#fansessions

KATHERINE: 

Let me preface this by saying that this is not a how to or anything like that. This is what works for us, and while some of it may translate pretty well to other circumstances certain things may work better for our situation (it’s a pretty ridiculous one!). That being said, here’s some general tips I have on the writing/story/character front.

Lay out your general story/character development in advance.That isn’t to say you have to know exactly what is going to happen all the way through (hell, Nemthi wasn’t originally supposed to wake up on Prospit!), but you should know generally what you want and where you’re going with it. We know how Mazebent is going to end. We know how each character’s development will go, roughly. Will that stuff change? Probably! But we have a solid foundation laid out. It took us months, but we did it. 

Piggybacking on the first point, plan ahead! Comic artists/cartoonists lay out storyboards, right? Write narration in advance and think of panels that would fit. Describe them briefly. Lay these things out in an outline and stick to it (unless you change your mind on something, but be careful of chain reactions! Solidifying things early on is the key here). If you do this before you start drawing it will help you stay on task and give you motivation! Doing all the hard thinking and story planning first will let you have fun with it later. The way we do it is slightly different since I write and Luke draws, but the premise is the same.

Google drive is your friend!! We have an organized system of folders for everything and it makes it so much easier to remember what we’re doing!

Research! You mentioned a Witch of Void in your ask, so I’m guessing they’re important. Why does this role fit them? When we were deciding classpect titles we looked at a bunch of different blogs and used our own headcanons a bit as well. It really helps to get a lot of opinions with that, as well as with other vague Homestuck stuff (planets+dreamselves are the main ones I’m thinking of). What kind of session would your characters be entering (a void session, I’m guessing)? How does that play out, and what is the eventual end? Asking yourself hard questions and looking into different perspectives helps develop your story and characters a lot!

Don’t be afraid to change things! We’ve swapped blood colors, changed quirks, changed a symbol, changed lusii, and changed major plot points. Sometimes your first ideas will not be the best, and that’s ok. It’s all part of the creative process.

If possible, have someone else work with you on this. There’s no way I could do this by myself, and I can’t believe people do! Even if they aren’t your collaborator in an official sense, having somebody check your work and help you edit is ridiculously helpful.

LUKE:

I really have to agree with what Katherine’s saying, preparation is everything. Before you start writing your fanventure, try doing practice pesterlogs between characters to see how they talk to each other, draw your characters as much as you can to get used to their appearance (as well as learning the mspa style, which can take some time to get right, if you want to follow it).

If you do want to follow the mspa style, check homestuck as much as you can for references. It really helps when you’re first starting.

In terms of establishing characters, there are a lot of ways you can go about this. You can tell the reader a lot about their interests and backgrounds in their intro, which is helpful, but really i think the best way to give characterisation is by seeing how your characters talk in logs. We try not to introduce characters until they’ve had at least one solid pesterlog with another character.

Another good rule to follow is “show, don’t tell”. A lot of fanventures introduce characters by having them look around at 3 things in their room and then saying “oh! it looks like you’re getting pestered!!”. While this format does have it’s advantages, like being simple and easy to follow (and easy to draw as well), your characters will be more memorable and your story more interesting if you show them doing the things they like to do. If your character likes swords, have them get in a swordfight. If your character’s lusus is important to them and their backstory, have some panels of them interacting.

You should also definitely decide how you want to pace your introductions. Some fanventures introduce characters one by one slowly, others pretty much all at once. It depends on what works best for your story.

This is a very loose rule, but in my opinion establishing the game should take the back seat until your readers have a good level of familiarity with the characters. If you want to think about it in act structure, act 1 should introduce all the characters and have them only just beginning to enter/prepare to enter the medium, then act 2 is where you can really start throwing plot around. It might work differently if you have two sessions going on, but in general most people reading your fanventure are going to be doing it for the characters. Going into extreme detail about the game isn’t really necessary, too. Readers, helpfully, will already know the details from homestuck, so the only thing you need to REALLY work at establishing is radical differences from canon sessions.

When you do start publishing, it’s a good idea to give your first page a hook that will get the reader interested. Readers will end up judging whether or not they want to read your fanventure from the first page, so make it good. It’s also a good idea to put multiple pages in your first update, so your first readers will actually have something to, well, read, and want to come back to later.

For this reason you’re definitely going to want to produce a LOT of pages before you even start publishing. Having a buffer helps a lot (although be warned it is VERY hard to maintain.

Name: [first and last, 6 letters each]

Age: [in sweeps, you may include human equivalent]

Gender: [however you want to interpret this]

Blood Color: [include a hex code, especially if non-canon]

Symbol: [image + name]

Lusus: [describe and/or image]

Hive: [where is it located, how big is it, what does it look like]

Strife Specibus: [list all relevant weapons]

Fetch Modus: [optional; remove if unused]

Trollian Handle: [full and abbreviated]

Typing Quirk: [describe and give an example]

——

Introduction: [a sentence or paragraph description similar to homestuck introduction pages]

Personality: [in paragraph form or listed traits]

Interests: [in paragraph form or listed traits]

Abilities: [psychic powers or unique attributes]

Skills: [non-power related, skills developed over time through study]

——

Appearance: [image or description]

(for description, please do not forget height/weight, body shape/frame, unique facial features [such as a slanted nose], etc)

Theme: [optional; what is your troll based around?]

—-

Brief History: [how were they as a grub? how did they do in their trials beyond surviving? what have they been up to recently?]

Important People: [optional; if your trolls have preestablished relationships]

Quadrants: [optional; if your trolls have prefilled quadrants]

==========

EXTRA/BONUS ROUND [completely optional]

For this section, merely add on the extra form you wish to use to the end of the previous. None of this is required and is just for funsies.

Ancestor

Title: [8 letters; eg “Sufferer”]

Name: [optional; 6 letters standard or 8 letters, eg “Mindfang”]

Gender:

Appearance: [image or description]

Description: [rough purpose/calling that relates to their title, any important accomplishments, any important relationships]

—-

Dancestor

Name: [6 letters]

Age: [sweeps and/or human equivalent]

Gender:

Appearance: [image or description]

Description: [how do they relate/differ between their ancestor counterpart and their post-scratch descendant?]

—-

SGRUB

Class: [if non-canon please provide visual references or explanation]

Aspect: [if non-canon please provide visual references or explanation]

Abilities: [what do your class and aspect accomplish together?]

Dream Self: [derse or prospit]

Land of: ??? and ??? [please also describe it to the best of your ability or provide a visual interpretation if possible]