Well That’s (Almost) A Year

Hello! Welcome to the Myriad!

I am Myriai and I’ll be your host today ♥

Oh wait, this is a blog entry not a Twitch stream.

So, uh, hello there. It’s been awhile.

I will say 2025 has not been my year. It isn’t the worst year I’ve ever had, but it’s definitely not up in the top five. We went from a five cat household to a three cat household in the space of two weeks this summer and the rest of the year has been a lot more downs than ups.

One of the ups was getting to see one of my good friends in Atlanta in June where we attended a Stray Kids (KPop group I really love) concert, went to the Georgia Aquarium (which is amazing), and, most importantly, I got to spend some time with my friend who moved away from me. The other ups are more nebulous and I can’t really name them off the top of my head at the moment (if I could I would because I like good memories).

As for the downs, well, I could go into it, but then that dissertation might take up the entire blog space and I’m not really inclined to do that–I reread my blog entries from time to time and may not necessarily want to remember all the specifics so we’ll just leave it at that.

So rolling into more important stuff, let’s touch on the stuff I had hopes for doing this year–some of which happened (or will happen) and some that did not.

1. My Twitch Anniversary streamathon was lots of fun–I wouldn’t say wildly successful (and the Affiliate Anniversary subathon was likewise not successful), but my channel is very niche. I’m working on things slowly to see if I can improve things. I did get some lovely new emotes that are available on Twitch though.
2. I do have my Discord up and running if you want to drop in there.
3. My social media presence resembles my blog for the past 10 months–a veritable wasteland, but eventually I’ll figure it out
4. The website also came to a screeching halt, but I will pencil that in for 2026 to give it another go.
5. YT channel planning is still a work in progress, I am contemplating figuring out how to have my VoDs from Twitch show up there, but I’m not sure how to go about it yet. I do still have actual channel plans–but they require more work, time, money, and knowledge than I have currently and are slow going.

In relation to my Twitch Channel, I have reduced my streaming to once a week (Sundays from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM MST) with a “Special Stream” once a month that is longer and has a specific theme. For instance this month I did a sunup to sunset stream and touched on a bunch of different things–Raft, Writing, PalWorld, more writing, and some lo-fi Spirit City chill. The Sunday stream could be writing, could be games, or could be me just chatting. I think next month’s special stream is going to a MineCraft stream entitled “It’s been 10 years…” I reduced my streaming because I was starting to fill all of my free time with streams and I really need to remember to take some time for myself.

So moving into writing news. For those who aren’t familiar, may be new, or since it’s been almost a year since I posted you don’t remember–I have about three writing projects I move between because having just one doesn’t work for my particular flavor of neurospicy. So I’ll summarize the projects and talk about where I am in each of them:

Ashes of Hanazakari (AoH for acronym reference), a fantasy quintet set in a variation of the pre-Islamic Middle East–there are djinni, dragons, angels, & demons involved–built lightly around the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Quick synopsis: A young woman flees under the cover of a rainstorm on the longest night of the year to find a way to preserve her freedom and save her home—or, failing that, watch it fall.

Status: I completed the full rough draft of the first book last year in November after fighting with it since 2013–I will likely touch on the editing/redrafting of it in mid-late 2026 for my next step towards getting it out there. I have a rough blueprint for the progression through the five books of the series together to hopefully keep my plot a little more tightly knit.

Imperium Star Chronicles (ISC for acronym reference), is a sci-fi series that’s grown both incredibly long and complicated (in planning) since I started it (also) in 2013. It grew out of a desire to take a character I played in a TTRPG (Traveler to be specific) and see where her story went. The best variation of a synopsis (for the monstrosity that this series is destined to become) is: From the deep Imperial Court on Central through the shadowy depths of the crime syndicates and onto a backwater agrarian planet on the very edge of Imperium Space, a haphazard mix of rogues and geniuses provide the first line of defense against an invading empire.

Status: I am in the process of plotting/writing the first entry to the series: a duology called The Coin has Two Faces which consists of the books Ashigo’s Shadow and Ashigo’s Light. I do have an outline for the entire duology mostly done, I just need to get the writing going. Ashigo’s Shadow is about 70% complete and I’m hoping to maybe finalize that last 30% soonish. Ashigo’s Light can have a 10% on the completion meter since I did write a bit of it at one point and that’s not likely to change.

Shadows of Kurelinn (SoK for acronym reference) is a heavily D&D Adjacent fantasy series about epic heroes (read Level 20) doing epic things that I started in 2016. Synopsis: In a town where legends begin, the shadow of the green dragon called Kinath falls over Lileryn.  Characters from both sides of the spectrum step out of the Cycle of Legends back into the world as the new war for Ivaria begins. SoK itself is likely to be a four novel series, but it’s also spun off a companion duology called “The Ember Light Chronicles” (ELC in future installments) following some of the characters that aren’t quite epic level at the beginning of Shade Tree Rest (the first book of SoK) and how they become epic to rejoin the original cast in the last book of SoK for the finale. I’m not assigning ELC as its own project as it is directly related to SoK so it’s still under the umbrella of Shadows of Kurelinn.

