G – Graphic Novel

04/08/2014 6 Comments

GOkay, comics have been around a long time. Even shows and movies about comic book characters have been around a long time, though they are proliferating and succeeding today like they’re the new thing. However, the graphic novel – a longer story form than just a comic, but definitely more comic-styled than novel-styled – is a newer sort of medium. There is a strong blurring of the two, really; many graphic novels are set in the comic-book worlds, many comic story-arcs have been turned into graphic novel collections; and many graphic novels today are coming out episodically as comics.

However you want to look at it, and whether I am really just talking about comics, trade paperbacks, collected editions, or graphics novels… together they are a growing, and exciting, force and trend. For someone like me, who is a slow reader, the addition of the visual storytelling, and the reduction of the text down to essentials, lets me get through far more content. For someone even more visual than I am, I could see this being even more of an excellent artform.

There are some great storylines being written in what can either be described as graphic novel or indie comic form coming out today, and you should check some out if they interest you. Horror stories like Locke & Key, space operas like Saga, alternate histories like The Manhattan Projects. And then there’s all of those graphic novels that have been adapted for film – Red, 300, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Kick-Ass, and more.

And there’s part of me, as I enjoy reading these graphic novels so thoroughly, that really thinks that maybe this is the genre and medium I want to write for. That this is how I want to structure and tell my story. At least one. And I have a couple of friends looking over my world and ideas now to consider it.

Because I don’t think this is a fad, and I don’t think graphic novels are going away. A couple of reasons. One is, you now have a bunch of young people who are getting into these and are going to carry this on into adulthood. But that’s always the case with things. The other, however, is that I think that comics and this visual medium have found their perfect delivery method: the tablet. I am on the fence about e-books and e-readers versus their physical counterpart. I am completely sold on digital comics. Whether you use the guided view, that takes you panel-by-panel, or read one page at a time, I think this is the right device for reading comics. My top two activities on my iPad are absolutely blogging, and comics reading. So the future for comics is really only just beginning.

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F – Fine Arts

04/07/2014 9 Comments

FWhen I was considering Master’s Degrees, one of them I was strongly considering was a Master of Fine Arts. One of those interesting degrees where you see a number of people who do the work that is associated without having the degree. And there’s a difference, then, between those who have and have not gotten the degree – right? Maybe? Who knows!

Like with just having a blog, just having a degree in Fine Arts will not automatically make you a writer, because it does not automatically make you write. Writing still involves having the time, and more importantly, taking the time, to write.

So am I happy about my decision, to instead get my Master of Science in Library and Information Science? Bit of a mouthful, anyway. But this gives me options. Jobs I am qualified for. And the hope is, with stability and time comes the opportunity to write. Not perfect, just like other thoughts, but a hope. And it’s a nicely related field, as I get to be surrounded by books and help people work with them every day.

Whereas, with a Master of Fine Arts, with a degree just in writing, the thing you have to do is write. You better hope you’re good. You better hope you’re quick. Well connected. Get a good agent. Self publish. Something. Because otherwise, just like me, you’d find yourself doing other work.

But will I write as well as if I had the degree? In some ways, hopefully not. Otherwise, where is the value in the degree? It might take me longer, or more edits. I may not learn all the tricks of the trade in advance, but will have to do so as I go. But that’s something to accept.

How about you? What do you think about a degree in Fine Arts? Good idea? Bad idea? Any personal stories? Let me know in the comments below!

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Taylor Grace, you continue to rock – The Sunday Re-Blog

04/06/2014 3 Comments

I have to admit, part of why I am sharing this post is because the author, Gene’O, said it was his most-shared post. Just adding to that expansion…

A couple of lines of thought here. One is about watching, and stressing over, the blog stats. The other is about Canon and Canonization. I care about both things, making this a great post to think over.

Gene'O's avatarMy Former Blog

I just need to post again. Nothing else will do, and my friend Taylor Grace has the perfect thing for me to blog about. A post about what numbers do to the mind. Especially a writer’s mind. Here’s the lede:

I have to admit, I’ve done it. I stared at the blog stats until I knew the numbers by heart, then I would check and recheck. The blog became a live entity I needed to keep happy…and, well, I wasn’t miserable but it was close.

Here’ s the rest. Taylor’s post includes lots of good links – nearly all of her posts do. One of the reasons I love her blog so much is because she turns me on to things I would never see otherwise.

I’ve been right there – looking at those numbers, checking and rechecking, and it wasn’t that long ago. You can measure it in…

View original post 1,180 more words

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E – e-Book

04/05/2014 8 Comments

ESo part of the goal in the A to Z Challenge is to keep the posts short, so I’m not 100% sure why I decided to tackle e-books in a short format! What sorts of topics could I discuss on e-Books?

I think really, the point of this post, to keep it short, really just needs to be, aren’t e-Books neat? The ability to have a whole bunch of books, on a single device. Being able to carry a virtual library with you wherever you go. Great for travel, which is when I get a lot of my reading done. Which might be bad, since I don’t travel enough…

But are e-Books neat enough? The answer is probably, not yet. What do you do when you’re done with it? Keep it forever. Okay… that’s a long time. So no donating it to the local library, no loaning it to a friend, no giving it to someone as a gift. No downsizing your collection – since, after all, it’s portable, so who would want to ever reduce the size of the collection? (Librarian Sarcasm)

Okay, there’s elements of some of those things you can do. And, better yet, there is a growing capacity for checking out e-Books from libraries. However, there is by no means an industry standard to this yet, as some publishers want to charge a ton for electronic access – something that’s done with print journals in databases, as well – because more people can access the book then. Or, they’re limiting access to how many people can have the book at a time. Or they’re adding a limit to the number of times a book can be checked out before it must be bought again. So it isn’t perfect yet.

So while I like my convenient books, I like my free access to books too – maybe especially books I’m not sure about, or books I know I won’t be reading again.

Where are you at? Completely adopted e-Books? Waiting to see? Half and half? And have you checked your local library for e-books? Let me know in the comments below!

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D – Diary

04/04/2014 5 Comments

DAfter hitting on a big, obvious topic yesterday like characters, I thought it would be good to go with a bit more narrow of a writing topic, and that is the Diary. My main thought and question on diaries is, do they still exist? Or at least, anything close to the extent that they may have once?

I think it’s the Internet that has changed this experience. All of a sudden, things people might have once done entirely in private – like keep a Diary, or scrapbooking – have become things that are instead done publicly, constantly, online. This is perhaps even moreso true with the advent of Social Media, and all the things we can do now to share our lives, our interests, with others. However, I would say it goes back further than that.

Because before Social Media as we know it now – Facebook and Twitter and the whole nine yards – there was LiveJournal, and there were discussion forums. People were finding other, like-minded people. From around the globe. So all of a sudden, keeping a Diary about how you’re all alone, or no one gets you, is one way you can approach things… or you can go out there (online), find some like-minded people, and get talking there. I know couples who have met successfully online from great distances, and you know what? It works.

And for keeping a journal or Diary, there was LiveJournal, and you could do so there. And now we have blogs, and we can do all sorts of things anonymously, or with our name attached, however we like it. Or, a little of both. I do a little of both, I suppose.

So I guess the related question is: do we even value this sort of privacy anymore? Maybe the need for a Diary is now, more than ever before. Things that we feel a need to write down, but that maybe we shouldn’t tell the whole world about. Maybe that’s a skill we should be teaching to children these days – writing down some of those thoughts privately, getting them out while still keeping them contained.

What do you think? Have Diaries seen their day? Or are they still being written out there – and should they be? Let me know in the comments below!

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