#I wrote this so fast considering it's been sitting in my docs for 5 months slfkdl

[troubadour-malin]

Built an Opera House for You

Asher/Babe (gender-neutral)

1,558 words

Required materials : • Shelving boards : 2 • Metal brackets : 4 • Screws : 8 • Screwdriver • Patience • Kisses : ? _____________ Where Babe walks in on Asher trying (keyword) to build shelves.

[ot3]

first of all, i am violently in love your ace attorney fancomic. that one panel of mia in the elevator and edgeworth on the stairs sitting back to back lives rent free in my head, i think abt it every 3-5 business days and go feral. tysm <3 second, would you ever consider showing us ur process behind it? like how you plan it, the dialog + composition, etc? id personally love to get that insight !!

thank you so much!!!

i actually do have a TON of behind the scenes/process stuff up on my patreon for $2. every thumbnail/color rough/scrapped page comp i've done is up there, and i've been writing detailed commentary on the comic as a whole because it's something people expressed an interest in reading. there's a decent amount of it right now and ill have a new batch of commentary up sometime in the next few days

as for more generalized stuff about process ill stick that here under the cut but unfortunately it is going to be EXTREMELY unhelpful because my process habits are very bad.

so as for prewriting/pre-planning i do almost none of it. i've been trying to get better at doing that but i get so so so bored of that so fast. here's a screenshot of my first outline, cropped to just show everything i've drawn so far.

as you can see this all means pretty much nothing and i also didnt quite follow it. we didn't get the mia and greg postmortem and swiss rolls stuff for turnabout samurai because i later decided to scrap it. later down in this document there are slightly more detailed notes about some specific scenes, but really its all super lose.

Recently i tried to write a more detailed outline for the upcoming parts of the comic, and the stuff that happened in this most recent batch of pages was documented there pretty well

but already the stuff i wrote in this outline for later batches is not accurate to what i want anymore so to be honest the outlines are kind of a wash for me. what's really the meat of my pre-planning process is i just have a private discord server where i dump notes.

the reason i use a discord server for this is because its super easily accessible from every device i have, and doesnt require backing up between locations. i also just dump chunks of canon text in there that i want to pull exact dialogue from when i'm doing my transcript rereads.

a lot of these notes are completely useless and redundant

most of them are snippets of dialogue i want to put in on later pages. almost none of this dialogue will ever be used. for starters, a lot of it is different takes on the exact same handful of scenes and so by default are mutually exclusive bits of content. i like to just dump as many ideas as i have in there even if theyre contradictory, and then just read back through and pick my favorite/most appropriate ones as i get to actually drawing whats coming up.

every now and then ill dump all this in a google doc and arrange it roughly chronologically so related takes go together, but i havent done that in like six months so its all just a huge mess right now.

the reason i can get away with such bare bones planning is because i have a very strong mechanical understanding of how this story is supposed to function. in the two and a half years that has gone by since i came up with the idea and started working on it, almost nothing has fundamentally changed in my big picture narrative goals. knowing the exact shape of what i'm building towards makes it really easy to let the more minute details come to me in the moment. they either are congruent with that end goal, in which case they can stay, or they're more extraneous/irrelevant in which case they get cut.

when i get stuck, more often than not i just slide into mia @demonkix's dms and make her hear out my rambling. thanks mia. shoutout to mia.

now, here's probably one of my biggest sins: i do not script anything. there is no finalized dialogue until i am writing it directly onto the page. unless i'm directly lifting from the text, that is. ill have a rough idea of what needs to be said in each page when im drafting, and sometimes i'll write in rough dialogue on the draft. but most of the time ill just sketch out the approximation of the speech bubble andd either leave it fully blank or jot in one or two keywords in to remind me of what the dialogue should be. then the actual dialogue gets written in once the art is finished

do not do this. i can not stress how frustrating this is for myself. i do this every time and i always hate it.

the reason i dont bother with any proper scripting is because the dialogue bends to the art. not the other way around. a massive amount of my process is dictated by what im in the mood to draw, and by keeping the actual character interactions as flexible as possible until the art is done, i can ensure i dont get stuck at key points because the thing that has to happen is something i dont feel like drawing.

in general, my process for drafting pages is just rough thumbnail -> color rough -> go actually draw the damn thing

however there ill be times when i just do not bother drafting at all and jump immediately into drawing a page. if you go look at the stuff on patreon youll see that in the beginning i pretty much just drew everything after the first batch straight through.

this comic is a lot of work so the most important thing is that hte process is fun for me. i really hate granular planning and itd just slow me down a ton so the process is really just vibes from point a to point b. hope this somewhat answers your question

i talk about my general approach to comic composition in my big composition writeup too, which is pinned, if thats something youre interested in.