Status: Shade Tree Rest (the first book of the series) between all the drafts I have and what I’ve figured out for an outline is at 80%. The other 20% consists of at least one epic battle, easing the passage of time between two destinations and finally winding up at the lair of a silver dragon my main character is acquainted with to try and put pieces together. My goal is to have that last 20% done by October 31st so that I can venture into some relatively new territory by starting the first book of ELC possibly titled Forgotten Embers (to go with Book 2’s title Ember Remembrance).

Though this does bring us to the next thing. Autumn Writing will be happening this year as well—there is no formal thing out there I’ve found, but writing my way through November is a long standing tradition and I’m not sure what to do with November otherwise. So, as long as I finish STR on time, I’ll be starting a brand new story (albeit connected to another story) and it should be lots of fun. I don’t often get fresh starts.

Thanks for sticking with me all the way through this. I appreciate each and every one of you.

If you’re inclined catch me on Sunday evenings or I will be trying to get back on the wagon of posting a blog entry once a month so come back in November for a new article (hopefully).

♥ ~ Myriai

Welcome to 2025

Welcome to 2025!

Things are looking a big bleak for at least the next 2 years (maybe 4 at most if we’re lucky)–but we’ll see what happens, however, I am not going to let this stop me from making some plans for 2025.

So first up!

My one year streamiversary is coming up at the end of February–since I streamed on February 29, 2024 it’s kind of a loose interpretation, but it’s what I’ve got at hand so we’ll roll with it.

In celebration of 1 year of Twitch Madness I’ve got a few things planned, but I’m always looking for more ideas. Here’s the line-up so far:

1. THREE DAY STREAMATHON!
   February 27, 2025 1st Day of the Streamthon! I will be streaming for 3 days in a row (not 72 hours straight though) in celebration of my streamiversary.
   
   February 28-March 1st 2025 2nd Day of the Streamathon! This old lady’ll be streaming from 10 PM to 2 AM (as it’s the closest I’m gonna get to the 29th until 2028)–it should be noted that after 10 PM this lady’s filters run into technical difficulties so I cannot vouch for the usual PG13 rating.
   
   March 2, 2025 3rd Day of the Streamathon
   
2. DISCORD SERVER OPENS UP (probably)
   The Myriai’s Myriad Discord will be fully opening to the public as long as I can get everything nailed down so that I can ensure a safe and fun experience for all those who choose to drop on by. I’m looking to hopefully build up a community that will provide a safe harbor in the turmoil that’s kicking up–we’ll talk writing, games, and other fun things ♥
   
3. NEW EMOTE(S)
   As long as finances work out I will be commissioning some emotes (ranging from 1-3 depending on finances) for my Twitch Channel (that will likely later translate to Discord)

I will be running a possible subathon in celebration of my Twitch Affiliate Anniversary (around April 11th)–keep your eyes on this space for further updates on that front.

I have a few more things I’ll be working on as far as my public/internet presence goes. I’ll be doing this stuff a little at a time in an effort to not get myself completely burned out.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA
   I will be working on being more active on Social Media that means kitty pictures, random selfies, excerpts of WIPs, and some other random writer girl stuff as well as some of that Gamer Girl(ish) stuff (I still play video games badly, but have fun doing it! You can find me by looking for “Myriai”–I have an author page on Facebook, Instagram, X, & Blue Sky (at this point there will be no TikTok
   
2. MYRIAI’S MYRIAD WEBSITE
   My intention is to have an honest-to-goodness website up and running by my birthday in June. This blog will be moving there as well as stuff related to Twitch, you’ll find some sample chapters from my major writing projects. I will also include links to my KoFi and whatever else is out there if you wish to support my work.
   
3. YOUTUBE CHANNEL PLANNING
   I haven’t put together exactly what I’m going to do for a YT channel (I have my name reserved though), but that’s going to be something I’m working on this year in the background looking at a possible launch in 2026 (but we’ll see), but a lot depends on how this year goes and if I think I can keep a good work/life balance.

My other goes for 2025 include: Finish the redraft of The Girl Who Would Be King (and get it out to possible beta readers while I put money together for a proper edit), get a passport (or travel ID)–this must be done before June, staying on top of household maintenance, and maybe getting a good jump on the draft for Ashigo’s Shadow.

Next month I’ll be back on my writing articles, but I figured this month would be a good one to discuss future plans for the coming year.

Thanks for being here for everything!

♥ ~ Myriai

October & November Flew By

…and I totally almost missed them.

I have no excuse for not doing a blog entry in October and here it is the 30th of November and I almost missed doing a blog entry for this month. However, here we are and I’m probably just gonna be laying down a few words to let y’all know I haven’t forgotten about you (or this blog)—I’ve just been very thoroughly distracted by anything and everything.

So I did do Autumn Writing this year—however, I didn’t get very far with it. I think I managed about 20.5K for the entire month. A chunk of that, 11.5K to be precise, was me redrafting The Girl Who Would Be King—but the other 9K? That was finishing the full draft of the story. There remains no chapter with [Cool Stuff Happens Here]–I wrote all the cool stuff and that is something I’m very, very proud of.

