I just beat the Riven Remake and I loved its feel and artistry. You and the crew did a great job on it! One thing I've never understood, though: how did you learn D'ni back in the 90's? I've never known how that conlang was shared in those days, and even after reading the novels I still have no idea how to use the language. I'd love to learn more about the setting beyond the books and games!
Aw gosh, thanks so much for the kind words! ♥️
SO there were some fan-made online resources (Kh'reestrehfah's D'ni Dictionary has been around since the year 2000, amazingly), and most importantly for me there was a D'ni language & grammar primer in the From Myst to Riven art book:
Along with that there were scattered online resources from Cyan themselves, or RAWA (Richard Watson, game designer at Cyan back in the day) would discuss the language and release new materials in CyanChat or the Riven Lyst, the ancient chatrooms/mailing lists for the fandom at the time.
If you want to learn the D'ni conlang nowadays, there are tons of resources out there: a good starting point would be the Guild of Archivists' pages on D'ni language and grammar, and there's a linguistics channel in the official Cyan Discord where you can ask pretty much anything and everything and someone'll point you in the right direction.
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I think at this point I've read more of your Weirdly Obsessed Anon's rants than I have actual Maiko fic. I commend your diligence in not only enduring but responding to their very clear indications that they need some sort of therapeutic approach to their problems with the behavior of a moody teenager from a 20 year old cartoon.
It helps that I have a stubborn streak.
What I do wonder about, though, is if I've been targeted (among other people associated with the Maiko fandom, I'm sure) for a specific reason or I was just accidentally caught in a big Maiko net and everyone else just ignores this anon, because I don't even consider myself a Maiko shipper- I'm a fan of Mai who enjoys writing stories about her and the Maiko fandom is very appreciate of good fanfic. Granted, a lot of my analysis here has a strong pro-Maiko flavor, but Maiko is so tied to Mai's character in all her canon material that if I didn't appreciate it on some level I probably wouldn't like her at all.
Is one of those webcomics 1/0? Because I remember reading that one and thinking "well this is certainly a thing that exists."
(With reference to this post here.)
That’s one of the better-known examples of the fifth entry on that list, yeah. Framed is another (notable both for being one of the earlier mainstream webcomics to seriously experiment with the infinite canvas, slightly predating Scott McCloud’s coinage of the phrase, and for including Waldo of Where’s Waldo as a recurring villain), and of course any number of shitty Mega Man sprite comics.
Your OC, Miss Grace, looks awesome and intimidating - like most of the ladies you draw. I'll have to pay attention so I can take advantage of your skills when commissions next open up!
As to your prompt queries. Character: Morrigan. Prompt: "It loses a lot of the poetry when you translate it." Song: The Piano Has Been Drinking by Tom Waits
The rain lashes against the windowpane as the wind threatens to rattle it out of its frame. The bartender went to bed hours ago, the fire burnt down to glowing embers. The only sound is from the stentorian rumble from the Iron Bull, asleep in his chair. And from the two figures, sitting around the remains of the fire. A bottle of wine sits between them, long since emptied.
It takes a great deal to get a Grey Warden drunk, but Omar Surana has done his level best. He slumps back in his chair, the braids of his hair untied from his back, draping over his shoulders. In the dim light he looks like a statue, something ageless and untouchable, eyes fixed on a horizon she cannot see.
Then he hiccoughs, and the spell is broken.
“I’m sorry, you know,” he says, jerking himself out of what turned out to be a lopsided examination of the fire-poker. “I probably should have showed up sooner.”
Morrigan rolls her eyes, but can’t hide the lopsided smirk. “It was a little uncharacteristic of you, trusting anyone else to save the world.”
“Hmm?” His brow furrows. “Oh, that? No, I meant… I meant the Flemeth thing. Should’ve been around for that. Sorry.”
Morrigan has either got worse at hiding her moods, or the wine has got to her, because she can’t hide the crease of her brow. But, after a short moment of slow reflection, she comes to a conclusion.
“It would have been nice, if only for Kieran’s sake, but if you’d been there I think you would have just killed Flemeth again, and I have begun to wonder just how much that would have helped.”
