love, read, write

It's been a while since I've actually written out a post in my own voice. Here I am. Lots of great (and also terrible) things have happened to me (and the world, sadly) since I have last posted as Celine. But I'm not going to go into that because that's a lot of words and emotional anguish and complications that I'm sure we've met with enough of (or at least, I have). Certain things do need to be said, but here on this blog isn't really the place for it.

Vague gesturing aside, I've decided to set forth for myself several loose goals for the year. On the personal level, I'll be focusing on my self-image and self-confidence (but pah, nobody's really interested in that here). With respect to literature and writing, I've decided to (1) continue writing (wow, shocker), but hopefully consistently, and (2) resume reading.

Over the years, my reading has decreased immensely. As much as I still love good writing, I can't confidently say I'm an "avid reader" anymore because of the infrequency with which I actually read books. Articles and short stories don't quite count to me. I haven't done "the curling up with a book and forgetting about time" kind of thing in a very long time. So hopefully, I'll pick that habit up again this year. Maybe that way I'll turn to a good book instead of the Internet when I'm stressed (bad habits of a millennial).

On the creation side of things, I have been dabbling in comic art for the past few weeks. I can't say I'm very good at drawing, though. I don't think I'm abysmally/helplessly terrible, but I definitely have a long ways to go until I can actually draw full on comics without feeling like they are lacking in sufficient publishable quality.

Previously, I thought of comics in a sort of condescending way, like a kids' medium for storytelling. Picture books for people who don't have the attention span to read "real books," if you will. Upon taking a writing seminar class at my college, however, I learned very quickly that comic art is just another form of artistic expression. Just as movies convey emotions and information through the visual and spoken form, so do comics express those same emotions and information through writing and visual art. There is a lot of theory behind what goes on between panels, what certain panel placements mean, to even the frequency of speech bubbles.

Sometimes, you have an idea that you think is best expressed in not just writing or art in isolation but together, as a sort of fusion. Writing supplies us with the rich, sensuous words that we call language. It allows readers to open up their own imagination to create a world of their own after being prompted by words strewn together by an "author." Visual art, however, supplies the viewer with the imagined world but gives the viewer to imagine the events surrounding the image. Art forces the viewer to expand a visual moment into a timeline, whereas writing forces the reader to expand a timeline into a series of visual moments. Beyond the superficial level, both media, in their different ways, require the spectator to extrapolate given facts to the emotional level. We speculate the intangibles, such as a character's nature, their personality, their voice, etc.

When combined, the two can create a really powerful medium. The amount of writing vs. art included in "comic art" really depends on the author/artist. It's almost like a spectrum. While we may think of the classic DC or Marvel comics as the "be all, end all" form of comic art, graphic novels can take on so many different forms. From picture books like The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick to the Nancy comics by Ernie Bushmiller, artists and authors can communicate so much through the fusion of art and writing. To think that I overlooked "comics" as a little kid's book makes me a little embarrassed. There's so much more to it than it seems, which I think is awesome.

I have a few story ideas that I think would be best expressed in comic form. Hopefully, I can practice my art skills to the point that I can comfortably draw people and settings, because I think the story ideas that I have are actually worth something (?). It's been a while since I've come up with a decent idea, so my comic plot sketches make me very excited. I'll just have to wait for my art skills to catch up, though. When they do, I might post them here as well. Yay for discovering new forms of artistic expression!

One of my ideas for a comic was a story which I now call "burden." After a long while of contemplation, I became impatient and decided to instead write burden as a prose short story. Because I am a busy student with lots of other responsibilities and the attention span of maybe a small squirrel, I am going to be posting "burden" in pieces. Kind of like a webcomic but a web-story? I don't know if that's a thing, but I'll be posting them in "chapters." Hopefully that will keep me writing (because I actually have a plot planned out for this one).

Eventually, I might rewrite "burden" as a webcomic, as I originally intended. I suppose it's never too late to pick up a new hobby and try to improve oneself (art, for me)!

Stay safe and happy, everyone!
And as always, happy reading/writing.