hey man lol (again)

about vampires, brain juice, microdosing content creation

Sorry for pulling a Jay-Z (acting like I’m done then popping back up when no one asked me to). A handful of my friends are ramping up on making content and lovingly hinting that I should do the same, which I’ve been hearing forever, and I thought fuck it start small. I see this substack — with its 9 subscribers lol — as a way to microdose content creation. Also don’t be weird about the em-dashes if AI were involved in this it would be way more pointed and purposeful and less of a brain dump. Anyway, here.

I’ve been low-key writing some fiction. The one I’m most excited by is a story about a woman in her late 30s who’s underwhelmed by her life, is turned into a vampire, and is disappointed when she realizes nothing has really changed — she still has to pay taxes, work a dead-end job, go on bad dates, etc. but now she has to drink blood to survive. I want it to be like Nightbitch (the book, not the movie) meets What We Do in the Shadows (the show, not the movie) meets Fleabag (I fucking wish) type shit. I have a bunch of other little short story ideas that are all wacky and magical in a similar way.

But tbh, I have more been thinking about writing. I actually did have a very active writing period this summer when I used my work’s inspiration fund to join a writing group (shoutout Firefly Creative Writing), but that period is super over right now lol. Like, these mini-worlds are alive in my head but my brain doesn’t feel juicy enough to articulate them. I know often the advice is to just write but I know myself, and if I force it at the wrong time and it comes out shit that will bruise me a bit and put me off writing even longer.

Instead, I’ve been doing small things to keep the worlds alive. Obviously dropping little notes in my apps when inspo hits (“club district ghost haunting bestco on Peter st”). I also make playlists, which is great because when I want to just be reminded of the world waiting for me I’ll listen to the playlist, but if I want to kick it up a notch and contribute to the world (but don’t have writing juice), then I add songs to the playlist. Here, enjoy the Disappointed Vampire playlist.

Do you have secret creative projects? Little worlds you’re building? How do you make your brain juicy?

Love you miss you please help me protect my imaginary worlds!

LYLAS,

Armi