Burned-Out

   I have taken a break from writing in the past few weeks. I have a tendency to write in waves. My last wave lasted from November through April, so I am pretty well spent now. Lately, I’ve spent most of my free time doing character sketches (will post as soon as I amount the gumption to scan them) and have just begun work on actually drawing out my graphic novel.

    I have never undertaken the creation of a graphic novel before, due to the sheer amount of work involved and the fact that I have trouble drawing with consistency. That is why I’ve been spending the past few months drawing constantly. I am better than I was, but am by no means perfect.

    If-when I finish this graphic novel, I hope to distribute it between my family and friends. I have no intention of trying to publish it, except perhaps openly online for anyone to read. I have the first volume (of six) planned out and written, so now all I have to do is draw about sixty pages and color them.

    There are moments when I wonder why I had to decide to be a writer. “God (or whoever else I ought to be complaining to), why couldn’t you make me something straightforward and simple? Is there anything straightforward and simple?”

    Admittedly, I have been putting off getting into writing again, at least a little. (I have also been putting off picking up French horn again so that I’m ready for auditions, but that’s another story.) Writing comes in cycles (at least for me):

• write hard for a while
• burn out
• delve into other activities without even thinking about stories
• start thinking about stories again
• reread/ lightly edit former projects
• tack a little more writing onto the ends of unfinished drafts
• dive back into writing 

   So, I’ve pulled out Camelot High, and Merlin’s Dream today and started rereading what I wrote last. I won’t have time to get back into writing for a while yet because I’m moving at the end of the month, but I’m starting to get back into it.  
   I’ve spent countless hours in the past two weeks on Pinterest, storyboarding my finished and not-yet-started projects. Lately, many bizarre ideas and themes have come to me about possible stories, and I wrote them down (because otherwise I’d never remember them). The way I figure it, when I’m 50 (or 40 or 30) I may run out of ideas, so I’ll collect them now while I have them. 
    I usually spend time thinking about my stories through the day, between tasks, during walks, and while waiting for sleep. However, recently, my thoughts have been jumbled and flighty, jumping from one story to another. This is probably due to my spending so much time graphing various stories on Pinterest, so now I must train myself out of it.

    Now, nearly every paragraph here began with the word ‘I’, or some variation thereof, so I will close thus: When you get sick of writing for a while, don’t be scared, just go with the flow. Listen to yourself. People need breaks from almost everything. Take it easy and don’t fret. Love of writing doesn’t leave permanently, although it sometimes goes asleep for a while.

Happy writing,

Zoë 

The Watchmen, writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons

    I was given the book The Watchmen for Christmas with a high recommendation. (This graphic novel appears on Time’s List of the 100 Best Novels, a list compiled of books written between 1923 and 2005 in the English language.) 
    The story addresses the possibility and possible issues of living in a society with costumed vigilantes, ‘heroes’, or ‘watchmen’. Only one being in the story actually has ‘superpowers’, all the others are merely good fighters.

    Some of the heroes, perhaps most of them, have a skewed sense of ethics and justice. This, combine with everyday problems, as we have today, made for an interesting story and a surprising, rending ending.

    This book makes you wonder about what is right and what is wrong, and how far you should go to achieve the better end. The movie is an amazing adaptation from the book and nearly entirely the same.

My Favorites:

• Character:
• Rorschach, Ozymandias
• Scene: 
• the climax in Antarctica
• Passage:
•  “I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

    I just recently finished Anthony Burgess's story A Clockwork Orange. (This book appears on Time’s List of the 100 Best Novels, a list compiled of books written between 1923 and 2005 in the English language.)

BEWARE SPOILERS 

    The story was published in 1962 and takes place in a futuristic New York City where the streets are ruled with gangs and filled with crime, the police force and societal mentality at least as brutal as these lawless gangs. 

    One of the most singular traits of this book is the thick slang that Alex (the narrator) uses to tell the story: ‘rookers’ (hands), ‘litso’ (face), ‘starry’ (old), ‘devotchka’ (girl), ‘horrorshow’ (swell), etcetera. It takes a while to get into the swing of the slang, especially without a glossary. However, after reading the book, one starts trying to employ this new slang into everyday usage.

    The story follows the progress of an adolescent gangster, rapist, and murderer (Alex) as he is arrested and treated for his violent tendencies before being released back into the world. The first few chapters follow him and his ‘droogs’ (friends) as they spend a typical night out committing the old ‘ultraviolence’.

    Through causing physical pain (headaches, panic, nausea) while viewing videos of violent encounters of all natures, they teach Alex’s body to abhor violence in any form, including art, love, and music. As it happens, Alex has a passion for music, but his will no longer allow him to listen to it, which he finds doubly painful.

     The question of Ethics (and Good and Evil) is the reason to read the story. Burgess leaves no question that Alex is capable of great evil. When they force him to do good in effort to abate the nausea that fills him at the thought of violence, we can see that he still truly wants to do evil, and it is that desire that brings on the sickness, forcing him to do good.

    People with political agenda’s exploit Alex’s predicament to bring down the current minister. Questions arise, such as: does someone have the right to remove someone’s moral choice? And does a person, as an individual, have a right to do evil?

My Favorites:

• Scene: 

• When Alex throws himself out the window as music blares

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

    Dracula was an interesting story, the classic novel of vampires and ‘evil’ written by Dublin-born author, Bram Stoker. I liked the style and method of writing, the story told through various journal entries, letters, telegrams, and newspaper clippings, a novel way of writing. This method of storytelling allowed for showing the story through the eyes of different characters and allowed the reader to put the pieces together on their own and make their own deductions.

    Slowly, as the book progresses, we see each of the characters reach the conclusion that Count Dracula is some sort of monster. It is wonderful to watch a story that started out as tangible and ordinary be corrupted and overwhelmed by the invasive fantasy and horror. The writing is excellent. The reader feels as if they really are reading the entries of different characters and current news although Bram Stoker was the sole author.

    Several discrepancies between the original story and following renditions in media and films are noticed, such as the fact that Count Dracula is very old at the beginning and slowly becomes younger as the story progresses. However, these arm minimal. There are also one or two interesting female characters, which is always notable in such old stories. Mina Harker is not Katniss Everdeen, but for a book written in 1897 by man, she stands on her own.

    My one qualm with Dracula is that the themes are not as deep as I had hoped. When thinking about reading it, I decided to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein first. Frankenstein is laced with the questions of ethics regarding the creation of a new life and the expanse of science. It was a very deep, unnerving story. Dracula was a classic -- perhaps the classic -- monster story, and it does not go much deeper than that, at least not for me.

My Favorites:

• Character:
• Renfield
• Scene:
• Renfield’s death