gotten popular here. Beats me. All that "popularity" is still just a niche remake of a niche comic in a niche medium. It's not Spiderman Lotus levels of big 🤣 but I know it probably feels that big to people who are engaged with this fandom and spend a lot of time in it.

There's an opposite side of being a yes man that perpetuates similar behavior on the other side - when you come up with reasons to rag on someone just for the sake of it because you can't rationalize them NOT being the all 100% pulp of evil LMAO (and I see people do this even to Rachel and it's not fair imo, like people who use the Lolita thing as a way to accuse Rachel of being a legitimate pedophile? Like no, I don't think we should be normalizing serious accusations like that. I think she's just misinformed in a lot of ways at worst and suffering from dark romantasy porn brainrot at best LOL).

Like, as an example, I've also seen people claim stuff like I'm in the fan spaces telling people not to read LO and to read LR instead? Which like... why would I do that, LR isn't for the fans anyways and I don't gain anything by being a dick in their space 🤣 If my own readers are doing that, that's out of my hands (but respectfully don't do this please!!! there's a reason I don't use the standard LO hashtags and only stick to the anti ones!!!!) but again (and this is a big assumption so take with grains of salt) I think people just like to claim these things because they feel it's just naturally the right thing to do when someone who has opinions they don't like actually puts them into action. Because now they can't say shit like "well if you think you're so much smarter than Rachel why don't YOU write the story!" and "you don't know what it's like to manage a comic!" so they grapple onto whatever other argument they can even if it's misconstrued or entirely pulled out of thin air and not backed up with any legitimate evidence.

Their perspectives make sense to them. My perspective makes sense to me. I don't blame people for being suspicious when they see someone like me pour this much time and effort and money into a project like Rekindled, they assume it HAS to do with something they can rationalize from their own point of view, like wanting to "steal" Rachel's work or profit off it or take it for myself out of "jealousy".

Sorry to disappoint y'all with a boring answer, but I'm just someone who was once a huge fan of LO and couldn't let it go. I'm just someone who's way too hyperfixated, with a lot of passion for making comics and experience to match. I'd still be making it even if I didn't have an assistant. I'd still be making it even if I was stuck working with nothing but paper and pencil. Because I love making it and I love what it means to me, and I love that it makes other people feel the same way I do about it.

And that's really all I have to say on that.

I appreciate your life thriving as well. To answer "transfaabulous" question: i am doing fine in fact amazing for myself. I have a long list of deeds of things I've done throughout. I think what was it? Maybe the year at best. And then even then a little bit past that. it's been pretty good and actually I don't take any meds anymore. What I do now is I take CBD. I've actually found it more optimizable for what I need. A supplement to be utilized for what I do because I am a type of person where I'm very much more active when I'm trying to get things done and when I take any of the other antidepressants or anything, it's too uncontrolled on on my end for when I'm trying to think of things and process stuff. with the way it deals with my anxiety i'm able to actually optimize pushing myself more in that way so that i can go through more anxious situations. Though I tend to take a few beers or cigar maybe here or there every few months, or maybe even spacing that out even further. It's actually surprisingly tedious for me to keep up interest in habits like that.

And even then, technically, that's only half of it. I am trying to do more, so process myself psychologically and analytically with my own behaviors. I've been studying a lot of Carl Jung specifically. And other forms of various types of psychology. not only that some philosophies. I did dipped in Netzech a bit. Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Musashi, Marcus Aurelius, and a bit of Aristotle soon coming up. I have also Taoist literature soon arriving and I'm looking into more philosophical and. What's the word? Symbolic and spiritual studies concerning ceremonial magic and certain other. Umm. Concepts. It's a lot of. High processing conscious thought, but I have been making very much great progress in actually applying myself. I've been making good money on a couple of jobs and I am soon to looking forward to opening a business soon through a DBA or something like that. Long term, I'm looking into a lot of various big projects, but they'll need more capital and means of getting those done. But I have the books ready and I take a lot of studying.

