Extra work to bring a story to life

[doravg]

So, I generate AI pictures of my characters, scenes and places, to help me remember certain things better. Also, for my current project, I made a 12-step plan. Sort of a frame of what should happen along the way.

What sort of work do you do, to give an extra push to your story?

 

[Datal0g]

At the moment I mainly have AI-generated images of my main and secondary characters and a rough plan of where the plot should go. There are also rough plans for the backstories of each major NPC and their abilities. Everything else evolves over time, and I also realise that I need this flexibility to be happy with my chapters.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Is there some sort of Manga generating AI? Like, a comic book?

 

[doravg]

Is there some sort of Manga generating AI? Like, a comic book?

You can try to use a prompt builder for that, but I don't know if you will get anything that is consistent. But then again, I don't know much about Midjourney. I just use it, and learn new stuff along the way.

 

[LuoirM]

math....

Too much math... It's getting... Unlikable

 

[Jemini]

I created a language. I just didn't like the idea of typing in nonsense when my characters were listening to a fantasy language, so I made a con-lang for the purpose of having the characters talk.

I looked up a lot of videos about creating languages, and they brought up another advantage of creating a custom language. It actually makes it A LOT easier to name things. All you have to do is jam together a couple appropriate words in your language and call that a name, and it's fairly likely to be unique enough that nobody will have any complaint about it. (Except it was a little weird when I started tossing in names for the demon race and using words related to darkness or suffering, and a lot of them turned out looking the same as some common middle eastern names. Things like Abu which meant darkness in my created language, and Abdul which meant joyless.)

 

[Nevafrost]

I seriously just sketched all of my characters. Even, drew them with watercolour or postercolor.( Imma art person). I did all this to get motivation. Also, I created a new language named "FEVATALA". Does it make any sense? Yeah, it does. Furthermore, I made a diary just as that one which is in my story to fantasize whenever I write.

 

[doravg]

I created a language. I just didn't like the idea of typing in nonsense when my characters were listening to a fantasy language, so I made a con-lang for the purpose of having the characters talk.

I looked up a lot of videos about creating languages, and they brought up another advantage of creating a custom language. It actually makes it A LOT easier to name things. All you have to do is jam together a couple appropriate words in your language and call that a name, and it's fairly likely to be unique enough that nobody will have any complaint about it. (Except it was a little weird when I started tossing in names for the demon race and using words related to darkness or suffering, and a lot of them turned out looking the same as some common middle eastern names. Things like Abu which meant darkness in my created language, and Abdul which meant joyless.)

Now that is what I call going the extra mile!

I seriously just sketched all of my characters. Even, drew them with watercolour or postercolor.( Imma art person). I did all this to get motivation. Also, I created a new language named "FEVATALA". Does it make any sense? Yeah, it does. Furthermore, I made a diary just as that one which is in my story to fantasize whenever I write.

Man, I wish I could draw. Probably can learn it, but I no longer have the time for it. Good thing that Midjourney was created for people with sausage fingers, like me XD

 

[Datal0g]

I seriously just sketched all of my characters.

I don't mind paying people to sketch my characters, but as I didn't know how long my motivation will keep up, I simply used fotor to create my pictures. Worked out quite well, as long as you ignore things like fingers. :D

 

[Nevafrost]

I don't mind paying people to sketch my characters, but as I didn't know how long my motivation will keep up, I simply used fotor to create my pictures. Worked out quite well, as long as you ignore things like fingers. :D

Every artist nowadays (of course including me) :
I can't draw haaaandss!!

I don't mind paying people to sketch my characters, but as I didn't know how long my motivation will keep up, I simply used fotor to create my pictures. Worked out quite well, as long as you ignore things like fingers. :D

I seriously prefer traditional art over digital art.

 

[Jemini]

Now that is what I call going the extra mile!

I'd actually have to say the most surprising thing about the experience was how easy it became after making the first 50-100 words. It's something that sounds really hard to anyone who's never done it before, but really most of the work is on the research and prep end. You need to get some idea of what you're doing, make the rules for your language (especially the syntax,) and then you make the first 50-100 words.

After you've made about that many, you start to get a good feel for the rules you've created. After I got about that far, I got to a point where I can now easily just make new words as I go while writing. I just pause to reference my dictionary, and if the dictionary shows there's no word already in place, I just figure out another word in the language with a similar meaning and then try to think of alterations on it that seem appropriate within the language structure. And, it's surprisingly easy to just come up with something on the spot.

I even do 4thewords, which places you on a timer while you're writing. I'm easily able to come up with these new words while under the time clock without even sweating too much about it.

Yeah, seriously, it's actually no where near as hard as most people think it is. But, I guess anyone who's never tried it would find it pretty hard to believe. It's only people who've actually done it who have discovered how deceptively easy it is once you've gotten over that first hurdle and actually started the process. In terms of difficulty rating, I'd rate it like having a difficulty curve that's the inverse of drawing. Getting your rules and your first 50-100 words is about the same in terms of difficulty as drawing a really nice professional quality drawing. Then, adding words past that first 50-100 has a difficulty equivalent to drawing at a low amature level that's just barely over that of children's drawings.

Just about all of the difficulty in creating a language is very heavily front-loaded. It drops of ridiculously fast after that though.

 

[doravg]

I'd actually have to say the most surprising thing about the experience was how easy it became after making the first 50-100 words. It's something that sounds really hard to anyone who's never done it before, but really most of the work is on the research and prep end. You need to get some idea of what you're doing, make the rules for your language (especially the syntax,) and then you make the first 50-100 words.

After you've made about that many, you start to get a good feel for the rules you've created. After I got about that far, I got to a point where I can now easily just make new words as I go while writing. I just pause to reference my dictionary, and if the dictionary shows there's no word already in place, I just figure out another word in the language with a similar meaning and then try to think of alterations on it that seem appropriate within the language structure. And, it's surprisingly easy to just come up with something on the spot.

I even do 4thewords, which places you on a timer while you're writing. I'm easily able to come up with these new words while under the time clock without even sweating too much about it.

Yeah, seriously, it's actually no where near as hard as most people think it is. But, I guess anyone who's never tried it would find it pretty hard to believe. It's only people who've actually done it who have discovered how deceptively easy it is once you've gotten over that first hurdle and actually started the process. In terms of difficulty rating, I'd rate it like having a difficulty curve that's the inverse of drawing. Getting your rules and your first 50-100 words is about the same in terms of difficulty as drawing a really nice professional quality drawing. Then, adding words past that first 50-100 has a difficulty equivalent to drawing at a low armature level that's just barely over that of children's drawings.

Just about all of the difficulty in creating a language is very heavily front-loaded. It drops of ridiculously fast after that though.

Thank you for the info! I actually used Italian in a German story as a fantasy language. Too bad I didn't learn it, it is phonetic. The thing is, I understood the rules, did the Paul Noble Course, and could say basic sentences. But, as with a lot of other things in my life, I woke up one day, and just quit.

Just Dora things.