Broken Frontier

I’ve spent the past three months living as a professional writer.  No day job to suck up my time, no pointless tasks to sidetrack me.  And yet, here I am, just as exhausted, clocking just as many hours and running from place to place trying to keep up.  Making comics is a business, no matter what my annual salary might tell you.  It’s constantly trying to juggle the creative juices with the business necessities that keep you going.  Having a great support staff (which thank god, I do) helps, but, at the end of the day, I’m still the one making the decisions and juggling the bulk of the work. 

Today’s been one of those juggling days.  Up at seven, and 5 hours of phone calls, e-mails, and meetings later, I’ve still yet to do my actual writing chores for today.  But, they have to get done, no matter what.  I had an especially lively phone call this morning which has sort of spiraled into a mass of business stuff that has me just about as far away from the town of Elk’s Ridge and its inhabitants as of Elk’s Run issue #5 as humanly possible.  And, now, I’m faced with trying to settle down, and get into it to meet a self-imposed deadline of the end of the day for the second draft.  Will I make it? Probably not, but I’ll sure as hell try. 

That’s the thing that so many guys don’t seem to get.  The business and the actual creative process have an equal place in their importance.  Sure, plenty of folks are happy doing the day job and the night-writing, but, I’ve increasingly found myself… well, uninterested in doing anything else.  Every waking hour is spent on this stuff, trying to figure out the next big thing for my company, or the next big twist in my script.  I spend hours everyday just doing ‘housekeeping’ by going to message boards, checking news sites, and reading the Hollywood trades (or their online equivalents.)  Why? Why does it matter? 

At the end of the day, knowing the ground you’re working on and what the market is looking for is essential, especially if you want to make something that’s going to last and be meaningful.  Sure, all the ‘market research’ in the world doesn’t mean squat to the practical writing process, but, it sure as hell informs which direction you go, even if it’s just too simply make sure you’re not duplicating a concept being executed elsewhere.  There’s a LOT of comics, movies, and video games out there, and having an understanding of a least 70-80% of them can help make sure you have the best chance of making a splash.

I get a lot of grief for this type of thinking, but, at the end of the day, as a writer and creator, I need to make money. I need to know that the things I’m developing actually have traction and meaning in the market.  Losing money on the comics is fine, as long as you know that it’s a calculated risk.  Elk’s Run has always been done under this notion.  We make sure that we control our losses, but, at the same time, know that it can stand up on its own and find meaning in other mediums that make it a worthwhile investment for both my business and creative partners.  Will it kill me if it doesn’t ever sell? No. Because I believe in the product that we made.  I think that the comic stands on its own as a beautiful thing.  But, you just need to make sure that you have the best chances possible to make that happen.  A lot of folks write these insane over-the-top sci-fi 200 million dollar extravangazas, but the reality is that sales of properties like those are considerably more difficult than something with a lower budget and strong character and plot.  That being said, I’m working on an over-the-top sci-fi 200 million dollar extravaganza comic, so, I suppose I shouldn’t talk.

I seem to have gotten distracted from my initial point.  For all that it’s worth, make the best comics that you can, and the business will follow you, as long as you do the requisite leg work to make sure that your creativity has the proper legs.

My girlfriend said something funny to me the other day.  She said “What I love about you is that your talent and your ambition are equal with each other.  Most people are either really talented and lazy, or really ambitious and talentless.  You’re a nice balance of both.”  I thought about that, and how it applies to what I do after waking up every morning, and that’s how I’ve found balance. 

Off to finish this script before I get my afternoon conference call that’ll get me all worked up and unable to write again.  Ah, writing for a living.