Usually the characters (traits and personality) come first, then the plot, and then the name. Thus why I start with a 'theme' that fits the personality of the character 
Do you mean theme or do you mean archetype here? Like, for Henry from Mortician, his theme is 'death' but his archetype is 'gentleman'.
Setting struggles: I think mostly just to remind myself to include setting descriptions! I have it trained in me to do establishing shots in comics and in prose whenever the scene changes to a new significant location, but I feel like I have to be mindful about transitional periods as well: like show the street my characters are walking down when chatting, describe the passing scenery and road my character is using to get into town.
Development length: When I make mention of scenery, or include it in my backgrounds, I do try to dress it up as much as my characters, especially in establishing shots. I want to make the places feel lived in and used. But I wouldn't say I spend as much time thinking the settings over as I do characters. The settings I come up with are usually already informed by real life examples I've experienced or have seen images of. So since I have a clear picture of them already, it takes less time rounding them out.
However when it comes to things such as magic systems and creating cultures, or correlating historical fantasy plot points with real historical timelines, I do a ton of thinking and research!
Blank rooms: I'm trying my bestest to include backgrounds as much as I can (• ‸ • ; ). If anything, I'll at least include props/pieces of furniture or make mention of them if I can't fit in a whole background/description of the room.
sort of writing exercise: the following is an excerpt from one of my 'establishing shots' in my novel
The interior of the lodge smelled of smoke and leather and was as dark as the curtains that hid it. Their footfalls triggered groaning creaks from the hardwood floors. Plush high-backed chairs circled the impressive stone fireplace rising from the center of the hall through the towering roof. Patience caught glimpses of many mounted beasts guarding the perimeter of the main floor while more graced the walls. Only vague shapes in the dim light, she could not identify their species. Valon led her to a back room, the hall’s communal kitchen.
A lone uncovered window lit the rustic kitchen with shaded light from the patio …
- Taking in consideration no place is a flat plane is my worst problem with settings. Both for writing and drawing, I just have the hardest time parsing that even a valley has hills, houses can have annoying steps, ruins will have collapsed floors and elevation is never the same. I need to practice BG painting way more to try and get this into my head... I also get lazy way too easily and don't take advantage of the fantasy genre as much as I should.
- Yes! To justify character traits, flaws, backstory, etc, all needs setting, especially for things like magic systems, culture, how it developed differently from the real world and everything. It's very, very essential, but a little more subtle and not always going to display in the work. As for individual scenes, I always try to make it a world where people interact and have affected it in some way; even long abandoned areas.
- I don't want to brag, but...
I always try to set down notes about the current setting. It's good to have quick, simple ideas of objects they can be manipulating or interacting, things to lean/sit/lay on, but as I said first, it's hard to think of elevation without making an effort to it. It's also good to add to that excitement of the scene, such as "half-sunken ruins" or "temple on a mountainside", and the more I love the scene the more I can make the audience be interested as well.
Struggle
Drawing the damn backgrounds and settings. I suck at drawing static objects, like buildings and trees. I am actively working on improving. But it's slow going.
Development Length
Hell yes, I spend more time on my worldbuilding than anything else. My characters evolve from the world I've built, so I start there first usually.
In Dragon Sparking it's my goal to visit every trope setting you can think of. I've already got Viking High Fantasy started, next up will be Futuristic MMORPG meets Camelot. (AKA Space Knights.)
Here's one of my older bonus worldbuilding sheets about my comic's world. I even go into what kind of wildlife exists in each locale.
Blank Rooms
( ._.)--> lots of them. Interior design is something I struggle with, but I do try. Usually once an establishing shot is out of the way, I 'cheat' a lot with gradient backgrounds or close ups.
Hmm I've read debates on whether ASPD is non-neurotypical, some people get a bit upset when you associate sociopaths and psychopaths with autism since since ignorant people like to link the two, despite only sharing some superficial similarities. Other's also argue that despite people with ASPD having different brains, they have a behavior disorder rather than a neurotypical one since not everyone with different brains (people with depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, etc) are considered part of that group according to some circles.
A few people would say I have a neurotypical disorder due to my depression, but that's a really grey area given it could stem from either sides. The subject is still extremely new, so more research still needs to be done on it.
Sorry, babbling a bit there.
