the_gneech (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_gneech) wrote2008-02-21 01:09 pm
the_gneech) wrote2008-02-21 01:09 pm
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Step Right In
Something that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lythandra and I have talked about in regards to stories, books, TV shows, or other works of art is the desire to just "step right in" and become part of the world described. And what occurs to me right now is that offhand, I can't think of anything I've seen recently that has given me that feeling.
I don't know if I've gotten too close to the process, or maybe it's just that nothing's caught my imagination really, but it seems to me that any kind of story I've been exposed to recently, I've found myself paying a lot more attention to how it's put together as a piece of work, than to the story being told. Comics, particularly, have had a hard time impressing me because at some level I see it as something that somebody just made up and wrote down.
I wasn't always like this; in fact, once upon a time, I was quite the world-builder. And when I encountered a story, character, or setting that caught my fancy, the first thing I would do when I finished enjoying the work was to build on it, at least in idle speculation, thinking of "further adventures of" or even just enjoying a kind of warm, fuzzy feeling that things were still going on there, even if I wasn't watching them just at that moment.
This is the kind of feeling I've tried to create with both NeverNever and Suburban Jungle. How successful I've been, I'll leave to my readers to decide, but for myself it has varied. Sometimes, when I'm "in the groove," it's easy and the strips practically write themselves -- it's like I'm just reporting what happened. Other times, particularly if I'm tired or harried by Real Life, it becomes a lot more like work as I have to sit there and think up stuff to have happen.
I wonder why that is? And what can be done to facilitate getting back to that "just reporting what happens" feeling. This merits some thought.
-The Gneech
lythandra and I have talked about in regards to stories, books, TV shows, or other works of art is the desire to just "step right in" and become part of the world described. And what occurs to me right now is that offhand, I can't think of anything I've seen recently that has given me that feeling.I don't know if I've gotten too close to the process, or maybe it's just that nothing's caught my imagination really, but it seems to me that any kind of story I've been exposed to recently, I've found myself paying a lot more attention to how it's put together as a piece of work, than to the story being told. Comics, particularly, have had a hard time impressing me because at some level I see it as something that somebody just made up and wrote down.
I wasn't always like this; in fact, once upon a time, I was quite the world-builder. And when I encountered a story, character, or setting that caught my fancy, the first thing I would do when I finished enjoying the work was to build on it, at least in idle speculation, thinking of "further adventures of" or even just enjoying a kind of warm, fuzzy feeling that things were still going on there, even if I wasn't watching them just at that moment.
This is the kind of feeling I've tried to create with both NeverNever and Suburban Jungle. How successful I've been, I'll leave to my readers to decide, but for myself it has varied. Sometimes, when I'm "in the groove," it's easy and the strips practically write themselves -- it's like I'm just reporting what happened. Other times, particularly if I'm tired or harried by Real Life, it becomes a lot more like work as I have to sit there and think up stuff to have happen.
I wonder why that is? And what can be done to facilitate getting back to that "just reporting what happens" feeling. This merits some thought.
-The Gneech
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Anyway, there's a series set in a sorta parallel Renaissance-era furry universe: Volle, The Prisoner's Release, and the Pendant of Fortune, a trilogy focusing on a young spy working to keep peace between two kingdoms. Gold has an excellent grasp of biology, so the subtleties of species--sense of smell, size, eating habits, hierarchy, dialogue, even their religion--are all worked into the way their world works and is built. The universe is just different enough, even though everything else seems reasonably authentic to the era (save the dialect). So I think it makes for good "immersion", so to speak.
Can't help you with how to find the groove, though. I'm more of an art-reflecting-life kinda creator.
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