I think I’ve mentioned before, but The Girl Who Would Be King (GK for short) has been a work in progress since—wait for it—2013. That means I’ve been plugging away at this thing for over ten years. It has been through about thirteen drafts (albeit somewhat incomplete, but at least I knew what happened in them) in my usual circular fashion of pursuing projects. So parts of it are far more polished than other parts, but I can now formally declare that I’ve reached [THE END] and that makes this lackluster month of writing not quite as bad as it could’ve been.

GK originally started out as my attempt at a short, short story for Writer’s Digest‘s Short Short Story competition and the very first words that popped into my head for this story were:

I should have killed my father.

That line doesn’t start GK (though when I started my redraft I did drop the original prologue for it), but changed my mind. However, it’s not too far from the beginning.

The line that does start GK this draft is:

So this is what it looks like at the end.

Curious what comes after that? Well, come some time in 2025, you’ll be able to find out. I have plans to move to an “official” author website (and move this blog there too) at some point in 2025 (preferably first half of the year). I need to buy a domain, find a host, and find someone to design the site for me (or find a really good DIY site for it—my website coding stops at HTML and Frames (if I can remember it). Once I have that up and running—however, that happens—I’m going to have a few things going up. Starting with the first three chapters of The Girl Who Would Be King (Book #1 of Ashes of Hanazakari), Ashigo’s Shadow (Book #1 of The Imperium Chronicles), and Shade Tree Rest (Book #1 of Shadows of Kurelinn). I am in a current debate with myself whether or not I will (eventually) have Shadows of Kurelinn up in its entirety on my site as it is based around Dungeons & Dragons and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to traditionally or self publish it.

For now though, my creative spoons have abandoned me so I’m playing video games (specifically Valheim and PalWorld). I’m not sure if it’s a crash from the high of finishing the draft or that this December 10th marks the 3rd year since my dad passed away and it’s affecting my mental state. I think I ran into a similar issue last year, but I don’t remember for sure. I’ve slept 365(ish) days since then.

I do plan to do another entry before the end of the year, BUT if I don’t get around to it on time. I hope each and every one of you have a fantastic holiday season and that 2025 is your best year yet.

♥ ~ Myriai

Autumn Writing–and Why AI Sucks

Hello and welcome to the Myriad and my monthly blog entry!

Yes, I am cutting it super close this month, but at least I’m getting something up.

So the burning question in everyone’s mind is whether or not Myriai is going to be writing this November. (Maybe not, but I’ll allow myself some delusions of grandeur).

The answer to that question is yes, however, I will not be writing for Nanowrimo this year nor will they be getting my donations or me buying merch. I’m not sure I’m going so far as to delete my account, but I am leaning towards it.

There are a few different reasons behind this. 1) I am not going to ignore the fact that they let some things go when they shouldn’t dealing with kids, 2) They let all of the MLs in my area go with absolutely no warning on the heels of #1, and 3) They recently came out in support of AI.

I do not nor will I ever be okay with places supporting AI–especially places where creators have, in the past, found respite . I want AI to do my household chores, do common every day stuff so I can focus on other things, it can sort scientific findings and find patterns to help advance research–I DO NOT want AI writing the stories I read, making the games I play, making the music I listen to, or creating the art I look at. Art, in whatever form it takes, is a human expression that cannot and will never be able to be duplicated by a machine. So-called AI artists make me furious–charging for something that they typed a couple words into a generator to complete and that cannot be altered to suit what was requested is not okay.

People protest at how much money it costs to hire an artist to do something–what they don’t understand is that there are literal years and decades that go into perfecting art of any form be it writing, drawing, music, or anything in between. The artist/writer/composer/musician has poured hours into what they do and they have spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on various supplies, lessons, and equipment. AI ruthlessly exploits anything and everything it can skim, stealing the time, work, and tears that artists of all forms have put into their projects then corrupting it into something absolutely abhorrent in many cases. If you’ve used an AI generator to help you write–everything you wrote into that AI can now be used by someone else and there’s not a single thing you can do about it. All that buying into this “AI Revolution” is going to do is make this world a much duller, less creative, and more unwelcoming space for writers, artists, and musicians.

So stepping off that particular soap box.

Am I prepping a story in October and writing in November? Yes, I am, but I will be doing it as far away as I can manage from pages like Nanowrimo who’ve come out in support of the very thing that is going to destroy what they claim to want to protect.

So Autumn Writing is a go, but not Nanowrimo.

♥ ~ Myriai

**This month’s picture is courtesy of Spirit City: LoFi Sessions**

Why Write?

Well, here we are, almost the end of August and I still haven’t gotten a blog entry up, well, we’re gonna fix this now. As with a few of my previous blog entries since February, I wound up typing this mostly on stream which you’ll find at https://www.twitch.tv/myriai if you want to catch me live–I’m usually pretty good about putting up the schedule on social media so you can follow me on X, Insta, BlueSky, & FB @myriai .

Before we get started, I have noticed that sometimes pronouncing my screen name is an adventure, if you’re curious is it [meer EE eye] and maybe one day I’ll chat about where that name originated, but it’s not this entry.

This entry is about the all important question most writers get which is “Why write?”

