Iām just reposting/sharing whatever, but if you care to know, I write stuff!! Fantasy and sci-fi stuff!! Sometimes romance or horror but we donāt talk about that akdjdjjfjf
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To everyone freaking out over NM S2 premiering a wee bit later than expected.
The amount of time/effort R&F put into this is colossal. They constantly and consistently pull 60-70 hour weeks. Week after week with no break, upwards of a year and longer, to the point they flirt with burnout like Leo/nore flirts with Annabel. That to me is the exact opposite of lazy.
Over the last year, I and others have witnessed this mind-blowing work ethic first hand. Its insane the amount of work they put in.
Often eps are well over the minimum panel amount, they don't have to do 10-20 panels more than the minimum, but they do it as they want to tell a good story with each episode ending where it feels natural.
The next thing:
Nobody is entitled to any creator's time, or gets to dictate how they spend their personal time off.
A hiatus is merely an opportunity to create buffer. R&F are under no obligation to use it that way. It is their choice to.
It is also a time for them to regroup, recover from fatigue -- as any artist or writer knows headspace is important to the creative process -- attend to the shop, catch up on any admin that needs doing, and a litany of other things that people need to do to go about their daily lives.
This break -- because lets call it what it is, if this were a normal 8-6 we'd call it UPTO -- is for them to take time to themselves, same as any other job.
If they want to play Star Dew Valley to relax or decompress or ruminate on an idea, who the heck are we to deny them that?
They're two human beings, not machines.
Thirdly:
Please consider: There is so much more that goes on behind the scenes of a comic of this calibre that we as readers don't see. (Think of an iceberg, how they are so much bigger than the tip that pokes above the ocean's surface.)
R&F don't just make it up on the spot.
There's script writing, planning, research, editing, more planning, rough storyboarding, more research, tests, and probably a heck of a lot more pre-production stuff than I can even guess at before sketching can even be considered commencing.
We don't know their creative process, nor are we entitled to demand an explanation of their process, or that they use their personal time differently. (Personally, I listen to music and walk but what is one person's jam, might not be another's.)
Nevermore S2 premiering a little later than expected is not some big drama its being made out to be. Its perfectly normal. I cant count the amount of times I've heard some comic/ book/tv series/movie has been delayed for whatever reason. (I've been waiting seven years for one book I won't mention here, as an example.)
I don't know about you, but I know Id much prefer to read something that has been well thought out, with attention to fine detail applied to it than something rushed and shoddy.
Give them grace to cook!
I know we might be a wee bit disappointed, especially when we're so eager to find out what potential horrors might befall characters we've grown to know and love on the eve of one heck of a tantalising cliff hanger, but I ask that you all show a little patience and, more importantly, understanding.
To add onto this, RnF have been specifically working non-stop since 2020. Any short hiatuses they took were a break for the audience, not them, because they had to build up buffers for the next go round. Shilohās season 2 finale went up around the same time as the Nevermore premiere in March 2022. Nevermoreās season 1 finale only just ended June 2024. Thats 60+ hours of work almost every week, of every year, for four years.
They said a few times variously around their Discord server that they wanted to work on both but have had to focus on Nevermore because as you said, they work 60-70 hours a week to complete one episode alone. And that work is done after whatever outlining, scripting, and writing is done and completed for Flynn to draft the initial panels. The comic canāt be made without a written script. Theyāre not magically both made at the same time. Thereās 4 seasons worth of outlines Red has to work with and adapt into seasons outlines, episode outlines, and scripts.
And as a writer, I can say that the only way you can be truly creative and free to write is to be fresh, rested, and happy. Dealing with stress, health concerns, mental health problems like depression and anxiety, or other distractions in oneās life only hinder your ability to focus on writing and sap away your energy and joy.
And then if you pride yourself on your work? Because you want it to be the best it can be? And youāre NOT writing? Guilt sets in like a cancer. You donāt feel good so you canāt write, and you don't feel good because youāre not writing. The ONLY way to recover from that is to take a break and rest, lest you burn out of the story you want to tell itself and become resentful of it. Then no one is happy or wins.
I had to take a 3 month break from writing entirely because of similar circumstances earlier this year, because I had been writing, editing, and outlining nonstop, every day, for an entire year. I read, I gamed, I went on walks. I did things that were fun and rejuvenating until I felt ready to write again. Thank God I didnāt also have an audience hovering at the edges, wondering when the next installment was coming out.
Red and Flynn can take as long as they need for the next season. A month or two delay is a drop of water in the bucket. Who cares? They should take as long as they want. Because thatās the only way Nevermore will maintain the quality itās been at in the long run. And thatās what the audience and the story, and the creators trying to make it the best it can be, deserve in the long run.
