Alternative question to the one you answered earlier:
How long did you think about/prepare for the comic before you started the comic and did you ever worry that it might not take off?
I came up with the design for White Diamond Steven on August 4th, 2018. At that time, I also said this:
.......famous last words.
Going against my own advice, I DID think about how it all happened. I thought about it for a month, and then in September I sat down and banged out the very first White Diamond AU comic - the one about Earl and Steven leaving together.
To tell the truth, at the time I just thought it would be a neat little idea. I never worried about it 'not taking off' because..... taking off wasn't my goal. I had no diabolical plans to craft a 5-season story, the longest I'd ever done. I had no aspirations to make this AU incredibly popular or well known.
I just wanted to draw silly comics about White Diamond Steven and his Pearl wandering around together.
The original concept for all this wasn't an epic tale. It was just a slice of life.... a very odd slice of life, but a slice of life nevertheless.
Which is why the first season of the story is what it is! Some people complain that it's directionless and boring, but. That was kinda the point. It was meant to be a melancholy, atmospheric little comic strip.
There wasn't any specific goal. I had a backstory, of course, and I KNEW even back then what was happening. But I assumed the interest - both mine and the audience's - would wane and I would just leave it whenever its time had come.
But by October, we had already come to this:
And I think it was around this time (or shortly before it) that I realized that this story couldn't remain in a perpetual just-vibes state forever. I had teased some hints about where the Crystal Gems were, and what their situation was. I had hinted that there was more to the story than had been revealed. And I suddenly thought that maybe I could actually write it.
.... and I kinda did.
(It's still weird to think about how MUCH I've written/drawn for this.)
I think.... a lot of people believe that writing/planning a story is something that happens on command. You sit down, you take a blank sheet of paper, you start from the beginning, and write everything in chronological order, and maybe in a week, or a month, or a year, you'll have 'the plan to write a story'.
And sure, that's one way to do it! But a lot of time, the story comes to YOU.
Rebecca Sugar knew Rose was Pink Diamond before the first episode aired. Was Steven Universe a planned story back then? Arguably, no. But the team had a framework.
I also knew, before drawing a single comic, what WD!Steven's deal was. I knew within about a day how he had come to be. I knew how Greg got involved in all of it. I knew the answer to every single 'BUT WHY DID WHITE DIAMOND--' question you guys have asked me for the past 5 years before I even created this blog.
But that isn't really a 'plan' so much as a concept.
I continue to plan the comics to this day. I know the end, and I know the main story beats. But the middle stuff about how to get there elegantly - that part takes planning. And I never really stopped planning since that day in 2018.
Here's to... more planning in the upcoming year!