Saturday, May 31, 2014

Busy Bee In Writing

Well, finally, got through the first round of my new releasing schedule. And now to get everything prep for next month and trying to get a buffer going. If you are wondering what I mean, I write fanfiction and planning to do possible some webcomics and webfiction as well. I always wrote fanfiction as a hobby and now I am using it as a skill builder while getting my illustrator portfolio up to speed and working slowly on my other personal projects to insure I figure out my limits without another bout of burn out.

So, why focus on fanfiction? Well, I actually restarted some with getting out of college. As I said, it was a hobby I love to do. And now, it's my passion along side illustration and writing. Though, I do admit my mouth cashed a check that I am now trying to fix. This being the doing one chapter and posting it before the next. I did not learn my lesson after college stopped me from posting and now it finally hitting me. However, instead of stopping, I have started a schedule to let myself get a buffer while still posting on a normal schedule after going on a small hiatus. I took the hiatus due to my beta-reader getting overwhelmed with her studies and decided it was best not to add to her work load... Even if she loves beta-reading for me. Hence, part of the reason for the buffer is for when she returns to her studies in Fall classes as I got her for summer.

However, the reason I decided to put my focus into fanfiction is to get drilled into me personal set deadlines and also get a feel for a routine of posting content. Since the worse I would get is nasty reviews if I did badly, fanfiction is actually a pretty safe bet though I try to keep my stories pretty good quality. During the hiatus, I went back and fixed up two stories with finding minor mistakes and once I get a good enough buffer, the other one will start to get another reproofing of earlier chapters though that's later since it's longer than the others.

So, what is my fandom in fanfiction? Well, I like to do Naruto fanfiction, mostly crossovers. I was an early fan of Naruto, though not so much of the current Naruto Shippuden series. I write in this fandom since I am still quite familiar with it. Though, a lot of my crossovers spread out into different areas compared to normal Naruto crossovers like Puella Magi Kazumi Magica, , Log Horizon, and so on.  I even got unique crossovers started like my Monster Hunter Ninja on my old Auto-nin account started the Monster Hunter/Naruto crossovers on Fanfiction.net. Monster Hunter Ninja is up for rewrite, though it has to way till I finish one of my current three fanfiction. I even do multi-crossovers as my Persona: Pallerel Paradox story which is the Persona game series, Naruto, and the whole Puella Magi Madoka Magic universe. I have three stories up right now and three in reserve with I am planning to write like a book instead of my old style I am using for the current three.

If you are curious of my fanfiction, you can check me out at Mahou Shoujo-nin on Fanfiction.net. My posting schedule is set on monthly schedules on Saturdays with Persona: Parrellel Paradox getting it's next update on June 14, Digimon: Sinned Tamers going up the next Saturday, and Log Horizon: Alien Chronicles on the Saturday after that. I also started a Patreon campaign for my fanfiction. Any donations would be great, but I am not expecting any and mainly using it for the fact it's feed you can choose posts to be open to all or Patrons. This makes it a lot more easier to let everyone know what is going on since Fanfiction.net doesn't have means to communicate past PMs to direct fans. Now, to get back to work, though on some illustrations after my writing binge I been on. This includes finally getting to those covers for my fanfiction I been wanting to do.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Just Sketching And Reasseting

I think someone won this fight, I wonder who?
Last week was pretty stressful for me. I am not going to go into what cause the stress and all that. However, it had made me realized I hardly done much art and writing as I want and need to do. But, upside, it began to push me more into a clearer direction of where I want to be. That and the job market the politicians see is clearly not what Main Street is seeing. However, when I am stressed or nervous, I find just doing something mindless helps me out. Though, my doodle from yesterday is quite nice, especially now that I am getting used to these red correction pencils. I don't know yet if I will go ahead and ink these two or take advantage of the picture now on my computer to do a digital piece with them. This is actually one of my thoughtless sketching and I somehow got to manga-ish elves. Even though a drew them at different times, they oddly fit each other.

But, the biggest thing that happened to me last week(or should I say weekend) is went to a local writing and illustration guild meeting. I was very nervous, not knowing if I would be accepted or not. I was even working on my laptop and a draft of a fan comic I am working on for an experiment, just trying to calm down. However, as the meeting began, I found myself feeling a lot better. It was a very loose meeting, much like I was at the spinning and weaving guild I go to. When they looked at my portfolio(both my graphic design one and the few illustrations I had)... I was instantly relieved with finding they liked my work. I mean, really liked it. As we went on, I found myself talking with the other illustrators and it felt like I was always there to begin with, not just someone who was there for the first time. Next month, I will be joining this guild officially and I am seeing I am more geared towards being possibly an illustrator and writer than graphic designer. Sure, I can make good logos, but outside that, the only things I like to make graphic design wise is vector images and layout books. Though, I never knew at least if I had some talent in illustration since I never got much feedback online.

Real interactions with people is always better than what you get on social media and art websites. When you can see their faces as well as words... You can realize better what they are really saying than just the words they said. I am a very shy person. And it does not help I get nervous very easily when I am alone. That why I been trying to find friends and such, both online and real life, to have support and find out how other artists work. Sure, family can support you, but they only go so far in able to help you. Hence networking with other artists and such are so important... Though, over the last few weeks, I have discovered the term "networking" is not as scary as it seemed when I got out of college. In fact, Will Terrell's latest people sketching video, Episode #15 explains it so well. Networking, though some relationships you build in this network will be professional, most of them are actually friendships and allies with other artists. In fact, I find calling networking more like making friends than making business contacts much easier on me. When you have friends who are more experienced and less experienced than you in what you do, then you find yourself able to learn from those friends and also pass on what you know to them. So, why not find some people, both online and offline, and befriend them. Even if they are not of your job field, you never know what kind of inspiration you will get from even non-artist friends. And, when you have at least a few artist friends on your social media, you find a good bit of humor that will always brighten your day mixed in with some wise advice and great pieces to look at.