It’s truly disgusting the number of hours I’ve logged on this game. I won’t even admit what it is. But I will tell you that it’s enough to garner very strong opinions about the citizens of Pelican Town. And if YOU’VE played Stardew and decided to marry one of the singles… then I have strong opinions about you too lol.

Here are the reasons that I think you chose the NPC that you chose:

Alex

• He reminded you of a crush you had in high school
• You needed someone big and strong to fix your fence posts
• You downloaded the mod that let him go professional at gridball and that made you feel a little better

Elliot

• You’re probably “something of a writer yourself.”
• You play for aesthetics. And everything about him fit a vibe you were going for.
• You unlocked ducks somewhat early

Harvey

• He’s “established.”
• You thought that if you married him, he would heal you for free if you died in the mines… he did not.
• You yourself are older and you felt like it was one of the least creepy options

Sam

• You have a thing for “lovable scamps”
• Pizza is readily available at the Stardrop Saloon
• You never believed he would be a famous rockstar and had zero guilt about asking him to give it up to be a stay-at-home dad

Sebastian

• You have the hawts for the bad boys TM
• He said one line to you about staying inside all the time and you were like “Relate”.
• When you got to know him, you realised there was so much more there than the aloof emo you thought he was. You discovered that he reads graphic novels and knows how to code, and he invites you to his Dungeons and Dragons campaign. And it turns out that he’s not just a cool motorcycle guy who plays synth in a band, he’s actually a giant nerd who has an adorable affinity for rescuing little frogs and is designing his own computer game and oh no, now you’re calling him Sebby and you’re in love with him in your waking life… erm… speaking for a friend.

Shane

• Came for the Jojomart pepper poppers, stayed for the blue chickens.
• You didn’t know at the time that his disgusting room would become part of the farmhouse
• You chose Shane because you understand Shane. You good?

Abigail

• You kept mining a lot of amethyst
• She actually WANTED to live on your farm. She LOVES your grandpa’s farm. She WANTED this
• You chose Abigail because you are Abigail. You love ghost hunting and video games, and maybe you have ADHD. Er… also speaking for a friend.

Emily

• You randomly had the most hearts with her first
• You needed wool and cloth for community center bundles and things blossomed from there
• You wanted to see Clint cry

Haley

• “She’s pretty.”
• She really does have a character arc, you swear. You can’t say what it is exactly, but it’s THERE.
• Sunflowers are easy to grow, and you just needed a Stardrop

Leah

• You secretly wanted her little wooden cabin
• She was a regular at the Saloon and popping in and buying salads worked for you
• You actually wanted Robin, but she wasn’t marriageable

Maru

• She was the only marriageable POC character and that PISSED YOU OFF.
• Pure curiosity. You wanted to see her 14 heart cutscene and wondered if she would invent anything for your farm.
• idk you tell me why you picked Maru lol

Penny

• You wanted to “save her” from her alcoholic mother
• You were worried about holding the other NPC’s back from their dreams but Penny WANTS to have your children. She has no dreams.
• You discovered that she would take your old rusty artifacts and dwarf scrolls so you kept handing them to her every time you went to the museum

Krobus

• This is not your first play through
• You LIVE on Stardew Wiki
• You’re a bit of a rebel. You’re a “tee hee I’m not like the others” type and I agree.
• Let’s be friends

Also HEY. I have a YouTube channel now. I don’t know if you read that last post, but I’m making videos on the internet now. *Hunger Games whistle*. This is my first long-form vid, and it’s actually a documentary about my writing journey! So I’m posting it here if you’re interested:

Welp. That didn’t go at all as expected. Womp womp.

Alright, so last time you heard from me, I had a pretty “straightforward” plan. Week One – post on social media. Week Two – get dressed up. Week Three – potty train my daughter. Week Four – write like Stephen King challenge.

Due to some scheduling stuff, I suddenly had a very open week that first week of January. And I was like…

Hear me out.

What if I switched things around so I could potty train my daughter that first lighter week instead? Push everything else back. 

So I did. And that went fine.

Obviously, it’s a loooooong process but I got her successfully used to potty time, which is great. 

The next week was going to be posting on social. And the week after that, “posting on social media “getting gorgeous every day”. But two days before, I was like…

Hear me out.

Why would I post on social media and THEN get gorgeous? Wouldn’t it be better to be all gorgeous for social media?? Why not combine those goals into one single week?

So I combined them. And that went fine.

The dressing up was meh. I was under the impression that I would be excited to dress up in January because it’s finally cold enough in Arizona to wear cute fall clothes. But what really happened was the cold just made me want to wear cozy leggings and wrap myself in a hoodie. 

