Rant 02 - Getting in Gear
Lets face it. Just about everybody has a problem with getting in gear. I'd go so far as to say that procrastination is one of the biggest, most everyday afflictions in our modern human condition. We just don't want to do what we should, and often we don't even have the energy to do what we want to be doing. People of all ages and mindsets will go far out of their way to do... nothing.
I am exceptionally guilty of this. I've got a math assignment sitting on my desk at this very moment, demanding to be started. I can't even bring myself to think about finishing it. Instead, I'm actually writing an article about not doing my work. But somehow this is totally unsurprising to anybody who knows me well.
The rant is coming from two directions at this point. On the one hand, I'm frustrated with myself for not getting jack done over the last two days. That homework isn't going to do itself. (Would such an assignment be "mathturbating"?) On the other hand, I am trying to take what little I have done over the past week and focus it into something worth mentioning. Hence the name of this rant (Getting in Gear)- I'm trying to get myself into a creative groove and actually get something accomplished before the week starts again.
The way I plan to do this is to outline this new webcomic approach I mentioned in today's newspost. (Feb 12 2007) The plot is simple, the characters will be kawaii, and it'll hopefully have some humor in it. So lets start this outline from the beginning (bear in mind that these are BETA ideas... very likely to change a lot before anything even gets uploaded).
The Plot. Like any good ongoing story, this open enough for the author to take it in all kinds of directions without breaking what little continuity there is. My idea is to have a young tree spirit get separated from his herd, and then begins a curious adventure to reunite with them. His journey can last however long it needs to- the actual reuniting aspect is being deliberately ignored, so that I don't get tempted and shortchange the story. Along the way he will encounter as many bizarre, creepy, and cuddly beings as I can reasonably generate without straining the storyline.
Which leads us to The Characters. Good characters can make all the difference in a comic- I hope to refine my ability to create and maintain such characters through this experiment. First and foremost is our leafy protagonist, Tentus. (What, you didn't see that name coming? Come on.) Inquisitive but relatively quiet, Tentus will show an exceptional amount of stubborn resilience as he treks across the country after his migrating herd. He will be joined early on by Imbeorodwen, a Faerie who joins Tentus for lack of a worthier adventure. Also early on will be the the character of Otis, a wild hog who Tentus finds himself sharing meals with. The fourth character, currently unnamed, will be as aggressive as Tentus is passive, though he is only a few inches tall.
The Humor of the strips will largely depend on how the writing process finalizes. I personally will probably torture poor little Tentus (he is me, after all), and make my fair share of puns. I like bad puns. My girlfriend will hopefully help me write the scripts, and some really funny stuff can come from her, though she'll won't admit to being good at it. It'll be fun.
Finally, there will be The Cuteness aspect of the comic. I can draw a pretty darn cute monster, if I'm lucky. If my luck is with me I'll be able to create a series of cute images based around our heroes. Otis is an inherently cute guy (he's a piggy with fuzz, what's there not to love?), and Tentus should be very luv-able despite having bark. But that really depends on the feedback I get from my friends.
So that's the early outlines for the comic. I don't have a proper title for it yet... If you have an idea, just contact me and I'll give you some feedback. Thanks for reading this far- this rant has been successful in that I actually do feel like I'm in gear now for this webcomic. So it's pretty cool to have finally gotten off my arse and done something productive.
-Tentus