# Preface Date: March 7, 2026 This week I have gone through a lot of personal work. It included (as I predicted last week) a lot of rest. There was plenty of writing, but it was in my journals. And I don't count those words. That's where all the free writing and inspirational stuff goes. I learned a lot about how I write essays and how I can improve upon them. I've learned about being more assertive. After all, I am both a recovering perfectionist and people-pleaser. Those are both things I am still working on. Alongside my various projects. And that rest is hella important. After all, I need to get back to writing toward my [[Missed Connection]] work (formerly titled Project Castro), and the Game Developers Conference (GDC) is upon us. So I want to focus primarily on my visual novel. # Part 1: Non-Fiction ### 1.1 College 2.0 (what I can share, anyway) Because of this new-found confidence (halfway to The Audacity™️), I have revised my Motivation Letter for my grad school applications. # Part 2: Fiction ## 2.1 Short Story Titled: Word count: Synopsis: Notes: ## 2.2 Project Madison Flame Word count: Synopsis: Notes: Still nothing as of right now. I plan on making an outline soon out of what I have currently and move on from there. I just need a couple of projects to be completed. ## 2.3 Project Moonshadow Word count: Synopsis: Notes: I intended to write the last chapter this week. Alas, maybe soon. ## 2.4 Project Castro / Missed Connection Word count: Synopsis: Notes: I made an update to the page for Project Castro for GDC. I intend on getting back to writing the story itself. I've been stuck for a while on the story, and I've apologized to my coding specialist enough. It's time to start writing some convos for this bad boy! And get the word out about this visual novel. In the meantime, here is the link for [[Missed Connection]]. ## 3. Substack **Please note:** I'm stacking my fiction and (eventually) non-fiction for Fridays in future. So you won't immediately see the content for Substack. It's queued up. ### 3.1 Flash Fiction Friday 346 "Monologues and Monomyths" Titled: Untitled Date: March 7, 2026 Word count: 417 Synopsis: A high school boy admits he is gay to his best friend who is a young woman. Notes: It was actually a day late. This prompt was a doozy for me. This is my submission for [**@flashfictionfridayofficial**](https://www.tumblr.com/flashfictionfridayofficial/). This is a weekly prompt that I try to participate in every week. Some weeks I can’t think of anything, other weeks I do. ### 3.2 Substack I ended up writing a non-ficiton piece really late on Wednesday. Overwhelmed by a few things, I ended up on a musician's YouTube channel. And it's largely covers of others' music. And it is simply delightful. Link to that article below. ## 4. Link Roundup Below is a complete list of this week's links. I realize that if I'm gonna be showing off, the least I can do is have all my links in one basket, rather than scatter them about. They aren't seeds. Plus it makes it easier when I do this on Sunday. ### 4.1 Substack [Untitled Flash Fiction](https://open.substack.com/pub/aroacephoto/p/untitled-flash-fiction?r=2getsk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true) [Apparently It's an Escape from Reality](https://aroacephoto.substack.com/p/apparently-its-an-escape-from-reality?r=2getsk) ### 4.2 Tumblr [Untitled Flash Fiction](https://www.tumblr.com/acewriter/810462204201664512/untitled?source=share) ### 4.3 The Kitchen Sink I'd also like to include some art that I share on my art blog. [My cousin's doggos.](https://www.tumblr.com/aro-ace-artist/810221742050181120/i-told-my-cousin-that-i-have-enough-audacity-to?source=share) [A friend's cat](https://www.tumblr.com/aro-ace-artist/809135400828403712/todays-art-one-of-my-good-good-friends-cat?source=share) [A shadow study](https://www.tumblr.com/aro-ace-artist/807962716940746752/shadow-study?source=share) (this is of the German Beer Purity law) And finally, a Tumblr mutual gave a description that made me have to [draw this number](https://www.tumblr.com/aro-ace-artist/810179279168094208/ok-so-im-still-learning-values-and-sticking-with?source=share). # Conclusion This week was also big in a way that is difficult to precisely put into words. So I'll try to do that anyway. I've been THINKING of becoming a teacher. I've talked to both of my teachers this week about this. And also this week we had two big heart-to-hearts about being more assertive. They both reminded me that I can do this; become a better version of me that can set boundaries and not allow others to cross them (that sort of thing). And this newly found confidence is spilling over into my "I wanna go to grad school" idea. Why yes, I WOULD like to get a Masters Degree. And it's going to be in English. I will teach the basics to... the scholastic level is yet to be seen. But I want to teach people about English language stories as well as inspire others to write their own stories here and now in writing workshops. I want to be a teacher myself. I just need to start practicing it. Fake it til you make it, as it were. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week! The below table is mostly for myself. But if you, like me, enjoy seeing numbers go up in any capacity, then this may be for you as well. It's meant to be an encouragement to keep on writing. I tally up all the different categories of writing that I contribute to. I keep track of them monthly. | Word Type | Monthly Totals | | --------------------- | -------------- | | Project Castro | | | Project Moonshadow | | | Flash Fiction Fridays | 417 | | Non-Fiction | 582 | | Short Story | | | TTRPG | | | College 2.0 | 221 | | Grand Total | 1,220 |