Hazumirein

Neither of these are for series I have on Tapas because I really only host my novel here, BUT please accept them anyway. Anyhow I think Riza, my MC from my webcomic-turned-visual novel series DreamCatcher: Reflections, is pretty darn cute. [image] [image] [image] [image] (With a bonus ap…

Mar 15, '21

To sequel or not to sequel.

Writing | Novels

I agree with the "it's personal preference" crowd, though I've heard that it's sometimes easier to keep your audience engaged if you just keep posting the sequel chapters in the same webnovel they're already subscribed to. If I ever get around to writing the second book in my trilogy (one day...) I'…

Mar 6, '21

Promote your novel/comic with your best scene/moment

Promotions

I'm sure this isn't the best scene, but it is one of my favorites. A "frenemies" moment. Kody crept slowly around the side of a dilapidated building, listening for the distinctive click of a lighter. He’d made the man from Devil’s Night last for the better part of a month, but his supply was runn…

Mar 5, '21

What makes an idea good enough to stick with?

This might be the discovery writer in me talking, but, "ideas" are a dime a dozen. It's what you do with those ideas that counts. It's why so many successful stories have the same basic plotlines; no one is going to tell that story quite the same way you are. Anyway, focus less on finding a "good"…

Mar 5, '21

How often do you think of giving up?

I think about it pretty regularly, to be honest, but it's usually a fleeting thought. At this point I've put so much time and effort into my projects that giving up on them would feel like a bigger waste than just pushing forward, because at the end of the day I'd rather have something finished but …

Feb 22, '21

Random Artwork For Your Series

Technically this is sort of a scene from the book, but I felt like drawing some of my novel chars the other day. [image]

Feb 22, '21

First speedpaint in years, If you do speedpaints add yours too :D

Promotions

I don't do them too often because I usually just...forget...to record...but here's an older one!

Feb 22, '21

Does anyone has a facebook or twitter account just to share their work?

I avoid using Facebook for promo because I use my legal name there and a pseudonym for all my creative work (mostly so my family/coworkers don't track down the rest of my social media ahaha), but I use Twitter almost exclusively for posting art and things related to my creative projects. I talk abou…

Feb 19, '21

Magnum opus. Let it go or?

So, my personal experience with "magnum opus" stories is that I made mine my first project...worked on that comic for over 10 years without even coming close to finishing it, realized I didn't like what I had made, scrapped it and started over Version 2 is now a narrative game series instead of a c…

Feb 19, '21

Do you write novels in first person, third person, or something else?

Writing | Novels

Honestly, it depends. I default to third person, especially with a large cast where I want multiple viewpoints, but if the MC has a strong enough personality for it I really enjoy writing first person as well. Somewhat recently I started a story in third person and couldn't figure out why it wasn't …

Feb 19, '21

Let me know what you think?

In general my advice regarding "style" is not to stress about it, it'll form naturally over time and will probably change a lot as you're exposed to different influences. Like, when I was younger I absolutely refused to draw the outer edges of nostrils because I didn't like the way they looked, but …

Oct 30, '20

A question about social relations systems in video games

You rang, @allenT? (Haha no really thanks for the tag, I've just been tied up with other stuff lately and haven't been around the forums much) ANYWAY, I don't know how much help I would be since the games I'm making are very narrative driven visual novels, to the point where they're basically just…

Oct 3, '20

Do you feel satisfied with the way the opening of your story sounds?

I'm weirdly okay with the first chapter of my novel. It's really more of a prologue and I think it creates some intrigue around the setting and the MC. Plus it's pretty short. I usually don't like long, winding intros; I want to get to the actual story.