[ourstarscollided]

jatp fanworks appreciation - day 3 (wips)

wip wednesday - I didn’t think I wanted to join in on this day for my own stuff considering I’ve never posted anything original for this fandom, but I think this might just be the little boost I need from myself to actually finish the wips that I have sitting around. I am peer pressuring myself and holding myself accountable by posting this - or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. Most of the past 6 mths has just been me screaming to no one in a Google Doc, so here are some things I’ve been ruminating about over the last 6 months (and if my secret agenda is to get other people to write about it so I don’t have to? Then that’s between you and me).

Everything’s under a read more because I like giving context and that usually spirals out of control!?!?

If you would like to see more from any of the below, feel free to shoot me an ask/message and I can definitely share some more! (Or you can just come yell at me about JATP in general.)

Strangers Fake Dating AU // Julie x Luke

I’m a simple person. I see a prompt, I latch onto it, and then I completely miss the entire point of the prompt as my imagination goes wild for no real reason. This really was supposed to be a super short drabble, but it manifested into a 3k+ thing that isn’t even finished.

Julie’s not really sure what she’s supposed to do now. Nothing has ever prepared her for a situation in which she’s supposed to pretend to be a stranger’s girlfriend, especially if that situation involves parents. Does she continue this ruse? Can she come up with a quick enough excuse to tell this Luke character that she actually can’t stay? What if this is just all an elaborate plan to kidnap her? Has she been listening to too many true crime podcasts? Why does Luke smell so good? Does he know how to cook? Why does his shirt not have sleeves? What-

“I can hear you thinking from here.” Her head whips up at the sound of Luke’s voice, which is now at a whisper and kind of frantic. “I just- I just really needed to get my mom off my back, so I kinda need you to pretend to be my girlfriend. Just for the night. I swear I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

Julie studies Luke’s face and it’s nearly impossible to not cave under his gaze, which can only be simply described as ‘puppy dog eyes’. She finds herself smiling back, letting out a huff, “I hope you like lasagna.” And the grin that spreads across the boy’s face is enough for her to know that he’s incredibly relieved that she agreed.

“I’m Luke by the way. Luke Patterson.”

(Okay, he’s kinda cute. And no one this cute is a serial killer. Right?)

She gives a small smile back, “I’m Julie.”

//

5+1 alive!Juke AU // Julie x Luke

Inspired by paper - LANY

This is one of the first things I ever felt the urge to write down back in September because I love exploring the idea of how two people can appear to be the perfect relationship on the outside, but are actually fighting their own demons. Especially when it comes to celebrities and people who are in the spotlight. It’s basically a 5+1 fic about the moments from other people’s perspectives who happen to orbit around Julie/Luke that all revolve around paper. My outline for this is so long because I can’t manage to narrow it down, and there’s zero cohesiveness but I do have little things jotted down.

“Hey little man,” Luke’s knelt down to match his 5 year-old height, and a hand extends out to him for a high five, “What are you doing here?”

His eyes flicker to the left, towards his own apartment door, where his mom is giving him an encouraging nod. “ I- I just wanted to-” he stutters and finds himself looking at his feet as he shuffles back and forth on the spot. “I- I drew you guys something!”

He shoves the paper out towards the older boy in front of him, but doesn’t look up.

//

Reincarnation AU // Julie x Luke

I had a random thought in December about how magical it is that Julie and Luke are so tied to one another that their love transcends time and space, which will always lead them back to one another. I remember reading a book a long time ago about how the main character is fated to die at a certain age, and that kind of sparked this little idea. I can’t bring myself to actually plot out every single timeline right now, but I did manage to write a little bit.

It will never be as complex as Rosie’s idea and all the wonderful additions in the link here, and I don’t really plan on it being anything more than a small idea. But I really do still think someone should write some sort of reincarnation AU cause I’d hop on that so fast!!

“Okay- that’s not- Luke. You seriously just ran away?”

“What was I supposed to do Alex? We all know how this ends.”

His friend looks at him, face painted in understanding and he sighs, “Yeah. Yeah, we do.”

Because it’s true, Alex does know, so does Reggie and Bobby. Most importantly, so does Luke. It’s the exact same tragic love story every time.

