A few thoughts lately.

This is also really rambly, but I tried to organize my thoughts. It's probably likely that many people have also drawn these conclusions, but making it clear through writing is something that is pretty fun.

I've had the time to think about a lot of things lately. There have been a lack of distractions to take away from me constantly thinking about random things in life. An absence of a constant mundane day job to constantly think about, or bills to keep up with, and even a lack of socializing, while maintaining life and doing what I think makes me happy.

So I keep on doing that, and what happens? You begin to question a lot of things about humans, human thinking, and probably start to draw conclusions that sound a bit much for someone who doesn't have the credentials, or research and evidence to back up these thoughts. But then, it is still pure at that point, after all, I'm human and surely my thoughts are valid enough reasoning to be generalized to a certain point. Anyways, I find this interesting to talk about, so I will.

I've written about happiness before in the past, and yes it does seem like everyone is trying some way or some form to make themselves happy. If any of the following makes you happy:

1. Getting a promotion at a job
2. Finding that you gained a spike in followers in social media
3. Having someone well known or you admire recognize your work / creation
4. Giving out gifts to other people

Then well, you're pretty much normal, and I'm pretty sure that pretty much everyone feels that they would get happy from this. So how about this instead, would any of these things make you happy as well?

1. Eating a really tasty meal at a Michelin star restaurant
2. Riding first class on a long flight
3. Winning a sizable sum from the lottery or a gamble
4. Buying the product you've been eyeing for the past few months and finally getting it

Of course, I would also say that you'd probably get a sizable amount of happiness in each of these scenarios. So what makes group A different from group B?

This is where I note my observations, and that from looking at both of them, you'd probably think that, ah yes, the top options are ones that you have been working for, and the bottoms are a nice treat and experience that you get to try out every so often. And indeed, that is certainly one difference. But then again, how different are the feelings you get after experiencing these two different groups?

Let's take a look at group C.

1. Watching a really good TV show or movie, and you find yourself binging to the end.
2. Playing a game you enjoy for hours on end with very few breaks
3. Talking with a significant other / loved one
4. Watching porn, suited to your tastes, or engaging in sexual activities

So as you might see, these activities may be deviating towards much more personally pleasurable things comparatively from more virtuous and things that make you happy, and are also productive. So yeah, it would make sense to separate these things, that hey:”I'm working, seeing progress in what I'm doing, and its quite enjoyable as a result”. Self satisfaction as well as seeing results will yield positive feelings. But therein lies what I find the most interesting.

How different are the feelings you get from any of these experiences?

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In the general sense, it is different, but that's mostly just due to different intensities of experience. So you could say that all in all, all of these experiences are pleasurable, rather than ones that make you happy, more so the latter category in group C and group B.

So this distinguishing element is important, what is the difference between happiness and pleasure?

And that difference really will tell you why everyone does everything they do. Everyone is different, they feel pleasure from different things, even if its far away from what could be considered normal or something, but it is very likely that the feeling of pleasure is still the same.

And that's the thing, happiness can be defined as are more virtuous type of experience that you will find pleasurable, feeling happiness as a result of others, or making others happy- you still feel that same feeling of goodness, but the reasons are wholesome and positive, and thus it is good.

But that level of pleasure can never reach the likes of other things, in fact, it is quite literally the reason why people do things that would disadvantage 10, 100, or even thousands to millions of people. Thus this flaw that people find in others, or what you could call corruption, is really just people seeking pleasure above happiness, as odd as that may sound, because I am certain that a large number of people would prefer a 20% larger paycheck than making a few friends' day better.

You can argue that the money has utility! It can be used to lead to more things! Which, it leads to having more pleasurable things be possible to do, at the end of it all. Using that money to make more money, using it to buy something you have always wanted, go out on a nice dinner, so on and so forth. You can also can use it to manage funds and debt and relieve stress.

With that last point, living expenses is clearly part of the equation as well, where everyone should prioritize their basic living needs overall, it is why things are pleasurable in the first place.

But that's the thing, if people can prioritize pleasurable, unnecessary things over basic life, then how will society respond and function as a result? And this “If” is more like, it pretty much is the only thing people tend to prioritize. How can they make themselves feel better. How can they feel happy. How can they reach higher heights?

This sounds a bit presumptuous so far, but its just the way we are, isn't it? It isn't something that doesn't exclude myself or others in general, striving to reach for constantly higher heights seems to be just part of our nature. If there is a next step, we will always yearn for it. But therein lies a huge problem.

