Hello World

Hello? Are we live?

*Ahem*.

Welcome! If you're here, then I'm guessing it's either far enough in the future to where the start of this tiny experimental project has expanded enough to grow an audience outside of my immediate bubble, or you are someone from my immediate bubble here to witness the beginnings of this tiny experimental project expand. If one or both or neither are true, it ultimately doesn't matter. I welcome you all the same.

This post doubles as an introduction to "Fear No More" and an example of how the layout may look for future posts. The fun really begins when, in a year from now, or three or five, I can return to this very post and either confirm that my vision has held true or laugh at how much it has derailed. Whatever the result, I expect that above all else revisiting the point where it all began will prove humbling.

"Fear No More" is the start of a personal journey, one that I hope will resonate with others, with you. It is me telling myself to set aside my perfectionistic tendencies and accept my writing, my art, my music compositions, my storytelling methods as "good enough" with the skill level at which I am currently. It is permission to unapologetically flaunt my beginner-ness, albeit paired with the caveat of promising to grow. While this site will house the finished results of my various pursuits, it is the journey to reach the finished product that I wish to encapsulate within this blog, from start to finish.

And oh, buddy, do I have the list of projects/pursuits, some of which I lay before you in no particular order:

Turn the character journals/correspondence/performances I have written for my fiancé's Pathfinder campaign into a unique story. Currently I envision it as a combined web serial/audio experience.
Record some of the previous pieces I've learned on piano and upload them, which is a major hurdle for me, since my hands shake and go numb when performance anxiety hits.
Record some voice overs. And hey! You might even hear me reading these blog posts back to you someday. Makes them seem a little more personable, eh? I was tempted to do so for the launch, but I'm trying not to get ahead of myself. I succumb easily to scope creep.
Complete "Draw a Box," since I'm a self-taught artist and there are numerous gaps in my understanding of art. I started it before, arrived at the point where I would have to draw a bunch of boxes, and fell off of it.
Track and share my fitness journey.
Work on designing this site!
And more. So much more.

I hope "Fear No More" will act as inspiration and empower you to pursue your own interests, to, "Fear no more the frown o' the great... // ...Fear not slander, censure rash," (Shakespeare) and share a piece of yourself with the world if doing so scares you.

The following is what I mentioned earlier about providing an example of how the layout of future posts may look. It turns out, remembering to physically capture the step-by-step process is also a skill that requires development!

The Very Beginning

Several months ago, I was on the phone with my eldest sister, and I mentioned in passing how I was contemplating starting a web serial. She encouraged me to go for it and not to think too hard about it.

Cue me thinking too hard about it for the next few months, until the start of April. 'Do I name the site after the story? But what if I want to showcase other projects? Would this trap me into only being a "writer" even though the story would involve more than just writing? What else should it include then? Maybe something along the lines of "Jack of All Trades..."'

Thus continued the spiral until I decided to just brainstorm it on paper.

Brainstorming

Below is the physical portion of brainstorming what I wanted my "niche" for the site to encompass. To be honest, I'd been mentally sitting on some variant of "Jack of All Trades" for a while, but it felt too cliché, so I scrapped it before I even began writing.

I like anagrams and references, so at first I was thinking of something along the lines of, "Projects Lay (Laid?) Afore You," to spell out P.L.A.Y. However, I swiftly moved on from that idea after a quick laugh at myself.
From the get-go, I knew I wanted it to be a multi-purpose site, that I didn't want to be constrained to just "writer" or "artist" or "composer" et cetera in the future.
I want to leave behind some form of a legacy, whatever that may be.
The way I decided upon "Fear No More" was roundabout. As I mentioned previously, my fiancé is running a Pathfinder game, a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) similar to D&D. My character within that game is a spellcaster who has a growing interest in Ritual spells, and one such spell I've been eyeing for a while is titled, "The World's a Stage." This led me to contemplating Shakespeare, which led me to reminiscing about one of the first songs I ever sang in college titled, "Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun." Shortened the title to fit the image in my mind, and *bam,* here we are.

Further Discussion

Around the time I was brainstorming, I sent a few messages to a couple friends and my other older sister, who has experience with web design, just to evaluate what their reactions would be to the overarching theme of the site. Bolstered by their positive feedback, I became downright giddy about "Fear No More"'s potential, though I was and am trying to maintain realistic expectations, too.

My sister asked me what my goal was for the site, to simplify the actual discussion, and if I planned on utilizing other platforms such as YouTube as well. Maybe someday, but again, I'm trying not to get ahead of myself.

We set up a time to chat, which was just last Friday, and she shared some more ideas for site/pen names.

On the phone, we discussed steps to take to build the website. Though I don't yet have a logo, we tossed around the idea of whether it'd be an image or a saying, and I provided some words like, "sophisticated," "bold," "action," and "imperfectly moving forward," to help visualize the aesthetic I'm wanting.

She suggested I make a list of what elements I want to include on the site such as video embedding vs. out-linking; photo/art galleries; a blog; and more, along with perusing other similar websites and noting what I liked or disliked about their layout.

Finally, she joked about having the first blog post be a simple statement with black text on a white screen to denote the official start of this project, which was sorely tempting to do, but I wanted to show how much of the process, any process, takes place behind the scenes.

She and my friend, after hearing what my goals were for "Fear No More," convinced me to compare Wix and Squarespace and determine which I preferred, and so I did, starting with Squarespace.

Oops, I Hit the Button

When comparing pricing for the two platforms, Squarespace was by far the more appealing option for me. Even the cheapest plan for Squarespace allows for unlimited storage, whereas the "Light" plan for Wix provides only 2 GB. Yikes. That's not a lot of space whatsoever, especially for someone interested in showcasing multiple forms of media, which is why I actually began playing around with templates on Squarespace first.

I wanted to get a feel for how these platforms operated before taking notes about what I liked/disliked about other website designs. It's not as though I had to commit fully to one; I had at least the 14-day free trial on Squarespace. I could start that after my fiancé's vacation--oh, they have an AI template format. I wonder what that's like. *Click*.

Squarespace: "Congratulations! Your 14-day free trial starts today."

...

Welp. Guess we're doing this now! (Me, 6 days ago.)

Squarespace or Wix

Even on my first day familiarizing myself with both platforms, I noticed I gravitated more toward Wix's design versatility versus the simplicity of Squarespace's template setup. For me, Wix feels highly customizable without adding needless complexity to the user interface (UI), and I do oh-so-love a good rabbit hole to follow.

Squarespace, on the other hand, is clean and simple, and I like how minimalistic it can seem at times, but it's almost too simplistic for my tastes. Scrolling through the free templates and even futzing about with the AI template setup, everything became same-y to me.

Therefore, I ultimately decided to throw in my lot with Wix. I'm the type of person who struggles with drawing ideas out of nothing from the ether, but if I'm given a sound foundation, a good workspace to stretch my creativity, and am free to then let loose with my own ideas, I can have fun working my own magic.

Important to note, this isn't a review of either platform more than it is me showing the logic behind my decision. For me versatility > cost, but who's to say? Maybe in the future the inverse will be true. If nothing changes, then it wouldn't be a journey, now would it?

If you've made it all the way to this final paragraph, then I'd just like to say, 'thank you,' for reading. I hope it it was as enlightening in some way for you to read as much as it was for me to write. Have an obligatory cat picture to warm your day!

Left: Qiri (we call her Qi-Qi for short); Right: Murasaki ("purple" in Japanese; we call him Mura for short); Front: Salad Snack (a play on the name, "Solid Snake" from the "Metal Gear Solid" series.)

Fear No More