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rowynIt feels very strange not to have done an entry in the last couple of days. Which is in itself odd, because I've certainly gone much longer without posting an entry.
Yesterday was inordinately busy. 11 hours at work and baking cookies for a goodie day today pretty much ate up the whole day. Oh, and I wrote quick answers to a handful of emails. Writing sometimes seems like more of a chore than it ought to.
I haven't written anything for Scales since Monday, and nothing for Prophecy since Sunday. But I have worked on a bit of fiction, of a sort. One of the recurring things at the back of my mind is "I should do a web comic". I don't know why it's there; I hardly ever draw any more, and long ago I figured I'd have a better shot at writing professionally than doing anything involving illustration. But it's there, almost like a challenge: Could I even do it, if I tried?
I know that I could do a comic book if I tried, because I've done short illustrated stories before. But the gag-a-day pace of a standard comic strip has always seemed awfully complicated to me. How do you come up with one quick joke after another? When I'd hear Scott Kellogg or Howard Tayler write about coming up with ten or more scripts in a sitting, I'd always marvel at it.
Anyway, this was all bubbling around in my head during the day Tuesday, along with character ideas and possible punchlines. I sat down Tuesday night, wrote up some notes on the subject. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday, I jotted out a dozen or so scripts for individual comics. So now I have a slightly better understanding for how the process can snowball, with one joke leading to the next.
Of course, jotting out a bunch of jokes on a brand new idea is a far cry from continuing to come up with joke after joke after joke on a strip you've been writing for years. Not to mention that it's one thing to do a script, and quite another to draw it. I rather expect that I'd run out of steam for this venture long before I got through the second month, even if I put this on the front burner.
As it is, though, it's definitely a back-burner project -- something to toy with while it's fun and put away when it's not. Or when I need to focus on top-level projects.
For example, tonight, I have to work on Prophecy. And possibly on my basement -- I want to get those two remaining cracks sealed, and put a layer of cement over the east wall to smooth it out (it looks terrible at the moment, even more uneven and bumpy than before I started).
Maybe I'll have time for some fun in there, somewhere.
Yesterday was inordinately busy. 11 hours at work and baking cookies for a goodie day today pretty much ate up the whole day. Oh, and I wrote quick answers to a handful of emails. Writing sometimes seems like more of a chore than it ought to.
I haven't written anything for Scales since Monday, and nothing for Prophecy since Sunday. But I have worked on a bit of fiction, of a sort. One of the recurring things at the back of my mind is "I should do a web comic". I don't know why it's there; I hardly ever draw any more, and long ago I figured I'd have a better shot at writing professionally than doing anything involving illustration. But it's there, almost like a challenge: Could I even do it, if I tried?
I know that I could do a comic book if I tried, because I've done short illustrated stories before. But the gag-a-day pace of a standard comic strip has always seemed awfully complicated to me. How do you come up with one quick joke after another? When I'd hear Scott Kellogg or Howard Tayler write about coming up with ten or more scripts in a sitting, I'd always marvel at it.
Anyway, this was all bubbling around in my head during the day Tuesday, along with character ideas and possible punchlines. I sat down Tuesday night, wrote up some notes on the subject. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday, I jotted out a dozen or so scripts for individual comics. So now I have a slightly better understanding for how the process can snowball, with one joke leading to the next.
Of course, jotting out a bunch of jokes on a brand new idea is a far cry from continuing to come up with joke after joke after joke on a strip you've been writing for years. Not to mention that it's one thing to do a script, and quite another to draw it. I rather expect that I'd run out of steam for this venture long before I got through the second month, even if I put this on the front burner.
As it is, though, it's definitely a back-burner project -- something to toy with while it's fun and put away when it's not. Or when I need to focus on top-level projects.
For example, tonight, I have to work on Prophecy. And possibly on my basement -- I want to get those two remaining cracks sealed, and put a layer of cement over the east wall to smooth it out (it looks terrible at the moment, even more uneven and bumpy than before I started).
Maybe I'll have time for some fun in there, somewhere.
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Part 1 of Long winded responce. :)
Writing a storyline type of comic is actually easier than you might think at first.
With me, I try to do 6 panels.
Panel one is a recap (where are we in the story?)
Then I have 5 panels to lead the story along, and
then one to make a joke out of it. (Though, truth be told,
panel 3 usually has a joke in it, just because it's at the
end of a row.)
(Also, to be fair, panel 6 doesn't always have to be a joke,
it might be a cliffhanger, or a crucial bit of information to
the story or an excuse to do some nice artwork.)
But I'm getting side tracked.
Okay, personal anecdote time:
Back in Dec of 1997, I was in an email discussion about websites.
Someone had a nice website with photos of foxes on it, and had to
take it down because the professional wildlife photographer who'd taken the pictures found out about it. I was wondering what the future of fan websites would be? Not everyone is creative. Not everyone will be able to offer original content. But, lots of people will want to have their own websites. I remember saying something like "Not everyone can be a Bill Holbrook or an RT Matheson" (Kevin & Kell and Mynarski Forest were just about the only web comics available at the time.)
That's when it hit me: Mynarski Forest is a fun little strip, and at the time, it was horribly drawn, and it only came out once a week. But, I *liked* it! I liked it enough that I read it every week.
It then occurred to me that, maybe I can't be a Bill Holbrook, but I *might* be an RT Matheson!
Then came the insecurity:
Partially because I'd never learned to draw figures before, but
mostly because I didn't know if I could make a joke that would
be funny *every* *week*.
I pondered this for several days, when I had an odd conversation
with a friend at work. (She was kinda superstitious.)
Yolanda (ominously): "Do you know what day tomorrow is...?"
Me (cheerfully): "Ummm.... uh.... Oh! Payday!"
Yolanda (seriously): "It's Friday the 13th!"
Me (one eyebrow raised): "Nooo... It's payday!"
Yolanda (starting to smile despite herself): "Friday the 13th is a BAAAAD Day!"
Me: "Nooo... Payday is a GREAT day!"
And we both laughed. Okay, it wasn't a fantastic roll on the floor kind of joke, but it was completely spontaneous.
That was when I realized, yes, I could come up with something silly, once a week.
And that's when I started drawing.
(End Part 1 because LJ doesn't like long winded comments!)