Taking a look back at Week 24 of 2025

What can I say about Week 24?

It didn’t go exactly as planned, but that seems to be given. I would be remiss to not mention the state my country is in, and the affect it’s having on my output. I’m finding creation…meaningless. But, at the same time, I still want to create.

I still want to write and draw and design.

Who knows what the future holds? I don’t want to end up regretting how I lived my life. I don’t know what else to do but educate and create.

I haven’t done much creating, as mentioned before.

Well. That’s not true. I did write two essays you can read here:

• Inner and Outer Mode for Fiction Writing
• The Emotional Life of Your Protagonist Affects How Readers Experience Your Story

And I created this design to continue to work on design skills:

• Design #115

I really wanted to work on my fiction writing. I did. However, I’m struggling to put pen to paper. It sucks. Ah. Oh well. On to Week 25.

Here are my goals for Week 25:

• Writing: Try to write at least 1,000 words for something — anything.
• Design: Create a design based on a practice design prompt.
• Illustration: Sketch for at least 15 minutes a day.

Inspiration and Recommendations

wild geese

A video edit of a poem by Mary Oliver of the same name. It’s an excellent edit, and I watched it at least five times.

In Defense of Bad Art (and a rant about AI)

Good Gloom posted a great rant about creating bad art to get better at it. The whole point of art is to get lost in the process, something you can’t experience when you use AI or seek perfection in your art. A reminder to keep going even when you art just plains sucks.

From Engineer to Full Time Artist: What I wish I knew starting out

Mel Armstrong shares her journey from software engineer to full-time artist. It’s always interesting to hear the stories of women transitioning from one part of their lives to another. Her story inspired me to continue to pursue my own creative passions.

a playlist that will make you feel hopeful and in love with life

As the title suggests, a fantastic playlist curated by Club Carter Radio. I listened to this playlist a lot because, as I mentioned before, I’ve been feeling really down about creating. It helped a lot to remember the beauty of creation.