Story Rewrites.....and Re-Rewrites

Have I told you guys that I've rewritten the story for my Hunters comic not once, not twice, but four different times?! Honestly, it's bound to happen when you've been working on the same project for more than 8 years now.

Kinda-ish major spoiler warning! Most of my spouting makes more sense if you've read my comic here; some information from previous patron posts may help.....but not completely. And I will be discussing some info brand new to the comic that may not come up for a while but I wanna do a sneak peek, I also have a couple of important questions related to this post at the end that I'd like feedback on, and anyways here we go!

So technically I've changed around a bunch of details constantly throughout the years, but in terms of the general heart of the conflict, the plot has undergone significant changes year after year, with something a lot more finalized decided mere weeks ago.

Did you know in the original story Laruk was actually a very strong-willed outsider who was actively searching for the pack and intended to learn from and stay with them, and technically wasn't even the story protagonist?? Technically it was a back-and-forth perspective change between Laruk and a few of the pack wolves? Yeah, I know!

I had 3 major inspirations for Hunters to begin with: online wolf comics Chakra (Arven92) and Wurr (Paperiapina), as well as the well-known book series Warriors (you can imagine where the title Hunters came from now if it wasn't already obvious.....) Chakra and Wurr heavily inspired some of the designs and scenic elements for Hunters, but Warriors was a major inspiration for the story. And when I say inspiration.......I almost kinda mean rip-off.

Wild cats roamed in a forest for 4 Clans in a modern world, with house pet Rusty longing for something more and finding / joining ThunderClan to become a "true" wild cat, and choosing to stay with the forest cats while discovering secrets and uncovering conspiracies since he was part of a prophecy completely unknown to him.

Sound familiar?

In a fantasy world live a pack of wolves with strange fur and unusual powers, approached by an outsider longing for something more, learning more about becoming a true wolf and eventually choosing to stay with the pack even though her coming and stay and fighting was determined by prophecy anyways? Like I said; very similar.

There are more elements to the initial story that I basically took from Warriors. It wasn't until I grew a little more as a writer and an artist that I realized the story had to change. I switched the story to only Laruk's perspective. And then Laruk changed a little more too, with her now more passive (she wasn't as fearful or nervous as her character is nowadays). Instead of apprentices, I referred to younger wolves as trainees, and instead of one mentor, they had two, one a bitch and the other a brute (yes, I gave genders actual identifications by now) of very different personalities to teach younger wolves different sides so they can truly develop their own style of fighting / hunting / defending their pack / upholding traditions.

Those weren't some of the only changes. After a while, the designs of a lot of the characters were altered. And even during the process of drawing the comic some of the designs changed slightly between the prologue and current Chapter Two pages! (fun fact Diala was the first of the wolves that I designed!)

There were still many elements similar to Warriors by the time I finished the prologue for the comic. But, I felt there were enough differences that I didn't worry too much about it. Chapter 1 was underway, and it was then that I solidified adding Hileu and Tiq for the story. But did you know that it was planned at the time for Laruk to go back and forth between the human village and the pack? Yeah, that idea was also a bit too Warriors-ish and was essentially scrapped before I drew the Tiq-and-bear fight.

Eventually I set Hileu and Tiq aside (unsure at that time if they would reappear or not), and had more of an idea of the story. I did want Laruk to accidentally come across the pack and beg to be taught by them, beg to be taught as a real wolf, but now I didn't want Laruk to stay with the pack by the end of it (spoiler, but it really doesn't affect the story much; she would have the same motivations either way). Pretty much all the characters were solidified:

• Nysha and Alina were sisters that would serve as close friends and allies to Laruk
• Idredo and Diala, the betas, were to serve as Laruk's mentors
• Seldrad was the alpha of the pack, leading alongside his mate Dadli, the former of whom knew of a prophecy that potentially involved Laruk hence why he allowed her to stay with the pack
• There were a number of characters that took a dislike to Laruk, wolves that have been seen in the current comic and ones that have yet to appear (notably Vashado, Toruk, Ptaki, Stolk, Diala, and Nyda)

Perfect! I've got a number of characters and have figured out the major plot events for the story and have basically come up with everything I need to!

..........except, not really. I forgot an important element. The background information.

