Rise and grind, everyone!

Our writings wait for no man! ...or woman! ...or non-binary individuals!

Today is a Writing Day for me (well, most days are when I can slip into me schedule, but that's not the point) and I wanted to posty-post a little journal to update you all.

Firstly, next submission will be a one-shot betwixt me and  arcwuff that shall be... spicy. (Love ya, babe!) Very 18+ - so enter at your own risk! All the classic warnings will be posted on the page, so you know you're getting yourself into! :D The next chapter in The Providence Chronicles will soon follow that. What shall Oliver wake up to? Will he still have the haunting dreams of cult people?! Will he fall in love with the handsome lion and run away together and have a white-picket-fence suburbia home - or will the "deer"-ol George ruin things...? (see what I did there? ..."Deer" instead of "dear"? No? .... *kicks can* ....Moving on.)

There is another story that's fancied me. And weirdly enough I outlined in my noggin. But, of course, there's still much that's going on. Providence is a challenge enough, as it is. However, I might start scheduling entries, so nothing gets lost/left behind. But if it does happen, it'll most likely be after I've made a dent in Providence. I'll say nothing on it, save for that it'll be spicy, but long-form.

But also, sometimes I gotta reign myself in. I've got so much on my docket. So... *smacks my own wrist* ...I shall behave.

For now, anyway.

The last thing I wanted to broach with everyone was a very specific discussion. The prologue: This lion was doing his normal morning routine, plucking floss between my teeth before they'd endure the great cleansing that is brushing. Of course, I needed a little noise to fill the silence of the mornings. So, naturally, I had pulled the You of Tube. Such a lovely place it is. And one of my... not favorite channels, but one that's always held my curiosity had posted a video on the Seven Levels of Fantasy.

Video here: https://youtu.be/ZrVTIYlhqUw?si=Tzx08MY1ho_9vC0k

Daniel Greene basically outlines different levels of fantasy-written literature into levels, 1 being the least remarkable and 7 being the peak of all the genre. There's quite a bit that I agree with him on here - especially with number 1 being written by AI (we do not stan AI in this house, sorry not sorry) and number 7 being the territory of Tolkein. (In my humble opinion, I think CS Lewis belongs there, too. I'm a Lewis-lover, even if he has... interesting ideas about humankind.)

Side-but-important note: I only made it halfway through the video - so maybe Daniel said an aside before I could hear anything to the points I make in this journal. But here we go...

As I thought on it, I started to feel icky about the whole idea of categorizing fiction.

I come from the world of filmmaking, which is a different art in its own right (I write/direct my own stuff; it's mostly been shorts thus far, but I hope to make the transition to features and tellys.) And let me tell you all, moviemaking is hard. Even Arc has seen me all stressy-wessy and sad during the gruelling three-months of making a project. There's a lot of beating yourself up and wishing you never existed and thinking that plumbing would be better suited for you than your dreams.

But writing is the same mountain to climb, yeah?

I think from a perspective of being a working writer and seeing something like the Levels of Fantasy could put the challenge on the writer's shoulders. But also... what if the writer is just content writing something on a different level? (Except for Level 1, don't use AI.) I'm not saying complacency is the name of the game and improvement should not be sought. And I certainly think we could reach Level 7 if we all aspired and worked on art all day and all night.

But even I fell into this trap. Long story short: there was a time I wanted to be like Hayao Miyazaki & Akira Kurosawa and do things in the high-class form of art like they did. Eventually, I came to realize that what interested me and my goals didn't fully align with just delivering high-form all the time. I'm a softcore lion sometimes! I enjoy cheesey stuff, but also challenging stuff, but also asking my own questions that don't necessarily go into the high-art realm.

I dunno... I hope my fellow writers continue to grow and aspire to be their best selves. But maybe "levels" isn't a system we need to abide.

Ugh. Sometimes these artistic industries are weird and difficult and existential. But let me know your thoughts!

And you deserve a song of the day for making it through this long journal (if ya did, thank you! <3)

Song: https://youtu.be/D9X8nlC7HUg?si=-99-pc8wFm9tYeT4

With love,
Curtis