the town bisexuals are at your door it is time for you to pick a bride

dunno if you've answered an ask similar to this or not, but what's the best place to start as an amateur comic maker?

lol as an amateur comic maker take my advice with a grain of salt😅

here's a post I did at one point about art tips?

here's a post about my process personally

comics are super broad and there's not really a wrong way to start I don't think. id say

Look at what you like. Can be comics and it can be other media too: a lot of my inspiration is webtoons, youtube video essays, interviews with dnd actual play ppl, disney animation... ABSORB the things you're interested in and morph it into a brain soup and barf it back out lol. A lot of seeing new content for me is also just discovering what's possible. I read The Lies Of Locke Lamora and was like. WTF NOVELS CAN BE FUNNY??? Look at advice on how ppl make that type of content, try to examine why you like it, and adopt the parts you want

Don't get caught up on the things you don't want to do/have no interest in. Comics don't HAVE to be a certain way, if you're like me and don't wanna spend forever rendering an image you can draw characters that take 10sec 😂if you have only an aesthetic in mind and no story, draw smth that evokes that for you even if it takes hours to paint a horrifying guts monster.

Draw whatever tf you want and have fun. It might take you a while to figure out how you want to draw comics for it to be fun— I didn't land on this style I'm using until like, legit 4 months ago and I've been drawing for years so 👍don't be afraid to change it up whenever you feel like it

Edit: OH YEAH this is more of a side note lol don't get too disappointed if through finding what you like to do it turns out comics isn't it. I went to school for animation and I still love movement, it looks super pretty to me. But I don't have the patience most of the time, I just want to slap a story down lol

can't give up yet, must live to be a local weirdo character that gives sad looking, socially awkward, teens random unconventional life advice

Venting is generally used to mean expressing emotion that might otherwise be repressed.

Complaining usually means someone verbally comparing a desired state to the current state repeatedly without taking responsibility for the difference.

Wow, so umm... This looks bad, not only is it inaccurate due to using the wrong ink demon design [unless this is confirmation BATIM Ink Demon has been outright retconned... Which would make me pissed enough to make a new post just about THAT] but from an art standpoint this is just... Confusing and poorly done.

I wouldn't care if this was fanart, of course you should support young, indie artists... But for a Graphic Novel making sure your cover doesn't look like something Butch Hartman shat out in an afternoon is kind of important. Remember they're going to be asking us to give money to them to read this. The artist likely won't see any of that money and neither do the authors most of the time, not to mention this art screams of the artist being underpaid and overworked.

Like they Had to get something on someone's desk and their boss said 'good enough'. A concept Joey Drew Studios is very familiar with considering the allegations of poor working environments that Kindly Beast. Not to mention Mike Mood admitting in a Reddit AMA that they did in fact rush projects like Showdown Bandit. [Which they sold at full price]

He also says they can in fact say no or yes to designs involving their IP. Either Mike or Meatly had to say yes to this cover, according to his own damn words.

And do you really think this company in particular would care enough about its fanbase to not sell them garbage? They have done exactly that on several occasions. It's not like they care particularly about art either, considering their previous use of AI Art. There was no apology or even posts addressing it... Instead, they just rushed out an archives update to their game to get people to stop talking about it... Even forgetting an entire character in it. Again

This company is [or at least SHOULD BE] on thin ice when it comes to being suspected of misleading their fans or rushing out crappy products to them.

So with all that context in mind, I'm gonna talk about why this cover sucks ass.

The light sources are all over the place? Why does it look like someone put maces or knight armor on his shoulders but it's just flesh?? It looks both gross and weird [not in a good way either]

To explain more I'm going on a rant below but sadly this seems to have been confirmed to not just be a rough pass but the final cover and man... I am not excited about this graphic novel just at all. This felt like it really drained any possibility of it turning out good for me and I already had expectations low.

Okay first point, the light sources?? And there is no consistency here with the shadows or lighting, it looks like there's a hundred light sources all at once but none of them are even consistent!

the arrows here represent all the different light sources I can make out and yet the the shadow clearly implies there's only one. I understand wanting to use highlights to give the character a more clear shape but then just give him one or two lights behind him or in front of him? No matter how u follow the light sources, the highlights make no sense and the shadows make even less sense.

