Our self-critic can be our most powerful weapon, or our most dangerous enemy. It can cause us to be cautious and not run head first into disaster; alternatively, it can render us so timid that we do nothing and remain stuck. It can help us scrutinize and edit details of manuscripts on our own until they are flawless without assistance, yet possibly keep us so paralyzed looking for every last possible detail that we never share something with the world.
The balance is knowing when to let that self-critic take control and when to take a back seat. I believe personally that it’s a constantly battle and never something you master. I used to be better at it, but lately I think I need more practice at it. In some aspects I’m holding back too much and in others should hold back more. It’s all about the balance.
Yeah, I know, a title like that makes it seem like Christmas (and I wish it was a holiday season). Today’s post is actually inspired by grocery lists. Doesn’t there always seem like something gets forgotten, or alternatively something that gets added either on impulse or remembered while one is at the store? I know I do this and I hear rumors others do as well. In today’s case I forgot something, and even though I live six blocks from the grocery store (actually several stores), when the item in question is something I need to cook dinner tonight that means because I didn’t doublecheck I had to walk all the way back and get it (as well as deciding to pick up a preboxed lunch in the process, now being too tired to make lunch when I got home on top of everything else I already did).
As I walked home, I started thinking about writers and checklists. Whether you’re a “pantser” or a “plotter,” every writer has some form of a checklist. I think it’s pretty apparent with plotters who go from outline to story to editing to getting published; the others start with story and move to editing ot getting published. The big question is, how much do we double – or even triple – check ourselves as writers before moving on to the next step? Sometimes it can feel so good to be done, or a deadline needs to met, that a writer can run on to the next stage without remembering to double check or just breezing through. I know I’m guilty of this sometimes. In the end, the person most hurt by writers not double checking their own writing lists are themselves.
Maybe I’ll unpack this more later once I can reflect on it some more. Right now I just want to settle down and eat that preboxed lunch.
Sometimes there may be a project that you really want to do, and it means a lot to you. Yet getting people to buy into it, especially in today’s day and age when it is so easy to get ideas out there – though maybe not easily as noticed – could be hard. However, if something matters enough to you that you want to do it, my personal belief is that you should give it a try as long as it doesn’t run you so far under the ground you’ll never dig out. My releasing fiction novels now when I am able though I’ve wanted to for years is a personal example for me. For other people it might be developing their own games, or designing their own sewing patterns, or programming new code to create applications. If your heart and soul can’t put the passion aside, experiment and see where it leads. You never know.
I just came from spending the last four days at Wondercon in Anaheim. Normally, this SF and fantasy convention takes place in San Francisco and is a somewhat more intimate version of its “big sister” Comic-Con International that currently is held every summer in San Diego. I’ve attended Wondercon once before in San Francisco in 2007, where I led a panel about animation writing and production to tie in with promoting my textbook GARDNER’S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION. Overall, the feel in Anaheim reminded me very much of my San Diego experience, except Anaheim didn’t quite seem able to deal initially with the overflow parking demand Saturday morning. Part of this was that there were also two other conventions – girls’ volleyball and spirit squad – taking up the rest of the Anaheim Convention Center all weekend and they needed parking as well. Wondercon had one-fourth of the upstairs exhibit space, the hall downstairs for registration, but the upper seminar room levels and ballroom were all Wondercon’s as well.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to attend Wondercon and Comic-Con International as a pro for most of the years I’ve lived in Los Angeles, and as a pro guest my first year, and I am thankful to get this opportunity to be there along with other professionals I’ve come to know and respect over the years. Some of those people presented informational panels on various aspects of the animation industry – creating series on the first day, a general writing panel on the second day, and focusing on writing action in animation on the last day. Even though I have professional animation credits, I love going to these panels and hearing the ancedotes, or getting new tips and tricks myself. No matter your experience level, if you get the chance to hear professionals speak on areas you care about, go for it!
I actually spent most of my time at panels, in part because the exhibit hall is much smaller at Wondercon and you can cover it in far less time in terms of browsing. Other types of panels I attended included: Hollywood and Comics, Spotlight on Mark Waid (who is looking at some revolutionary things in terms of the digital comics space), how to get a job in the video game industry (people from the console side of video games and I wanted to learn more about their companies and jobs, though the majority came from Northern California), the future of tabletop gaming (which got into how people are using technology to enhance or supplement their DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS and similar gaming experiences), the WOMANTHOLOGY comic book panel which got launched via an amazing Kickstarter campaign, how to get press coverage for your comic or webcomic, a great cartoon voices panel hosted by Mark Evanier, and a DC Nation showcase featuring a mentor and great friend. So the panels I went to comprised a mix of business needs such as getting to know what’s going on in the business, and find out what areas might possibly have work now or in the near future – and simply a love of the business.
There was also a little bit about the books business too. The last panel attended on Sunday focused on YA literature and in specific horror books and dystopias. One panelist had her book options with a well produced trailer (at least that was my opinion, IMHO, after seeing it screened) to get exposure before a major movie in several markets, then was positioned (only due to past credits in screenwriting) to be able to go then go sell the screenplay of her novel along with her agent immediately following the premiere of the other YA film. We also saw another book trailer, made by a writer who had connections with a very well credited producer, whose book is only at the optioned stage. Several other panelists had books optioned with major studios, though one of them (who actually was half of a writing team) had a film that starts production in April based on that series, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES. One person did ask directly about self-publishing, and those that responded said they were all for it, but definitely stressed the need to hire a well qualified editor or getting trusted professional feedback. This wasn’t just for the possible grammar or spelling mistakes, but for issues such as pacing of a story too.
Some people, when they found out I would be going, asked if I had a booth or panel this year. Both opportunities are great if you can get them. I would have loved to be on a panel but definitely wasn’t in a position to prepare or propose one, though that’s much easier to do at Wondercon I think that at Comic-Con where all the big studios are vying for spots. I’m also not on any projects that would merit renting or sharing a booth, as Comic-Con is more comic art proper with some gaming thrown in due to the San Francisco connections, and a lot less about television and film at least in terms of the exhibit hall.
Overall, I had a great time and am really glad that I attended Wondercon.
These last couple weeks have been filled with a lot of the unexpected. As I said last Wednesday, when other people intersect with your world you have to try to be careful what lines you cross and this is a case – especially because it’s evolving – I really can’t say much. I will say that it’s definitely made me look at the world in different ways.
As writers, we can create new and fantastical places, or we can take the “ordinary world” and make it something more than regular. We can take what we understand as being what is and create for better or worse the universe as it might be. Yet, sometimes, things can happen to us or we can become spectators to events that show that life is more than we imagined it to be. I often think there is a lot of substance to that idea of “truth can be stranger than fiction,” because I believe we can only imagine to a certain degree based on the boundaries of our experiences; when something enters our lives that shows far beyond what we knew or what we’ve read or viewed (in the case of TV or movies) by anyone else, then our definitions of truth and fiction are changed. I think these experiences can be just as true to readers as to writers in terms of how media can constantly re-define the universe.
I know from my own recent experiences that my perspective on things has undergone some definition and transformation, experience I am always glad to have to grow and improve as a writer and a person.
