New Year, new... something...?

Hi. It's me.

If you actually follow my nonsense... you might have noticed that I have ultimately failed my goal I claimed exactly one year ago. ^^; You are correct, I am no closer to finalizing my comic plans.
Admittedly, I only slowed down because I began working full time... but then I never caught back up. That and other major things came up at various times during the year. But yeesh... I even failed my attempt at getting it together with NaNoWriMo. My comic is looking a little more distant these days.

I have many MANY plans for this year, however... I tend to optimistically over-book myself at Resolution/Goal time. Some things on my plate:

• More freelance work or (and?) steady employment
• Portfolio makeover for obtaining these
• My OWN place ~_~
• MOAR crafting... maybe for a small Etsy shop?
(I actually started a tumblr for my crafting. We'll see if I keep it up.)
• HUGE, involved cosplay for Dragon*Con in September
• Still... workin' on that comic pipedream. *sigh*

Those are just to name a few. Very reasonable, I think... but I don't have the best track record for declaring and then maintaining goals.

Well anyway. Comic-wise, not much is going on at the moment. Sadly, I didn't finish my 10k-word draft for NaNoWriMo, but it did make me want to continue and do some serious character development.
While the cast on the fantasy end is pretty tacked down, I had to do a major overhaul to those of the modern setting, ie., Tavé and her friends. The characters have actually existed for a long time... a good 9-10 years, apparently. Have a look. I realize I haven't depicted these guys visually since then. XD Their names and looks have certainly evolved and changed from their creation in a 15-year-old brain. Remind me to get on that.

I did finally update lil miss Tavé, however. Click her picture for the deviantART link, along with some fun character info... that I really should post here. Ugh... remind to get on that as well. Eventually every character should have a page.
ANYWAY. She's certainly come a long way appearance-, personality-, and role-wise. I'm also really liking the style development I was experimenting with. Her facial features and expressions are much easier to reproduce and give a much more distinctive, stylized look.

More character stuff... eventually. I'm really not sure these days. I have so much I'm trying to tackle, I'll have to see where things like this fit in. Since I plan on doing some portfolio work, I might throw in some turnarounds and expressions studies for Tavé and crew. All things I've needed to do anyway, lol... but portfolio fodder never hurts. So... if you're still around and interested; things will be slow. But still coming. I promise. Mmmm.... don't hold me to this one. XD

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PS: Check my new navigation bar up there. :)

Doing it Wrong. =P

So. NaNoWriMo Day 1-2: word count = 0.
I am definitely doing it wrong, lol. Speaking with other writers, I should at least have 1,667-3,333 words by now. And that's at the minimum per day to hit exactly 50k words on time. That's a realistic and very achievable amount for me... I simply haven't put pen to paper yet. (Okay, fingers to keyboard.) But would you like to know why?

Don't EVER tell me "Make sure you have a blueprint for your novel!"

I mean, it is common practice— often a necessary step to writing a structured... ANYthing, really. Make an outline, use the snowflake method, bullet points, whatever. In this case, you do want some kind of guide so you're not rambling for 50k words. But I shouldn't have waited until now to hammer out some of the details I'm dealing with, for sure, haha. Figures I try to be as thorough as possible when it's most inappropriate. How thorough?
THOROUGH.
Well. I guess you can see this story is a cliffhanger. =P
This plot is actually an abridged and cobbled-together version of the first couple arcs of my comic. I'll probably blab plenty about it in posts to come. Done right, it makes a fun little stand-alone. And to note, you may know Tavé; but Kha'mu/Khadomu = "Mu." I chose to shorten her name for simplicity. Which actually is canon, as she was called this in childhood... but I didn't want to deal with having to explain what's with her unusual name situation for this shorter story.
Fun Character fact: Kha'mu/Mu claims that she has no proper name, simply her title of "Khaoton do Museyia." Only one other character in the story actually knows her real name.[/teaser]

So anyway. THIS is what I have been doing as opposed to hacking away at my 50k-word target. It's not necessarily a good strategy, and I don't recommend it. XD Well... more like get this crap out of the way before trying to take on a writing challenge, lol. Shame on me for not being on top of this stuff over the last... *scrolls down* nine months. x___x

Anyway... off to attempt putting words on paper. Oh, and all the other actually important things I should be doing.