 

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With this nature of always seeking the better, at what cost, at what point does this yearning end? When you have enough money to live your life in peace? Why is it that there are no clear examples of people calmly living out their lives? It may be that such people live low profile enough lives to not become attracted to the public eye, but it seems more often than not, there are those who keep on going, even after amassing millions of dollars, are still not satisfied with what they have. Its definitely because they always seek a higher level of pleasure-- after all, when you have that much wealth, you are likely to go around the world experiencing the best of what everything has to offer, instead of making do with all the experiences the world has at humble and practical levels at any stage of life, or spending what you have instead of aiming higher and higher.

With this extreme rise in wealth from already wealthy to filthy rich, it gets a bit more insane how much its like an endless competition that ends up destroying the goodwill of human nature, in order to fulfill self satisfaction and stakes placed by oneself. The damages caused by such things are so far reaching and self destructive, it is surprising how few people notice it. Or rather they do notice it, but allow it to continue, because it serves their self interest, and even for a greater good, despite having large drawbacks. Why do people overdose on drugs? Why do people become alcoholics? Why do people throw away their lives gambling? It's because the experience and thought of being able to obtain more pleasurable things is in itself pleasurable, the dream and yearning for experiences and feelings never had, comes at a cost; a market for pleasure.

So lets take a step back, and see why happiness is lost, left back, forgotten. Why people who intend to do good things and actually act on them are so rare and yet, so weak and helpless in comparison to the greedy gourmands of today.

The system, or rather, society, once it became a way for people to exploit others instead of rely on the goodwill of others, became this ecosystem of who can fulfill their desires most selfishly will be able to do so. Those with intent on taking every advantage they get, overcoming others, using those in a better position than themselves, those are the people that succeed, because of that burning desire. In comparison, those who also have a burning desire to succeed, but also take detours out of their way and even a sense of altruism, always will face roadblocks, and eventually, once such an individual encounters the selfish and crazy ambitious individual, guess who wins out in terms of resources by the end of it all?

The system encourages selfish and misleading behavior, because those who are supposed to maintain order and balance, also easily succumb to the allure of pleasure. That sounds a bit wrong, but that is pretty much how it is, the money can lead into such things, whether it is used to manipulate and whatnot, all who are involved definitely have the mindset of “How can it benefit me”, with obviously some methods being far more direct than others.

And so, you have large, huge corporations.

Of course, the CEO wants to expand, venturing out and seeking every opportunity to grow and reach every single corner that can be accessed. Otherwise, it may have never gotten good enough in the first place, exchanging thousands and billions of dollars in order to make thousands of billions more dollars. At this point, the goal isn't even money anymore, but the self satisfaction of endless success. Why do almost all these companies dodge things that may benefit humanity? Why are large scale things ignored? Because money and growth isn't to be found there, on an individual level. Having the characteristics of being able to create an extremely large and successful companies and altruism almost never intersect, as a result of individual qualities. It isn't impossible, but usually, it comes from the qualities of seeing humanity be successful be the primary motive to making them happy, or rather, feel pleasure.

I guess it can be said that feeling pleasure does feel a bit sexual in a way, but I guess it more refers to the chemicals released in the mind that stimulate that feeling that everything and everyone yearn for. It's quite interesting to think about in that way, since then its pretty much just finding the most stimuli with balancing with productivity. Its just that self improvement and selflessness feels among the lowest on these things, since you do feel good for doing something good, but the feeling and results of doing that good thing, really don't last that long.

 

Expanding on that however, is that dear god, does that sound depressing. The thing is almost every thing I see that points to that is true. I don't know why or when it began, but its just the natural ego of humans to feel this way. To more clearly illustrate this point,

You are a person who enjoys making music in your idle time, and make a few pieces here are there, getting maybe 200- 400 plays among all of them.

One day, you make one of the best pieces yet, and you find yourself really happy with it.

It also finds surprising success, and starts out with 10x the regular plays. You go to bed excited, and are happy at the end of the day, wondering what can result after making that piece. Thoughts of even more things fill your mind, more followers, possibly spreading out, getting out of your day job and pursuing music.

The next morning, 40,000+ plays are now on that piece, and you are quite astounded. A lot of new followers have taken notice to you, and you revel and start responding to the hundreds of positive comments, thanking everyone for their thoughtful and long comments on how they liked this part of the music, or that part.

