Everybody have a good Valentine’s Day? Cool.
Then let’s completely disregard the allure and appeal of selflessly
showing affection to the dearly beloved, and focus solely on helping me.
Because I’m an altruist, you see.
Okay, so for starters, have a look at this old
art.
For those that are unaware -- and have somehow
managed to avoid looking at the blog header over the past couple of years --
this is Lloyd. He’s the main character
of I Hraet You, my web serial
novel. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve
let it grow ice-cold on the backburner, but I really do plan to revive it at
some point. I even have some new
chapters written. With that said, the
big issue is that I need to implement a lot of edits; we’re talking about
reading and reviewing nearly a hundred chapters, which IIRC tend to average
about 2000 words.
Setting aside the fact that it’ll absolutely be a cringe-inducing process
(doubly so thanks to suggestions from the rugged
and invincible Eric R. Jackson), there are still changes that I personally
need to make. And that’s overlooking how
time-consuming that might be (very,
if I had to guess), and THAT’S overlooking the fact that I need to go over the
notes to keep everything on track. That’d
be a lot easier if I had access to every file…but since I’ve switched computers
in the time since, I’m not only lacking files, but lacking the programs to read
the ones I have.
But there is good news. Have a look at this new art.
To be frank, this art isn’t finished yet; I plan
to make it a full-body shot with the requisite colors (and better line work, hopefully). But the important thing is that this is going
to be Lloyd’s redesigned look -- and it’ll retroactively be how he looks at the
outset of the story. I’m not going to
reboot IHY because I already did that
with a different story at the cost of my sanity; still, the updates should turn
it from something I once used as filler into the story it was always meant to
be. (Notably, the old chapters were from
a time when I thought it was cool to spam ellipses. You are hereby permitted to point and laugh
at me.)
So yeah, I’ll be finishing that art at some point
down the line. But that’s not the only
art I’ll work on; my plan is to revamp everyone,
and not only upload it to the cast page, but use it as something very close to
promotional material. It may seem
strange for a writer to concern
himself with art and marketing instead of just putting fingers to the keyboard,
but I think it’s safe to say that being a writer in 2016 (and beyond) means
becoming an everyman -- someone who can attract with more than just words.
And that brings me to the topic of the day -- or
rather, the request. I’ve been thinking
about branching out into Tumblr, but the problem is that I have no clue how to
work Tumblr.
If I’m going to succeed, I need to put my name out
there. I’m making strides elsewhere
(like a fledgling DeviantArt page,
which would also be a repository for IHY art),
but I’m under the impression that Tumblr’s one of the big ones. Probably more so than Blogger. I’m not very well-versed in what Tumblr is
like, but I’ve seen some pages here
and there. There are guys and ladies
out there who’re presumably using it to share their art -- so it’d be an
obvious place to put my doodles, but in the ideal scenario? I could use it to share IHY chapters directly to a willing audience, and/or link back to
Cross-Up.
But again, that’s the ideal scenario. If my
understanding is right, Tumblr is as much about reblogging the works of others
as it is about showing off your original content -- which means that popularity,
or even acknowledgement, could basically come down to slapping down some Steven Universe gifs or linking to
pictures of hot women. Not ideal,
obviously. Plus, Tumblr’s gotten a
really bad rap recently; the way people talk about it, you’d think that the
site was full of madmen chomping at the bit as they “campaign” for “social” “justice”. I’d prefer to keep the conflicts to a minimum
online, but a part of me worries that diving into the Tumblr morass is
inevitable.
Well, who knows?
I sure don’t -- and that’s exactly why I’m asking if anyone reading this
has some advice. If you use Tumblr, or if someone you know uses Tumblr, tell
me what’s good or bad about it. Let me
know if it might be a viable platform for me, or if I should focus my efforts
elsewhere. As I’ve said again and again,
I owe it to myself, others, my blog, and my art to spread awareness. I need to build a community, communicate
ideals (and my merit as a trustworthy writer), or both. How do I do that? I intend to find out.
If you’re not interested in any of that stuff,
though, then I get it. You’re here to
see me talk about video games. And trust
me, I’ll be sure to provide. I have the
next post in the UnchartedPalooza all written up; it needs proofreading and
plugging into the dashboard, but if you want to see what I think of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves -- having
missed its original release -- then you’ll (probably) find out this Thursday.
I’m sure there won’t be a single dissention from
popular opinion in there. No
controversial opinions, either.
Nope. Everything will be exactly
as you’d expect, and far be it from me to rock the boat on yet another Naughty
Dog masterpi-
I thought about looking for a gif of somebody
puking, but that seems more than a little cruel. So if you’ve got the stomach for it, go look
up that one scene from Minority Report.
So for now, let me go ahead and say: thanks for
reading. And don’t be a stranger; come
by again anytime.
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