#i gotta try and draw some of my own blorbo pages too

[deadwooddross]

picking through my comms and i keep unintentionally grouping them up into similar flavors...first we had: mostly blue. Now we're onto: mostly noodles I think when I open again I may favor....hmmmmm.....more reddish fleshy tones...body horror-y types...and maybe some more "regular" flavored humanoids....as a treat, and also to switch it up

in case anyone has some blorbos in mind

[littlestartopaz]

To the anon, i hope you don't mind some advice from a small time fanfic author and aspiring original fic author.

It sounds like you're trying to find your "square one" where you can then start making your own stories and worlds and characters. And honestly? That's a skill you have to develop, just like your drawings. I don't know how long you've been drawing or how good you are, but writing is another creative "muscle" you just have to develop, and sometimes you just need to sit there and draw hands for a week. Writing is much the same.

It sounds like you're heavily involved in the art side of fandom, so lets use that! Stick your favorite characters into an au. Doesn't have to be complicated, but somewhere they wouldn't normally be, like a cafe or a movie theater. Then ask some basic questions:

Who (is in the scene?)

What (are they doing?)

When (are they meeting?)

Why (are they here/interacting?)

How (do they get along/start talking?)

You may have heard of the 4Ws (+1H), and you can apply those to your drawings, and then write a short blurb related to it. Like, Blorbo A (who) has the only available seating at a cafe (what) and Blorbo B asks to sit there (why/how). You don't need to answer all of them, but it's a start.

Fandom is a great way to practice writing because it removes the elements of creating your own characters and worlds. You just need to make a plot! Put those characters in situations! And don't worry about word count. It's kinda faded into obscurity, but a number of years ago it was a thing to write "drabbles," fics that are exactly 100 words long. So don't feel bad about a lack of words when you first start.

When it comes time to make your own characters, feel free to start with yourself. Just about everyone starts with a Mary Sue (an overpowered or improbably liked character that no bad things happen to ever) or self insert at some point in their life. They're usually looked down on in fandom spaces, but honestly try to ignore it, they're a great "square one" for character creation. So make yourself! Make your best friend, or make a best friend for your character insert! Now put them in a situation. Make more characters for the situation.

If you need help coming up with situations, you can easily google "writing prompts" or poke around at @writing-prompt-s for more generic prompts (my favorite) or I'm sure you could find an otp prompt blog. Poke around until you find a situation (prompt) to put some characters in (fandom or original) and try to imagine what they would do.

Remember you're just starting writing. Just like your art likely royally sucked when you started, your writing will too. Once you get used to writing bad, you can start working on improving it.

Mod's advice is solid, if you wanna write you gotta dedicate time to it, and sometimes that includes just imagining things and not actually putting words to a page (or doc). I hope this also gives you something to do in that time.

Feel free to ignore this if it’s too much

I struggle immensely creating character designs, stories, anything like that. Ideas simply won’t come to me.

I’ve asked so many their processes for creating worlds or characters, and really the thing I lack they all describe is just *having* ideas. I draw all the time, just nothing of my own characters or stories. I feel as if I don’t have that spark that so many others do, but I want to be able to so badly — I adore your work, and how you speak about art and the world in general. How you understand things really speaks to me. Is there anything I can do? To make ideas come? I don’t know if I know how , but I want to be able to view the world in a way that allows me to create

oof. hard ask to answer, not sure that I can! it doesn't feel fair to say that ideas 'just come to me', but that is more or less what happens! I have read and watched a lot of stories, and still do (though I read much more when I was small...) and I try to listen to the ideas that come to me- I find that if there's anything that I have practice at it's listening. You get a tickle of a thought, and you have to be patient and quiet to not frighten that inkling of idea away. They are elusive, most especially when you need an idea or even just want one. My best ideas have come to me unnounced, unasked for, and often in great tides, but often they come when I'm not using my brain too hard. Daydreaming, lying down, in the shower, 3am etc etc etc.

I'm sure people will find this peculiar but I find a key method to writing is to set aside TIME to just idle your brain and let it wander- an hour at least is best, and I appreciate that finding an hour to just lie and muddle your thoughts and Not Think is very very hard to find. However, if you are allowed to count this as work (as I do), it is much more productive to set that one hour aside than to work work work and wonder why you never have any ideas, because you are filling your brain up with so much noise you can't hear them, or it frightens them away! I can't guarantee that this will work, but it works for me. Be gentle with yourself, and let your brain have some space so that it can take a walk.