whimsy vs real life

Writing is never easy. Even when you feel inspired and assuming you have a firm enough grasp on written formats to share your inspiration, it takes effort and focus. Crafting fantasy settings, designing gameplay systems for TTRPGS, or creating a character requires skill and effort. Which makes staying in that specific state of mind even harder when life gets hectic.

For example, I was working on a setting based in equal parts on Arthurian myth and the French/English power struggles, which saw Joan of Arc wrongfully burned by the English-aligned church. Something I was explicit about when I was designing the setting was that the magical lands of Avalon and the group Joan (having survived her would-be execution) align with should be whimsical and innocent. Not stupid, not ignorant of concepts of death or difficulty, but overflowing with joy despite it. Well, it's very hard to write settings, stories, and characters who have a loving woodland forest to hide in when the real world provides no such forest or whimsical enchantment to protect us. 

So I've had to step back from the setting, rules, and saga I was so excited to work on for the last month because life threw me a damn hard curveball, and I don't feel like I'm able to maintain the purity and kindness that Avalon deserves. Instead, I'll probably work on some other settings with a darker angle because I still want to make art. But it sucks that to preserve the original tone and emotion of Avalon, I've had to step back. 

Life is a whimsy-sucking experience sometimes. But I will be back to Avalon when the fog of life lifts and the sun once again shines on my emotional cottage of hopes and dreams. Until then, I'm back to trudging through heavy metal sword and sorcery fare, which is my default setting, it seems. To quote a wise adventurer - 

"I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, I am content."