#then i did this redesign just for science

[littleulvar]

old character’s redesign for funsies ✨

[goodfish-bowl]

Can Something Like This Really be Contained?

Ectoberhaunt 2023 Day 12: Obsession vs Repression

Danny and Vlad have very different coping mechanisms and it shows.

Ectoberhaunt 2023 Master Post

[maxwellatoms]

I decided that this week it's Ghastly Week on eBay, and I figured I'd share some stuff over here too!

Up top is (I think) my first drawing of Ghastly after the pilot. You can see some early Estroy sketches and my notes on who I was planning to hire for storyboards.

The rest of the sketches are from the model pack we did for the redesign. And at the bottom, there's the title card image from "The Pie Who Loved Me".

Since ECC was my Saturday Morning Action Cartoon Satire show, I knew I wanted an Evil-Lyn/Baroness type character in the crew. But it always bothered me that those women didn't really have anything going for their characterization. So I decided that Ghastly would basically be a good person. She was really just into science and didn't have any interest in taking over the world. She probably would have bailed on the whole operation long ago if she weren't not-so-secretly in love with her boss' mind.

No one said she had good taste.

She's got the rubber outfit, which was also inspired by G.I. Joe's Baroness. And probably all of the goth clubs I was going to. It seemed funny to me that anyone would choose to wear a rubber catsuit on a hot tropical island.

Since Grey DeLisle was already doing the voice for Mandy, I had some idea of how versatile she was. She'd done a Judy Garland impression for me at some point, and that was the starting point for Ghastly's voice.

I wrote Ghaslty's speech patterns and penchant for calling her boss "Chief" after The Beverly Hillbillies' Jane Hathaway.

[halfway-house-in-hell]

nifty redesign

(click for better quality)

thoughts under the cut

ok so!!

-my nifty backstory is a bit less fleshed out so stay with me here

-she was an aspiring science fiction writer born in japan late 1940's

-unfortunatly she never got to live out her dream as she was married off into a mafia family at 15

-this may have been the mafia family angel dust belonged to ☺️

-neither of them know this☺️☺️

-from then on she was whitewashed and essentially brainwashed into the perfect housewife

-if she disobeyed she got hit, so she did what she was told- until one day it got too much for her. she snapped, and murdered her husband in her sleep

-this got her sent into a mental asylum where she got diagnosed with hysteria and lobotomised

-she died soon after

-despite the murder reasonably being in self defence, murder is still classified as a Damning Sin in heaven's eyes and she got sent down to hell

-she is obsessed with neatness and incredibly hardworking. she will often work herself to the point of exhaustion, in which case alastor will step in and communicate her worries for her - she never complains, doing so makes her feel useless

-her obsessive tidying has led to finding loads of Banned Objects in guest's rooms

-she is the hotel's maid, chef, waitress, gardener, pest control, room attendant and accountant. they are severely understaffed

-alastor is her best and only friend. he is the only one that listens to her odd ramblings (speaking of odd ramblings, the stuff she says would be less "i like to kill bugs murder death X3" and more,, just odd facts and weird sayings and fucked up things that happened in her life but like,, sugarcoated. like shes trying to convince herself that they were good-kinda like kitty from ghosts abt her sister). she spies for him, it is pretty easy for her to go unnoticed due to her small stature. nothing goes unheard that alastor doesnt hear about

-her and alastor sometimes just go for walks together, with her perched on his arm like a falcon. i imagine a side plot of an episode being them taking one of their walks when they come across a sinner trying to move out of the pride ring, they try to help him hijinks ensue ect ect

-she isnt in it for the money, which is good bc shes not paid much

okii thats it :33

[yoursweetwife]

Synopsis: Ruan Mei decided to give you a birthday present, but she got distracted.

Warning: fluff, soft Ruan Mei, female reader,

Ruan Mei considers it pointless to celebrate any holidays, including birthdays. The time that people spend celebrating is more than enough to spend on research. Therefore, you do not need to remember dates either, instead you can fill your head with new facts and discoveries that you can learn during the day spent in the laboratory.