I usually do a mix of research on the technical side, talking with mental health professionals and assistance in mental health facilities willing to share their experiences, talking with people who live with the disorder about their experiences, along with watching vlog types of videos and documentaries. (if I can find any) Then I like to brainstorm, figuring out patterns then applying them to how my character would deal with them specifically, putting into consideration that their background and personality are usually going to be vastly different from the real people I talk to. Everyone's experiences with mental illnesses/disorders are so subjective, it can be a real challenge.
Of course this is all for more than ASPD, I actually put a lot of my research focus on stuff like depression, PTSD, anxiety, psychosis and schizophrenia. I like to be really thorough since mental illnesses and disorders are some of the main subjects in my story, and I want to apply them to the best of my abilities... I'm also kind of a nerd for psychology. Psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists are just the hardest people to get into the minds of.
What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
Probably the architecture and vehicles. It's not that they're the most difficult things, but I really, really don't like them on a personal level. I hate driving and having anything to do with cars, as well as cities. It's obnoxious because they're so simple, yet so complicated and specific. The slightest misstep in perspective or design can make a page look hideously uncanny.
Do you spend as long developing your setting as developing your characters? Why/why not?
This depends? If you're talking about this writing wise, then no, since I don't actually write out my story. At least in greater detail than a bullet point.
Visually, yes, I like to think I do given it takes a bit longer to build up a passable setting. Laying down perspective and grid lines can take some time when working almost strictly in a traditional medium, depending on detail and number of perspective points.
As for why, I try to give my setting attention for practice, as well as it wouldn't personally feel right to not put effort into the character's surroundings. At least for a couple panels a page.
Go through your current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few details?
Currently I have a two page spread I'm working on, the first page only has two real background scenes while the rest is kind of blank. This was intentional, the two characters in this page are outside and I wanted it to have that "blindingly bright" feel, so I only put in enough background for readers to know the general location. The second page has a scene change where everyone is inside, there is a background in every panel except one. I wanted to give a little more attention to the background in this page because it is a reoccurring location, as opposed to the one-off scene in the previous page that no one will care about or ever see again. Also it's intended to have normal indoor lighting, so no blinding brightness.
What is the hardest thing about character creation for you?
Honestly character designs. When it comes to what a character should wear or finer details in their looks it's a bit more difficult for me. Honestly it's why my characters tend to wear simpler outfits compared to others unless I pull directly from a reference or someone else designs them.
What is the easiest thing about character creation for you?
Coming up with the concepts and their basic personalities is easy for me honestly. Mostly because I'm partially basing them off characters from other works or the ideas of various tropes.
How do you choose names when creating characters?
Their names or either based off of their personalities, an ability, something that sounds really cool, or just random.
Write one sentence of advice for a newbie thinking about creating their first character.
Do something you consider enjoyable for your first character. You don't have to hit it out of the park right away so experiment and play around for a bit.
What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
Honestly describing a setting vividly. For the most part I write the very basics of what you'll need to understand where the characters are and what their doing.
Do you spend as long developing your setting as you develop your characters? Why/Why not?
I do a lot of background setting when world building, but that's really there to help develop the characters and explaining their actions. Even if some of it will never be explained to the reader unless necessary.
Go through you current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few setting details?
Honestly not to many, but they do spend a lot of time in lightly described rooms.
Yes, that's true. 
Even as a reader, I tend to have good impressions on series that have my favorite tropes. I see tropes as a common ground between the reader and the series/author. It's easier to warm up if I already have something common with them.
What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
I try to find something in that place that catches my character's attention the most. I think there's this exercise I found before where you have to try to enter a room for 1 minute or something, taking in as many things as you can. Then go out and try to write about the room. I always try to do that with my characters. This can be quite challenging as I'm often focused on what's happening between and within the characters so the setting sort of turns into a background.
Do you spend as long developing your setting as developing your characters? Why/why not?
I don't, at least for contemporary stories. Unless it's a special place. But if it's just a school setting, it's simple. For historical, developing the setting is just as maddening as developing the characters. I have to establish the period, as well as the customs and social norms.
Go through your current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in blank rooms with no/few setting details.
They are pretty much established lately because the character is going to a new place.
What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
I'm good at thinking small, but bad at thinking big. I create in a really granular way and tend not to think through how the places relate to each other geographically (my D&D players love how unique and well-developed my towns are... but they're always closer together than is geographically plausible, I don't pad out my world with enough distance), so like... where IS the Eye of Brilliance in relation to Aunt Sylvia's house? How far is city X from city Y? Uhhhh.... I dunno...
Do you spend as long developing your setting as developing your characters? Why/why not?