There’s a lot of suggested answers all over the internet, but today I’m going to focus on why I specifically write. The answer to that is as simple as “Because I can”, but there’s a bit more to it.

I’ve mentioned before, I think, that I started writing stories when I was ten years old–in the American school system that would be about fifth grade–and I have done so ever since. But I decided to go way back and try and remember exactly what got me started writing. I think at the time I was in fifth grade I was reading a lot of Sweet Valley High, American Girl, and Trixie Belden, I’d only just started into fantasy with The Belgariad–I do know it was before I found my mom’s stash of romance novels.

How does this factor in?

The first story I ever wrote was called “Best Friends 4-Ever” and I wrote it because I was lonely. The biggest most exciting thing I could think of was finding and making friends like they did in those books I was reading. I was a latchkey kid, which meant I often spent a lot of time at home alone and there were a lot of rules. Some of which were that I came straight home and I did not leave to do anything or have anyone inside. As a result, I couldn’t go out and play with whatever friends I made in the neighborhood and I couldn’t invite any friends over so it led to a pretty isolated existence. So that leads to the first reason I started writing :

1. To Escape
   As a kid I led a pretty quiet existence and I was bored most of the time because there was nothing really to engage me at home. We had a TV, but, even as a kid, I wasn’t that interested in it. We never had a video game system so I didn’t have that–I was also a kid in the ‘late 1900s’ (ye gods that makes me feel old) and didn’t have a cell phone, tablet, and social media to doom scroll through. So a lot of my escape was reading, but eventually I ran out of books to read and I wound up writing instead. I found that like reading, I could escape into something that wasn’t my reality and do some really cool things. A lot of the times, the characters in my stories would become my friends and I could go on adventures with them–and because I was the writer I could decide how that was going to turn out (or at least that was the case when I was younger–nowadays when I write sometimes I don’t even know how it’s gonna turn out).

2. To Fill a Void
As I grew older and expanded into reading more books, I realized that there was a decided lack of strong female characters in what I was reading in the realms of fantasy. You could find stories about girl power, but they were usually stuff like Sweet Valley High, Babysitter’s Club, and things along those lines. There really wasn’t a lot of that in the fantasy novels I was reading (though I enjoyed and still enjoy a lot of them) and I wanted to see girls in fantasy and sci-fi. I really wanted to be the one holding the lightsaber, pulling the sword from the stone, or making an extraordinary journey to save the world.

And, at the age of 12, I made it my goal to create stories with strong female characters at the center of the story who could take care of themselves, not be the ‘damsel in distress’, and could be “The Chosen One” because, honestly, 90% of fantasy novels had a male protagonist as the ‘Chosen One’. Any girl their age that accompanied them seemed to be reduced to ‘damsel in distress’ and ‘love interest’ and rarely were given engaging storylines.

Modern media is working on filling those gaps that I felt as a kid. I feel like girls have a lot more strong female role models to pull from nowadays, but I still want to write one myself. I also feel like a lot of those strong female role models are caught in the worlds of ‘romantasy’ where yes the girl is strong, but she still needs to find a partner (but I could be wrong–feel free to drop examples of books/series where that is not the case in comments).

3. Because I Love It
Yes, I am totally going to throw this up here too. I write because there are a million things I want to try and put down on paper and while it can be a struggle, I love writing. I love to create worlds and have characters play around in them. I love to take some nebulous idea I have for a world, for a character, for a story and get it down to see where the journey takes me. I create characters I love and characters I love to hate. I create stories that I sometimes even turn back to for ‘comfort reads’–it’s very comforting to be able to change it if I don’t like the way something is going (since I can’t do that in someone else’s story–unless I write fan fiction).

Writing and why writers choose to write is an entirely personal experience. My reasons for writing may not be reflected in your reasons for writing, but every reason for writing is valid.

So, go forth, WRITE!

And let me know what you’re working on either in comments or pop into any of my Writing Twitch Streams–I love to hear from other creators!

♥ ~ Myriai

Outside the Comfort Zone

So here we are–July. I don’t think I’ve ever actually managed to put up a blog post in July before! We’re making progress! Of course I really do think the Twitch Streaming is helping me out a lot (I am, in fact, writing this on a stream) because it makes me sit down and focus on writing at least a few times a week to keep my stream somewhat consistent–at least in how often I stream if not being able to keep a consistent schedule. Being in front of a camera is not necessarily something I’m comfortable with, but here we are.

So before I get into the meat of the post today, I do have an announcement.

It is with great sadness I must announce that my webcomic Kitakaze no Yakusoku//Promise of the North Wind is permanently canceled. Due to real life and other concerns, Mother Roshiya, my dear friend who was doing the art, is unable to continue working on it and, as I’m not really a decent enough artist to continue it, I’m left without a feasible option currently as I don’t have the financial ability to pay someone for the art. I do hope that one day I might be able to tell this story in another format–or maybe shift over to a light novel–but right now I’m going to lay it to rest in the depths of my hard drive and focus on other projects.

