by ·Comments Off on Being Professional About Writing

Ah, David Hing, I see you are writing another article about something with which you have had no experience with and are no good at. Well done. In an age of Web 2.0, general comments and having your say, you reckon stuff with the best of them.

I love writing. I love the process of writing things down. When I was growing up, I would oscillate between playing computer games for hours on end, to writing fiction for hours on end. I just loved the way that it felt like watching television or films, but with me deciding what to do. It should be noted that this was the start of my particular brand of attention-span deficiency in that I started a lot of things and finished precisely none of them. It was also the first indication that maybe a plan wasn’t such a harmful thing after all. I’m actually very thankful that I wasn’t born ten years later, because had I been, I would imagine that most of this would have leaked its way on to the internet and become public domain, lurking around in the background ready to pounce out and scuttle any sort of professional career in anything that I might want to launch…but maybe that’s just paranoia. I’m…also now wondering if carrying on this blog post is a terribly good idea.

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by ·Comments Off on Inspiration and Projects

If you’ve noticed that I’ve been away from the blog for a few days, I have a couple of things to say to you:

  1. You must be my readership.  Tell me who you are so I can cater to you.
  2. There are two reasons why this has happened:
  1. A repeated failure of my Writer’s Quest
  2. Working on a few sporadic projects.

I think in life I draw inspiration from what other people around me are doing.  If you are ever down in the dumps about a project of some description, find some people that are doing the same sort of thing and find out what they’re working on.  I know that whenever I’ve been to the UK Web and Mini Comix thing that’s held each year, I come back geared up to work on comics after seeing all the weird and wonderful (and sometimes poor, but still inspiring) things that people have created in their spare time.

I recently represented myself as somebody who likes making things.  I don’t think this is strictly accurate.  I’m somebody who likes the feeling of having made something.  The actual process I find frustrating, but I’m willing to go through it if I see someone else doing something that I think I’d enjoy doing too.  Some might say this displays a lack of imagination, but I prefer to think of it as a short attention span.

Snakral

Snakral the Goblin

The project that I have finally got around to starting is something that’s been stuck in my head for several months.  Allow me to introduce you to Snakral.

Snakral is the protagonist of a comic that I’m working on called “Paladin”, about a young adult goblin who wants to rebel against the tradition of his species and train to be a knight protector of the realm, despite being rather weedy even by goblin standards.

Once I’ve finished a substantial amount, I’ll make it available in some way.

A friend of mine offered me some advice with this, namely to “not make it like Warcraft”, which was never the intention, despite my desire to start a comic about goblins and paladins whilst in the throes of online-game-addiction, but I am taking a page from the book of Warcraft developers Blizzard by saying this will be done when it’s done.  In other words, don’t hold your breath for new comics (which I hope nobody has done for my comics in the past anyway: I just wouldn’t want that on my conscience) as I have no idea how long this will take me to fully flesh out.  I’ve decided to take a much more ordered approach to this comic than my previous efforts with the Student Squad, which is very much a “ready, fire, aim” approach, without so much of the aim part, or if I’m being honest, the ready part.

Additional Notes:

Is it a bad sign that I really struggled to spell conscience?

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There’s a saying that everyone has a novel inside them. I think it doesn’t necessarily have to be a novel, but the sentiment is probably true and that even the most unlikely people have a lot of creativity inside them that they can’t get out. Everyone has something. A lot of people secretly work on little personal projects or just daydream about working on little projects but everyone has these little ideas that they want to get out.

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CYOA

The cape is obviously optional.

Today, davidhing.com brings you a “choose your own adventure” post.

Your name is <yourname> and you are a struggling writer.  This is a very true statement, as you are truly struggling to write.  You currently hold down a pedestrian 9-5 job in an office which demands nothing of you but your time and occasionally semi-conscious thought.  However, when you get home, you often find that you are unable to do what you want to do.
Your quest is simple, <yourname>, you must write something by the end of the day.  Prepare to embark on your Writer’s Quest!  Start at section 1.

