Bite Sized Interviews - An Interview With Author 'ItsSomething'

Posted by VividLucidity 5 years ago

 

Today on Bite Sized Interviews, we’ll be taking with “ItsSomething”, a notable vore writer who funnily enough, came to me to begin with! And what can I say, I do enjoy satisfying people’s desires to be interviewed. Let’s begin with our second interview.

Vivid Lucidity:
So, let’s start off with you shall we? Tell the audience about yourself, who you and what you do in the field of vore.

ItsSomething:
Well, I'm a writer, as you said. I started off writing Touhou and Monster Girl Quest fics, but over time I've been moving more and more into OC interactions. I used to be a role-player, as well, mostly on Facebook - but I was given the banhammer one tok many times to bother going back. Haven't had much time to RP since then, sadly.

Vivid Lucidity:
Ah, a modern tragedy that we all know well. I RP from time to time myself, but enough about that, let’s talk about you. Why did you start with Touhou and Monster Girl Quest? Did those characters just leap out at you and beg to be written in the field of vore?

ItsSomething:
Well, I was a(n?) RPer long before I was a writer. Shinki, from Touhou, and Ilias, from MGQ, were two characters I had RP'd as for a long time. I had the most experience writing them, while the thought of them with a vore belly didn't squick me as much as the only other character that comes near them in terms of experience writing them: Lu Bu, from Dynasty Warriors.

Vivid Lucidity:
I see. You only wanted to do what you were comfortable with, which we can all sympathise with. If you don’t mind me asking though, why did you move out into OC’s?

ItsSomething:
Well, that started on my F-List days. I took an older character's name, slapped him with a trap appearance and a huge dick, and rebuilt him from there as Kaishi Komeiji. Then I had started developing the world I was using for Shinki, which is where Hikaru, in a more recent story, was originally from. My first true, canonless OC was Ivory Stark. Ittsu came a while later as I saw so many folks with author/artist inserts, and wanted one of my own. Koko came from a Shoggoth fetish.

As for the more recent wave, Reiyali is to thank for that, as she suggested I make Kaishi my own character, no Touhou attached. He'd fit better with the other Portal bois that way - Tyler, Toby, and Shinobu in particular. As Kaishi was being revamped, I decided to make the characters I once had for Makai into Mojie - the Chinese reading of the kanji. Basically the same, except Shinki isn't there, so everyone there is a true OC now. This was actually not long after I got the cockvore sketch from Rei featuring Hikaru with a micro Shinki in his dick, so...Pretty recent.

Vivid Lucidity:
Wow, that’s quite the answer! I’m curious however by what you said about a “author/artist insert?” though. That’s where you make a character that is very much “you” in a sense, where you would want to be in such a world?

ItsSomething:
Hmm. Could you elaborate on that question? That seems fairly vague.

Vivid Lucidity:
The question is more what is an author insert character? For the readers that aren't too educated on the concept.

ItsSomething:
Oh! Well, as you say, an author insert is basically the writer's personality; perhaps in another body. Ittsu has my traits and speech - at least from what I've observed of myself - but she's actually the opposite sex and gender, along with being curvy and cute instead of being a few steps above the "ugly bastard" tag.
She also actually has made a name for herself in her world, instead of being..Well...Poor and unknown-

Vivid Lucidity:
Ah, thank you. And don’t talk down to yourself like that! You’ve got more than 10 times the views than me at the very least!
Getting back on topic, let’s move onto a completely different one. The technics of writing. How you do it. Are you more in the write fast, make mistakes, edit them later camp? Or are you much more of a slow, plodding, edit it as you go kind of writer?

ItsSomething:
Hmmm. Depdnds on how many distractions I gotta deal with. If I have YouTube and games to worry about, it can easily take a long time to get through. But when I'm focused hardcore, I can churn out an 8k+ commission in about 3 days. But I do tend to just write as I go along, and edit as I go. That's my secret to why every piece of writing on my gallery is a first draft!

Vivid Lucidity:
Well I didn’t notice that they were first drafts in the few I had a look over. And I have to admit, they are quite nice and well written, that is a compliment I must give. Do you have any tips to give for any budding writers out there, who are either wishing to get into writing, or are already writing away?

ItsSomething:
Yeah, the biggest tip I can give is to keep writing, and keep reading. It sounds cliche, but you will get better as time goes on. Look at any writer's first endeavors compared to their current ones. Look at Halcyon's Nyan Adventures, and how scenes get so much more detailed as the chapters go on. See how they improved, and know that you'll improve, too. Read also to see how your favorite writers portray what you like, and take notes. Work it into your future writings while giving it your own voice. This applies not just to vore writing, but to any kind of fiction.

