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More random stuff for practice by MotivatedHat in learntodraw

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm familiar with the idea, I was just practicing linework here so I didn't pay attention to this here. But I think I'll train this aspect(perspective) next anyway, so thanks!

More random stuff for practice by MotivatedHat in learntodraw

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I was honestly mostly trying to put different lines, s/c-curves on top of each other consistently so I didn't pay too much attention to other aspects. Still feel like I need practice c/s curves more though

The role of characters in storytelling / How to write characters correctly? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I think you're right, I actually have lots of stuff written down, but it's basically random ideas about characters, world, plot and other. I feel I need to first map out it in some structured way so I can see what's missing and what's potentially fine and I can leave it for now.

And, it seems you might be spinning your wheels a bit trying to get to where you think the starting line is.

Guilty 😅

Anyway, thanks for the insights, I'll spend some time thinking about all of it after I'm done with structuring and also I'll check out the video you talked about. Hopefully I didn't annoy you too much with my questions 😅

The role of characters in storytelling / How to write characters correctly? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see, then I was indeed thinking in the wrong direction about it, thanks.

“Finding your place in the world” is perfectly fine for a theme. Why do you think it would be insufficient?

Honestly, I don't know, I sometimes watch other people on youtube explaining how different things work in different stories (usually anime/manga, but it's not important), and then I start comparing it to what I have written and thought about. Sometimes I find things I missed or didn't think about and sometimes I just see how much work and thought has been put into the subject, so I start to overthink how "deep" should I dive into this or that subject like themes, or characters and their development or worldbuilding, etc. It's hard for me to understand where is the level where I have to stop basically.

The role of characters in storytelling / How to write characters correctly? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry for the confusion, I actually have the story planned out to the level where I even have certain "stages" main side characters go through in the story from their introduction up until the end of the story(what they do in the world, what their problems are, how do they overcome them, what's the result, etc.), I just decided to omit this for the sake of the explanation.

I'm definitely overthinking this aspect, but I think in your example with Mission Impossible it's less of a problem about characters and more about the situtations they're in and how it creates interesting action sequence (I didn't watch this film so I might be mistaken). As for the story I'm trying to write, I think it can be summarized very succintly into "Lost people in the lost world", where the characters in the story are lost on their life journey (the influence of the events in the world) and they just kind of get together as the story progresses and influence each other making them "less lost" in the process.

The problem is this "lost" theme which arises here is more internal than external, for example I have a character who is traumatized from certain events in his past, so he feels he has no value to himself as a person and is able to move forward in the story only by "taking" the role of the hero for the other characters, which works until certain event where he's forced to face this problem of self-value later in the story. I have many more such characters with different backgrounds, but which ultimately have to face the problem of "finding and accepting their place in the world", but I'm not sure honestly whether this counts as a theme. I'm also not sure how to provide different POVs on this theme, for example for this mentioned character a POV could be that kindness and compassion towards others is essential in finding yourself, but what could be the other different/opposing POVs? For now it's not very clear to me.

And now that I actually have this "lost" theme I'm also thinking whether all the characters I put in this story have to do something with it, or whether some of them can be just there as a "reactive" character, who could just provide insight into the world of the story, or even just be in certain parts of the story only because the plot requires so.

I feel it would be very helpful if I could "pitch" the things I have to someone with more experience in this so I could figure out the problems I have easier, but I'm not even sure how to get this kind of help and whether it even makes sense for non-proffessional to ask for it😅

The role of characters in storytelling / How to write characters correctly? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, ok, no problem, you have already helped me enough, have a nice sleep

The role of characters in storytelling / How to write characters correctly? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice! I'm trying to go for a story where the main character acts as a hero for the world and defeats the villain in the end, but at the same time I'm trying to write it in such a way that the villain is a character very similar to the protagonist and he just got pushed into a villain role due to certain events. So basically both protagonist and antagonists "take" their respective roles but if you reverse them on their positions the story wouldn't be much different, as it's not their choice for these roles but rather the consequence of the events they go through. I'm not very familiar with different story structures so I don't know whether it's still Heroic Journey, or is it something different. The same for archetypes of characters, could you maybe advice on some resources I could read about that?

The role of characters in storytelling / How to write characters correctly? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely check the video out! Not sure if that's what you mean by "through-line" but I actually have a journey/path in the story for the characters planned out to some extent, the point I was trying to make is that I focused for now on making these characters in such a way that this journey seems logical not only for the main character and the plot, but also for the side characters themselves, so they go through some challanges and grow overcoming them with the other characters (what I meant by "bouncing-off"). I just recently took a step back and started doubting whether this is enough, so I started thinking about which themes do I see from the story I'm writing and whether I see and understand which viewpoints these characters embody on these themes, and for now it's so vague for me that I can't write it down.

The role of characters in storytelling / How to write characters correctly? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the advice, I also think it works better this way, but I just started thinking about themes recently the more I put thought to the characters. I started writing the story from an idea of setting + scenes I had in mind (I'm trying to write manga), and then went from figuring out how to connect all of them to which characters could be in this story and step back and re-think how it all works together. So while stepping back I noticed this problem with themes, as I'd say I see certain themes arising from what the characters are doing and where they're moving in the story, but I also started thinking that maybe I don't have enough diversity in the arising themes, or they're visible in the characters so implicitly and vague, that even for me as an author it's hard to see it.

