#pyromaniduck pilots project

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

this isn’t a full pppppost or anything but i finally sat down and got some work done on the first panel of Genre: Anime today and look, it’s shaping up to be like a solid 7/10. so i’ve decided to brag now. that’s it.

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

Friromanidays #8 - Oh Yeah, Retroactively, Friromanidays is a Thing that Exists

So. This isn’t a PPPPPost.

That’s a good thing, though. At least, I think so. I liked and am keeping the concept of a post related to my creative ambitions every week, but having that post always be a PPPPPost was pressuring me to constantly be working on nothing but the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project, as well as to be constantly finding ways to make PPPPPosts entertaining enough to justify them being weekly.

“Friromanidays” will be a much more informal thing. Every Friday at 3:00 EST, you can expect to see something from me. That’ll sometimes be a PPPPPost, if the progress I’ve made on the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project is worth sharing. Other times, it’ll be something like a musical composition or a Henry Genry update. In essence, I’m going to try and keep up my productivity when I can, but I’m gonna give it a little less structure and a little more freedom to create what’s hopefully going to be a win-win situation.

See you next week with something that probably also won’t be a PPPPPost!

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

PPPPPost #2 - Laying Down the ROAD

Well, bad news. I got absolutely nothing done this week. You know how I said there would be less distractions this week? I lied, and also forgot to sleep a couple times.

However, the bad news is also good news! I have a lot to talk about this week anyway because I have more concept-explanation stuff I didn’t talk about last week because I didn’t want that post to get too long. This way, the post can be entirely dedicated to that stuff instead of any progress I’ve made. Hooray!

So the general structure of the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project is that I will be making several pilots for various story ideas I’ve had, soliciting Audience Feedback, and factoring in my own opinions to decide which one I’d most like to ultimately continue.

I’d like to talk more about the Audience Feedback portion of the project, since I kept that kinda vague last week.

I will not be releasing the Pilots as I finish them. I will instead be releasing them all at once, both to avoid primacy-recency bias in those giving feedback and to curb my reliance on positive feedback for motivation. On the day the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project comes to an end, all pilots will be uploaded to whatever sites will be hosting them. Then, in the final PPPPPost, I will compile them in the following format:

Henry Genry and the Horrific Mistake Made By Henry Genry Genre: Adventure Medium: Trying to be Homestuck Length: 1 Chapter (305 words, 7 images)

(Henry Genry is not one of the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project pilots, incidentally. Although, if anyone wants to break the four-month-long voting stalemate that’s been preventing me from making more than one chapter, I could start working on it again as a low-effort side project.)

I don’t really have the skills or resources necessary to include decent-quality sound or motion in my storytelling, so the only mediums are likely to be Comics and Writing. I’ll also probably include a Google Forms link in the final PPPPPost where people can say which pilots they read, which ones they liked most, and maybe even some other stuff.

With that out of the way, let’s rewind. What goals will my efforts be towards at present?

Before I work on any other pilots, there are two specific story ideas I’d like to give my initial attention to. A comic I’ll be referring to as Genre: Anime and a work of prose fiction I’ll be referring to as Genre: Fantasy because at least one of them doesn’t have an actual title yet. Both of these are projects I started earlier in the year but later abandoned.

For Genre: Anime, I’ve scripted the first chapter and had drawn three character designs before the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project started (last week, I drew a fourth one). For Genre: Fantasy I wrote three and a half chapters before hitting a bit of, uh, Writer’s Block.

For the next [INDEFINITE AMOUNT OF WEEKS], I’ll be designing three more characters who’ll all be appearing in Chapter One of Genre: Anime, then drawing the first chapter for realsies. I’ll also be doing more thorough worldbuilding for Genre: Fantasy, then editing/rewriting the first three and a half chapters where necessary, and writing one and a half additional chapters on top of that.

And with that, I’ve relayed all the information I have to share about the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project. I’ll be checking back in next week, when hopefully I’ll have gotten back to making actual progress. Until then.

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

PPPPPost #6 - Hitting a SPEED BUMP

Within PPPPPost Title Canon, there’s a speed bump right before the highway, or perhaps even on the highway. Find out more by clicking the clicky thingy!

I should start by addressing the reason for the title: This week, I went in hoping to spend even more time on this than the last couple weeks, but things didn’t turn out that way. For certain days I was emotionally preoccupied and didn’t get anything done, and when I tried to push myself to work as much as possible on other days I only ended up doing SOME work instead.

I’m really still in the early stages of the larger scheme the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project is a part of, which is to say, my attempts to better live my life in the way I want to. As such, the ride is a little bumpy right now. For the first few weeks I wasn’t getting enough work done, but I’ve now realized that in recent weeks I may have been focusing too much on this project to the exclusion of other things. Progress on this specifically may slow down from here on out as I try to better balance it with other aspects of my life. We’ll have to see how things end up.

As for what progress I made this week? I got Project: Fantasy written well enough for my current standards up to midway through the pilot’s fifth and final chapter, and got started on sketching the first actual panel of Genre: Anime. Since those are the two things I did, I don’t have any significant visual progress to show, and am kinda stumped as to how to make this PPPPPost at all interesting. Which is why this one ended up mostly being about the current status of my life instead of my progress. I’m still trying to figure out how to keep these posts interesting, but I’ll get there. Probably.

Next week, although progress may be slower, I still definitely plan on finishing up Genre: Fantasy‘s pilot for good at the very least. Until then.

