Today I spent some time studying one of the foundational topics in dentistry as a first-year student. It’s interesting how much detail goes into understanding even the basics, like tooth anatomy and oral health. What I find exciting is that dentistry is not only about clinical skills, but also about building strong knowledge step by step. Every concept feels like an important piece that will eventually connect into real practice. It’s still early in my journey, but I’m enjoying the learning process and looking forward to improving over time. If anyone here has experience balancing professional studies with creative work, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Today I wrote up a formal-ish, reader-facing explainer for one of the magic systems in my fantasy setting, The Patchwork Places. To sum it up, it's basically sorcery as done through magical contracts, which at higher levels of mastery you can strike with anything, even the air around you, or more abstract concepts if you're really talented. It's not necessarily creating anything new, as I've had all these magics written down in my notes for some time, but it is my first time presenting them to a wider audience, and the process of cleaning/polishing always does good things for the narrative clutter that otherwise builds up. Plus, it's a little more mental energy-friendly, which is nice to have right now.

Got kinda swamped this week so this is a day late, but I'm persisting regardless! Please greet our new members (obviously some of you have been active already, but everyone gets one anyway): @Kexxie Wolf, lone wolf teacher sharing human, AI free life stories with comedy and drama. @Kaysea Eckel, language lover fascinated by linguistics and exploring new ideas on the page. @Elizabeth Molloy, starting a blog and experimenting with personal stories alongside digital marketing life. @Todd Crawford, working on a collection of short stories and poetry between fishing adventures. @Juan Montero, exploring poetry and learning to shape feelings into simple, honest lines. @Matilda Morril, experimenting with different forms and treating life like an open book. @Aliscia Reed, sharing faith filled poetry and learning how her words connect with people. @Crystal Kroupa, exploring stories of perseverance and reminding us every chapter can still change. @Nur Uddin Mahmud Tareq, content creator honing professional articles and leveling up a growing creative career. @Clare Naden, Kiwi in France who covers tech and science by day and tackles a first novel. @Francesco Dj, exploring academic projects and curious about how AI shapes stories and language. @Erica Jong, a novelist still exploring desire, freedom, identity, and women’s inner lives on the page. @Antoinette Bullard, poet and sensitive artist bringing raw, personal pieces to the circle. @Abagail Dietiker, brewing a zombie novel alongside herbs, healing, and homestead life. @Cyndi Maureen, author here to share stories and see where the next project leads.

And with this, we have the finale of our first challenge! Huzzah everyone, we made it through January. If you participated (or even if not, no biggie) I invite you to describe below what you wrote this month. I have only one condition: PHRASE IT LIKE A WIN EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T HIT YOUR INITIAL GOAL. If you wrote a few poems and half a chapter of your WIP, you won because you exercised your skills. If you jotted down a few quick sentences in between errands and family stuff, you won because you gave yourself room to imagine. If you took a few extra minutes to put some extra flair into a caption or landing page or whatnot (copywriter territory), you won because you exercised your unique creativity. If you had a moment late at night where you reached that weird liminal time when your responsibilities for the day fade and everyone else has gone to bed, and you should really go to sleep but you had damn near no time to yourself the whole day and needed to decompress, so you sat down in front of an empty document or notebook and stared bleary-eyed at it for ten minutes before writing three words (and then erasing two) - if that was the ONLY writing thing you did this entire month, then you still won! Why? Because you persisted. I made this group because writing is hard, especially when you're alone. You need time, and that's hard to get, and it's tough making money with it even in business writing contexts, let alone trying to monetize creative stuff. We keep coming back to it not because it's necessarily the 'best' or 'most optimal' use of our time - (not that those things even exist, but that's a whole other ramble) - but because there is a longing for creative expression inside of every human being, and this is the means by which we are drawn to show it. So go ahead and tell us how your writing was this month - what you did, what you struggled with, what you'd like to focus on going forwards! Above all, thank you all for being here and for sharing parts of yourselves.