aving only written, or should I say, completed two short stories as of this posting, I am pleased to say that I've gotten a lot of positive comments about my work so far, more so regarding my writings than my drawn artwork, hence the title of this posting. Currently I am sharing my writings with the communities at Herpy, Fur Affinity, and YiffStar; I think I've covered most of the large bases, especially YiffStar considering they were created for the sole purpose of archiving fiction and stories with art on the side, the opposite of Fur Affinity I'd say. The reason behind this posting is to let everyone know how I do what I do, where my inspiration comes from, and my writing process; the inspiration from this posting came from a beautiful piece of fanmail (yes fanmail, I was just as surprised) sent to me from a visitor of the YiffStar website:

"...[your work] is amazing. You are literally the Athus of the scaly story world."

ow, I don't like to toot my own horn, I know there are people out there better than me I am sure of it, but this compliment really resounded with me because I've enjoyed Athus' visual works over the years and he played a role in getting me to finally start working on projects of my own to share with the world. Being involved with Varka's company Bad Dragon has presented me with an opportunity to actually talk to (and possibly even work with) him which is a privilege that I hold in high reverence. I knew I was somewhat talented at writing, but I didn't know to what extent. The YiffStar website has a ratings/views/favorites system and I'm able to look at my stats to see who looks at what and what they think of it. My first completed story, Nocturnal Intermission, riddled with weird plot holes as it is actually has 1,600 views and is currently rated 4.1/5 with 16 votes. Gator Encounter has a handful more views but it's sitting at a near perfect 4.8/5 with 16 votes. Sixteen votes is quite a bit, enough to usually average something out to the 3.5 range given the usual circumstances. Taking a look at these numbers I've got a lot of fives coming in and the YiffStar website reminds people every time they vote to give those out sparingly. Considering that I am a fresh face and literally unknown, this honestly is a pretty good achievement when you look at seasoned writers who have been working longer than I have. I am honored to have been welcomed so readily and praised for my work even though 99% of the people who read my work have no idea who I am.

y artwork usually is not as well received, averaging somewhere in the 3 zone, so I think I'll balance my work accordingly and focus on my writing. Going back to how I write, honestly it's pretty simple; the vast majority of my works (both completed and still being worked on) are derived from some of my actual dreams and fantasies in life. It's like a story generator on autopilot, they come to me as experiences while my eyes are rattling around in my head at night (i.e. REM sleep) and I make it a point to put them down in words. Of course, if you've ever tried to remember an entire dream you know how spotty your memory becomes so it's only natural that there are holes in the event in some places. While I'm writing I try to come up with something to fill the gap that also fits the feel of the story as a whole. The sheer randomness of the way dreams work is also to blame for some of the more outlandish sounding scenarios (yes I am looking at you Nocturnal Intermission) but my suggestion is just to read them all as individual works that aren't interconnected at all, the characters just happen to repeat. Unless something is specifically noted with a "part two" or something treat it like it's its own entity.

hen I don't write dreams and instead write down my idle thoughts or other things that'll make me move around in my chair if I think about them for too long I try to also give them a kind of "frame" that the story can happen in. Gator Encounter was not based off a dream; it was one of those "idle thoughts" kinds of inspirations. The alligator plushie that usually accompanies me to bed didn't help my case either, all of those hugs... yikes. Expanding upon existing stories is always a little bit easier, and I try to make it a point to keep my works open-ended in the event that I decide to revisit them later on down the road. Right now, by popular demand, I actually am working on a "Gator Encounter II" along with an unnamed piece of literature that dabbles with velociraptors and Jurassic Park-themed cloning science. Both of those make up another set of quick "one hits" and on the side I have this really lengthy multiple part dragon story that I've been writing in my head for a couple of years. It doesn't deal so much with mature themes like the rest of my work, it is more of a spiritually charged kind of story from back when I was active in the Draconic community.

hen it comes time for me to actually write something though, I have to be in a certain kind of mind frame or mood otherwise nothing comes out. It's kind of a mix of not having anything urgent to take care of along with a general relaxed kind of feeling. Generally there's some music involved, I usually put on something a little mellow like a Hootie & The Blowfish or a Five For Fighting album to keep the mood steady. In the time that I was writing the original Gator Encounter I was able to use my own alligator plushie as a nice reference for some of the poses and actions mentioned in the story; realism is always a giant part of what I do, even though dragons and raptors aren't around these days I try to think of everything in a "if they WERE around how would this happen" way. While I'm writing I work out of order, generally I'll make an outline of what's supposed to happen and from there I will fill it in and when I have all of the parts done I slightly modify the transitional sentences so everything flows. I do all of my writing in Notepad believe it or not because in fullscreen mode I can easily see a giant chunk of my work and be able to freely edit everything a little better. When all is said and done I use Microsoft Word to spell-check everything and from there the story gets one final read-over to ensure it's perfect and then it's assigned a name and it gets posted online for everyone to enjoy.

o me writing is a form of art that's just as difficult to master as drawing or painting. You want to be able to convey to your reader exactly what is in your head, so attention to detail is the most important thing to keep in mind. A strong vocabulary is like a giant box of Prismacolor pencils with all of the words being different colors. Really good drawings are usually shaded and have nice gradient effects or textures and using a bunch of different words in a story is how you're able to convey the same sense of beauty. I try to mix up my word usage a bit but honestly I can't think of very many ways to creatively describe the term "vent," it's a challenge, a fun one at that too. The motto I keep in my mind while I'm writing is that a picture is only worth a thousand words, a well written story can be worth so many more. I'd like to take a moment to just give a warm "thank you" to everyone who has been nice enough to let me know that they have enjoyed my work; it honestly is a wonderful motivator for me to continue working. Like the header on the "Friends" page here says, without you none of this is possible.

Much love,