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NaNoWriMo! (and an explination, lol)

So. I am AMAZING at keeping up this blog. amirite? :D
I can't even say that with a straight face, lol.

My absence comes from failing so hard on my one-post-a-week goal while I was working; but by the time my schedule had evened out I was too far behind for it not to be a positively DAUNTING task to catch up. Lame.
In all honesty, it's quite realistic to say my year's worth of planning in preparation for launch has failed; but I am far from discouraged, disinterested, OR distracted. I'm doing this thing! Some...day.....

That being said. I am taking the month of November to do NaNoWriMo! Or National Novel Writing Month. It's a personal challenge event that I have been sidelining for years and have now made the decision to jump into this year. The challenge is to write a 50k word novel by the end of November; and to non-writers I'm sure sound pretty daunting. Heck, I'm sure to those who do write it sounds pretty daunting. Frankly, I am up for the challenge SO HARD. *gung-ho pose* There's no doubt in my mind I have novels UPON novels of content to draw from.

So. MY personal challenge is that, yes; I am using the world, concepts and characters tied to my webcomic for this. This entire thing did begin in writing, after all. But I figure that returning to basics will help me pin down some elements and details, or at the very least set things in motion toward actually launching this this overgrown brainchild of mine. Where's the actual challenge part, you say? Oh allow me to explain.

You see, the world of Reverie is such an intertwined continuity of characters, worlds and events that no— it can't be told in one simple novel. That's why I was planning for an ongoing webcomic; or at the very least, a series of [graphic or written] novels. My self-imposed challenge is to see if perhaps a piece of the story can be told in a doable novel... or maybe just writing something "new" within the continuity (like a spin-off.) This might require much more planning and finalization of details than I thought. But still eager and excited.

SO! All this blah-blah to say. This here blog will definitely be active in the next month as I track my progress and, essentially, think aloud as I have been doing, lol. If I hadn't been such a loser and abandoned it for so long, I wonder where I'd be, progress-wise. :< Anyway, wish me luck; I aim to finish the challenge and THEN some!
To note... it's not a contest in any way, lol. Even if I don't finish my 50k in time, I will walk away with an excellent start to finally kick off this project. So. Revving my typing fingers!

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Eureka! (Writing Mumbo-Jumbo)

(inb4 the week's up! LOL)
Warning: Literary Nerding ahead.

I solved my plot problem.
Arcs. Duh.

I'm not sure why I was trying to think in such a linear, 3-Act fashion, lol. Likely because when I was trying to write this, the novelist in me took over and that traditionally how stories are written.
But because this is a series of events that all lead up to a master plot... it should be broken down into arcs. The perfect solution. *facepalm* I feel silly for not recognizing this right off; but I am glad I've finally started thinking like a comic writer and not such a set-in-stone novelist. Plus I DID say this was going to be webcomic. Soooo.... really, wtf, Me? Get it together.

So. Story Arcs. This will be so much fun.
To tell the entire story (which will still be a pretty long ride, heh); I've broken it into 6 or 7 major "chapters," it looks like; with each being either a large arc itself, or consisting of several smaller arcs.

NOW.
The challenge will be telling two stories at once; as there is an underlying plot being recounted by a main character as the main plot goes along. The mini-plot and main plot later begin to intertwine, until the reader discovers how the two are connected just as the characters do. Perhaps it's been done, but I personally think this makes for a deep and interesting story and can't wait to give this type of storytelling a try.

Now here is where I would attempt to ask for input; but I am quite aware that this blog only doesn't exactly have hordes of traffic, lol. I will present my musing anyway.

