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So, I've had a really hectic past two or three years where I've not really been able to get into the writing headspace and barely gotten any writing done. What I have been able to do though, is lots and lots of drawing! (I can draw no matter how hectic things are.) And playing around a lot with Opentoonz.

For the past three years I've been planning on throwing myself back into writing by taking part in the novel writing month that shall not be named, but the last two years, some big family emergency always turned up around the September/October/November period that left me needing to act as a carer for some family member or other, and I would always promise myself, I'd get some writing done when things calmed down.

... Well, things have finally calmed down! And so I decided to combine my love of writing with my love of drawing and animation to put together a youtube channel. Mostly I'm going to be focussing on things like book reviews and little animated shorts, but right now I have put together a daily vlog for October about how to go about preparing to write a novel.

Probably won't be very interesting for now, since I know that Preptober and NaNoWriMo have never really been big on CYS, but I figured I'd share anyway in the hopes that some people would squee over my chibi little animations while I unintentially promote a company who apparently support AI, scammers and pedophiles. ^_^

 

This is my first time hearing about any NaNoWriMo controversies. Yeah, those are some pretty bad ones.

Well, good luck with productivity and all that next month!

Thank you! No reason to let those pesky pedos stifle my creativity, right? ^_^

"I unintentially promote a company who apparently support AI, scammers and pedophiles."

I thought you were long done with CoG.

This is cool though, now you can get your channel mentioned in the CYS Media thread.

CoG had pedophiles? I must've missed the memo on that one.

And thank you! That's a nice idea. I should make some videos doing playthroughs of different CYS games. ^_^

At least one of their "authors" got busted for child porn or something. Another one beat his boyfriend/girlfriend. Etc. Honestly not too surprising some of them are going to be mega degenerates.

They've been having a few folks trying to use AI to write their games along with using AI art recently too. Along with the usual "I'm really writing! Give me 2000 dollars in the meantime!" scamming/E-begging.

Oh, okay. Any idea which author it was? (Its Gower isn't it? I always got pedo vibes from that guy!)

"I'm really writing! Give me 2000 dollars in the meantime!" Melting Penguins by any chance?

I looked back at the info I got and it was some guy called Nicky Dick which given the name should have been an obvious degenerate. It wasn't child porn though it was merely a leaked text chat grooming a minor!

There was a small list of stuff like Paul Wang getting arrested for domestic violence. Some dude named Zape getting killed in a Brazilian Flavella raid. I knew about Malin going to an insane asylum due to folks accusing him of being associated with Nazis. (Though that's pretty easy nowadays)

MeltdownPenguin is just the obvious culprit concerning the wanting money and not writing, but there's tons of authors that don't actually write and just beg/scam on Patreon. Though given that CoG doesn't pay them shit anyway, I suppose it's inevitable. As for Meltdown she's technically not even with Cog anymore due to their NFT shit. She's still e-begging and whining though.

She's cleared to return on December 1st, 2024.

I sincerely hope she does just for the lulz

Wow pretty cool stuff! I like the art style. Best of luck with Youtube!

Also not sure what you are using to record but might be good to check your settings to make sure you're recording in mono as opposed to stereo. For me, it sounded like you were only talking on the left side of my headphones - not sure if that was intentional or not!

Thank you! I really enjoy the crayon style because its so simplistic and quick to draw.

And thanks for bringing that up. I haven't been using headphones when I playback the videos, so I never noticed. I only use my phone to record, so I guess I must've been holding my phone to the left or right while recording. 

Thanks for subscribing BTW! (Either that or someone who just randomly has your same profile pic.) ^_^

It was me. Gotta support the CYStian Kingdom. 

I love this! Your cute little animations and all the funny quips are so charming! It's a shame NaNoWriMo isn't what it used to be. :(

Yeah, from what I heard it was all rainbows and sunshine while Chris Baty (the guy who actually invented NaNoWriMo) was in charge. After he stepped down, it all went to hell.

The next guy who took charge was a full on boss bro who constantly hounded all the members for donations. Especially the regional volunteers, which is like... These guys are working for you FOR FREE and you're asking them for money? Classy.