Then, you notice one, not well thought out, negative comment “this sucks, why is this getting popular”.

…

Do tell, there are number ways that people can react, but certainly, you will feel a hit from this comment, unless you are jaded to such comments and have a lot of experience with dealing with negativity.

But it still hits hard, regardless.

This is one of the most dumbfounding things I have experienced and seen. Why do we attract towards the negative so much more than the positive? It's dumbfounding that people who are critical and negative can leave such lasting impacts that they get so much more attention than the people who were positive in the first place.

It's just backwards.

Let's say, you have ten thousand fans, and 5 people who are critical of you. I can guarantee that most people will pay more attention and get hung over those 5 people, than the collective positivism of ten thousand people. While the effect of these people actually effecting a work is really low, why does it feel that way? I can probably deduce a few reasons for this.

1. Self improvement, and seeking to grow better.
2. Attachment to your creation
3. Desire to defend and--hate on in return

Most people will respond irrationally to such comments, or at least, think about it irrationally before calming down, and then deciding to either ignore it, question it, or reason with it. Of course this is understandable... But really, the most interesting thing is that, of these 3 options, the one that attracts the most attention is probably the most likely, between the two parties.

I'm sure you've seen things that enrage yourself spread over the internet, and your desire to look more into it, is likely depending on how relatable the subject is to yourself. This is something of the same level, where people can even feign hate to attract attention. This is the most baffling of human behavior, but seeing all my points from before, starts to make A LOT of sense. Attraction and attention will beget pleasure to the individual, even if in a twisted way. After all, the way isolation goes is regressive and against general human conventions that tend to seek pleasure, so seeking attention, in any way possible, will become the more desirable option.

Although I don't feel this way in the slightest, I still can understand where all these people are coming from, and clearly see that everything has a pretty clear reason for the way it is. You can really see that some behavior can easily be explained by just the basic nature of how people are. Constantly expanding and growing, and going for everything that they possibly can is to find advantage over others and win, in a way that serves self interest over all. This is applicable to everyone, but in varying degrees and levels.

Anyways this may or may not have a conclusive statement, I really don't know. It's pretty much a first draft and I feel like when I write something like this, I feel like I may be coming off as condescending, even if I have no intention of doing so. But it was good practice, and I think its good to get it out there and see how other people feel about pleasure and happiness. If you actually read it. Either way maybe if I can condense this I would but owell, maybe it may be an interesting read, or really boring.

 If I had more to add, it'd be about the acceptability spectrum of sexual stuff and more explicit pleasure things, and how that plays into it all, and how life is pretty much just a number game

What is happiness?

I want to give my stance on this because largely, there are so many problems with this world the thought of happiness is just lost through the ideal of success and what society has defined success as for us.

So what happened to just wanting to be able to do something and do it?
Big aspirations, crushed.
Progress, prevented.
Peace, ruined.
Happiness, destroyed.
Truth, riddled with lies.

 

What prevents all of these is just the hubris of society, where you either follow the rules, and live the most boring standard, commercialized life that your country gives out to you, or die trying to stand out. Regardless of what you desire to be, whatever that is, is part of the big cog of society, even if it is something new. Its hard for me to believe that peace actually exists in this world, as while we are different, there are fundamental things that people don't seem to change as a result of the beliefs upheld in the country. Such as work, forming sides, seeing things through and being open, and so on, none of these things actually do anything good. And the reason why these things exist is a result of people wanting to gain success.

I determine success different from happiness for two reasons. It always relies on an outside factor that easily influences your being, and as a result, you always have to change and adapt in order to further succeed. It's just work in the end, and the fulfilled desires tend to stray away from the original thing. And if that thing is to live in comfort, or to live peacefully, this path couldn't be further away from happiness. Not saying success is bad, but in this society, the fact that it becomes an object of envy, desire, and alteration to your character makes it an unfortunate circumstance of society.

Ultimately, conflict arises from many sides if you see success. Unless you give it up, the cost of maintaining it would require even more work than before.

