ExTheHex Volume #4: Writing and Drawing Sunny Miami TF

This is a part of the ExTheHex series; posts where I show off my abadoned WIPs and explain why. You can check out the rest of the series here.

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You may have noticed something with the stories this year: I’ve drawn all my own thumbnails! Writing kind of snuck up on me in life as something I’m talented at, but I’ve wanted to be able to draw since I was a little kid. Getting better at it is something I’m super interested in. To facilitate that, my goal for this year is to draw every thumbnail for all my stories, with the only exception being potential gift stories with other people’s OCs, or if I commission someone else to draw it (maybe a few stories this year will be like that)

However, the first time I tried to draw art for a story never saw the light of day. The art got done, but the story was never finished!

I think Sunny Miami TF is an excellent kink. A lot of my friends draw it, and I’ve been meaning to write something with it for a long time. Back in May of 2022, I set out to do some of it turning Alm and Celica from Fire Emblem into opposite gender human-sized dolls, ready to pseudo-fuck. 

I was even so excited for it, I decided to draw art to go with it for the very first time ever. My artwork is still a major WIP, even moreso back then, but thankfully Sunny Miami bodies are pretty simple things to draw. It ended up coming out decently for my skill level at the time, I think.

So, why did the story fall through and never see daylight until now?

Sometimes when I write, I am a tad disorganized and jump around a lot. I very rarely make outlines for my work. I’m a big proponent of writing the hot part first, and then if it’s good enough to use from there, molding the front end of the story to set that up later. Overall I like this method, though sometimes when I’m writing in multiple sessions, it can lead to some repetitive phrasing and messy splicing that can be messy to clean up. It’s been two years, but I’m pretty sure this piece had these problems.

Another big issue is I felt kinda “locked” into the story after drawing that. I’ve come to learn that, for creative stuff, I really do not like being forced into something, even if it’s something simple. Some little form of invisible restraint sets me back a bit. I can for sure work with it and overcome it, but splicing together this story didn’t get me excited for the task. My workflow has changed so that I generally only make the thumbnail after the story is ready to go.

Also, honestly, Pokemon Home updated at around that point and I was having way too much fun using my shinies from PLA in BDSP and SWSH. Pokemon Legends Arceus is just too goated, I’m afraid.

I don’t think I’ll ever go back to finish this one. I feel like sometime in 2023 I had a “level up” moment with my writing and it’s sometimes difficult to go back to old wips before that and get my older material to that place. Losing work in a form that I can’t easily present publicly as a completed piece is a bit frustrating at times, but I’ve come to learn not to get too down about it. Ultimately it’s still kicking the can down the way for developing and improving art skills, so it still contributes a little something to whatever does next see the light of day. And hey, now I have these posts as a way to share the interesting stuff!