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Comments
wat
faith is being shipped with a dude
how did this happen
It's on a friend's request, don't look at me.
i think your friend may be possessed or something, malk
that is the only way this could happen
"So what'd you go as for Halloween?"
"Darth Vader with six levels in Cleric."
"Y'know Steve, sometimes I think we just don't understand each other very well.
Wasn't Darth Vader a Paladin anyway?
So, this whole NaNoWriMo thing. It ain't working so well so far. I just don't have nearly the time or experience necessary, as a writer, to power myself through something like that yet, when I'm going to be constantly touching things up along the way. (I also put off the outline until it was far too late) (And I didn't realize that I'd like to be a writer until a few years ago) Which is not to say that I don't like my style, such that it may be - I've written stuff that I think is passable, for classes - but the writing itself is too often a brick wall facing me. I think I won't be trying NaNoWriMo again until I've made it through undergraduate studies (assuming I can even afford to go to grad school) and have a few more years of basic common sense under my belt. Though all this schoolwork certainly isn't helping, nor will a job, should I get one while in school (well, I'll certainly try at some point).
The whole thing about nanowrimo is that it's not about proving you can write well. Just that you can write, period.
I know. I've just never jibed with the idea that I should power through it, even though I know it's shit. In all honesty, I usually just try it because it seems like everyone else is doing it, and I always realize that I'm too busy with other stuff*, and that wanting to do it just because won't leave me content.
* Like, even right now, I have a personal essay to touch up for Nonfiction, and probably something to read for another class, and something else that I know I have to read for Wednesday, and classmate essays to read and critique for 12:35, at least two of which will probably be slogs. And yet I feel the need to justify my failure to Internet friends.
For now, I think I'll just try to grow through class stuff, as well as whatever stuff I might be able to do on my own time, since I don't have the chops for extended storytelling yet (nor the appreciation for short stories).
Then again, I was planning on an all-nighter anyway, so maybe I'll get to 6,000 words before my next class, and that would put me back on track for my goal with time to spare for a nap later in the day.
> I've just never jibed with the idea that I should power through it, even though I know it's shit.
Here's the whole thing. When you're writing on a deadline, as you do professionally oftentimes you have to send out stuff you 'know' is shit, and the best way to prevent that is to encourage that kind of power writing.
And if you intend to do it professionally 1500-2000 words a day is slightly less than an average day at the office.
Powering through shit will help me write stuff that isn't shit? Or am I misunderstanding you there?
The rest of it is fair. Though I wasn't planning on writing being my main career if I can't get a break anyway. Hopefully I'll have that ability in four years' time.
Yes. It'll help you write faster and find things that disgust you less faster by looking for words you don't hate. A pretty quick way to find out what you like is through what you hate.
Its how Bradbury did things.
You go back to your script right now.
That interests me. I have no intentions of moving on from screenwriting.
Well, it's pretty much the same way you work with your cinematographer/editor/whatever. You talk to them and tell them what you want and try to collaborate with them to create a story you both enjoy creating and telling.
In my limited experience, it usually doesn't.
Ba-dum tish!
I think one of the major challenges with comics is matching the visual pacing to the verbal pacing. A film or game have natural limitations in this respect, and a book obviously only has to deal with the written word, but a comic has to focus two separate expressive threads down the same path. If they don't match up properly, the whole thing will fall on its face, even if the writing and the artwork are individually brilliant. There's also the fact that making action interesting in a comic is difficult, especially in an age where they compete with vidya's visceral advantages at it. But a comic allows one to express, visually, in very specific frames. You can emphasise particular facial expressions or body language, or you can attach a very specific, semi-iconic image to a block of text.
So I suppose comics work best with a strong sense of emphasis and focus, focusing more heavily on direct and efficient expression than the comparatively indulgent means of other mediums. Which, I guess, is why indulgent comics tend to suck a great many loads.
Ooooh I smell a Malking a-coming
>a comic has to focus two separate expressive threads down the same path. If they don't match up properly, the whole thing will fall on its face, even if the writing and the artwork are individually brilliant.
This I more or less agree with, even if it's a vast oversimplification. The biggest flaw of a lot of comics is that writers and artists aren't working in tandem. It's what's been keeping Action Comics from being a truly great comic lately (Issues, 9, 12, 0, and 13 notwithstanding) is that main artist Rags Morales seemed to not really be grasping the story writer Grant Morrison wanted to tell.
Manga is often a big offender as well, as the pacing tends to be slower than western comics and it feels like a whole bunch of accidental negative space a lot of the time (the otherwise great I Am a Hero is guilty of this)
>There's also the fact that making action interesting in a comic is difficult, especially in an age where they compete with vidya's visceral advantages at it.