Several times, colleagues invited Ruan Mei to a party, but in total they received the same cold look and a dismissive response.

"I'm busy."

Everyone began to think that there was only room for science in her life. And this is partly true. Although Ruan Mei seemed to be an insensitive person who didn't care about interpersonal relationships, even she had a little secret.

Right now, she was sitting in her lab and analyzing the letter for errors. One of the hands caressed a gift box lying next to it. Deep down, Ruan Mei wished that the gift she had put her whole soul and time into would please you, you are the only person for whom the scientist has found time.

With exceptional pedantry, she wrapped the gift in only the best materials, smoothing out any creases. Even the color palette of the gift was redesigned and now it was similar to the palette of Ruan Mei herself (she really hoped that she had not crossed the line) in the hope that you would remember her every time you looked at a small thing.

Ruan Mei couldn't put into words her excitement, although she looked very calm from the outside.Very carefully, she wrapped the letter in an envelope. It may seem old-fashioned in the current realities, but Ruan Mei believed that it brings a certain romance to the relationship. There was something really sweet about it.

According to her calculations, the letter should arrive just in time for your birthday.

Finally, she decided to leave a kiss on the letter (you and Ruan Mei had such a tradition).

The loud sound made her turn around. The frightened eyes of the researcher met the cold blue eyes of the scientist. There was an envelope not far from her face, which she involuntarily clutched in her hands, which made the scene more awkward.

"Miss Ruan Mei, I don't seem to be at the right time..."

The researcher tried to break the suffocatingly awkward silence that filled the room. The woman cleared her throat and tossed the letter aside, remaining unperturbed.

"Not at all, what did you want?"

The researcher handed over some papers and quickly left, referring to some business. Ruan Mei didn't even look at the stack of paper and picked up the gift again.

This time she managed to leave a kiss on the letter. All she has to do is send it all to you.

Walking to the messenger department, she couldn't help but notice the looks of disbelief. People were whispering not only about the box with the letter in Ruan Mei's hands, but also about what they saw in her office. A small smile appeared on her beautiful face.

"How quickly gossip spreads. It's very interesting."

[bighairybuffmen69]

RS Went Out of Her Way to Give Hades an Oedipus Complex.

Something struck me as odd when I saw images of LO’s pilot.

This was Rhea’s original design; she had galaxy skin like Kronos.

When Lore Olympus became a WEBTOON original, her design changed, which I honestly consider a good thing. Rhea was always associated with nature as opposed to space. So, did RS give her a more rustic design? Did she get her signature turret crown, or maybe a lion motif?

Nope.

Rhea, (who is described as an EARTH titaness within Lore Olympus itself) was redesigned…to be a pink Persephone clone.

And this isn’t a case where you can argue “oh, well everyone is a Persephone clone cuz same face syndrome, it doesn’t mean anything in-universe!!,” because in the comic, Persephone was established to be a canonical Rhea lookalike when Helios mistook a description of Persephone for a description of Rhea.

They have fundamentally identical designs, and both RS and the narrative know it.

On top of this, Hades describes both Rhea & Persephone to be very kind (and otherwise just similar personality-wise). So, um…Hades basically married a fun-sized version of his long-lost mom.

Which makes this line all the more disturbing.

Hades is interested in Persephone being titan-sized, and I feel like it isn’t a stretch to say this is a sexual thing. The fandom treats it as a haha funny joke, like “aw Hades has a giantess fetish lol 🤪” but I feel like everyone’s ignoring the fact that giant Persephone would look exactly like a pale Rhea clone. It’s not rocket science; large Persephone is basically just Rhea.

And Hades wants to see this….for fetish reasons?

RS knows what she’s doing. She deliberately redesigned Rhea to be pink (when she is canonically an EARTH titaness, and would’ve benefited far more from being a shade of green or brown). She went out of her way to create both physical and personality parallels to Persephone and Rhea, even having a character confuse a description of Persephone for Rhea. She threw in implications that Hades has a giantess fetish, meaning he’d be sexually attracted to Persephone when she’d look exactly like his mom. She made all these story decisions…to give Hades an Oedipus complex. There’s no classy way to put it; RS made Hades fall in love with a clone of his dead fucking mom.