And the most resent person in charge seems like she's taken on NaNoWriMo as her own personal vanity project and has apparently said to other members of staff, "I feel like we should just get rid of the NaNoWriMo forums because I never use forums. I just go on writing retreats." ... So... Yeah... Let them eat cake. ^_^

I had to look up what even all the drama was about Namo-Ramo (That's how I've always spelled it.)

In case anyone is interested.

https://www.wired.com/story/nanowrimo-organizers-classist-and-ableist-to-condemn-ai/

Oh, that is just the tippy top of the iceberg. There's a massive google doc that goes into detail on all of the scandals starting way back in 2022. One of the videos in my vlog is entirely dedicated to going over all the NaNoWriMo controversies. That was probably the most fun video to make.

https://nanoscandal.com/

I had heard about the original AI statement, but was unaware of the degree of fallout.  Wow, what a dumpster fire that has become.

Thanks so much for the subscribe! ^_^

Just released my second video. Slightly more nervous about this one as this is the first time I actually start giving advice and looking back, I'm not sure if the advice I give is actually any good. (Its probably fine. I'm just over analyzing.)

 

NaNo sucks but these are really neat. Good luck with your writing, whatever month you try to buckle down in.

Thanks Miz! Since NaNo has been banished to the shadow realm, I say we combine two time honoured traditions and rename it NoNutWriMo. ^_^

finally a competition I can lose instantly instead of waiting months to lose

Pinned the thread.

And glad you clarified you actually don't like Humbert Humbert from Lolita. (He has a retarded name too)

Always find it hilarious when I see book/movie reviews of Lolita talking about how much the reader hated Lolita and felt so sorry for Humbert Humbert and I'm like... Really? ... That guy? I mean yeah, the book was amazing and Lolita was insufferable but... That guy? Really? O.O

And that you so much for pinning the thread. I feel so special! ^_^

The animations are really cute! And best of luck with your book, I hope it goes well.

Thank you! I'm a little over 54,000 words in already, so if I actually manage to reach my word count by the end of November, my first draft should be finished. ^_^

These videos are pretty high quality. I can definitely see the amount of time/effort put into them.

Good job.

Thank you! Going to have to get considerably stingier with the quality of the animations in the November videos though, or there's no way I'll be able to get them all done in time. 

You could do less videos, but keep the quality.

Nope. One video for every day until 30th November. The Preptober videos should all be good since I've had loads of time to work on them. The NaNo videos are more for accountability than anything. I want to give at least a word count update everyday. So, maybe use a still image for those ones.

Didn't bother sharing the last video since that was all about choosing a genre, which isn't really something I think anybody here has any trouble with, but the next few videos are all about character creation, which is much more fun!

 

I just like how you speak, it’s always slightly chipper and upbeat. It’s even funnier when you’re talking about something dark like the guy that almost killed his wife.

And then the little boy cried out in horror as he watched his father mercilessly beat his puppy to death... YEY! ^_^

Avery's voice has been described as "aggressively British"

Innit. ^_^

She very much has that Stereotypical middle class British accent. When you speak like that here there's a +1 chance that your parents probably went to university. 

Joke's on you! My parents were both uneducated bums. ^_^

You forgot to call him a wanker.

I thought that was obvious... He does know he's a wanker, right?

There's a moose loose aboot this hoose.

You got a haircut! I love it! <3

Most recent video just came out. Not one of my favourites. The advice is pretty basic and obvious... But it does contain one of my favourite pieces of advice that I do give in the series which is... If you start writing a story and you like one of your side characters more than your protagonist... Make your side character the protagonist! Tada! Your novel is now 100 times more fun to write. You're welcome. ^_^

 

There's been more than one occasion where I ended up liking a side character I was writing so I expanded their stage time a little more.

Conversely there's been a few side characters that I meant to write more on, and then I just didn't for whatever reason. (Usually due to the story idea going in a different direction)

Too many characters, not enough time.

