Lay on MacBeth, and cursed be he who first cries "Enough".
I don't have to remind you to note carefully the punctuation. ];)
You may not want to use abbreviations in your narrative, unless they are to be pronounced that way. That approach has lost favor since c. 1960.
And I am always supportive of your work, even if some things that are difficult for you to see seem so bloody obvious to me. Seize the day, my friend. You have only now. ];)
Hmm ... most of what you're getting at is difficult for me to see ... although I found the abbreviation you're referring to in the MM snippet, I think. :) I'm sorta confoosed as to what it might have to do with one hand clapping, but maybe it's a Zen thing. ;)
You were, in your way, complaining about the lack of an audience. I encouraged you to produce, to write your stories, to "lay on MacBeth", bring him on.
Of all the web comics out there, the ranking of yours in popularity is certainly in the top 10%, and perhaps the top 2%. It would be hard to tell precisely, and any attempt at such precision is likely to be subjectively flawed as you know.
But you worry too much about this.
You're an excellent writer, or at least you have the skills; write.
You know where to find the exercises when you are short on ideas. Do them. You cannot master the art, whether it is Gung Fu or writing, without lots of practice of tedious aspects. That's part of the game, and it's part of what you signed up for. Highly skilled artists practice all the time, whether they are great tenors, writers, or warriors.
You know all of this.
You've said two conflicting things: "I want to do what I want, even if it's not popular", and "I want to be popular". There is inherent struggle here, which your musings demonstrate.
You have, in Suburban Jungle, a number of elements that make it both "better" and "less popular" at the same time: -- human emotions instead of action sequences -- mature real-life problems rather than angst. -- homosexual characters and issues portrayed fairly realistically. -- gentle treatment of obvious comedy targets such as corporations and workplace.
In spite of this, you and your strip are very popular, but not with every single demographic group.
But you have to decide. Not only what you want to do, but whether popularity is the big driver or a nice side effect.
If it's the driver, figure out what's very popular, train yourself to do it, and do it.
If popularity is a side effect, then you're already there. Figure out what you want to do, train yourself to do it as a serious venture, and do it.
Either way, you've got a bunch of folks cheering you on. And hoping for your success. And waiting for you to do it.
Some writers write for decades before anyone even knows. You're applauded every day. It's time to go get 'em, lion.
No writer thinks his work is worth anything. No illustrator does either. The Gneech is both a writer and an illustrator. It's a wonder he hasn't followed the Roman example and thrown himself onto his electric toothbrush screaming "Goodbye cruel world!" :)
Do people who kill themselves with a toothbrush get a memorial plaque?
Society might well reward someone who had insufficient dental miscipline. But you cannot count on it. ];)
Somehow I am inappropriately reminded of the idiot who was prevented from slitting his wrists with a razor by the fact that the razor's batteries had died.
Sorry. Sometimes I'm easily sidetracked by the miscellaneous Floss'um and Jetsom floating around in my mind. For example: do straight people have Bicuspids? Go ahead, talk amongst yourselves...
Actually, the irony of it all is that it wasn't a serious topic at all. I posted the "one hand clapping" bit in response to a conversation Laurie and I were having about koans (http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/KoanStudy.html); I didn't realize at the time that it might be read as a cry over lack of response. :) I wasn't expecting a response to the writing posts other than what I received.
The driver is definitely quality of work -- otherwise, what's the point of doing it -- but popularity is also important. :) The ideal is to do both, obviously, and that is my goal.
That's a good question; to be honest, I don't have a good answer. A lot of the popular genres seem quite stale to me. I've tried my hand at mysteries, SF (but I kept wandering off the reservation, so to speak, and delving in space fantasy), and fantasy of course. One of the things I like about Michael Macbeth is that he hasn't been done to death -- or at least, not recently. The weird tale of the sort Michael typifies was big in the pulp days, but hasn't been around that much lately. The closest approximation, besides the "Dirk Gently" books, would probably be Barbara Michaels' quasi-gothics, except they don't have the humor.
And to a limited extent the Glen Cook series. He is a dectective in a land where the gods set up churches in a certain part of town, and he often has gods for clients or investigative targets.
