Writers and artists, post interesting stories you have about writing or drawing

[JoshRaed]

I'll start.

When I was like 15 or 16 maybe 17, I started writing a fanfiction. It was a mass crossover fanfic where every scene was literally made up on the spot and it was so bad that I:

Wrote in Sokka, had him get trapped in a closet at beacon academy, then just forgot him to the point that by maybe 50 chapters later he was still there.

Wrote a chapter so useless I deleted it later because it never factored into the plot.

Accidentally wrote a character into a scene full of people who were looking for him as he'd been kidnapped in the last chapter.

The first character to be introduced was forgotten for a full season, only to be switched over into the main character all of a sudden in the next "season".

Set up a subplot that never happened and then resolved it abruptly afterwards.

Overall it was a hilarious mess of a story in all versions.

[CarltonIsaac]

In high school (a very strict Catholic one) I got into trouble for drawing caricatures of school teachers as hairy footed Hobbits in rather indecent poses and states of undress.

The school principal had my parents over and suspended me for three days. My folks were cool about it and bought me a new drawing board with a lightbox and art supplies for a year.

Winning!

[Lensing]

I started drawing comics at the age of 8, copying Asterix & Obelix drawings.
I soon found out that it´s the only way to impress people when I was drawing
in school. I was bad at everything else, sports, school in general.
I published comics as a teenager, they were chaotic and I was drawing
several pages every day with my brother who also writes and draws.

I focused on music as a teenager because 1) I fell in love with making rock´n´roll
music 2) it was more social than sitting in your room alone drawing.
I became a musician, toured the world, played in a lot of bands and recorded
a lot of albums. One day I woke up, hungover, in a really bad mental and physical
condition. It was my birthday and I was sleeping on the cold ground in a room
with some skinheads int he apartment of a punk. Nobody knew that it was my
birthday and also didn´t tell them, we were in the middle of recording an album.
I don´t know why, but that day I started drawing again and I made the plan
to relearn drawing and practice 5 years. I changed my complete life in every
aspect, people I hung out with, city where I lived, moved out of the tiny room I was
living in, changed to a healthy diet, sport, etc.
5 years went by, a lot of positive things happened in my life, everything was better.
I wasn´t at the point where I wanted to be, got feedback from other artists and decided
to practice 5 years more. The 10 years of practice will be over may 15, 2025

I´m teaching kids now and work as an illustrator, I still play music, I´m happy

[ArtGremlin]

Well, I started trying to make a comic because I wanted to make another comic, but I knew I wasn’t ready to make that comic so I eventually came up with August in the mean time.
This other comic started from me playing a game (Animal Jam ) and I was collecting chests to get items. It must have been late or something because me and my sister started calling the chests “Chester”. A few days later my sister said I should draw an object head character with a chest for a head (Chester) (we were into TPoH at the time (still love it)). I don’t remember which of us said he should be a pirate, but he is one. (I also don’t know if I realized the irony of a treasure chest pirate at the time ) eventually we added more characters and role-played a story about them when we should have been sleeping.
This was around 2 years ago, and the story has evolved a lot since then. I hope I can make it into a comic someday when I’m more experienced.

[2DLenzy]

Former writer here, wondering now if I had always had some hyper-creativity/ mania going on since my teen years.

In high school, at 16, I decided to write a scifi novel after typing up a prologue in my phone (off brand of a Blackberry, with the full keyboard). So, every morning I got up an extra hour early (530am, had to get on bus at 7) and started writing a chapter, went to school, then, when I got home, after homework/chores, I'd continue the chapter. Finished one chapter in a couple days and edits took longer. I remember each chapter being about 30 pages each, and I think the novel was like 400+ pages. It was a story about the last Earthling man, sent away as a child into hiding as Earth was destroyed by some butthead aliens, and then craziness ensues when he's found by a bunch of rando humanoids he hired for a job. Mix of Ancient Aliens/Biblical/Star Trek/BSG shenanigans! I ripped off so many space medias and it was so cringe! XD

Oh, and early twenties, I took an internship at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. I just finished two semesters, going for an ambiguous Associate of Science Degree / Physics. Failed the first Engineering course-decided engineering wasn't for me, but apparently they still took interns at the base--and paid them. But I did it during a summer where there was not much going on, and I was far too introverted to ask for something to do, so I mostly sat on my butt the whole summer. I did read a crap-ton of ebooks online, and eventually wrote a short story in Google Docs. Not sure how I got away with it, considering I was on a frickin' military base--everything was DND and they probably monitored my online activities, who knows--but suppose that was a telltale moment - of many- that suggest I'd do better in storytelling, and NOT rocket science XD.

I still got those cringey stories in the cloud. I wanna publish the short one. The other sci-fi monstrosity--well--might have to wait...In the meantime, Friar Chicken is my passion.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

The classmate whom I got into art in elementary school is now a professional artist

[2DLenzy]

I now have a date to put down on my calendar.
Inspiring stuff! Eager to see your comic debut!

[rosskinnaird]

I started writing my now almost fully published trilogy when I was 17.
Back then I was in the closet and I had even no Idea I was, lol.
The characters were shallow and refused to tell their truth as I refused to see mine.

Fast forward 20 years later, I had a first and second book drafts done. The core of the story (a portal fantasy) was ready. I wrote the whole plot with authority, confidence and boldness. My characters reflected my own change in owning the truth.
Between Book 1 and Book 3 (coming out in June 2024) I feel I have moved even further. I don't feel weird in writing a massive epic fantasy where the main character is gay. I don't think twice anymore when my past experiences spill onto the pages, revealing things I never felt ready to talk about.

In a way, the three main characters have grown with me in this journey, and I love that. Somehow, they feel very real to me. I truly hope I'll be able to produce the same magic on my next novel, once the trilogy is finished.

[Leyelle]

Mine is technically about painting, but I have a novel about a painter called "Damsel in the Red Dress." It's about a Mexican-Navajo art prodigy who gets into a car accident as her best friend is driving her home from an award show. I love art myself and have been drawing, painting, and writing my whole life, so a lot of my stories revolve around these themes in some form or another because I love the way that colors can help us express emotions, and the idea of blending visuals (or descriptions of visuals) and prose together to create a story.