An example of each were from Eternal. One was Decena who originally wasn't going to get as much attention as she did and was going to get killed off due to going mad and attacking you. That path never happens though since I changed things severely with her.

The opposite example was this elf character who I can't even remember what his name was at the moment. I was planning on him playing a larger role, but probably due to focusing more on Decena, I ended up eventually just shoving him in the background and he gets a passing mention much later getting killed in some battle lol.

So glad you expanded on Decena. She was one of my favourite characters! ... As for the elf character, I don't think I even remember there being a male elf character in Eternal so... Meh. :p

Flevas. And I will say he did have some great scenes. He rose through the ranks, freed his people, revenged himself on the humans, and ultimately got replaced by a female elf that the Eternal could bang on the side. 
 

Such is life. Also, Christ! Your voice is not what I was expecting. I've seen in posts before that you were British or something, but hearing your voice, I literally jumped out of my chair so fast my mom asked me what was wrong (she's deaf).

What were you expecting? Full on Essex chav accent or Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins accent? ^_^

Bullet Tooth Briar

Very educational. I shall incorporate this information into my lessons. ^_^

 

possibly the greatest video I've seen this month

I think its very important for men's health that they know how to differentiate what kind of balls they have. ^_^

Honestly? With how chipper you are, I was expecting a voice that didn't sound like I'm getting robbed for a pack of smokes in the back of an English pub

Don't forget the lighter! ^_^

Yay, another featured comment for my profile page!

That comeback was too good not to immortalize 

Innit, cuz. ^_^

Here's a video all about how your stories should ditch the honkys and be full of tits, faggots and trannies instead, because I'm super woke like that. ^_^

 

I'll be extra sure to watch this one.

I remember watching a YouTube video of a little girl who had a bookshelf, and her mom asked her to take all the books off the bookshelf which doesn't feature a female main character, and by the end of the video there was probably about 15% of the books still left on the shelf. Cool video! 

... In all fairness, where does the mom think all the books on her daughter's bookshelf came from? Maybe she should've bought her daughter more books with female protagonists. :p

Imagine having a kid that reads enough to have a whole shelf of physical books, and then trying to make her feel bad about them lol.

"Okay sweetie. Now find all the books with a non binary protagonist."

"Mummy, I'm sleepy and I just want to read Thomas the Tank Engine."

"Oh, Thomas huh? Another MALE protagonist!"

It is now my turn to say wow damn do you sound British

It's Bri'ish, Enter. Say it with me, B-R-I-'-I-S-H.

... Very good. Now we move on to the advanced class.

Bo''le o' wa'er. ^_^

Last time a Dutchman tried to speak British you got sayings like that's another cook.

Don't think I'll be ready for that advanced class just yet

Next lesson is 'Arry Po''er. ^_^

Ha''y ... now the monkey comes out of the sleeve!

What? No. We say the Rs. Who the fuck doesn't say the Rs?

Damn bette' luck next time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English

Okay, I'm super confused now. I keep listening to both of those "farmers" and I can hear the R in both of them so... Maybe I'm so Bri'ish that I don't even know what an R sounds like?

B'i'ish

Literally same, lol. To me the British version just sounds a bit more elongated when pronouncing the words. 

 I can tell some british accents/people don't pronounce the T in a lot of words but i couldn't hear it in that particular example. Well I've learnt something today because I say it like the non rhotic example. At least that particular word. 

Wha' exac'ly do your pe'ple have against the le''er t in the middle of a word?

Duh. We're Bri'ish. We harvest all the T for drinking. ^_^

Nice lol. Here in America, we just throw it into the nearest harbor

I know. That's why there's a shor'age.

“Chop off their dicks and slap a pair of boobs on them.”

Lol

Catalina, Semra, Tanya and Suzy. I’ve had 4 major female protagonists.

Semra is also black and bi.

I have achieved diversity mastery. I can now make all the rest of my protagonists straight white guys as usual. (Oh ok, I'll throw in a white woman every now and then too)

Does drow count as black? I never thought of that.

