creatuesfromthedeep

[creatuesfromthedeep]

A canonized look of one of my dragons (featuring my bfs dragon in the comic) hes my version of a shadow elemental god, kinda old though unfortunately I really need to update this Hes often called Bound or Vantos

[creatuesfromthedeep]

A llama? He’s SUPPOSED to be DEAD!

[creatuesfromthedeep]

once you realize there are just as many types of women as there are men (and that there are just as many dynamics between women as there are dynamics between men) it becomes ridiculously easy to center your stories on women

it's not just "toxic yuri" though that is step one. step two is "doomed by her own inaction" and step three is "unable to change even if it ruins her life in a gruesome yet beautiful way"

step four is "she is humanized by the narrative even when not performing femininity, and her rejection or embrace of traditional femininity is not romanticized by the narrative as the Correct Way To Woman"

[creatuesfromthedeep]

MidnightSoul -

[ Maybe I can propose this style for commissions ]

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Very important assessment BY FLIGHT I MEAN ELEMENT. ELEMENT SPECIFIC.

No it doesn’t matter how often or how much you’re allowed to curse. If you can say fuck it’s ‘yes’ if you can’t, ‘no’.

Also tag your flight <3

(Adding this since it may be important, if you want a link to the General Flight Rising discord, or details on how to join the Lightning discord, please message me!

Note that these servers are community run and not official)

[creatuesfromthedeep]

There's nothing more important than writing what you want to read. Don't worry about who will like your book. Don't worry about what market it can neatly fit into. Don't cut corners or blunt edges to satisfy an imaginary person who might dislike aspects of your art. It's yours. Treat it as a pure expression of your soul. Compromise is for cowards.

[creatuesfromthedeep]

I don't FR-post a lot here but I gotta say that I really love gaolers. Amazing dragon design.

[creatuesfromthedeep]

you know, the fact that complex intelligences keep spontaneously arising from concentrations of magic kind of implies that magic is a semi-anti-entropic force that by default tends towards spontaneous organization

[creatuesfromthedeep]

some of my flight rising dragons

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Most people will never care about my ocs the same way I care about them because theres no way for them to peer into my head and see how cool they all are. Which is a shame. However all that tells me is I need to put out every thought that I ever have about them on this blog or else I die. You WILL know my ocs. You WILL like them

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Here are some tips for making a character that is usable in a long-term narrative and/or roleplay, from someone who's been writing and roleplaying for over a decade

You shouldn't know everything about your character immediately. Those 50-question bios you see floating around? Disregard them for now. You don't need to know their favorite type of pie, or small details about their backstory. Free yourself from the assumption they need to be a fully articulated being before you write a single sentence of lore.

You'll need MOTIVE (what drives them?), FEAR (what are they scared of happening?), and ATTITUDE (are they calm? easily angered? hyper?); with these three things, you can easily create the illusion of depth.

Real depth comes later. Much later. 5000+ words of narrative storytelling later.

To break these three core elements down a bit:

Motive: Your character needs some kind of ambition or desire to guide them. Do they want to lead the clan someday? Do they want their cozy little farmstead to not get flattened by Luminax? Do they want to be a good father to their hatchlings? Do they want to escape their dark past?

Don't be afraid to pick a small motive at first, because motives will change and adapt to the circumstances of your plot. Luke Skywalker didn't start off his journey knowing he'd face Emperor Palpatine, and your character doesn't need to have the faintest idea of the places they'll go or the choices they'll be forced to make.

Fear: This is what you get when they can't achieve their motive, or essentially, the motive for the motive. Are they scared of not having control? Do large changes scare them? Are they worried about becoming their father? Are they terrified their dark past will catch up to them?

Thinking of fears is sometimes difficult, and sometimes too easy. I recommend starting off with one foundational BASE FEAR, aka the fear from which all other fears flow. A good tip is to ask "why is my character afraid of this?" and keep going until you hit a major part of their backstory. Ex:

I am scared of spiders (Why?) Because they have too many legs (Why is that scary?) Because it's gross (Why do gross things scare you?) Because it makes me feel unclean (Why does that scare you?) Because being dirty reminds me of the day my father died (Bingo!)

By digging back and finding that base fear, you've successfully a key component of your character and given yourself a useful tool to begin explaining your character's trauma. That's not to say that fears always tie back into extreme trauma, but it should be important to your character.

Attitude: This is how they react to social situations, or essentially, how their motive and fear translate into their personality. A character who wants to be in a leadership role and dislikes not being in control may have a big issue with authority, and authority-adjacent characters. If they're a farmer who wants to be left alone, they might be exasperated with all the hub-bub. A character who really wants to be a good father might have a fatherly aura even around other adults. A character on the run from something might be battle-hardened, or they might be neurotic and anxious! Potentially even both!

However, you need to remember, Attitude is not personality. Attitude is how a characters' motive, fear, and personality intersect with their ability to socialize. It informs their level of patience (and if that changes depending on the person!), their ability to joke and be silly, and what kinds of things will get on their nerves. Ex:

I am very short-tempered and impulsive. I am afraid of authority because my teacher used to hit me for using my left hand. I want nothing more than to be left alone. I'm not going to listen to anyone and I'm going to do the first thing that comes to mind, even if it's detrimental to myself or others. I will push people away and I will avoid emotional vulnerability.

Those five sentences already tells me how this character will interact with every other character. I can now slot that character into any scene I want to, and begin envisioning a larger character arc and character development.

Remember, not every character will get along, and no character is capable of charming every person on the planet. The most perfect, gentle, patient, leaderly, kind, hilarious character probably has one character with self-esteem issues who HATES their guts.

Quick checklist:

Name

Pronouns

1-3 distinct appearance traits (height, notable piece of clothing, and the color of hair/scales/fur/etc are the big 3)

2-4 personality traits (plenty of lists online, just grab a few one-word descriptors)

1 Motive

2-4 bullet points of backstory (Do not write a long backstory, and only do this AFTER you've done Motive; you are not writing a character for their backstory, you're writing them for their place in the present story)

1 (base) Fear

Attitude

Once you have all those things, you are fully capable of writing an interesting character within a long-term narrative or roleplay setting. Yes, that's it.

One thing to remember about narratives (and roleplays) is that the most interesting part should be DURING the narrative. Setting up a character who can have interesting reactions, has a solid basis for a variety of dynamics with other characters, and has some set desire has the highest likelihood of facilitating an interesting narrative.

The fun thing? Now that you've got all this set up, you can set your character loose on whatever world you've got, and expect that they'll get into trouble on their own without the narrative needing to drag them into it.

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Can't be sincerely dark without being called edgy, can't be sincerely emotional without being called melodramatic, can't be sincerely silly without being called stupid. They're gonna hate every emotion you put in your art no matter what so make it anyway and be as sincere as you can be

[creatuesfromthedeep]

too much monogamy in fandom in general

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Still alive, still thinkin' about dragons

[creatuesfromthedeep]

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Two rules for creating anything.

1) Make it weird.

2) Make it with love.

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Full colour commission for @mushroombutton!