You can’t even argue “oh, well, it’s Greek mythology!” because, correct me if I’m wrong, but Hades wanting to fuck his mom was nowhere in the original myths. Plus, RS has taken measures to remove incest from her story. Persephone is not related to Rhea in Lore Olympus, there is no reason she should look this much like her. This serves no narrative purpose, RS did it for shits and giggles, and it only makes Hades look like 10x more of a creep.

I’ll end this post with a little spot-the-difference between Rhea & Perse. To make matters worse, this is arguably the most Rhea-like Persephone has looked…and it was in Hades’ dream. So, uh, do with that as you will.

[nekojetto]

Did I already say how much I love Barbie Thor from What if...? ? x,)

Just a big Himbo god, and I love the fact he's becoming friend with everyone EVEN Supreme Strange HAHA This friendship is so precious x,)

Oh AND if I don't have the "THEY'RE FRIENDS FROM WORK!!!" line at the Guardian of Multivers's reunion in the season 2 I'm going to be feral...

Once again I precise I adore the original design just imagine this redesign for a 2D production instead of a 3D one :) And I only realise now his Science tattoo is on the wrong arm... my bad! x,)

From this project btw

[votederpycausemufins]

Used Worm Man week as an excuse to finally finish these wips of a gem Zedaph and Worm Man redesign that have been sitting in my folder half finished (okay more than half finished) for months. (since mid to late august)

I made these two to be the same gem (ie, Zed is Worm Man, inverts gem to disguise, lie about gem type), but you can also just ignore Zed's weapon and treat them as two separate entities that happen to look similar since -gestures to pyropes hessonites and Garnet-

Version with notes featured below the cut

After designing my own Evil X and Xisuma gem designs, I decided I wanted to look at my zed/wm design again. I wasn't as happy with kinda just making another gem that didn't exist, so went looking for an existing gem that might fit better. And then I remembered the Morganite sketch.

Originally there was going to be a story about the ruby and pearl that make Rhodonite, and the morganite that owned them, but the story was cut. That being said, we did get sketches of her (i think there were like 2). Sketches aren't final of course, but it was the best I had. And I absolutely ran with the fact that she was designed in a kimono.

I started with Worm Man's design, running with the idea that 'wait, a kimono is japanese, the japanese version of a hero is a magical girl!!!' (yes i know that's not actually the case super sentai, kamen rider, etc) So bam! put him in a skirt! The weapon was also designed to be magical girl esque, which is why i say to give Zedaph another weapon if you want them to be different.

Also, if you want any lore, my one bit of potential lore is that since Zed is a morganite, which we know is an elite gem, it could be that he owned a certain trio consisting of a bismuth, carnelian and topaz. But he definitely treated them more as friends than underlings bc being elite is booooring. He wants to do stuff!

Oh and also if you go along with my interpretation of the diamond authority in gemcyt, because of him doing redstone and his whole s8 science thing, gem him really wished he were part of Blue's court.

[dreammeiser]

Hi! I love your work and I absolutely adore your DAWM designs!!! I hope this isn’t a rude question, but I saw you mention you previously were involved with the Jim Henson Company and was curious about your experience and what working there looked like for you? I hope this is not overly invasive of an ask, and I completely understand if you’re not willing to answer for whatever reason! :3 Thank you for your time ☆

Aw gosh! Thank you so much for the kind words! Not invasive or rude at all, I appreciate you asking-- I just usually keep most things to myself unless asked, haha!

Oh man, where do I start... Working there felt surreal! I got to see people I admired nearly my whole life around the office and TALK to them every day-- I don't want to drop names but a lot that are famous in the puppet community. And they were the nicest people at the office too, I still talk with them sometimes! They had a room that had some clay maquettes from previous projects that were gorgeous! We had a resident puppet chilling around the office from old pizza commercials named Bad Andy and sometimes we'd goof around with him! He was a little monkey guy! I was too shy to play with him a lot, which I shouldn't have been, because the others would just make him say bad words anyway, HA!

