#And why am I drawing someone's fankids while I have my own versions of them?

[karakulialiny]

You know, Red, drawing your fankids was kinda fun, so I decided to do that again (moreover, it's almost a year since I got into PuRobbie thanks to you and the others)

Alright! Here he is! This is my little PuRobbie fankid, his name is Jakahl. Pronounced like the animal, and as @klw531 pointed out the name could be derived from jack fruit. That was an accident, but a happy one nonetheless.

This is my first time actually drawing a decent looking human, especially a baby. So please be kind with me. 🙏

When he’s older his hair will be fluffy because of genetics, (Seriously, Robbie what is going on with your hair?!) right now it’s just a little fluffy. He also inherits Robbie’s eye color.

Sorry it’s a bit blurry when you zoom in, I don’t have one of those really decent art programs. I use FireAlpaca and it just makes things blurry after exporting it as a PNG for some reason.

Please don’t repost, edit, or claim this character as yours!

[gummysnom]

Woah, Check it Out! A Fanventure Guide

Hey, you. Yes, you! Are you a dirty Homestucker that didn’t fly the coop like all the over disappointed fans after that flop of an ending? A younger fan trying to find their place in the dwindling fandom? Just someone who wants to screw around in photoshop or MS Paint with a simplistic style?

Cool, you’re all losers. 

ANYWAY, after reading the gargantuan webcomic Homestuck, you might’ve thought to yourself “Woah, I think I can put a cool spin on this!”, and chances are, you can. That is, if you put some DAMN WORK INTO IT.

Yeah, that’s right, Webcomics take work, and some other things, like, you know, CREATIVITY. 

As you know, most fanventures are on mspfa, or http://mspfanventures.com . So, go have a look on there, and check out the average fanventure. The ones with 8-50 or so pages, with three favorites at most, sadly abandoned. Yeah, those. Sadly, there are a couple hundred of those, and a few actual diamonds in the rough. But, what makes these on-going fanventures keep going, and how did the others fail? 

That’s what we’re here to look at.

THE CHARACTERS:

So, you wanna make a fanventure now, right? Cool. The first thing you need is: A Character. Or two. Or three. Or maybe four. Sburb adventures need at least two main characters, and a few others that usually come with a main character.

The biggest thing is, your character needs to be developed, and have an interesting personality. Why do I say this? Because that’s gonna influence how you write this story. The biggest mistake any creator makes is making unenjoyable/unrelatable characters that nobody, not even the creator, cares about. What most fanventures do nowadays is try to rush all the character intros to get to the “good part”. 

The problem with this is, well, your entire comic is supposed to be the good part. Your readers are supposed to enjoy your comic all the way through, or they will drop it like a rock (Like a really hot, lava rock. They will probably throw it at someone they hate too). If you don’t enjoy your characters, your readers won’t either, and they won’t want to go on a journey with your characters and get to the “good part” with them.

Sub-Point: The Amount of Characters:

If you have too many characters, and you try to introduce them all, you’re gonna have even more pacing problems. For a fanventure, of course most people have 4, or due to the popularity of Hexane, 6. 

This is fine and all, and you can have as many characters you want, but you don’t need a million characters if you can’t dedicate enough development or characterization to them.

 People try to copy Homestuck by having Fankids AND Fantrolls. You don’t need both just because Homestuck had them. You can just have trolls, or just kids. Hell, you don’t need kids OR trolls. Make your own species, make whatever you want! Make hybrids, have fun with it! Just don’t make a bunch of characters you don’t care about!

THE STORY:

So, you’ve got like, ten characters, and you think you’re hot shit now. You’re WRONG. What are these characters even doing now? Sitting around sucking on pixie sticks and browsing Ebay like a bunch of LOSERS.

“Vicky!! How can I fix this?” Well, don’t even worry about pal, because I have the solution. It’s called a, well, err

Uh, //looks left and right

Now listen, you can’t go around telling people this but it’s a

A PLOT!

Yes, your characters need a story, something to do, and they need it now. “Well, that’s easy!” You say as you pull open note pad and...sit there for an hour.

“Damnit!” You say in frustration, because you forgot you don’t know how to write a plot outline. (Second Grade plot outlines be damned, T-Charts are for babies!)

So, this is easy. Your fanventure needs three things: A beginning, middle, and end. More importantly, a beginning and end. You need to know where you started, and you need to know where you’re trying to go. The middle is the big gooey middle that’s how you get there.

