-September, 13, 2022 

TNT Tuesday

Current word count: 57,644!

Hyello everyone, it’s Joy! The creative director and writer for Tattoos and Tulips as well as the cofounder of “Meant to Bee Studios”. 

So, tt’s been a pretty crazy/busy week for me, got lots of things in the works. We’ll be halfway through September this week meaning, halfway through the editing process so I feel it’s appropriate to talk about some more members of the TNTeam (and the most plentiful) Proofreaders/Betas. As well as our logo and it’s relevancy. 

As a once aspiring novelist and fanfic author, betas have been a huge part of my writing process. I don’t trust anything I’ve written unless it’s been looked over by 10 or so strangers lmao. But, in all seriousness, I believe having good beta readers/proofreaders is the key to growing as writer. I can guarantee Tattoos and Tulips wouldn’t be half as good as it is without them!

All my betas are lovely, smart, and always willing to help me. Whether it be a typo I missed, a clumsy sentence, or a story inconsistency they’ve got my back. The most important part has been how my proofreader/betas serve as our ‘pseudo audience’ they are my only window into how my potential audience will react to Tattoos and Tulips, its characters, and the romance between Chrys and Shay.

Of course I love them, and though a healthy amount of self indulgence and love for your project is super important, it’s also important to me that others love Tattoos and Tulips. I’ve been fortunate enough to have passionate and talented people on my team. Writers, creative directors, artists, voice actors, streamers, you name it!

All my betas come from so many different backgrounds and yet spend some of their precious free time with my project and that makes me so happy! It’s also a good indicator that for you all reading this, this visual novel will also be well worth your time.

I’d love to pull attention to each and every proofreader/beta I have but I will stick to 3 this week.

Olivia, Crawf, and Yona.

These three whether they realize it or not are all so similar. The way they give back feedback is in this gushy and heartwarming way. Their criticism is always well thought out and honest, but delivered in such a helpful friendly way. And they all 3 have hot pink original character profile pictures. (I just found that to be an interesting coincidence).

Let’s start with Olivia my only proofreader/beta to have proofread the draft to completion! Olivia is the Creative Director and Writer of her own project Adopt a Boyfriend:

Olivia, was one of my first beta/proofreaders and despite having her own projects and responsibilities is so kind to dedicate so much of her time to this project. Not just in the writing department either, she’s always talking to the other team members, providing helpful feedback, and just being a bubbly and fun individual to talk to!

Next is Crawf, who is one of the most incredible women I’ve ever met, super dedicated. Manages her time between school, being a parent, and helping with one of the hardest parts of development: the writing.

Crawf is always willing to talk about writing, as like Olivia above she is a writer as well. I always enjoy talking to other writers about writing (I mean it is my passion) she’s so easy to talk to and pours so much of her love into the project.

Last but not least, Yona! Yona is like the two before her, much the same. Fun to talk to, creative, and passionate about the project. She has such a keen eye for things I would have never thought about and is quick to inform me on things I didn’t know.

She’s probably the most honest of the 3 and I am so thankful for that. It’s always good to know someone is willing to tell you the hard stuff. But she does it in such a way I am always forced to come to the conclusion they’re right and I have to clean up my act (so to speak). 

These 3 are just a taste of the incredible talent I have on my team. I couldn’t be more thankful to them again for dedicating their precious time to the project and I would love to work with them again in the future, whether on their projects or mine.

I’m going to shift gears and talk about this instead:

Designing a logo is probably the most difficult part of development so far if you can believe it. If you think about it there is so much involved in a good and affective logo. 

We had these ideas drafted up and voted on by the other TNTeam members in the server. It was a near sweep for 3 and I agree, it was my favorite, though we couldn’t have gone wrong with any of them.

I’ve never put much thought into these things before this project and because of the amount of frustration that has come with designing one I like, it will be here on out be the first thing I work on in regards to a project (excluding the writing ofc).

This logo was actually designed by myself, meaning I came up with the layout this is my sketch. (Don’t laugh…ok maybe a little).

Obviously our logo designer, Beetlewitch does a much better job than my pathetic excuse for a sketch, but it got the general idea across. Apparently it was helpful because so far I am the happiest with the drafts we have for it.

Soon we should have a completed logo to show off, and I for one cannot wait. 

That’s it for this week! But, before I go, we just opened our Discord to the public! Tattoos and Tulips demo release will be January 1st 2023!

So if you are interested in this project and want to meet my lovely teammates and myself we are always down to chat about all sorts of stuff. Most notably: queer and cute stuff!

Join the Meant to Bee Studios server here:  https://discord.gg/6242cSgmsV

We look forward to meeting you!

-Joy