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Seminon

Chaos is my nature^^
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Here I am, noticing that I haven't drawn and uploaded any pictures for three years now...my last posts being story excerpts and a journal, both pretty outdated by now as well.

Does anyone even read these journals anymore? I admittedly can't say I do, ever since the changes in the layout of DA have made it one hell of an inconvenience - they don't appear on the profile page anymore, they don't appear on the same page with new deviations from artists/groups you're watching anymore and have to be clicked separately...I usually forget this category exists at all. Neither have I been following the influx of art, simply for the reason that a) I'm not dropping by very often these days, and b) whoever set up the new design fucked up royally, and everything is so painfully slow that I'd be dying of old age before I manage to browse through everything.

I stand by what I said before: This hasn't been feeling like DA anymore for a long time, and nobody is bothering to fix it. Everything has become rather unintuitive to work with, and most of my friends/internet buddies I used to talk to have moved on to better lands, or are in the process of doing so.

Now, despite that, I'm not going to delete my account. It's a piece of nostalgia to me, a good memory, and a record of my progress both in terms of skill and regarding my shyness to show my drawings to anyone at all. Encouragement and exchange through a great community gave me the push I needed.

It's a milestone, and it'll stay. I might clean it up a little though.

I might even still post once in a while, albeit for that I'd have to draw or write anything of importance again. Drawing again after all this time is one thing I want to do, definitely. However, I'm not going to post much stuff that reveals critical information about my original content, due to ongoing art/idea thefts I've been witnessing, and the site being flooded with bots anyway.

I'm going to finish and upload the last things I owe, as soon as I'm a position to do so (my equipment and current circumstances have made that a thing of impossibility so far...sigh, we'll get there).


To anyone who still reads this and gives a damn, yeah, this should about sum it up. I haven't abandoned DA, it's just become desolate to me and I have little hope at this point that it'll recover.


Have a good day, folks.

Seminon out.

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I don't know what's going on now, but we seem to have a pandemic here on DA too. Lots of bots have started liking my comments in the last two weeks, and it's all empty profiles that link all to the same fishy site, which I assume is a dating platform (which is ironic in itself). Why are they continuously running rampant? It seems like I'm not the only one having this problem too. To be honest, it irks me on a level beyond the fact that it's spam.
If I get  likes, comments, faves and such, I want them to be from a real person who appreciates something I said or made. If it's just a bot meant to lure me to some sort of fishy link, or whatever else, it's absolutely worthless and then I'd rather have none of the things mentioned above. Checking my notifications and  being all 'hey, someone likes my stuff', clicking the profile and then being disappointed because it's just another fucking bot. -.-'
It pisses me off. Like, can we stop that? No one is falling for that crap anyway.
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*Short rant*
Okay, I haven't shown up here for quite a while since nothing much is going on and it already felt to me like DA was slowly dying. I haven't drawn or uploaded drawings since what, October of 2018? That is a completely different story, but what I'm saying is that I'm not particularly motivated anymore either when I look at this new design (although I did want to at least occasionally draw again tbh). Can't find shit on there. It's cluttered, unorganized and just rubs me the wrong way. And most people I've talked to seem to agree on that. Can't believe they'll force this upon us instead of giving us the choice between the new and the old design like until now. It shouldn't be that goddamn hard to keep it around, or is it now?
Sigh, maybe it's really time to move on to another platform, although the choices of social media and other art sites aren't very inviting so far either. Sure, I'm going to keep my DA account simply for the sake of the old times and the people I've gotten to know here...but for everything else, I seriously have to do some thinking.
Alright, that's all the drama for now. Probably gonna post a real update...soon, I guess?
Have a nice day, folks.

Edit: :iconcatzk3: started a petition to keep the old DA design. Please join! www.change.org/p/deviantart-do…

Edit 2: The movement progresses. Info here!

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How's it going, folks? I know, same old story, sorry for my inactivity. I haven't really drawn anything since last October, and even currently, the stress as well as a lot of preparation to branch out into multiple new jobs are driving me a little too nuts to even consider it again.
But there's good news too, namely that I will likely soon offer new services, from reopening sketch commissions over writing commissions to individual one-on-one coaching for anything around your stories, to bring them to life. More to that when time is near, but I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me if you're interested, and in which of those specifically.
Now, enough with the rambling and on with today's special tips! =D

Tips to fuel your Creativity


I personally don't know any writer who hasn't been stuck at least once in their life, out of ideas or wanting to write a story in the first place, but the muse refuses to kiss. Well, I've got a couple things here that have always worked for me and many others, and those make sure to get your creativity flowing!