The guy, dying ^

One of the female Skeksis from the Dark Crystal movie was encased in glass near the kitchen so you had to pass by it every time you wanted coffee or a snackaroo... :'o) I was still very scared of Skeksis so I would walk very fast past her, hahaha! The Pinocchio puppet from The Adventures of Pinocchio movie was also chilling in the same room! There's puppets all over! When I was there, I was working on Sid the Science Kid! As an intern, I did not get a whoooole lot of responsibilities (as one can imagine, I was a very baby-level artist and I was 18/19), but I did get to contribute some art to a couple episodes, although... In the choices I would give them, they would always pick the paintings I was least proud of HAHAHA. When I have the time, I will try to revive my back-then work computer that still has some of my artwork so I can show you guys, I think it should be fine by now. :'o) But I do have a shirt from back then that I still wear all the time. If you remember Gerald from the show, he had this little dino shirt:

My shirt... and then the guy... Zooming at us, menacingly... My bird Kraken kinda chewed up the shirt around the shoulders, augh!

Also, they used some motion-capture animation for Sid! I remember the actors putting on these giant silly suits that had huge feet, huge heads, and huge hands that fit the proportions of the characters, with little ping pong ball-looking attachments to them. Those actors worked really hard to run around in those suits, it was impressive!

There was also!! A screen connected to a console and a controller that we would goof around on because you could control Sid's expressions with it, so we'd all have a turn on it sometimes to make the silliest faces with it and make each other laugh :oD

I remember back then my brain had a creative itch that Sid wasn't scratching enough (sorry if that sounds weird, I hope you know what I mean?), but talking with my dad about it, he recommended I make a story that I had wanted to work on at Henson's, so I took an existing character I had from high school (that's Earl!!) and started making a story with him about puppets, toys, and dolls that were all adventuring through a dream world and trying to overcome living nightmares. It has been dropped and picked back up and redesigned several times, but it eventually became Dream Along With Me. A lot of things I learned from Sid/Henson's actually helped inform how I redesigned the project too!

There's a lot more cool stuff I could talk about but I worry about being boring/rambling/accidentally writing a novel. I'll save it for later if asked again :'o) Thank you for asking!! It felt good to reminisce!

[sneedlier]

Wooo wordgirl oc redesign!!

He used to be a villain but I redesigned him so he's just an ex-scientist instead. Also he's Amazon Guy's younger brother and he used to be Steven's lab partner before he got turned into Two-Brains, that's when he quit. He's now the science teacher at Woodview elementary and basically tries to mind his own business half the time (more info on him in the pictures if u can read my handwriting LMFAO)

Also yes I ship him with Two-Brains what did u expect from me

I'll probably post more of him, like him in wordgirl scenes

An extra ref sheet that's slightly outdated

[merklins]

BEHOLD! THE CONSEQUENCES OF MY ACTIONS!

Various hlvrv characters as ponys (: A full list does indeed exist, BUT! These are the silly guys I've drawn for you today. Under the cut, as I! Have now gone into WAY more detail than I thought I would haha.

Player- A Pegasus, inspired by the European Turtle Dove and Komorner Tumbler Pigeon! (He is not pictured here BUT. I also have a Saxon Fairy Swallow assignment set aside for Power Trip) I'd probably give him more armor in the future for the HEV suit, BUT! Little leg guards is what he's got for now. And also a little band on one leg like you see on pigeons for tracking and scientific purposes. Because SCIENCE and BLACK MESA! And honestly I thought it'd just look cool for him to have the little lambda band on his leg after all's over with and he isn't carrying around an entire HEV suit anymore. The other front leg is where he would put anything else, like friendship bracelets or "hey hold onto this for a minute" or what have you.

