Defining moment in your life to draw on for writing/art

[therosesword]

What do you consider a defining moment in your life for your art, whether it be visual, vocal, written or spoken.

I'll start it off but with this statement first: no expressions of sympathy or condolences for me please, it's a long time ago and is part of life

Defining moment:

Walking into the hospital room just in time to see my beloved step-mother breathe her last breath while being held in my father's arms and the expression of complete devastation on my father's face when he saw me. (I was 18)

Write hard, write true

[therosesword]

I'm applying for my PHD this year. I can do this.

You better believe you can do this!

Kudos to you. I was thrilled to read this.

Am I safe in assuming your defining moment (yes, I know the diagnosis was one too )was the standing ovation? The moment that said "I can do this," even though you'd already proved it to yourself?

Write hard, write true.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

My future suicide

Nothing. I think my life is not meaningful enough and it disgusts me to just think about it, everything about me and it is just nauseating. That is why I made up little people in my mind, gave the lives, and play marionette with them. Seriously, if I can ditch my life for other people's, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

[therosesword]

Not everyone has one, nor do they need one.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

What? Do you mean a life?
I am thrilled to hear that living deads are real.

[UrMom]

Depending on what could be considered a defining moment, I guess I had two. Not necessarily that deep, but deep enough I guess.
The first defining moment was when I was about 11-12 years old. My mom got me in this small youth group, not for religious purposes, but for friends. I've always struggled with making/keeping them since I'm kind of a loner type, and have always been the unlikable kid. But anyways, I made friends with this 16 year old goth chick and her brother, we all hung out a lot.
One day she gifted me art of a dragon girl. I thought it was the greatest thing, no one has ever given me art, it was always me drawing stuff for other people. Not only that, but that piece of art was gorgeous to me at the time. Upon receiving the art a switch in my brain flipped, I wanted to be an amazing artist just like her so after that I started feverishly drawing every moment of the day.

Drawing has always been part of my life (my mom still has a drawing I did when I was 3 years old), but that day it sort of became something more important to me than just drawing.

My second defining moment was when I started my current comic. It was near the end of 2015, life events have kind of dwindled my driving for drawing at that point, which left me feeling aimless. A few years ago I got into the military to get my mom and I away from her husband at the time who was an emotionally abusive, alcoholic. Things started out great, I was making more money than I had ever seen at the time (given it was my first job), the work started out fun. Although by then it had become gruelingly monotonous, things at home weren't going great with my mom being miserable at her job, and verbally taking it out on me pretty much every day. I started feeling like I was going down the same road, everything started building up, "what's the point? Why even go to work when they'll just shove me in the corner to do the same paperwork over and over again? No one at my work even likes me, they think I'm weird. Why go home when everything there is just miserable?"

Legit I was fighting the urge to cash in my life insurance policy, if you know what I mean, and I wasn't quite ready to talk to anyone about it. People tend to get really uncomfortable/upset when you talk about death and depression to them. On one of the morning drives when I was feeling extra awful, physically forcing myself not to flip the car into oncoming traffic when something just hit me. An idea, or really, a full story popped into my brain. It was a compilations of every awful feeling I've built up so far in my lifetime, but it was solid and satisfying to think about, I had this painful urge to start working on it right away. I've been working on it ever since.

Not sure if those count as 'Defining Moments'. I Googled the term, but tend to overanalyze everything into oblivion. If they're not than you can totally ignore my post... or let me know so I can delete it.

[therosesword]

I think theyr'e very defining moments. Getting the art from someone who meant a lot to you is definitely one of those moments.

And then, to have the "eureka" moment that allows you to see what has come before can be used as a catalyst for the future... bingo! Fabulous moment. Gut wrenching in ways I can't even imagine but when you look back at it, it kicked you into motion. Fabulous.

The nice thing about defining moments in a person's life, they do happen more than once or twice, and they're not always horrible moments. Quite often, like with getting the dragon, they wonderful moments. And they show up more often than you realize.

By the way, welcome to the club, I've been "the weird kid" all my life. I've learned to embrace it and if people don't like it, they're not the people I want in my life.

Write hard, write true.