“Would’ve made me feel better,” Omar mutters, darkly, and his hands twitch with frustrated inaction. “You know that, right? I know it’s kind of expected but I don’t think I like your mother.”
He would have, she realises. Of course he would have. He’d known her less than a year before fighting Flemeth in the woods at her behest, and in spite of everything she’d done to him since, he’d never once regretted it, not once he’d found out what Flemeth was. He’d invade heaven for her with a smile on his face. There are days when she feels very undeserving of the guileless love of Omar Surana.
There’s no answer to that, so she suddenly pushes her chair back, wood scraping across the floor, and weaves unsteadily towards the bar. Deftly plucking another bottle from underneath the counter, she conscientiously leaves a small handful of coin on the counter, to forestall any protests from Omar.
He absently presents his cup as she sits down, heavier than she intended, and she fills it, a little unsteadily. It’s an Antivan wine, acid and blood-dark, and she joins him in a toast to nothing in particular.
It burns her throat on the way down, and sits in her belly like a pool of fire.
“No, this… Corypheus thing,” Omar mutters, gesturing around the deserted room, “I… kind of thought it’d wait for me. I mean, everything else had, right? I could just show up and pick up before it all got dealt with.”
She can’t help but laugh, and finally it slots into place.
“You remind me,” she said, sitting forward and, impossibly daring, putting a hand on his knee, “of the warrior priestess Shalanna.”
The Well still curls around the edges of her mind; although she has managed to stop slipping into Elvhen, some things still remain. She finds herself thinking of long-dead elves as absent acquaintances. The past seems more present than ever.
“Oh?”
“Oh yes indeed,” Morrigan continues. “She was one of the greatest warriors of her age.” Omar visibly preens at the comparison, but she continues airily, as though she had not noticed. “And her temper was ferocious. Once, during the midst of a great battle, she refused to participate until the General, a man with whom she had quarrelled, prostrated himself in front of her tent, offering fifty of his slaves in recompense.”
Omar regarded her coolly, for a long while. Finally, he spoke. “I remind you… of an asshole?”
Morrigan snorted indignantly. “It is one of the greatest stories in ancient elven canon!”
Omar shook his head, braids slipping around his shoulders. “Remind me why you’re so interested in these guys again? The more I hear about them the less impressed I am.”
Morrigan rolled her eyes. “It does lose some of its poetry in translation, I will admit.”
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Loopy, I love your work and your tight plotting, and I've found I seem to be not good at planning stories out - I can write a 2-5 page snippet, but nothing long form. How do YOU approach planning a novel, and to what degree is it planned and to what degree is it improvised as you go?
Well, first I need to clarify that I had to actually build up my writing "muscle" in order to do novel-sized stuff.
I started writing fanfic with short stories, averaging a couple thousand words. I worked my way up to 3-chapter ditties that were getting as high 6-7k words. Then I participated in a Big Bang which required a minimum of 20k. I thought it would be easy if I gave myself enough time and paced myself, but I found it to be agony. I was mentally exhausted by the time I had written two-thirds of the first draft, and as a result, the original ending was terrible, something I spat out just to finish the dang thing. Fortunately, I had a good beta-reader who was able to call out the precise problems, and after taking a break from writing completely for a couple of weeks, I was able to completely rewrite the ending (it was the same plot events, just presented in a completely different way) and make a vast improvement.
A key point in that little anecdote is that my rewrite contained the exact same plot events. I didn't have to second-guess the structure of the story because I had fully outlined it ahead of time and knew exactly what the theme of the story was and how all the happenings play into it.
For me, that's the benefit of having a plan. Writing is not so easy that I can do it while also figuring out the story I want to tell. The more planning I do up front, the smoother the writing process is for me. Those who don't struggle so much with the writing might not get the same return on investment from a detailed plan.
So your problem could be that you haven't built up your "writing muscle" yet- your ability to mentally focus on a plot, tone, style, theme, and feeling. The most writing you do and the more you stretch your word count, the more your ability will grow. But there's no pain without gain, and there will be mental struggle sometimes.
But that doesn't get into what I mean by a plan or outline. Yet!