Doc- A Pegasus, BUT BETTER! After an accident in the Green Department of the rainbow factory, he now glows... GREEN! Surprising! And also she has various bat pony traits Which she now uses her epic and cool inventions to help with. Like the robot arms! He's inspired by a Rufous hummingbird, mostly. Actual flight is finicky because of the hummingbird and bat pony wing combination, BUT! They can indeed hover and zip a little! As they deserve. (This drawing was done before I picked hummingbird specifcially, but now she's got much tinier wings like a hummingbird, that are feathery at the base but extend out into more bat-like wings!)

Loverboy- As Gordon B he would be an Earth Pony, BUT! There's this wonderful wonderful Generation 3 episode where- [I am sent to the abyss for referencing this single episode for the third time on blog] WHERE THE EARTH PONYS GET HUGE MAGIC GIANT BUTTERFLY WINGS THAT LOOK SO AWESOME AND COOL. Loverboy is that (:

(THE EPISODE IS CALLED TWO FOR THE SKY)

Sleepless- A Griffon! Violet-Backed Starling is the main inspiration, but I DID take a little bit from the White-Breasted Ground Dove as well. The other half that isn't a bird I used a Clouded Leopard because. cloud... fog... the purple stuff... it was a REACH, but it looks cool so I win either way. I didn't draw it in this one, but I imagine his regular sleeping mask is a little more like a cowl you'd see in Falconing. One of the masks that slide on and cover the entire upper face. Also I know Griffons are basically pony sized, but also I write the canon here and Sleepless gets to be taller than ponies by a large margin. Just for fun, a little treat for me.

Valentine- A Unicorn! But as opposed to other unicorns I have slotted in the hlvrv roster, they take a lot of inspiration from that classic unicorn look. You know the one, probably. A lot of MLP redesigns change the unicorns to look like it and its SO cool. But Spork and Valentine are the only ones I really did that with this time around, other then a couple guys who got the little unicorn beard. You also probably know the one. I think I stole their cutie mark from somewhere by mistake, so apologies for that, BUT!! In other news, Valentine and the Love Letters all very VERY specifically have the little heart-shaped hoof thing going on. For the Aesthetic, y'know?

CLOWN NEO FUNNY GUY CLOWN NEO!! Neo himself is an Earth Pony, BUT! In Nightmare Circus? He has all that cool dressage that carousel horses and circus ponies wear SUCH AS! One of those cool decorative head pieces that are meant to make them look like a unicorn. EXCEPT. Because this is a dream and you can do whatever you want, It ACTUALLY works as a functional magic horn and he can pull all KINDS of magic tricks and shenanigans with it!

AAAAAND PING FOR FRIEND WHO RAMBLED WITH ME FOR HOURS ON THE MATTER TO HELP ME ASSIGN THEM ALL! YES, ALL OF THEM! @bbeeohazardd

[sourcreammachine]

if i had a time machine, i’d go kidnap tens of thousands of the greatest engineers, geologists, hydrologists and geographers ever born or yet to be born, and we’d go save Doggerland

first we’d have to study it, get data. observe how every glacier falls back, where every drop of meltwater goes, where rivers move, which floodplains flood when, and which coasts erode how. we’d drop in every now again, get data, and then travel to a different time to get more. and we’d probably spend a few time loops doing it to make sure its good data. and then we’ll plan, and propose, and design, and redesign

then, we’d go start building. we’d head to just after the glacial maximum and start building hydrological projects to make sure the meltwater is flowing in a way beneficial to our plans, and as rivers form, they form in a way they can be manipulated. when the land is mostly exposed we’ll build polders and dams and inland seas, all to make sure the rising sea levels are resisted at the coasts

the biggest challenge will be the rhine-thames estuary. we’ll probably have to build a giant massive enormous fucking sea wall to keep allll the water out. it’ll have to be at least fifty metres high and considering it’ll have to last thousands of years without maintenance it’ll also have to be fucking thick and made of hard stuff. we’ll basically be dumping several mountains’ worth of material to hold back the freshwater and the sea. the north will also be difficult to deal with but with polder after seawall after polder after seawall we can do it