[Panpan]

TL;DR - I had a lot of time earlier this year to start writing from not working due to Corona. It made me quickly realize that I didn't like my romance trope between the female/male MC, so I changed it into a BL. It completely altered my story (in a good way)

I've always put some story to a song in my head just like daydreaming (like what would I do if it was music video or in a movie). The VERY first time I wanted to write was back in 2013 when I heard Pompeii by Bastille. I like the idea of using Greek mythology for a novel, but I was in college and way too busy to write on the side. I put it on the backburner. Fast forward to 2019. I was driving and listening to some music in 2019 when I got this idea of a supernatural romance. When I got home, I typed up what idea I had. Over the next 9 months, I would randomly go back to editing the story's outline. It was originally a standard romance with animal folklore and Norse mythology.

I think the main moment to actually start was around March when my work shut down for 3-4 months from the virus. I had more time to work on it, so why not begin the first chapter since the outline was basically finished? Well, I wrote a single paragraph and I knew it wasn't going to work out. I was already struggling with what to write and I didn't feel passionate about it once it was on paper. If I wasn't feeling it, how would readers?

So, I kept the main idea but changed the characters. It was no longer a female/male romance. I scrapped the female MC and replaced her with the antagonist and paired him with the male MC. A BL novel was born! But because I did such a drastic character swap, I had to alter a lot of the plot and ending. I started publishing chapters back in July and I'm still changing it as I go.

It worked out since I have awesome, loyal subs who give me uplifting comments

[UrMom]

Yay, I did the answer right! Definitely, even though my brain is an absolute disaster, at least it got me back into the drawing game. I don't know what I would do with myself if I lost my will to create, the thought is horror movie levels of unnerving.

Regarding the girl who drew the gift art, to this day I still have it saved within a protective sleeve in a binder, it would be fun to show her I still had it and to see how she's doing. I wonder if the still draws, or if she gave it up like most people do once they grow up.

Hah yeah, I used to hate being the weird kid, but after dealing with the gawking my whole life I've learned to be cool with it. At least I have something interesting to talk about when people try to converse with me, even if half the stuff I talk about is either too uninteresting or too odd for the average person to wrap their minds around.

[therosesword]

If you find her and show her the picture and she's stopped drawing... maybe you'll be her defining moment.

Yeah, being the weird kid is always a pain, but then you look around at the people who care about you and you think... who wants those other ones. I've got people (whether its just one or twenty) who like me for me.

When I'm around people who have no interest in what I'm interested in (oh am I ever used to that, I'm older and people my age haven't a clue who the bands are that I like now or I'm into c-drama and nobody knows the actors I like) anyway, then I try to be interested in what the other person is interested in. I figure there might be something there I can use in a story.

[therosesword]

Defining moments come in the most interesting ways!

[cherrystark]

Maybe a bit out childhood loneliness, I guess. Nothing really pops to mind. I had friends growing up but not many were true friends. I had hundreds of stories buzzing in my head and with no one to tell them to, I started to write them done.

[therosesword]

what made you start to write the down?

Funny story: my stepmom's best punishment she could come up with for a wild child who got into everything (me) was to make me sit in a chair in the middle of the kitchen and no one could talk to me and I couldn't talk to anyone. Time out was anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 depending on the infraction (closer to 15 most of the time). I took to making up stories. One day when I was let loose from kitchen jail I told her I'd made up a story and would she like to hear it. (you could see her rolling her eyes knowing she'd lost yet another punishment to use). She sent me outside to play and the next thing I knew she'd hauled her old (really old) portable typewriter up from the basement, stuck some paper in it and told me to write the story out.

Sooooo what made you sit down and finally start writing them down rather than keeping them in your head?

[sarahmcsquish]

Mine's frankly a comedy (I feel like my life is a sit com missing the laugh track). When I was 12, Twilight was the Big Thing. I couldn't escape it. I got a copy, read the first chapter and HATED it. It felt like mindless dribble. Of course the movies were now coming out and every friend took me to them, and by the end of the first one I thought "fuck this, I can do better". So I wrote to the best abilities of a 12yr, a "book". It was just 20 pages of a vampire story minus any romance.

I made my parents read it. My mom loves books, and more over loves editing books (somehow never did it as a job). She edited my work until it actually was legible. My dad however told me that writing wasn't a career, but nice job. I never pursued writing itself, but story telling was always something I liked, so I pursued animation.

