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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

October 2, 2007 by MJ 5 Comments

incoherant rambling

Yes, this is what I do when I’m at lunch.

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts lately, trying to define myself, which is not something I generally place a lot of importance on, but has suddenly been in the forefront of my mind. Something I’ve been struggling with a lot is the feeling that the things I am doing lack meaning. I originally chalked this up to Too Much Anime, but the truth is, it is something I’ve been feeling for some time, and Too Much Anime simply provided a catalyst for discussion.

I currently have a number of half-baked projects in the works, and my official “job” is a bit half-baked right now too, which doesn’t help. Obviously I can’t finish baking everything at once (that metaphor is getting old fast, isn’t it?), which brings me again to the question of defining myself. I defined myself in my introductory post here as “singer, songwriter, theater manager, former actor, stumbling writer, dog-lover, fiction addict, mac geek, wife,” and in truth, that’s still probably only about half of the things I’d have to list if I was being really honest. One person can’t possibly be all that, so what am I?

Lately, I’ve been working on something that very desperately wants to be a graphic novel, despite the fact that I can’t draw to save my life. For the time being, I’ve been sketching out frames with stick figures and other indeterminate shapes with the hope that someone, somewhere might be able to see what I’m trying to express with them and help me bring that vision to reality. This seems unlikely, as I have no idea whatsoever how to go about finding such a person. And yet I persevere. I even spent a couple of hours attempting to draw my main characters in some way that would give the stick figures a bit more meaning, but considering how long it takes me to draw the stick figures, that may have been a bit premature. Paul found me a class to take at UMASS entitled something like “Writing the Graphic Novel,” but when I looked it up online, it had been canceled. Is this a sign?

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Filed Under: DAILY CHATTER, REVIEWS Tagged With: writing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. mom says

    October 2, 2007 at 6:28 pm

    Life stays interesting. I’m afraid that your mother is a “dabbler” so that may make you predisposed to having many interests, though you are more talented than I. Enjoy the process.

    Reply
    • melinda says

      October 2, 2007 at 8:51 pm

      Hey, I just added a thing for threaded comments. Does it notify you when you get a reply or not?

      Reply
  2. melinda says

    October 2, 2007 at 7:25 pm

    I do think I probably got that from you. Not sure about the talent issue. :)

    Reply
  3. zaph says

    October 2, 2007 at 8:08 pm

    One person can’t possibly be all that, so what am I?

    why not? one person can’t (or shouldn’t) be only one thing, so I say the more the better.

    I think we all spend too much time in our lives trying to define ourselves, and not enough time just being ourselves. I don’t think it matters if there’s a definition for ‘what’ you are, because you’ll still be interested in all the things you’re interested in whether or not there’s a word for it.

    So at that point, you might as well just say “Here I am, and here are some of the things I like and do!” which is pretty much what you did, so yay! :)

    Reply
    • melinda says

      October 2, 2007 at 8:47 pm

      I think my issue is that in order to do any of those things *well*, I need to make choices. Which I have not been making.

      Also, wahoo! Threaded comments!

      Reply


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