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by joemackin

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I have been looking for the countdown to JoJo: Part 5 since Crunchyroll announced they will be airing it a while back, but don’t have it in their calendar yet, so I had to go to Anilist to get a countdown and then...WHO DID THIS? I can sorta understand the crossdressing thing because people misunderstand the concept of being fashionable and I think Part 5 is hands down the most bizarrely fashionable part.

I got a good laugh, though.  I mean, they do have a tea party and all...

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Athanatos, The Undying

Faceup created using dry pastels and a black watercolour pencil.

Head model: Enoch Resin colour: Syringa Origin: @doll-granado

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This is what my life is missing.

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#reference

Ways to un-stick a stuck story

Do an outline, whatever way works best. Get yourself out of the word soup and know where the story is headed.

Conflicts and obstacles. Hurt the protagonist, put things in their way, this keeps the story interesting. An easy journey makes the story boring and boring is hard to write.

Change the POV. Sometimes all it takes to untangle a knotted story is to look at it through different eyes, be it through the sidekick, the antagonist, a minor character, whatever.

Know the characters. You can’t write a story if the characters are strangers to you. Know their likes, dislikes, fears, and most importantly, their motivation. This makes the path clearer.

Fill in holes. Writing doesn’t have to be linear; you can always go back and fill in plotholes, and add content and context.

Have flashbacks, hallucinations, dream sequences or foreshadowing events. These stir the story up, deviations from the expected course add a feeling of urgency and uncertainty to the narrative.

Introduce a new mystery. If there’s something that just doesn’t add up, a big question mark, the story becomes more compelling. Beware: this can also cause you to sink further into the mire.

Take something from your protagonist. A weapon, asset, ally or loved one. Force him to operate without it, it can reinvigorate a stale story.

Twists and betrayal. Maybe someone isn’t who they say they are or the protagonist is betrayed by someone he thought he could trust. This can shake the story up and get it rolling again.

Secrets. If someone has a deep, dark secret that they’re forced to lie about, it’s a good way to stir up some fresh conflict. New lies to cover up the old ones, the secret being revealed, and all the resulting chaos.

Kill someone. Make a character death that is productive to the plot, but not “just because”. If done well, it affects all the characters, stirs up the story and gets it moving.

Ill-advised character actions. Tension is created when a character we love does something we hate. Identify the thing the readers don’t want to happen, then engineer it so it happens worse than they imagined.

Create cliff-hangers. Keep the readers’ attention by putting the characters into new problems and make them wait for you to write your way out of it. This challenge can really bring out your creativity.

Raise the stakes. Make the consequences of failure worse, make the journey harder. Suddenly the protagonist’s goal is more than he expected, or he has to make an important choice.

Make the hero active. You can’t always wait for external influences on the characters, sometimes you have to make the hero take actions himself. Not necessarily to be successful, but active and complicit in the narrative.

Different threat levels. Make the conflicts on a physical level (“I’m about to be killed by a demon”), an emotional level (“But that demon was my true love”) and a philosophical level (“If I’m forced to kill my true love before they kill me, how can love ever succeed in the face of evil?”).

Figure out an ending. If you know where the story is going to end, it helps get the ball rolling towards that end, even if it’s not the same ending that you actually end up writing.

What if? What if the hero kills the antagonist now, gets captured, or goes insane? When you write down different questions like these, the answer to how to continue the story will present itself.

Start fresh or skip ahead. Delete the last five thousand words and try again. It’s terrifying at first, but frees you up for a fresh start to find a proper path. Or you can skip the part that’s putting you on edge – forget about that fidgety crap, you can do it later – and write the next scene. Whatever was in-between will come with time.

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Say hello to Batya /＼ ^._.^ ／\!

Some of you may recognize my dyed Amanda Beauty, but her faceup and look changed because I messed up her old one and couldn’t redo it after multiple tries T_T so she got an image change!

I’ve had an… interesting history with bats. I’m not afraid of them, but they seem to looooove me. So I decided to make a BJD ode to the bats in my life. Her wings are retractable! You can’t tell the back but they’re human costume wings.

Thank you Zaffie for helping me pick a punnerific name!

