Tenth issue! Every tenth issue I figured I’d make a long one that goes beyond four frames. Here’s the first.
Writers all write differently. Some plot everything out; some write by the seat of their pants. Some work better with deadlines or obligatory word counts; others are inconsistent binge writers. Some write everything in their heads and revise and think it over until finally writing it down, and some find out what’s happening as it’s appearing on the page. Nobody’s technique is superior. If someone tells you you’re not a real writer or not a true artist if you don’t [blank], it’s likely that person is a lot more caught up in the mystique and image of “being a writer” than in the magic and power of writing itself.
Not all writers are going to relate to or “get” everything in this comic, even. It’s struck a chord with some people, and there are probably others who have sniffed and thought, “THAT never happened to me” (and possibly concluded, “this webcomic chick is stupid”). Rest assured, this is mainly autobiographical, and it is supposed to reflect my experience, not suggest yours should be identical.
In conclusion, I will now share some of my favorite quotes from other writers on writing.
“You put a character out there and you’re in their power. You’re in trouble if they’re in yours.” –Ann Beattie
“But keep characters in propinquity long enough and a story will always develop a plot.” –Keith Miller, The Book of Flying
“The bad novelist constructs his characters; he directs them and makes them speak. The true novelist listens to them and watches them act; he hears their voices even before he knows them.” –André Gide
“Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” –Red Smith
“Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking. ” –Jessamyn West
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.” –Ernest Hemingway
“It’s not as if the stories merge to a point where you think they are your life, but you do let them in the front door and the back door, and it’s okay that sometimes certain characters stay for dinner.” –Tori Amos, Piece By Piece
“Now and again thousands of memories converge, harmonize, arrange themselves around a central idea in a coherent form and I write a story.” –Katherine Anne Porter
“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create – – – so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.” –Pearl Buck