My concept for a story always starts with a premise, which is essentially the story's beginning: "AU where Mai finds Aang instead of Katara" or "Mai and the Blue Spirit meet during Season 2 before Ba Sing Se" or "Azula discovers that she's immortal and is bothered by it," etc. The next part I like to decide is how that premise is resolved, which is essentially the story's ending: "AU Aang saves the world thanks to his connection to AU Mai" or "Mai and the Blue Spirit part with a new familiarity with each other that sets the foundation for their getting together between Books 2 & 3" or "Azula is able to die again but her certainty about herself and her path is shaken," etc.
The way I work, those are my beginning and my destination, and from there I outline my journey. I start with some brainstorming, figuring out scenes I'd like to do or characters I'd like to involve or locations I want to visit or even lines of dialogue that sound good. That's like, when planning a journey, figuring out what stops you want to make on the way; sure, you might get to your destination faster if you keep driving or go a more efficient route, but it's more important to you to get off on Exit 42 and visit that great restaurant before picking up the highway again. And that comparison isn't random- you should try to fill your story with stuff you'd enjoy as much as visiting a favorite restaurant. This is a hobby we do for fun and writing is hard, so it's important to make it as enjoyable for yourself as possible.
The brainstorming portion is surprisingly critical, and it needs to be done correctly. You don't want to throw away any ideas at this point, and you want to come up with as many ideas as possible. Put yourself into a heightened creative state by listening to your favorite music beforehand. Riff on each idea. Steal from other stories. Tell yourself you can't have lunch until you fill a page with ideas. Talk to yourself in your notes. Pose ideas in the form of questions (that you don't have to answer yet). Imitate your favorite characters and do bad impressions of them. Make yourself smile even if you don't feel like it.
Then, using those brainstormed ideas, I figure out my exact route from beginning to destination. This is a more practical portion, because if you just have a jumble of roadside stops you want to make, you're never going to get to your destination. You need to bridge the gap between your beginning and your ending, use your brainstorming stuff as the box of building blocks that will form the foundation of your bridge. What really helps here is that I have read so many books/stories in my life, I know the shape that I'm aiming for. I know what a basic mystery, adventure, romance, etc look like. A romance, for example, starts with our pairing separate and lesser for it, has them meet, then they overcome an initial conflict, they grow closer, a bigger conflict forces them apart, and then they overcome that conflict to be together forever or at least until the credits finish rolling. There are variations to it, but that's your basic shape. The more familiar you are, the more you can twist it unrecognizably without losing its support structure.
And the story feels more continuous if each of the points in that shape lead into each other. They're not a bunch of towers standing next to each other, they're an arch held together by each stone leaning against the others. Something happens, and then as a result of that something else happens, and then as a result of that something else happens, etc. Even a bunch of random, unconnected events can become a continuous story if the main character is affected in a progressive way by those events. A decision the main character makes is different from what they would have otherwise done without having experienced recent events. I often find that an interesting plot can be made out of simply asking what the worst possible outcome is of the current dilemma and seeing how the characters would react to that.
So, using that romance structure with the BlueSpirit/Mai idea I had above, I can create something out of the ideas I'd brainstormed that looks like this:
Mai is on the way to buy/procure Azula's tanktrain, worried about Zuko being a traitor and having to catch him, when she is robbed by Zuko during his Bandit Blue Spirit thing.
Zuko, inching towards his slightly healthier mental state in Zuko Alone, somehow learns what Mai is doing and wants more information since Azula is a danger to him. So he follows Mai to her destination.
Mai's destination is an army base where they build tanktrains.
Mai's aunt runs the place.
Zuko is caught during his infiltration and takes Mai captive to escape.
Blue Spirit and Mai are stranded in the wilderness for a bit as kidnapper/captive.
They work together to survive and learn a bit more about each other's characters.
There's an attraction.
They work out a deal to team up and both get what they want.
They enact a scheme to steal the tanktrain.
The scheme goes wrong.
They fight their way to safety and are forced to go their separate ways, still drawn to each other but unfulfilled.
Epilogue: They meet up in Ba Sing Se.