... But yes, your characters have always been pretty diverse in terms of gender, race and sexuality, so... Congratulations on being the wokest writer on CYS! ^_^

Even your female supporting characters contribute to the story meaningfully. When you look at characters like Alison, Tanya, Marina, and Eidolith, it's pretty apparent that anyone who accuses you of being biased never actually read your stories.

There's a huge difference between diversity and pandering.

But I like pandas!

New vid! Advice is very basic but I think it stands up. If anything, people should always keep a record of their character's basic appearance so that they don't have to constantly scroll through everything they've already written to remember what their character's eye colour was.

 

Probably my favourite one yet. Very informative, and gets straight to business. It really highlights how critical it is to flesh out our characters before we write anything down, especially side characters. Loved the dark secret one too, you can really add so much complexity to the plot with it. Not sure if youre a teacher of any kind, but you would make for a good one. 

Thank you so much! I think so too. I would be like Miss Trunchbull and throw little girls over the fence by their pigtails. It would be glorious. ^_^

miss trunchbull unironically terrified me as a little kid. Swear I had  a nightmare where she forced me to eat a massive chocolate cake made of her blood sweat and tears. So please, for the kids sake, no kiss trunchbull. 

No kiss Trunchbull? Dude, I said I wanted to be like her. I didn't say I wanted to kiss her. I mean I know my waifu list is pretty unconventional, but I think I'll swipe left on this one.

Usually I just make a “notes” page and divided up between the important people and places. 

With the people, I’ll just add a small note of who they are in relation to the story. Elaboration on them occurs based on how important they become in the story.

The main thing I focus on more is major events. Usually a small timeline of what’s supposed to happen in the story depending on the choices or if it’s going to happen regardless of the choice just in a different way, which also can alter the importance of a character's role/personality.

I have to have at least 3 notes pages. One for chracters, one for worldbuilding and one for plot points. ^_^

Yeah I'm usually using Word, so it's typically one document with multiple pages that I scroll through. Lol

Of course it also depends on how long the story is too. Longer stories tend to have more notes of course.

Day 8 is out! This video was particularly fun. I especially loved assigning all of my characters their Szondi personality types.

 

Your stories have been really helping me with Sherb's contest entry. I appreciate you!

Awh! Thank you! ^_^

I wonder what different site members MBTI types are. Last time i did it i got advocate, but before that id always get mediator. I think i just became a bit more 'pratical' as i've gotten older, which was enough to shift it. 

Well, Avery did leave a link to the personality tests in her video. So... I guess site members could find out 

I believe I am an Architect. ^_^

So have you been linking your videos to some Namoramo community or just here?

Mostly just here. I've posted on a couple of discord threads, but in general the NaNoWriMo community is pretty much non existent since the forums closed.

Surprised there isn't a reddit or discord specifically for it. There's usually one of those for everything.

There's a reddit. Should have posted something on there really. There's a few discords that I joined but only one I use regularly.

So this is the last video I made on character building. I wanted to include it as part of the last video, but the last video went on for way too long so I ended up having to split it into two parts.

 

Hey a Clockwork Orange reference in this one.

I eventually settled on "Hello my little droogies" as my go-to intro. ^_^

Your videos on character building have been fantastic! To explain, a lot of the reviews on my previous stories have centered around two common complaints. 
 

1)  Character development, which I'm trying to work on in my newest story with your videos (hence why I've been fleshing them out before I actually write my story)

2) Showing vs. Telling. Apparently a lot of stories (mine included) tend to explain to the reader what they're seeing and experiencing, rather than finding a way to "show them." Honestly, I find it confusing, and I think there might be a fine line between detailing something vs over explaining it? It'd be fantastic if you have the time and could find it in your Union Jack heart to make a video explaining the difference and giving us some good ideas. I've read the Price of Freedom, and it's breathtaking, but I struggle to apply it to my own writing, and I'm sure others out there do as well.

The price of freedom was one of the first none end master stories I read. Maybe my mind is hallucinating and playing tricks on me, but I remember reading it, and being absolutely devastated that it wasn't finished? And I came back like a year later, and it wasn't finished? But again, I MAY be hallucinating, but I swear that was the case, where she was promising a part two or something. 

