Creative Writing and Art [Under Construction]

Art by Governor_Explosion on Twitter

Creative Writing and Art

Writing | Project Management | Art | Programming

When I’m not at work or on the tennis court, I’m writing original stories and fanfiction! It started out as a casual hobby but grew into a huge creative endeavor that taught me writing, art, and basic animation. I almost always work collaboratively, and my longest running story—Streetlight Pursuit—spanned 5 years of creation and over 600,000 words.

Streetlight Pursuit (2019-2024)

Complete, serialized fanfiction, ~600,000 words

Writer | Story Planner | Project Manager | Artist | Animator | Programmer

Team: Elizabeth Sobel, Sarah Hudadoff, and Rowan Wolschleger

**Summary**: Margarita ‘Rita’ Zeppeli moved to New York to catch petty thieves and cheating husbands. But the city had other plans: there are murderers with invisible weapons, rooms with no exits, and criminals with no heartbeats. In the face of an unprecedented supernatural outbreak, Rita discovers the Informer Co detective agency—the only people who know how to stop it, and she becomes embroiled in a journey of friendship, danger, and bizarre mysteries that she would’ve never imagined possible.
**Genre:** Paranormal detective fiction, action, mystery
**Fandom:** Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

*Art by Elizabeth Sobel*

Origin and Personal Learnings

This project was a collaboration between myself and three friends from college. It originated from an idea for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and after we decided to shift to a written format, it became a source of creative motivation and personal development. Completing this project has been a huge personal achievement and has taught me so much about creating stories and online communities. Some of those learnings included:

Writing prose and compelling stories
Planning stories and managing project length, deadlines, and scope
Releasing content weekly over long periods of time (2 years)
Collaboration with other creators (Streetlight has ‘crossovers’ with other Jojo fanfic creators. Including my 3 cowriters for Streetlight, I have written and released stories with 5 other writers)
Digital art (character art and backgrounds)
Creating ‘animatics’ and basic animation videos
Multimedia storytelling (one arc of the story featured a website created by me (React, hosted on Github Pages)

Art Progression

Above all else, Streetlight Pursuit taught me that there is no shame in trying. The act of creating is a reward in and of itself, and if you keep at it, you’ll realize along the way that you’ve gotten so much better than when you started.

An animatic I created over 3 months while learning to draw in 2022.

My art progression from October 2022 - October 2024.

Art Showcase

Some of my favorite pieces I’ve created.

Collaborative Art

I love collaboration in all creative forms—I’ve often found that group creations are greater than the sum of their parts, if you can coordinate the project. Take a look at some collaborative pieces I’ve overseen the creation of.

A three person collaboration between myself, Elizabeth Sobel, and Moe Thauk. I drew the right half of the seated character and the woman in the mirror, and her arm in the foreground. (October 2024)

A collaboration by twenty creators, overseen by myself. I drew the man with the yo-yos in the top left and the woman in the purple suit at the bottom left. (September 2024)

Shiiva (2023-present)

In-Progress, comic series (digital and physical)

Writer & Story Planner

Team: Mildly Anxious (aka Mae) on Twitter

**Summary**: Head-eating parasites have taken over the world and the only survivors live among the clouds. On top of a desolate tower lives Mabu, a lonely girl with a parasite on her head who wishes for friends. One particular day, a woman with an 'explosive' personality wanders nearby, drawing Mabu's attention. Could this be her chance to make a friend? Follow Mabu on a story about friendship, love and destruction.
**Genres:** Post apocalyptic, action/adventure

Art by Mae

Origin and Personal Learnings

This project is created and led by Mae, and it is her first published comic series. She invited me onto the project as a writer after Streetlight Pursuit wrapped up, and I am an equal co-creator for the writing and story direction. Some of my biggest takeaways from working on this project include:

Comic-style storytelling
Writing concise, compelling dialogue
UX Content principles for English to Spanish translation
Working in limited scope

This piece is dedicated to every person who took the time to read our niche passion project and support us as we made it into a reality.

Check out some of my other work below.