As much if not more. I usually have really detailed world-building with information about political systems, how magic works etc. For Errant, I had to write a lot of alternative history about "Brittania", which is Britain where magic is real, so King Arthur was a real guy, so the Angles and Saxons didn't become a dominant culture and it remained a Romano-Celtic culture. They still worship Brigantia and Sulis Minerva, they never say Christian-derived swears like "oh my god", "Jeez", "Cripes", "Bloody" etc., it's always "Sulis!" or "Jove!" which is really hard (more than once, I've written a character saying "oh my god" in the script and then realised, crap, these characters don't have A god, they're polytheistic!) They use latin-derived insults like "Podex" (butthole) etc. Familiar cities have different names based on their ancient ones with the assumption pronunciation tends to get lazy, like York is called Everac, Carlilse is called Caerliwald etc. OR there are cities named for places in Arthurian legend like Joysgard (based on Joyous Guard) and Camelot.
Go through your current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in blank rooms with no/few setting details.
Actually doing pretty well here. I tend to have a handle on where the characters are, like "Sylvia's house" which is a sprawling gothic mansion, or "The centre of Joysgard" Because a lot of my comic has fight scenes and over the top characters and the setting is Fantasy, I have to think a lot. Like there's a big fight next chapter that's in a residential street, there's a bar, there's a secret room... stuff like that. I'm a very visual person, so the place is important to me. Of course... as a comic artist, it can be quite different, because I'll have to draw these things. It's very visually obvious if you haven't thought at all about the setting in this medium!
What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
Remembering to describe the setting! I tend to focus on the interaction between characters, their emotions and actions. But I give myself some time to go back and look at what I've written with a fresh eye. Then I ask myself whether important details about the setting or character appearance is missing.
Do you spend as long developing your setting as you develop your characters? Why/Why not?
It kinda depends. If the setting is in a place or an era that I'm familiar with, it doesn't take as long. But if my story is a scifi, I'll try to use reference pictures online and my imagination to figure out how things should look. 
Go through you current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few setting details?
Oh boy. 
So in the current chapter I'm writing, the first two scenes has minimalistic details about the setting. The third scene is heavy in detail because it is the most suspenseful and eerie part. And the final scene I'm writing only briefly sets up the room in the first two paragraphs since it's focused on the dinner conversation.
Okay. Looks like I missed being on time for a section. Well, no matter. I'll try and cover it, then the next!
What is the hardest thing about character creation?
Before the current rewrite of the Curse of Immortals, I did have a version which I finished in August, 2019. One of my closest friends, someone I do trust with stories, noticed that barring a trio or so of characters, a ton of the important cast seemed or felt largely interchangeable. I'm not sure how often any of you may have stumbled onto a situation like that, where in your heart, you know they are different characters with their own set of personalities and intricacies, and yet, from an outsider's point of view, they blanket into being the same. I'm trying to listen to my mind and heart with greater detail, as I build new characters now.
What is the easiest thing about character creation for you?
Not sure. Given everything I've stated above, I've begun to explore the concept of realism while also trying to stick to the lore of my world. They're all difficult, complicated characters, at least in my head. I think what makes it easy for me is how much fun I have exploring their depth. When I uncover a piece that really works, it keeps me motivated and happy towards the whole process. I can't really point to a set of things that works for me though.
How do you choose names when creating characters?
I love playing off mythology and history, fragments, portions, sometimes the same, sometimes a variant. Though, I also have fun running different things in my head to see what sticks. This works well with anything omniscient, races, species, the kind. For example, CoI works on the principle of two gods - Ehedus and Baha. It just popped into my head one day, and it felt right. Godvildian, Noxun, Relictan - they all have an underlying principle to it that just stuck with me. Races here, by the way. But otherwise, just anything with meaning, symbolic to the character's core personality trait. I kind of build from that. Simple example, I worked with multiple languages to hone in on Daiden. In Sanskrit, the name translates to transmission. His given name is Daiden Lost. Overall, it equates to a lost transmission. Won't tell much more, or perhaps even why I went with that meaning, but it's easy when you think from a human level, from an emotional level.
One sentence advice for a newbie character creator:
If you manage to find the heart to love even your worst character, personality-wise, perhaps villainy-wise, you're definitely doing something right. 
Phew! Now, to take a break and come back with what's next.
What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
Remembering details. I often to go back to how I describe a room in order to make sure I don't just conjure up items out of thin air as the plot depends. It's a pet peeve in movies, it's a pet peeve in writings, it's a pet peeve in comics. I really don't want to commit the same pet peeve, thus REMEMBERING the minutiae of the scene setting causes the most stress.
