scene 39 - wip + short writing progress talk

good news 🌻 i'm done with the sketches of scene 39, this week i will work on doing lineart! this scene is going to have 6 pages, easing into it again~ and as soon as i have this scene done i want to jump to scene 40 right away!   

it's working much MUCH better than the last scene so far (where i struggled with every panel)! and i'm glad i can finally introduce their friends to you 💙

the last wip panel is showing Marija!! Robin's close friend and ex lover. i really got attached to her, and i hope you'll like her, too! 

and i think now is a good time to explain part of my writing progress! 

my cutting and rewriting already has a direct effect on upcoming scenes. i know how in the past i was like "aaa their friends!!!!" and i said you will get to know much more of them in the story. but i have to say that i had to cut the length of all friend scenes i had planned, and some things i wanted to show won't be included 😭💀 which sounds a bit bad when i say it like this, but it's actually a good thing!

i had to go through all scenes to decide which ones i could or should cut, and those scenes fell under it right away. and it's really funny how it's all connected. those few upcoming scenes gave me the most anxiety... and were probably also a reason why i was so stuck and couldn't move forward. i didn't want to do them, and i felt like i can't do them, and this is definitely a sign that i had to change it. just took me a bit to realize what i have to do to make it work. all of it was taking space without much progress for the plot itself. so i had to be harsh with myself and say "cut it all"

basically this is where "kill your darlings" comes in - maybe you have heard of this tool before. darlings are interactions and sentences and characters you really love and want to include, but they're not really necessary to the plot progress, so even though you have written them you have to "kill them off". cut those darlings out of the plot. it's difficult for a creator to recognize them sometimes? this was definitely difficult for me. i was like "but it's important" ... actually it isn't 😭 

i wanted to go a bit deeper into the relationship between Robin and Noah and their friends in Volume 3, but decided against it. it is important to show that Robin and Noah don't have only each other and that they have functioning support systems outside of their friendship! but those deeper interactions to show the friends' relationships with each other can be moved to extras or included later, and i think that's alright. soo in the end the cut doesn't change the plot at all - which is just another proof that it was necessary to cut it 💀💀💀 (silent scream) sjdfhdf writing is hard

now the scenes have become super manageable and much easier to draw with my skills and limits. i know those are all self made problems basically, which makes it a little embarrassing to even talk about... but i think it's okay to also show those sides. i'm really glad i noticed it before i started drawing those scenes!

i will try to let their personalities shine through, and i think you will still like their friends! i'm still happy to share those scenes and those characters with you!! or like.. even happier than before, because it hopefully won't be such a struggle to draw! 

i will show you a few more wips soon! <3 take care