February 15, 2016

Do Me a Solid: Tumblr Arrange



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.

No comments:

Post a Comment