#ask spb

You are completely fine!!!!! You had no way of knowing. I drew up a small guide to try to help you out, lmk if you have any questions!

The one tip I wanna add that I didn't write on the guide is to make strong use of body language to convey emotions/expressions in your art as well! People and animals don't just express in the face, our whole bodies are expressive.

hello! spb here. ill try to give some advice for writers starting out.

abandon perfectionism at the outset. write bad stories, its okay. just start out writing ideas you think would be fun or enjoyable to engage with, it really does not have to be a masterpiece especially when youre literally just starting. im p sure it took me uhhhh 6 years of writing to write my first good story.

read like, so much fiction. engage w fiction as much as you can, im talking media. read novels and graphic novels, go to plays, watch a lot of movies, read WEBCOMICS. w every story you consume, think about what you liked and what you didnt like. for the stuff you like, try to figure out what the story did to achieve that effect you enjoyed. for stuff you dislike, think about what you would do differently if you had been the writer.

pick a rantsona youtuber, any rantsona youtuber and watch media critic/media analysis videos on youtube. this sounds stupid (and kinda is) but tbh it helps to like get your brain to start thinking about fiction more critically. it can also help to teach you some general-ish guidelines for what works and what doesnt in writing. i personally really like Explanation Point. mothers basement is also worth checking out at least imo. its okay if your chosen youtuber isnt correct about everything, the point isn't to mimic their tastes so much as absorb language to think more critically about your OWN.

for webcomics, study visual storytelling. its very important to read comics and manga so you can learn how different stuff is done. animated shows tbh can also be helpful for this (but keep in mind there are always "rules of storytelling" differences between different types of media). you are not just writing something and then drawing it, you are conveying a story through the visuals of the medium itself. use it and abuse it to your liking.

try to base your fictional characters off of real people in your life or in the world instead of on other people's fictional characters (INCLUDING FROM MASS/POPULAR MEDIA, THOSE CHARACTERS HAVE WRITERS TOO). your characters will feel a lot more real. a character is not a person so much as the impression of a person, you keep basing characters off each other in and those impressions of reality get watered down and they become stale. they become stereotypes, cliche. avoid this by using your writing and art and character writing to process the world around you. its genuinely a good way to learn more about others.

also do art studies.

What was the scene in Addie verse that made you realize “welp I’m gonna be writing 10 fics for this”

I mean it! I love talking about my fics.

In Cedar Park All Stars, there’s a small scene where Taryn starts to pack because she’s decided she’s moving to Edmonton. I think that was the turning point. I knew it was longer at Timbits on the porch, but I think that’s when I knew I had to write to Addie’s draft.

Omg okay this is gonna be fun.

Clover (kept Jan 2018 - March 2024)

my first bunny <3

His personality was peak. He was such a dominant, stoic and confident guy, a king among men, but underneath it all a huge scooshy marshmallow.

When I'd be grooming him (he had a THICK coat and the shedding was bad), he'd get so pissed he'd pick up the comb and chuck it.

the fact that he was constantly cranky. clover would just randomly be pissed a lot and i often never knew why. XD he once got so frustrated he punched his girlfriend dskhfgkjdfg.

but also he was never mean. like never. he never bit. only ever some warning nips during grooming.

he was HUGE. 6 and a half pounds.

the black furrrrrrr aaaaaaaaaaa. but w that silver undercoat!

clover saved my life a few times. i decided not to attempt bc of him.

Matcha (kept June 2019 - Jan 2020)

she was so fucking beautiful. def the most stunning bunny ive had. gorgeous golden lionhead.

i loved combing her main. it was the first way i ever learned to like ground myself, back when i used to have really bad meltdowns/destructive episodes.

she was a BITCH. she was kinda aggressive w any person that wasn't me lol. but i don't remember her ever biting me even once, i was the chosen one. i love being friends w animals who are like that.

sometimes she would randomly become half lop for a few weeks and then switch back.

Nimona (kept June 2020 - Present)

MY HOMEGIRL! MY GAL PAL! MY STARSHINE! MY ONE AND ONLY!!!!

