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Hello my beautiful people.
How are you doing? I am GREAT! My summer vacation did wonders on me.

First, the wrist had plenty of time to heal. And while my therapist didn't think it was linked, I did buy and am doing regular exercise with a gyro ball when I'm hiking. Since I go for walks every day for around an hour a day, both my wrists and my legs have plenty of exercise.

The shoulder blade is still bothering me. It is particularly present this morning, slightly painful, but that is because of the new exercises my therapist has asked me to do. I do them late during the day and I can always feel it the next day, so I do it every other day, in the hope that my body has time to recover in-between sessions. My therapist is happy with the results, and during the resting periods I feel it less and less. It is clearly going in the right direction.

Because it needed rest to heal, I didn't give myself any projects this year and the first few days got boring real fast despite laughing my ass off re-watching the first seasons of "Archer".

Until the coma, that show was gold. I had actually forgotten how funny it was. I might not continue through all the seasons, but I will have to watch the ending at least once. Apparently, it isn't bad.

Anyways... Once rested, I wanted to at least come up with a small little project, to inhabit those days, otherwise I was envisioning cutting my vacation down to 1 week (I was that bored :P). This is when I thought about writing and I attempted to script the first issue of "The adventures of Stella Starlight". To do so, I decided to look for a tool to help me write.

I was looking for some sort of AI assistant, but not a chat box. I didn't want it to write for me. I wanted it to palliate for my dyslexia ("Microsoft Word" was doing it, but nowhere good enough) and if possible help me analyze my text so I can ask myself about the right questions. And I think I have found the right tool for me.

The result was good. I think I have a solid script on my hands, if a little simple. I then decided to use the remaining of my free time to get better at my craft. I did a few writing exercises and posted the results in the comments under this post if you are interested to read what I came up with. Fair warning, there's a small little spoiler scene for the first issue of "Stella Starlight" in there: The exercise was about describing an environment through the senses of three different characters and my main trio was simply too perfect not to use.

The result really helped me to both get better as a writer as well as understanding my characters. I think I'll do something similar every time I come up with a new character.

By the way, I do plan to continue with the writing exercises, but since I don't want to bother you with unnecessary posts, maybe even unwanted, I'll do what I did last week. I'll simply mention it in my weekly update and post it in the comments for you to read if you are interested.

After that, I decided to attack my comic series (plural). I wrote down my bible for "Stella Starlight" as well as the outline for the next two issues, so I have documents I can easily study and use to keep track of things. This made me realize that I didn't think at all about Stella's back story, which might explain why I struggle a bit with stakes for her. It's not super important in the first issue since it's basically just an introduction, but I will have to remedy this.

And I did the same for the "Star Wars" series. For the last two days I've been hard at work describing every character I used. As well as writing down a detailed outline of all the past issues (I still have to do it with the 6th issue). My plan is to use that to help me figure out where this storyline is going and hopefully pull out a miracle, make it coherent and give it a satisfying ending. Not a small task.

I do have an idea for the next issue. and I wrote down the outline, but it still needs a lot of work, and I can't do it all at the same time, I wish I could :P

To help me with all that, I have been watching online video classes from writers and editors, taking notes of what seems the most important for my own writing philosophy. The "But & Therefore" rule from South Park seemed particularly important to keep in mind. As well as this little gem I took from Hank Green: I won't try to write like my favorite author. I won't try to live up to arbitrary standards I may never achieve. I'll simply try to be the best ME I can be.

I'll complete this section by telling you how much of a boon this has been for my self-esteem. You all know I suffer from anxiety issues. And I am not the most self-assured guy out there, especially when it comes to my ability to write. Lately, I had been relying a lot on Ferawyn to help me with this. And while I appreciate his help immensely (never think otherwise my friend), I had reached a point where I was thinking that I was incapable of doing it without his help... This is one of the reasons I was staying away from new comics. I was simply too scared to find out I was failing at it.

But, figuring out I could do all I did this week. Figuring out that I could write something that I thought was satisfying, good enough so that I wasn't shy about sharing it with you, it made me excited about it all over again. And I can't wait to get to work.

Speaking of which...

First, I'm reopening shop for commissions (I need to pay the rent ;) )

You all know the drill:

Meanwhile, I'll be hard at work laying out the first issue of "Stella Starlight" to hopefully have the first page (or a cover) ready for you by the end of next week... although, since I have yet to figure out the color scheme, it might take a few more days.

I hope you are all as excited as I am.
I'll be officially back on Monday (Tomorrow, I'll be watching "Clash in Paris")

See you all soon.
Alx

How are you doing my beautiful people?
I'm quite fine.

The vacation is going great, and you'll be happy to learn that my wrist has fully healed. I can't say the same about my shoulder blade, but the exercises and therapy sessions are doing the trick. It is slowly receding.

Because I wanted my wrist to heal as fast as possible, I didn't give myself any goals this time around (you might remember a few years back I spent my vacation going through a course on digital painting, two years ago, I was crafting my MOTU sword and last year was about rearranging my room (I still need drapes and decoration for that). Instead, I spent my days walking around the neighborhood, reading comics and rewatching some old seasons of "Archer". It got boring real fast :P

So I was trying to give myself a little project for the rest of my time off, but all I could think about was "Stella Starlight". I know, I know. I was still excited with the project, but it also started to scare me quite a bit. I started doubting myself, unsure if I could deliver something worth your time.

So, I wrote a script. I had already written down a rough outline, so I started from there. I know I had planned to improvise the whole project... and if I had started when I first conceived of it, I think I could have made it through that way. The strong girl boss survivor on a hostile planet felt good for a mostly silent, mostly improvised project. But as soon as I changed it for the more upbeat approach, suddenly, it didn't fit anymore.

And guess what... I did good ^^

That version seems pretty solid to me. It helped that I didn't feel rushed... I spent the last two days just refining it without any pressure to deliver. Since I needed to establish the setting and the main character's dynamic, it's a bit lacking on the naughty parts, but it is a good foundation to build on for the future. I actually feel confident about the writing on this one. I think I found the voice for those characters and I can't wait to show you all.

Now would be the time to start on the layout, but that feels WAY TOO MUCH like work for me to do while on a break. So I guess I'll play games until next Monday... or I might take a shot at the script for Issue 2 if I get bored again.

See you all soon!
Alx