Too Many Mediums

The Writer's Blog of Ani Johnson, a 20-something year old with a Creative Writing degree from Ball State University. I find my passion in novels and game development.

[anijohnson]

I'll Totally Be Safe! | Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaria Simulator

[anijohnson]

Untold Stories

This is going to be a bit of a therapeutic post for me, dealing with the passing of immediate family. Mostly the aftermath, though.

I don’t know what about today sparked this, but a memory crossed my mind. It was the first time we went out to a restaurant after my dad died. Note that, if I remember correctly, this within the week after it happened.

We went to a new restaurant that had opened in our area. It was quiet, off hours during the weekday, I believe. So the waiter spent a lot of time at our table, because tips make the world go round here in America.

We joked, we laughed, and we chatted. When we left, my sister made a very interesting observation. “... and he had no idea we just experienced this huge tragedy.”

It was uncommon in that area. It was hard to admit at the time, and I didn’t mention it if I could avoid it. Which resulted in a lot of instances of simply “You have no idea what just happened to me.”

It’s an interesting thing, something that I started to apply to my writing, actually. I was told once that you want to create the mindset of background characters, so that say, in a fight, they’ll react as people. I end up creating entire backstories, which helps flesh them out, and sets up the feeling they may be back.

Untold stories are so important, because it completely shifts the dynamic of a scene.

The best example, again related to my father’s passing, was when I worked as a delivery driver. There was a party going on at the place that ordered food, and most if not all of the people there were drunk.

While I waited, one of these lovely college drunks hung out by the door and just started... talking at me. Not with me, at me. About how he was really upset because his dad was busting his ass to get a job.

And part of me wonders what would have happened if I had told him. Just turned the rant back on him, about the fact that my dad had passed away.

But I didn’t, which left this miserable drunk talking about how he didn’t want a job, he wanted to party while he was at college, and I walked away in a worse mood then I had started.

I don’t really have a good end to this post, because honestly I just wanted to tell those two stories. Take them as examples I guess?

[anijohnson]

Modern Day Fairy Tales

If anyone is interested in offering one, I really want to see if I can get a short story series going to improve my writing and maybe make some money.

[anijohnson]

Book Review - Where the Staircase Ends by Stacy Stokes

This was a monster of emotion, mostly because young adult books tend to deal a lot with high school drama, and this was no different.

Where the Staircase Ends is a Young Adult Fiction Novel by Stacy Stokes. It tells of the journey taken by Taylor, a high school girl who, in the first two chapters of the book, dies. What follows are her trials up a staircase she finds, which makes her relive her memories leading up to the day she was hit by a car.

It’s a very interesting, if somewhat confusing, novel. In a similar *theme* to Slaughterhouse 5, the narrative jumps around a lot, taking a lot of timelines with it. Her journey up the staircase and the weeks leading up to her death are the two main ones, and throughout the story, we have small smatterings of various memories.

However, it’s all very well written, and easy to read. There’s a bit of pop culture to it, but nothing so crazy that it’s unreadable to those who aren’t immersed in culture themselves. It’s set modern day, with cellphones and iPods, but there isn’t a lot of jargon being thrown around.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would highly suggest it if you are considering it. Or want a roller coaster of emotion.

[anijohnson]

Public Services

Basically libraries are awesome and you should be using them.

Make a list of books you want, though you can’t afford, and head out to your nearest branch.

Even just browsing the shelves can do wonders.

Reviews to come, I picked up four new Young Adult/Middle Grade novels that I’m looking forward to reading.

[anijohnson]

One of these days I’ll edit my book again. Make it longer (hilariously) and take my time in the scenes.

that’s always the thing. I don’t stay long enough on my scenes.

[anijohnson]

Idea Splurg

Apocalypse four elements - a Game that is multiple genres. (RTS, RPG, FPS, Visual Novel)

On the run, gotta keep moving - a story about the falsely accused and a person who hates politics

Assassins’ Guild, and the one recruit who can’t leave up to her family name - a story from /r/WritingPrompts

The Black and White World - a Youtube Series with a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure vibe.

If you ever thought my blog title wasn’t appropriate...

[anijohnson]

Ani Rambles - When Creativity is Low

I’ve been in a weird creative slump recently. It’s really hard for me to get myself to do any of my original stuff.

This might be related to me learning coding ((Javascript, specifically. We hope to upgrade to Unity after we finish our RPG)), but either way, I have been having issues drawing and writing.

I have, however, been editing like there is no tomorrow. I’ve been splicing pixels, critiquing work, reviewing my own, all that good stuff. I’ve been flexing my photoshop skills a lot in the past couple months as well, and that’s just been a joy to do.

I am worried about how long this “No original creativity” thing will last, but at least I haven’t lost all drive to create.

[anijohnson]

Ani’s Writing Rambles - The Right Time to Find an Agent

So I’ve been doing research on agents, as my fiance convinced me that I should at least attempt to find one before I go back into the world of Self Publishing.

I haven’t found any actual agents yet, but I did discover that apparently December and January are the worst times to send out manuscripts, because so many writers have decided that their New Year’s resolution is finally getting that query out.

