My Amateur Status · 11:12pm Feb 13th, 2013
This time of year:
Always gets me thinking about what I laughingly refer to as my writing career.
There's a couple triggers, of course. I checked another birthday off the list this past weekend, for instance. It's Ash Wednesday today, a time when those of us of the Catholic persuasion are called upon to think about what we're doing with our lives. The ever mysterious Bad Horse is putting together a scholarship to help someone from around these parts attend one of the Clarion writing workshops--check this blog post for more info on that.
And the end of the month will see the 8th anniversary of the Daily Grind Webcomic Contest, a lovely little competition in which I'm one of the four finalists simply because I'm unable to stop something once I get started. Entrants must draw a new comic and post it on their websites every Monday through Friday, y'see, or they're out, and I've been spending three hours a day, five days a week, writing and drawing my little Daily Grind comic since the last day of February, 2005.
Now, a quick glance at the comic's main page will show you quite clearly and distinctly why it's managed to attract an audience of maybe 50 people over the past eight years. To put it simply: I don't draw very well.
And every time the anniversary rolls around, that little disgruntled part of my brain starts pointing out that if I were to have spent those 15 hours a week--which comes out to, oh, let's call it something like one full month every year--working on stories instead of this ding-dang comic, I might actually have a writing career at this point, might be making more than the couple hundred dollars I declare each April on Schedule C of my federal income tax return, might have more short stories or even another novel out there for purchase.
Might be a professional, in other words.
It's not an argument I can deny. But I can point out to my brain that Gardner Dozois, the former editor of Asimov's science-fiction magazine, had already summed up my writing career years before the comic contest started in a plaintive little note rejecting a story I sent him after he'd bought three of my earlier ones: "I don't think that everything you write needs to have fuzzy animals in it."
Turns out he was wrong about that. 'Cause I love, love, love writing about talking animal people. And I love, love, love doing my comic. The characters I've come up with, the world they live in and the adventures they have, I love putting those two pages of poorly-drawn comics together every day even more than I love writing Pony stories--and don't even get me started on what the disgruntled part of my brain has to say about all this Ponyfic I've been spinning out the past two years.
And love, of course, in its Latin form 'amor,' is at the base of the word 'amateur.'
So it is that every year, I choose my fate, kiss it lightly on the forehead, and go skipping off with it hand in hand, usually just in time for Valentine's Day. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've gotta get started on tomorrow's Daily Grind pages.
Mike
I must confess that i read this and just blinked before smiling politely while laughing internally.
and in my books? You've been published. Repeatedly. You're at least a semi-professional author if not outright a professional.
You've been keeping up a webcomic, daily, M to F
For eight YEARS
And you still enjoy making the comic?
Wow.
I envy you, I wish I had an equally reliable well of creative enjoyment.
824874
I got a very similar comment:
In a rejection letter from Marion Zimmer Bradley, something about how she rarely bought talking animal stories since her magazine and anthologies weren't meant for children. So I had a mission, and before she died, I got her to buy a talking cow story from me for an issue of her magazine and a talking squirrel story for the last volume of the Sword and Sorceress anthology.
824876
I can't explain it, but I have too much fun with it.
Mike
Oh geez, the Webcomics Daily Grind. I had forgotten about that. And you're in it?
Uh, I think you and Skywriter have to fight now. Either that, or make out; I'm not 100% sure on the protocol here.
825166 *Blinks* That's...rather disappointing to hear such a biased statement coming from someone who was a huge influence on my childhood. *shrugs and grins* Ah well, doesn't change my enjoyment of her works.
And this proves my point that you are clearly a published author. not only that you're a crusader for talking animals! Also what was the cow story? I need to seek this out.
825187
I'm one of the:
Four folks left in the contest, yep. It's madness, but it's a good sort of madness.
Of course, when it comes to madness, no one beats Skywriter, especially when he's teaming up with Shaenon Garrity. I will cede all possible fights and/or make-outs to them unconditionally.
825299
The whole concept of the talking animal story carries a lotta baggage with it--sorta like the whole concept of "My Little Pony," now that I think on it...
My talking cow story was called, oddly enough, "Why I'm Traveling with a Talking Cow," and it was published in issue #30 of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy magazine back in winter of 1996. I'm sure copies still exist somewhere!
Mike
825166
*dives into archives*
It shows! Not in the art, but in the characters, setting, storytelling, and writing... The Devil Bunny guy comes across as being 'sue-ish' at first glance, but he gets developed well later, so I've got no complaints.
bleep man, your old stuff, done basically to win a bet, is re-fueling my own writing ability. I've even got some stuff where talking about forgiveness taking time and being a process will work nicely.
829372
I've always felt:
That the biggest compliment my stuff can get is for readers to look at it, shake their heads, and say, "Well, Hell! I could do that!"--if they then actually sit down and write their story or draw their comic or macrame their masterpiece.
Because the major inspiration on my, oh, let's just call it "my art style" and move on, is Dan O'Neill and the two books of his Odd Bodkins comics that I got at the swap meet thirty years ago for a buck each. I read those books almost to pieces, and I figured that if he could draw the way he did and show it to the world, then I could do the same.
I'm glad you enjoyed the comic, by the way.
Mike