His style is "over the top humorous", and the whole god-bit is played for yuks. I'm not impressed by it. For example, his sidekick is "The Goddamn Noisy Parrot" and his partner is a decaying corpse of an alien, who really is the telepathic brains of the operation.
I mention it only because of the intersection of "occult and magic" and "detective stories"; since Cook seems to be popular, someone will categorize you with him. This is not likely to be a bad thing.
Dude! You posted that snippet at, like, 7:00 EST! Give the rest of us time to wake up! I've been watching for your MM stuff, btw... you've been talking about it, but I haven't seen the snippets until today's... Kinda reminds me in a way of Dirk's adventures with the refrigerator in "Teatime." :)
Actually, the one hand clapping routine is just an obscure reference to a Zen exercise; it's not about the snippet. Sorry! The posts are unrelated, except in as much as, "Do you hear one hand clapping?" is the sort of thing Michael Macbeth might say to a client.
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branchandroot
no subject
===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
Re:
Date: 2002-12-10 09:17 am (UTC)I don't have to remind you to note carefully the punctuation. ];)
You may not want to use abbreviations in your narrative, unless they are to be pronounced that way. That approach has lost favor since c. 1960.
And I am always supportive of your work, even if some things that are difficult for you to see seem so bloody obvious to me. Seize the day, my friend. You have only now. ];)
===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
-The Gneech
Re:
Date: 2002-12-10 10:13 am (UTC)Of all the web comics out there, the ranking of yours in popularity is certainly in the top 10%, and perhaps the top 2%. It would be hard to tell precisely, and any attempt at such precision is likely to be subjectively flawed as you know.
But you worry too much about this.
You're an excellent writer, or at least you have the skills; write.
You know where to find the exercises when you are short on ideas. Do them. You cannot master the art, whether it is Gung Fu or writing, without lots of practice of tedious aspects. That's part of the game, and it's part of what you signed up for. Highly skilled artists practice all the time, whether they are great tenors, writers, or warriors.
You know all of this.
You've said two conflicting things: "I want to do what I want, even if it's not popular", and "I want to be popular". There is inherent struggle here, which your musings demonstrate.
You have, in Suburban Jungle, a number of elements that make it both "better" and "less popular" at the same time:
-- human emotions instead of action sequences
-- mature real-life problems rather than angst.
-- homosexual characters and issues portrayed fairly realistically.
-- gentle treatment of obvious comedy targets such as corporations and workplace.
In spite of this, you and your strip are very popular, but not with every single demographic group.
But you have to decide. Not only what you want to do, but whether popularity is the big driver or a nice side effect.
If it's the driver, figure out what's very popular, train yourself to do it, and do it.
If popularity is a side effect, then you're already there. Figure out what you want to do, train yourself to do it as a serious venture, and do it.
Either way, you've got a bunch of folks cheering you on. And hoping for your success. And waiting for you to do it.
Some writers write for decades before anyone even knows. You're applauded every day. It's time to go get 'em, lion.
===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
Date: 2002-12-10 10:21 am (UTC)Do people who kill themselves with a toothbrush get a memorial plaque?
Re:
Date: 2002-12-10 10:30 am (UTC)Somehow I am inappropriately reminded of the idiot who was prevented from slitting his wrists with a razor by the fact that the razor's batteries had died.
===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
Date: 2002-12-10 10:39 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-12-10 11:09 am (UTC)===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
Date: 2002-12-10 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
-The Gneech
Re:
Date: 2002-12-10 11:32 am (UTC)But this falls into the number of things that should not be done in public...
===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
-The Gneech
Re:
Date: 2002-12-10 03:13 pm (UTC)===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
-The Gneech
Re:
Date: 2002-12-11 05:53 am (UTC)His style is "over the top humorous", and the whole god-bit is played for yuks. I'm not impressed by it. For example, his sidekick is "The Goddamn Noisy Parrot" and his partner is a decaying corpse of an alien, who really is the telepathic brains of the operation.
I mention it only because of the intersection of "occult and magic" and "detective stories"; since Cook seems to be popular, someone will categorize you with him. This is not likely to be a bad thing.
===|==============/ Level Head
no subject
Date: 2002-12-10 09:48 am (UTC)no subject
-TG
no subject
Date: 2002-12-10 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
no subject
Date: 2002-12-10 01:25 pm (UTC)