For the longest time I hadn't considered the origins of the pack. It wasn't until last year (or maybe the year before) that I had to think, "Where did this wolf pack even come from? How did they come into existence?"

Those that saw my recent posts on Boundless Earth & Starry Sky might know more than most that read my comic. The two wolves present in that concept piece, Amarok and Fenris, were essentially two wolves that served as the first of the pack we know today in the Hunters universe.

Suddenly I was thinking about so much more, so much I had not considered. The pack of wolves I created was big, larger than regular packs (25 as opposed to 8 or 9 in normal packs)! But I already had the characters, and the story, and everyone played some kind of role! This was a nightmare! There had to be more to the history, and how could I explain the obscenely large pack size, how had I not figured out all the family trees, and what was going on with another wolf pack in the mix related to the story?!

I actually started panicking!!!

.....so I calmly inhaled, took a figurative step back.....and I decided from here that I had to first figure out the family tree. I only had a few certainties related to familial relations, but that meant there were a number of families and random wolves I hadn't figured out. I created a lot of family trees over the years, some digital, others traditional, but pretty much all were scrapped. Still, I had this weird way of keeping all the info that I thought worked, in my head.....couldn't explain how, but alright.

I started working from the most important characters (like Seldrad, Diala, Nylin, Idredo, Nysha, and Alina) to figure out what needed to occur. Something came to mind as I worked out this family tree. Why were there so many wolves without solid families? And why did most wolves seem to only have one sibling or be an only child? Why didn't I think too hard on parental relationships?

Then it hit me.....one of the initial ideas for this story, a concept I used from the comic Chakra, was this truth: these aren't average wolves. They each have their own unique abilities in addition to special and unusual coloration. Granted, this hasn't come up yet, and won't until the end of Chapter 2, but some might have seen it coming honestly.

Fast facts: in a typical wolf pack only the alphas can mate (just how the heirarchy works). But what if in the case of the Hunters pack there's a higher chance that pups may not survive being born? In addition what if the mothers would sometimes not survive the birthing? All because they are not ordinary wolves, with powers and abilities beyond normal capacities? That could explain why not only the alphas can mate, and why there are so many families. And why there are so many broken families.

This single concept and idea, though dark in nature, was quite literally the catalyst for everything else. It explained the numerous small families beyond the alphas, the strained relationships between all kinds of wolves, why it seemed some wolves might be missing from the picture, why the pack was so large........it even provided the necessary push to explain the pack's history, and eventually serve as the major underlying conflict for the whole story.

Yes! The unusual survival rate for mothers and pups of this powerful pack was the entire reason that I changed character existences, motivations, and basically the whole plot for the comic! And this wasn't all decided until a decent amount into writing and coloring Chapter 2: The Outsider!

*inhales*

So yes. Mere weeks / months ago, I had finally solidified the ideas I needed for my comic. I had the background, all the character motivations, the current plot and how it went forward, and most importantly, why it went forward the way it did. Suddenly this comic turned into something that no longer resembled Warriors. Even if still loosely-based on some concepts from Warriors and Chakra and Wurr, it was now my own story, with my own world, my own story, with every character greatly considered and thought hard about.

Rewrites will always happen with writers. I've done it with many of my stories, and have clearly redone a lot with my comic. But figuring out that one idea that set everything else in motion in a way that made perfect sense......only a writer can truly understand the subsequent relief and utterly satisfying emotion that comes with it. So yeah. Hunters has undergone a lot of changes since not only it's conception, but it's first published pages. And now I know the when, the who, the why, and the how, and it feels so good to have it figured out......I cannot wait to tell the whole story, because while you have a bit of a sneak peek, there is still a lot left to show and tell and explain. I have even begun to dig deeper into this whole mess that I accidentally and purposefully created.

Now the questions, and a quick thanks for reading this far!

First question! Should I create an official family tree for some patrons? Should I not create one? Should I wait a little bit before posting the family tree?? Let me know!

Second question! I put a lot of personal feelings and thoughts into this post. How would this look as a simple storytelling animatic?? (I've been watching a lot of Jaiden Animations vids so the idea kinda occurred to me as a result) Thoughts? Again, let me know!

And of course, if you would like to see my progress with all my video, art, and writing projects, check out my new Trello page! I've been updating it with all kinds of things, including projects you may not even know about!