Why are the shoulders like that? Like on the legs it's a little understandable, at least those are clearly very heavily affected by perspective, for me I think they are so exaggerated it makes it look like one of the legs is either huge or one is small but that's maybe subjective.

However, the shoulders are unjustifiable, what happened there, what did they do??

I could pick on so much more honestly, how the color choices of piss yellow with no other colors being used, and the harsh pitch black being used for every part of his body is weird. How it looks straight out of Butch Hartman's recent crappy art. But to put bluntly bad start! Also what the HELL is going on with this background??

Seems once again the Bendy team is fine with sending out stuff thinking it's "Good Enough" for Bendy fans and honestly the people trying to tell me to "Be Grateful" for this are just proving that no matter how many times you betray your audience some of em will defend you!

Which is sad tbh. If anything we should be putting MORE pressure on the Bendy team to do better. Cause we deserve better than this, honestly we do. There are amazing artists in the bendy community who could do so much better for a cover. They've employed their fan artists before... Wouldn't it be great to do that for such a lore important book? The book that gives us the identity of one of the main characters in BATIM? The character you spend the entirety of Chapter 4 fighting to save? Not to mention will give several major characters their human designs?

But I guess this is... Good enough...

how long did it take for your fanfiction to start getting some recognition? did you "advertise" it or "promote" it in any way?

i know that people say this doesn't matter, but i feel like even if you love writing the feeling that you're just talking to yourself gets pretty exhausting at some point. so i'm not talking about having thousands of readers but rather like. what's your advice to have readers at least?

- someone who hasn't even started writing their ideas yet...

LONG POST INCOMING.

First I want you (and everyone else reading who may be struggling with this) to know I'm absolutely with you and generally think 'it doesn't matter' is a horseshit answer. It's this weird thing we do in fanfic that we generally don't apply to other artforms that I've seen. If you're a painter, a playwriter, a novel writer, and you say, 'I want at least a few people to love my paintings, I want some people to come see my play, I want my novel to be published and do at least ok' we all support them, we nod, we agree, we talk about how they can do that successfully. It's considered normal to want some amount of success. But hold up fanfic instead and it becomes, 'how dare you want that praise, you're being egotistical, you should be writing only for yourself'. I'm not saying you can't do that - there are some who do - but it's definitely this bizarre switchup to say there's this single artform in which we can't want attention on our work and that there's something wrong with us if we do. That can be an absolute creativity killer depending on what kind of writer you are (hi, extrovert writer here who only gets writy writy juice from social interaction - aka comments and discussion. So I totally get it being exhausting just doing this on your own).

So let me say this categorically: you're allowed to want things. You're allowed to want kudos, comments, and hits. You're allowed to want messages and asks. You're allowed to want some readers you can talk with about your story.

You. Are. Allowed.

Ok, now that that's out of the way.

Edit: more below the cut cause I didn't realize the length of this on mobile

TRT definitely didn't get popular overnight. The first four chapters were sporadic, and then I took a hiatus due to life things for a couple years. During that time, it kept slowly ticking up bit by bit on AO3, with occasional comments. Iirc it was hovering somewhere around 700 kudos by the time I came back in Jan 2021 - and that's a awesome! It's big! But it's also a number that was gained over a few years, to put it in perspective. It absolutely took off after I came back though, and over the past 2 years both TRT's popularity and the stats of my one-shots in the fandom have grown. Part of that's just the time frame (TRT's been up about 6 years), but it's also due to a couple things that I think built up TRT's popularity.

Building a tumblr presence was huge. Ironically I didn't really intend to do it for advertising; I just wanted a place readers could ask questions or we could all freak out about Matt or I could post some drabbles or updates on the fic. But considering the fact that AO3 and tumblr are the top fic sites online, I wound up promoting my fics unintentionally just by being a friendly, happy tumblr user and fandom goer. All I did was follow the courtesy rules I knew - post stuff regularly, reblog, comment, make friends with other writers, just be friendly in your neighborhood because you love the lady with the gif flower shop on the corner or the wise old pizza maker who serves hot fandom takes all day long. I built familiarity with my writing and name by posting short fics, and by taking part in challenges and prompt lists and short requests for drabbles if I saw them, though that's something that's hard to do if you don't have time (I've got less time now, but I started this blog in the early pandemic so I had aaaaall the time in the world to write and was using it to stay sane). I tagged religiously because I LOVE tags, but that helped, too. Tumblr's search system is half broken but the half that works means people CAN find your writing even if they aren't following. Doing all this over here got me a huge boost over on AO3.

