My current progress on my many projects [2026/09/19]

I have completed all of the characters (though I may come up with more while writing the story itself) and I'll start writing the collisions between everything: the chemistry between characters, the conflict that challenges everyone, and how the characters will change. Part of me feels like I am procrastinating on writing by setting up the world and characters, but part of me also thinks that this will make writing much easier.

I won't spoil everything (even though this story will likely be no good lol), but if you are wondering about the plot, it is about a regular merchant ship who has been working with the Belt Trade Union for some time and has been asked to extract a strange alien technology from an asteroid. They are the most suited for the job; Trade Union ships extracting it themselves would arouse suspicion and spark conflict; and this ship is the most available at the moment and also very skilled. I haven't figured out the plot fully yet; the main attraction of this story for me is the world itself which I figured out beforehand pretty well. But I'm excited to start writing next week!

If you are unfamiliar with what Just Roll With It is, you can visit the official website. In short, it's a role playing game about personal growth (in real life).

Yesterday, I accidentally deleted my "Just Roll With It" document, so I must start again, but I have been making good progress on becoming the person I want to be, which is a more connected and creative human. Here are the practices:

1. Reach out to three people per day This one was first one I started, because at the start of my journey, I had been struggling with friendships. And when I read Platonic (by Marisa Franco), I realized that it was up to me to take the initiative - ask people to hang out, join clubs, e.t.c - so I did so. This has been a success! Even though I don't build social plans most of the time after reaching out, I do increase my confidence. At the start, part of me feared that my friends didn't quite like me and would reject me, but as I reached out, I realized that that couldn't be further from the truth.
2. Write a short story after Duhr This was a practice I started sort of out of desperation; at the same time that I struggled with anxiety, I also watched a struthless video (I can't remember which one), and thought that creativity might "save me". So I started this practice, and I haven't regretted it. Since writing stories, even short ones, takes a surprising amount of time, I haven't yet finished a single one though I have started three. This may be because I spend too much time on story setup, so from now on, I will only spend five minutes on it, and after that force myself to write prose even if the setup is incomplete
3. Gratitude journalling As my brother once said, roughly paraphrased: "gratitude is necessary for all of the principles you'll need in life" - it gives you strength and perspective. So I started practicing it and it has been working beautifully - I now find it easier to recall the good things in my life when things get hard (which they will). A few days ago I decided to add an element of mindfulness to it; not just writing out what I am grateful for but noting how it feels in my body.
4. Make a card for a loved one Since generous people tend to have better social lives, I have decided to start practicing generosity by making cards. I am an artist so it fits perfectly!

For a while, I actually gave up on the Alphabet Album because I forgot about it… and when I came back it felt demotivating trying to get back to it. But with some encouragement from a fellow community member on the Struthless Community Discord server. My current song is "Quicksilver", which is a racing song. And I hope to complete it by next week.