trotting along
Boy, that sure sucked.
Around Wednesday last week, i got hit with some of the worst creative block i’ve had in ages. Now, i’ve had less severe writers/artist block and produced far less output (like loosing entire weeks to DPDs), so this may not SEEM like it was bad, but it was. I’ve never fought against a creative block so hard before.
I suppose what triggered it were some seemingly minor shifts in some story threads that came as a result of of some resonance between some adjacent threads — causing some rethinking about some things that made some rough spots work better and helped clarify some story elements that haven’t be as fully defined as i would like. My writing is, unfortunately, very organic. I throw down a lot of seed, and the difference between good comics and good arcs and so-so stuff is when bits and pieces have enough time to germinate, when i can refine and prune and weave and trim and graft… its hard to describe, and i am a crappy gardener, but it’s that kind of process. Bits and pieces of things that seem to go nowhere or ripe situations that fall flat and don’t seem to reach their full potential are a sad byproduct of this kind of process, and i try to avoid it as much as possible.
Anyways, It seems that having to mucky-muck with this this process started me down a path that drove me right into a brick wall so dense it took me almost 6 days to beat my way through it. I was finding myself more willing to clean the litter box than write it was getting so depressing 
It’s always a mess when this happens, but right now, with how busy we are with MegaGear, it felt like a disaster. Not a good time to have this happen The ‘Saturday’ comic that i pulled down was a hiccup - i really should have just accepted the fact that a DPD was needed and worked my way through things. I really should not have tried to force it. It was an experiment to see what happens when if i did, and it proved to me that this creative mule of mine reacts as poorly as ever to force 
The good news is that mr. creative mule (AKA mr. major pain the ass) is trotting along happily now, and while he’s still as slow and morose as ever, and hopelessly overloaded with baggage, he’s at least trotting along now. trotting is better than sitting. I’ll take it.
Oh, and as for being busy with Megagear - that’s a good thing. It’s what keeps MT online, so its my job to do a good job with both. It goes without saying, but Seraphim and I really appreciate your business, and hope you are happy with your stuff (whether it be a gift for friends and family, or for yourself :P) Thank you.
After finishing up last night, i took a little time to finish watching the last few episodes of Mahoraba, Heartful Days. Ahh, very nice. I suppose it makes me smile more than some people, since i write and draw stories and know what its like to have people enjoy them, but still, it really was a fun anime, and the way the anime handled things wasn’t too bad at all. There are some really amusing things in the manga that they were not able to do with the anime (you gotta love Nanako-chan :P) and as usual my fave really is Saki-chan… it all made me smile.
Also been managing to keep up with Rozen Maiden Traumend. After the last episode, i had a story preminition that i hope to god isn’t where this is going. Not because it’s bad story writing, but because it’d really make me sad ;_; Gyah… at least i’m not writing it. I know where i’d find myself having to take it, and it wouldn’t make me happy one bit…
- pirotunes: DJ Cam - Mad Blunted Jazz -
December 14th, 2005 at 5:40 am
Unfortunately, Fred, if what you are worried about in Rozen Maiden T is what I think it is, then please don’t get your hopes up; you write stories yourself, so you know there is only one direction Peach-Pit would push the story line…
On the bright side, who knows what can happen if Jun become a doll maker one day… Miracles can happen, right? ^_^
December 14th, 2005 at 8:47 am
damn mule, i had one this week. it wasn’t doing its job, so i took it out back and shot it… this was a creative mule not a real mule… i find i always have to clarify things to my friends at school. i do it out of habit because they can’t tell when i’m joking or not… i’ve got a dark sense of humour… you kick that ass in the… er, … ass….
…
happy !
December 14th, 2005 at 10:52 am
The art looks good and all the plots are coming along. Just to cheer you up, I went and bought two mugs
One’s for me and one is for my friend for whom I made a Chibi Killstick (see link on my name.) Merry Christmas - Bill
December 14th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
I really like Nanasawa’s startled expression in the fourth panel of today’s comic (12/14/05). Good stuff.
Chris
December 14th, 2005 at 2:16 pm
(speaking of throwing down a lot of seeds and in a bid to cheer you up…)
I remember the time my mother wanted to grow carrots. She is not a gardener, nor does she have a whole lot of patience with the whole gardening thing. She decided to just toss the carrot seeds randomly on the soil. The carrots (all 6 or so) grew to be 1″ long and twisted. We gave them to the hamster to eat.
December 14th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
umm i was just wondering why my last post was changed? because i dont remember writing it did someone change it?
December 14th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
the drawings are really nice. Is Warmth gonna be up anytime soon?
December 15th, 2005 at 1:48 am
I love Mahoraba, it’s wonderful and heartwarming and silly and very nicely characterized.
December 15th, 2005 at 11:42 am
Now - I’m more suspicious of Chiba. Boo-hiss …
Blocks happen to everyone. Most of us understand.
Take care - Sparky
December 16th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
I consider Mahoraba to be one of the best anime series from start to finish I’ve seen, especially in translating the spirit of the manga to the anime.
The manga is still moving along but has been excellent (our beer-swilling lady’s backstory gave my son’s Japanese teacher a bit of a pause as she’s pretty conservative in what she’ll allow in the classroom but she’s stuck with it as well).
The finishing episodes finished a major story arc and without really conflicting with the manga.
(I hope Shuffle! can pull off a nice finish but I’m still tentative about it)
December 17th, 2005 at 7:58 pm
meeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrchuuuuuuuuuu! zu zu zu zu……. agh, i’m soo hungry nowwwww……. i’ve read you’re manga comics stuff. good, but i’m still hungry for food.
December 17th, 2005 at 7:59 pm
meeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrchuuuuuuuuuu! zu zu zu zu……. agh, i’m soo hungry nowwwww……. i’ve read you’re manga comics stuff. good, but i’m still hungry for food.
December 17th, 2005 at 8:00 pm
crap, i did a double post again…. srry about that.
December 20th, 2005 at 11:23 am
yello. i just wanted to ask what was up with mt, it loads funny now… the font changed and there is a .us.yimg thing attatched to megatokyo’s domain… wha’d ya do to it? it now says http://www.megatokyo.com/.us.yimg.com or something. did mr. caston do something to the domain name? why? and the comic wont load… it has garbleblargen instead of a comic… (note: garbleblargen nis a funny word my friend and i made up for when you type in japanese and it comes up really scary on american’s computers) i dunno if you typed something weird, or just messed up some code, but eek! I tried loading it on one of my 5 computers, the american one first, then i switched to my japanese reading one and it still wouldnt load right… i refuse to convert my american system to another japanese box! i have too many, and i have a bet going with a friend to see how long i can keep a designated american computer for a year… i dont think i can pull it off, i hate swithching systemzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! blah!!!!
in short: whatever you did screwed some crap up bad, real bad….!
December 21st, 2005 at 12:06 am
Have a great holiday. Thanks for rejoining SD!