Pick a scene/chapter/whatever from one of your fics (or I'll suggest one!) and add any commentary you feel like. Why that line? How come this plot twist? What does the eyebrow waggle MEAN?!?! I want the dirt and I can only smash my face up against the glass of your stories so hard before I start to leave smudges.
Thank you for the tag and for the prompt @genjyoandgojyoandhakkai !!
When deciding to express something in either art or fic, what's your process like? If you decide to write, do you map out emotions, go off vibes, picture a scene in your head, or something else? When you decide to draw, do you picture the finished product, or have an idea about the story you're telling with color, posing, imagery, etc? What's something that is a commonality between both? Does one of your OCs make it easier in one medium vs another?
Long ramble under the cut:
So in general, I'm usually trying to capture a Feeling with both writing and art. The direction my creation takes usually depends on which feeling is most dominant at the time. Sometimes I want something melancholy so I lean sad and wistful. Sometimes I want something fluffy so I go more lighthearted and sweet. That's usually the start of anything I consider a "significant project."
With art it's a little more flexible, where sometimes I just wanna draw a character and it doesn't matter what kind of piece it is. Or sometimes I just really want to draw clothes or do design work, so that's where I go with it. I find art easier to just futz around with and see what comes out. Writing I often find I need it to be purposeful. I struggle a LOT with being able to just. Write a thing.
Inspiration-wise, my starting points are different depending on craft:
Writing:
When deciding to write something, I usually start with a particular moment or broader concept. So for instance, Companion AU started as me going "What would Sabriel and Lucanis's relationship be like if she was friends with Spite first?" That idea expanded into "well how would she talk to JUST Spite?" And then THAT turned into "Lucanis wakes up on the floor of her room" and after I wrote that piece I started developing their relationship more and now I have a whole pile of things built around them!
This is often why I struggle with writing, because until I get that concept or moment, I can't really START. For another example, I've had the idea for expanding on Rhys's complicated relationship with his body and boundaries for a while, but I've never been able to land on a proper SITUATION to capture the feeling. The closest I got was the ficlet I wrote but even that's not everything so I need to keep poking at it.
And even then, sometimes I only have one particular scene in mind and I struggle with the surrounding parts. I like to write in order, because I need point A to have a shape before I can write point B, which makes it hard to tackle bigger projects. Another example is Sabriel's "Hero of the Veilguard quest" piece that I've had sitting in the back of my head for a long time. I know what the shape of the quest is, and I know what general kind of scene I want to be the climax, but the buildup is very difficult for me to picture and I'm not exactly sure what the emotional tone is for Rhys and Lucanis (the ones that go on the quest with her) so I've just never been able to really get started.
I think I get a little lost in all the different pieces and parts that go into an overall story. Every once in a while I get lucky and a concept snaps together fully-formed and then I write it in a fugue state for 3 days, but that's a very rare occurrence haha
Drawing:
As mentioned before, drawing is a lot more flexible for me. I'm good at noodling on a few ideas and just grabbing one and taking it on. If I have enough time to mull it over, I can come up with anywhere from 2-10 different ideas for the same initial feeling, and I try to sift through them and grab on that captures the Vibe the best, but is also within my general skill range.
I can envision entire compositions in my head, but often they're far too complex for my skillset!! I'm not great with perspective and I don't do styles like oil painting, so if I get an image like that in my brain I know I need to edit it to something feasible for me.
In general though, I often can picture the figure of the character in my head, along with the general feeling of movement and emotion I want from the piece, and then the surrounding details I have to experiment with. I'm very inexperienced in illustration so I often have to spend a lot of time drawing background elements, moving them around, adjusting what brushes I use, changing tones and colors, and whatever else goes into a full illustration. My impetus for drawing is usually "I want THIS character and THIS vibe" so I focus on the actual figure itself and everything around it is usually a secondary concern.
However, this is why I really like having symbols/aesthetics for my characters. Knowing what colors, textures, scents, flavors, sounds, and lighting go with each character gives me a baseline to work with when it comes to each piece. I basically give myself a grab bag of visual symbols to pull from depending on the mood I'm going for. (I do something similar with writing where I give myself a few core beliefs to revolve a character around).
I will also often pick characters based on the feeling I'm trying to capture. For example, Sabriel is more for that "melancholy and wistful" vibe that I mentioned above, versus Calliope is more for when I want something joyful and vibrant. I have a LOT of OCs and one of the reasons for that is that they express different parts of my experience, and I usually turn towards specific ones when I'm trying to capture the part they're associated with.
Overall, I really find images easier to think in than words, so often when writing I'm trying to translate essentially a movie or comic that exists in my head into paragraph form (I do NOOOOT have the patience for comics which is why I don't make them).
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As for OCs making one easier than the other, it's not really a case of the character themself making me lean one way or the other.
In general art is "easier" across the board for me because I can be more vague with what I'm getting at while still conveying an emotion. I do find my feminine OCs a lot easier to portray in art, because that's where most of my skill development has been? But also because feminine expression is much more varied than masculine, and I like drawing flowy lines and lots of volume, which means a lot of skirts and dressses and long hair (which is not to say masculine characters can't have those things but I struggle to make them both flowy AND masculine).
Writing-wise I haven't spent as much time with Callie and Rhys as I have Sabi, so I guess I could say Sabi's probably the easiest to write because I know her the best? But Rhys is becoming easier because I've been spending more time in his headspace. I do find him a challenge because I'm not as comfortable with dmab characters (I have very few of them) but it's been fun to explore. But I'm still new to writing, and I usually think of it as the thing I use when an idea is TOO big for my art abilities/patience, as opposed to a better way to express a character.
Ultimate point, I see art and writing as complimentary skills that I use to fully express characters and their stories. Art is for getting across their emotions, moods and aesthetics. Writing is for utilizing those vibes to fully express their feelings and experiences.
“Thirty-six hours,” Lemar’s oddly irritated voice cut through the pain and what must have been the alarms he’d set off when he disconnected all of the monitors. John felt his best friend’s hands on his shoulders to steady him and he managed to pry his eyes open. Oh. He really was upset. That was rare. “You couldn’t even give us forty-eight before you went and did something insane. Dumbest smart man I know,” he groused and it felt like he was trying to guide John back into the hospital bed.
“Liv,” the injured man managed and the frustration instantly drained from Lemar’s face.
“She’s fine. Trying to get arrested by the MPs, but she’s okay.”
Then, suddenly, she was at his side and John breathed a sigh of relief as he caught a whiff of her cinnamon and some-number-of-spices shampoo she used. Her palm pressed against his face and he reached up for it, holding on and turning to press a kiss to it. “What happened?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” she answered, her voice strained and he looked past her to the door.
sometimes I wonder why god chose that one little sperm to win the race who eventually grew up into a mentally ill child who's not faithful and religious enough, filled with sins and buries itself with doubts and insults of itself