:bulletgreen: Your favorite songs.
Pick some of your favorite songs or just skip through your music at random and note down the songs, in order or not, that's up to you. Try to write down what the songs make you feel and imagine, and google the lyrics. Can you derive ideas and/or construct a premise from that?
In my experience, it's been one of those methods that spawned new ideas without me even trying, and entire character concepts have found their beginning in songs. Try it! Even if it doesn't work wonders for you, you've wasted no time because listening to music is awesome anyway^^

:bulletyellow: Tarot cards, or just plain old playing cards.
Hell yeah, I've somehow discovered this method for myself since I've found some cheesy old tarot cards between my stuff that someone gifted to me as a kid, and while I've never believed in them or used them as they were intended to, they made for fun little games. You can easily derive prompts from them by shuffling them and blindly drawing a number of cards and line them up in that order. Let yourself be inspired by the symbol language, the pictures, or just look up on the internet what these are supposed to mean. You'll have a beginning, middle and end in no time if you only draw as little as three cards.
Alternatively, you can do the same with playing cards. There is some sort of system as to how you can use them as tarot cards, with every symbol standing for an element and/or an aspect of the self, and each number for a milestone along the journey of life. Just look it up, it's easy to find.
Personally, I've taken to combining these methods and creating a schema that gave me some interesting input already.

:bulletorange: Dice, coins, etc.
Who didn't hear of tabletop-RPGs using dice and coins yet? With a system where each number stands for a specific type of genre, setting, quest, rewards, character types and whatever you like, or you just want a little luck factor involved, this is a nifty little trick. Sure, it might take some thinking to figure out what stands for what, so consider your options and note them down. If you want true randomness and even easier handling, visit random.org and play with the number generators. They are so useful!

:bulletred: Nostalgia.
Now we're getting adventurous. Go into the basement (or attic, wherever you keep those things which you didn't have the heart to throw away yet) and see what random things you find, or what childhood memories pop up when you find old stuff. Note it all down. Can you spin a story from them?
What old family heirlooms do you have, and what's the story behind them? What can your old relatives tell you from their youth? Can you use that?
If all of that is not an option, there are great generators out there that can just come up with a bunch of random stuff for you instead, but it will be less personal, and thus harbor less potential to create a little anecdote from it.

:bulletpurple: Crystals, minerals and jewelry.
If you happen to possess something like that, think about what they mean to you. Or look up their alleged meaning on the internet. There will be lots of esoteric sites that advertise their meaning. No need to take them literally, just as a reference for character traits, abilities or plot devices. If you don't have crystals or don't know their names, there are crystal/gem generators on the internet too. This also works with flowers, herbs, colors, shapes and whatnot.
Usually, I only use this method as an auxiliary one, additionally to the card method or the trick with the songs, for example. Mixing methods surely yield more original results.

:bulletblue: Stories that have already been written.
Books, random news articles, magazines, whatever is at hand can aid you in spinning something of your own. Pick a number of random pages and/or lines, note down the sentence your finger blindly points at, and try to create a premise or plot point from them. Look for news sites or watch it on TV. Reality is crazier than fiction, and you just can't make up stories like those life writes sometimes.

:bulletblack:Watch people.
No, I don't mean creeping on them...necessarily. XD
If you just sit somewhere in the street or a mall or another public place, enjoying a drink or snack, or pretend to read a book/be occupied with your phone or have your ear plugs in with the  music off - it doesn't matter as long as you can follow conversations, note down memorable features, speech patterns or habits people have, which greatly helps if you try to humanize and round your character, make them more realistic and relatable. It gets even funnier if said people think they're unobserved.

I hope at least one of those works for you, but don't hesitate to experiment and try out all of them. Writing is a journey on which you discover yourselves too, after all.
I wish you a nice day. Seminon out~ :meow:
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Preparations, Foundations of Worldbuilding, and the Premise.


I'm going to concentrate on those three points this time, which I already have mentioned in my last journal. They are the most important things to take care of before all the fun stuff can begin. Without them, it's pretty much impossible to have a good work process and get a solid story out of it.