I will take this moment, however, to impart a thing that I’ve learned (that is not what this blog entry is about). NEVER delete, trash, or otherwise throw away your old works no matter how much you hate them. You never know if you will one day have the inspiration for something and be like ‘Oh! I remember doing something like this for X project, I wonder if there’s something I can salvage from it’. I keep a few folders on my computer (that I back up onto a USB just in case–don’t forget the backups by the way) one is usually “Ongoing Projects 20[XX]” and that’s where I have all of the projects I plan to currently focus on for the coming year and then the other folder I have is “Old Projects” and that’s where all the projects I’m either abandoning (for the moment) or that I’m not going to focus on are put until I’m ready to dig them out. If I’m really, really upset about something in the project there may be a couple other levels of folders I have to sift through until I get to it if I decide that I need something from it, but I will not delete it.

So now diverting back to the topic I was originally going to cover in this blog entry.

I’ve visited the topic of what I term my “Summer Slump” (TM) (it’s not really trademarked by the way, but putting that there makes me giggle) I think on a couple occasions. It’s probably more generally termed ‘seasonal depression’ and oftentimes it’s usually the ‘winter blues’ because it generally (I am making very generalized observations here, no real solid research) because it happens in the winter usually just after the holiday season passes and all the glitter and sparkles that accompany the season are put away and you’re left with weeks of snow, grayness, and cold–or so I understand, I haven’t actually lived in a place with an actual winter like that since I was about four years old.

Summer here in Arizona is kind of similar? We get through all the fun and excitement of June until the 4th of July (June is exciting for me because it is my birth month and I always look forward to using my birthday as an excuse for getting together with friends and family), but after the fireworks are done and all the celebrations quiet down there’s nothing but weeks of stupidly hot weather where most of us spend our time hiding in A/C and behind blackout curtains. We drink gallons of cold beverages and hope we last until October (or November more recently) when things get a little more hospitable.

During the summer, I generally see all my productivity take an absolute nosedive. I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to write anything. I don’t want to be here during the summer. In more recent years, I started combatting it with hyperfocus. I’ll pick a project or a thing to focus on and bend all my concentration on that for the duration of the slump in order to keep myself from focusing too much on it.

This year, however, I struggled to find something to focus on–nothing I tried engaged that hyperfocus mechanism and so I decided to try something different this year.

Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone

As a writer I (and likely you) have a certain style of writing you prefer to engage in. For me I like my fantasy/sci-fi and 3rd Person (Omniscient or Limited depending on the story) point of view. It’s the place I’m most comfortable in and where I feel I can do my best writing. However, also writing the exact same genre and style can also lead to a bit of creative slump–I know I’ve been experiencing that quite a bit over the last few years though it was likely a combination of different factors. So in order to combat that slump, I decided I would try something new.

Wandering through the depths of my ‘Old Project’ folder, I ran across something that I’d put away (see my earlier bit does actually tie in a little) and I pulled it out. After dusting it off I realized it had very little resemblance to anything I was working on. “Lady Cougar” was written in a near-future Earth it was sort of sci-fi because there was some advanced technology, but actually closer to a western (like Old West). It was also written in first person which has never been a comfortable PoV for me–I find first person narrative very limiting and oftentimes struggle trying to get everything put together in the story that I want to convey to a reader. I very much enjoy the freedom of being able to switch to another character to give insights, but with first person you don’t have that option.

While I was reading it, I got hit by a bit of inspiration–and realized that it was oddly freeing to work with something I wasn’t as familiar with. I learned that because it wasn’t as familiar to me I wasn’t as tense about it and I didn’t have as many of the constant ‘is this the best it can be’ thoughts that I do when I’m writing on my regular projects. Mostly because I knew it wasn’t going to necessarily be the best because it wasn’t something I’ve spent literal decades learning and doing.

Stepping outside your comfort zone is absolutely scary and sometimes it takes a lot of determination to actually stick to it and not retreat back to the paths you’re used to traversing. Believe me, I am super tempted to go back to my more familiar stomping grounds, but I determined that this summer I’d go outside those and try different things. Of course one of the downsides of working on “Lady Cougar” is that I haven’t done nearly the amount of worldbuilding for that story as I have for a lot of my other stories and so then I found myself getting bogged down in that.

I’m still brainstorming my way through worldbuilding in “Lady Cougar”, but while that’s going on I decided to double down on that going out of the comfort zone thing and the project I picked up for Camp Nanowrimo this year is even further outside of my comfort zone. Not only is it in first person (though honestly I may switch to third, but I’m trying not to), but it is also a romance–I have not written romance since I was in my late teens, early twenties (that’s a long time ago, I refuse to calculate the number of years right now). I think the stories (because why not triple down and plan three books around this) fall under the romantasy(?) category, which is also something that while has some familiar ingredients is something I’ve never (at least in my memory) written about.

I feel like the process in breaking out of your usual comfort zone is something that every writer should try at least once–even if the writing is a hot mess and you’ll never, ever let it see the light of day.

Why do you ask?

Well, there’s a few reasons.

