Personal

Writing Romance for an Ace Character as an Ace Writer

It's Asexual Awareness Week. I'm asexual. It's not something that I roll into my daily routine, but it's absolutely a filter through which I view my life and, more importantly, my art and writing. The main character of my current visual novel project is asexual. It's a big part of the story. A story that… Continue reading Writing Romance for an Ace Character as an Ace Writer

Personal

I’m not Ready for NaNoWriMo

When I was thirteen or fourteen I started writing a book. I finished in when I was 20. Right in the middle, you can see where The Depression started. Since then I've had a handful of short stories and essays published in actual magazines, I've written audio dramas, advertisements, reviews, scholarly articles, non-scholarly articles, put… Continue reading I’m not Ready for NaNoWriMo

Creating

…But No One’s Done it Like You

It's a piece of advice that I give to anyone I can. Someone might have made it before, but no one's made it quite like you. What exactly does that mean, though, especially when paired with the idea that there are no new stories? Isolate Your Personal Narrative/Experience We all have things that are unique… Continue reading …But No One’s Done it Like You

Creating

Everything’s been done before…

There are no new ideas. West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet is Pyramus and Thisbe. Arthurian legends have been told and retold hundreds of times. The same thing for classic fairy tales. There's a whole classification system for character archetypes we see over and over and over again.  And that's fine.  These stories and… Continue reading Everything’s been done before…

Social Management

Why No One Wants to Work With You

I'm not a perfect project manager by any means, but I've been extremely lucky that people I've worked with are willing to work with me again and again, even when I can't pay them. Being able to translate whatever goodwill you can into working relationships is a delicate skill that you have to learn. So… Continue reading Why No One Wants to Work With You

Creating

On Starting

I've been going around to local conventions with a presentation about the development process of visual novels (a video of one you can see here). It's been great bringing this information to people who are genuinely excited about the narrative game development and want to learn more. At one of the conventions, they invited me… Continue reading On Starting

Project Management

Project Management 101: Surviving Your First Production

So you have a kickin' idea, a real cracker of a project. Something you're going to need to hire people on for or gather collaborators. But maybe you're a little new to this whole….producer/director/creator thing. Where do you start? Let's look at a quick rundown of how you can get your project off to a… Continue reading Project Management 101: Surviving Your First Production