Another Note to Myself Re: Artwork'n'Stuff

[the_gneech]

Something I've got to remember is to keep in mind the long view when it comes to my artwork and my writing both. What I've done so far is just the beginning. I'm 33 years old, and I have three books published and a fourth on the way; my writing is good and solid, even if I haven't finished a novel yet; my artwork still has a way to go, but just look how much better it is now than when I started, etc.

I'm 33 ... who knows where I'll be when I'm 43? 53? 63? Look at somebody like Chuck Jones or Charles Schultz, when it comes to artwork, or Rex Stout when it comes to writing ... their careers all span lifetimes. Assuming nobody drops a piano on me, I've still got a long road ahead. Most people don't do their magnum opus until they're middle-aged or older -- chances are, my magnum opus, whatever it turns out to be, isn't even a glimmer in my eye yet. Or some little germ of an idea I have now may blossom into greatness someday, who knows? The future is infinite in possibility.

This is something that's easy to forget, when I'm focusing on the task du jour. All the effort I've poured into Suburban Jungle may turn out to be just the training ground for my real work ... after all the fretting I've done the past week (and the past seven years) about Michael Macbeth, he may end up being just a footnote in my life's story -- there's no way for me to tell!

I once read that life can only be lived forwards, and only understood backwards. (Unless you're Merlin, living backwards in time, but he was an oddity.) That's something I've got to remember!

-The Gneech

Comments

Fortune cookie:

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

"Be wary of aerial pianos"

Re: Fortune cookie:

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am, buddy, I am! Yes indeedy I am! -TG

No kidding...

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Your characters have matured a lot since they came out. Tiffany has grown -- she's even had to confront that some companies don't want her because she's too old. All of your characters have grown and developed.

Keep on growing, GGneech. You'll do it!

Re: No kidding...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll do my best! =) -TG

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

I agree. We're all works in progress, and we're never at the end of the road. I'm 33 too and it's starting to look like my best work may be in front of me. ;)

Don't panic. You're making great strides with SJ and I have faith in all your future work! :D

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Thanks, dude! :) -TG

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Merlin had his own problems, did he not? ];)

I have great expectations of you; it is possible that they are larger than your own.

And a journal entry today was triggered by someone else, but I confess that I was thinking about your situation as I wrote.

My best wishes to you, friend Gneech. You have all of the rest of your life ahead of you.

===|==============/ Level Head

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Merlin was doing fine right up to the point where he got entangled with Vortigern.

Erm, no, wait, that was the beginning of his career.

Or the end, 'cause, y'know, he was living backwards.

Gah! Darn those wizards! They're confoosing!

-The Gneech

Re:

[level-head.livejournal.com]

It could certainly be said that he has more experience with backups than most programmers.

But for all his wisdom, he was easily distracted... and frustrated by language difficulties.

Wasn't he trying to apply his time-reversal techniques to the Eastern kingdoms, and they outlawed his "Youthen Asia" program?

===|==============/ Level Head

And Level Head says, "I had to ask!"

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

D'Ooooohhhh!!!

Depending on which version of Merlin you subscribe to, he could have had any number of problems ... my interpretation of him, really, was that he expected too much of people. There is a certain type of genius who, because they grasp things so thoroughly so quickly, rapidly get impatient and frustrated with people of more normal capacity, who need time to work things out. Merlin, I would suspect, saw the conclusions he came to as self-evident, when in fact to most people they were anything but! Like Sherlock Holmes' famous parlor trick of deducing that somebody is a writer by observing a callous in the middle finger of their right hand, y'know?

It's an image I've always liked ... the future-telling, all-knowing wizard, defeated in the end by his inability to judge human character. :)

His other problem, was that he couldn't say "no" to people. That business with Uther and Ygraine -- he knew nothing but bad could come of that! Surely he didn't give in because he was afraid of Uther -- so the question is, why did he? For somebody supposedly so wise, it sure was a heckuva blunder!

This is why, in NeverNever, they're content to leave Merlin still trapped in the tower of glass, where he's been since the end of Camelot. The Arcadians generally think of him as little more than a loose cannon. :)

-The Gneech

Re: And Level Head says, "I had to ask!"

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Something about your comments made me feel a sudden heightened...sympathy for Merlin. ];)

I hope it all works out well for him in the beginning.

===|==============/ Level Head

Re: And Level Head says, "I had to ask!"

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, the key to good writing, is to make your characters sympathetic, yes? ;)

-The Gneech

Re: And Level Head says, "I had to ask!"

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought you had aimed something in there.

];)

===|==============/ Level Head

Re: And Level Head says, "I had to ask!"

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Hmm ... I think you may be receiving secret messages that I'm not sending, again. :)

-The Gneech

Re: And Level Head says, "I had to ask!"

[katsunewolf.livejournal.com]

Pixle Pixies are eating your memos again. ;)

^~Kai