Feb 1
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Feb 2
Feb 1
Doomed
Feb 1

So, a bit about myself first. I'm easy to work with and always open to suggestions, input and criticism. I'm not a pro by any means, but I do believe my strengths lie in worldbuilding and story development. I've had an interest in working on a project like this for years, but I pretty much kept it to myself as a personal worldbuilding exercise. Besides this project, I've worked on music for a few years too, with which I've also written lyrics for and have come up with concepts for albums and such. So writing has pretty much been a big part of my life for a while now.

I have been developing this story on and off since about 2012. The idea has gone through two major overhauls, but for the most part had been stuck in worldbuilding hell. That is, until last year. For some reason, I revisited some older ideas and suddenly an actual storyline with characters and events began taking shape. For the first time in years of being lost in timelines, world history and lore I had an actual story.

While I always imagined this story somehow being made in a visual format, I knew I was horrendous at drawing nor could I actually afford to pay someone, so I opted to making it a web novel. Up until now my approach has been that I am working on a web novel. But then I read some stuff, talked to a couple people and they suggested I should at least try to find someone willing to collab before actually throwing myself at the web novel format. So, here is the pitch:

Straight up, this is a free collab, an unpaid project. You'd come on as a team member, I'd give you a more detailed overview of the story and if that interests you, then you're in. I'm a solo writer and I will be handling all the writing, although, as I said, I am open to input and constructive criticism. So I need an artist or more than one. I am open to landing on a format that we're all comfortable with (manga, web comic, webtoon, comic, etc.) as well as schedule and all that. The only thing I ask for in terms of art is that the style be anime/manga or adjacent. Also, of course, any profit this eventually makes, if any, would be fairly distributed among us, with a higher percentage going to the artists, because I do genuinely believe that is the most intense work in all this. Any specifics on this can be discussed in depth privately.

How much do I have done? So, I have enough material planned out for two parts with multiple arcs. I have a prologue roughly written in web novel format. Arc 1 is fully planned episode to episode (or chapters). Arcs 2 - 4 are about 90% planned out and everything following that is at 50% or less. However, as far as the rough idea of the story, characters, events, it's all pretty much done. I was about to begin writing episodes for the web novel format of Arc 1 this week, but yeah. I know if I find anyone here I'll need to be more hands on with visual ideas and such, which is completely fine. I have a clear vision for the story, world and vibe and of course I encourage artist creative control as well. Basically...if this were to pop off, it could go for as long as it needs to, and there is also a clear final ending I would want to reach.

As for the story itself...It is a dark/epic fantasy/psychological/action/adventure story. So, no isekai, level up or stuff like that.

The story, for now, goes by the name The Pyrophobic Empyrean. The Pyrophobic Empyrean follows Hiora, an empyrean who awakens many years after The Great Burning, an event in which she lost her home, her Goddess and was left to die. Now she must find purpose in an unfamiliar world, among the people that took everything from her. The world has changed and Hiora will soon learn that her perception of events is much different than of those around her. Throughout her journey she will make allies, enemies and learn the secrets of the Known World and the threats of the World Beyond.

I don't want to give too much away here, so hopefully that small story hook is interesting enough. Also this post was getting pretty long already and I had to edit it down to this, so apologies for that. Anyways, I hope this reaches the right people and we can create something special. In any case that I don't succeed in finding an artist, I will be releasing this as a web novel, but I know nothing must beat being able to see your characters and the scenes you have in your head play out. For more info you can respond here, dm. Ideally any communication beyond here can be done via discord, which I will give in dms. Cheers!

jwabeasley
Feb 1

So you're looking for a 1-4 year commitment to create ~200-400 manga pages? Do you have character and world designs planned already? Have you tried thumbnailing it out yet (do you have a by-page-and-panel script complete for the prologue and act 1)?

Doomed
Feb 1

Well, not really. I'm not sure where you're getting those numbers, maybe a finished product looks like that at the end. Really depends on pacing and work output. And I'm not really forcing anyone to commit for years. If the project is successful and lasts a long time I don't see how that is a bad thing. My focus right now is just getting things started. I know a project like this takes time. What I wanted to make clear in my post is that I have enough material clearly planned out for this to be a long term project, It can go as far as it needs to, be it one act, two or whatever. As I said, this was meant to be a web novel, so no, I haven't finished things like thumbnailing yet, however, the prologue is pretty much done and scripted. I literally only have to reformat it so that it is by page, panels or otherwise. Character and world designs are also, for the most part done and can be revisited so that the artist has a say in them. Also the prologue isn't really that long, so it's perfect to establish a work flow. For example, while the artist does character concepts, I'll be deep into scripting/thumbnailing act 1. There's a lot of variables that just depend on work flow. Maybe it takes us years to get Act 1 out, maybe it takes us a few months. I'm just excited to get started on the working with someone part.

jwabeasley
Feb 1

So you're just looking to work on the prologue to start off?

Doomed
Feb 1

Well, yes. No matter how long or short this goes on for, the first steps are concept art and then the prologue.