On fan works and creativity
They say that creativity is about finding new ways to combine things. This, of course, implies that in some sense you're never creating completely new things, just making new things out of existing pieces.
Which of course brings us quickly to the title topic of this post. I consider myself very creative, but I sometimes struggle to come up with meaty characters and setting for the story I want to tell. On the other hand, when (for example and especially) good characters are already there, I may start to work on a story for them without even intending it.
It's happening again now.
Last time I was inspired by someone else's material like this, I synthesised a conclusion out of dozens of mixed plotlines and came second in a writing contest. And I was inspired on purpose, as it were, for the contest. The original was mainly inspiring in its potential to be made less flawed.
This time... well... I played a computer game, loved it, and started spontaneously writing a fan webcomic script based on it. I mean, writing in my mind. I just kept thinking about what could happen, and being a writer and wannabe comic creator, I formatted my imaginings as webcomic strips. Finally, I gave up and started planning it on purpose.
I realised that if I were to actually create and even publish this thing, I would get to spend a lot of time doing something that I'd love and would learn a lot, and maybe build the basis for something similar entirely my own that could even be a money-making part of my (still largely hypothetical) career of doing things I love. As just one example, I can't actually draw well enough, and don't know the right style well enough, to draw this thing - but I'm close enough that I can learn it by jumping in.
I'm incredibly inspired by this. Obviously, it will likely take a long time before I put any of it on the internet. I could see myself drawing the thing a long way and then going back to the beginning to redo the art based on what I've learnt.
Of course, maybe I won't ever get it done. It will be a long way to go. But I really do hope. Even announcing that I'm doing such a project is something I wouldn't have done in the past.
In the meantime, here's some of the art I've made for this project:
Yes, I've got as far as practising how to draw things like anime style eyes based on a simplified version of the original's style. This is going to take a while.
One downside here is that the story I'm writing totally assumes the reader to have played the original. I mean, you probably could read it by itself and gradually infer most of the backstory and spoil the game's ingenious plot for yourself by doing so... Anyway, on the other side, people who did play the game make up a ready potential audience for me. (I also love just the thought that people would read and like what I create. I only want to make money out of doing what I do - which obviously can't be done with fan works anyway - because it's required for living.)
I won't tell you what the original work was yet. Somebody who knows me might be able to guess. I can tell the strong working title of my own hypothetical comic, though:
"Less Bittersweet"
Which of course brings us quickly to the title topic of this post. I consider myself very creative, but I sometimes struggle to come up with meaty characters and setting for the story I want to tell. On the other hand, when (for example and especially) good characters are already there, I may start to work on a story for them without even intending it.
It's happening again now.
Last time I was inspired by someone else's material like this, I synthesised a conclusion out of dozens of mixed plotlines and came second in a writing contest. And I was inspired on purpose, as it were, for the contest. The original was mainly inspiring in its potential to be made less flawed.
This time... well... I played a computer game, loved it, and started spontaneously writing a fan webcomic script based on it. I mean, writing in my mind. I just kept thinking about what could happen, and being a writer and wannabe comic creator, I formatted my imaginings as webcomic strips. Finally, I gave up and started planning it on purpose.
I realised that if I were to actually create and even publish this thing, I would get to spend a lot of time doing something that I'd love and would learn a lot, and maybe build the basis for something similar entirely my own that could even be a money-making part of my (still largely hypothetical) career of doing things I love. As just one example, I can't actually draw well enough, and don't know the right style well enough, to draw this thing - but I'm close enough that I can learn it by jumping in.
I'm incredibly inspired by this. Obviously, it will likely take a long time before I put any of it on the internet. I could see myself drawing the thing a long way and then going back to the beginning to redo the art based on what I've learnt.
Of course, maybe I won't ever get it done. It will be a long way to go. But I really do hope. Even announcing that I'm doing such a project is something I wouldn't have done in the past.
In the meantime, here's some of the art I've made for this project:
Yes, I've got as far as practising how to draw things like anime style eyes based on a simplified version of the original's style. This is going to take a while.
One downside here is that the story I'm writing totally assumes the reader to have played the original. I mean, you probably could read it by itself and gradually infer most of the backstory and spoil the game's ingenious plot for yourself by doing so... Anyway, on the other side, people who did play the game make up a ready potential audience for me. (I also love just the thought that people would read and like what I create. I only want to make money out of doing what I do - which obviously can't be done with fan works anyway - because it's required for living.)
I won't tell you what the original work was yet. Somebody who knows me might be able to guess. I can tell the strong working title of my own hypothetical comic, though:
"Less Bittersweet"
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