Call it a curse or fate or destiny. Maybe it’s because Mercury is in retrograde. Whatever. It always ends the same way - with a heartbreaking goodbye, a whisper of the promise that they’ll find each other again, and the possibility of a happy ending. He’s said the same goodbye at least 734 times, but it’s not like he’s counting or anything. Fuck the universe and its mystical ways.

//

Competitive Alex // Alex x Willie

No real thoughts or reasons for this other than I just think I self-projected my need to play board games with people in real life into a fic. And maybe a little bit of my competitiveness onto Alex and then threw in Willie because I think he would be able to handle it while also finding it endearing. I also have written nothing about the actual competitiveness, it’s just 2k words of Alex crushing on Willie.

“Wait,” his eyes dart between the three boys, “You both know Willie? How come I’ve never met him?”

His roommates look at each other, and there’s a smirk on Luke’s face when he says, “Actually Alex, I think you have. Remember that time you got really drunk after one of our shows?”

Oh no. He really hopes that it’s not the time he’s thinking of, so he tries to sound nonchalant. “You’re going to have to be more specific, Luke.”

“The night we played at that tiny bar at the edge of the campus! We got paid in those tiny colourful shots?” He doesn’t really know where Luke is going with this, so he’s slowly nodding along. “And you were super upset that the hot dog vendor at the end of the street was closed?”

//

Dear Julie, Love Mom series

I made myself sad with this thought when I first watched the show and was talking to my friend about how I think that Rose would’ve left messages for the Molina family, especially when we found out that Wake Up was actually from her mom. I wrote a bigger explanation for it here.

Anyways, I started with the one for Julie’s wedding and it kind of became an 8k monster with three different POVs?!? As much as I love how I wrote this, I feel too unsure about my writing to share it in full, so you will get carefully selected looks alkfe. (I’m also kind of stuck on some of the more emotional scenes and I may or may not have procrastinated by photoshopping a moodboard for it.)

Excerpt 1 (Julie POV): A look into where I’m going with this whole letters from Rose thing.

The key clicks into place, and with a turn, the latch falls open. She’s not sure what she wants to find in the box, and she’s too scared to think about it really. All she knows is that this was the sign from her mom that she was waiting for all week, and in true Rose fashion, her mom had managed to give it to her, even if at the last second. Her dad turns the box to face Julie, and gestures to her to open up the lid.

Tucked inside is a VHS tape, the words ‘For Julie, on your wedding day’ written in her mom’s cursive on the cover. Some loose glitter and confetti fall back into the box as she reaches in to pick up the tape and turn it over in her hands. There’s a little purple butterfly etched on the back, the same one that’s been drawn on all the other messages that her mom had left her. Her finger automatically finds its way, tracing the shape of the small doodle.

“Do you want me to leave you alone, mija?”

Excerpt 2 (Julie POV): This part has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot of the story, but it self-inserted itself into this fic after @tangledstarlight and I talked about You’re Still the One by Shania Twain being their first dance. This whole scene came to me at 4am one night and might be the most self-indulgent thing I’ve ever written.

They knew that when they had asked Reggie to be in charge of the first dance performance, that they (and Alex) weren’t allowed to veto any of his ideas. Luke had warned Julie that that would be a mistake, but the giddiness that radiated off of Reggie when she had told him he could have free reign was worth it. She just hadn’t thought that he would actually take it to heart and run with it.

Sure, they had chosen You’re Still the One by Shania Twain as their first dance song, and sure it was more or less a country song, but she didn’t really imagine that she’d be staring at her adoptive brother, Carlos and her Dad wearing cowboy hats and boots at her wedding. They had somehow managed to ditch their Flynn-approved suit jackets and were sporting a taupe-coloured suede-textured vest over their dress shirts. If she looked closely, she could see that they had somehow also found some gaudy looking bolo ties with a matching set of ornamental clasps to wear. When she envisioned her wedding, she really didn’t expect that her first (public) dance as a married couple would be a full-on Western themed occasion. The only exception was Alex, who had settled on his cajon in the back, still in his pink suit, eyes rolling when she met his gaze. But even she knew how there was no real annoyance in the blonde’s reaction or else he wouldn’t also be wearing one of the tacky ties around his neck as well.

“I’m gonna seriously kill him.” She hears Luke grumble under his breath, only low enough for her to hear. But she’s still too busy giggling to actually be mad, and she knows that Luke isn’t really going to kill Reggie. At least she doesn’t think so.