Also, I switch out my clothes every month, and the January selection was a bit uninspired. The collection included a stained jumper with a broken snap, the striped shirt that made me look rolly polly in my 100 pages photo, and a shirt that I’ve had for LITERALLY 20 YEARS. So I just really didn’t feel like dressing up, and I didn’t. I’m sorry, okay.

But the social media really surprised me.

What I found out was… I genuinely enjoyed it. The parts I had been worried about (like editing videos for example), I actually had so much fun doing! And it made me realize something that *should* have been obvious but hadn’t… That I can make and post videos just for myself. For fun. Not for platform building or marketing or trying to entertain anyone else. I could do it because it’s a fun time and that’s it. 

So cool news, I’m actually going to regularly start making videos now. But not NOW now. Like this summer now. I’m trying to get a book ready to query so I’m really swamped with edits atm. But you know… Coming this June or July. But if you want, here’s one of the videos I made during my week challenge. (It’s me dyeing my hair purple lol.)

So the last challenge was to do this Stephen King thing, where I write 2k words and then immediately edit them.

The night before, I was lying in bed wondering… Does he really do his edits like that? And I Googled Stephen King’s editing process.

AND NO. HE DOES NOT.

Why I believed he did this with all my heart is beyond me dude. I don’t even know where that misbelief came from. But Stephen King does not edit his work same day, in fact, he “leaves it in a drawer for six weeks” so he can look at it with fresh eyes. Gash dude. So I was like…

Hear me out again.

Why don’t I do the 2k writing, but instead of immediately editing the fresh stuff, I work on this novel that I’m trying to query.

So I did that. And I’m glad I did that.

Moral of the story?? Be flexible with the goals you set, I guess. And/or actually think through your goals so you don’t have to change every single one of them the night before.

So I did this challenge three years ago (wow, that long already????). Instead of a traditional New Year’s resolution which is expected to carry through the entire year, I picked four different goals and then tried them for ONE SINGLE WEEK in January.

Here, I’ll repost the meme I made last time haha.

Even though I only made my goals a week-long challenge for myself, I actually ended up making genuine positive changes in my life that I still uphold to this day! Last time, my goals were pretty sensible. I spent a week waking up earlier, cutting sugar, getting outside, and reading more often. Okay, this time my week goals are a bit more weirdo. BUT HANG IN THERE WITH ME, OKAY. I really do believe these things could benefit me! Or not. Honestly. Either way, I’ll hopefully find out if I try it for a week.

WEEK ONE: POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA EVERY DAY

I bet there are a lot of people making resolutions to get off social media lol. Soooo… I’m bad at this. I have a feeling that I could make fun and engaging content. But I just never do. I never share stuff about my life or writing or when my blogs come out or ANYTHING. So I’m going to try it out for a week and see how I feel. NOT COMMITTING TO NOTHIN’. But if it feels manageable, then maybe I could go for more of a social media presence.

Not to overshare, but posting to social media inexplicably terrifies me. Like I have a desire to do it. I desperately want attention, and I daydream about getting attention, but I also feel getting attention is bad?? Like other people/things deserve more attention than me. So it seems like a silly resolution, but it is important to me to reclaim some space in this world… Thanks… I’ll send you payment for the therapy session later.

WEEK TWO: GET GORGEOUS EVERY SINGLE DAY

Yeah so. I just never do this anymore. I’m home all day, taking care of little kids, and taking the time to do it feels impossible some days. So I’m going to try to dress up. Just out of curiosity. Like… does it even really matter? Does it make a difference or not?

WEEK THREE: POTTY TRAIN MY DAUGHTER

Exactly what it sounds like. I tried and failed several months ago, but she’s way more ready for it now. So I’ll take the whole week to extensively potty train.

WEEK FOUR: WRITE LIKE STEVEN KING

I don’t mean prose or technique. I’m talking about his daily routine. Specifically, that he writes two thousand words and then immediately edits them same day. That freaks me out! Not the 2k words daily but the EDITING STRAIGHT AFTER. My routine is to sloppily draft the entire book and then big-picture-edit it into oblivion until I’ve re-written the book five hundred times. I have such an aversion to the idea of cleaning up a chapter that’ll have to be removed or changed anyway. This must be a confidence thing. Or an “I already have a professional developmental editor” thing. I think I’m at a point in my craft where I can try doing this. Because to have a fairly clean first draft would be euphoria to me.

So those are my challenges!! I’ll let you know next month how they all go!