when we’re finished building, we’ll wait. we’ll check in and get data. we’ll see how we did. because it is going to fail in at least some regard and we need to learn. and so we’ll design and redesign and build and rebuild, and reset the timeline and build it all again. it has to be thousands of years’ worth of perfect

eventually we’ll call it a day, pack up our tools, and leave. we’ll allow the neanderthals and sapiens sapiens to walk across it again, instead of politely asking them to get away from our worksites. we’ll do our best to leave no advanced tech behind, and skedaddle

ideally, if we’ve done a good enough job and hidden it well enough, ancient peoples won’t notice there being anything amiss about the geology of that region, besides it just being low. but of course as science develops people will realise that it would be absolutely impossible for that much material to appear there and maybe conclude that they’re massive ancient hydroworks. but it doesn’t matter. even if it raises questions, even if it looks unnatural, even if it has unprecedented ripple effects forever and ever, we must do it. we must hold back the water and keep Doggerland dry

britain must never exist

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

*Shadow and bone season 2 spoiler warning!!!*

It’s time to talk about the costumes in season 2. I did not think that it was possible to top what the costume department pulled of in season one but damn if they didn’t outdo themselves!!!!

Miracles were performed.

First of all, the Kefta redesigns for the Darkling’s grisha were absolutely brilliant. The costumes featured mostly the same colour choices to represent each order, but in darker tones and with different styles of embroidery to their Little Palace counterparts. This is a physical representation of their allegiance to the Darkling, creating a clear divide between his grisha and those loyal to Alina, but I think it could possibly also represent the fact that their power has been warped by an amplifier from someone born of merzost, since it means they no longer fit in with the other grisha. This could possibly even be foreshadowing the way Nina feels that she can no longer fit in with other grisha after her power is changed by parem, since she believes her new abilities to be closer to merzost than the small science. The new costuming for the Darkling’s grisha also includes a tattoo on their hands, and although I don’t want to talk about it in too much detail here because I’m planning a post with specific focus on that tattoo, I did want to mention it as a very interesting aspect of their appearances that once again separates them from the other grisha. The Darkling’s own Kefta has also been redesigned, I don’t have anything to say about it that hasn’t already been talked about by Ben Barnes and Jessie Mei Li in interviews and the costume department tour video, but basically they said that the gold detailing represents the tether and the way the Darkling and Alina now share some of each other’s powers and I absolutely love that detail!

What’s interesting about Genya’s costume is that she never gets a redesigned Kefta when she’s still with the Darkling, but returns to the red and blue she wore at the end of season one. This represents her allegiance not fully lying with the Darkling, or by this point not at all, but it’s also the Kefta she was wearing when Alina felt she had betrayed her; creating a painful and permanent reminder to the audience of the way Genya has been manipulated and abused even through the control of her friends so that she had no-one left to trust, or who she believes will trust her. No-one except David, who also never wears a redesigned Kefta. One of my favourite things about Genya’s costuming, however, was that they put her in her civilian clothes when she was attacked by the Darkling and the nichevo’ya. This was incredibly powerful, because it highlighted her complete lack of power: in this scene she was not a soldier, she was not a member of the Second Army or any kind of rebellion, she was not even a Tailor. In this scene she was just a girl who had been hurt, manipulated, and abused, and who had run out of places to hide. For me, it made this moment even more painful and even more powerful because it was her renouncing what she said to Alina - “I am his soldier” - and forcing the audience to witness her pain as exactly what Alina replied: “We are his pawns. Nothing more”.

The only thing I would change about Genya’s costuming, is that I would have given her a veil after the attack. For me reading the book, Genya’s veil became a brilliantly important symbol as a physical manifestation of her psychological progress. When she eventually sheds the veil, it is because she feels that she is safe to do so and it’s Alina that helps her come to that conclusion. Both seasons have proven to us that the costume department are FANTASTIC at bringing symbols and little details to life, and I think they could have had an absolute field day with this.

The only other thing about costumes written in my notes is “whoever gave Jesper a skirt deserves a raise, but could they have given him a skirt that went with the rest of the suit a bit better?” but honestly I’m rewatching right now and the combo of that suit and that skirt is growing on me.