Do you spend as long developing your setting as you develop your characters? Why/Why not?
It depends on the story.
In Birth of a Sin, it's a comic-book typish setting. So taking place in a modern/contemporary setting with a few other details that include the outlandish (Evil Scientist Lair, Training Military grounds on a private Island, etc). Thus I don't really put much effort in the setting since it takes place in a setting that I'm already familiar with with only a few unusual details sprinkled here and there for that Superhero/SuperVillain feel.
For another story, I am planning a Isekai aka another world. Thus I will have different settings that have a more Fantasy slant (at most a Diesel Punk for Desert city, Steampunk for Coastal/River town, etc). I also plan on having an dimensional, Lovecraftian horror slant so will be looking at how to describe...errr...incomprehensible to the human mind things. This is will require A LOT of research and I'll be taking a TON of notes when I plan out this other story.
Go through you current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few setting details?
...Crap I have to read back my own chapters?! PHOOEY! PHOOEY I SAY!
...
Honestly, I think I'm pretty good with adding SOME details of the setting. Usually when it comes to the characters themselves. Though I write in Third-Person Omniscient, during my POV switches, I tend to describe the setting as it appears to the character. If they are leaning against something, I describe what that is. If they are looking around, I describe what they see. If I don't describe it as much it's because, well...the setting is not super important because a character is not in focus. Typically.
Also, some chapters coming up have 'blank rooms' because the room itself is suppose to be sparse...being a prison cell setting.
This is the part I find easiest, but the rest is all stuff I have to work on a lot. I have a lot of blank rooms and half-filled spaces in my fiction.
That is absolutely fantastically detailed. I love that - the fairylights are a lovely touch as well.
I've tried this approach in the past, but I often find it hard to keep momentum. Once I have the world, I'm more likely to turn it into a tabletop RPG than I am to write a book set in it. Sometimes I feel if I develop the world too much, I end up putting in too many details that people don't need or get. Do you have any tips for preventing that from happening?
This is singlehandedly one of the msot difficult things to get right without real world examples because designing architecture that works is so hard.
Fun is the best way to stave off writers block.
Same.
This is a really good exercise. I also have a friend who challenged me to write for 10 solid minutes describing the room I was in, and that really made me rethink the line between setting and character.
I love swearing like this in books, it's a clear signifier that this isn't exactly OUR world.
I often thing of this as a case of 'kill your darlings'. Often writers include more characters than they need for the plot, where combining some would make a more intricate single character. But yeah, all your characters should have distinct roles in the plot.
@KRWilliams
I think it may have to do with the way I think xD I like to go through tiny details, and then see what each detail brings to the table. Like, if I make this country do something, then what happens to the others? Maybe the readers will never see it, but I want to know xD.
Plus my story is a big one with no set ending so I find it's better to have a full world planned out, and in the grand scheme of things the time I spent worldbuilding is small compared to the time spent writing and drawing.
I guess I wouldn't recommend that approach for everyone. But people that enjoy RPG's and all the little details behind them may find that way of creating a world fun.
I do get that it can burn out the passion though. And I've seen other creators fizzle out during the worldbuilding part, and I'm not sure why exactly, because I really enjoy that part.
@Everyone ! Today is something that has come up recently in the forums, but it's all about 'show don't tell'. It builds on yesterdays topic in a way, because settings are a way that you can really do the show don't tell well, though there's some debate on the merits of doing this.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it!
Show Don't Tell
What do you think this advice means?
Usually I think this advice is a way to get your characters more engaged into the story by bringing them into the POV characters view. I may look at someone and go "They are tired", which is the result, but how did I know that?
Maybe cause they have bags under their eyes.
They are holding a large take-out cup of coffee.
They are out of breath.
They yawn.
Etc.
Humans observe the world around them and take those details to reach a conclusion. Not only can 'showing' this reveal the world in a natural way but it can also tell A LOT of the POV character too.
'His eyes kept fluttering open and close. He raised his hands high above his head, long fingers reaching towards the ceiling. His lips parted slowly and he released a low groan from his throat.'
VS
'His eyes seemed to drawl down his face and red veins pulsed against the whites of those swollen orbs. His jaw lowered and he released a groaning bellow while stretching his arms above his head, cracks popping from his fingers."
The first one, the POV is describing the tired person rather sensually while in the second, the image is not nearly as attractive. They both described someone being tired, but the mood is decidedly different.