 

Just knowing that everything is fueled by another's desires as inspiration or aspiration really gives off a state of apathy. Industries are also ruined in order for success, and everything stagnates. Its why industries just tend to repeat things, because it results in better success. Why should they bother being interesting and unusual? Take the gaming industry for example, the vocal majority flock to the "powerful consoles" that repeat games with the same mechanics with just a few new features as content, while those who dare to be original or try to leap into new concepts or innovative perspectives are scorned for not taking the same approach. Why is success so necessary, when you cant even be proud of something that you made? Certainly, being proud of something that you worked hard on is good, but that is not the same as being proud of the creation itself.

Are you happy that you worked on it? Or are you happy with what you made?

That is why I determine success is not the same is happiness.

Because of that I see no desire in working in the industry, and working in terms of societal standards. There is no way I could be happy.

Of course perspectives differ, so I don't hold my thoughts as the teachings of god or anything. But I strongly believe in this.

So what exactly entails happiness?

All of us are slightly corrupted by society, regardless of what you think. Refreshing your stance is good, to revitalize your perspective. But what we think is happiness is different between people, that part is honestly true. So for me, I'll at least say what happiness is to me.

Being able to fully trust and express your feelings without repercussion, and live peacefully and self sustaining without the prejudice of society. That is to spend time with a person to love or just simply spend quality time with, and pass the days without external stress.

 

What do you think will lead to happiness?

 

Think about it before you answer, and answer honestly.

 

 

 

For this, I'm starting to write comics again. Not writing truthfully and from my heart is difficult, and I feel like I'm just adhering to standards and layouts already made for me that I unfortunately follow as they're in the back of my mind. This one will be a bit complex, but hopefully I can get my message across. I can no longer follow standard schedules at my current state so please bear with me. As for noCore, I might have to leave it as such, as a "1shot with 2 chapters", so I apologize again.

 

 

I'm just a fool who lives the hard way... Trying to do as I please knowing that it probably won't be the best for me.

 

 

 

-ceroblitz

This blog is not really a personal blog of any sort or any level, but I feel like making a personal post right now.

phew.

Now, where to begin?

 

also, don't read this post

 

its depressing

 

Right now, I am not really happy with a lot of things and see futility in a great deal of things, as if I lost purpose in finding anything to do or feeling anything fufilling. This relates so some of my tweets that have been said in similar fashion. Having access to the internet is great, but for me, its probably too great. I learn things I probably were better off not knowing, enjoy many things without having to work as hard for them, and I feel like I am probably "spoiled" in that sense. Usually, people get a sense of gratification after getting something in return for their hard work, or find something enjoyable that they have not experienced before. Its different for everyone but, in the general sense, that sums of the gist of how people enjoy life in general.

You work, and get rewarded for your work.

Now how this relates to futility, is that recently, my capacity to enjoy these things has been greatly diminished. I have experienced a great deal of things, (as arrogant as that sounds), but that all relates to how I probably perceive things. I just don't feel that gratification after a certain amount of time, and it needs constant refueling, in order for me to keep going. It's just really difficult to put the extra effort into something, to make it great, without much feedback in return, personal and kind of far. My expectations are at a standstill, both low and high, for what I make, but in turn, I never feel like I've made anything that is truly amazing. My game, Recipitation, is something that I am quite proud of for the work I put into it, but ultimately, it isn't something that I could put as my defining piece. I do appreciate supportive comments, but they have a bit of distance to them and lack a sense of community to them, which leads into another problem that is more on my end.

I am very intrapersonal when it comes to making friends, and do not talk much about myself, or my specific interests. My general interests, sure, but I find it very difficult to align myself with general thoughts. This might be why I don't draw fanart of many things, even if I do greatly like them or enjoy them (not to mention the gratification thing). Striking up conversations with unfamiliar people is something I also don't do very often, and in certain settings, tend to prevent them from thriving. Kind of contradictory, with this entire blog post's existence, but that is something I want to fix myself.

Maybe I'm just too picky...

Either way, combine this mentality with the burdens of the future, the end of my college years, things are coming upon myself, and in my year, i'm pretty sure im absolutely the least prepared person that I know. I've made 0 close friends, and tend not to ever go for anything that sits outside my comfort zone. Oddly enough, I don't really regret it, thought I might come to feel so later, as I continue to age and fail to find interest in life. At least on the online spectrum, things are a little better, but only marginally. When those people are gone, you really get a perspective of things, and realize your place in the world, which is pretty lonely and quiet. I really do wonder how I managed to survive so long invested in the internet without ever taking action to abuse the nuances of it. I guess I couldn't really put myself to selling myself or risking my near nonexistent identity with pride or anything, for that matter.