I will say that if you can have a fandom tiktok presence, there's a lot of fic reviewers, edits, and good stuff that can get your fic some readers (I've had some people do this on tiktok for TRT and it sent a surge over). I personally haven't done anything there yet, in part because while I'm on tiktok I try to keep my actual, real person accounts separate from my fic/fandom accounts and i haven't bothered to make a second account solely dedicated to the Pasta name yet.

Longfics on AO3 have the advantage in fic stats in the sense that every time you add a chapter, it gets bumped to the top of the front page and you get seen again. Eventually a lot of people will click out of curiosity. They may not, however, give you a lot of user subs or add to your other fic stats at first, whereas if you do a bunch of oneshots you're more likely to get user subs but less hits on each fic. This is a decision you'll have to make, and I know folks in both camps who built their followings using different methods on each. Either way, it helps if you're posting regularly, either in a long fic or one-shots. I call this the Stephen King method, who said he just writes a ton and throws it all at the wall, and eventually you get enough good despite the bad that you start building a following.

Learn learn learn. This is standard fic advice I always give, but it's still relevant. I think one of the reasons imo TRT has done so well is that I've spent a lot of time over the years learning how to write and edit - I read a ton of books (sometimes just to figure out HOW good authors structure their stories), I took a lot of English classes, I've taken some creative writing courses in my spare time. That two year hiatus was heavily spent doing a lot of research and practice around an original novel I want published one day. And I used ALL of that in TRT, just to see what it was like to put it all together. Be hungry for knowledge, be hungry to learn. The more you learn, the better your fic will be, and the more people that will click.

That learning also includes a looooong string of fanfics that started at a very novice level (hello 12 year old me), to fics that were ok and did moderately well but weren't anything huge. Hell, I had a tumblr account for my previous fandoms before I wandered over to Pastafossa, and while those fics did decently, I never had the huge reaction I've gotten here. But I used each and every one of those fics to learn and grow and adapt. Treat your own fics the same way. If it doesn't get hits, try to learn from it before moving on to the next idea a little wiser and a slightly better writer than before. There will always be people who start to follow you along the way.

A small one, but important: I swear to god, do not shit-talk yourself. Not in the summary, not in the tags, not in the A/Ns. I'm not talking, 'this is my first fic!' That's fine. I mean trashing your own work. Shit like, 'ha ha this sucks, it's terrible but oh well' will absolutely lower your stats, because people will believe you and will ditch your fic. On top of that, it's just mean to yourself, and as I said above, you want to be a good person in the fandom neighborhood. That means not breaking the windows of your own house.

People generally think of summaries as a side note, but a shitty summary can absolutely tank your stats. Treat it like the rest of your fic - this is the trailer before the movie, and it's a huge element of what gets people interested in the first place.

Lastly, like I said at the top, the biggest factor is time. There are people who post one fic and explode in popularity, absolutely. But far, far more little followings are built on the bones of time, of abandoned fics, of muttering and highlighting phrases in books in the middle of the night, of trying and trying and trying until we have at last have a breakthrough and then drag that breakthrough forward with us to the next fic. TRT is absolutely one part lightning in a bottle - the biggest success I've ever had anywhere with my writing, a confluence of fandom factors and world events that gave people (and me!) time to write and read. But it's also standing on the back of whole lot of fics I wrote that look like everyone else's: ones with no comments, low interaction, insults; ones where I had precisely zero idea of what I was doing, but wanted to try anyway. And the way I got through that, as a writer who needs interaction in order to create, was by building friendships in fandom so that even when a fic didn't do all that well, I still had friends I could talk to about the characters, the world, the fandom itself. I asked friends to look them over and give advice. I had friends being my cheerleaders. And if you're an extrovert like me, or just a writer who needs that to create, then those connections are vital as you build up a following.

