This is... not...

I have less free time because I can't keep focus. I can't keep focus because I'm always tired. I'm always tired because I've been waking up at fuckoff in the morning. I've been waking up at fuckoff in the morning because I've been going to sleep earlier because I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted because I have less free time...

...that harried the cat that chased the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

Things escalate. They can sometimes escalate without control. They can sometimes escalate despite control.

On the plus side, I have readers who like my writing. On the minus side, they like me writing fanfic snippets according to the prompts they send me. They're not that evidently fond of the stuff I'm trying to write on a pro level.

I am getting an audience... for fanfic.

Not to sneer on fanfic, mind; it's how I learned how to write good. It's just that fanfic doesn't and can't pay the bills. It's illegal to make money off of someone else's published IP. That is, unless you're writing for a franchise. They pay you for it then, and give you guidelines to follow like a robot. Beep firkin boop.

Ahem.

I'm not writing for a franchise when I'm writing fanfic. I'm writing for props, love, and the off chance that someone might buy me a ko-fi.

A chance that has gone down the plughole thanks to Tumblr revoking links from search parameters. I get that they're trying to purge the porn bots, but - really? Links are only one part of the whole, there, friends.

Links are how content contributors actually make money to live off. Links are what makes people realise that content contributors need cash to pay for medicine, clothing, food, drinks... rent. All those things that are expensive on the poverty line.

As it is, I'm pretty much on Tumblr for the people I follow. As they leave, there's less and less to keep me there. As Pillowfort nears completion, I'm willing to bet money that Tumblr will become a ghost site. Only the neonazis and porn bots will frequent its hellish blue landscape.

Tumblr is where I got my start, all the same. I made a decision to write a story a day one year, and I've kept it up for quite some time. It's done me good, I think. I've never had writers' block since I started. That's something.

I am definitely going to switch to Pillowfort if the spam-finding algorithm excises me from their record of decent citizens. I have screencaps of the prompts. I can keep going.

...This is fine...

Sometimes, like now, I feel that just because I can deal with things, doesn't mean I should have to deal with things. The staff at Tumblr repeatedly ignored complaints about neonazis and porn bots, and now the system's infected to a degree that the app is no longer visible in the app store. That's what you get for being Mr Quiet when it comes to valid complaints.

Meanwhile, I have no control over what happens on Tumblr and I just have to... carry on. Keep moving forward in the hopes that I don't faceplant on some unanticipated obstacle in this winding pathway of life.

If I just keep writing, I could be a sung hero instead of an unsung one.

I just have to figure out ways around the current clusterfluff in my way.