Nimona is my bestie. she's my fav animal i've ever kept.

she was so sweet and polite and friendly and outgoing from like day one

she was able to bond with clover, who had a HARD time with other rabbits. but she's just so sweet and gentle he ended up falling hard for her. (clover never fully bonded to matcha)

for the first 4 years that i had her, she never wanted to be pet. she would like shimmy away from your hand if you tried. but after working w her over the years very very slowly, she now is a huge scoosh and loves being pet and hugged and snuggled. (just dont pick her up!!)

has never done anything wrong in her life.

i like that she kinda bullies her current boyfriend. he's such a weenie that nimona deserves to be the top rabbit, but she's the bottom. but she sure makes her bf fucking work for it, sometimes she plucks his fur, or mounts him just to mess w him lol. (theyre both fixed, the mounting is a rabbit dominance thing.)

i love her lop ears. also spots!!!

she used to be a slob but over the years she really cleaned up, her feet are always so clean now. positive character arc.

this bunny is made of iron. she has never had a health problem. she's 8 now but i'm hoping to take her to 12.

she kisses me. but only my knees???

she does NOT wet the bed.

she keeps pax's face clean (he has chronic eye discharge) so i literally never have to clean him myself. nice

Pax (kept April 2024 - Present)

farmboy hours

pax is a fucking goober baby. he's sweet and has a pleasant personality.

ive been working w him over the past couple years to tame him up and he's come a long way. he's way more comfortable w being pet, hugged, and kissed now.

i like that he's kinda (KINDA) special needs. it makes me feel fulfilled to be able to take care of a bunny who has some extra health needs.

he's fucking expensive sometimes though fuck this guy lol.

nimona loves him, so i love him. he makes her very happy.

he does REALLY good binkies and zoomies. if you give him the room, he nyooms.

he is steadily expanding his pallet and is willing to try a lot more new foods than he was when i first took him home!

his adoption date is literally 4/20

idk he's just come a long way. pax was raised in a fucking barn lol, and came from a neglect case, so i've just been working w him to turn him into a proper housebunny. he's a lot more polite, tame, and willing to be pet than he was when i first got him! plus his health has gotten better too and he's able to eat things he couldn't when he was in foster care. idk it just feels good to make a positive impact in this little guy's life.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I think the winners for hardest neurodivergent characters to write were:

FIRST PLACE- Selkie, Till World's End: Antisocial personality disorder

Writing ASPD for the first time was a bitch. While writing her, I was so convinced I was doing it wrong that I had to outsource accuracy checks on her multiple times from sociopaths who were willing to look over my work. The first time I had someone check her, they said she came off more like a narcissist lol so I had to almost immediately do a ton of editing to the story's second chapter. Tbh I'd love to write ASPD again sometime, knowing everything I learned from writing Selkie. Next time I would definitely write a sociopath who doesn't murder anyone haha... I wanna write someone with that kind of brain who's more money focused.

SECOND PLACE- Tashi (and Ashi), Children of the Light: Autism spectrum disorder

Writing Autism for the first time was really difficult. My writing process for neurodivergent characters involves a lot of bodily empathy from me, but it was really really hard to put myself in the mind of someone with Autism. I read a few books, spoke to Autistic people, and COTL has an Autistic sensitivity reader, but it took writing most of the script to start feeling comfortable with it. It took a lot of time to understand the core of the disorder, and how all the symptoms stem from that core. This is kinda hilarious cause these days my current therapist says I probably have aspergers lol. I'm not 100% satisfied with how Tashi and Ashi came out, but I know I can def do better on the next try. (Spider from FYR is also autistic, so I'm using what I learned from COTL to write her better!)

THIRD PLACE- Eclipse, Finding Your Roots: Obsessive-compulsive disorder

You wouldn't know it until you need to write a character with it but OCD is actually very complex and difficult to initially understand. I did a lot of research on this one, spoke a lot with my OCD friend, and read a memoir about a girl having her first big OCD episode in high school. A lot of people think of this one as a cleanliness disorder, that it's just about needing things to be symmetrical or neat. The disorder underneath those symptoms is a complex beast of its own, though, and it can stem into so many differential presentations like obsessing that harm will come to your loved ones or that you'll somehow hurt, kill, or rape someone. My sister got diagnosed with pure-O OCD recently, and I also work with someone who has (VERY OBVIOUS) undiagnosed OCD, so that helped to build my understanding too.

Some disorders are easier for me to write, and some are harder. It's harder if I don't have the disorder I'm writing about, or if I don't personally know anyone with it. I have to rely more on research and reading to write those conditions, and then you're less certain on how well you're doing until someone checks your work or the public reads the story and provides their own feedback. Sometimes you learn you didn't do some things that good, other times you learn you did better than you expected!