Tag: q

I would also argue that there is a good chance that an outline will help you stave off any onslaught of writer’s block. Let me advise you right up front that I am not a big believer in writer’s block. I think writer’s block is God’s way of telling you one of two things – that you failed to think your material through sufficiently before you started writing, or that you need a day or two off with your family and friends.

Terry Brooks (via l-e-i-n-t-h)

Granted that Brooks falls into my file of “I don’t like what you write, why would I take your advice on writing?” authors –

+ “writer’s block” is one of those things that suffers hugely from everyone using these words to mean different things and then talking as if there’s some kind of consensus. If one is to take it at it’s most shallow and simple – “a current inability to compose meaningful language-based arts” – then neither of his “two things” actually disproves the existence of writer’s block; they merely suggest causes and solutions.

+ other things that writer’s block may in fact be telling me (and does) include: I’m dead bored with this project; I’m suffering from excessive anxiety; I’m actually having a PTSD episode I’m not acknowledging; I’m non-verbal; I’m heading back down into severe depression; I’m too damn tired; I thought the material through too much and now while I’m not bored with the project per-se I’m bored with writing this part because the outline sapped all of the joy of discovery out of it; I’m overstimulated; something about this storyline is problematic for my mental health and my brain is engaged in preemptive self-defense by making it impossible for me to write; I don’t actually want to write right now; I’m getting sick; I have lost my faith in the creative process; I took a wrong turn in the plot twenty thousand words ago and need to throw all those words out.

+ some people will never actually experience an inability to form sentences for any of these reasons. This does not actually invalidate the experience of other people who do, although dear god do some of those lucky enough to skip it seem to like to think they do. Everyone’s brain is different.

+ writer’s block is, however, literally all in your head, or rather, your brain. Learn your brain and its quirks and learn how to deal with them. And if you’re prone to getting blocked, maybe writing for your living is not for you. (And that’s okay.)

mishasteaparty:

“Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. This is Steve Rogers. You’ve heard a lot about me in the past few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it’s time you know the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we though it was. It’s been taken over by Hydra. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The strike and insight crew work for Hydra as well. I don’t know how many more but I know they are in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won’t end there. If you launch those helicarriers today Hydra will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way unless we stop them. I know I am asking a lot but the price of freedom is high… it always has been, and it’s a price I am willing to pay. And if I am the only one, so be it. But I am willing to be that I am not.”

And focusing on Marvel and DC at the expense of the dozens of other publishers in comics, and then declaring comics a failure at San Diego Comic-Con, is incredibly myopic. It’s a mistake to think that Marvel and DC are all that mattered, that their new events or announcements dictate the future of capital-c Comics. Marvel and DC are comics, just like the other publishers, and they make some great ones when they let the creators do their own thing. But at this point? You can’t treat them like the entirety of the comics industry, or even two companies that can dictate the future of comics. They run the movies, and that’s cool, but running comics? It’s just not true any more. Image in particular outsells Marvel in the book market as far as trade paperbacks go, and that holds true in the comics market lately, too. That’s no coincidence. People enjoy Marvel and DC, but they want more than Marvel and DC.

If the announcements from the Big Two felt lackluster, but the fans still had a great time, how did comics fail? That sounds like a Marvel & DC problem. Vertical debuted Moyoco Anno’s brand new book In Clothes Called Fat at the show, a comic geared toward adult women. They sold out of Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, a romance/cooking comic. At Image, we sold out of Greg Tocchini & Rick Remender’s Low, an aquatic sci-fi tale, and Nick Dragotta & team’s Howtoons, a comic geared toward getting kids interested in the science through practical play. Boom! burned through Lumberjanes, a comic about girls at camp. These aren’t your normal comics, and people were eating them up.

After two bad “Comic-Con was bad for comics!”/”Comic-Con was good for comics!” pieces, io9 lets iamdavidbrothers do his thing, and the result is—surprise surprise—a great piece that’s head and shoulders above the traditional (print) comic coverage on the site*.

(* I specify print because Lauren does really good webcomics stuff over there, because Lauren is great.)