I Tried To Animate Again And I Found A Pretty Decent Way To Organize My Work Folder 😀 (it Still Kind

Tips for writing

I already had another story which I never got to post, since I kept rewriting it into eternity. After forcing myself to take a break from it, I think I finally figured out a way to keep consistently writing a story. So, I thought maybe this post might stumble across a reader who struggles with similar things as I did and I could provide a possible solution without them needing to go through a year and over 10 different versions of a first chapter ending in a failed project. (and admitting that I needed to stop was what hurt the most since I really love the idea I had and maybe I might even try to restart that story, but that's a topic for another post in maybe 2 to 3 years.)

Also Disclaimer: This is only my opinion on the matter and what I figured to be helpful. In the end, it's up to you how you want to write your story and to decide what works for you. I'm just sharing my experiences.

I had a couple of problems which mixed up together until I needed to give up.

First off, I lacked structure. With my first bigger story, I had an idea, a beginning and I knew some major plot points that needed to happen. But what I never knew was when or how the story ended. I just wanted to tell an endless story or figure out an ending on the way. That didn't work for me.

With my current story (which you can check out here, if you're interested) I researched a couple of ways how to structure a story properly. (It was just for fun honestly, but so helpful in the end) I already had, like before a vague idea, and some plot points I wanted to happen. What I did: See if my story would fit into any of these structures and what would happen at which point until the end. And then I found a structure that fit my story (almost) perfectly. After that, I wrote down the plot in bullet points creating my outline for the story.

(Note: Of course, you can take any story structure you find and bend it a little. For example, I decided to go for a three act-structure and decided to skip the introduction part, since I wanted to plunge the reader into the story without heavily explaining what was going on. They would figure it out on the way … )

This means I knew what happened at which moment. And most importantly, I had an ending. Now I had to face my next challenge, fighting my constant urge to rewrite everything. After proceeding with my used-to-way of just writing what comes to my head, I quickly figured out that this wouldn't work. It didn't work earlier and it didn't work now. So, I needed to figure out what was wrong with my approach.

For that, there are multiple options to do so. Either you can ask others for their opinion of what is wrong with your text or try proofreading yourself. I recorded how I read my texts and heard afterwards to the footage while I was reading along (and yes, it sucks hearing your own voice on record, but if you imagine it's another person, it's not that painful anymore, after a while)

Then I had another important realization. I still had no structure in my chapters. The story was now well structured and I knew what I wanted to write the chapter about, but my thoughts were jumping from one thought to another and then back again. To solve this problem, I came up with an approach that still works for me.

Before writing the chapter, I think about what I want to happen in this chapter. For example, in my current story, I needed to introduce the two main characters and they needed to meet. I also wanted to hide some hints on backstory and needed to write about the event that starts the entire story. With that in mind, I just start loosely writing down what comes to my mind. It doesn't matter if it's good or not, since I'm going to rewrite it later on. Once I come to a point, where I completed all of my goals for that chapter, I take what I wrote down and structure the plot into bullet points. Then I take these and write a second version along with the bullet points. This makes sure that my thoughts are structured in the end and that I have a clear storyline to follow.

After that, the last step is proofreading. As already said before, you can ask others to give you feedback or record yourself. Maybe use a grammar program to fix obvious mistakes you've overseen (helps a lot. especially if you're writing in a language that you don't use everyday) In this stage I mostly find some sentences that are hard to read / speak or just some wordings that repeat or don't quite sound right. So I go ahead, mark them and fix them.

And after that, I was by now always satisfied with what I wrote. This method might be a little overkill but it works for me and the most important thing you need to keep in mind: If you'd like to write something, it's supposed to be fun. No matter the way you do it. The process of creating an own story and slowly watching it come alive, that's the feeling that makes me happy and why I keep writing.

Hope you had fun reading and maybe I was able to give you one or another idea on how to write a story. If you want more tips, you can send me an ask or just comment on this post.

I realised I never posted the result of that one ... maybe I'll do it tomorrow.

I just watched the new trailer for pokemon z-a. I think pokemon got me again.

Also something funny I wanted to share: I still think about the days I first played pokemon. I think it must have been diamond or pearl and I picked Piplup as my starter. One day it suddenly evolved, I had no idea what was going on but as it evolved into Prinplup I was sad. I was thinking my cute Piplup just got ugly.

That's so funny thinking back to it.

also, I thought why not draw myself as pokemon trainer. little WIP:

I have no idea how this turned out. I just turned off my head and drew this. Guess I could call this my current mood, lol.

Intentionally I wanted to find a motive for starting to work with watercolours. I think I could try to draw this but I guess I'll do some more sketches first 😊

I'm getting distracted...

I am sorry. I just have too many projects running simultaneously and I did NOT forget that I wanted to do a couple of Error-comics, but I've been lately distracted first with life and secondly with another project that has been sitting in my head for about a year.

I already tried a couple times creating my own AU only ending in not being satisfied with my results. That led me to entirely take a break from the Undertale fandom, trying to create something else (which also failed of course).

But lately, I read through my older attempts and looked at older concepts I did some time ago and since I really love the idea of that AU and my OCs, I wanted to give it another shot. I feel more prepared than ever to finally turn that beautiful story into a form I can share it with others. I learned from my mistakes and finally got a structure from start to (almost) finish.

And since this is for me a new start of this story, I want to give it a new name (since I don't think the old one fits anymore). And I want to give it the name of another story that never made it and that (for now...) will probably never make it into reality. To honour the first bigger idea I came up with and my first Undertale OC, I will name my AU Desolatetale.

I'm not sure how consistent I will be with updates but I'm giving my best. If you have any kind of questions, always feel free to ask.

(I already posted character sheets here on this blog, but I want to make new 'spoiler-free' ones. If you want to see them anyway, they're here, here and here. I'm not sure if the information about these characters are still correct as I am currently rewriting the story but the designs will stay the same! ... I guess.)

More redraws of MHA screencaps pt.2

And I found way too many redraws of screencaps of MHA.

... in fact so many, I need to split them in multiple posts.

I was playing DND with some friends...

And originally I just wanted to sketch something meaningless but it evolved into me drawing my character from that session 😁

Let me introduce you to Nayra, my Tiefling fighter.

I am also lately obsessed with drawing with original art supplies like pencils and coloured pencils. (I am also currently trying myself on watercolours but we shouldn't talk about that 🙄)

I'm doing an art challange this month with the theme:

Future Fantasy

Figured I could draw one of my OCs again, was looking through old stuff for a specific reference but couldn't find it ... instead found something else and I have another idea. I'm simply going to recycle one of my Undertale OCs who never made it.

And I kinda came up with this:

Here the pic I found of that unused OC:

God, my artstyle back then was something else 😂

I found more. Holy shit, there are some good drawings I did last year. I'm still wondering how I did them.

Just drew this dude. I think studying the mha artstyle really improved my artstyle. I love him ❤️ and it didn't really take that long to draw that.

Also, take some sketches I did beforehand:

I don't know his name yet, but I think his quirk would be something with superspeed. (Might call it slowmotion or reverse slowmotion, depends on how I'll make it work.)

I really like the idea that he has always a pair of sunglasses with him, to avoid dust getring into his eyes while in superspeed. And also to be the coolest kid around 😎

Also his quirk shows in his personality. He's mostly impatient since everything is going too slow for him.

His hero idol is Hawks. He definetly aims to become quicker than him to claim the title as fastest hero.