So... a really good story still, to some degree, follows dramatic structure:
Cheesy enough; I do still stick by this. It's kind of a given. My musing is; how does one effectively break up a SUBplot to be inserted into a main plot without shattering this model and STILL having it correspond with the events of the main plot? XD
Ironically, it would be easier if I were still going with a linear structure. But now my "linear" design has its own little peaks and valleys (like the model) in the form of arcs. So now I have to find graceful ways to insert the subplot in ways that it's [at least somewhat] parallel... but still in order... without losing readers. @__@

Like I said. This will be so much fun.
I hope you didn't mind the nerd in me coming out this rambly post... but boy am I excited.
Also... I DO have artwork to possibly post; but you have to wait for eet. Hehehehehe. Meanwhile, have another chibi character. This is Soleia. Yes, I know; she looks VERY familiar. *tease tease*
Stay Tuned!

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The Devil's in the Details

I did say once a week, didn't I? lol.

Well. Currently I'm beating myself up for dreaming up such an abnormally complex continuity, haha. It's making it rather difficult to pinpoint the exact events of this story... knowing my little world's past, present AND future.
Not only that, but as I plan to go webcomic with this.... it really could be on-going if I wished it to be. I have enough canon to pull it off, lol.

But. As in the past I planned to make this story some kind of novel; I suppose it has to begin and end somewhere. The beginning and subsequent events are easy... it's middles and endings that have got me bogged down. Story readers/viewers may be in for a long ride. But I will keep storytelling as long as people want to know.

Mmm... sorry to post empty-handed, artwise; I wanted to keep that up, lol. There are artstuffs in progress, just nothing I can post yet because of its position/relevance to the story. But you can have a tiny little Tavé.

So yeah. I'll be writing thiiiiiings. Until next week!

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Big Plans this Year

So. Hold me to this:
I'm going to update at least once a week here.

I have officially proposed that 2011 will be the finalization year for this pet project of mine. I will finish all the concept work and be able to begin drawing a comic by the end of this year or sooner. Sooner if I'm feeling awesome. Because ZOMG I'm excited. I'm not sure what I've been waiting for all these years... thank you to my new fans who love my story without even having seen it yet, haha.

So this is it. Call this a Resolution post. But I'm going to begin organizing and planning and doing what I need to do to make this happen by or before the end of 2011.

Sorry I don't have anything to make this post more interesting.... ionno, here, have some more teaser art. Old art, it's just never been posted anywhere. Kha'mu likes to mean-eye you, it seems. =P
That will be part of a series of character sheets, naturally... that I have yet to round up and finish. But I will. Oooohhhhhhh, I will.
As usual, STAY TUNED! :D And seriously, hold me to this.

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Renewed Interest!

Oh my... *clears the cobwebs*

Alright, straight ot the point:
Good news!! I'm suddenly VERY interested in continuing the development of my fantasy story. (Uh... the one [tentatively] titled "Reverie.") It's not that I had lost interest at all; as this has literally been "ongoing" for a great number of years... I just suddenly gained a host of new fans of my ideas. Not only is it ego fuel (thanks guys!), but it naturally makes me want to finalize and begin publishing my concepts in some form.

I had been stewing for years on how to go about telling this intriguing tale. While writing is the fastest way to get it, well... public, I don't think mere literary form does this story much justice-- it's far too visual. That automatically spells graphic novel or comic to me! Now a true graphic would take years to get out there... sooooooo, starting small and self-paced with a webcomic. :D
Ideally I'd love it to be movie, but y'know. :B Hey, I can dream.

Anyway; I might slowly morph this blog into this story's brain pool... sketches, writings, side plots, etc. It's technically still S'ketchiverse material; I just really need to think of a final title for my story before I name a blog for it, lol.

On that note, the story has seen much development from my last entry [over a year ago x_x]. It has become a telling of two seemingly different stories that begin to intertwine and tell an overall story. I'm eager to attempt this type of storytelling with a visual medium and hope I can pull it off well. But yeah... super excited if it wasn't obvious, lol.

I will try for regular updates; even if it's just lil blurbs. We'll see how that goes. <_<;; Meanwhile, have a teaser.

Anyhoo, to my new fans and those just mildly curious; I can now officially say... STAY TUNED!

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