The next defining moment was my animation internship. My area doesn't have big animation studios; just little one man places. A guy took me on, and gave me crap work. His series was awful, drawn terribly and the voice over was akin to listening to a screeching tire fire. However, he made sure to tell me (and his later interns I made friends with) that my work was garbage and I'd do better working at Home Depot.

Now every time I get worried my comic isn't good enough, I remember his pompous ass and his pathetic cartoon. If he can have confidence, why can't I?

[cherrystark]

I don't often like to sit down and be completely idle, so I'm always doing something. My mom's solution was to direct us to paper. We had these rolls of paper that were 50+ ft long. Since I couldn't keep my brothers from seeing my ideas, I started writing my brilliant ideas and world building in notebooks. My clipboard and stack of paper becme an important toy for me growing up.

[Puck]

I was drawing a lot when I was a kid but it was more doodling without any theoratical knowledge.
I kept on drawing from time to time, never got any better than I was when I was 14.

One morning I woke up in an apartment of a punk, next to me 3 skinhead guys who were the
other bandmembers of my band I was playing in. We were recording an album in a dirty small
town, I wasn´t really happy in the band anymore. So I woke up and it was my 40th birthday
and nobody in the room knew it because I didn´t tell them. That was the day I decided to
start to learn the theory/fundamentals of drawing, I had no clue what that means at that moment.
I have been drawing every day since that day, I bought a lot of books and several online courses.
That was 5 years ago, I´m still learning but that never stops and it´s still fun

[Legendofgenii]

I think I just reached an age where it finally hit me that we don’t live forever - COVID was a big kick up the bum.

I’ve drawn (like a lot of people here I guess) since I was little, and at school it’s all I ever excelled at and enjoyed.

I studied art at college, did two art degrees at uni and worked for a well known greeting card company (which I really didn’t like). I have my own graphic design business now (mostly wedding stationery- until the virus hit), but I alway had this pang of guilt (or feeling of loss?) towards my younger self and my dreams.

When the virus caused Lockdown in the UK, it was scary but also gave me a push to start drawing again.

We are going into Lockdown number 2 from this Thursday (I better buy some toilet paper! 🧻) until December, so although that’s bad for my business it’ll mean lots more drawing.

[Llyrel]

I think I just reached an age where it finally hit me that we don’t live forever

Definitely this! Though for me it wasn't Covid itself, but more like... white hair and crippling anxiety

Here's the thing: I've always suffered from anxiety attacks. Shortness of breath, pounding heart, feeling like I was about to pass out... those were all things I'd been used to. However, starting from last year, a new symptom decided to show up: hand tremors. On my right hand, no less. Some days, the tremor would be so bad I couldn't even hold my pen without causing a mess. I got so scared I eventually got a brain scan thinking it could have been something much worse. Wasn't the case, thankfully, but that still got me thinking... what if it was? What if I were to lose my ability to draw altogether? There was this comic I always wanted to work on, but I kept procrastinating 'cos I always felt like my skills weren't "good enough"... but what if the day where I'd become a "better artist" would never come due to me not being able to draw anymore?

As for white hair... I started to notice them at the beginning of last year: granted, that's mostly a genetic thing. All of my family on my mother's side started to go grey at an early age (I'm 31 now and I apparently had an uncle who went completely white by the age of 30), but still... white hair, coupled with the aforementioned hand tremors, were the things that made me realize that our time on this earth is definitely limited and that, if there's something you want to do, you better do it now.

(Note: no worries about hand tremors, I'm feeling much better nowadays. I still get them from time to time, but they're nowhere near as awful as they used to be last year and I'm working on managing my anxiety )

[Legendofgenii]

Oh no! Sorry to hear about the hand tremors. Is that a side effect of the anxiety then?

I hadn’t even thought about what would happen if you just couldn’t physically draw anymore. ️

[Llyrel]

Oh no! Sorry to hear about the hand tremors. Is that a side effect of the anxiety then?

.hugs
Yep, definitely a side effect of anxiety. Let's say that trying to survive in a very toxic environment at work last year didn't help... that, and a bit too many cups of espresso, apparently but I'm feeling a lot better now!

Also yep, losing the ability to draw was something I'd never ever taken in consideration before either... it's a scary thought, but I guess at least it gave me the necessary kick in the butt to stop procrastinating