1. Writing outside the box can be freeing.
   Because when you’re working in something that you’re not familiar with, I think it’s easier to shrug off ‘mistakes’. You know that you’re not experienced with whatever you’re working on and that makes it simpler to forgive yourself if you don’t think it’s perfect.
2. It makes you think outside the usual box.
   All your usual answers to problems in the writing probably won’t work if you’re not in the usual zone so it makes you rethink and consider different ways to do things. Having to think of different options then can reflect back in your usual writing.
3. You learn new things.
   If you’re like me and when you go into something you’re not familiar with, you’re going to go look things up. It may also spur you to go into different territory in what you read as well that will then reflect into your writing whether it’s in or out of the comfort zone.

Putting this ridiculously long post into a tl;dr format:

Writing outside of your comfort zone can lead to jarring you out of a creative slump because it makes you think with a different part of your creative brain. In thinking with that different section it can loosen things and give you new tools for your arsenal when you go back to your usual territory.

Or maybe you’ll even find some new stomping grounds.

Have a lovely rest of your month and I’ll catch you next month with a new blog entry.

If there’s anything you, my dear readers, would like me to cover in a blog entry feel free to drop me a comment and let me know. Or pop into my Twitch Stream or on the various socials and toss it my direction.

Until next time–Take care!

♥ ~ Myriai

I’m Not Done Yet–And Neither Are You

Well here we are, Summer Solstice once again. It usually seems like if I make a post around this time of year it’s usually my last post until sometime in October (maybe). My goal this year is to make that not the case–we’ll see how successful I am in that. However, if I write my blog entries on stream then that’s one way I can make sure I get them written.

For those who don’t remember or aren’t aware, I have started a Twitch channel that focuses primarily on writing with an occasional venture into Dungeons & Dragons or games of some form or another. You can find me at https://www.twitch.tv/myriai if you want to drop in for some writing fun. Most of my streams tend to be a very “Write With Me!” bent and I’m always willing to chit chat about your projects. I also offer free writing advice if you want to bounce some ideas off of me. What qualifies me? Well, I’ve been writing since I was 9 years old–pretty sure I picked up a few tricks here and there ♥

However, this entry isn’t about that, that’s just me shamelessly promoting my channel.

Today’s entry is about the fact that on June 15, I turned 45 years old. I am now officially closer to 50 than I am 40 and I probably definitely qualify as middle-aged now (if I didn’t already). Though apparently in my mind I’m still in like my late 20s or early 30s because coworkers keep telling me about their lives and I keep thinking “Ye gods, you’re too young to [insert thing here]” then realize that they’re in their 30s not their 20s (which is where my brain places them).

Though it was fun when I went to Wal-Mart on my birthday, the cashier insisted I only looked like I was in my late 20s or so ♥ (Thank you dear cashier lady for thinking I’m so young, you made my day 😀 ). Pictured above is the haul I took out of Office Max and Wal-Mart when my sister and my mom decided to let me go in and skip around one of my favorite playgrounds. I spent way too much money (though my mom and sister did buy a few things for me out of the piles of crap I picked up), but I had a really good time doing it ♥ I may be 45 now, but I still love me some Stitch, dragon coloring books, and pretty pens.

If you want a secret of getting to my heart? Buy me pens and notebooks XD (or dice, that also works nicely).

One of the downsides of hitting level 45 is that I’m realizing yet again I’m not a world famous author yet nor am I independently wealthy or even really doing more than just doing the day-to-day survival thing, but I did have something run across my Facebook feed that made me feel a lot better.

This little gem put things in a much better perspective for me. There’s still a lot of life left to live after the age of 45 especially in this time period. Medical care has advanced enough that living into your 70s or even 80s is actually a viable thing and, if you take care of yourself, even enjoyable. I see some pretty spry old guys and gals come through my pharmacy and I love to hear about some of the things they’ve been up to. One of my coworkers is in their 70s and still working full time and is in pretty good mental and physical health–what that translates to? Well if you’re 45 you probably still have at least 20 or 30 good years ahead of you or if your genes are really good longer than that and that’s plenty of time to go chasing some of your dreams.

I’m not done at 45 and neither are you.

Here’s to another 25-30 years!

♥ ~ Myriai

Let’s Get this, Write

So it has now been officially just over two months since I started up my Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/myriai if you haven’t checked it out yet) and I’ve been consistently streaming every week. Sometimes it’s just once a week (on weeks when my work schedule is particularly rough–7 days straight in pharmacy is no joke–or usually on the weeks it’s my turn to be the weekend tech) to three times per week (when I’m feeling particularly ambitious or I’m on vacation like I was this week). Most weeks I do two streams–usually on Saturday mornings (Coffee, PJs, & Productivity) and either a random day that works out or Thursdays since I’m off usually around the same time every Thursday (though if I get back into Critical Role…I may end up moving those streams). The not-Saturday stream is usually either a ‘Sip ‘n’ Write’ or sit down and write with me without timers couched in some cute-ish sounding possibly alliterative title (Myriai’s Midafternoon Tea, Myriai’s Midafternoon Madness). I do occasionally do game streams–my original intention was on weeks where I did that bonus ‘extra stream’, the extra stream would be a game of some form, but I’ve been leaning hard into the writing thing.

