Masters of Storytelling | Comic-Con@Home 2020

~"You just write about whatever is just burning to get out of you. Don't worry about writing something you think everybody wants to read. They'll wanna read the best thing that you can write, that you need to write, right then." -Ed Brubaker



~Try to write the best story that you can. Even if it's niche and weird if, it doesn't sell and no one likes it at least you made yourself happy. But if you tried to write what you think others want and it doesn't fly, you are left with nothing. You can't predict the market.

Whatever you do, someone's not going to like it, so who cares? (Alex de Campi)



~Do you tell people your story ideas?

Many creators do not tell friends and family about their story ideas or their work. It's not always easy for them to relate.

As for early story phase, the story is "pre-conscious" and it's uncertain if it's a thing and difficult to share and describe especially outside of the creator circles where others help, encourage, nurture and understand the process.

~Sharing your nascent ideas with others is a vulnerable place. It's too easy for your creativity to be killed by very little feedback. BUT must practice sharing ideas with other creators who understand process. (Emma Kubert)



~It's good to have a second project to "warm your hands on" when you're avoiding the work that's due. (Matt Fraction)



~"The best thing I've written is whatever's coming next and the worst thing I've written is whatever just came out." -Matt Fraction



~"Daydream about what you'll get right next time" -Matt Fraction



~Fraction keeps one physical notebook per project to keep his thoughts together and not forget things.



@~38-41 min
On plotting a story arc:

"The metaphor I always use before I get started is we're gonna take a road trip without a map but I have a general understanding of the geography. Say we're gonna drive from California to New York. If you get to desert you're going the wrong way and if you don't cross the Mississippi in two or three days you're off track. So I kind of have landmarks. It's infuriating because it always feels in the last third like it was disorganized or lazy and all I see is what I could have done differently and all that, but at the same time, you can call audibles and steer into the strength of a book and veer into Chicago (to grossly extend the metaphor). If I pre-wrote it before I got to see things and live in that world visually, I think I'd miss opportunities to write not just to the strength of the artist, but to the book itself. It's a tonal thing. There's a joy in the result of the collaboration where it's not just yours and it's not just your partner's. It's ours. It's always instructive for me." ~Matt Fraction



~Architect vs Gardener writing styles. Gardening= joy in the discovery, even though there is some intentionality in the layout and the selection.



But even people who say they don't outline or plot ahead are secretly working out things in their story always in their head- framing and outlining in one way or another.



Plan ahead, but also leave room for poetry and changes of mind. Joy of discovery.

How to be as Good at DIGITAL ART as you are at TRADITIONAL ART

Lots of good stuff here, but my favorite point:
Prioritize exploring your technique over  churning out finished work
Developing your technique needs to take priority over creating content when developing as a digital artist.

Once you've got a technique you're comfortable with, you can turn out work more naturally.

Cons2020 Six Love Types

While much of this talk of polling people about their favorite characters or shows is more cute than useful (this is serious 'research?'), I did find some really useful thoughts about archetype love in characters. I'm not sure how exactly these love types linked with the research they shared. In this respect I found the talk kind of lacking in direction. Was it intended to evaluate the way people feel love towards their characters? Why was it phrased in types of partner love then?

Often times I know I connect with characters for a wide variety of reasons- because they express something about me that I struggle with, because they're a cathartic reference to my shadow self, because they're surprisingly different than myself, because they're clever or adorable or funny. Why is this talk using love-types and then talking about favorite character polls when there are a lot more metrics for choosing a favorite?

Or, if it was supposed to be about love types, why did it explore favorite character polls at all? Why not take some character examples and explore the love partnership intentions they laid out in the beginning?

In any case, the most useful part of the talk for me was the love-types. Because I had only seen HALF of these outlined before (Eros, Storge, Agape) but what was new to me was the more *pathological* love approaches (Ludos, Pragma, Mania). Of *course* I've encounters and explored these in life and in fiction, but I don't know how I never ran across their labels before!

Sometimes I think the best stuff from talks like these (YES even kind of middling talks that you maybe can shrug off 90% of as fluff) are things you know about already in you gut, but someone puts a name or a description to it or cuts it open on the dissection tray for you to look closer and you go "Yes, that's right. I know this" but you never knew it quite like this. These are my favorite nuggets and why I watch stuff like this.

6 love-types
~Ludos (aka Ludus) - Conquest/ Game playing love
"I believe that what my partner (lover) doesn't know about me won't hurt him/her."

~Pragma - Practically, Logical, Shopping list love
"One consideration in choosing my partner (lover) was how he/ she would reflect on my career."

~Mania - obsessive, possessive and dependent love
"If my partner (lover) ignores me for awhile, I sometimes do stupid things to try to get his/ her attention back."

~Eros - Romance, Passion
"I feel that my partner and I were meant for each other."

~Storge - Based on friendship
"Our friendship merged gradually into love over time."

~Agape - Selfless love
"I would endure all things for the sake of my partner (lover)"

Cons2020 Musical Scores vid

Although I usually am focused more on visual development, this was fascinating to listen to! I appreciated hearing each one of their own types of immersion in the genres personally, and about their favorite characters or themes that they've worked on. It's also really cool to see them each in their own studio environment, something you wouldn't have gotten on a panel typically.

Some more take-aways I appreciate in the arts in general coming from this vid:

~Get your panic out before you start the work. Once you've started, just be in it. Don't choke yourself with the stress about it. Being part of the process itself relieves anxiety.

~Experimenting is a great stage and a necessary one, and then you're more prepared for the final, tuned in work (in music scores: "Working to picture" matching it up with the film itself.)

~Sampling/ influences/ reference is part of the business. Making unanticipated connections or fresh mixes is itself something new and original.

~When you step back from the work and see it in it's final product, you might experience it apart from yourself as the creator, even to the point of not recognizing it as your own and giving it deserved appreciation as a work unto itself.

~Studio Artists of all types can experience performance anxiety. Some of us are not performers, just meant to create in our studios. But there is a "high" that comes from stage performance.

~Creating alone as a rule can leave a desire for collaborative art when you can get it.

~A dream project could be something that is such a challenge you don't know if you can even do it. It stretches you and forces exploration and growth.

"The thing that I want to do doesn't exist yet, but I really want it to happen. Like, I'm sorry that I can't tell you what it is."