It's finished. But there's a sequel that's supposed to come out. I think innocence lost is part of a series

"Supposed to come out" It's been five yearsss lol

Oh yeah, it will totally be coming out any day now... >.>

But yeah, I really do need to get back to work on Brothers in Arms. At first I completely threw myself into it, then I got really ill and took a step back from writing for awhile. I think, for a long time my brain assosiated writing with being ill, and I was afraid that if I started writing I'd get ill again. Doesn't make any sense but brains are weird like that. Then my confidence started to build and I got more in the mood for writing again, but a whole bunch of life drama kept happening one after another for about three years straight. I got quite a bit of drawing done in that time but very little writing. Now things seem to be calming down a bit. Knowing my life it's probably a "calm before the storm" situation and all hell in going to break loose in a month or two, but I am determined to get as much writing done as I possibly can while I actually have the opportunity. ^_^

Okay well,I hope so! 

I'll be completely honest, I'm not sure I ever caught on to the difference between showing vs telling. I mean I've heard the phrase "show don't tell" about a million times, but if you asked me to give you an example of showing instead of telling, I'd be at a loss. A lot of the stuff I write (when I'm not writing interactive fiction) is first person, which is literally just a character telling you everything that happened to them. To me, the only difference between showing and telling is that showing is just... Telling but with more emotion? I don't know. I should definitely research the term a bit more until I figure out what the actual difference is.

The whole show vs tell thing is sort of something everyone screams about a little too much anyway.

Honestly, dude, no rush on the story. I understand you have a bunch of projects, and you've been super busy in the past. I've been there. Fuck, when I was writing Terrorist, I was going through homelessness and a really bad relationship. Hence why it's a lot more violent: I just wrote down every depraved thought I had, Eric Harris style. 
 

As for showing vs. telling, it's still only one facet of a good story. I feel like as long as the plot and characters are good, the story will be fine. Branching also helps, I guess. But plenty of successful stories have limited branching.

Damn, that sucks. Really sorry you went through that.

The way I see it, telling is what you could expect to see in a textbook. It occurs when the writer appears to be giving you a summarised version of the plot rather than actually creating immersion through sensory details, pacing and description. This also includes using excessive adjectives. For instance, "it was a gloomy day and she was very upset" vs "grey clouds dotted the horizon, signalling the storm within her own mind".

Ohhh. So, just to see if I have this right...

 "The troops advanced upon the fort" is telling.

"The sounds of thunder echoed across the landscape... wait, no... that was the steady pounding of 50,000 pairs of boots marching  upon the fort, its stone spires reaching out to the sky like the hand of a drowning man." ... showing?

 

Telling:

My stepmother was angry at me. I needed to run away from home.

 

Showing:

"You fucking son of a whore, get your stupid ass down to the kitchen- now!" my stepmother yelled from downstairs. Metal pans clanged to the floor. My stepmother was probably searching again for her favorite cast iron skillet to use to chuck at my head. There was nothing I could do to placate her when she was in one of her moods.

Telling:

I stole a credit card from her purse.

 

Showing:

Sneaking into the master bedroom, I grabbed her purse and rifled through its contents. I needed something that could get me all the way to Kentucky. A plastic earring? No. Three nickels? No. A tampon. Hell no. A shiny piece of plastic? Wait, that's her credit card, expiring several months from now. Just what I was looking for! I dropped it into my pocket and closed the door on the bedroom and mess I made behind.

 

Telling:

Jennifer cooked breakfast for her son, Gene. She forgot to make bacon, his favorite breakfast food, however.

 

Showing:

She turned on the gas stove and left it on medium before drizzling some olive oil into the frying pan. Jennifer then cracked an egg on the counter and dropped its contents into the oil. The sizzle from the frying eggs could wake even the heaviest of sleepers. Sizzle ... the bacon! That was Gene's favorite breakfast food. How could she forget to make it? It was too late to use cooked bacon grease to fry the egg now.