That's a lot of what I've done. I know there are other ways to build a following, but this is generally what I've done, what I've learned to do, and it seems to have worked. Just remember that there are no bad fics - just learning opportunities. Learn something, and that fic's a success, and work as hard as you can to make those fandom connections to carry you through the process.

I absolutely hope to see your work around one day, so that I can be on of those followers!

On a serious note, I do feel mysterious case lotusbook has a lot of sincere themes about getting older, realities of responsibility and dreams realized, how it's difficult to succeed and not always the direct path one expects, how there's value in little aspects of life. Almost every li lianhua scene seems to be about that to some degree. The murder cases aren't particularly deep as far as super complicated to figure out or Able to be predicted super well (since they don't always give all the details in the initial setup), but the themes about who was killed and why do connect to li lianhuas situation.

Today I had the best time volunteering for a teaching project (which is led by our chief vascular surgeon).

That is, apart from the fact that we ran into some of our abdominal surgery attendings, who gave me a massive (verbal) side-eye for technically hanging out with the vascular surgeons in my free time. (Some of them don’t really see eye to eye, both medically and personally).

And I’m soooo sick of it, can’t I just try to figure out what I eventually want to do with my career without having to navigate a social and political minefield?

Someone I only know through Instagram recommended me to their buddy who's just getting into Warhammer as a source of advice.

Apparently by just occasionally commenting positively on other people's minis I've got enough of a reputation that people recommend talking to me.

I'm glad. Not only because I genuinely like talking about painting and am happy to share any advice I might have rather than try and hoard it or something, but because I like feeling helpful.

*the originals season one*

Rebekah: How are things with Hayley?

Elijah: It's complicated

Rebekah: It's not complicated! Go get her!

Rebekah: If you don't get her, I will

Still considering becoming a lawyer someday. Any of y'all been to law school? What is it like? Are there scholarships (and what is required to get said scholarships?)?

How about practicing law? Do any of you have time for other career and hobby work? How long does it take to get to where you want to be after graduating law school?

If anyone in the field of law in the U.S. can tell me what to expect from law school and/or actually being a practicing lawyer please talk to me about it!

I think I'd be good at it if I put in the work but I want to know if that path is worth it for me and the lifestyle I want. Thank you

not advice related but is it alright if there becomes a bad advice link blog and a neutral zelda advice blog from this

Yeah, I'm fine with that ^^

I struggle with writing in terms of word count, I always feel like I'm doing too little when I'm writing my fanfics- How do you try and approach that stuff?

Ok, this might sound like a scam from me, Miss Can’t-Write-Short-Things-To-Save-Her-Life, but hear me out: There’s no such thing as a story that’s “too little”. Drabbles are a thing. One-Shots are a thing. Short stories are a thing. Most importantly, all these things are cherished by their audiences. Not every story needs to be a multi-chapter fic or a whole-ass novel, and sometimes, the ones that aren’t are all the more poignant for it. So don’t stress about “not doing enough”. Are you writing? Congrats, then you’re doing enough! I think it can be an incredible, unnecessary source of stress to tell yourself you need to do this much or that much for your story to be “enough”, to the point it can even cause writer’s block if you stress out too much. I had to train myself out of the same mindset years ago and now try to stick to the mindset that as little as one sentence a day is enough and that the story is done when it feels done, whenever that is. (Which is not to say you need to emulate that, it just works for me.)

That said. If this feels too esoteric and unhelpful to you, and you genuinely just want to increase your word count for your own peace of mind (which is fair), here’s a few things that usually lead to mine exploding:

Preamble to scenes. Is there an important bit of dialogue coming up? Then I start the conversation a bit before the important topic is addressed and let it play out as close to a real conversation as I can manage. Is there a tense moment ahead? Again, start the scene a little earlier, lead up to that. (This comes with the added bonus of building extra tension.) It makes things feel a little more grounded in the setting to me.

Generally, letting dialogue play out. Most conversations I write aren’t condensed down to just what I need to communicate. They contain pauses to think, people talking about unrelated things, whatever feels like it would still fit the scene and maybe also add to the important thing contained within. (Careful, though, because this can also bite you in the ass. I frequently worry about writing wayyyy too long dialogue scenes.)

