The Chapter Update Is Coming Tonight Guys. It’s Just Taking A Little Longer Than Anticipated. 😮‍💨

Hello dear readers!

I’ve learned how to put images in fanfics so all the lovely fanarts being drawn for A Human Condition are now nestled in their respective chapters with credit to the artists! 🧑‍🎨☺️ Any new ones I receive for future chapters or past chapters I’ll also pop into the story!

An update is coming tomorrow dear readers! 🤩

We’re all overdue for an adventure and I’ve had a blast writing this one.

Get ready.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL. More fanart from Ch. 27 by @knockknockwhosthereartistism ahead of today’s chapter posting! Four different scenes all of which incredible! Absorb and enjoy will I finish editing. See you all soon 😉🥰

4 whole (late) pieces for Chp.27 of A Human Condition!!!

@sapphosscribe

MORE BILL ART from @raviolireptile Gaze upon his magnificence!! This looks so amazing!! 🤩🥰

Fanart for “A Human Condition” on Ao3! This fic is so good I highly recommend it

Plus an extra karaoke Bill

I love him. Anyway go read A Human Condition by SapphosScribe on Ao3 it’s incredible!!

@sapphosscribe

With tomorrow’s chapter update, we’ll have reached the point of the story that I feel like I can share A Human Condition’s theme song without any spoilers.

Listen. Enjoy. Anticipate.

24ish hours until update 😘

Hello my dears!

The holidays have got me rushing around so todays chapter of A Human Condition will either be out late in the day or tomorrow. It’s a long one 😉 be well!

Not a fanart from the story, but another lovely drawing of Bill a la A Human Condition by @dontjinxit18. I love some angst 😋

Is this still technically ‘A Human Condition’ by Sapphosscribe?

So I had a dream that Bill (Specifically ‘A Human Condition’) had to draw himself a a kid with both his parents. I don’t quite remember why, but he just had to. Wendy, Soos, and all the other characters that don’t know who he really is were there, so he had to draw him and his parents as humans. This is the picture that popped into my mind and I had to draw it the next morning. This has nothing to do with the actual plot so I have no clue if this still counts as fanart.

@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! 💖💖

The Penultimate chapter to Act 1 is here!

The Art of Capturing Light and Other Lost Things

I actually lied guys, this chapter was getting untenably long so I cleaved it into two parts with this being the first one. Keep a watch for the second half which will be posted tonight or first thing tomorrow

Some more FANART for you all as we’re coming off hiatus!! This one done by @orpheuswasmine So detailed and colorful! I’m in love with it and, somehow magically, it’s also a tiny bit of foreshadowing for what’s to come as hiatus winds down.

I’ll be seeing you all very soon… 😉

As always, click the image for better quality 😼

40 hours later and I finished making A Human Condition fanart again 😭 Honestly, the scene is a mix between when Bill finds himself in the secret space Ford had locked away in his mind and another chapter where he finds what Ford wrote about him !!! I even included some pieces of the text 🥹 I was not playing about the exagerated long hair, although the long hair here is what I visualize when he’s in the dreamscape and not what is actually described in the fic (you could say the whole design is actually 💀)

The whole thing is inspired by of course a scene from arcane that is once again Jinx 🙏 genuinely, I feel like Jinx and Bill are alike (they are my two favorite characters ever…) Also I wanted it to feel like a opening to a webtoon too 🥹 like O:TL

If this post gets FIVE likes, I’ll draw him with a reasonable long amount of hair in the iconic ‘I’m a little Different shirt’ I just love that fanfic sm tho, so I’ll prolly just do it anyways 💀 GO READ A HUMAN CONDITION GUYS PLEASE WE’RE ALMOST OUT OF HIATUS YEAHHH

@sapphosscribe