I've been considering leaving WP for awhile, y'all knew that.

There's not much left for me here— the art community is dying, there's no RPs like I'd love to join, and readership of my books has only been spiraling down and down.

I think, at the very least, I'll stop posting in my books. I'll check all them off, with that little check-symbol I use to tell everyone that my books are finished. The adopt shop will probably just be deleted, once the adopts are all gone (some freebies are still up, along with OTAs)
I'll stay and support the artists here, of course. Vote, comment, all that.

But I myself will stop posting.

I've been stuck for 2 years, coming off a high of success. My old crummy art was way more popular than my new art by thousands of reads, and people don't participate/comment like they used to. I'm lucky to get 7 votes, with 20 readers or so each chapter. The outfit chapter was the first 'popular' chapter in awhile, to be honest... But I can't just do challenges endlessly, for what you want to see with my OCs. That gets draining after awhile, y'know?

Shoutouts to KittenNya- and Lighty7 for being the 2 consistent commenters— I always looked forward to your comments, feedback, and whatnot :>
Go follow those lovely people, and support them— they both have art books too!

Anyways

I know you're all probably saying,
"Oh, Barbara! Likes and comments don't matter! Just keep posting uwu"

I know that

But to have tasted that sweet success, and to have it ripped away from me among the site's slow death, is exquisitely painful. I've been 'a semi-popular kid', which I've never had offline.

And to suddenly be chucked back down hurts, y'know?

I'm sure it's in part because of my various vents and whatnot— I wasn't in a good place earlier this year. I admit that. I've gotten better with time, though. And still, people keep leaving, like they expect more vents or something.

I need to be on websites that are growing, or at least allow me to grow. I do love Wattpad's format— it doesn't crop my pics/text like IG, and I can post multiple pics unlike DA (as far as I know).

But the community I'm here for is slowly packing up and leaving. Readers don't want artists, they want cute fluffy fics.

I think it's time go, so I can grow. Improve. Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

My chapters as of the past few months have been so short. Partly because of my mental health, but largely because posting here isn't fun. I have bad memories of toxic people who've hurt me bad, the readership climbing then diving, and so on. I basically just chuck my art here and go, because nobody except the two previously mentioned people really give me feedback.

With how much time I spend on my art, and the struggles of feeling it's inadequate, I was hoping that maybe my account would grow again. That I'd get off that cursed 430 number for followers— about 95% of them have left, are ghosts, or never bothered to unfollow me. Yeah, IG isn't great for this— as of late, people have been devaluing my art.

But at least there's maybe a chance for growth... My adopts have been (kinda) selling there, so that's a start! And more people are active there, in the art community.

I also hope to sell my art. I'm making keychains, and I do plan on selling/mailing other stuff too. But nobody on WP can afford (or wants to buy) from me. My stuff polls better on IG (usually, minus the devaluing), or DA. So it only makes sense to move my content there.

God, this is wordy... It's all stream of conscious, so sorry if it's jumbled.

I feel bad for doing this, because I know a few people out there don't have anything besides WP.
And this site is where I got my start, y'know? It'll always be sentimental to me.
Hell, I'm even selling Pony!Gracedia— 2/3 of her payment pieces are pending, but she's going.
I'm growing up, and I need to move on for my own health.

Thank you for sticking with me this long, if you read the whole thing. Or if you've been around this account for awhile.
I appreciate it. Your support over the years has kept me going through some real bad times.

This'll be my last post in this book— I'll be shutting down other books shortly, clearing out inactive followers from my acc, and purging my bio to be minimalistic.

If you want to still see my content, or chat with me, these are some places you can look:

Instagram: serafina-zephyr (art/adopts) - has my OC bank in the bio
DA: serafina-zephyr (adopts)
Tumblr: fallout-4-freak (writing)

Other sites I'm on (must DM me for usernames):
Chicken Smoothie
Flight Rising
Discord

Thank you all again for the wild ride. It's been a pleasure </3
And remember, you'll see me around. Commenting, voting, etc.
Maybe I'll come back and post, one day. Maybe.

Love you guys
— Barbara (AKA Gracie/Serafina)