Looking back over the past couple months, I realized having that sort of set time for me to sit my butt down at a computer and write has helped quite a bit. Admittedly I don’t always write on the days I am not streaming (I’m working on that–the Summer Slump (TM) is looming and I’m never sure when it’s going to kick in)–but I do write usually upwards of 1,000 to 2,000 words on the days I’m doing the writing streams. Well at least the productivity writing streams. Sip ‘n’ Writes usually wind up with me talking far too much and not nearly enough click-clacking of the computer keys, but I still get something written and something written is better than nothing written.

There’s a Jodi Picoult quote that sits near and dear to my heart:

You can’t edit a blank page.

I will be the first to say that the pages that I type up on my stream are far from perfect and they’re going to need some tweaking and shifting at some point in the future, but they’re written and that makes a lot of difference. The stuff I’ve written on those pages may also wind up removed from the primary work, but that is okay.

Why is it okay?

Because it means I wrote them and writing those words probably got me started on a train of thought that leads to more words being written–words that I’m going to keep. And really, that’s kind of what counts. It take a whole lot of bad words to come up with better words ultimately leading to the best words (at the time). Sometimes just getting those words down is half to two-thirds of the battle because once they’re on that page you can edit them, you already created them.

The other advantage to having written those words on stream is that now they’re mine and I can go through them. Even on days when I don’t get a whole lot written, I can go through what I sat down and wrote and even if I’m just tweaking it I’m doing at least a little writing. Sometimes as I’m editing and tweaking the words, new words pop into my head to be written down and taken care of and the cycle continues and that’s how books get written. You start with a sentence that sentence turns into a paragraph, the paragraph turns into a page, those pages turn into a chapter, and the next thing you know you’re sitting with several chapters written and what may be a complete story in your hand.

So the TL;DR gist of this entry: Sit your butt down and write even if you hate every word appearing on the screen there might be something to salvage.

Now I don’t necessarily suggest that you start up your own Twitch Stream to force yourself to sit down and write unless that’s something you want to do. I spend a lot of very awkward moments in front of the camera and every once in a while it feels overwhelming even if I just have an audience of 3 or 4 (two of which are probably my niece and nephew lurking in the stream to support their favorite aunt because they’re amazing kids). But if you hop on over to Twitch (if that’s your thing), you can find lots of great writers doing streams that may help and inspire you to keep doing what you need to do: Write.

Heck–drop by my stream and we’ll get some writing done together and on Sip ‘n’ Write nights you can tell me all about your current project or ask me questions. If you’re struggling with something in your writing–drop on by when I’m live and you can toss a question into the chat and I’ll do my best to answer in such a way that you can figure out the answer.

But yeah.

Write.

♥ ~ Myriai

Leaping into a New Adventure!

So here is is the end of February beginning of April, I’ve been tossing around the idea in my head about what I am going to do my blog entry about and came up blank. Then PalWorld happened and everything that I’ve planned to do in the last month two months got waylaid for like 247 hours (so far). However, there are still things happening one of those things is that I started my Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/myriai ) with the first stream on Leap Day (February 29th) and I do stream one to two times weekly with an occasional third “bonus” stream thrown in.

I stream primarily writing stuff with a handful of Dungeons & Dragons (because why wouldn’t Dungeons & Dragons be involved?), and dipping into an occasional game stream where I play video games badly (trust me, I’m bad at video games >.> , but they’re fun and I like it that way)–so far I’ve played a little bit of Baldur’s Gate III and PalWorld on stream and I love running the Placid Plastic Duck Simulator and just chatting when I’m supposed to be writing.

The primary streams I do are as follows:

Coffee, PJs, & Productivity which is a stream were I primarily concentrate on writing and running some pomodoro timers. Those usually run on Saturday mornings from 10 AM until 2 PM my time (AZ Mountain Standard).

Sip ‘n’ Write is usually my Thursday night stream if I am streaming on a Thursday night. It’s a laidback writing stream where I drink Dr. Pepper and do a lot of chatting instead of writing and we watch plastic ducks fall from the sky (above mentioned “Placid Plastic Duck Simulator”).

Just Writing is my typical writing stream where I pick up one of my projects and do some writing and share a bit of my writing process ranging from how I “outline” books (usually bulleted lists) to some of the research I do to try and make my setting a little more real. I also tend to wax a bit poetic on how much I love different aspects of writing and enjoy answering and asking questions of other fellow creatives and how their process works.

Dungeons and Dragons This can cover anything from world building a D&D Campaign (something I’ll be doing a bit more of in the future) to building a character for a future Dungeons & Dragons campaign I may be participating in. Other times I just go into the game and some of my thoughts on it and I will answer questions presented about it for those who are curious and want to get into it a bit.

My streaming schedule fluctuates a bit due to the fact I work in retail pharmacy and my hours aren’t always the same. If you’re interested, check out my channel’s About Tab and the first one is going to have my schedule for the coming week. Also if you follow my Facebook Author page (https://www.facebook.com/Myriai) I’ll post up the schedule there as well.

I’ll do an actual entry of some form next month–I think…

Until then…take care! Maybe I’ll see you during one of my streams ^_^

♥ ~ Myriai

Follow Through

Of course a “Year of Eight” is not really a thing that exists in this world, but the writer girl part of me was tickled by the coincidence. It’s actually a direct reference boldly taken from my WIP The Girl who would be King, a fantasy novel based in a vague pre-Islamic, fantastical version of the Near and Middle East around the Late Bronze Age(ish), that I’ll be shamelessly talking about if not in this entry, an entry in the near future ^_^ However, GK (my acronym for it) is something to be discussed a bit later while I go into a bit of personal stuff for the rest of this entry.

