To write my stories, I follow these three steps:

1. I handwrite the first draft of each chapter, using office pens or thick water-based markers to write. I write on lined paper, mostly on yellow legal pads or college-ruled notebooks. As I write, it feels like I'm experiencing the scenes visually, almost like watching a TV series, transcribing what I see and feel to the page. I don't worry about any major mistakes or second-guess my writing; I just focus on finishing the chapter.

2. I take a picture of the hand-written chapter, then upload this to my computer. With these pictures on the screen, I rewrite on the computer what I handwrote, using this opportunity to tweak the original text, fixing errors I identify and add or remove what feels right. This step ends up producing the second draft of each chapter, which is what gets added to each Venture page, labeled as part of the In-Progress Release of that Venture.

3. Once ALL the chapters of a Venture are complete, I then go back and create a third (and final) draft for each chapter. Here, I focus on refining the text and addressing remaining issues, from surface-level spelling and grammar errors to missing elements and subpar writing. Also, to make sure that the writing sounds good, I will read the chapters out loud or put them through text-to-speech programs, which lets me to get a stronger feel for the writing as a complete work. Once this third draft is finished, the Venture is updated to be the Final Release, with all the hyperlinks now added to the Venture page.

To create my illustrations, I follow these five steps:

1. I create a sketch of the drawing by hand, using cheap materials like office pens and any kind of paper I have. As I draw, I just focus on getting the sketch done—allowing myself to draw lightly, sketch over mistakes, and use cross-hatching. When drawing something with a finished design, I only need to create 1-2 sketches, while new designs will require at least 3 different sketches. To help me draw complex poses, I will take a picture of myself performing the pose, then use this as a reference image while sketching.

2. I take picture of the sketch, then upload this to my computer—where I use a wireless trackball mouse to work. From here, I will copy the sketch to a new file in the pixel art program GraphicsGale, where I first resize the picture before I then HEAVILY modify it. I will move and cut parts, flip the whole picture, and address all the mistakes I can find. This step creates a sort of “skeleton,” which ultimately guides how the illustration will look like in the end—thus this is THE most important step of the whole illustration process.

3. I create new layers in GraphicsGale, using the Line Tool to draw over the skeleton from the last step with a dark or highly contrasting color (usually black, hot pink, or lime green). I make a new layer for every body part, using different colors for each part, the focus here being on creating the outlines for the entire illustration.

4. Once all the outlines are done, I transfer them to a different pixel art program, Aseprite, where I use the Paint Bucket and Replace Color tools to give the illustration its colors. To add shading, I copy the illustration back to GraphicsGale, where I use the Line Tool to draw where the shadows and brightened parts should be, coloring them in back in Aseprite. When adding my shading, I do my best to be accurate and keep a consistent light source—usually the top-right corner.

5. With the shading done, I finally leave the illustration in Aseprite, where any last tweaks are added. The entire illustration process takes around 4 hours for each piece—from the moment when the pen hits the paper to when the project is finished in Aseprite. The more characters in an illustration, the longer the process usually takes.