1) Preparations

If you want to write a story, make a comic, create a game or whatever, you surely have a few ideas on your hands already. If you haven't done this in the first place, create a document for your idea dumps. List any cool ideas in there. The more well-structured it is, the better, since you are going to need it throughout the rest of your creation process (or your entire career as an author/creator). It will help to always have a good overview of your materials, to compare and cross out ideas, modify or list new ones. Chances are that this document or folder will get rather full in the course of your work, as inspiration for the project or new ones to come will pop up along the way. And nothing can kill off the workflow and creativity as much as having to dig for each piece of information, no matter how long. It's distracting as hell too. (you can bet I made my own experiences with chaos in my paperwork, when an idea came to mind and I had to search for the according stuff a while until I had it ready...which is why I'm taking to digitalizing all my stuff slowly but surely ^^;).
Long story short, keep your workplace and documents organized from early on for easy access.


2) Foundations of Worldbuilding

There is a ton of things to consider, especially when you're writing fiction, or anything really that doesn't play in our world, day and age. But I'll summarize the most important ones first. Whatever ideas you have in mind for your creation, you can start with those while using the following points as a reference, and fill in the rest as soon as possible.

:bulletred: Cosmic laws, aka the rules of the universe. What is possible, and what not? How does it work? And why?
This is especially important to the characters' abilities later on, for example, or the possibilities of science/gadgets, in order to remain consistent and keep up the willing suspense of disbelief/immersion of the audience. A good rule of thumb is to have as many rules as needed, but as few as possible, to make it easy to remember. As some of you might be able to guess, the audience knowing the rules is an important tool used in storytelling later, giving them an edge over the characters in the story so they can speculate and anticipate whatever they deem most likely to happen next - usually the best buildup for either a rewarding scene or a cool plot twist. But that's a point for much later :3

:bulletgreen: Setting. What kind of world does the story play in, and which conditions would one encounter there? What abilities are possible, what species live there, what cultures play a role? What are the most important events in history? How does technology work there? How does it look, sound like, feel like, smell or taste like? Questions over questions. Of course, that is another big can of worms I'll delve into later more in-depth, because I impossibly can cover all those points and list good resources/inspirations for it in one session.
A story is supposed to be an experience through all senses, and setting is what both influences the characters that live/were born into it, and the course of the story, since it also plays in it and forces the characters to interact with the environment. The richer and better thought out the setting is, the better/more believable/immersive the story will be.


3) The Premise.


:bulletblue: Premise line. This is the first step of constructing an actual plot. First try to come up with a premise line as original as possible, since it's a promise to the reader what will be offered in your work, preferably something that hasn't been done a million times.
The premise line itself is very simple, covering all the W-Questions: Who fights whom/overcomes which obstacles for what, and why? Where does it play? What is at stake? And so on. It helps to get a clear picture of what the plot is about, also for yourself. If you look close, it's the first hint at what network of characters you use (mainly the protagonists and antagonists though), what factors play a role in it, the motivations of the characters, the suspense elements used, as well as what makes the whole thing special. More on that in future posts.
As an exercise, try to come up with random premise lines as original as possible. You'll find it's not as easy as it sounds, but will surely help you get a good feeling what makes for a good story.
Here is a good resource to give you more details on the topic: www.writermag.com/improve-your…

:bulletpurple: The Synopsis. This is actually a sub-point of the Premise, but it's important enough to cover separately. Now, while a premise line is a good start, the synopsis is the skeleton that draws a closer picture of the story, how it develops and where it goes. It shouldn't encompass more than one or two pages in its initial form, and actually portray the ending. Knowing not only how the start of a story looks like, but also the ending, will keep you on track while you better know the directions in which to move the story while writing the middle. The start is the hook, a promise to the reader, and the ending is fulfillment, the answer to the questions.
A good number of professionals actually recommend writing the ending of a story first, or at least a first draft of it, because it'll make it easier to determine where to start, what questions to bring up and leave unanswered until then, what development the characters have to go through in order to arrive at the ending, and so on. It prevents you from getting stuck/write yourself into a corner.
Either way, the Synopsis may now become a WIP document for you to add details and scenes, which you can iterate through until you have your full story concept.


Alright, it's gotten pretty long again, making it less lkely that anyone will actually read until here. I'll cover details about the former points in future journals, as I said. If you have any questions or requests on which topics to address first, let me know in the comments. =D
Have a nice day, and Seminon out~ :meow:
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