Since this is the first in a series of posts on the same topic let me begin with an introduction.
Most books and articles I find about the writing process tend to be written with the assumption that you’ve already got a specific book, comic, movie, or game you want to write. Or what if you’re like me and you have a bunch of ideas you’d like to bring to life but can’t decide which one to start with? This was something that took me literal years to figure out. As you can probably imagine, it really slowed down my creative process because you can’t really make progress on a project if you haven’t even chosen one yet. I can’t say this is the definitive way to determine which project to start with but it is the process I went through to figure out where I wanted to start.
Note: I believe preventing burn out is a key part of making sure you actually finish a project. Imagine it as preventing you from running out of fuel. At least it is for me. I found that it became a reoccurring theme in my quest to settle on a project so you’ll see it mentioned more than once throughout this series of posts.
I chose a project I was passionate about.
I remember a few years ago I was showing an internet friend a 1000 word piece I had written. It was meant to be a short story testing out the characters and setting I had kicking around in my head for a while, but wasn’t sure if I really wanted to pursue it as a long term project. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to turn this particular idea into a novel or a comic at this point. I didn’t even know what medium I wanted to tell this story in.
She had been given the okay to be as brutally honest as possible because this was my first test run. I did not want to waste time going after an idea that was just terrible and would end with me waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night as regretful thoughts plagued my nightmares.
“Hmm…this is pretty cool. Kinda weird, but it could be interesting. I like the idea of the “call to adventure” going to the wrong person and the protagonist having to make sure the real hero completes his hero’s journey. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this concept done before, but the monster descriptions are unique enough that I believe you might be able to turn this into something nice,” she finally said after I’d been on the edge of my seat for over 30 minutes.
“Oh, okay.” I said. I was relieved to hear her say that instead of just straight up “wow, this is trash. Start over.” Especially because I had spent an entire month writing that 1000 word story. 1000 words is not a lot but writing this story was almost physically painful to the point that it felt like 60,000 words. Then she said something I didn’t expect.
“Except you don’t seem too excited about it,” my friend added. “It reads like you can’t wait to finish this story and get it over with. “ She was right, throughout the month I had been writing this story the only thing keeping me going was the thought of putting it behind me. It wasn’t the thought of the finished product I could share with readers, it was it being finally over and and never having to touch it again. I came to realize that if you choose a project you where you end up phoning in your efforts you risk your readers noticing and possibly feeling unsatisfied.
I had been so determined to work on this project because I was so sure it was a good idea. The thing is though is that it wasn’t the only good idea. Other good ideas exist, it didn’t have to be this one. Plus, in my unenthusiastic hands the project likely wouldn’t have reached the fullest potential it would have deserved. As an example I’m not sure how much longer my determination would’ve lasted without that passion to keep my engine fueled. I might’ve been tempted to end the story early.
Another thing to consider is the fact that writing can be an emotionally taxing endeavor. Often while writing we use our personal experiences and sometimes those experiences are painful. We end up dwelling on them more than we would otherwise. That doesn’t mean that this is a purely negative part of the writing process because working through your painful memories through writing can be a healing experience.
In other cases you pour so much of yourself into your characters that even if you haven’t personally experienced what they’re enduring it can still be draining. You’ll often see criticisms of writers who put so much of themselves into their characters that they’re practically one in the same. The problems occur when these writers can no longer put in proper conflict because their characters have become so much a self-insert that writing them getting rained on makes the author feel like they need to reach for a raincoat themselves.
Of course this can be solved by learning to maintain a healthy distance between yourself and your writing. That could be a subject of a post all on it’s own, but for the purposes of this post I’m going to focus on the fact that this isn’t all bad. It’s a consequence of being an empathetic creature which is a good thing to be because it means we’re able to write stories about people other than ourselves. We can step into the position of a person who isn’t even real and care enough to solve their problems through a story. On the other end of the spectrum; if our story is a tragedy we can understand them well enough to know how to thoroughly ruin their lives in the most thematically relevant and poetic way possible.
With all of this in mind, the writing project you choose should be worth the pain and ideally help you heal if you’re in need of it. Otherwise, why come back and subject yourself to this everyday? I hate to get morbid on you but remember you’ll be spending a portion of your limited lifespan on this.
What makes me passionate about Cat Claws and Hummingbird Feathers?
Ironically this comic project isn’t completely new to me. I created these characters as a young teenager, but only the bare bones of them. They’d appear here and there in my doodles throughout the years. I worked more seriously on other stories that I deemed unpublishable as I worked on them. Part of that was me deciding I didn’t want to pursue publication until I was older and more experienced. I focused more on honing my craft in my teenage years.
While I was doing that, life was happening all around me. Some good things happened, but some really bad things happened too. As I gained more life experiences I began incorporating them into the drawings I did to blow off steam. Eventually, as an adult I turned to my childhood characters to shine up and bring into a more presentable form.
It wasn’t till after I’d tried and failed at writing several other stories with the goal of publication in mind that I thought to do this. After each frustrating writing session spent wasting my time on a project I wasn’t passionate about I’d unwind with doodling Onyx and Lydia. It took a while but I finally thought “Hey, why don’t I use these characters and this setting that I always turn to because on it because makes me happy?” It was a lightbulb moment. This was the project I wanted to work on.
It’s not hard for me to understand why I love this story and why it’s the one I daydream about completing. The themes were chosen because of the things I was going through as a teenager. They’re themes that remained important to me as an adult. Some of them are even more important to me as an adult than when I was a kid.
One of these themes is autism acceptance and neurodiversity. You’ll find instances throughout the story of the characters suffering because of a lack of acceptance or characters rejoicing in their own and their friend’s differences.
I had also incorporated elements of Maureen Murdock’s heroine’s journey. Anything derived from Joseph Campbell’s mono myth has sentimental value to me because I stumbled upon a copy of the hero with a thousand faces in my middle school library. The chapter about comedy and tragedy helped change my pessimistic and trauma induced inability to write or even just appreciate a happy ending.
On a lighter note I was self indulgent about the character designs. As a kid I rolled my eyes at the edgelords with their edgy original characters. However I found the grown adults who mocked them online way cringier. Besides, I had a soft spot for edgy characters. Spite was a partial factor in Onyx’s final character design and I included a few elements I’d often see mocked. As for what drew me to Lydia’s design, she was a good excuse to draw frilly dresses. Also since Onyx is supposed to be the one who makes her dresses it allowed me to indulge in my other soft spot: boys with traditionally girly hobbies.
I recommend examining what would make you excited to write and either began crafting a story that contains those elements or examining a pre-existing story you have and determining if this is the project you should pursue.
Writing the story my 12 year old self needed to read. 