Creators are not machines, and theyāre not anyoneās workhorses or bitches either.
Why Donāt Edit As You Go is Actually Maybe Good Advice (but not for the reason you think it is)
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā I edit as I go. I kind of have toāI canāt just leave a scene I know is subpar, or that I donāt think is the quality that I want it to be at. Itās like it haunts me, I canāt get it out of my mind. So I always hated the advice ādonāt edit as you goā as a way of keeping you on track and productive. I guess the thinking there is that if you edit as you go, itāll take way longer to get to the end of your draft.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Maybe true, but I never really cared how long it took. Itās not like Iām on any deadlines yet.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Now, Iām nearing the end of my draft and Iām starting to see a bit of wisdom in that advice, though not for productivityās sakeābut rather because Iāve edited about half of my novel in random scenes interspersed with all the others. Some scenes are on rewrite 4 or 5 while others are on 1 or 2 and none of it matters because Iāll just have to go back through and edit it all again to make it flow together anyway.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Had I left all the editing to the end of the process, I wouldāve had to go through to edit once or twice. Combined with all the time Iāve already spent editing, Iāve probably read and reread some of these scenes like 7 times. Iāve gone a bit blind to my novel.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Will I learn from this experience and stop editing as I go? No, probably not. Like I said, I feel pretty incapable of not doing it, but still, that piece of advice looks a whole lot less stupid now.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā What are your thoughts on editing as you go?
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Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Subplots are incredibly important in longer works as they assist in pacing out the main plot, develop your characters, and give you opportunities to explore parts of your world you might not get to in the main plot.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā So where do subplots come from? Often, they are the character arcs of your side characters (or connected to them). Today we're mostly focusing on side characters that are allies or close with the MC. Letās talk about it.
1. Developing your side character
Thereās as many ways to create characters as there are characters themselves, but for the purposes of this post, Iāll take you through my favourite way to do it.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Youāre going to need: A goal, an objective, a disrupting characteristic, and a formative event.
Objective: The actionable (your character can work at it) objective they want. It is likely the same as your main characterās if they are allies, such as Sam also taking the ring to Mordor with Frodo, or Flynn also working towards taking Rapunzel to the lights.
The difference is in theirā¦
Goal: To what end are they working towards this thing?
Flynnās goal changes throughout Tangled, but his goal in the beginning is to get back his crown because he wants to ābe somethingā more than he is (rich). Rapunzel wants her life to begin so she works towards seeing the lights, he wants the crown so he works towards getting her to the lights. Same objective, different goals.
Disrupting characteristic: What internal reason do they not already have what they want? While characters tend to face external antagonists that keep them from their goal, itās their internal conflict that is the thing they work through to provide change by the end of the story.
Letās go back to Flynnāhis disrupting characteristic is that he believes he has to be rich to ābe someoneā, so heās turned to a life of crime.
A disrupting characteristic can be either a personality trait (selfish, self-destructive, naĆÆve, relentlessly optimistic) or a belief about the world (I need to be rich to be worthy, I need career success to make my parents proud) etc.
Lastly, the formative event: An event in your characterās past (usually childhood but depends on how old they are) that has inspired why they are they way they are. The beginnings of backstory.
2. Building an arc
From this character development, we can figure out what the arc is. Take your characterās disrupting characteristicāwhat do they need to internalize or figure out in order to get past it?
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā If your disrupting characteristic is, like Flynnās, that he believes to be rich to be worthy, his arc is going to be discovering self worth separate from monetary gaināwhich we see throughout the story as he falls for Rapunzel, and caring for her becomes his new purpose.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Your characterās selfishness keeps them from forming the close connections they crave with othersāso they need to be thrown into a situation in which caring for another person over themselves forces them to be unselfish.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā That gives us an A to B.
3. Add conflict
To get from A to B, characters go through a whole lot of conflict. The conflict your side character will go through relates directly to their goal and objectiveāso the subplot is intertwined closely with the main plot while still exploring this side characterās internal change and journey. The conflicts they face on their own will likely be internalātypically side characters donāt have separate external antagonists from their main characters, but thatās not a hard and fast rule.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Speaking of, check out my posts on antagonists and conflicts here, here, and here.
The last thing I'll say is that subplots that don't necessarily revolve around the MC but are kind of their own journey until they come crashing together with each other (such as the two POV characters that only meet halfway through the book) should be created as their own MC--so essentially two plots.
Questions?
Hello all!
