#so I'm sure you can imagine how annoying the original draft was haha

[cerealforkart]

Closing Manga Thoughts

I just deleted a long vent post about every single one of my feelings about the end of the podcast and the manga being over. Except not really over because it looks like there's a lot more interest in a physical edition than I was expecting. Hopefully I'll see y'all in the preorders in a couple weeks once I figure out how expensive this will be to make and from there how much I want to charge.

Anyways. Please humour me for a quick moment while I make a big deal out of my thing because it might look like sixteen goofy little drawings in boxes every other week, but it's been a really big deal for me over the last year and a half. I've decided all I really want to say about the end of the manga is thank you for being a fandom I was comfortable sharing something like this with. When I first got into DnDads I had never shared fanart anywhere and I had been fallen off the creative train for a while. So thank you for being here, for engaging with the manga because without that engagement I wouldn't have bothered to see this through to the end. Thank you for allowing me to foster an interest in making comics.

I feel really peaceful now that it's over. It's hard to explain, but I was always very anxious about if people would still be interested in the next pages, if I was wasting my time, if I had phoned it in and should have tried harder. But now that it's over, now that it's complete, and I'm proud of every single page, even the ones I was kind of lazy with, I'm just very content and grateful that I was able to share this very special project, and I don't care so much about if they'll be looked back on fondly, or laughed at, or ignored anymore. It's done, and I'm happy.

Now that the manga is over, if you're ever wondering what I'm going to be doing next, I'll still be here. I have more DnDads ideas, some comics that will escape the four panel format I've been locked into for so long, and I draw One Piece stuff too sometimes, and that won't be going anywhere for a while still haha. I also have an original fantasy comic about a magic that kills you that just entered it's third chapter and you can check it out starting here on Tumblr, or on it's own website here. And if you ever want to request art from me or just support me financially, I have a ko-fi, I take requests for the low price of literally any money.

Once more, thank you. This project has been so special to me, and I'm so unspeakably grateful that it was this fandom I was able to share it with, I don't think it would have lasted, or even started anywhere else, for anything else.

#noodly #thank you everyone #this still turned out pretty long #so I'm sure you can imagine how annoying the original draft was haha #god I'm making such a big deal out of this as if I'm not going to be back here tomorrow lmao #just got lots of feelings tonight #this was a really special chapter of my life #but I'm kind of glad to see it go

[scribbleboxfox]

Definitely not the friend of the person who sent the artwork with the chair–

Can confirm, she's been rambling on and on about your fic for weeks. Months. I decided I had to read it for myself, since she spoke so highly of it, so I started today. Somewhere around the seventh chapter now. I'm always cracking up at the notes at the end. For the record, you nailed Caboose. I could hear his voice more clearly than anyone else's.

That aside, I did have a real question. Figured I'd ask since apparently you're a super easy to talk to/contact (if my excited friend's notes about sharing the artwork have been any indication). I do not know how tumblr works, though. Fingers crossed I figure it out quick.

The actual questions:

How did you come up with the idea for your story?

How did you make it work? As in, how did you make a plot, stick to it, and then keep going–

How are you able to impersonate fandom characters so accurately and not fear being incorrect??? (I struggle with this, hence my not having written fanfiction in, like, ever haha)

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

AHHHH YES HELLO HI I'M SO GLAD YOU STARTED READING AND I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!

I'm going to put my answers under a cut so it doesn't clog up people's dashboards. (Click on the "Keep Reading" link/button thing to see them!)

Gonna try to answer your first two questions together, since they pair up nicely.

Honestly, and this is going to sound silly, the idea for The Long Road Home sprung from a goofy one-liner that I thought up for Fox to say. More specifically; I'd come up with Fox as a way to give Locus a goofy sidekick that annoyed him but ultimately became his best friend. She was originally just a silly OC that I did some doodles of, and I wasn't planning on getting attached to her or Red vs. Blue. But then I imagined the stupidest, funniest one-liner I have ever come up with.

