Monday, April 03, 2006
Okay, this is a rant. Probably one I'll regret at some point but, right now, I need to vent. Bare in mind that I'm not talking about any of the people that I'm working on projects with now. I'm very lucky in that regard. But I have had problems of this sort in the past and I've gotten myself worked up thinking about them.
I'm talking about the person that says they want to break into comics, may even accept payment for working on a submission and then...nothing. It takes them months to get the work done and only after email after email almost begging for them to send something--anything.
I don't think I'm an unreasonable person. I realize that writing a comic script is, in most cases, the quickest, least-time consuming part of the process. And I realize that these people have lives that sometimes interferes with their dreams. I have a life (and if you follow this at all, you know it just got much more busy). But to wait months for a sample to be finished seems a bit much to me.
This business is in no way easy to break into, even if you have the necessary talent. Tales of people falling into this business are few and far between (there is the current trend to take writers from other mediums such as movies and books but those people have worked hard and been dedicated in some medium or other). Far more the norm are the stories of people that worked, worked, and worked some more and were prepared when that break finally came.
I don't know, maybe I have a different work ethic than some. To me, it seems a good idea to hedge your bets in every way possible and that means to be prompt and act in every way the professional even before you are a professional. You can't expect editors to believe there's some magic switch that will flip once your hired. "Well, it's taken 5 months for these 5 pages but I bet if we hire him he'll deliver on time." If I'm working with someone and it's time for me to deliver a script, a pitch, a dirty limerick, whatever, I try to get it to them in the shortest time possible. To me that's the only way to work, the way to build that all important reputation.
I dunno. Could just be the OCD setting in.
I'm talking about the person that says they want to break into comics, may even accept payment for working on a submission and then...nothing. It takes them months to get the work done and only after email after email almost begging for them to send something--anything.
I don't think I'm an unreasonable person. I realize that writing a comic script is, in most cases, the quickest, least-time consuming part of the process. And I realize that these people have lives that sometimes interferes with their dreams. I have a life (and if you follow this at all, you know it just got much more busy). But to wait months for a sample to be finished seems a bit much to me.
This business is in no way easy to break into, even if you have the necessary talent. Tales of people falling into this business are few and far between (there is the current trend to take writers from other mediums such as movies and books but those people have worked hard and been dedicated in some medium or other). Far more the norm are the stories of people that worked, worked, and worked some more and were prepared when that break finally came.
I don't know, maybe I have a different work ethic than some. To me, it seems a good idea to hedge your bets in every way possible and that means to be prompt and act in every way the professional even before you are a professional. You can't expect editors to believe there's some magic switch that will flip once your hired. "Well, it's taken 5 months for these 5 pages but I bet if we hire him he'll deliver on time." If I'm working with someone and it's time for me to deliver a script, a pitch, a dirty limerick, whatever, I try to get it to them in the shortest time possible. To me that's the only way to work, the way to build that all important reputation.
I dunno. Could just be the OCD setting in.
# posted by Crisman @ 8:24 PM 
