2014 – A Reckoning … of Writing

Last year was the first year I started tracking, through a simple spreadsheet, my writing progress.  Always, the goal has been to write every day.  Family, work, and life in general have hampered that goal, but it has always been something to which I aspired.  My daily goal is 1000 words – that can be “new words” of a first draft or “revised words” but only on a first revision because that second draft is almost always drastically different, and improved, from the initial draft, and “critiques” through my participation in the Comics Experience online workshop, where my critiquing of others’ scripts involves thinking long and hard about the craft of writing.  Those last two may seem like cheats, but I count them as a way to get past the psychological hurdle that kept me from revising stories (because I wasn’t “writing”). 

Before I began tracking my writing, I was sitting down at my laptop fairly regularly, but I am certain I was not as responsible about it as I am now.  With the spreadsheet looming in front of me, as well as a daily check-in thread at the above-mentioned Comics Experience workshop, I was kept more honest; I couldn’t allow the fickleness of memory to reconfigure the reality of not writing for a succession of days, it was there in front of me.  And it did make a difference.  I wrote more than I know I ever had before, in the course of a year – roughly 236,000 total words in 2013. 

This year, I was even more successful.  Writing on a daily basis has truly become a habit for me, one that I do not avoid like I used to (thinking I could do tomorrow what didn’t get done today).  There are many days – many, many days – when I’m just too tired at the end of the day to consider sitting down to write.  And every one of those days I think it won’t be a bad thing if I just take the one night off.  But invariably, I would sit down, and I would write, and I would feel good afterward.  I wrote roughly 315,000 words this year.  254,000 of those were “new words,” compared with just under 160,000 last year.  I’ve raised the bar pretty high going into 2015, but that’s a good thing.

Number one piece of advice every writer gives to those working to break in:  write.  It’s just that simple.  The more you write, the better you get.  Like any other profession, practice and experience is the only thing that can truly help you improve, not reading those self-help/instructional booklets.  They deride the muse – those people who believe, erroneously, that one should create art when the “moment” hits you.  There’s doing the work.  And there’s not.  But here’s a little secret.  If you are writing (or drawing, or playing music) regularly, preferably at a set time each day, then one’s access to The Muse becomes easier.  The habit of sitting down to write at 9:00 pm each night becomes a muscle memory, in the same way taking a hundred swings in the batting cage every day does, and it isn’t such a chore to get into the mood to write.  It sounds obvious, in hindsight, but this was something else I learned through this.  And it has borne out results for me.

This year was not only my most productive, as far as how much writing I did, but it was also my most successful as far as having stories accepted.  I’ve been writing for about fifteen years, but for at least those first ten I was not doing it in any kind of a serious fashion.  It was more a hobby that I would dabble in, when I felt like it, expecting that my genius would win out.  I didn’t take into account the fact that you have to work at it.  The last five years, I’ve been working at it, slowly ramping up my writing production, and it’s shown. 

• In 2010 I had 2 stories published
• In 2011 I had 1 story published
• In 2012 I had 1 story published
• In 2013 I had 2 stories published
• In 2014 I had 4 stories accepted – two of which will have been published by year’s end, one that I am certain will be published in 2015, and one that is still up in the air, as the publisher seeks and artist for it.  

It’s been a great year.  And I hope 2015 will be even better.  I’ll continue working at this.  Goals include writing 1000 words each day – we’ll see if I can pass 315K next year – finishing and revising the current novel I’m working on, and doubling the number of submissions I send off.  This year I achieved my goal of one a week, and actually sent off 53 submission.  So next year, I need to have 106, at least.  We’ll see.  But, for now, Happy New Year!  And here’s to 2015.

-chris

2014 – A Reckoning … of Books Read

This year I decided to track my reading, to look for patterns and to work toward broadening my horizons – specifically, to that final point, I wanted to read more non-fiction and to read more books written by women, and I think I achieved that.

Overall, I read 38 books this year – 12 novels, 13 works of non-fiction, and (if you’re doing the math at home) 13 books that fell under the “Other” category, which includes plays, books of poetry, short story collections, novellas, and anything else that did not fall neatly under the Novel and Non-fiction ones.  To be honest, I am surprised at how well it spread out.  I did not go into this trying to be so even, in the spread across these categories.  Must be my weird, subconscious “math-wired” brain at work. 

Anyway.  The novels were split evenly between male and female authors, with two of the best I read this year from women – Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, which defines lustrous prose for me, and Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet, which was a riveting, genuine, powerful coming of age story, something I am not attracted to, as a sub-genre.  Really powerful stuff.  Other notables would be my first Elmore Leonard novel, Road Dogs, Toni Morrison’s latest, Home, Country Hardball, by Steve Weddle, which is an amazing crime novel-as-collection-of-short-stories, and This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz, who is one of my favorite contemporary authors whose turns of phrase are beautiful and poetic and moving, all at once.  Great stuff.

