in which Megan is panicking about making comics

ok, you know what? putting this under one of those cuts. it’s ridiculously long, and if you aren’t interested in my floundering, the only redeeming quality is this link to a Chris Ware Q&A.

anyway, for lots of Megan Being Confused And Not Making Sense click:

okay. so the deal is, I feel like I am constantly trying to work out how I want to tell stories. I also have this scary feeling of not knowing how to even START planning a comic, which is what I THINK I want to do. I mean, writers,  good writers, writers who write things that I love to read, plan for ages and ages, researching and planning and going over backstories. 

If I write anything at all now? it’s all these weird half-formed paragraphs that aren’t usually connected which just kind of sketch who the characters are. For some terrible reason I can’t figure out, I can’t think of stories anymore, just a character once in a while. It’s scary, because I know what I want to do. I know how to do it, in theory. I just can’t figure out how to start. Or what to start with. Like, I know I should just write, but that’s really hard when you haven’t got much of a plot. I feel like I haven’t got a paddle.

And what the hell do I write? a script? a short story? I think I agree in theory with what I heard Chris Ware say once that If you are writing a script beforehand, you’re not really writing comics.

And what the hell do I write? a script? a short story? I think I agree with what I heard Chris Ware say once that “If you are writing a script beforehand, you’re not really writing comics.” Because there’s so much more than the words going on. I hate hate hate the idea that only the writing or only the art matters (is this another one of my weird ideas, that there are people who think one is more important?) But…how do I start writing ANYTHING? I’m so frustrated, because maybe I am making this more difficult than it needs to be, or maybe it’s just because as a medium, people have only been taking it seriously recently, so there isn’t much to look to for advice. Or maybe this will all be addressed on day 1 of class in the fall. I just don’t know.

In conclusion: maybe I’ll go scribble and hope it turns out okay. but thinking about it makes me freeze up a little, since I’ve done this before with a story I did like, and then all I had after a while was a couple different ways things could go that I couldn’t choose between and a story that I kept finding reasons to hate. 

and then I start worrying about how if I am any good, I should have done something by now. I should have at least tried and finished even a terrible story. Another reason I am so glad about The Comic, even if that’s not mine really. I just draw it and like it a lot. At least it’s something.

 

in conclusion: MEH!

I hope you enjoyed this tour if my neurotic psyche, if you read this.

(the Chris Ware quote is from an awesome Q&A seen here, btw. Chris Ware is amazing. Jimmy Corrigan blows my mind, even if I haven’t finished reading it yet. I would have to put that as the greatest Graphic Novel ever, not Watchmen. It’s so dense, hence me not being able to finish, but absolutely amazing. It’s got this sense of scope and gravity and history within it’s pages. I want to hear more about how he does comics. Or like go into his studio. Or his brain.)