On the plus side, that gives me time to get feedback from my beta readers, and I can look over some short stories that I’ve written to see if there’s anything that I could send out to hopefully make a tad bit of money on.

I think the biggest problem I have is the fact I’m writing “Fantasy” but I couldn’t tell you what sub genre of that broad term my story is in.

I have a pretty biased view, and I don’t even know if the story is that good, which is why I keep hoping I get some feedback.

basically, beta readers are awesome, and if you plan to look for an agent, don’t try to find one at the turn of the year.

[anijohnson]

Novelizations and Shitty First Drafts

I think the weirdest thing about trying to do the NaNoWriMo that I have been has been the sections where, in game, you are suppose to just run through a dungeon.

I also have been in a slump so I haven’t been writing properly, but there’s entire areas where I can’t seem to figure out how to summarize the ideas that I have. Currently am trying to catch up to where my friend and I always get to - the end of the first true dungeon. I’m hoping to write out the summary and scenes up to getting to the next area.

Sometimes you have to accept that your shitty first draft needs to be just that. Shitty.

Awful.

Miserable.

Hilarious.

I once read an article about how the first draft can be the draft where you let your characters dip out of character, maybe even calling others “Poopypants” or something.

It’s a draft no one else is suppose to see. And I’ll have great huge areas of just “nope.”

Such as the entrance to the first dungeon.

“There was monsters and stuff” is basically what I wrote.

Don’t be afraid to just... write. You can always go back and edit later.

[anijohnson]

NaNoWriMo

I’m pretty much awful at it.

[anijohnson]

Done with one, on to the next

I finally finished the large scale edit for Journey Through San Fae. I just need to shove it in Beta Reader faces now.

I started up work on The Tale of Maiores again, mostly in dealing with the sprites. My own pixel work isn’t the greatest, and I’ve always been upset at how they turn out when I freestyle it.

However, I sometimes forget that honestly, I’m better at working from someone else’s starting point. I love editing, as I’ve explained before. While writing is the best to create your own work to edit in my experience, there is sometimes a way that art can be worked with too.

I’ve been using a creator called LooseLeaf to make the sprites for my game. Earlier this weekend, I decided to try my hand at splicing together something that would work for my character, instead of starting from scratch.

I’m pretty proud of the result.

So meet Nadia, the princess who’s not just going to sit around and be kidnapped.

[anijohnson]

Misc. Writing Rambles

Editing is crazy. Also it really shows me which parts of my story I like and which I don’t. I’m worried that Part 2 is REALLY gunna drag.

[anijohnson]

Game Review - Undertale (Toby Fox)

If you like JRPGs, or crazy, somewhat messed up stories, I highly suggest this game.

Undertale is a reaffirmation parody of the JRPG genre (and RPGs in general, but has more elements from Eastern then Western games.)

The story is awesome, if somewhat strange, and all the characters are well written. I can only think of one I dislike, and that’s because of the personality, not the writing.

You play as a “Name Yourself” human in a world of monsters. You are “fighting” your way through the various levels. There are puzzles, and fun designs, and great music.

The fun part is that you don’t have to kill anything. Almost all the fights can be resolved with a command called “Act”

And what you do there various from monster to monster. Some want someone to talk to, others just need their personal space. It’s very hard to write this review without spoiling anything, but I will say that Toby Fox did a wonderful job of making it so choices do matter.

Highly suggest it.

[zvartart]

So I said I’d do OC-tober then promptly had a party this weekend for my birthday. I will be posting one more character tonight, and skipping a total count. ((Two of the character days were the same character, just his Before and After revisions.))

FOR NOW, THE ORIGINAL MAIN CHARACTERS OF SAN FAE

Keep reading

[anijohnson]

Weee more OC Tober.

[anijohnson]

Some days...

You just don’t have anything to talk about.

So here’s a reminder to write those words you need to. Even if it’s just a sentence. Write ‘em!

Get the sketch done on that picture you want to draw!

Write down the thoughts on your battle system!

Even if it’s just a tiny thing, get your stuff done!

[zvartart]

So someone suggested using October to draw original characters - one a day.

So here I am. I broke it down into OCs that I could remember, and the first ten days are characters from my novel, Journey Through San Fae. I was curious to see where my novel characters started from back in seventh grade, as to where they are now nearly a decade later. These “Original/Current” ones are only for the novel characters.

To start off, why not the main character!

Abigail Smith

Neat fact, Abigail wasn’t even in the original conception of San Fae. She didn’t appear until the third draft, where she just showed up randomly in her original form to move the story along. Later in that semester (two years ago now?) I realized she was suppose to be telling the story. It made for a much more interesting tale, and she became the audience espy.

She started off as blonde and brown eyed. I didn’t really have a personality for her outside of being a clergy girl. When I redesigned her, I figured there was no reason she looked how she did, and made her more based on real-world Hispanic origins. Zoe Saldana is her face claim, if you are curious.

[anijohnson]

I have a separate blog for my art stuff, though I haven’t updated it in a while.

The previous caption pretty much explains it. I might not reblog all of them.