Last week, we sent out a survey asking how we could help make the coming weeks easier, more fun, and less stressful for you. Literally thousands of people responded and asked us to provide extra resources, activities, and opportunities for online connection.
That’s why we’re launching #StayHomeWriMo—an initiative to support and encourage you to stay well and find comfort in creativity in these trying times. Sure, the whole world might be keeping its physical distance from each other (please do), but that doesn’t mean we have to distance ourselves from our creative lives (please don’t).
NaNoWriMo’s staff has been working remotely over Slack, video conferencing, email, and G-chat to bring you a bevy of creative activities and self-care check-ins. #StayHomeWriMo is flexible so you can adapt it to fit your social distancing, schedule, and overall well-being, whether that’s writing fiction, journaling about this time in your life, being mindful of your emotional and physical health, or just making social connections at a safe distance. Each (week)day for the rest of March, we’ll post a checklist of prompts to help your mental, physical, social, and creative well-being.
Want to jump in early on a full creative project? You can start a project on the NaNoWriMo site now and customize the dates to your needs.
Home with school-aged kids and need help keeping them busy? Sign them up on ywp.nanowrimo.org for age-specific resources and a youth-friendly writing space!
Juggling pre-school aged kids and work and have zero down time for writing? Lean in on the mental, physical, and social check-ins and connect with other like-minded writers with no time to write in the comments of our social media, on our forums, and in your own spaces.
Get more details on #StayHomeWriMo on our website at https://nanowrimo.org/stayhomewrimo and please share this with your friends and loved ones who might be looking for new ways to connect and stay well.
How everyone. How are you guys doing out there? I hope you are alright. Time’s are scary right now but don’t panic. Be patient and stay strong. This to shall pass. I wish you the best.
As for the current story, the prewrite is in a crawl. I’m juggling so much that I lost three weeks of decent progress on this story, which is still currently untitled. I’m almost done with the character drafts. Then I will re-edit my basic plot, get some inspiration for the characters for the character art, and work on scene cards for the story. This is actually the hard part of VN making. Not having any images to share. It almost seems like there’s no progress at all, which is not the case.
I was looking forward to releasing four visual novels this year, so I hope this project and the next visual novels won’t take to long to get the ground running.
Well, I don’t think that’s to bad for my first painting with a new art program. This is my first time digitally painting in years and the learning curve is a little rough. There’s nothing quite like photoshop.
Anyway, this is the Milestone 1 completions image for Snow. I’m still going to see if I can find an easier paint tool to use, I’m not sure about the one I’m using right now.
I want to release two visual novels this year, much shorter than Snow. I might even to make more short story visual novels with the current new story I’m working on.
This week at work has not been easy, so I took a day off for Valentine’s day in the name of self-love and also took Monday off to recharge my batteries, and come back to being creative stronger than ever.
I look forward to announcing my new story once it’s a little bit further in the prewriting stages.
I am so happy to finally announce that I completed the first milestone for Snow. I will be taking a bit of break before I start milestone two. This project is fun and scary at the same time, and there’s still a lot more I have to do to create a thriving fantasy setting. Above is a paint and chat video I filmed concerning my absence and goals for the future. It gives you an insight into my mindset right now.
Good morning everyone! I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving this year! I had several days off to relax and take a break from work. It was much needed, we have been getting slammed at work and I had to do mandatory overtime for the whole month of November, which sometimes led to me working over an hour after work. They pay is nice, but sometimes it’s not about the money.
While I was looking over Snow, and trying to get back into the swing of things, I realized that my organization for this story needs major help. I’m still new to writing stories so this isn’t a surprise. My notes were terrible, it was no wonder my thoughts were all over the place.
I got a new binder, some tabs, multi-colored pens, washi tape, and dividers and got to work! I also printed my outline so I can start plotting how I want the story to go scene by scene. Would you believe all of my notes and pages were once all together with no tabs or dividers separating them? Well, not anymore!
I have been doing a lot of work on this project, but not as much as I would have liked. I admit I’ve been a little lazy recently. I took a break after finishing the plot for this story. It took a lot of re-writing before I had something solid that I liked. The beginning is much different than I first imagined and some characters had to be trimmed to keep the story from getting too complicated. This was not an easy task, but it was so satisfying when I was finally done!
This will be a big game for me with a lot of work to complete. And I’m honestly okay with that. I want it to be right and I don’t mind the wait. I will probably start a much smaller project somewhere done the line, but until now this is my main priority.
Sketching:
This me playing around with the art style. I still haven’t decided on the style yet and I’m rusty with drawing and digital art. I also need to find a new program to use since I no longer have photoshop.
Worldbuilding:
I have a lot more work to do when it comes to worldbuilding. To create a new world is no small feat and I never tried to make a story with a world this big or intricate. I have to make a ton of cultures, races, and backstory for this game and I am still researching for inspiration. I have a lot of sources to draw inspiration from, but deciding what works for this story is a whole other challenge.
Anyway, that’s all I got for now, until next time.
The opening is straight-forward: Thirteen-year-old Khashiya Bello, Nigerian American, goes to visit her grandmother in Ogun State, Nigeria, just north of Lagos. She steps through a magical mirror into a world of gods and other creatures to find that she is destined to save humanity. You know, like you do. It is interesting that the “going to Grandma’s boring house in the country for the summer then something magical happens” set up continues to engage and entertain. It is a cultural memory for so many people.
Every page of Land of Gods is brightly and tightly digitally animated, with a focus on faces and action. The backgrounds are mostly flat except when the wide-panel shots really matter. Our hero Khashiya is sharp and eye catching throughout, whether in her t-shirt and jean shorts or in her magically transformed red, white, and green outfit.
As straightforward as this opening is, it is still told through the fresh eyes of Khashiya as she’s dragged on the visit by her well-meaning parents. Issue #2 gets into the goings-on in this magical, and dangerous country, Orun. Khashiya is joined by a fuzzy animal protector, Snowball, and meets a shape-shifting prince.
Different from other Nigerian comics you may have heard of, like E.X.O. (YouNeek Studios) , or Ireti (Comic Republic), Land of Gods is squarely aimed at teen girls. This is Black Girl Magic perfect for younger and older readers alike. You can subscribe to the digital comic for about $3 American Dollars per month on their website: www.vortex247.com.
I wanted to let you guys know that while I was working crazy overtime my car decided to break down. I was forced to get a new call that is stressing me out honestly, so I’ve been trying to shift my finances and stretch my dollar until this loan is paid off.
One thing that was killing me was my inability to make digital art for my visual novel. I wanted to upload sketches and speed drawings of my characters while I talked about my weekly updated. I had a pencil for my iPad to draw with, but it decided to die on me when I haven’t had it a full year. I didn’t want to buy another if they were made that crappy, but I also lost my pen for my drawing tablet for my pc months ago. With this new car, I didn’t know when I would get a new tablet which would limit my art progress.
Luckily today, I found my pen for my drawing tablet, so at least I can get started on sketches and practice my art for this project. And I can save money for something else. Thank God for God. I need every penny I can get.
