I Hope You’re All Ready For Tomorrow’s Update Of A Human Condition

We got some Billford and Fiddlestan parallels this morning everybody! @knockknockwhosthereartistism killed it with this piece! Come check it out 🥰

One last piece for Chp. 29! Ofc I had to draw some Fiddlestan in there

@sapphosscribe

Writing Advice For Fanfics or Novels

Hello, my dears! As requested by @ilay-snt I thought I’d share my writing process with you all! I’m going to split this post into two sections of general advice and then how I personally construct a story.

Disclaimer: I’m no professional by any means. I’m basing this solely off two creative writing classes I took in college and what I find to be personally helpful so if it doesn’t work for you, that’s totally fine! Everyone writes differently!

General Advice:

1. First and most importantly: You Have to Write for Yourself.

Write the story that you want to read. Not only will it keep you motivated to keep going but it frees you to try whatever you want without being worried how it will be received by others. As long as you’re happy with your work, that’s all that matters. Your audience will find you.

(Hello audience! *waves excitedly*)

2. Write Everday

This one might sound a little daunting, but it doesn’t need to be a lot or necessarily “everyday”. It’s just a way to consistently practice, to help you find your author voice, and create a habit.

Writing everyday could be a poem or a paragraph or a whole chapter! It’s whatever you choose to make it just as long as you get something down. It doesn’t necessarily even need to be good. You can always go back and edit, but if you only write when inspiration strikes, you might never sit down to do it in the first place. Practice finding your way through the words to get at what you want, rather than waiting for the words to come to you.

If you’re REALLY really stuck. Then might I suggest you-.

3. Get Feedback

As a chronic second-guesser, I can’t tell you how helpful it is to have someone read your story and help structure the plot. I’ve had a lot of instances where something I’d been struggling with for days was resolved by getting coffee with a friend and having them look at it with new eyes.

Get yourself a beta reader or just someone who has good taste whose opinion you trust to help you work out problems. Two heads are often better than one!

4. Analyze media you admire

A lot of people like to limit it to reading authors you love and looking at the way they create stories, which is very helpful, but don’t neglect other forms of storytelling like movies and TV shows or even videogames! Think about what you like from your favorite things and why you like them.

As an example, one of my favorite pieces of media is the Mass Effect Trilogy. Mostly because it subverts the narrative of the Lone Hero archetype present in other franchises like Halo and Assassins Creed. The protagonist Shepard relies on their teammates abilities and support throughout the game to complete missions and eventually save the universe. Similarly, I like stories where there’s a cast of interesting and diverse characters surrounding the main protagonist who are essential to the plot.

Go dig through your own favorites and figure out what kind of characters you like, tropes you enjoy, and overarching themes that speak to you. From these, you can draw inspiration for your own stories and figure out what you want to write.

4. Take Breaks and Be Present

Writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum! If you feel like your inspiration is running dry or you’re in the middle of a block, go out and do things you enjoy or, better yet, try new things!

Be fully present in the moment and look at the world around you as if for the first time, talk to people you run into, or draw from your friends/family for inspiration. There’s a whole world of possibility out there just waiting to be written down or reinterpreted. Don’t be afraid to take breaks and have fun! Writing should never become a chore!

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dig into my own personal process:

My Writing Process

1. Everything Begins with the Outline

When I have an idea for a story, I try to do a rough outline first of the big plot points: the beginning, the middle, and the end, then fill in as much as I can in between.

My chapter outlines are never very well defined up until I reach the point where I sit down to write. It’s only then I begin to flesh out what I want to do. I take everything from the previous chapter and what I know is coming up to shape what needs to happen in the moment. I work better with flexibility so I can wander off the path a little rather than rushing from point A to point B.

2. After the Outline, The Character Sheets

Character sheets are probably the most important part of my writing. I like to give my characters as much agency as possible and allow them to steer the story rather than the story steering them. Unfortunately, the only way to accomplish this is to know them inside and out.

Most of my character sheets start with the basics: what does this character want more than anything, what do they actually need, and what do they fear. From there, I can identify their goals for the story and for each chapter, their personality traits, their likes and dislikes, how they respond to conflict, etc.

When I’m writing, the character sheets are my own personal holy book. If I can’t make them move around the scene anymore, a quick look at that will normally get me back on track.

3. Structuring Each Chapter

Normally, I have a goal in mind (or several) I want to reach. Whether it’s progressing the plot or just one character’s arc, I allow those goals to drive the action, then set the characters loose like rats in a maze.