Some of the notable non-fiction I read this year included Difficult Men, which looks at the shift in television brought about by HBO, FX, and similar cable stations, led by a vanguard of distinct and strong-willed showrunners like David Chase, David Milch, David Simon, and David (actually, Vince) Gilligan.  I also read Julius Caesar: the Life & Times of the People’s Dictator, which was interesting and allowed for a better understanding of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, when I read that directly after, and The New Middle East by Paul Danahar, which sheds light on what has actually been going on in the middle east from the BBC’s primary correspondent there the past few years, and Rez Life by David Treuer, which gives voice to the pain and injustices Native Americans have been forced to deal with ever since Europeans arrived here, centuries past.  It is a harrowing, disturbing, heartbreaking book, but one that everyone American should read (though I doubt half of those would take away any life lessons from it; yes, the half who thinks Fox News is actually news). 

I only got four of Shakespeare’s plays read this year – Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, Hamlet, and Macbeth – but they were a joy to read.  Looking forward to more Shakespeare in 2015, which is always inspirational, to me.  I also read four books from Harlan Ellison, my favorite author, including a collection of short stories, a collection of his teleplays (Brain Movies III), a re-read of Mefisto in Onyx, the novella that was my introduction to Ellison, and his first collection of essays on television from the 70s, The Glass Teat.  I’ve read a healthy number of his books, but I look forward to whittling away at the stack even more, in the coming year.  And I also read two Cormac McCarthy books, neither one of them novels – The Stonemason, a brilliant play that included some of the most insightful and brilliant prose I read this year, and his screenplay for The Counselor, which was interesting if a bit of a let-down.  This one felt more like an exercise in extremes rather than a desire to craft something of significance.  That said, the disappointment in the plot did not take away from the brilliance of the man’s prose and.  McCarthy is a singular talent.  Can’t wait to read more of his work.

And that’s that.  Hoping next year to expand the number of books I read, but that may be tough.  Because I need time for my family and time to write. 

-chris

2014 – a Reckoning … of comic collections read

This year I decided to start tracking my reading a bit more closely.  I wanted to be able to look at trends in my reading, and possibly identify deficiencies in my habits that I could work on.  For the year, I read 100 collections-slash-graphic novels.  Not a bad number.  But what did I read?

I finally got my hands on Bendis’s Alias, which was a great series.  It tapered off a bit at the end, but still, some really great writing, and I appreciated Andreyko’s art, which helped make this book stand out even more.  This led to me re-reading Bendis’s Daredevil run with Alex Maleev.  Not as great as I remember, from my first reading, but still a strong series of issues, made all the more impressive by the fact that, with rare instances and one fill-in storyline that I can remember, this creative team was on the book for a serious run.  Now I’m halfway through the Brubaker/Lark run, and though I’m not enjoying it as much, it’s still a solid read. 

I also dipped into the Geoff Johns Green Lantern mythos this year - and wrote about it here, here, and here.  I stopped after the Sinestro Corps War, relatively underwhelmed.  There was some nice art (when it was Ethan Van Sciver), and the stories were well done, but I think the facts that Hal Jordan is now a firm fixture in the DCU and that I knew some of the twists and turns coming is what killed it for me.  I may return to see how things lead up to Blackest Night, one of my favorite Flash stories of recent years, but probably not.

I also finished up Bakuman this year, reading the last 11 volumes over the entire course of 2014.  Great stuff.  As long as you can buy into the distinct tropes of manga, then you should enjoy this.  Great drama, great characters, some really funs scenarios, and beautiful art, all revolving around two school friends who decide they want to become the biggest manga creators on Weekly Shonen Jump.  The way the creators manage to imbue their stories with drama and tension, when it revolves around creating comics, is impressive.  Worth checking out. 

I also read the full Locke & Key this year, by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez.  One of the best comic stories in years.  Amazing.  If you haven’t read this series yet, and you call yourself a comic fan, get on it.  You will not regret it. 

Some other standouts from the past year also include:

• Ant Colony by Michael DeForge – one of the most distinct and enjoyable artists currently working in comics
• Family Ties by Eric Hobbs & Noel Tuazon – one of my favorite artists, who does not have enough work out there, but what Tuazon does have is all stellar
• Bumperhead by Gilbert Hernandez – on my Rushmore of comic artists.
• Nemo: Roses of Berlin by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill – Alan Moore, writing god, ‘nuff said.
• The Red Diary by Steven Seagle & Teddy Kristiansen – an incredible creative team with yet another phenomenal book.  Check out anything from them.
• NOAH by Darren Aronofsky & Niko Henrichon – gorgeous art, great story, and not what you expect.  Get it.
• Hip Hop Family Tree v.1 by Ed Piskor – check this out, a history of hip hop told through comics by a guy who is a signature talent.

And there were a lot more.  Going into 2015, I’m going to read through all of Gotham Central, finally, and I also plan on doing a near-complete Frank Miller re-read – I don’t know if I can take Holy Terror! but I am excited to re-read DK2 and possibly writing about it.  And whatever other great titles come across my various social feeds.  If you’ve got something to recommend, let me know.  And thanks.

-chris