Oct 3, '20

Plotting vs. Pantsing

Writing | Novels

I usually start out pantsing and then go back and do some outlining once I have a sense of what the story is. Actually, I usually start out with some semi-developed characters and maybe a vague plot idea and then just kind of...let them write themselves for awhile and see what direction they seem to…

Oct 3, '20

I'm back on my Calarts BS

Haha yeah I said exactly the same thing when I was finishing high school, "but I don't like anything else so I have to do art!" I wound up kind of falling into a career in another field that I love, and if you'd told me at 16 that I'd be doing what I am now I'd laugh at you because it's so differe…

Oct 3, '20

I'm back on my Calarts BS

I can't speak to Calarts specifically, but as someone who pursued art school straight out of high school...don't, unless you're positive it's what you want. It's a lot of money to spend on something you're not absolutely sure about. Consider taking a year or two off after HS or go to community colle…

Sep 20, '20

Can someone give ideas for my already existing Comic?

Okay, first of all, what genre do you intend this story to be? Because I feel like that plot summary could go the direction of either a) fantasy romance where you focus on developing the relationship between the two characters, or b) a magical thriller where she figures out how crazy and obsessive h…

Sep 19, '20

How do you make an exposition-based chapter interesting?

I had some luck with switching to a different art style whenever I needed to do a lore dump. People seemed to like it. Probably not something to be used for an entire chapter, but good for a few pages here and there. Also good to have characters chiming in to ask questions or make snarky comments wh…

Sep 19, '20

Artists: Show me your Timelapse Videos!

I only ever made one of these and it's...pretty basic I keep saying I'll make more and then forget to record anything.

Sep 19, '20

Doing the "which face are you" meme with your own comic's art!

[image] A selection of Riza faces, mostly from the visual novel reboot of the series but with one bonus from the original comic because I don't think I'll ever top it. 🤪

Sep 19, '20

What song is good to be your ending song of your series and share your comic and novel

If my novel were a movie/TV series, I imagine this song playing while the credits roll At least for the first book. It'll make sense when the last chapter goes up next week...I think.

Sep 19, '20

Ever been late updating?

Part of the reason I got away from making comics is because they were so time-consuming and I had so much other stuff going on and my updates were late like, all the time Thankfully I had some VERY understanding readers that never hassled me about it.

Sep 13, '20

I just uploaded the last chapter of my first novel! (Share your accomplishments!)

Ahh thanks, congrats on finishing yours as well and good luck with the second one! I don't know if I'm excited or worried about writing the second one in my series because all I have for it right now is a loose outline of plot points and character arcs ahaha; hopefully I don't take a decade to pull …

Sep 13, '20

I just uploaded the last chapter of my first novel! (Share your accomplishments!)

The funny part is that if I had worked on it straight through instead of continually putting it down, it would have taken like 1-2 years probably But honestly I'm a lot more confident in my writing now than I was when I started it anyway so it's probably for the best. That's a really nice cover! …

Sep 13, '20

I just uploaded the last chapter of my first novel! (Share your accomplishments!)

Ah congrats on your novel as well! I know the feeling, I set out to write like a 50-60k word one-off book and landed at 90k with plans for two more It's crazy how these things tend to grow as you're working on them.

Sep 13, '20

Quit Writing BADLY! :D

Is it really bad writing if it's bad enough to be funny, though? I laughed out loud at a few of these, and I'm 90% sure I wrote some similar lines in high school and college. A lot of my teachers loved it. I might steal the E.coli one, actually.

Sep 13, '20

If you were to write non-fiction, what would you write about?

I've done music journalism off and on over the years; album reviews, show reviews, interviews with bands, etc. It's fun, but ever since the whole pandemic thing started and the music industry basically got shut down, I've sort of dropped off with it since there's not a lot to write about.

Sep 12, '20

I just uploaded the last chapter of my first novel! (Share your accomplishments!)

So, for context, I started writing this thing during I think my senior year of high school, ten years ago. I've been picking at it ever since, sometimes putting it down for years at a time to focus on other projects. I started posting it to Tapas in like 2018 in hopes that it would motivate me to fi…

Sep 7, '20

How did you come up with your pseudonym?