Letting the scenes (and the story in general) breathe. This is an extremely important thing to me, personally (your mileage may vary), but I like it when scenes aren’t boiled down to only the essential stuff. I agree that you shouldn’t let a scene meander endlessly just for the sake of it, but sometimes, a little more than just the central plot point you need right now is nice. Let the conversation start just a little earlier or end just a little later. Let characters get stuck in their own head a bit. Write some less tense scenes between bumps of tension (and ideally tie them in with the themes of your story). Just let it breathe. You’d be surprised how the words add up when the setup takes a little longer here, or you build up the tension a little more there.

Again, these are the things that work for me. Crucially, just don’t drive yourself up a wall. If you’re writing, you’re already doing great. (And if you currently aren’t, then that’s not a sign of failure, either.)

Hope this helps at least a little.

*waves* I want to start off by saying that your works have been a huge comfort in my life over the years. They've helped me through some really trialing times and I'm forever thankful for everything you've done, even when life hasn't been kind to you. I've slowly been coming to terms with the fact that I have chronic pain, maybe fatigue too, unknown still. But it's been a hard pill to swallow, I feel so angry that I can't do stuff. Do you or any of your followers have advice for accepting this?

Hi anon,

Firstly, I'm so sorry you're going through this process, especially one that also involves fatigue, because fatigue is a son of a bitch. (You can - to a degree - treat some forms of pain, but there's almost nothing out there for genuine fatigue except rest and the core needs, and even then, it rarely listens).

My advice is going to be from stuff I've mostly learned for myself, but everyone's journey is different. What I like to tell myself might hurt someone else, so if I say anything here that doesn't work for you, remember it's important to find your own things too.

If necessary, look for support groups, if you have no diagnosis yet but have chronic pain and fatigue, groups for ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and Fibromyalgia are probably the best places to start.

As for advice, the first is that it's normal to be angry and it's normal to feel betrayed (by your body and by a very ableist society) and it's normal to feel sad and upset. Acceptance isn't the absence of these feelings, it's not a place you get to where you transcend these emotions, because it's normal to grieve what the course of life has taken from you. And part of the journey of chronic illness re: accepting where you find yourself, is also accepting the emotions that come with it, even if they feel really ugly or you don't want them. Not being able to do stuff you used to do, or the way you used to do it - of course you'd be angry, because that's loss. And loss by nature, creates grief.

Acceptance is the moment - for me - where you have a bad day re: anger and resentment and can stop and go 'oh of course I feel this way, I have lost a lot, but even though I'm annoyed or angry at my body today, I'm going to be kind to it and care for it to the best of my ability, because I'm sick, and that's what I'd want to do for anyone who was this sick. And I'm going to check if I need to ask for help, and remember that I don't have to do this alone.'

There might come a time when you're ready to brainstorm and problem solve, or days where you have more energy. For example, I can't hike for hours anymore, and haven't been able to for years. But I can stop and think 'what did I like most about hiking?' And it would be - the things in nature I can see. Well, I can still get out to nature, especially on accessible paths, or places that have carparks and botanical gardens. Or it would be physical exertion - well, I can do purposeful physical exertion with very gentle physiotherapy, it's not the same, but it still gives me a feeling of physical accomplishment. Or it would be I really like being in nature - thankfully there are a lot of places you can be in nature if you have friends or Ubers to take you there, and you can also bring nature to you re: plants in the home.

Generally speaking, getting creative with what is lost is part of the process of acceptance. But it doesn't always come straight away, and it doesn't always come without resentment. I have days where I'm still fiercely, fiercely angry that I can't do the things that I used to do. The fact is, the world is ableist, friends have internalised ableism, I'm often feeling guilty or frustrated that I can't do things when I just...can't do them and it's not my fault. I'm just sick.

Definitely consider organising some kind of therapy or even vent sessions with someone you trust (who has the capacity to handle it, though not many folks do, understandably) - medical trauma, and the experience of a chronic illness, can be traumatic. And look around for a good doctor and professional support network.

Pain on its own causes fatigue, so look at enrolling in a pain clinic (they have wait lists, so it's good to get the ball rolling now), and make sure that you've had at the very least a blood panel of your inflammatory markers because many causes of chronic pain can be treated or medically supported.

