#30k. do something fun you haven’t done in a while. I haven’t drawn in months - I think I’ll paint a cat tomorrow :3

[badolmen]

WARNING 18+

19

[shannonmora]

Back at it again with another diary post! I had to force myself to stop typing last night lol my brain is always poppin off.

Today I want to talk about the three short stories I’m working on that I will be writing for Camp NaNoWriMo next month. My current goal is 30K words since scripting a comic uses way less words than a novel. I hope this will force me to expand every idea as much as possible. I have a bad habit of getting stuck at a part and just writing down something vague. Even as I’m drafting Ghost Story there are parts I haven’t fleshed out. Again, it’s a bit of a procrastination tactic of mine to go back and try to fill in those gaps but for now I’ll let them be. Since it’s the first pass of the first draft find it important to just shit out as much as I can handle. Even if it’s a flimsy finish, at least I have the story figured out for the first part.

Okay, on to the first story. I’ve actually drawn the characters in a recent illustration. I’m still not 100% sure what to call it, but for now I call it “To Say ‘I Love You.’” It features a catboy and doggirl, a completely visual metaphor lol, kinda like how Loveless gives virgins cat ears. Instead of virginity it’s more of a personality signifier. I tried to draw this comic last year and I even got kinda far (I think the early pages are really good and I hope to still use them). I didn’t like how I was presenting the story after a while though, so I am trying to iron it out. 

I placed a lot of my feelings of love and relationships on to the Catboy. I once saw the question “Is it easier to love or be loved?” and I was caught of guard. I had only ever seen people talk about how self love is so hard for them, that they can hate themselves and love so much unconditionally. I didn’t even know how it could be possible to be the reverse, to take other people’s affections so easily but have trouble loving back. But now I know I fit into that category all to well. And it sounds cruel. But ultimately it’s just my personality. Finding someone you can confide in completely about your feelings can be very difficult. People don’t always expect someone being hesitant to love you back. I hope this story works without getting too long or boring, haha. It’s hard to show character’s personalities and relationship in just a few pages.

The next story is one slightly based off an ink drawing I did in 2019 of a cool satyr boy finding a black kitten in the rain. I love fantasy settings but I’m not very good at worldbuilding, haha. So I’m hoping setting short stories in this little universe will help me develop it. I’m a little hesitant to talk more about it because I don’t want to give away the theme and story, but it’s a story I hope will touch people! I think the romance part is rather straight forward, but it ties into a deeper idea of finding where you belong. I’ve yet to think of a good name for it, knowing me I’ll rip it from a song lyric.

The last story has roots in a much older project that I decided to scrape: Dreamscape. The original was supposed to be a fantasy epic of a girl who creates a fantasy world in order to escape her life. I didn’t really develop it very far and it’s just been at the back of my head for a long time. I figured I have too many fantasy epics I want to do so I took the basic idea and spun it into a shorter story. I love the idea of fantasy as escapism but also as a reflection of our problems. I’m rushing getting this story out since I have just had it sitting in the back of my head for about a year. Even as I type this I can feel the ideas coming!

I don’t when I’ll be able to actually DRAW these stories. I much prefer drawing on paper when it comes to inking, though I know my drafting skills aren’t the best. I really want to make the most of what I know and to use both digital and traditional techniques. My plan would be to make the drafts digitally then print them and ink traditionally. I also want to create 3d environments to help me with backgrounds, something that is a HUGE pain for me. 

April begins tomorrow, which means social media will be nothing but “friendly reminder to not post triggering content uwu” and literally nothing fun. I have work tomorrow so I’ll do my best to have my 1k out before work. I also REALLY need to finish outlining Dreamscape, seeing as it’s not even half done yet. Oh god...