I don´t feel like I had to go through anything to make my stories.
My stories are influenced by things that I always loved or can´t stop thinking about and
that is the 1930-1950s era, humour, office jobs, human relationships, bizarre characters, erotic
I had to go through some things to write my autobiographic stuff, I´m writing stories about the life
of a touring musician. Not sure what I will publish, I probably have to talk to a lawyer before publishing
the stories
My novel is my statement on my media landscape, and it is the sum total of:
Being an fantasy and SF fan in the 1990s.
Attending SF conventions as an author in the aughts and meeting other authors (including Sir Terry Pratchett).
Being a pop culture commentator on and off from 2000-2019.
Doing a graduate degree in military history from 2008-2011, meeting a bunch of combat officers who served in Afghanistan (and when Americans were visiting, Iraq) in the process.
Getting properly into anime in 2020.
Having Re:Creators (Rei Hiroe's statement on his media landscape) implant itself in my head and not leave.
And that is how you get Re:Apotheosis and its characters - I don't think the novel would exist if any of these elements were missing.
Had to go through a rare autoimmune sickness which caused me to stay quarantined BEFORE the quarantine. Decided to brush off my writing skills. I tried to push for this other webcomic, but I soon realized no one would read it since it was sci-fi. I made connections with people on Discord. Met skilled artists and animators in the industry. Continued to push for the sci-fi story, until I came up with a stick figure isekai idea. I pitched the idea and then I got my artist's attention. There's a TON of other stuff I had to go through, but eventually that time I was quarantined helped me be super resourceful and smart with my time.
I thank the experience since it gave me a "work smarter not harder" mentality.
That Stick Figure Isekai is also a backdoor pilot for my sci-fi story. I wanna make peopel hyped for it.
That's so true! It's also true for my novel, and I believe for every story. If the characters are interesting enough, and the plot is interesting enough, all the rest is just an extra. Charles Schultz really knew what to focus on and what not, to be efficient with time and as evidence, it really worked for him. I want to make my story a comic but I don't have enough time to do it the way I want to as one man, so once I get recognition I'll hire a team and be the director of it 
To me it sounds that you are going through your passions in order to create your stories, which is lovely 
You have a rich bio! It's very interesting to see your self observation and the awareness of what made you created your craft. In my eyes it's show the self digging you had to do to understand yourself and your surrounding. Well done!
Hm ... so my ongoing series bitwam only became its current incarnation at the beginning of last year, but lots of the characters and themes stretch back to 2016 when it was a dating sim visual novel idea. So I guess here's some themes I plan to explore in my comic, and some stuff I went through that informed them:
Homeless by choice: I've always liked the idea of living as simply as possible to maximize free time. Late high school, I remember having a conversation with my school counselor about wanting to be homeless by choice, but I was being vague out of fear and the counselor totally missed what I was trying to say 
Late 2016/early 2017, I tested out that idea for the first time. I told my parents I was moving out, but gave them a misleading address. It didn't go very well; I was carrying a lot of stuff I didn't end up using, and squatting in university buildings after hours, which somehow landed me in psych ward rather than jail XD
Cut to end of 2020, when I finished my masters and realized I hate applying for things and justifying why I deserve a job/grant/whatever more than the next person. And also that I had enough money saved up to afford food for the rest of my life. So I gave being 'homeless' by choice another shot, this time wiser from previous experiences. I travelled light, and packed for warmth so I don't need to be inside at night. So far I've been doing this for 19 months and it's been quite nice :]
Boundaries and individualism: It was a relief to start university in 2016, as I'm out of the house more often. It was even more of a relief when I moved out.
My stepdad was kind of toxic; he'd do stuff like accuse me of something then accuse me of calling him a liar when I asked for evidence, ask me questions that need something more complex than a 'yes or no' answer but demand one anyway, and saying that I'm 'playing mind games' when I try to introduce any nuance into our conversations. He's incredibly inconsistent, contradicting his own values and getting mad at me when I try to clarify what he actually believes.
This has lead me to the belief that power lies in not needing stuff. If you don't need anything from X, you don't have to deal with X's bullcrap. This may have contributed to my eagerness to be homeless by choice, as well - which is essentially applying the same mindset to employers as well as family and personal relationships.
Different beliefs, demonization, understanding As a kid, I felt like a bad person no matter where I went, no matter the political affiliation of the people I was talking to. On the left, there was your stereotypical tumblrites and on the right, there was my stepdad. I couldn't even fit in with the 'centrists' because they seem to think 'extremists' are more narrow-minded and dogmatic than more moderate people whose beliefs fit neatly into the overton window.
My first experience with discussing politics with reasonable people was in my first year of university, in the math society. They explained their point of view, addressed my questions and didn't accuse me of 'playing mind games' or otherwise discussing in bad faith. I still get emotional thinking back on this experience, and I don't know if that's a good thing :'D
But yeah, my less fun experiences with politics left me with some self-worth issues for a while, and there was a time where I always felt guilty and thought I was a terrible person who hurt people just by existing (a la 'if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem'). One character in bitwam is kind of a vent character for this experience (though I feel the need to clarify that it never got as bad for me as it gets for this character at the darkest points in the story XD). But I've since gotten better, and here's what I'd tell others who find themselves in my previous position:
-'There's no such thing as thought crimes; what goes on in your head and stays in your head has no bearing on your moral character.'
-'People don't want to make you feel guilty; they just want to stop being hurt themselves, and they'd rather accomplish that without hurting you.'
-'An important part of being a rational person is not letting bad delivery of good ideas stop you from recognizing those good ideas.'
Sounds like you put so much of you into the story and I'm liking it even without reading it. We share a lot in common, wish you best of luck
closed Oct 25, '22