For a fanventure, your beginning will usually be a couple of acts where you enter your main characters (NOT ALL AT ONCE, but we’ll get to that later.) and introduce THE GAME. Your end will be...well, that’s up to you! Make it cool, original, something you wouldn’t expect.

Sub-Point: Pacing:

Remember how I said you should introduce all your characters at once? Yeah, that’s a big deal, and it will overwhelm your reader, and make them not care about the individual characters. We all enjoyed John as the main character because he had an entire act dedicated to him, and we spent all that time learning what he was all about, what he enjoyed, what he liked. We need that time with your characters too.

Remember that while you need good pacing in the beginning, since it will determine whether your readers will stick with you or not, you also need a good middle. We aren’t trying to go rushing to the end. Make it an enjoyable trip, and have some fun with it. Keep the pacing at a medium pace, not too slow (Boring) or too fast (Even more boring).

THE ART:

Cool, you’ve got a story outline planned out, some cool characters ready to go on a piping hot adventure, and now there’s one one thing left to do: Get to work on those panels! (Err, unless it’s a written story, to which I say, more power to you! Like, damn, you  have a lot of dedication because it is ROUGH in the fanfiction world. We don’t get enough reads and views anyway, but OCs are treated like trash. Just keep your head up, and hell, I will support what you do!)

The big thing here is: How do you want to draw your comic? Do you wanna make it a panelled comic like how comic books do it? Do you wanna go for the iconic Homestuck Style? A mix of the two? Cool! Go for it! But be consistent with your style, and make sure it isn’t just “boring” and really blank like a lot of adventures are. 

Most people like it when you use your own art and parts, but there’s nothing wrong with using some of Hussie’s parts too if you want. But you should use oiginal parts too, and don’t use people’s work who haven’t consented to it, cause that’s theft.

Sub-Point Suggestions:

Homestuck was, at one point, completely based on suggestions. Now, you don’t have to, but it can really help you when you’re in a rut with your story. You don’t have to take every suggestion, but engaging with your fanbase can be incredibly helpful! (Making a discord or a blog for your comic can be helpful!)

POSTING YOUR COMIC:

Cool, cool, you’re straight up ready. You have a few good pages ready with some commands, a rockin’ story, and some characters. What’s left? Posting, of course!

Now, this isn’t about “how” to work the MSPFA website because there are some better guides for it, but! This is about how to real your readers in.

So, firstly, you need a catchy name.

“How about, Cool-Stu-” NO, DO NOT EVEN. Every person and they mother, grandmother, and disowned uncle have named their story something like “Cool-Stuck” or “IDK-Stuck” but that’s not how the name works guys. Let’s try  to get better.

“Hexane” had six characters main characters at first, Hackbent was a hacked Sburb Session, so think about a title that fits your story.

Now, like any good creator knows, and any english teacher that wants to ruin your life will remind you, you need a good hook. Something that will pull your reader in. That’s why you shouldn’t advertise “This is probably shit” or “IDK what I’m doing” because you won’t get any readers. Make your blurb interesting. Write what would interest you!.

ORIGINALITY:

This is the final point, because I feel like it is the most important. (You know, save the best for last and all.) This mostly comes from the fact that I’ve had a few bad experiences with doing fanventure collabs. (Especially with a certain person. if you want the deets I live to over share)

So, uh, here we go:

You aren’t gonna make the next Homestuck. You aren’t. It isn’t going to happen. No, no matter how original, cool, and unique it is, it isn’t the next Homestuck. So, DON’T TAKE ALL YOUR CARDS FROM HOMESTUCK. If you take every cue from Homestuck, with nothing new or original, or something YOU made, you will be another chump with a failing fanventure.

I have dealt with a person who told me that all of my ideas were “bad” and “trash” and couldn’t happen because they weren’t exactly like Homestuck. She critiqued my characters not by their own merit, but because I didn’t use the right pants for a teal blood and that my spriting style was too unique and too colorful.

Listen, this is YOUR story, this is YOUR adventure. Be creative, create new worlds, species, new versions of your game. Homestuck was popular because of the pure creativity in it. By copying it exactly, you’re doing both Homestuck AND your readers a disservice. 

So, that’s about that. Now you have the basics about a fanventure, and you should be able to succeed. Now, of course, I’ll always be here, ready and willing to talk and explain and post more guides if you need it. And if you disagree with anything, I will be willing to debate on it.

Hell, just send me your fanventures and we can talk about it for a while! (And if you’d uh, like to collaborate on a fanventure *wink wink* I’d be down with that)

Bye for now, and if I see a fanventure called Cool-Stuck, I am suing all of you!