Note to Self: Stick figures are the bane of my existence.
More on that later.
Back in December, I was watching Julie & Julia when I first posted. I had the idea for a blog in mind, even the name and banner art completed, but I was hesitant to post. I fancied myself pretty good at fanfiction. I’d won writer of the year for the Bludhaven Group in 2008 and won six awards out of sixteen awards in 2009. Not bad, I figured, but I’ve never had a problem with fanfiction.
My original stuff was the problem. Since I’ve received yet another round of rejections from contests and magazines alike and my job at Staples is literarily a dead-end one, I contemplated, “Where do I go from here?”
The Experiment was born.
I posted advertising messages on the Bludhaven Group. I began to post again on Fanfiction.net. I even made readers who were looking for more of my fanfiction stories pass through this page to get my fanfiction page. I’m currently in the Comic Book Database, and I just joined ComicVine.
Results: Two followers (*waves hi*), a few emails (“Ral’s stories looks interesting” ; “I’m going to read False Dawn.”), and more than five hundred clicks.
Current Prognosis: Failure.
I don’t have a job in comic books as of yet nor am I even close. Time to kick it up a notch!
I did receive one complaint about the Comic Book Format. One of the readers clicked on there, thinking she was going to see pictures. I currently have zero on this page, so to rectify that, I’m going to learn how to draw.
I’ll give you a moment to laugh.
*laughs herself*
Stick figures give me trouble, so I know this will not be an easy endeavor. However, there’s one thing I really am, and it’s persistent (possibly stubborn). I do not give up on something when I’ve put my mind to it. When I was eighteen and still in high school, I emailed DC Comics, asking how to get an internship. I never received an email back, yet four years later, I sat in the Advertising and Promotions Department, having the best desk on the entire floor.
I’ve already begun the transition. Though I write and post fanfiction to receive more viewers here, I have decided to quit. I will finish the stories to which I am committed. I’m on chapter eight of“The Dark Olympians” and plan for it to be the final chapter. After that story, I will finish the final story in my Batman Beyond trilogy. Then, I have one AU story in the Batverse I’ve been itching to write, and my fanfiction career will be over (until I’m hired! XD!).
For the hours that I put into my fanfiction writing, I will put into becoming a writer/artist like Tony Daniel, Frank Miller, and soon-to-be author J.H. Williams II. Image even was started on the basis of artists writing their own comics (Johnston from Bleeding Cool).
My goals are leveled. I hope to start drawing by July and to become good enough to draw my characters. From there, I will look to draw covers/cells for the comics before actually drawing all twenty-two pages. If I become good enough, I hope to be admitted to a school like the Joe Kubert School in Dover, perhaps even post on Zuda. After that, I’ll attend a DC Comic Talent Search at a ComicCon and see where it goes from there.
But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Stick figures give me trouble.
Devin Leigh Michaels
May 7, 2010
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