I need to write more! So I'm writing a blog. We shall see what comes of it, if anything. I don't know what to write about but that really doesn't matter. I guess I'll write about all sorts of stuff, me, the different stories I'm working on, well that's probably it actually. Huh. Reading Stephen King on Writing right now, its really good, and somewhat inspiring. It's hard to stay focused on anything though, even if I take my medicine, I take adderal for ADHD and Tourette syndrome. As far as that goes I don't scream random obscenities or anything, but if I'm nervous my ability to speak is hindered and I do stuff like blink constantly and sniff weirdly, it's hard to explain without making it sound stranger than it is. Anyway, I feel like writing about the different ideas I am currently working on, well some of them, some aren't ready to be shared just yet. So there is the web comic I co-write with my friend Alex, he illustrates it. It's called Core 4, and it is about me, him, and our friends. My closest friends are Alex, his twin (fraternal) brother Nick, Zach and Calvin. Wait that's 5 people though! Originally Core 4 was something my dad came up with to describe the "Core 4 Families", Alex and Nick (Holmes), Zach (Miller), Calvin (Lever), and Me (Betz). Zach's mom took to calling Zach, Alex, Nick and I the core 4 though and so Calvin was unjustly excluded. Not that its a big deal or anything. So Zach and I became friends in Kindergarten, and we were best buds right away. Alex and Nick moved from North Carolina in first grade and Nick was in my class. We just hung out at school at first but then he invited me to his birthday party and our friendship was solidified. In fact, I spend so much time at the Holmes house that I have been granted the title "Little Jon", Jon being the Patron of the household. I know I must have hung out with Calvin throughout elementary but we weren't in class together till 4th grade (Mr. Hartman rules!, best teacher ever) and I think that's when we started hanging out outside of school. Also all us played baseball and soccer together for years. Thus far Calvin is woefully underrepresented in the comic but its about us, not our families (Julie's Core 4) so he kinda got shafted. Am I using that right? Shafted I mean. Anyway, we get into all kinds of ridiculous mischief in the comic, and it's (in my opinion) pretty funny stuff. It is great to work on, and I think the experience of doing something even as simple as this web comic will be great for the future. The future being that I want to write Comics, books also to some degree, but mostly Comics. I dunno, that tells you more about us/me than most people who read the comic, so if you want more just go read it, http://c4.thecomicseries.com/archive/
Other stuff I'm working on:
A Western Comic tentatively called "Shoot First, Shoot Straight", about a Civil war veteran, Eli, and a young gunslinger, Ben. The first story arc is laid out, but needs a lot of filling and I really don't know what will come after. I like the idea though, and I have spent a lot of time on the characters. We actually have the first comic written (a short story I did for school) but we need to adapt it still to Comic format. We want to do it as a web comic but it's gonna take some doing since its more of a full comic page layout. This though, is one of my projects that is more likely to get done now as opposed to when I am working professionally.
A super hero comic called "Epic Fail". Alex recently said he wanted to do a super hero comic, and this might be it. Its about a group of super heroes with crappy powers. I have worked a lot on this idea too, and really think it will be easy to do and people will like it. Don't want to spoil anything now though so you just have to wait.
Other stuff
A fantasy story (eventually a book I hope). A young woman is thrust into a world of magic and dragons and such to fulfill an ancient prophecy and defeat a great evil with a magic sword. Classic fantasy stuff, though I have lately been very inspired by George RR Martins Song of Ice and Fire Series so I think it will be a more gritty realistic story, less fairy magic type stuff. There will be dragons though! I like dragons.
A graphic novel titled "Grotesque". This is one of my oldest projects. I haven't worked on it in a while, but i still really like it and want to do it someday. Its about a man who is cursed somewhere in the 1500-1800 (a big space, I know) period. He is turned into a Grotesque (a gargoyle that doesn't spout water) and his curse is finally broken, sort of, by accident. I really love the idea of this story and can't wait to really get going on it, but because I like it so much I am nervous about ruining it so I is hard to work on. I think that is something that writers face a lot, at least early on.
There is serious super hero comic that I can't really say much about. It is my very favorite story of all the ideas I have come up with, and so probably won't be seen for a long time.
O yeah, Alex and I also started doing a fantasy/D&D parody style comic a while ago. We took an indefinite break but I don't doubt that we will revisit it at some point, it was a lot of fun to work on.
I dunno, theres more stuff, but most/all of it is even more vague and unformed than this stuff here. Anyway, I'll be back for some real writing later, just had to get something down I suppose.
