So let me start with how The Mannamong came to be.
I feel it’s important to note that I’ve been working on this story since I was 12 years old. This will help others understand the time and dedication involved and maybe inspire them not to give up on their dreams.
I don’t remember exactly when and how the idea came to me, but I know it was around the very early years of my middle school life. I had always liked playing pretend stories with my friends and narrating events with toys (mostly, it was Legos) when not playing video games.
They were almost always about popular TV/Movie characters at the time. But this idea I had of a little girl encountering a mystical creature and befriending it led to a series of different scenarios and adventures plaguing the daydreaming mind. I soon started to write these ideas down and decided I wanted to create this for real. From then on, I knew I wanted to turn this story into my IP somehow. At the time, though, I still wasn’t sure how to express it and in which medium it would be.
Discovering my purpose
Since I like drawing more than writing, I did doodles like every young aspiring artist. And I knew I wanted The Mannamong to have visuals as its foundation. So writing a novel was immediately off the table. The three principal ideals were to make it a video game, a comic, or an animated television show. At first, I wanted it to be a video game since I naively believed I could program one easily. I did partake in courses on video game design that my mother signed me up for, but I quickly learned it wasn’t as easy as I thought. Nor did I have the patience for it.
With that clearing my vision, I decided I wanted it animated. Like that’s any easier, huh? Although I still dream of having my work animated, I knew I couldn’t do it alone. So, my only option left was to do comics. It seemed like the single viable approach I alone could do. It helped that I liked to draw characters from my favorite shows, movies, and games. I remember making trading cards of said characters for fun with my friends. And everyone who ever saw my art liked it: my peers, teachers, and parents.
Over the years, as I trudged along throughout middle and high school, I kept my doodles, notes, and crude storyboards to myself as I continually tried to polish and hone my skills to make the story more concise. I did not use all of my ideas. Some stayed, some got renewed, and some were new in favor of the old ideas. A lot of revisions have happened over the years. Today, it’s a different product compared to how I initially started it back then, but that’s another story for a different time.
The point is, The Mannamong gave me a goal. It gave me a desire to go to a college that could give me the skills to turn this project into a professional IP and meet the right people to help make it come true. I was still reworking my ideas, so much that I must’ve rewritten the story more than ten times. But my passion kept encouraging me subconsciously because I wanted to do it. I wouldn’t be writing all this if that desire were ever so fleeting.
The best part of this journey was that more story ideas emerged. Now, even if my magnum opus fails me, I’ll have other ideas I’d like to have come to fruition. But I know it won’t fail me, and neither will the other cool stories I want to share with you all. These years gave me a lot of creative content and peace of mind.
I’m well aware of how difficult this journey is. Heck, I know I’m not the only visionary in the world. So what makes me different? Well, I struggle and continue to struggle sometimes emotionally about my perseverance. But it’s all I’ve got to make my life meaningful and fun. And it really wouldn’t be a journey if it were smooth sailing, now would it? I try my best to look at everything through a story mindset. I’ve been enamored with storytelling since I wanted to create my fictional work.
And here we are now. Ten years out of school, two volumes already out, and a third on the way. That’s my beginning.
Let’s see where it goes.