…Sorry for yet another massively long post. I’m very excited.

[wotcherangie]

Just wanna say the Tokyo mew mew and arcane cross over art is AMAZING! Like holy shit i did not know i needed this in my life but they are gorgeous!

Hey there dear anon... THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I am really so glad you like this AU of mine, as an artist i fell in love with the masterpiece that is Arcane so when I thought at something for a redesign (and after months and months of failed attempts)... this came to my mind and, ghawd, it suits TMM so well.

Science that meets magic, the corruption of science to empower human beings, the fight between the marginalized and the wealthy for a better world and to reclaim a land... not to mention the aesthetic.

So glad you enjoy it, so, in order to thank you and to keep this AU alive, here's some preview-study of Masaya's character, he is coming veeeeery soon

Him and his alter ego Deep Blue are the final pieces

[nanowrimo]

A Fond Farewell to NaNoWriMo Technical Director Dave Beck

We’ve got some truly bittersweet news: after almost 10 years as NaNoWriMo’s Technical Director, Dave Beck is moving on. Dave joined NaNoWriMo in 2014 and since then has overseen all things site and tech-related for NaNoWriMo and Young Writers Program. In addition to his considerable technical skills, Dave is a true Renaissance man with a remarkable range of skills, interests, and hobbies. Thanks to Dave and our other long-time Software Developer, Jezra Lickter, both our websites are currently in very stable places for this transition. 

Before we say goodbye, Dave shares some thoughts about his time at NaNo:

Q: What are some of your proudest achievements at NaNoWriMo?

I’d say it’s the redevelopment of the Young Writers Program website, which started in 2015. The first version of the website didn’t have many participants. I worked with Marya and Chris [Angotti] for the redesign. However, the biggest risk was creating a writing space for the kids. This feature did not exist before, so we built it from scratch. When we first launched it, 40% of the kids were writing on the site. The number is still going up. It’s 84% at the moment. I didn’t expect it to be this successful. Last time I looked, 20 billion words were written! The second achievement: we haven’t lost a single word ever since the writing space was created. It was very important to me that we did not lose any of the kids’ novels. 

In general, the YWP site was the most fun.

Q: What are some of your fondest NaNoWriMo memories?

The design is the best part. Not the coding itself, but deciding what things we should do and how to get there. When you figure out a design and then develop it, it’s very satisfying when it works well.

It’s also fun being able to creatively collaborate with people, especially with the YWP. I’ll miss Marya and Jezra a great deal, it was very productive.

Q: Tell us about one of your NaNoWriMo novels.

I’ve never won NaNoWriMo! Not even close to it. The closest I’ve gotten is 5k. It was a nonfiction book about ADHD. The funny thing is, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. But I didn’t want to write books! I just wanted to be F. Scott Fitzgerald and go to cocktail parties. I do NaNo every year though. It helps me understand the website and see if everything is working as it should be. So instead of writing, I see the problems and go and fix them.

Q: Fun fact about you that people might not know?

I’m a veteran career changer. I’m leaving programming and coding to become a winemaker. Before this, I was an attorney. I’m still a member of the California Bar actually. I was also a reporter for the LA Press, a fancy sous chef in Boston, and an exhibit designer at the San Francisco science museum.

If you can’t tell, I have ADHD. I liked this job the most since it’s so complicated being a full stack developer. It works well with ADHD because I’m constantly switching what I’m doing.

Q: Are coding and noveling at all the same?? Inquiring minds want to know.

A little bit? There is an element to understanding narrative within a code. You want to understand the order and how the code does certain things. It’s kind of like plotting a novel.

Designing code is also a creative process. But the coding itself shouldn’t be, which is the biggest difference. Coding is standardized so it won’t cause problems, especially when multiple people are working on the code.

With novel writing, you can do whatever you want. You can even break rules to prove a point. You don’t want to do that with coding or you break the whole thing!

Q: What will you miss/not miss the most at NaNo?

