Marc Rivers, Author

I have a question for the very few visitors I’ve received: why no comments? No emails? No questions? No LOVE?!

I get it (a little bit). I’m not actually going anywhere and hawking a product for sale, so that certainly limits the opportunities for outside engagement. But I am checking.

Speaking of creating a product, I am still making sad, pitiful progress on my novel so far this year. To this point, I’ve actually done more to outline the revision of a completed draft than I have to actually write said revision. It’s not all bad, though. The process has helped me better understand where to break up some of the early chapters for better pacing. (The first two chapters really needed to be three, and a couple of obvious “episode-enders” now have the chapter breaks they deserve.)

In the meanwhile, I’ve spent some of my time by making a couple of Excel files to give myself pep talks on command. One is intended for my day job and focuses on executive function, while the other is meant for making art and focuses on reminding me not to worry about how much my art might suck.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Wait, Excel? You give yourself pep talks using spreadsheet software? Recreationally?” Yes. I made a macro to randomly choose a motivational quote or pep talk from a list of options because that’s precisely the kind of nerd I am. If I knew enough programming to make a desktop app that would do the same thing, I would.

On the topic of making art, though, I’m feeling inspired by reading “The Art of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien” by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. Knowing now that Tolkien himself did artwork for Middle Earth over many years and with varying degrees of sophistication (sketches, watercolors, etc.) makes me want to stop daydreaming only about making art for my fantasy setting and actually do art.

I’d love to be able to visually express the ruined city of Herensk, reduced to a burnt husk and turned into a dragons’ den; or the modest new capital, Thráinsgrove, situated in the shadow of the majestic mountain known as the Himmalvegur; or the quiet serenity of Kálvurstad, nestled on a scarp between the White Ridge Mountains and the Wild Weald. And that’s not even mentioning my D&D campaign settings.

Plus, I think I’d like to be able to just say that I wanted to, so I did—that I even could. No, it doesn’t have to be great. I’m not making any plans to make a professional pivot into a concept artist. I just have an imagination and I want to be able to express it, you know?

Maybe I’ll seek out episodes of The Joy of Painting, see if I can pick anything up from watching and listening to those. Those episodes should be available on the PBS app, right? Surely they wouldn’t be stuck behind a paywall… (Not that I intend to do oil or acrylic painting, but there are certainly principles that would carry over into digital art, one would think. And if Bob Ross of all people can’t get me to feel better about my amateurish efforts at art, then who can?)

I’ll let you all know how that plan is working out for me—and how my novel is coming along, obviously. Be kind to one another and to yourselves. We’ll talk again soon.

-Marc