Observing my general status and interests really puts me as an "average joe" on the internet, but with no particular sides or interesting aspects that appeal. I have some ability to draw, but I don't use that ability to make myself relatable with many people, cause i'm so darn selfish and picky.

I wonder how many people are actually reading this silly little post. hah ha ha...

 

Maybe you guys want a TL;DR, so here you go:

The future is bleak, my life is pale, and my personality is selfish and picky. Few things make me feel happy and fufilled these days. Maybe its because I don't have close friends. I hope these times are only temporary...

 

Anyways, I hope this blog post didn't depress anyone who reads it, but if you want to try talking to a difficult and hard to approach person (me), you can try to in the comments.

 

In other news, I do have a bit of noCore generally planned out, but I still need to work out the story details and nuances. I really don't plan on quitting on it, but in my current condition and status quo, it may be a bit more "unstable" in it's medium.

 

 

This was quite the selfish post, wasn't it?

 

-ceroblitz

Well it sure is, when you consider everything, it really is hard to write something with everything you want and in a solid block. Sometimes, I feel the need to just block off the rules and formalities, in order to write, and sometimes I feel like if I don't follow them something will result in a flaw, and cause problems later on (which is why I want this next story to be entirely written out before I begin)

Being constantly influenced by many things also adds to the difficulty, especially when you want to take the elements of things that you like, mesh them together in a new way, and present them to the world. Just the sound of that sounds hard, but it sounds so fun, and so fulfilling.

Recently, I just binged about 300 episodes of anime in the past 1-2 weeks, to get a grasp on what I was writing, and to chew out the flaws and good points other creations have made (notably popular ones, and things I've been generally avoiding). If you want to see what I've been watching, you can check it out here: 

my list of anime

Another thing that is creating this writing block, is no less the result of wanting to capture an audience to an enticing story. So many manga, and stories, can have bad starts, and appear as generic, no matter how much effort is put in to make it dynamic. Ignoring the rules feels too dangerous here, but following the flow of the medium, and the rest of the tropes and ideals seems to also lead to a swift death.

Either way, I want to experiment with how I can get people to read a text, without being to overbearingly scary. So I want to appeal in this order:

1. An interesting, unique cover page. 

For example, Let's take other manga as an example. Of the cover pages here, which one are you most likely to read?

Without personal Bias, the fourth one seems the most interesting, but the overall level of these title pages seem to draw almost no attention to what the manga is about, except the fourth one, and possibly the fifth one (ignoring the titles).

In their own right, they are trying to appeal to certain audiences, such as the first one, would tend to appeal to people going after shoujo romances. But they are also general enough to leave a wider audience wondering what it is about. More specific targeting cover pages, would use elements such as sexual appeal, an item of interest ( sports, weapons, magic, school clothes) , or anything of the like. But what I would like to make is something that is either shows an original style or representation, that would pique a potential reader's curiosity. Colors, design and overall conveyance are all important. I think the consistent style of Assassination classroom's cover pages brings a curious reader to try it, while bright colors or unusual colors that draw attention that highlight the context of the story, (or does not) does well to bring attention. It is not to say to judge a book by its cover, but people easily judge a book by its cover, nearly all the time.

For my OH MAN covers, I had experimented with this in itself. With an appealing title logo, and ensuring the content of the title pages itself are interesting. Subtitles were also used to help the impression and increase the curiosity levels.The first one, calls out the curiosity factor for this odd looking character in the world. The second cover page, brings in the new characters, which has an appealing factor, working in tandem with this odd character. For cover page 3, I used complementary colors, and an element of the story to bring out interest. For cover page 4, bright warm colors were used to highlight the new world, to create an eye popping sensation. For cover 5, I experimented with a newer style and a more scenic composition and a variety of colors and a misty feel to highlight the fore coming and current elements in the story. I actually considered these elements a little, but composition was more important before most of these creations. Check them out here ( and see how bad they are.. ). Which one do you think is the most interesting?

  

Aside from cover pages, next would be..

2. Plot summary and Synopsis

Generic plot lines, generic names, and synopsis covering only the beginning scope of the story, are what I dislike the most. Things that do well to leave the reader in thought of the characters and potential elements, instead of summarizing the beginning of the story do much better to present the work. Many works have misleading synopsis of what the actual content of the anime, or manga actually holds, because it doesn't look to the meat of the story, but rather the tip of the iceberg. If you were to go to a fancy restaurant, and order a steak, you would rather want a superb delicacy over a pretty piece of rock. It is much more important to tell you about the taste and texture of the meat, rather than the decorations that present itself for your first impression.

