I didn't reallt think of it as a measure of quality, since at least two of the (former?) board regulars made no secret that they either don't like my stuff or are only here to read your stuff and/or Visionary's. I can't really do anything about that, it's like writing issues of a Supergirl series and trying to get someone who refuses to read any comic written by you, or any comic with a female lead. It's just not going to happen.

The part that does concern me is when people who used to read my stuff blatantly stop reading it (they're still here, reply to other stuff, etc). I start to feel like either I'm losing what I had, or I never had it in the first place and I'm losing the audience because I didn't manage to improve enough. I try to diagnose the problem, like maybe that last miniseries was too long, or contained thr wrong characters, etc., but when I don't see anything obvious I become a bit self-critical.





I do like writing, but at the same time I feel a little discouraged when nobody else seems to like it. It feels different from eating a food nobody else wants to eat, because writing feels more personal and more permanent. I feel like I have lots of stories that only I want to hear.

The other thing I often think about is whether the characters themselves are the problem. More on that further down.





I have an entirely new series of it that I've been slowly writing but havent't posted. It's what I write for fun these days.





In general I don't mind negative comments. The only kind that annoys me is when I take a risk with a character that's not mine because either nobody else is using it, or nobody is posting to the board, and I get a sort of "how dare you" response, and I'm told I should have either tracked down the original poster-character before starting, or if I can't reach them, don't use the character at all.

And that's only when the "risk" wasn't something particularly damaging, just something like, say, Hatman allowing Chiaki to take the lead on something because she actually has a good plan. I used to do that, and I got a lot of "Hat would never allow anyone else ever under any circumstances take the lead, go rewrite the story with him as the lead or take him out entirely". So mostly now I do the latter, and find a way for him to be either doing something unrelated, or that Chiaki has to solve a problem without him around, or that she takes it on as her own problem, etc.

The reason why that annoys me is because it does not really have anything to do with the story or help with it, it's instead a way of invalidating the whole thing, sometimes even a multiparter. If you notice, a couple times when that happened, I just made that character fall off the map after part 1, because no resolution was better than losing readers over an unwelcome one.





That's where World Class is now.





i have both - Yuki Shiro, including her name, is a parody of every Shirow manga character there is, from Ghost in the Shell on. Anna, likewise, is a parody if every intelligent, highly emotional synthetic person in manga and anime, and in fact she is heavily based on Kosmos from Xenosaga and I vaguely remember some reference to Battle Angel Alita and some others as well. Faite is a parody most people didn't catch. She is like a half goddess and half magical elf parody. So all of those wouldn't really do well outside of the PV.

Chiaki started out as an imitation of the lead character from the live action movie Princess Blade, and named after one of the actresses in Kill Bill, but grew into something entirely her own. She might be able to survive outside of the PV, and can definitely survive without support inside of the PV.

I don't remember what prompted the creation of Liu Xi Xian, but she too grew beyond her initial purpose. Because of her power set though, she either needs the PV or her own entire universe.

Shen Rae also comes out of Xenosaga, the concept of a space captain who works for a corporation, but who was hired because she has beyond human abilities. But then it becomes a little Star Trek and Outlaw Star after that.

For a little trivia, Lara Night was long ago originally created for another shared universe full of characters stolen from both DC and Marvel. I didn't want the other writers there abusing my characters, so I brainstomed someone that was very difficult to understand. I'm fascinated by the mystery of lightning and electricity and energy, so I used those as a basis. And originally she was very mysterious and difficult to motivate, like Faite is now, She worked so well as a complex character that she got me kicked out of that shared universe. Then I had a problem, because she grew so deep and complex that even I had trouble building a cast for her. The PV helped me with that a bit, because it helped me mold her as a problem solver who only needs a few close friends.

But history aside, I do think sometimes that because these characters are such drastically different and unique concepts, maybe the PV readers can't relate them to anything they already know, and therefore are turned off to reading them. The same problem creator owned comics often have.





I would like to burn it all.





I have noticed, amusingly enough, that JK Rowling seems to do the same stream-of-consciousness wandering off in the Harry Potter books that I do. It makes the HP books really long. Of course she has the gift of being able to manage a gigantic cast without losing anyone, too.
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What I see though is my story progression is weak, and my ability to bookend a story - create a clear beginning and end, and stay on course - is also weak.





I've posted a lot of PV stuff that I knew wasn't very good because I didn't have the time to write something else that week, or because I already started posting the story and I can't stop in the middle.

Sometimes though I get the feling I already lost the audience, and I rush to get through the rest, not really caring how it turns out.





Here's the thing about that: If something I write starring Lara Night fails, I feel like I failed the character, someone I "grew up with" and molded for years and years. And I feel like I want to start over again. She's not somene I want to feel like I have to abandon because the story didn't work out. It's why I resist giving her her own series.

This is partly why I started World Class. I'm invested in those characters too, but they are inseperably tied to the story. If the story dies, they die with it. i have a different impression entirely with those.

An origin story might be an exception, though, because it's open ended, and even if it fails, ultimately it's still an "origin bible" I can use later.





That might be an interesting one except for a few problems I'd have to solve, including:

1) Any archvillain capable of harming Lara would probably kill all of the others. Also, her origin is in another universe.

2) Chiaki never had an arch-villain. I've been toying with the concept that her pseudo-archvillain is balancing Akiko Masamune with thr rest of her life, and what happens if that friendship turns sour.

I always thought I might write something where Chiaki has to disappear because her criminal past came back to haunt her, and the others have to uncover what past exactly that is in order to rescue her. The trick is using that as a tool to dig up the others' pasts as well.