How do you approach 'showing' things
I will fully admit that I don't read a lot of long novels. Instead, I watch a lot of movies, a lot of anime, and read a lot of graphic novels/manga. So I approach 'showing' the same way I watch movies; I imagine the motion as it comes into view. I want to describe what I experience as a viewer to my readers. Thus why I tend to put things like setting after I bring in a character. Only when the character interacts with the setting is when it becomes more important. So it's very...scene by scene I guess ^^;.
How do your disguise exposition in your work?
Ughhh...hmm...Usually within the thoughts of the POV person. Or describing how things are through the lens of the POV person. If they see a bird drinking from a fountain, I find that to be a good opportunity to bring up some memory that describes the person's past, instead of just spelling it out. I hope that's clear ^^;
What's it mean: At the very basest level, don't just tell the reader that " Milly felt angry". Show the reader that she's angry: "Milly's mouth drew into a tight line as her nostrils flared. Her brows drew down, casting a dark shadow over her narrowing eyes. Her fisted knuckles turned white."
Sure it takes a little longer to express, but it's so much more descriptive and immersive. And you want it that way particularly if it's an important moment and you want your readers to focus on it.
Similarly, (and this applies to novels and comics) you don't always want to have a character explain what happens in their dialogue, especially if the thing that happens is important. Cut to the event, and show it play out! If it's inconsequential and just for flavor, like the character saying they went to the dentist yesterday, yeah, a quick pass in dialogue works fine. But if the audience needs to remember something, it's best to show it.
My approach: Like Coda, nowadays I watch more film and tv than I read, so all my stories play out like a movie in my head. I pay special attention to facial expressions and body language and mainly employ those to show how a character is feeling. But with prose, I also have the added benefit of word choice.
For example, in a conversation where one character is annoyed and frustrated, instead of blatantly saying they're annoyed and frustrated, the descriptions can carry over to how they interact with the world around them at the moment. They stab at their food. Their teeth grind into the pork loin. It's more descriptive and telling of how the character's feeling rather than saying "They eat their meal petulantly."
When to tell: It's best to tell things when the subject you're telling about is not crucial to the current plotline the reader is experiencing. So it's fine to explain a bit of someone's background, their thought process concerning things, or have them explain something to reveal information to the audience, or to bolster information presented before. There are just some things that cannot be shown through a series of events and dialogue or narration is needed. Also feel free to quickly tell of things that happen to speed the pace a little to get to the actual important part of a story.
Disguise: I usually start by stating some action happening in the present storyline. Then I transition to a bit of background/tell-y bit. But I keep the tell-y part to a maximum of three paragraphs. There needs to be a good flow of active in-the-moment action (the show parts) and passive action (the tell parts), with active action being the majority of your story. If it's mostly passive action, then the story comes off like a friend telling you what happened to this character they knew way back when.
Show Don't Tell; What do you think this advice means?
I think show don't tell is important when you want the reader to believe something and when you want to engage the reader in the story. If you want the reader to believe a character trait (that could lead into a character arc later), the be way to inform the reader is to show the character trait by describing actions. You can say all you want about how your main lead is an unbeatable badass with a body count in the thousands but if all they do in your story is sit on the side lines while other characters fight, not only will that take readers out of the story, that will make them question your storytelling skills.
How do you approach 'showing' things
How do you show things, how do you show things? Uh. . . hmm. Hard to say. When it comes to the manuscript I'm working on now, I have a character I want to the reader to hate, so instead of repeating ad nauseam them being a disagreeable and spiteful, I show it in how they talk to others, how they think, and how they treat others. At no point in the story does the narrator say the character is mean, other characters do, but hey, they have to live with them.
When do you think it's better to just tell the readers information
I think it's better to tell the readers some when it's surface level knowledge they need to know or if showing the reader the information would be impractical for the story. For example, getting across names, of people, of regions, etc. Instead of writing a full paragraph describing a partially relevant side character, you just tell the audience briefly what they look like. Generally, I think the tell rule is for things the reader needs to be aware of but doesn't need a clearly defined understanding of what it is.
How do your disguise exposition in your work?
Disguises can include flashbacks, describing the scenery, relating it to other moments in the story. My manuscript's focus is a police investigation, so a lot it is exposition via talking and reading through documents. Police investigation aren't as glamorous as they seem and can often involve going through a lot of documents, footage, testimonies depending. So I hope my future readers aren't too bogged down with the dialogue.