 

Telling:

She greeted the man.

 

Showing:

"Hi."

This one's about choosing from different POVs. (Of course I made a point to mention Interactive Fiction when I talked about 2nd person POV.) ^_^

 

Amusingly I’v seen some fucktards have called various interactive fiction as “gaslighting the reader” because the story is telling “You” what you’re doing regardless of whether that’s what you’d actually do in “real life”

Of course even if this is remotely true, it just makes me enjoy writing IF even more since I like gas lighting people.

“So you genocided entire village.”
“No I didn’t.”
“Sure you did, trust me. Next you’re going to rape the princess.”
“I would never!”
“Yes you will. You’re doing it right now. Turn to the next page.”

Never mind the fact that like a bunch of cucks, they continue to play the IF instead of just walking away.

LMAO!

"Dude, stop raping the princess! That is seriously fucked up!"
"I'm not!"
"What does the game say?"
"... "Ouch," says the Princess. "That hurts. Stop raping me." "Never!" you yell as you carry on raping her. "I love rape! Rape is my favourite thing. Second only to pedophilia and beastiality." "Well, there's a puppy over there," the princess points out. "Wouldn't you rather rape that instead? That would count as both pedophilia AND beastiality." "Don't mind if I do," you reply as you drop the Princess in the mud and happily approach the puppy."
"DUDE! WTF is wrong with you?"
"I don't know! I can't stop!"

So, this video talks more about setting... I tried but its pretty easy to tell that I care a lot more about character creation than I do about worldbuilding. That's something I need to work on.

 

Worldbuilding is fundamental, NO COMMENDATION FOR YOU.

Ugh fine, but just this once.

Yey! ^_^

Pretty sure that's why I tend towards fantasy settings. It's just easy to hand wave various things in the world and you can fill in blanks later if need be.

One day I might try that Edutainment style story about Aztecs though if I get really motivated on the whole research thing. (Unless Will ends up beating me to it)

Just think of all the lovely human sacrifices! ^_^

Just going to say that you're not overly chirpy, give yourself some kind words!

I am... Just the right amount of chirpy? ^_^

As I hope Mizal will be happy to know, I did do a video on worldbuilding. ^_^

 

I haven't been doing any homework this whole time and will continue to not do so.

Bad EndMaster! Detention after class!

I love worldbuilding and it is probably my favorite thing to do when creating a new story.

Very good video.

Thank you! I try to keep the categories relatively vague when it comes to world building, because there are so many little random things that might apply heavily in one world and not apply at all in another. Especially when it comes to magic systems and complex shit like that.

Didn't bother posting yesterday's video since it was pretty useless, but today's is looking at my favorite story outlining process. Works pretty well for IF too. ^_^

 

First I'm hearing about all this pants stuff. Had to find the other video to figure out what the hell "pantsers" are. Really I think that video would have been fine to post, if only for the hilarious use of the word "pantser" multiple times.

Anyway, plantser leaning more towards the plotter side.

As for this video I'm usually outlining the events for the story and potential changes of those based on the choices made. Some endings are already planned even before the beginning is written.

The Jot, Bin, Pants method! First you jot down all of the ideas that you have for your story. Then you screw them up and throw them in the bin because they're all crap. Then you find some guy you have a grudge against and pants him. It'll make you feel so much better! ^_^

I guess you've got WAY more stuff to keep track of because your stories branch off into so many different directions. I can't imagine what the outline for Rogues looked like.

And here's an explaination of the Plot Roller Coaster outline for people who love pants. ^_^

 

Animating Frodo and Sam's little roller coaster ride was particularly fun. ^_^

There’s also the “Shaggy Dog” story that just leaves the roller coaster hanging high up with no climax and the riders have to climb down themselves complaining the entire time. (Or sit there and starve to death)

But yeah as more of a plotter I usually have complex roller coaster with multiple major struggles to get past before moving on to the next one (or final one).

This one's probably my least favourite plotting method, but it can work if you tweak it a lot. ^_^