013 : Arrow

Welcome new and old!

Since the 3rd, we've...

• Focused our efforts on character design.

• Found a very good starting point for the writing of this whole thing.

What have we learned?

How will we move forward?

Let's see!

Forgetting

Ever get better at something after not doing it for a while?

If I don't draw for long enough, I forget the specifics of what I did to make a particular expression. Knowing this (and encountering this problem yet again), I tried to develop a simpler means of making faces.

And though it happened almost entirely by accident, I decided to develop that accident into a new baseline.

It'll be pretty difficult for me to forget how to draw these!

Maybe.

Starting

Very perennial. "Just write it down. See what happens."

A little too much time was spent obsessing over whether or not what I write would be good. Exhausted by all the thinking, I just started pushing some stream of consciousness prose onto the page. Sure enough, what I wrote down reminded me of an even older iteration of the story and since that one was also reasonably fleshed out, I grafted it into the beginning of the story.

Now I have a beginning that I can actually get behind that not only connects to a mental images of how I wanted the first couple of pages to go, but I'm also given a stronger direction on how to shape the following pages and pace the story accordingly.

Because I was totally about to cave in and draft up what is essentially an "encyclopedia of all 36 elementals," which is a pattern of writing I want to avoid doing again!

Now, what will replace this is something I'm still working out, but this highlights another pattern I wanted to talk about.

Given enough time and turmoil, you will grow intolerant with what you're battling against and decide to overcome it. Choice is almost always at the heart of it, too, and that's one of the many things The Meridian Holy will be about.

Choice.

And choosing all those better options toward your eventual triumph.

That's all I have for you today.

Next update on the 18th, barring emergencies.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Until then,

👋