Note how vague it gets towards the end there. (Also note that this doesn't exactly match up with the story I wound up writing. I believe the meme goes that this is a secret clue for later.) The "scheme" bit is something that I would later do extensive planning for, because that's a plot-heavy part of the story. At the final level, I like to have things broken down by scene, such as:
Scene MAI POV: Mai fakes her way out of attending the inspection and sets off the explosion in the chemical depot
Scene ZUKO POV: Blue Spirit fends off attackers while failing to figure out that he needs to remove the bolts
Scene MAI POV: Mai works her way to the tanktrain, obtaining the spare mask from the rebels on the way. When she meets up with Zuko, she tells him about the bolts
Zuko removes the bolts and the tanktrain runs away. Maiko chases it. Zuko gets onboard. The rebels get onboard. Mai gets onboard to fight the rebels. The train leaves the fortress. Everyone fights. They approach the ravine. Everyone jumps off the train.
Notice how that last bullet point isn't a scene like the others. Sometimes, even in my final detailed outlines, I do like to leave myself freedom to change things with scene transitions to manage the pacing as I write, and with action scenes especially I don't bother working out all the details. It impossible to plan how many punches you're going to wind up needing.
But these bullet points are from the final chapter(s) of my story. Do I really work out the scene-by-scene breakdown of my entire story before writing anything? It depends on the size of the story. For a short, I'll do the full breakdown. But for anything multichapter, especially a novel, I'll only do a chapter-by-chapter summary before doing any writing. Those summaries will be about a paragraph or two long. Each chapter will get its scene-by-scene breakdown when it's time to write it.
So, to answer your original question, the amount of planning I do for a novel-sized story before writing is a chapter-by-chapter outline. Each chapter will get a 1-2 paragraph summary, and that can include very short descriptions of important scenes and sometimes even a line or two of dialogue I want to make sure I include. And then, as I work through the chapters, I get into even more detailed outlines with a scene-by-scene breakdown with notes about whose POV is commanding each scene.
I like to leave that gap because it's where the improvisation comes in. I don't treat even my scene-by-scene breakdowns as something I have to stick to. I readily combine, cut, or alter scenes based on how things go as I'm writing. (One time, I turned a dud of a chapter into a banger of a chapter simply by reordering and combining some scenes, minimal rewriting required.) Changes are allowed to creep in. I might even radically alter major planned plot points. Having a detailed plan doesn't inhibit that. If I know where my ultimate destination is, I know how I need to alter my route to accommodate the unplanned detour I'm taking. And by holding off on doing the scene-by-scene breakdowns until it's time to write that chapter, I'm not doing a lot of work that I'll have to throw away if I make any major changes to the plan.
Even if I don't make changes, I'll often develop details during the writing that I might want to make further use of in a major way. Even if it doesn't change my plot at all, that type of thing can definitely change how the scenes go, so again, it saves work not to have to throw away plans that detailed.
But, overall, I find it's better to over-plan. It's easier to throw work away than it is to try to figure out what's next. My 'current' project is going slow because I did inadequate planning, thanks to some indecisiveness that has persisted through the writing. If you have a solid path through your whole story, there's no such thing as writer's block. When I have a good plan, the only thing that pauses me is wondering, "What hook of a first sentence should start this scene?" or, "What really strong line of dialogue should finish this dialogue exchange?" I can focus on the writing, not the plotting.
And that's really the big guideline. I do as much planning as I need to so that I can write without also trying to figure out the story. A scene-by-scene breakdown does that for me, since I do like switch POV around and do scene transitions that lead into each other rather than stop things, but for people who have more intuition about scenes or who don't go for that level of connectedness, it might not be necessary.
And, of course, it's not necessary for every writer to do plot-heavy novel-sized stories. I just often set out to do a short story, do somet thinking, and then find that I have way too much plot because I overthink everything. ;)
I'm not sure I actually know anything about Ghost - how does a band have a setting & characters that can get fanart?