I’ll miss the creative relationships I had with Marya and Jezra. It’s interesting and fun work. NaNoWriMo also had a lot of creative lunches before COVID. Once, we all created our own cocktails!

I won’t miss how sometimes, it feels like I’m reinventing the same wheel over and over. For example, we’re trying to refine the system that makes challenges for existing novels. It’s still not completely working right in the way we want it to be, so we end up spending a lot of time on it. It’s like Sisyphus. You think you’ve finally completed something and then we’re back at the bottom of the hill.

Q: Any advice for a developer working at NaNoWriMo, or any aspiring tech developers?

Learn all seven parts of full stack developing as fast as possible. You will need it. Rely heavily on Jezra too. He knows a lot.

For aspiring tech developers, you should only spend 10% of your time actually coding. The other 90% of your time should be spent planning, scoping, and user testing. One of my issues is jumping into a code without a plan, which leads into problems I could have avoided. You should plan for things ahead of time. It’s like scoping your whole novel before writing words down. I’m a pantser coder which isn’t necessarily the best thing.

Q: Since you’re so fond of the YWP site, how about advice for any young writers?

Think for yourselves and write what you want to write. If it’s what you’re interested in, you’ll have fun.

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[redrumrose]

OC question for you! What inspired you to create your main guys? Did they have any previous incarnations before they became the characters you have today?

Aw heck yeah! The main crew is inspired by a bunch of different things and kind of fell into place gradually. Mainly, I've always been super interested in "The Atomic Age" and I love mad scientist characters ^^ Alot of them are inspired by things happening in the era as well! (the rise of a new science, hippies, glamour, cowboys, dangerous kids toys, etc. xDD)

Dmitri definitely had a few versions of himself at first xD Originally his story actually took place in the 80s (cause I was really inspired by Stranger Things and Alexei's character xDD). He was also a lot crueler and worked by himself (Sunny wasn't his assistant yet). In his original design he also wore a gas mask with his suit (I wanted it to be that you never saw his face until the very end of the story).

BUT all that changed for many different reasons. One was I had another mad scientist whose story took place in the 80s (Anton and Aubrey), and I didn't want 2 stories to take place in the same era, so I changed Dima's to the 60s (I was more interested in that time period anyway haha). Also at the time I first designed Dmitri, a few months later a popular cartoon pilot came out, and by complete coincidence, a character in there looked similar to him (gas mask with suit and everything). I had to redesign him, I was so pissed too haha xDD But with his design change, I also wanted his story and character to be more fun as well (and less serious), which I think suits him alot better. So thankfully it was all change for the better! ^o^

Sunny also changed a bit from his first version. When I first created him (years and years ago pffft) he was just an artsy beatnik.

He was still very kind and sweet, he also still had his strange hippie parents, but he wasn't a scientist. I'd found an old sketchbook full of old little one off comics I made of him and remembered I still loved his design, so I revamped him a bit and made him an entomologist.

Then somewhere along the line, I wanted Dmitri to have an assistant and figured why not him, and the rest is history haha.

Lastly Chayne was another character that had a big glow up xD

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but Chayne and Sunny were originally created together.

His name was Jaime at first and he was also a beatnik type character xDD But he was always Sunny's friend, a 'bad kid' pffft, a wise ass, and he always had a missing eye xD (I think I was inspired by the emo hairstyle, covering one eye, and thought it would be funny to have a twist to that with a character xDD) As I was developing Dmitri and Sunny's story I wanted ONE more mad scientist and figured bringing Sunny's best friend back. When changing him, I knew I wanted his science to compliment Sunny's a bit, and what better thing to go with bugs then plants. I didn't want a 'Seymour' or even 'Poison Ivy' type plant character though, so I went with a theme in plants we rarely ever see, cacti and desert plants. And with that came his western theme x3 I changed his name too to try and reference "Sonny and Cher" (so Sunny and Chayne) xD Jaime is his middle name now xDD

Oh my gosh I wrote an essay haha (sorry for that ^^;) I could go on all day about character creation and development.