#maybe thats a poorly drawn comic for another day

[jade-len]

poorly drawn comic of an interaction i had yesterday (you'll have to click, tumblr nerfed the quality)

i talk about svsss with one of my older sisters when i can, so it's pretty known in my family that i read gay chinese books. no, they don't read. yes, they question my sexuality when they think i'm not listening.

[purpletyrant]

how long did it take you to plan out kittyquest and the earth c lore? it's a really well thought out great adventure and as an aspiring fanventure creator i am curious about how long it took to get everything figured out

you might be disappointed to learn that i rushed into KQ with nary an outline to be found

i had no intention of fleshing it out into comic form and was content with faux-panels until i decide to "unless...?" myself, as i always do time and time again. from there i decided to base it purely off of suggestions (lol) and, at the threat of there being no centralized plot, thought back on the cult of the witch, which i had introduced as a gag in the pilot light, pale rapture trilogy. from there i started to build up where the plot was going to go, and several months into the adventure i formally sat down and wrote a few pages outlining roughly where the rest of the comic was headed, later splitting into sections so i would always know what i would be addressing in a given update. i could hardly fathom going back to the days of NOT knowing what i was about to be sitting down to write/draw

this is not the first time ive mentioned this, but i accidentally emulated hussie in that ramona wasnt planned from the start, and i was actually kind of scared to introduce her. i simply repurposed an adult earth c fantroll id drawn a single time and decided, you know what, this might shake things up a bit. and im glad i did that. ive strayed from the outline a few times, adding things along the way. my great, GREAT, *GREAT* hope is that it does not all fall flat in the end. a lot of people still expect KQ to be a sburb adventure, which it is very explicitly tagged as not being. KQ at its heart is something self-contained (this might age poorly) and content to tell a small-scale, relatively low stakes story, and ive never pretended that its going to be some grand epic adventure like others out there. knowing the scope of your story is important because it helps maintain a consistent mood and generally keeps you grounded. i think its okay if you dont have an end in mind, but i would recommend thinking about how youre going to get there so that things dont feel rushed, like what happened with homestuck... which i think is an example of someone spending so much time thinking about the ending that it kind of ends up being coughed up in your lap

as for earth c lore, the text portion of the field guide took maybe a couple weeks to write, though i did add and edit some text pretty recently before its release. worldbuilding is singlehandedly the most rewarding and fun part of working on KQ, i love thinking about how mundane daily life works there which really lends itself to being able to freely write pages upon pages of expository text without too much writers block. i could talk about it for hours. if you have already found an idea that youre super excited about, just write and draw as much stuff for it as you can stand to. hell, just notebook doodles and jotting stuff down in the notes app will do. it will help you have something to go off of when you actually get cracking on writing your outlines

generally i dont think theres a wrong or right way to go about making an mspfa style adventure, i know a lot of the big ones have multiple writers and artists, but im just one random guy doing this shit in my office when i get home from work. think about how much time, both short- and long-term that youre willing to commit. is it just a fun thing you want to do when you have free time? thats great! are you committed to a long form story that might take you multiple years to complete? maybe write an outline or several, ask a friend if they can beta read or help you out a little. i didnt have a plan when i started, and i still sort of feel nagged by that as KQ begins to enter its twilight years, er, twilight updates. but one mans lack of planning is another mans freedom to write whatever the hell they want

i hope this was even halfway helpful, a lot of this was probably just rambling. good luck with your stories! :)