I don't know if this will be interesting, but I feel like reminiscing.
Since the first time anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I knew I wanted to be a writer or an artist. It took me far too long to realize I could do comics and do both. Ages ago, back when I was in Junior High, I figured that if I wanted to be a writer someday, I'd better get practicing at actually finishing something, and I pulled out a bunch of lined paper and started writing. I wrote for days, and what came out was the first version of "The Sealed Gate".
I admit, it was pretty awful. The story read like a poor attempt to write an Oz book. Tetra had two equivalent characters in that story. The princess (she didn't have parents, so why she was still a princess, I don't know) who was the very typical "help me!" sort, and the sorceress, who was marginally cooler, and took things into her own hands, but still two dimensional. Crystal's equivalent was very Mary Sue.
The story was that the crystal was an item of contention between the humans and the gnomes. The gnomes coveted it, and the humans actually owned it. In this version the gnomes weren't very smart, and didn't actually want to use the power of the crystal, they just thought it was pretty. The crystal was like a life source for the valley where the humans lived, so when it was taken, all the plants began to die off.
The princess couldn't do anything herself, so she purposely summoned Crystal's equivalent. This girl didn't have any powers or anything, but she was more than happy to help a random princess save her kingdom. So off they went to the sorceresses place to ask her what to do next on their quest. The sorceress was a lot more on the ball than our two heroes so she closed up shop and played guide. On the way I believe they picked up a guy as well, but his only purpose was to make sure the group wasn't only girls.
So they all went to the cave of the gnomes, snuck in, and stole the crystal back. That's it. They went home, put the crystal back where it belonged and sent Crystal's equivalent back home. The end.
Needless to say, the comic isn't going to end that way.
Years later I came up with a really interesting concept for a sci-fi/fantasy universe. This is where the idea for the gates came from. The main character was going to be a gate guardian of earth who's grandfather (the last gate guardian) had died, and had to go head first into her duties. (I'll explain more about gate guardians in the comic, don't worry.) This new guardian would travel around the different worlds and have adventures. After a while the story merged a bit with my first little story, but was dropped because I didn't know what to do with it.
More years after that, I was struggling with ideas for webcomics. One was a gag comic about a very short girl and her comments about coping with shortness, but it had no story to keep me interested in writing it, so it never got beyond the main character design. Another was about a very magical boy who's discovering his world and his magic, but it didn't have much potential to be funny. The last that I seriously considered was Life Force, which I intend to do later, but I do not have the artistic skills to pull off because it's sci-fi and I can't draw spaceships. I was a little afraid of not being able to keep a comic going with any consistency, so I looked through my story ideas and choose one that was interesting, had enough plot that I could do a number of comics right away, but that I wasn't so attached to. That way, if I failed, it wouldn't hurt so much. Immediately ideas started coming, and the story became much more involved and personal than it had before.
I spent months setting things up. I drew thumbnails everywhere, got a brand new sketchbook just for the comic and made the webpage. I wanted to have twenty comics of backlog before I went online, but that never happened. I got to about 16 and put it online before I lost interest. You see, artistically I live off any sort of feedback, and I couldn't get it until this was online.
And there you have it. The story of how it started. *bows* If you read all that, you deserve a reward of some sort. _________________
Last edited by Sharm on Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:22 am; edited 1 time in total
Hey, that's cool. Be interesting to see where this thing ends up going, what with all the stuff you mushed together to make it.
Hearing creativity stories is always fun.
I always feel bad when I mush my own stories together personally... because then it's no longer really either of the previous stories. It seems like it works out well here though.
I always enjoy finding out how things come about. Normally I only see the final product. So I tend to idolize those who are much more creative than I, and hearing the history of something puts it (and the creator) into a realistic perspective.
Can't wait to see where this leads. While it can be fun it go ahead blindly, only seeing the horizon is also a good way to advance. _________________ An average man am I, of no eccentric whim,
Who likes to live his life, free of strife,
doing whatever he thinks is best, for him.
-Henry Higgins, My Fair Lady
Thanks guys, I'm glad you liked reading this. I always find behind the scenes stuff interesting myself, which is why there are comments on every strip I put up. I often read other people's comics and then try to get more meaning or depth out of it with the comments. It frustrates me when the comments are a month old and there's nothing there.
Yes! Exactly! I thank you for commenting on all your strips!
I also always find that annoying, that thing with lack of comments, especially when some authors comics tend to be rather obscure in and of themselves. Comments are little extra tidbits that are fun to delve into after you finish the comic itself, but still want more.
Anyways, I'm ranting now, I'll stop. Thanks for the welcome.
It's always interesting to read the genesis of a story, so thank you for sharing! I think a lot of us writers go through a similar evolution - we write a story just to write a story, realize it's bad and leave it, then incorporate bits of it into a new project later on. Heck, I have a manuscript I've been working on since 8th grade that keeps on evolving and it still has things from the first draft in it (including a Mary Sue ((or Gary Stu, if you will)) character that I'm trying to get rid of).
Can't wait to read about more of this world you've created! :-) _________________
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Ages ago, back when I was in Junior High, I figured that if I wanted to be a writer someday, I'd better get practicing at actually finishing something, and I pulled out a bunch of lined paper and started writing. I wrote for days, and what came out was the first version of "The Sealed Gate".
