Saturday, July 23, 2011

Just doing things

It never ends.

You think you're done, and you're not.

I thought Strung Out was settled enough to start drawing. Two pages in, I realize there are some seriously weak characters, and set out to fix that. And, as a result, I'm overhauling the story. Boo.

This happened to Collide, you'll recall. I got tired of the weaknesses, and paused it. On that same vein, I've been making progress with Collide. I hit on the very things I was missing, and the modified story is coming together quite perfectly. It's a lot shorter and has less characters. I'm addressing some serious stuff, too, as well as fun stuff. It's going to be amazing.

It'd be easy to feel discouraged at myself for not drawing my comics--to tell myself I'm not progressing. But really, I am. I'm making my stories better, and that's progress. Things happen differently for everyone, and for me, I don't feel comfortable starting unless I have a script for the story. I do that because I want to make sure dialogue doesn't insinuate the wrong things, or that I include the right hints and allusions. I want my readers to reread later and gasp when they realize what a merry chase I've led them on. I have comic friends who know where their story is going, but don't write dialogue until the moment the page is being made. I can't work like that. I do leave myself room to adjust dialogue, though, if the moment feels right.