SO Ghost is a Swedish metal(ish) band, and the front men (technically all the same guy underneath the masks) have all been a succession of various Satanic Popes (Papas Emeritus I, II, III, and Cardinal Copia, recently promoted to Papa Emeritus IV a couple of weeks ago). This video is actually a pretty solid primer if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0AMpQ9uu_g
So the concerts themselves are fully in-character, which is a great start, but you also have:
Tons of music videos
A youtube channel that’s CHOCK full of goofy, lore-heavy webisodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyxrzUe_TDM
A fandom that is extremely prolific when it comes to writing fanfic that expands on the characters/the church
Ghost as a boy band from the 60′s! Illegitimate children of questionable parentage!! Ghouls??? Sisters of Sin! Questionably sexy christenings!!
Anyway there’s just... a surprising amount of content to dig into for a band. And the concerts rule.
I just started Traitor's Face yesterday (just finished act 2!) and I have to ask - how do you make Retroactive!Azula seem smart and sympathetic while making Traitor!Azula seem horrifyingly competent and deranged? And in both cases, how do you so effectively communicate that she's *smart?* The best I can get is that scenes from her perspective make it clear just how many details she's taking in at any moment, explaining how she can make what seem like logical leaps at a moment's notice.
First of all: THANK YOU! This question has me grinning, and I’m impressed that you blazed through the first two Acts in two days. I hope you’ll reach out again when you get through Act 3, as that has some major stuff going down.
As for your questions, you’re definitely right that putting in the work of showing Azula to be exceptionally observant is part of making her seem “smart.” The key to making that work, though, is to construct that sequence of details-to-conclusion as something the reader will be convinced they could have replicated, if only they had noticed the same clues. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle demonstrates that succinctly in this Sherlock Holmes passage. If the conclusion doesn’t make any sense, or seems like too much of a leap, it will seem artificial to the audience. Her thinking needs to be exceptional, but also plausible.
But that can be done with any smart character. Something I like to do for Azula specifically is to portray her as being in control of pretty much any situation. She manipulates people as part of her regular interactions with them, and is very good at it. She controls the flow of her conversations, she lets people think they’re fooling her, and constantly keeps events moving towards her goals. And, when seen from the POV of other characters, that’s terrifying.
The way I like to implement that is my storytelling philosophy of Seeking the Unintuitive. The definition of its opposite, the intuitive, is “using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive.” The unintuitive, therefore, is a truth that our instincts naturally guide us away from. It’s not something random, or a mere subversion. The unintuitive is something that really is true, and makes sense once we’re made aware of it. Thus, in storytelling, the unintuitive is something unexpected that still works as a natural part of the story. I try to seek that out, with the result of making the story surprising but genuine. It’s the foundation of my favorite kinds of cliffhangers- revealing a new fact or character or element that changes the audience’s understanding of the situation, leaving the “what happens next” as an intriguing mystery. Because, essentially, all storytelling is just about making the audience go, “What happens next?”
So, to make Azula seem smart, I have her do the same thing, but in-story. Part of the way she manipulates people is by making use of the unintuitive, of leading them in one direction that feels natural to them and then pulling the rug out from under them. It’s a lot easier to do with a story than it is to do with real people on the fly, so it’s a great way of making Azula seem almost like a genius when she pulls it off. It’s the chessmaster at work, someone keeping you from seeing the victory they’re assembling until it’s too late.
Part of Retroactive’s portrayal of Azula, though, is reversing her ability to manipulate people. For most of the story, Azula herself is the one being manipulated, the one who doesn’t realize that her opponent is playing a completely different game. She has her own methods turned against her by multiple people, and doesn’t realize it until it’s far too late. (Multiple times!) That, combined with the sympathetic characteristics already established by the cartoon, makes her relatable to the audience. We might not have the same psychology as her, or ever experience anything close to the same situations, but we buy that she feels fear and vulnerability at what is being done to her, and we can all understand feelings of fear and vulnerability.
Making Azula seem deranged in Traitor’s Face, by contrast, is fairly easy. She enjoys manipulating people, her loyalties drive her to take pleasure in the misfortune of her enemies (especially if she caused it in a way that makes her look good to Daddy), and she reacts to vulnerability with violence. That’s not very nice behavior!