Excerpt 3 (Luke POV): Idk man. My mind went “What about Luke?” and I said “You’re right!! What about him?!?”

He doesn’t realize that he’s just been silently staring at the woman in front of him, until a gentle voice breaks him out of his thoughts. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Julie’s peering at him from under her eyelashes, a curious look on her face.

“You just-” he gives a little shake of his head, trying to come up with the right words. He wants to tell her she’s beautiful. Stunning. A wicked beauty. But she’s more than that - she’s almost angelic. “I can’t believe you’re my wife.”

“Luke, we’ve been legally married for like, a whole year.” Her lips are quirked up in a grin, amusement in her voice. “You’ve only just realized that now?”

“That’s different.”

“Yeah? Different how?”

This feels a little strange to post and a little like my inner self seeking validation but let’s not talk about that.

Kskssj anyways present me @ future me: finish one of these because writing has been really cathartic for you and you didn’t think it would bring you so much joy!!!

[littleblackdomicile]

  THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO MASTER FOR HOME ORGANIZATION AND WHY

Happy Motivational Monday!

Perhaps many some of you had a goal in January to get the paper clutter in your life under control.  Oh yes, I do remember that goal and even wrote it down.  Where is that list, that note, my motivational sticky note?

  via Writer Ellen Ryan Messy Desk Article

  Ok, the photo about may be extreme but it gives us all a visual of what can quickly happen to paper if we don’t have a plan that we will implement every year, every month, every week, every day.

Surely I am talking about someone else.  Your home, my home, is no where near this condition.  We know where all our papers are.  Right?  This person has a problem…not me!

via a bowl full of lemons

  Ah, this is you then?  Or you are somewhere in between?  I used to have files like these above.  Well, maybe not as beautifully color coordinated and perfectly symmetrical as these, but I thought they were organized.  I did develop habits to file religiously, making sure that no loose papers were lurking, and believed I would be able to provide past documentation on every subject at a moments notice.  Until one day when I was in one country and the document was in another.  System error!  We came home from that trip and I looked at the numerous files fast becoming “furniture” in our lives and decided there had to be a better way.

# 1 – SCANNING 

Most of us are familiar with the concept behind scanning.  A process that takes any document and turns it info a fileable image we can store in the digital world.  We have evolved from taking docs to a place like Kinkos to scan and send us, to scanners in printers (works only if you can get the printer to work and that is an entirely separate subject) and now scanners on that thing that is permanently attached to the end of our arm.  Our phones.  I wish I had talked to someone about this years ago because before the apps for scanning were available, I was taking a photo of the document on my phone then emailing it to myself, cropping and filing away in safe little files on our computer.  Now with the apps, the cropping is done automatically and it’s so easy to send the docs to whatever system you prefer for storage.  The files go wherever we go, as they are accessible on whatever device we want them on and are in the “cloud” for easy access if we don’t have the devices with us.  Right.  When was the last time you went somewhere without your phone?  This is the way we live and I intend to take full advantage of these wonder apps that make our life easier. We have not owned a file cabinet in probably 10 years. Here’s the app we use, but there are many out there to choose from.  The best one for you is the one you can’t wait to use everyday!

  Learn More About The Scannable App Here

All sounds good right?  Right.  But it will take years to go thru and scan all the papers you have nesting around you.  Perhaps.  We will talk about this next, but for now what if you started today?  Start with the next piece of paper that comes into your home that you need to keep.  Have the scanner and digital system of your choice ready and scan/file that first item.  Do it for everything from now on.  In a year you will look back and not see an entire year of paper to deal with.  

So yesterday you did not have a scanning system in place….but tomorrow you will!  It’s a personal goal and liberating to see it working.

    If you are not motivated to do this simply because you want to escape the paper jungle you have created, then read this article Top Reviews About Identity Theft and start your new habit today.

#2 – SHREDDING 

This one is a little harder to sink into our psyche.  The Yang of the Ying.  After that tangible paper has been scanned and stored let’s shred it.  What!?  Don’t we need to keep paper forever.  The accountants 7 year rule has nothing on us.  We have 30+ years of paper!  How many times have you dug thru all those years of moldy, smelly, brittle records?  How many times have you moved them from one room to another, the attic, the basement the next home?  Super important documents are usually in a bank safe deposit box.  Past tax info is most likely kept safely with your CPA or should be kept digitally.  If a seasoned thief broke in and took your tax return info, would you even know it?