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“kuda” horns with skulls and crystals. Mag on, mnf/MSD size (or really big YoSD!) 3D printed on a @mypeopoly Moai SLA printer then hand painted. These will be for sale @resinrosebjdexpo and are ooak due to hand painting.

#bjd #abjd #balljointeddoll #bjdsofinstagram #dollsofinstagram #dollstagram #bjdhobby #bjdhorn #bjdhorns #bjdprops #3dprinteddollprops #3dprintined #sla #syntheticephemera

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I’ve been transforming Arodael into my new character Daelaro (similar characters, different worlds and alignments, though). Her eyes are on their way from CandyKittenEmporium on Etsy. I have a shop in mind to commission for her hat, and her horns are on order from Luts.

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Sorry, bad lighting because I live in a cave, but I’ve had a really strange thing happen. These two dolls of mine are Arodael and Leadora. They are dear characters of mine in World of Warcraft, but Aro was kind of born to be an echo/opposite of Lea. Rewind to a month or two ago, I go back to the place I developed Lea’s pre-WoW role play story storyline, but to make myself not as obvious (there were some that did not like me, one being a mod), I named the character Daelaro. She’s got some similar features to Aro— black hair, grayish complexion, horns, tail... Last night Daelaro had a sort of awakening in our Friday night roleplay night. 20 minutes ago, I was napping and woke up to the sound of something falling on my desk, so naturally, I get that panicked sensation of “Ohshit a doll’s in trouble!” and go to see what it was. The doll I made of Arodael had lost a horn! The superglue gave out after so many years, I guess. I must confess that I’ve been looking at sculpts after so long a dolly drought for Daelaro. Well, I suppose I have my sign. It is the sunset for Aro and the rise of Daelaro.

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I dub thee, ✨💖 Perseid Maybelle Lulamoon 💖✨ (( Unoa Lusis, Crobidoll wig, Custom eyes and paint by me ))

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Here’s my Aileen Doll Pico Pla Violet doll with one of my most intensive pastel blush work I’ve done in my life. Usually I stick to a limited colour palette and focus on the face but I definitely didn’t want that for this doll.

I used reds, pinks, blues, purple, and white pastel for this and it was a big learning curve to learning how things react when blended together and what happens when you spray MSC onto it. It was also my first try making pastel work look opaque cuz usually when I blush I try to make it as subtle as possible.

But I’m really proud of the final result and how nicely it all ties together on the doll.

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My only Inktober things. I did a doodle of Thania and then one of 'Melli, my belf mage.

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Tiny girl for @atelier_enaibi #bjd #balljointdoll #balljointeddolls #enaibi #doll #dolls #abjd #custom

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Whew, friends! My first Volks order NOT involving BJD arrived today! This is Primula, the first of Volks's VLOCKer's Fiore line. VLOCKer's are basically like Lego and Gundam's lovechild. I love me some mechamusu, so I really wanted to check this out. Anyway, it will probably be a little while before I can build her, but I thought I'd toss up an opening with allll dem runners! I got the preorder bonus, which are additional clear I and J runners. One thing I'm digging already is the amount of face blanks she came with! She has four different expressions, and four blank plates on top of that to play with! (Please take note, Koto! Having them look to the side is not exactly a new expression!)

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SQUAD CUTE Dragged out the Picco neemo clothes I've been hoarding!

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I’m making an Innocentia Burger. You can bash the Hresvelgr legs on the Materia body, but need to trim the peg a little bit. The arms look nice too. Innocentia arms on the Hresvelgr body are tricky to look right since Hres’s pegs are skewed a little.

Pardon the dust and fuzz caught in the places I’ve masked on the Innocentia hip piece.

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I’ve been working on Innocentia! My neglected backlog is seeing some light. I added to her c-string since I like how anime Materia looks. Yay pantsu! I need to clean it up a little on the butt. I’m thinking of adding a black line (more like a v) between the red and white of the pantsu.

This is my first time doing rattlecans, so this has been interesting. I obviously need to work on my masking skills. I made a simple spray booth for outdoors use. Today was red Testor’s spray enamel, small detail lining, and topcoat. Nowhere close to done, but progress is progress! 😊