3. Introduction and Beginning events

In line with the synopsis, must work well with the actual beginning of the story and its function. If people can't get curious or interested at the first chapter, it has already failed. People read the synopsis in order to prepare their expectations of the work, and if you make it too specific, what you are limited to do in presentation starts to diminish. Highlight what people seek, and lead them on. Presenting all your cards will limit the ability to do things past the first step.

For the actual story itself, the power of presentation of information has to lull the reader in to ask questions and have them answered, in time and in cycle. Just like a manga, cliffhangers are presented to lead people on to ask a question, and have it become answered in possibly the next chapter. However, it is not just limited to chapter by chapter, but, page by page, event by event, panel by panel, or even text by text. Of course, the smaller the element, it needs less impact, and needs moderation in how important the dialogue is. Set up people to understand what will happen, and try to read the expectations by what has been set up. With this, you can control the reader and the story both, to have a very good time, or a bad time. Its all up to how well it is written and executed.

-

Those would be my main 3 focuses in creating my new work. But before all that has to even take place, I need to write and ensure that a fantastic, interesting, surprising story can even be made, before introducing all of the extra elements. For my next post, I want to try making a super short story ( or at least an intro to one), and see if you guys are interested in it, or think it sucks.

 

Anyways, thanks for reading!

ceroblitz

 

 

 

 

One of the hardest things to do when creating something is not just learning the skills, taking the time, or the assets and polish. Rather, starting it and finishing it is what is the hardest thing to do. However, there can be many qualities that determine a "finished" or "incomplete" project. If you were to write an essay with a missing paragraph in the middle, but had a strong introduction and conclusion, would that be a completed essay? If you were to complete an art piece but not add any value to it, would that be completed?

Instead of questioning the value of completion, it's better to know what yields the best result for yourself as a goal. To reach that goal and achieve it satisfactorily, and to know that your best effort went into it, doing it without any regret... That is what you can consider complete. It isn't bad to have incomplete projects, but completing a project and allowing it to rest is great. It becomes wholesome, and can reach out to many.

Now, creating something good and refreshing in this day and age requires something new and original, but that becomes harder and harder to do. How do you be creative and original, without scaring away the audience, or confusing yourself? Particularly, the most important things are to stay away from what is normally done, and / or execute it differently. But how do you do that?

First off, creativity is something that you create yourself, a spawn of your ideas to share. This doesn't necessarily have to be original, but happens without a consideration of outside influence. Originality is where you stray away from other successful tropes and cliches, and try something that people either don't expect or don't know what to expect when going into it. The former will tend to cause some to stray away from new, unknown material, while the latter, will innovate old things through new ideas. The best of both worlds would contain both original content with creative execution.

Considering this, we have general formulas that stories, manga, and anime tend to follow these days. These patterns become so recognizable, that they have even coined a term for them, as "flags". For example, a death flag would be an event that happens in the story that causes or gives reason that the character would die. For example:

Girl 1: I've finally realized it! What Boy 1 was telling me all along!

Boy 2 "So you've finally realized it?"

Girl 1: Boy 1.. likes me!

Boy 2: Heh.. you finally get it.

Girl 1: I must go tell him now!

Boy 2: Hold on, it's a bit late for..

[Girl 1 has already left]

Boy 2: Oh boy..  [turns on weather channel]

TV: It seems storms are coming to town. Please seek shelter as soon as possible! It is expected that a high risk of death will happen.

Boy 2: Oh..

 

Now, this pattern suggests that (with a bit of exaggeration with the weather event) the girl had finally realized it, but this certain event tells us that there won't be a full on realization between boy 1 and girl 1 just yet, and there may even be some tragic event coming up. This creates a reader to tighten up their guard for the incoming, which allows the writer to manipulate the reader. Usually there is no manipulation to satisfy the readers. But with proper usage of these flags and more subtle hints in progression, you can throw events that would either surprise or become unexpected, rather than predictable and boring.