Also, don't feel discouraged because you don't get as many views, favorites, or comments as the pictures do. Fewer people may stick around to read, but those who do stick around are those who are more invested in your work in particular. The numbers mean nothing if they're just passing through.

Vivid Lucidity:
Yes, yes, these are all very good points. Especially the part about one should keep writing. How else can one get better than by practice? And note taking is rather important too.
While we’re on the topic of quality, here are three quick questions for you.
What’s the favourite story you’ve written? What’s the least favourite? And finally, are there any stories you’ve published, yet regretted publishing later on? That you wished you just kept it to yourself?

ItsSomething:
My favorite - I use the American spelling, as a New Yorker - is still the second-person story I wrote featuring Kaishi, though the current cast-wiping one is also quite fun!
My least favorite is easily my Ahri story. I literally put scat in there just to pad the length, and until my Nozomi mass anal vore story, it was my most favorited story.

As for one I regretted publishing...Probably "Hotarumarunomi!" A Touken Ranbu vore story requested by Reiyali after...No, that one was my end of a trade with her for Old!Kaishi's mawshots. Mostly because it shamed me as a creator, as while technically well-written, it was six far cries from what Reiyali really wanted. I basically rewrote it from scratch, but never replaced the old version with the new. I deleted it while reorganizing my gallery. I should have asked her if everything was fine before uploading it to the gallery.

Vivid Lucidity:
I see. I find it strange though that the story that you liked the least seemed to get the most favourites! Do you think that’s true sometimes? That the less a creator likes something, the more the general public likes it?

ItsSomething:
I think the Ahri story was only so successful because it featured Ahri, honestly. She's a fan favorite for lewds, including vore. Not because I disliked it; that's correlation, not causation.
Though, there could be a level where the public liking a lower-effort piece than what the creator thinks as their magnum opus makes them spiteful towards the lower-effort piece. Tchaikovsky comes to mind, and how he hated the 1812 Overture, claiming it was noisy.
His fault, though, calling for cannons.

Vivid Lucidity:
I mean, yes, it is his fault. You can’t put cannons in something and not expect it to blow up! Get it, because cannons have explosive powder, and the phrase ‘blow up’ can refer to a drastic increase in popularity…

…

Okay, bad joke aside, maybe it is correlation vs causation, maybe it isn’t. Who knows! I haven’t experienced it personally, but I have heard of it happening in other mediums. People on Youtube who’s most popular videos are the ones that they don’t put that much effort into. Who knows.
Personally, one of my theories is that the majority of readers aren’t good writers themselves. So, they enjoy reading things that are on a skill level similar to their own, which is the lower brow, low effort stuff. Do you think there’s any truth to such a theory?

ItsSomething:
Hmm. Perhaps, at least as far as lewds are concerned, a reader with less writing experience is more likely to cling to a writer that gets on with the lewds. Of course, lower-quality writers also tend to put out more fanfic works, and more frequent works so they show up on the Portal more. So, they're statistically more likely to get views and favorites than someone with incredible skills, but infrequent posts. And YouTube algorithms don't even need to apply!
But it only takes a look at a "favorite writers" thread - those sometimes pop up - to see who people tend to like the most.
And from what I last saw...Damn, Aces and ThunderKing are up there.

Vivid Lucidity:
While we're on the topic, what are some quirks you've noticed, certain themes wherein if your story has it, it becomes much more popular? Like for example, something I've noticed is that versions of stories that have disposal in them get more views than the versions that don't.

ItsSomething:
Hmm. Looking between my most favorited stories, I'd say it would be popular canons. Keijo still has a following for its vore potential, and I already explained the Ahri story. The most viewed story, I think, was the one where Ilias got eaten on vore day. I dunno how that one got so big. It may have just been herm pred and lamia pred cockvore, alongside the thumbnail.

Vivid Lucidity:
Ahh, okay then. That makes sense, popular canons giving popular vore stories. The bigger the fan base, the more people overall that would like to see the characters be eaten.
Well, I think that’s really all the questions I can think of. I’d like to thank you for your time and coming on to this interview. Thank you.

ItsSomething:
Alright! And one more tip for budding writers:

If you have friends - on the Portal or otherwise - into vore, ask them to be your beta readers. You're more likely to get fair critique that way!

Vivid Lucidity:
Thank you, and that's good advice.