since this question has been eating at you for some time, what would lead you to think of something like that?
Isaac.... now when was the last time we saw your mug around here? Anyway, to answer your question: I don't know.... maybe it's because, if you were to look back at certain posting dates, I'd make some post strictly concerning my doujinshi, or openly expressing my distaste in written works, or my bad personal experiences with fanfiction, and then nobody would post in the thread again for about a week. This would leave me thinking "What the ****!? Did I just scare everyone off?"
Another problem I see is that I'm just kinda sticking around being all talk. As of right now, I still haven't actually started work on any of my projects. Aside from a need to practice drawing, I want to plan out my storylines to be absolutely perfect before I put anything on paper (though even then, complications are still bound to arise, namely with panel placement and consistent chapter lengths). I turned to fanfiction in the first place because it was easy to do, it's easy to edit, a media with which I could hope to work several rough drafts of the storyline. However, as I found out, putting descriptions into words was a real turn-off for me, and reviews (especially quality ones) never came as easily as I'd hope, and ironically, I ended up with only two "rough drafts" which barely got into the story.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I'm not particularly good at story analysis. I mean, I can enjoy a story as I see it of course, but it's only after seeing a review or something composed by an outside party do I go "Oh, now I see.... that's pretty interesting" while feeling like a bit of an idiot for letting it fly completely over my head as it did. Regardless, I try as hard as I can to make my manga seem.... well, like a manga. Aside from taking advantage of my growing bilingual skills to actually try and make the
primary language that of manga's birthplace, I've always enjoyed Japanese media for being beautiful, powerful, dramatic, yet often-times light-hearted and involving charming characters (manga character designs in general are good, but I've especially got a serious weakness for moe ^^), with all of it, as I later learned, being meaningful in a lot of cases. That's what I want to create.
For years now, I've researched anime reviews, read people's comments, and more recently acquired a couple consultants I could IM now and again for advice. I've picking up bits and pieces of what exactly makes these sort of stories seem great which I couldn't initially notice (of course, I'm also using my own judgment amidst all that rather than blindly following what everyone else says), and I've been sticking around author advice threads for much the same reasons. Unfortunately, most the comments and advice given around here seem to concern grammar, which clearly doesn't help my cause much (likewise, this was a problem I had with what few reviews I had). Though, now and again, I'll see some good advice pop up that's more universal and dealing with storytelling in general.
Personally, I feel it shows that I've been gradually learning about good storytelling over time, for which I'm quite proud. This initially started off as just my brother's idea to make Pokemon seem more dark and edgy with an ongoing plot (this was back when the anime was still in Jouto), which I went along with because it just seemed cool. Over time, I saw flaws in said plot, gradually refined it, took the story as my own, and am now closer to what I want to make, even spawning other ideas for doujinshi in the process. This is evident between my two written versions alone, and the difference will be even bigger by the time the manga (hopefully final version) is eventually released. Though, with all that said, I'm still running into a few problems. I could probably speak up about it, as I'm not above asking for some hints around here, though I'd prefer to word it just right in order to avoid any possible spoilers. That's where things get a little tricky. XP
Most doujins art or even game are said to be visual fanfics of sorts I hear.
interesting that you mention games... amongst my multiple ideas for doujin projects, a game is one of them. On SPPF, I entered a contest and came up with a romance one-shot. It unfortunately didn't win (or even get top ****ing three -_-), but I held onto it as an idea I could make into a manga (a one-shot would be especially helpful in testing the waters and attracting attention before pulling off a long-running series). Problem is, I was kinda stuck on how to revise said story, which I feel kinda fell apart near the end. It was only a few months ago that I really started reworking the story after deciding: I'm gonna turn this romance into an H. ^^ As funny as it sounds, having the lead characters sleep together actually brought in some great potential for new central themes. Anyway, I might make it an H-manga, but I'm also considering, if I'm able to make some decent CG art and could recruit some simple programmers, a text adventure as a possibility (the idea of multiple paths and endings intrigues me ^^). Though, given the time and production that goes into a game (even if it's a simple text adventure which Japanese fans seem capable of churning out by the minute), that would defeat my original purpose of getting a one-shot out first. Fortunately, I have another idea for a one-shot, so all's well even if I do make this into an erogee.
That makes two of us. I always figured that you were just in-between fics or something, Yamato-san. xD Anyways, you still have experience from the world of fanfic writing and you usually bring up a good point or two in discussion, so I wouldn't really call you out of place. Besides, a lot of the stuff discussed concerns the franchise rather than the written format, so it's really equally relevant for fanfics and Doujishins. ^^
well, as I said earlier, the majority of the stuff I see here actually is writing-based (probably another reason I feel a bit out-of-place). Hell, I've looked at some of your guys' reviews and, aside from the occasional warning that a character could become a Mary Sue, I'm mostly seeing the usual grammar Nazi nitpicks. But thanks for saying I bring up good points. I don't know if you're mainly referring to what I said earlier about people attempting to "exchange" reviews, or the point I made about titles using "RE TAKE" as an example, but I am extremely well-versed in this franchise. For that matter, one interesting thing I'm aiming for in my doujinshi is a pretty strict loyalty to the source material, going so far as accurately representing base stats for each Pokemon (not using numbers, of course, but the whole basic idea that certain Pokemon are more hard-hitters, tanks, speed demons, etc., than others is there).