***

  1. You have been at work all day.  At lunch time you had a sandwich with chicken in it.  It made you feel stuffy, but full.  In the afternoon, your mind drifted off and you started day dreaming about what you were going to write when you got home.  You have decided that you will work on <yourproject> this evening.  It gets to 5’O’Clock and it’s time to go home.  If you chose to walk home, go to section 2.  If you choose the bus, go to section 3.
  2. The walk home passes without incident and takes you about half an hour.  As you walk up the stairs, approaching your flat, you feel a little out of breath.  Upon opening and walking through the front door, you are unable to feel the enthusiasm for your project that you initially felt.  If you chose to fight through the apathy and go to your computer, go to section 4.  If you decide to sit on the sofa and watch some television, go to section 5.
  3. The bus journey takes about half an hour.  The high street is busy and the bus has to repeatedly stop and start.  Some “intelligent individuals” attempt to argue their way onto the bus without buying a ticket, apparently finding the concept of public transport too low for their tastes.  The journey makes you feel grumpy and resentful that you didn’t walk.  As you walk through the front door of your flat,  your enthusiasm for <yourproject> has been significantly compromised.  You decide to sit on the sofa and watch some television.  Go to section 5.
  4. You enter your newly acquired office-room and throw your bag and jacket off on to the bed.  Stalking over to your computer, you hit the power button with your toe and hear the beast roar in to life.  The computer is fast becoming an uncooperative Frankenstein of a machine and so take a long time to start up.  If you chose to go and get a glass of water whilst you wait, go to section 6.  If you chose to sit it out and wait for the machine to boot up, go to section 7.
  5. You fall on to the sofa and jab the remote until the picture shows on the screen.  You find a show to watch on your magical watch-what-you-missed-last-week box that you missed last week.  It makes you laugh.  You decide to catch up on a few other things as well, reasoning that you need to chill out and you’ll get around to <yourproject> later.  You’ve only just got back from work anyway.  You realise that you’re thirsty and should probably get on with <yourproject> after all, but you’re not sure.  If you continue to watch TV shows that make you laugh, go to section 8.  If you chose to get a glass of water, go to section 6.
  6. As you go to the sink to pour yourself a glass of water, you glance over at the television.  You remember that there was a show that you wanted to watch last week that you missed.  You really wanted to see it, and if you don’t, that bloke at work that talks all the time will probably ruin it for you.  If you chose to watch the show, go back to section 5.  If you proceed in satiating your thirst, go to section 9.
  7. The computer has finished starting up.  As you look around your workspace you notice a few unfinished projects on your drawing board but pay it no further attention at this time.  You look at your desktop and find one particular icon in the middle triggering off an instinctive drive for you to click it.  If you click the icon, go to section 11.  If you do not click the icon, go to section 13.
  8. You watch another show, and then another show, and then you find yourself watching repeats of Mock the Week on Dave, which is odd because most of the news-relevant material has long since lost it’s humour value or relevance.  You are confused as to why you are so hungry until you realise that it is actually getting rather late.  Go to section 12.
  9. You start to pour yourself a glass of water, and then you remember there’s beer in the fridge.  You would quite like a beer, but you’re not sure.  If you chose the glass of water, go to section 7.  If you chose the beer go to section 10.
  10. The beer goes down well and with can in hand, you say to yourself “screw it.  I’m going to get on with <yourproject> right now” and storm out of the kitchen and into your office.  Go to section 11.
  11. You start up World of Warcraft.  Your mouse hand flew to the icon and you finger shot down in two sharp movements as if drawn by some dark force.  After playing for a while, you quit the game and you decide that a beer would be a good idea, to get you going on <yourproject>.  Go to section 10.  If you have already had five beers, go to section 12.
  12. It is now midnight and your evening has finished.  It’s time to start thinking about going to bed as you have work in the morning.  You Have Failed Your Writer’s Quest.
  13. You resist clicking on the icon and instead find Microsoft Word so that you can work on <yourproject>.  You open up the program and are greeted with that really annoying paperclip.  If you ignore the paperclip, go to section 15.  If you chose to attempt to destroy the paperclip, go to section 14.
  14. You right click on the paperclip assistant to send him to oblivion but before you chose to get rid of him, you notice that you can chose a different assistant.  You spend a long time cycling through the options and even longer agonizing between the cat and the robot.  You finally settle on the cat and ask it the question “does anyone actually chose the windows logo?”  but the feline is unable to sufficiently answer your query.  After this rather major distraction, you realise that you are thirsty.  You remember that there is beer in the fridge and that would be just what you need to help you get on with <yourproject>.  Go to section 10.
  15. Ignoring any distractions, you finally start writing.  You get a sentence done when your phone rings.  It is a friend of yours that you haven’t seen for a while inviting you out for a drink down the road.  If you go out for a drink, go to section 16, if you decide to carry on with <yourproject>, go to section 17.
  16. You have a good time at the pub, but one drink very quickly becomes two and then you go and find a pub with a pool table and then end up marching off towards central London before realising that it’s getting late and you should be getting home.  You say farewell and head home.  Go to section 12.
  17. You feel guilty for turning your friend down and resolve that you’ll make it up to him in good time.  To soften the blow, you decide that you’ll have a beer from the fridge, so that you can say “I was drinking with you in spirit” when you meet him again at a later date.  Go to section 10.

by ·Comments Off on First Episodes and Pilots

Writing is harder than it looks.

I’m almost tempted to just leave this post there to prove a point.

I’m fairly easy to please when it comes to television and film and I actually struggle to identify bad writing.  I know this because of those awkward moments where everyone around me will be laying into the film crying foul at its poor structure, heavy handed exposition and forced dialogue when all I can really think is “…but it was great…right?” and so I know that I’m not a critic.  However, sometimes I’ll see something on television that I’ll think was awful and that I just can’t watch, and I’ll make my mind up that it’s due to bad writing and that I could do better.

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