Ok, no more doom and gloom, but these things have happened.  What if you simply do it so that you can free up space in your home and have peace of mind that you are developing a better, safer system?

Really good shredders are no longer expensive.  Unless you get over zealous and feed it too many pages at a time, or have marathon sessions without a little cool down break, a shredder can be gratifying!  I love to hear that grinding sound of the teeth protecting our identity while reducing a large amount of clutter in our home.

via be happy.me

  Our shredder is near my desk and the trash can.  I can sit at the desk for 5 minutes a day, open the mail, scan and store the document, rip labels off junk mail, and shred it all without leaving my seat except to place the recyclable pieces in the weekly bin. Even if I need to pay a bill or correspond to something, it is never more than a few minutes.  We used to have a nice flat basket that I would place everything in to be shredded and Mr. LBD would do a weekly shred in the garage.  So you see, this can be a family affair too.  Kids who are old enough to follow the safety instructions might love to have this simple task for a few bucks.  And what a life long example you are instilling.  As a last resort, play a game with yourself and pass on starting happy hour until the shredding is done for the day.  Oh heck, do it during happy hour!  It won’t take long to develop a habit you will be so proud of.

So now to address the past years of paper that you are saving.  Grab a bag, tote, box or something that you will consider your “To Review” container.  Fill it up and go thru this, deciding whether to shred, or to scan and then shred.   What’s that saying…the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

Here’s the shredder that works for us.

    7.3 x 12.8 x 15.9 in

  This Shredder Available At Amazon Here

One last bit of info as you ponder acquiring a new shredder.  Once you feed your valuable info into the jaws of life, it will come out in one of the three types of cuts below.  If you watch crime TV you are more savvy than I was and know that the FBI and CIA pay folks to reconstruct docs that are strip cut.  Can’t imagine what that person does for fun if this is his/her day job!  Anyway, the cross cut is fine for us and easier to pick up off the floor with one finger lick when I miss the garbage bag emptying the machine.  (Note:  Do not empty your shredder in a rush, directly into the trash can….our friendly garbage collectors do not think it’s funny when you create a confetti party for them.  Neighbors are not thrilled with this either.  Let’s not talk about why I am so knowledgeable about this.)

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Strip Cut

Cross Cut

Micro Cut

TWO OTHER PAPER CULPRITS

Magazines and Newspapers

Love the newsprint ink on your fingers and the feel of a glossy page as you savor your favorite beverage?  Great…keep your recycle box nearby and let them go when you are done with them.  Are you an article clipper or saver?  Try this app….it changed how we do periodicals and offers ways to save to our hearts content…digitally!

Texture Digital Magizines

Now to be perfectly honest about some “paper” that has eluded all my efforts to scan and store.  Family photos.  30+ years of ours, the ones I kept of my mothers and the ones that we are asked about by every client downsizing.

Previously, in an earnest attempt to scan all photos in our life that were before the digital ones, I took photos out of frames and albums and separated them by kid, family, friends, trips and so forth.  They have been in Ziploc bags in one drawer for 3 years.  The photo scanner I purchased for $200 does a great job but the process to do 20 photos takes about an hour.  It did not fit in our schedule and I failed.

This afternoon, before writing this post, I downloaded the app below to see how long it took to digitize 100 photos.  Using my smartphone and the app it took fifteen minutes to scan the photos.  I checked for accuracy as I went which added some time.  (This was not necessary.)  Then I spent 5 minutes to download to the computer, create a file and place into Mac Photos.  In this same time, I created a card using some of the photos to test that I had indeed scanned these old photos.  Now all the photos are snug as a bug in the cloud, on my Mac and in files on the hard drive back up that I use everyday.  Automatically with the app, the photos are cropped and enhanced for the best quality.  I am motivated to do more photos before the day is out.  I am also excited to create photo memory books for ourselves, friends and family from all these vintage photos!  This is a system I can do and I will be happy to pass on the paper copies to the kids as they come by.  Any photos they do not want …are going you know where….can you hear the shredder now?!

  Learn More About Photomyne Here

This is a long post because it is a topic that so many have asked for.  These are the systems I personally have used (and will use for photos now) and have made all the difference in the organization of our home, while reducing so much stress.  Perhaps some of them will work for you.

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What If The Only Paper In Your Home Was The Green Kind? THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO MASTER FOR HOME ORGANIZATION AND WHY