If you were to set up for a boring event to come forth and instead present an exciting development, that would instill far more excitement than if it was consistently set up to throw out exciting events on every odd chapter. It's the same feeling of discovering something for the first time and uncovering a new aspect in something you thought you knew. But, this is all a part of execution. Even if you can set up original and creative situations that betray the reader's expectations in a good way, it still must be contained in an immersive and reasonable state to happen within the story. Either way, this is all a part of understanding the balance within a story, shifting from event to event and giving the reader a shifting progression instead of constant. If it's constant, it is static, it is boring. Playing these event right is what creates a good story and makes it interesting.

Playing into this with outside elements is also important in appeal, to appear as original and creative as can be. In the age of anime and manga about school, action, harems, and self-insert fantasies, having something outside that circle is unexpected and exciting in itself. A wave of new and old comes along slowly, just like progression within a story.

But that's for another time

thanks for reading!

ceroblitz

I just have the need to get my thoughts out on all this story crafting nonsense, and what I'm considering for the next thing I'm working on. We certainly have many of our own tastes and dislikes, and general quality of a subject will improve the creation in question. But even quality, isn't directly related to it's ultimate reception. People come across crappy creations all the time. But does that mean they aren't good?

Lets say you have an idea you want to get across to people. Before you worry about format and what you plan to include, is it the best conveyance of the idea? Let's take a look at some examples of manga, namely, scenes that are high in execution.

Manga is about conveying a progression of a story from a particular perspective across the time it takes to read though and enjoy the moment. If the time and pace of the manga or story isn't believable, people can never get immersed or want to engage with the world. There needs to be a balance of presentation and understanding, alongside time for the reader to understand what is going on.

So lets take a look at this page, from the manga Helck (which you should read, it's really good, but I can't say it is perfect. But super enjoyable! Also, spoiler warning):

Chapter 36 - Helck

Revelation scenes like this, are built up with worldbuilding throughout the story. The less expected the element of revelation, the more exciting and interesting it is. The pace of this page, is overall slow, and the spacing between each bubble and panel is big enough for people to understand there is some huge relevance behind the sword. Keeping it brief and expressive, slow and steady is important in scenes like these, and a good grasp must be held, and gets the reader to understand: "Hey, this thing has some big relevance for upcoming events!"

Of course, manga isn't built just on scenes like these, and need to have a balance of scenes that get a lot of information out through text and scenes that give a lot of time to connect with pictures and pacing.

A lot of text can easily alienate the viewer from reading a scene, but if it is well spaced, and well worded, people won't be even able to tell.

Lets take a look at this text panel from Hunter x Hunter, which has overall great paneling, and a moderately fast pace. (Though the art is inconsistent, it's easy to understand, which is important)

At a glance, the text is easy to receive, but it's density can easily drive away people from taking all the details in. This brings up the question of how many of these words actually matter to the plot, if the reader should even have to read it all? Compared to the majority of the manga, which has spaced text of no more than 15 words per bubble, taking in fewer lines in less dense formats allows people to take in the information without really thinking about it.

But is there a way for people to take in larger amounts of text more easily?

If we have a different format to perceive information in relation to the picture - text format. Most words are contained within bubbles, and in manga, sometimes is generally hard to follow who says what without knowing the conventions. (I made this mistake in OH MAN quite often, with bubbles being squashed everywhere to fit in tons of lines of text).

When people are confronted with many chapters to read in any subject medium, people will tend to want to read in the least amount of time as a result of the overwhelming amount of chapters ahead. But if you follow a weekly release, you may find yourself re reading chapters that send out a certain feeling, and read it slowly compared to starting a new release. This doesn't apply to everyone, but I know people that read very quickly through manga. Of course, if it's really good, it warrants a re read as you didn't know what you were getting into before. But if it's mediocre, you'd be glad you didn't spend a lot of time trying to read something that you wouldn't have understood in the first place. A fear of the second option and a desire for the first option is the reason why people try out almost every different manga, and read through it very quickly.

If I can get readers to read through something slowly, while still maintaining enjoyment, would be the most optimal form of execution in a work. However, since everyone is different, to devise a form that is best suited for everyone is a difficult task. A format I had in mind are here:

Richer Dialogue will be presented almost in a forum like style, while phrases in action oriented scenes will still be in bubbles. These will have a max limit of 15 words, while the dialogue will have 15+. Since scrolling will the major form of progression still, the use of vertical spacing will be utilized a lot more to direct pacing, instead of cramming every panel into a page by page format.

 

If any more formats come to mind I'll try and post them.

 

Thanks for reading!

ceroblitz