Unfortunately, said one-liner needed context. Over a million words of context, apparently LOL. So I started brainstorming, came up with a plot, and planned it out. It's hard to explain the exact technical work that went into building this thing, but I'll try;

Initially, I started by asking myself "where do I want these characters to end up, and how are they going to get there?" Then I determined the load-bearing plot points from there;

The characters meet Fox

She convinces them to work together with Locus

Locus earns some of Kimball's trust; enough for Kimball to let him help Fox on her crusade to find evidence against Hargrove that the UNSC will have to pay attention to

They go to Earth and Locus discovers the power of friendship

At the same time, Hargrove decides to continue his campaign to wipe out Chorus

[Insert other spoilery plot points here]

From there, I came up with a document that holds all the super important plot points and the order in which they happen, along with all the necessary sub-plots that help move the story along.

The way I format it is "Chapter Name: Plot point 1 - Plot point 2 - plot point 3" so I know what needs to happen in each chapter. I've included an image below that hopefully helps illustrate this a little better;

This was the first thing I did when planning my fic. It took me a while to finalize it; I didn't manage to get it close to the finalized version that exists now until around Chapter 14. Since then I've tidied it up even further as I've tightened up my overall story direction, and continue to do so every few chapters I write to make sure that everything that happens in future chapters makes sense with what's happened in previous ones.

TL;DR: this document exists for me to know where the fic is going and how to get there, and serves as a framework for the overall story as a whole.

The next step; which is more of a housekeeping thing on my part, is the chapter outlines. These basically serve as a rough draft and help me get all the "filler" down so I can use it to connect the stuff that happens in each chapter. To further explain; I outline the chapter scene-by-scene and include some of the more minute details that happen. I like to write these like they're a FandomWiki article about an episode of a TV show so I don't get too descriptive with them (they're rough drafts after all,) though I'll usually include pieces of dialogue that I think could actually work in the chapter, or serve as a means of getting an idea across.

Here's an image of what it looks like;

Since these are basically rough drafts, I like to use them to just throw down whatever ideas I can come up with, and then in the final draft (AKA the actual chapter) I iron out all the stuff that either won't work or isn't as good as it could be.

Both of these documents help me stay on track and keep me motivated. I find that the timeline document keeps me super excited about what's going to happen in future chapters, because I can just scroll down and see it. And the outline document allows me to throw out whatever ideas think will work on a chapter-by-chapter basis without my perfectionism kicking me in the head.

TL;DR #2: to actually answer your question about how I make it work; I found a technical method that works best for me (which I've outlined above.) Basically, I found a way to get down all the basic ideas for what I wanted to happen in my story. Then, before each chapter, I wrote outlines that define the exact execution of each idea that happens in that specific chapter. Utilizing both in tandem have helped keep me on track, and kept me motivated for what comes next in the story.

Hopefully that makes sense! :'D

As for how I handle character-voice... I've re-watched Red vs. Blue a few dozen times now, so I have some idea of the general cadence of the main characters (what they would say and how they would say it.) But honestly, the way I nail it down in my fic is I just...read their dialogue aloud. Or failing that, I'll read it in my head using the voice of the character I'm trying to emulate.

It usually takes me a few tries to be successful, and I'm honestly super happy that you think I nailed Caboose since I always struggle the most with him.

When all else fails though, I'll either re-watch the Chorus Trilogy or pull up the (incomplete) WikiQuote page for it. Since The Long Road Home takes place immediately after that part of the show, the dialogue from the Chorus Trilogy is the best reference for characterizing the main cast.

TL;DR #3: Research and references are your best friends when writing dialogue. I find that if I can't imagine a character saying a certain thing, then they either wouldn't say it the way I'm trying to write them saying it, or they wouldn't say it at all. Reading dialogue aloud can help A LOT with figuring out if something sounds right.

(But also don't worry about dialogue being perfect. In the more recent chapters, my characterization for some of the Reds and Blues has definitely slipped lol. I think, if you are going to try to write a fic at some point, the most important thing is that you love the characters and the media they came from, and that you're having fun overall!)

Thanks so much for all the questions! It always puts a huge smile on my face whenever anyone asks about my fic! :D

Have a great day! <3

#tlrh #ask #SORRY ITS SO LONG I TEND TO RAMBLE #also anyone and everyone can and SHOULD steal this writing process if they think it'll help them #though i cant say it'll work for everyone #i just have adhd and need STRUCTURE or else i'll keel over like a horse with a broken leg #ANYWAYS TY FOR THE ASK I OWE YOU MY LIFE