It's worth making friends with some folks who have chronic illnesses and spoonies, or the people who just 'get it' even if they don't. People who will never pressure you when you have to cancel. People who love you when you don't see them for months at a time. People who understand when you vanish from an online conversation halfway through without saying goodbye. These folks are worth their weight in gold.

There's things like - it's worth exploring concepts like mindfulness in chronic illness, as well as pacing (I hate pacing, but the one time I seriously tried it, I felt better and could do more - it's just so frustrating in concept). It's worth writing down the things that trigger bad episodes of pain or fatigue for you, and then thinking of ways to accommodate those things (for example, socialising causes flares for me, so I don't do it often, and I try not to do too much in one week). Research the 'energy envelope' and learn what yours is.

As to the grief and the anger, this is also something you will go through again and again, though the periods of acceptance may last longer, and feel more genuine. We're not trying to stop the emotions of grief and anger, but it is worth learning how to wrangle those emotions when you turn them against yourself, when you look for something to blame and hurt yourself in the process. Remember, if society accommodated disability and invisible illnesses better, your life would probably be a little easier, some things are actually down to how society treats us. If I knew I could access a program that delivered meals because I'm medically too tired to cook, my life would be easier. So when I go 'fuck my body is useless' - the truth is - society is pretty fucking useless, and my body is doing its goddamn best.

But you can be extremely mad at society for dropping the ball on all of this. Or upset. Or disgusted. Or betrayed. It's all valid. Society drops the ball on chronic pain and illness and fatigue every damn day.

The chronic illness train, for nearly all of us, is one that we board eventually, and it almost always has multiple stops. We never just acquire one thing, because age tends to give us age-related chronic illnesses too (arthritis, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, etc.). These declines can each come as a new shock, and going through one new illness or symptom isn't always going to look as the same process that preceded it. A new chronic illness might feel like nothing at all if it's easy to manage (see my acquisition of allergic eczema) or it might hit you really hard if it comes with pretty reduced mortality (see my acquisition of COPD). You might get decades between one thing and the next thing, or you might not, but it's a train that in the course of humankind billions of people have been on.

The people who treat you badly for being sick are the ones who refuse to believe the train exists and that it's coming for them. They often think that if they live 'well enough' they can avoid the train (they can't). Maybe that was something you once believed as well. I know I did (and sometimes still do).

And as for when we treat ourselves badly for being sick - some of it's grief and trauma, and a lot of it is internalised ableism. Having a chronic illness is not your fault anon. Even though it doesn't feel like it, your body is doing its best for you, and the process of acceptance is learning that we need to also do our best for our body, and that we should expect society to do the same, even though it often doesn't.

Idk if this was anything along the lines of what you're looking for. Tbh I still find it really hard. December just gone was one of the hardest months I've ever had the misfortune of living through not just because of chronic illness but because of my emotional reaction to three new diagnoses I wasn't prepared for, and I spiralled hard when I realised just how sick I was (no one likes to see 'possible severe liver disease' on a CT scan). We never just go through the anger or grief once, but it does get easier, and the periods of time where we just make our lives into a new shape that pleases us become longer.

Anon, you will find new things that please you and fulfill you even as you lose old things. The new things won't replace those old things, but they will bring moments of ease and comfort and joy. We all experience this process. But do chase them down. Look for them when you have moments of energy. Seek them out. The simple things in life that nourish you, whether it's soft blankets, or good food, or a particular movie or show, or a book. Pain and fatigue are bitches, but many of us with it are avid collectors of 'things that nourish, fulfill and are joyous to us.'

I wish you well with it all! The chronic illness train can feel like a very lonely one because it races us away from the people in our lives who aren't on it yet - but the truth is hundreds of millions of us are on it right now, and there will be lots of different types of advice and support waiting for you, and very few of them will deny you your anger at the situation you find yourself in. Very few people find themselves excited to board the chronic illness train, and often you don't realise it's picked you up until you learn you can't get off.

That part sucks. But accepting that it sucks goes a longer way than trying to convince yourself it shouldn't.

i didnt have nickelodeon on my tv when i was younger so when ppl get into nostalgia over their shows im always like "🧍‍♂️"

its ok ur forgiven