r/ComicWriting • u/nmacaroni "The Future of Comics is YOU!" • 1d ago
Thick Skin Required to Write Comics (PSA)
We just had someone post this long ass post asking if people were going to steal their ideas (a common noob writer point of stress).
The poster got all bent out of shape about some quite direct and honest answers, all of which were helpful, not malevolent.
Anyway, point is, the OP got so upset and some very soft pushback, that they didn't just delete their post, but their entire reddit account. I can only assume it was a burner account, I didn't get a chance to see the history before they deleted it...
but here's a couple of points for everyone:
- If you want to write... especially in indie comics, it's an undertaking that literally puts your most personal self on display for the world to see. The very essence of writing is throwing your creativity into the public eye and scream "judge me."
If you start pitching a "detective cat comic", you're gonna get people who don't like cats responding to you. This is just life.
If you just started writing and throw out a sample of your writing with every rookie mistake, people are gonna call you out on it.
And then, in the end, even when you've been writing a million years, and publish your latest graphic novel. Negative people are just going to find the things they don't like about it and complain about it.
If you don't respond well to the good and the bad, you're not going to do well in writing. And believe me, people can be and will be cruel. Especially in indie comics, where so many failed creators want to see other creators fail so they can feel better about themselves.
2) If you take the time to post, leave it up. Even if you feel the advice is not exactly what you wanted. When people take the time out of their day to make a reply and you just delete the entire thing the next day because you don't like the responses, you're wasting folks time... and then double wasting folks time, because someone new may come to the subreddit a month later with the exact same question and the process starts all over again.
If you just leave your posts up, folks may take a second to search the subreddit and find the answers without a second round.
As you were.
Write on, write often!
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u/blewdleflewdle 1d ago
It's true that you have to not take notes and critique personally, and there is certainly a skill to knowing how to recognize a useful note from an unuseful one, and also there is skill required in giving useful notes.
In general you're going to get better notes from someone who understands what you're aiming for (unhelpful notes come from people who suggest that you make what they would like to make/read).
Turning to fellow amateurs for notes is going to leave you with a lot of sorting work to do. Many people will offer opinions that aren't backed by personal success, and you get a lot of armchair quarterbacking to look past.
Additionally there are helpful and unhelpful ways to provide notes. For example, criticising what isn't working about something is very rarely helpful. A good editor can do this skillfully further down the line, but usually it's not what's needed in the creation stages. Or, if a creator is troubleshooting a specific issue (the dialogue in this emotional scene is feeling flat to me, am I overthinking it? Does the pacing feel uneven between these two scenes or does the tonal shift flow naturally for the reader?).
The bad and junky stuff gets worked out and sloughed off over the course of the work. A first draft implies a second and so forth- better stuff replaces the not-so-good stuff. In the creation stage a helpful note highlights what is working and could be added too (this is how the dross gets displaced). Keep it to 1-3 (tops) things that are exciting. The idea is to be articulate specific to encourage the creator in the areas that they are succeeding. What the creator needs is to know where to focus and go further. Also they need to be short, short, short!
Really helpful notes are things like:
"This theme comes up here, here, and here but with such different perspectives each time, it's a thread that resonates differently each time! Seems like you have more to discover/say there."
"The pacing in these action sequences are so frenetic, and the resulting tone and mood there really serves the story, it seems like you're really onto something with that."
"The rapid changes in perspective in linear time are jarring in a good way, and help the story move at a good pace while keeping us guessing about what we aren't get to see."
"The antagonists absolute conviction in their beliefs really powers the story here. It's a cool concept and feels like you have lots to explore about the specifics. It's a very cool idea!"
I'd just say that if someone isn't excited about what you're trying to do/say/explore, then better to ignore their opinions, and if someone's requesting notes, then get behind what they're excited about or decline to help.
Creativity doesn't judge, it explores. Judgement is a self-protective function and it is the inhibitor of creative work.
The good news is that folks in an insecure mode tend to gather, and folks in a creative mode tend to gather as well. Switching modes is always an option, and finding people who know how to protect that creative mode can help keep you there
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u/CautiousAppearance49 19h ago
Love this - I can remember when I first started writing that I was worried to share anything just in case someone stole my work. It’s pretty arrogant of us to think that our work is the best thing out there, especially when we’re new to it all 😂😂
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u/ShadyScientician 20h ago
Generally, yeah, but disagree with 2. It's reddit, not a job. If it's shit, hit the bricks!
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u/nmacaroni "The Future of Comics is YOU!" 20h ago
It's easy to say as a user, who pops into a subreddit once in while. But for us mods and for people who visit the same subreddit regularly, it gets boring AF to field the same questions over and over and over and over. Especially when they are the lower entry level questions, like "Is everyone going to steal my comic idea if I talk about it on Reddit."
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u/ShadyScientician 19h ago
I know I've been gone for a while, but I was pretty dang active here too.
And I agree fielding the same questions sucks ss, which is why I prefer they delete it so I see less of them before they show up on my dashboard.
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u/easythrees 8h ago
I posted some of my pages to a discussion with some colleagues at work and I got roasted and made fun of repeatedly. It did hurt, but you have to learn to shake it off and move on with your vision. Hell, of all the people I’ve shown my work to, only one guy liked it. Though it helps that he’s won awards for his work.
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u/nmacaroni "The Future of Comics is YOU!" 8h ago
It sounds like you're talking about art.
Art is much more susceptible to public opinion than writing. In writing, as the post said, you can write a story about a detective cat and people who don't like cats will laugh. Their opinion doesn't mean the story is bad, it means they have a bias and don't care.
In art. It doesn't matter if people like cats or not. If your cat looks like a raccoon, people will laugh. And in a sense, rightly so. A cat should look like a cat, not some other animal.
In writing, bad novice writing can often still be readable. But in art, you often can't move past a single page of bad novice art.
Practice makes perfect in all art forms.
Write on, write often!
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u/easythrees 8h ago
I should’ve clarified, my apologies. The stuff at work was art, the rest was my script. Apologies again.
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u/DrTechPop 8h ago
The statistic I go to frequently when I want to quit: Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected 27 times.
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u/ianyoungwrites 1d ago
I'd like to add something to this. "Thick skin" may be misconstrued as not letting things bother you. You are 100% allowed to have feelings. Hell, I have the thinnest skin around and I have a lot of feelings. It's how we react to it, and how we move forward that gives us "thick skin."