I think you're overselling a vidya's ability for action. The player control gives us visceral joy, but at the expense of a certain amount of elegance. It's why the Devil May Cry games suddenly cut out at the end of boss fights for more narratively satisfying climaxes. A comic will never provide me chain-joy of using an upward sword-swing to throw an enemy into the air and keep him afloat with my guns, but I've yet to see a game interactively use action in a single moment that has the character weight of Bane breaking Batman's back or Punisher blowing the mafia away after jumping out of a casket.
>But a comic allows one to express, visually, in very specific frames. You can emphasise particular facial expressions or body language, or you can attach a very specific, semi-iconic image to a block of text.
It's quite possible you're agreeing with what I just said here but I think a properly contextualized comic also contain a visceral shock value.
>So I suppose comics work best with a strong sense of emphasis and focus, focusing more heavily on direct and efficient expression than the comparatively indulgent means of other mediums
I don't disagree with this, but I don't think comics can't indulge in base factors. Look at the works of Garth Ennis, because I still think his Punisher works are the best urban bloodbath vigilante stories out there.
>Which, I guess, is why indulgent comics tend to suck a great many loads.
Really, they suck for the same reason that a lot of indulgent movies and books sucks, whereas games tend to be able to coast on indulgence more whether or not it actually makes them good.
I mean this is preaching to the choir but a refreshing aspect of Resident Evil 0 which I've been playing is that it's not indulgent. It never gives you objective markers or pointers. Just a whole bunch of areas and you looking for keys. Not to mention the deliberately clunky combat. It creates a sense of anxiety and whenever you meet another monster you're thinking 'oh god I've only got a few bullets left can' deal with this' and sometimes it makes you want to backtrack to find advantangous weapons because of how much of a pain a certain enemy is. It causes some frustration in places but it also creates the sense of tension it should.
The thing is that a satisfying climax to an action sequence in a completely linear narrative experience, such as a comic book, only arguably counts as "action". The core of a great action sequence in anything that isn't a game is drama, and if we don't care about the drama, even a technically excellent action sequence lacks an expressive soul. This is why Obi-Wan against Darth Vader in A New Hope is one of the best action sequences in cinematic history, despite it pretty much being an old man and a dude in a suit getting happy-slappy with glowsticks.
Games can get away with being less conventionally dramatic because of the inherent drama in placing the player in that situation. Not that they don't benefit from the same treatment as other mediums, far from it,0 but the video gaming medium is one with some glaring weaknesses that come with an inherent advantage when it comes to action. But unlike a video game, an action sequence in a comic book, film or page of text seldom has much power if we don't have a sense of investment established already. In a game, action is often the entire point; in other mediums, action is often a culmination of various dramatic elements being focused through an exciting, visceral form of expression.
Well, as far as providing pure id vidya are at a distinct advantage. Not gonna argue there, but comics still have the ability to have single images that are burned into our minds by their still-image virtue. Compare the difference between Bane breaking Batman's back in the comic and in TDKR. While there are numerous reasons the movie's has less impact (to the point it feels like a pro wrestling move) the least of which certainly isn't that in the comic it's a full-page spread almost deliciously savoring the exact moment where both Batman's spirit and body break.
Video games might be more viscerally exciting, but the stories are almost always a vehicle for the action, whereas even in action-heavy stories the action is a vehicle for the story or the action -is- the story.
Then we're in agreement.
Probably. Man I've been alternating between nanowrimo, Rp responses, shitty CW shows, and RE0 all while hopping myself up on rum.
are you watching arrow, kid
what did i tell you about watching shitty shows involving non-fraction-penned robin hood wanna-bes
you better make sure i'm not the only person suffering through gossip girls' final season
^ arrow is worse than that, it ruined willa howard for me
I've actually done work on several published comics as both a writer and an artist. I'd be glad to answer any specific questions you might have.
what is the current industry policy on butts
Current industry policy dictates that when an artist sees a butt, he has to approach it with a handful of his own hairs. He must then place the hairs-- while still facing said butt-- into his sneakers. He must then bounce on his heels for five minutes. When the five minutes are up, he must remove a sneaker and show the butt the underside of his foot, so that the butt may gauge how deeply each strand is embedded in the artist's foot.
After this has finished, the butt will turn to the nearest writer and spread its cheeks. The writer must drink deeply from the butt with his nose, and braid his mustache into the butt-hairs of the butt. The writer must then ingest a meal while still attached to the butt in this manner.
After the completion of these tasks, the artist and writer may then begin to work on a comic.
How did you get started in that Formaldehyde? I always like to hear those stories.