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

PPPPPost #5 - Heading Towards the HIGHWAY

I’m ready to enter Phase Two of Phase One of the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project. Find out more by clicking the clicky thingy!

Five protagonists with basic backstory outlines and multiple points of connection to the world they occupy. Five other protagonists and the villain they face, each with a visual design. Yup, that’s right, I’ve finished all preparatory work for my first two pilots, Genre: Fantasy and Genre: Anime!

For your viewing pleasure, the final Genre: Anime character design:

I’d show the Genre: Fantasy backstories too, but that would be weird, so...

Anyway, I now officially have nothing left to do for my first two pilots but chapter editing/writing and actually drawing the comic pages, respectively. I’m pretty happy with my current rate of progress and hope I can keep up a decent pace during the work that actually matters.

After these two pilots, there are three more story ideas I’m eager to include, another two that could use some serious fleshing out, and three on top of that which I’m a bit iffy about including for various reasons (but I might end up including at least one of them). Six to eight pilots by the end of a year of work would be ideal for me, and from where I am now, that seems downright plausible. I’ll just have to see where this project goes, though.

Over the next week I hope to do some rewriting and writing for Genre: Fantasy and/or begin drawing Genre: Anime for real. Until then.

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

PPPPPost #4 - Pouring in the FUEL

This week I seem to have finally gotten in the groove, so to speak. Find out more by clicking the clicky thingy!

I wrote out everything I know about the main characters of Genre: Fantasy to lay the groundwork for worldbuilding, and in the process I realized that while some characters were easy to attach to multiple aspects of the world, for some characters I had nothing whatsoever. I also realized that even though my concept kind of makes my characters some of the most important people in the world, I essentially don’t have backstories for any of them. I didn’t do much to fix that this week, but it’s definitely something I’m going to focus on in future weeks.

More notably, with all three of Genre: Anime’s male characters designed at this point, I’ve started on the girls.

I spent a long time trying to figure out how to draw braids, and even after drawing that braid, I still don’t know how to draw braids. Also I think I ended making her resemble an infant a bit too much, but that’s a problem for me to ignore indefinitely.

Now that the Anime Squad is getting filled out, its leader, Simon, who I designed first, is starting to seem a little bland in comparison to his companions. I think in the actual chapter I’m probably gonna give him a singular pointless sash to make him more interesting.

On the tentative agenda for next week: Doing some serious filling out of Genre: Fantasy’s protagonists’ lives, and designing the last of the characters appearing in Genre: Anime Chapter One.

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

PPPPPost #3 - Driving in the Wrong LANE

You know, whenever I make a statement about the future in a PPPPPost, it always seems to have a way of turning out to be incorrect. I said my work at this stage in the project would be focused entirely on Genre: Anime and Genre: Fantasy, and at the time I meant it.

However, there’s a certain third story idea I inexplicably haven’t been able to stop thinking about, and at one point this week I sat down and conceptualized a bunch of minor villains for it.

And that’s the only productive work I ended up doing this week.

It’s embarrassing that it keeps looking like I’m not that committed to this, but honestly, behind the scenes, self-motivation systems I’ve been implementing have been growing in effectiveness, even if that growth is taking a while to actually amount to genuine motivation and effort.

I’m not going to make any promises for next week, except that I’ll document my progress on Friday as always, even if it’s essentially nothing for the third week in a row. Until then.

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

PPPPPost #1 - Revving Up the ENGINE

So, last week I announced that I would be starting work on something called the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project, and posting weekly progress updates. However, I didn’t announce what that thing actually was. An egregious deliberate oversight on my part, truly.

So, what is it? What is the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project? Well, I’ll tell you what it is.

The explanation is all in the name, really. I (Pyromaniduck) have started a project (Project) where I will, with time, complete opening sections of multiple potential fictional works, designed to showcase a fairly accurate depiction of what the overall plot, tone, and structure of those works will be so as to gauge overall interest in said works. (Pilots)

Because of just how many story ideas I’ve come up with and done nothing with, I’ve decided that rather than just picking one and making it, I’m going to pick several and start them. From there, I will not only have a better grasp of my own opinion on which ones I’d be most interested in continuing, but will also be able to solicit feedback from my Audience on which ones they most want to see more of. Said Audience is incredibly likely to consist solely of my close friends, but you know what they say about making assumptions. “Dream big” is what they say about making assumptions.

As for the progress I’ve made this week, well, it wasn’t as much as I would’ve liked. All I managed to finish this week was the below character image.

However, seeing as how I’ve just started, I can hardly expect myself to already be at peak Pyromaniduck Pilots Project progress potential, and I also know for a fact that only some of this week’s distractions will still exist in the upcoming week.

Next week, in addition to once again posting my progress, I’ll be explaining some additional details regarding my Pyromaniduck Pilots Project plans. Until then.

[flaming-o-has-no-dough]

You know, I’m at a point in my life where I don’t really know what I’m doing. Like, with my life. At all.  And I’ve spent so much more time thinking about telling stories than I’ve spent actually putting the effort in and, you know, telling them. Like, for-real for-real telling them. To people. Through narrative mediums. Without abruptly giving up.

So I’m gonna go ahead and do my best to change that now.

Starting Monday, I’m going to be working on something I’ll be referring to as the “Pyromaniduck Pilots Project”. Every Friday I’ll post an update on my progress. A “Pyromaniduck Pilots Project” Progress Post, or PPPPPost, if you will. As for what the Pyromaniduck Pilots Project actually is... I’ll explain next Friday. If I feel like it.

So yeah, anyways, that’s what the dealio is. Until then.