Sundae, shortcake, and donut!
🍨SUNDAE—What is something that you always try to include in your projects/work? What is something that you always try to avoid?
Something I always like to include in my works is different, unique and interesting character dynamics. A lot of the stories I come up with(either written out or kept in my head) usually center around the characters' dynamics with each other, either showcasing their strength, how they slowly build and form, or the tension and unease between them. I tend to do a lot of character-driven like stuff, so whether for a shorter story or on the side of a longer story, I like to work on character relationships and how I can develop them. Sort-of related, I also like to include different family structures in all of my different story-verses(original or fanon/next-gen), both to give representation to different types and to have a variety. It's something important to me(as someone who comes from a messy one) and something I think is just fun!
As for something I always try to avoid? Hmm... One thing that comes to mind is including no comfort or some sort of a happy or 'resolved' ending? I do like to work with a lot of angsty or 'tense' ideas at times, but I also don't like to make things completely angsty with no sort of a happy ending to brighten things up or resolving the conflict. Another thing that comes to mind, is that I also don't tend to use a lot of profanity or cuss/swear words? If I am writing something that is meant to be a little more mature or 'suggestive' then I might include some if it is appropriate for the moment/situation, but for the most part, I do tend to avoid writing such language as I do not want it to get too excessive or vulgar.
🍰SHORTCAKE—What is a story you want to tell but don’t think you are ready to tell yet? What do you think is holding you back from telling this story?
Oooh boy, this is a good one. Honestly, of my current stories I would say The Lost Rainbow. This story has evolved so much over the years from the initial very simple premise("what if there were kingdoms each inspired by one of the classic four elements?"), and while I have done a lot of work fleshing out the characters and world-building, I'm worried about actually telling the main story. I am scared that if I finish writing and actually release the story, it will not live up to the image I have in my head or my potential readers' expectations, that it would be too convoluted or weakly-written, and that after everything it is deemed better off not existing at all.
🍩DONUT—Tell us about your process when creating something. Do you start with character or story? Do you write an outline or do you make it up as you go? Do you research extensively or try to be more original?
My process when creating something changes and depends on what it is that I am making, with no particular methods used every time. I will say that I am more of a 'make it up as I go' creator that starts with a basic idea or a few ideas, and see where my inspiration takes me from there. Sometimes I do write an outline or notes at the least if I am stuck on how something should go, but I also tend to play around with concepts a lot before I settle on something. I do do research a bit depending on what I am working on, as it does help to have structure and be more well-informed, but I usually start off more original. So yeah, kind of hard to describe exactly as its not super definitive, but that's the general way of things. Here's examples for some of my work, including one characters-first and one story-first:
- Spooksverse ("The Hauntings Of Poltervale"): Started out very simply with my two OCs, Shadow and Suzie, who I made way back when I was a child based on the idea of a goth and girly-girl being friends. I sadly don't have their original drawings, but I drew them a couple more times over the years before I redesigned/reworked them in 2017 and decided to make them girlfriends. At that time, I don't think I intended to work with them much as I was still heavily focused on my main fandoms at the time, but sometime in 2018 I first created Liam and Kyle to be friends with them and a part of their universe. I mainly worked with these four in the beginning but from there, the universe has expanded with more characters and some lore/world-building to flesh it out. When I eventually came up with the main story idea, I thought about my main characters and what kind of conflicts they could face, playing on the original universe name "Spooksverse" in having them become a supernatural hunting/detective group for all of the ghost and other supernatural activity that plagues their hometown.
- The Lost Rainbow: Already mentioned a bit above, but this started out with the basic "kingdoms based on the elements" idea I got randomly one day in 2019, before I eventually started to work on it more. I first started out with thinking about what kind of conflicts each kingdom could face respectively, before I thought of the main characters from each kingdom coming together to help solve each others' problems and discovering unexpected truths of the world together. I then got to work doing some general story/novel-creating research and creating the main royal kids of each kingdoms, the rulers and some world-building info for each kingdom, and a few basic side characters. I never quite finished it but I did create an outline for the story, with it being 20+ chapters. This was all in a dedicated notebook for the first couple of years, but since then everything has been fleshed out or changed so much.