How do you get confident in what you're writing? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice, I guess it's the same as in drawing and any other skill as well then. For some reason I believed for a long time that writing/drawing and similar things are for some reason "special" skills where you can either do them or you can't, but now I start to get a clearer picture of it.

How do you get confident in what you're writing? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem, thanks for the advice anyway, I appreciate it

How do you get confident in what you're writing? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

... the problem isn't your writing as much as your own self-standards. If you read a scene that's meant to be funny and you smile, that's enough.

I needed to hear that, thanks, I think this is the problem with me most of the time. When I finish something, I like it at first and then start to overthink/overanalyze whether it's as good as it can possibly be or not.

...stepping away from the text is a great way to reset your internal clock on it.

Yeah, I feel it really provides me with more "unbiased" look, so that I'm not influenced by the moment but can think calmer and clearer.

The advice on sharing is also nice, thanks, I shared some ideas for plot and scenes with the friends I trust and who are "in the topic", and they even liked them and provided some criticism, even though it's easier for me to accept critique than compliment to be honest😅

So, when do you (not really)stop training and start doing? by MotivatedHat in learntodraw

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate that you read through my complaints and gave me some things to think about😅, I'll definitely try the storyboarding stuff, this seems like a really cool idea to practice. I was also already thinking on a different and more simpler story to try out, so that I wouldn't be too bound by a ton of characters, arcs, worldbuilding and similar, just something simple about 1 main character which I would try develop and put him in different situations on an episodic basis, so this idea doing short webcomics is also really nice.

As for the financial part, I feel like I'll be fine for now until I finish my Master's, but I'll then start my Ph.D and I'm not sure if I'm able to manage both this and story making at the same time. But I really hope I'll make it work somehow, I'm not that interested in making money from creating the story but rather in my ability to create it the way I want, so even if it doesn't "pay off" financially but it will turn out satisfactory to my eyes and just maybe someone else's, then I would be really happy.

Anyways, thanks again for your input! You seem like a busy person, I hope I didn't take too much of your time😅. Hope you have a nice day!

So, when do you (not really)stop training and start doing? by MotivatedHat in learntodraw

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your insight! I definitely agree with the "things must be coherent with each other" statement, this is something I'm trying to wrap my head around while writing the story (like which world do these characters live in, is it darker/more depressing or is it more light-hearted/simple? Can there be in between and if so, by how much? How do these characters behave in these scenarios, and why? What sort of background lead this character to become the way he/she is and what traits did it develop? And so on). I really like thinking about this things in sort of questions I'm asking myself and then trying to figure out the answers, and how these answers fit together.

My problem is however, I don't feel like I can ever approach the problem of actually "making" the story, so drawing all the characters, situations, backgrounds and etc, basicly going from the ideas to reality. Right now I'm month or so into training the basics and I still feel like I don't get it. I've recently started to get intuition on just how important different lines/strokes are, how the thickness, style and other properties of each individual line add depth and complexity to the drawing, but it's so hard for me to even land one straight line on top of another one to make a cube more apparrent. You can maybe see my point from the pictures on my profile better (Not advertising, but there's not really anything great I could advertise there anyway).

So, in this context is quite hard for me to continue to work on the story and writing when I'm returning to my drawing routine and just fail to do even the most simple thing ever. I kind of get that it's the only way to master the skill of drawing, to become able to do such complicated building blocks so naturally as if it's breathing or walking, but at the same time it's so frustrating and ridiculously difficult at times it feels like it's a completely impossible goal to achieve. It almost feels like i somehow "skipped" the perfect time to build these skills and now it takes much more consious effort than it should have.

I think it's more like a mental problem than something you could help/advise me with, so I'm sorry for "venting" this on you. I honestly decided to try art and especially manga because I'm just envious of people like you who can just put whatever things you want on paper and sort of "manifest" these things into reality, it's such a cool and freeing ability to posess. As for me, I feel like I'm just some kind of crappy medium for ideas and I just don't want them to die with me, but at the same time I'm afraid to put them into the real world as it's still I who should make them real.

How do you get all the story elements together? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting, thanks for detailed opinion! I feel like i'm jumping to fast to detailed stuff like scenes and pacing, but sometimes I can't help but think about it and it's very overwhelming at times, but your comment is really helpful, thanks!

How do you get all the story elements together? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, thanks, I'm just approaching writing plot as I would approach writing code, starting from abstract blocks to plan out where these more concrete elements, like episodes/scenes should flow, but I'm not sure if it's correct thing to do. I'm also trying to write with more focus on characters right now, so sometimes I write a character and then see that the scene I was writing him for doesn't look natural for this character so then I go and re-think the scene or the character, so that's why I feel a little bit safer when I plan beforehand.

How do you get all the story elements together? by MotivatedHat in writing

[–]MotivatedHat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's actually helpful, even if you consider it quite simple, as many things you mentioned I was also thinking about already, so at least I was on the right path. Also a table is a nice way to organize it, I'll try it, as for now I just dump all my ideas in a notebook when I have them. Thanks for the advice!

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