skeletal

Found my way to the thing I was looking for in the thing I've been writing for a year, the ComicsThing: even though it seems unlikely, at the moment, that it will ever be brought to drawn reality – clearly, I'm not doing it myself – I made a pact with myself to at least finish a scriptment and have a broadstroke notion of what it would be.

This morning, I accomplished that goal: every piece came together once I figured out the right questions to ask myself.

For now, it's a 13-page scriptment/outline rife with lacking dialogue (beyond generally awful placeholder stuff), little in the way of layouts, and more than a few quandaries of logic, motivation, and character – but the skeletal beats are, nonetheless. there. And, while I know that 13 pages doesn’t seem like a lot, I should note that it’s assembled from a few thousand disparate pages and scraps of shards and notes. Such is the process.

Physical edition printed, clipped, and in its file; digital bits moving to backburner. Maybe someday I'll actually get to see it and hold it for real – but if not, it's where I wanted it to be, if only for myself.

paintshop shambles

Waiting on the heat people to come and extend ductwork so I have heat from the furnace back there for the first time in the howeverlong I’ve been working in this space. Anticipating manic dogchildren.

ComicsThing scene being is a total shit and I can't figure out why. Don't know characters? Not needed? Usually it's one of those two but this feels like something else: a hybrid? (Responsible for my writing this instead of hammering it out? Or is this indicative of the utility of these writings? Yes, no, maybe.)

Today I will vanquish you, Waterblight Ganon, you and your accursed ice blocks. That I can't use my runes on my little Link-iPad while swimming is a source of much consternation.

narrative plate juggling, in theory

Decided that the only way I'm going to get everything done that I want to get done is to work both MainFictionThing and ComicsThing daily, creating a chain across the daily workblocks. Hopefully the variety and interplay will help with both; that one is in my glitchy prose and the other a communicative script for someone else SHOULD, in theory at least, prevent too many unwelcome narrative similarities. In theory.

NL by weekend / WEREWOLF BY NIGHT

Which is far less sexy-sounding than Vampire Weekend (whatever happened to them anyhow? loved their stuff) but is nonetheless essential: managed to scrounge out more words than I expected and, via writing about them, brought my two-fold plans for taking a creative gamble on myself (ComicsThing and Another Thing) into sharper focus. On track to arrive in subscribers’ inboxes tomorrow morning.

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT is the best thing Marvel has done in a long time (though SHE-HULK is brilliant, as was WANDAVISION) and I want more of it. Always great to see a composer direct (though I can't think of any off the top of my head – I'm not including myself in it; I'd rather include those possessed of talent in both): they bring such a unique sense of timing to things.

something i wrote while i was writing something else

There's a story Tom Petty told that I'm fond of telling myself and anyone within earshot, of when he and the Heartbreakers were recording what, IMO, is their greatest and most underappreciated album (1999's ECHO; might write a thing about it), and in the middle of recording one song, Petty stopped them, and said "I wrote a better song" while they were recording so they moved on and recorded this new song which was, indeed, spectacular (Track five, "Swingin'").

Anyhow: how it relates: I had written a whole thing about career / life plateaus and how I couldn't figure my way out of it but ended up figuring at least something to help me through it so I stopped writing the former piece, wrote and sent the email, and am now writing this to tell you / myself that I did just that.

And also an excuse to write about Tom Petty which I need to do more of.

zilchery->something(s)else

Reached the point where the totality of my creative zilchness this morning was something to behold, the suffocating fear that ComicsThing is all for naught – a typical manifestation, especially when I'm about to take a leap into something worthwhile –, the reminders of perpetual creative heartbreak, a general feeling of stagnation, of GROUNDHOG DAY-ness, of relentless blech.

Solution: switched to Something(s)Else for a couple of days (newsletter will take up the weekend) as I've learned (and remembered) that, as a general rule, my worklength capacity on a single project before needing to switch to something else is about four-five days. Spent about a week straight with ComicsThing, so I was clearly overdue. Both ComicsThing and I could feel it.

Writing PRESS (A) 02 and 03 at the same time (in addition to ComicsThing) and will determine which will move forward as January gets closer; whichever one doesn't make the cut / the deadline will move to 03 – though I'm starting to lean towards these Something(s)Else as 02 with MainFictionThing taking over all of 03: a good left turn, I think, maybe, IDK.

PolterPup FTW

As if I wasn't already a proud husband, you may now consider me a proud gamer/husband: my wife, who has spent the last decade insisting that she could never get into video games (other than the Apple Arcade / iOS puzzle ones / CandyCrush monstrosities) and that the dual thumbsticks screw her up is now fully addicted to her Nintendo Switch (I traded up for an OLED and gave her my Lite): MARIO KART 8 was the gateway drug. Went out yesterday and she picked out her first game of her own, LUIGI'S MANSION 3 (very fun, actually) and, once we figured out what she needed to do, she was well and truly hooked.

Still making my way through ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD, cooking inedible dishes, and gliding around and about with occasional dalliances into MARIO KART and, when I'm feeling particularly sadistic with myself, CUPHEAD.

ComicsThing in Muse board: pictures abound and my brain is simultaneously happy and overwhelmed... the crush of it all but the opportunity of it all. Never underestimate the value of seeing things laid out before you, even it's in a weird sort of digital hybrid. Now to figure out what to do with it, how to make Obsidian and Muse play well together / what needs to stay what needs to go, that sort of thing.

revived perspectives

Hello, October: think I've figured out how to (re)start this comics thing (yes, this is the gamble I'm taking on myself): each project tells you how it wants to come to life, what it needs from you in order to become something from nothing – in this case, a somewhat more linear writing process than MainFictionThing (in other words, a little less Muse and a little more Obsidian), until the prescription changes, of course. Middle section might have to be figured in Muse, though – I need to see it, shift it, move things around… still coming up with a series name for the little comics thing posted yesterday. Suggestions welcome.