FANART FROM CH. 28! @dontjinxit18 Has Done An Awesome Job With This Scene. Bill And Mabel’s Friendship

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 wait is over! The new chapter is out! Eat up! 🥰🥰

A sketch!! Bill as The Goblin King and Ford as Sarah!!

“We're choosing the path, between the stars. I'll leave my love between the stars”

@oimaryuwu has answered my pleas! Feast your eyes on Bill and Ford as Sarah and Jareth from the ballroom scene in Labyrinth!! 🥰🥰

Hello my dears! Another week, another chapter! This one with Stan and Ford hanging out! 💙💙

GUYS @orpheuswasmine is cooking with this one.

I absolutely love to see Bill crashing out so hard. I think this is a pretty great interpretation of the way things are going and are about to go, though I would want to give anything away 😉. Come check it out!

A HUMAN CONDITION FANART RAHHH

I FINALLY got my new iPad chat !! And just as I promise from my last artwork of Bill, I would make A Human Condition fanart !! And LORD the new chapter hit so HARDD !!! (Rip Bill, you would’ve loved Jinx) His crash-out was so AHH, I’m not ready to face more of his deteriorating mental state yet 😭😭

I hope I served the scene well !!! I added a couple of things that could be left up for interpretation !!! 🥹

Random tangent here, but I always imagine Bill looking like the most beautiful woman ever that you can never have or like a celebrity crashing out. Honestly, he’s lowkey serving here 🗿

@sapphosscribe hope you and your cat are doing okay !! Take care !!!

Fanart from ch. 29 incoming! @dontjinxit18 drew Bill getting a little too competitive over Candyland (Ford loves it though 😉)

Sapphosscribe’s ‘A Human Condition’ chapter 29

I struggled with this one, but I really wanted to push through and draw this scene. I seriously cannot wait for the next chapter, and am very excited for Summerween. @sapphosscribe

Hey everyone! Come look at Mabel and Bill in his silly wittle flower crown by the marvelous @knockknockwhosthereartistism.

Literally was just sitting here being bummed I haven’t been able to write the next chapter because the COVID is COVIDing 🤒 and this lovely little gem comes along!

Can’t wait to get back to writing once I rest up! 😁

From Chp.24

@sapphosscribe

I was so excited with the new chapter that I read it to fast, I'm going to re-read it later, I just want to say that the way you describe conflict emotions and thoughts hit me deep, I really like your writing. I'm not sure if I can make a deep analysis right now, but I wanted to say that I'm really enjoying your history.

And OMG in the final piano scene, I just saw the song and couldn't stop thinking, "Not you planning to play love dream to the ex dream demon lol"

Glad you were that excited to read it!!

Always love to get compliments on my writing style mostly because I’m still settling in and feeling out my “authorial voice” which is a tricky thing to develop. It’s nice to see so many people commenting they like how I describe things and write emotion. 🥰

Ford played the love dream and, really, wasn’t it all just a love dream for him until he woke up?

*Wide Awake by Katy Perry plays softly in the distance*

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

Ch. 28 FANART my dears! @orpheuswasmine has done some scenes that look stunning! Come check them out! 🥰🥰🥰

A HUMAN CONDITION RAAAAAAAHHHHH 🔥🔥🔥

Once again, click images for HIGHER QUALITY WOOHOO !!!

The newest chapter of A Human Condition DESTROYED ME 😭 they made Bill so happy and before hand, I was planning on making another grand poster drawing fanart for it again !!! But I had to draw these scenes AHHH

I can’t wait to get started on the next poster promo drawing. I thought that the long hair Bill's drawing took years, but I know this upcoming one is going to take a LONG time. Worth it though! I already came up with the title names for the duology (ITS A DUO ONE OH GOSH) nicely called “The Thriving Seeds of Bill” and “The Remnants of Billy”.

Guys I will go into crazy depths of explaining the war between Bill and Billy in the upcoming fanart, but I’ll be pretty short here me thinks. Throughout the story, Bill is shown hostility, but there’s glaring moments where he drops his anger and danger, a more softer and easygoing side. It’s in the scene in the silly straw, where it was very much written that his face had lit up. I’m basically saying, even though Billy is lowkey dead, he lives on in these moments of his safety with Mabel or when he’s brought back to the memories of his younger self. We’re watching a man slowly return to a more whimsical moment before watching it die all over again.

I could say more, but I’m already yapping enough is 🥹 Plus this means I need to draw two face models for A Human Condition Bill show casing the softer and lighten up Billy side and then the hostile and sharp Bill side. I will post those as it’s own separate thing 🫡 (also, dw, Everlasting Night upcoming chapter is almost done 🙏 STAY STRONG EVERYONE)

@sapphosscribe KEEP UP THE AMAZING WRITING WOOHOOO