With it being a new year, that usually comes with what people like to commonly call “New Year’s Resolutions” and, honestly, a good 90% of those resolutions are generally broken before midnight on January 31st. However, one of my besties mentioned something the she learned from one of her other friends called “One Little Word” and I’ve chosen to embrace that this year instead of writing down another list of resolutions I may or may not keep. For me, my ‘one little word’ is actually two words “Follow Through”, but it encapsulates one thing “Progress”. Why didn’t I choose “Progress” as my one word, seeing as it is actually one word? Well, in my head “Progress” feels like it’s a lot heavier weight than just “Follow Through”. Following through can mean something as simple as following through on a promise “Yes, I’ll watch that episode with you” or it can be something big like following through on a project you’ve been planning for literal years–or a manuscript that’s seen thirteen different iterations since your originally thought of it back in 2013 (I’m talking about a friend…not me…really–okay, yeah, it’s me…) that you’re finally planning to push to the point where you can actually write [THE END].

So this year I plan to Follow Through on several things I’ve had cooking on my figurative stove for a long time–in the case of some of them over a decade. I’m not sure I’m going to push all the way through to the end on them, but I’d like to at least try. I have a rough plan for the year and we’ll see how it goes. So here’s the plan.

1. January 2024: See The Girl who would be King through until [THE END]
   
   I met a fellow writer on a friend’s Discord and we’ve agreed to exchange novels on January 20th. This means I need to get ALL of GK finished before then and, to that end, I’m going to be taking a vacation from work and spending as many of the days as I can getting the rest of this story on paper. I’ve rewritten Part 1 at least thirteen times and the pieces of Part 2 that I have done at least 7 times, but I’ve yet to actually write the story for Part 3 (but I have a really nice bulleted list of what’s supposed to happen in it written down). If I can accomplish this strike that—WHEN I accomplish this, I will be able to write [THE END] on a novel-length story for the first time since I was about 18 (the story I wrote then will never see the light of day most likely).
   .
2. February-March: Myriai’s Myriad, get the YouTube Channel out of the dusty idea box it’s been sitting in and get it in order to make a debut. 
   
   I’ll probably be a bit sporadic about updates on it at first as I’m going to be feeling my way through it mostly solo, but it’s something I’ve planned since about 2021 and I want to see it through.
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3. April (~May) 2024: Finish Shade Tree Rest (Or Seventh Concord–the title’s kinda up in the air at the moment) for Camp Nanowrimo. I also have had this (or a variation thereof) plotted out since around 2016 or so and I’d like to finish that as it’s going to be a building block towards my YouTube Channel and its content. Plus, after the sweeping epic that’s going to be GK–I think it’ll be nice to kinda sit back, relax, roll some dice, and write some expansive descriptions. STR is part of Shadows of Kurelinn, which I suppose is an epic fantasy of its own as it’s a trilogy (the next titles are Forges of Lelna Dorei followed by Shadow of the Green Dragon), but since it’s roughly based around D & D I feel like it’s not going to be as big of a world building endeavor.
   .
4. June 2024: Launch a Twitch Channel (also Myriai’s Myriad) if things seem to be progressing nicely between now and then–this could get delayed until later, but that will be A-OK.
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5. November (~December) 2024: Ashigo’s Shadow is going to come out of the archives and my next goal will be to finish that one. The story was completely written, but like GK, this one has a lot of places where I kind of glossed over things and I intend to write them all out this time and maybe even write [THE END] on it too–it would be neat to go from zero things completed to 3 things completed (at least through the first draft version) then we’ll see where 2025 takes things from there ^_^

There are a few other things that I am looking to follow through on as well that were kind of left on the shelf over the course of the last three years or so (maybe four years, I’m not sure) among these include: get a passport, open an editing side hustle, and get more than two or three books read over the course of the year. I also want to at least check into some medical issues I may have, but those get a little too personal for things like this. This blog is also included on my list, I’d like to actually consistently post at least once a month over the course of 2024, and I also need to take more initiative in my social media posting over on my Facebook Page, on X and BlueSky, and probably on Instagram as well.

Also within that intervening time (as I know there’s a large gap in between a couple of the goals), I intend to write/finish a couple Star Wars fan fic pieces and get them up, likely on AO3. My nephew managed to drag me back into the Star Wars corner of the galaxy with Ahsoka–and, to be honest, if I can avoid parts of Ep IX and don’t get involved in any fandoms too deeply, I do still very much enjoy Star Wars ^_^

It’ll be interesting to see where this year takes me and look back on how this intention to “Follow Through” served me over the course of the next twelve months.

For now, I need to go get some sleep as my day job during this time of year is rough and tends to eat up large chunks of my creative spoons without me realizing it until I get home and find myself staring at a blinking cursor on a draft and see the word “The…” as the only thing typed in the past three hours.

♥ Myriai