Often, I try to think “what can go wrong here?” and then how that character would react to the set backs or interact with each other based on that.

In a few cases, the characters just do what they want and then entirely new scenes develop I didn’t plot out beforehand from following after that instinct.

On the whole, I allow the characters A LOT of free will to shape the story while holding up the basic structure for them to work within and I’ve found it really makes the story come to life.

4. The Point of It All

Generally, everyone I’ve met who’s a writer has something to say and the story is the medium for that. The most important thing when I’m writing and I’m buried neck deep in the twists and turns of the plot is to not forget why exactly I’m writing it in the first place. So I have a little manifesto of sorts at the top of my outline, only a couple sentences at most, that strips the entire story down to the one central idea I’m trying to convey or an overarching theme.

For example, if I had to sum up the central idea of House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Great book by the way, can’t recommend it enough) it’s that true family accepts you for who you are and can come from unexpected places. Also, it’s essential to stand up to unjust systems in defense of others.

I try to find my own my own theme like this to keep in sight for my story. So I don’t veer too far from the purpose of it.

Anyway, that’s my advice for any other writers who are starting out, hope this was helpful in some way! All of you have a good day! 💖💖

AHHHH OH MY GOSH!! 😆💖💖 Guys, There’s fanart now! @ilay-snt has done an amazing job illustrating the prologue! Go check it out!

Chapter 1: Some sunny day…

Fanart for A Human Condition by @sapphosscribe

I’m in love with this story, so I was thinking, what if I did fanart for every chapter?

That’s the idea, let’s see if I can actually do it ahah… I’m going to die.

Anyway, read this fic, it’s really well written.

That Summerween comment fells like an omen...

(almost as much as that eventual smut tag, I'm worried)

The two are not related, but one of them is definitely an omen 😂😉

Live footage of me answering comments today:

I’m so behind 😅 but we’re almost all caught up! Thanks so much to everyone who comments! I love getting to read them 💕

Thank you, dear readers for your lovely words about my chapters! 🥰

The responses are on their way! There’s just a lot of comments and I am ✨ slow ✨ and ✨ sleepy ✨

(Jk, I love interacting with you guys 😉 But that’s a lot of words to be written at once)

New fanart guys!! @dontjinxit18 drew the spaghetti scene from ch. 28! These three are a mess. I love them so much!! Prepare for more fluff and also sole crushing angst in the future, byyeeeee!

Sapphosscribe’s ‘A Human Condition’ chapter 28

This is only one drawing of this chapter with many more to come. There were too many amazing scenes to pick just one. As always, @sapphosscribe, you are a god. This chapter held the verses that I will sing to the moon and back. Love it. Amazing.

MABEL AND BILL BONDING IN CH. 28!! @paperbugss has done a beautiful job with this these two and the sweater!! 💖💖

Best moment of ch 28

i love this fanfic so so much

@sapphosscribe

extra

Bill saw the tv glow everybody. Give it up for @orpheuswasmine who has done a fantastic job with this! I’m absolutely obssessed!!

Whispering softly “there’s still time” over and over to Bill in the hopes he gets the message 😉

“Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me.”

I COME WITH MORE A HUMAN CONDITION FANART (a background is here 😟 ive never drawn a background let alone rendered one) This piece is based on Chapter 25 !!! Actually fell in love with that chapter and while I was rendering the background after reading, I thought about making a duo drawing of Ford playing the piano, so it be a duology !!! If there’s a reference that mimics this I’d love to grab my hand on it !!! I love parallels 🙏 (this been edited bc the lighting was messed up and i forgot the other without the lighting 😿)

I hit Bill with the I Saw the TV Glow poster, because genuinely think that movie and the Last Unicorn would have torn him apart tbh 💀 I almost made the title a quote from either movie 😭

@sapphosscribe

FANART FOR A HUMAN CONDITION GUYS! It’s the mirror scene from the latest chapter! I’m truly blown away with what @dontjinxit18 has done here! It’s so detailed and emotional! Come check it out!

From Sapphosscribe’s ‘A Human Condition’ chapter 27

I just love the way that @sapphosscribe writes words. Reading a story and feeling a story are two completely different things, and I absolutely love that I can feel every word that she writes. When reading through this scene I could feel Bill’s anger radiating through the screen. I felt as though I didn’t master his expression enough in this drawing, and it needed something more to truly encompass Sapphosscribe’s words. And so as I was thinking of that I decided to actually put her words around the side. Fixed it.