My health has been pretty good as well. I've I think I've lost. What was it? 4 inches on my waist? No, wait, it was 6 alright. Uh OK. I've trimmed off like a few. Was it 10 20 pounds? Forty, maybe. No. No, I was heavier way back when this was all relevant. Probably 40 to 50 relatively. Been trying to keep up swimming and Weight lifting. And all while I've been doing that, you know all the self health growth stuff I've gotten decently into cooking. I'd like to make a few mean burgers, steaks. Uh, what was it? Octopus. Liver, chicken liver, beef liver? Fish, looking into bone marrow. All types of **** I just throw on that grill. I love to take pictures. It's fun making that stuff decent and right to tste Sometimes I still stick to drawing. But not as much. Practice a little bit of acoustic guitar, but haven't been able to come up with an idea of where I want to go with that. I feed all sorts of birds. rabbits ducks squirrels in my back yard like my whole backyard is full of its own ecosystem. and considering how movies have been and all of the current stuff i've decided to just try to go into exploring operas and stage plays that they could put on in the movie theater instead. It's very fun stuff, very intense and like interesting to kind of. Analyze.

Family relations are good and I have a couple of friends who do well sticking around to, you know, get some activities done when we can. I've also found it better to just not exist on the Internet as a persona or anything. It doesn't work for me like that. Computers for me are more of a tool or something in that manner for calculations or anything.

If anything I have become a stable powerhouse of what Steve was, and what Steve is still considering all the time back then ago. I am the "adventure" and the "experience": as I've been told.

==End of Submission 2==

Steve, my dude, I'm glad you're doing okay, but I don't even begin to have the energy to dissect everything going on in this.

I think your voice to text think cannot spell Nietzsche (which fair neither can I), and let's just leave it at that.

Does your doctor know you're only taking CBD to replace these medications?

Hi, may I ask you for some writing advice? I'd like to know how is your whole process in writing a story. I mean, I've been pretending that I write for about 10 years or so and from a couple years to date I haven't been able to concrete a damn thing, like I have lots of wips and even more ideas but when it comes to actually write them I just can't? And I'm aware that I never had a routine, only had a friend who kept "nagging" me to go on but can't anymore and I feel like I can't do it on my own?

Hello! Sorry, I haven’t gotten to reply to this yet, I did see it come in a few days ago but I wanted to pause and think about my response.

Firstly, I think if you spoke to any writer, they’d say they struggle with everything you’ve outlined above! I’d say the only time it’s easier is when you’re being employed to write. When I had a writing job I was extremely good at writing ... But then I’d get home and my fiction suffered because all my writing juice was gone. It’s a fine balance and I definitely go through phases of struggling to find time to write or struggling to be inspired or motivated by my ideas, but I think to a degree you need to get used to working through those times and accept at the end of the day, like most other things, to succeed you need discipline. The difference between good and great is usually just working at it more.

Each story is different really, but I find there’s always a point where I tire of it or feel like it’s not clicking right. Most of the time that’s me being lazy, because I’ve thought about the story so much I get to the point where writing it out feels tiresome but you have to just push through. It sucks, I wish I had easier or better advice, but sometimes you just have to make yourself.

I had an English teacher at school who used to tell me to stop waiting for writing to get easier. I’d plan relentlessly or hold off on writing something until I felt like it, and she’d tell me it isn’t going to magically get easier in the future. I just had to write it. I think that’s the best advice anyone has ever given me, and I apply it to more than just writing if we’re honest. 

Going back to your ask though! I think lots of people suffer from too many ideas and too little writing time. It’s super common, I think on some level maybe you might be waiting for the story that writes itself. I’d argue these stories don’t exist. 

There comes a point where you’re going to have to actually write one of them, and I promise you during the writing process you’ll have moments of hating it, or doubting the idea is any good, or not feeling like it. You have to push through. That’s how stories get written. People write them.