As many of you know, Iām a part-time editor of non-fiction and writer of all things fiction, but I would love to get more experi
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Transitions are important in any workātheyāre used to skip time or to another scene in order to maintain a good pacing and momentum, and hold the work together so it flows naturally. In order to properly pull off a transition, you need a set up and a payoff.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The set up is the line before the new scene that places it in the context of the scene it is leaving. It will weave an element of the scene before into the scene to come.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The payoff, then, is the scene that comes afterwards.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Transitions can be as short as a sentence (or even one word, if youāre skilled like that) and guide the reader from one context to the next as though they are the same thing.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Okay that all sounds really vague, so letās do an example:
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Mary licked at her icecream cone, watching the boats sail across the horizon beyond her. Before long, her icecream was finished, and the sun dipped below the sails of the last boats to enter port. She found herself shivering subtly in the evening air, but ready to make her move.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The icecream is the scene beforeānotice how the set up brings both the icecream and her eyes on the ocean (elements) into the next scene, which is that night has fallen and sheās moving on to the next thing.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Without a transition sentence, this would read:
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Mary licked at her icecream cone, watching the boats sail across the horizon beyond her. Then, she found herself shivering subtly in the evening air, but ready to make her move.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Without the guidance, this transition comes off as abrupt and surprising, and youāre left wondering what happened to the elements of the scene that came before.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Any thoughts about line transitions?
The most obnoxious thing my writing teacher taught me every story needed, that I absolutely loathed studying in the moment and that only later, after months of resisting and fighting realized she was right, was something called the causal chain.
Simply put, the causal chain is the linked cause-and-effect that must logically connect every event, reaction, and beat that takes place in your story to the ones before and after.
The Causal Chain is exhausting to go through. It is infuriating when someone points out that an event or a character beat comes out of nowhere, unmoored from events around it.
It is profoundly necessary to learn and include because a cause-and-effect chain is what allows readers to follow your story logically which means they can start anticipating what happens next, which is what is required for a writer to be able to build suspense and cognitively engage the audience, to surprise them, and to not infuriate them with random coincidences that hurt or help the characters in order to clumsily advance the author's goals.
By all means, write your story as you want to write it in the first draft, and don't worry about this principle too much. This is an editing tool, not a first draft tool. But one of the first things you should do when retroactively begin preparing your story to be read by others is going step by step through each event and confirming that a previous event leads to it and that subsequent events are impacted by it on the page.
When your character is standing knee-deep in literal or metaphorical shit with a weapon in one hand and their last hope of surviving evaporating around them, and theyāre wondering how their simple smuggling job/adulthood ritual/simple morning in an ordinary village led to ALL OF THIS, both they and the reader need to be able to backtrack through every single choice, mishap, attempt at fixing earlier problems and panicky flight or fib led them unerringly to this moment. That chain cannot have breaks in it, or you lose the whole impact.Ā
Honestly, the fact that the Lenore proposed to Annabel in Theoās room is pretty funny, iām just imagining the painting of him watching all of this go down like ļæ¼
Lenore: *Proposes to Annabel*ļæ¼
Theo, probably in Nevermore at this point in time: ⦠Something just happened
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Yāknow I give a lot of emphasis on the bullshit. Lenore has to deal with in this comic right?
Letās put Annabelās situation prospective hereļæ¼
You are a wealthy woman in the Victorian era, your father sends to go make nice with the āmadā daughter of a very prominent railway Empire family to gain her fatherās favour, you go into this expecting it to be another boring chore requested of you, but you find the daughter to make for rather pleasant company. Un judging and carefree in behaviour, you grow fond of her and her mischievous unladylike behaviour. BUT NOT IN LIKE A GAY WAY OR ANYTHING, but alas you know you must leave her when the social season arrives, and when you bid her goodbye you tell her sour lies of your intentions with her that may have been at once true but no longer to make it so that she finds your leaving to be less painful, and as you leave she sees through all your lies and she screams at the top of her lungs calling you a coward and a liar. You do not look back for if you do you will weep.
You try to continue with life as it was before her. And then she dies. Violently in a burning fire, alone.
You are haunted.
A few weeks past perhaps a month or two.
A young man, her cousin arrives to your manner, your father is ecstatic for you to meet him, you play the part of a perfect lady again you smile and you bow offering him your hand and once you look up, you see the face of the woman you are wearing black for.
She is still mischievous and carefree and behaviour as she was before but you are bitter for you mourned the loss of the maiden named Lenore, and here she stands, still playful and full of bite.ļæ¼
So not only does this woman fake her death show up to your house unannounced she then asks for your hand and marriage, like yeah yeah that is the face you make for the situation 
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