@James – Haha, damn you caught on. It was actually carefully crafted to be both. A “spicy” compliment if you will. Maybe I can bottle it with my awesome sauce.
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Part of the fun is taking that massive splash of mess and creating something even James can understand.

I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted…

@James – Suck it up, Jamie-boy. Be strong.

@Lucy – This is true as well. Anything you see anyone excel at requires practice. I’m reminded of my actor friends yet again. One of them who’s working to get into a Masters program gets up every morning and first thing runs through all four of his monologues. Then he does them another three times at intervals through the day. Is that a man who’s going to forget what he wanted to do at an audition? Never happen.

@Patrick – There are a lot of advocates of the hand-written screed. I’m one of them. You’ll find that the more you do it, the easier it comes, AND that you can sometimes get deeper into things when you’re forced to spend more time on them.

@Marlene – I think there are many, many advocates of the morning pages for a good reason. I have yet to find anyone who hasn’t found them valuable. Some people gave them up, but they wish they hadn’t.

@Shane – I think you’re right. It’s possible to be both writer and editor, but I definitely think that’s AFTER you get to the point where you can just jump up every morning and start writing, which is in turn definitely after your attic is all clean and sparkly.

@Amy – Bwah ha ha! You must be cleeeeeeean! Good reminder on how wonderful writers initially wrote crap. I comfort myself with this thought often. Thomas Pynchon actually published a set of short stories specifically, he says, so that other writers can learn that it didn’t just happen magically. These stories suck, and they’re amateur, and I didn’t learn my craft until a few years after them.

@Fitnessjerk – I would venture a belief that your “thoughts and craft” are probably also your “feelings and shit”. Everyone thinks that journaling is supposed to be sob stuff but usually it’s just getting through anything that’s on your mind so you can focus.

@shanna – Aw, Shanna, I’m glad. Good luck to you.

@Sandra – And good luck to you, too! It’s hard to learn a discipline, and I commend you. I hope you’re a standard at Comicon one day.

How could this have happened? Well, I’d just keep getting stuck; it would take me ages to try to draw the next character or prop. The colours had to be just right, the shapes had to be just right, and then ohno, the speech bubbles don’t quite fit, the proportions are a little off, the dialogue jars. I was creating and deleting and creating and deleting and getting nowhere.

Eventually I decided that this years resolutions would involve doing drawing exercises every single day, to try and build some self-discipline. Two weeks in, it’s going really well. I just hope that when my attic is completely cleared out, I’ll be able to properly tackle my comic, and maybe some day, finish page two.

Getting over the fear of writing out crap for awhile, until the clutter is gone and the good stuff starts to flow again will take some work but this article has given me great inspiration to be fearless and just get started! I cannot thank you enough for this piece.
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But yes, clean the attic. I write a journal everyday… but not like fruity ass journal where I write down all my feelings and shit. It’s a place to dump my thoughts and hone my craft. Instead of cleaning the attic, I have my very one dump ground. Still clears my mind… just a different way to go about it.

Sometimes though… I’m not sure I want my head to be clean. Sometimes I want the chaos. I want the random, hyperactive ideas flying at me in every angle while I furiously struggle to scribble them on page. Part of the fun is taking that massive splash of mess and creating something even James can understand. Then convince his ass to post it.

Good times.
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