Fodder

While I'll go into this more in a Creator's Journal moment sometime, I wanted to have a quick post about artists and their lives.

I've had the great fortune of knowing many artists and have always been surrounded by those who like to create. My writing mentor, who I miss dearly, had written not only her book, but the script and complete musical score for the movie. Her untimely death brought that to a halt, but she had been in talks with a studio at the time. She also created toys. I've added a link for her work, which is a shame you can get it so cheaply on Amazon right now, but maybe good for you if you need a book to share with your kids: Search Amazon.com for trish reinius

But to those who don't understand an artists dire need to create, artists look crazy. Sometimes our art pushes us so much we can't think of anything else. Worse is when the tragic moments in our life make us think, "Wait, I have to write this down. I'll need it for this scene in my book."

It's rare for humans to truly reflect on our emotions, but artists do it constantly. We analyse how things feel. We realize that though the circumstances may be different, emotions are universal. So we take our own feelings, rip them to shreds, and piece them back together on our characters. Or we pour that emotion into our painting or sculpture. We use our emotions as cannon fodder for our art.

Is it no wonder that so many artists have gone crazy?

Maybe you have to be in order to desire to create. But standing at this point now, I wonder why any non-artist would ever look at an artist and say, "Gee, I wish I could paint (or write, or sculpt, or whatever) like you do." I've said on my other blog several times that anybody can be creative. I still believe it's true. But maybe the ones who don't want to see the truth in it are the lucky ones.

Or maybe not because they aren't the one who will ever save the world! Creativity is a blessing - share yours with the world.

What about the graphic novel?

If you've been following along on my other blog, or on my Sacred Knight facebook page, or have been one of my friends on this long path of developing the story, you might now be wondering what's happening to the graphic novel.

If you're new to the Sacred Knight world, then here's a bit of backstory. I had a long battle with myself about whether to do continue writing the novel or not when I changed it to a graphic novel. I finally decided to do both. Of course, that meant time. It does take awhile to write and to draw a comic (especially one that's an undertaking of this magnitude). I also didn't feel my art skills were where I wanted them to be to draw this story how I want to. In order to do my passion justice, I needed time to learn more and gain confidence.

I did release the first chapter as a segment, but after some distance from the story, I realized it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I still needed more time.

So, I decided to work on the book. Even though I had it all scripted out for the graphic novel, I knew it might change when I wrote the book. So, again, another battle with myself. Did I just need to write the book first when I so badly wanted to do it as a graphic novel?

At long last, I decided to just write it. I had the dialogue and basic actions. I knew where I was going with the story. Really all that was left was to add some narrative and setting to it.

Well, that's all fine and dandy. It worked well until I started editing the manuscript. Then I realized dialogue needed changed for clarity. So I've been going back and forth between my manuscript and the script making sure that the dialogue is the same between the two.

Even the dialogue in chapter 1 changed. This means that the first issued segment will need redone (not that I'm shocked, surprised, or even disappointed by this). In fact, I'm rather glad. I'd already decided to use the first part as a storyboard and redo it. With Manga Studios 4, I'll be able to color the graphic novel (which has been another thing to learn).

What does this mean overall? Well, I have a few physical copies of my first chapter of Sacred Knight left. If you want a copy of the original black and white with the hopes that it becomes a collector's issue, head on over to Morning Sky Studios to purchase a copy. I believe I only printed 50 copies. Imagine if you could go back and get a first edition Harry Potter Year 1, or a rough draft of Twilight! This might be your last chance.

You can also check it out on webcomicsnation. Starting this weekend, I'll be uploading the remaining pages to the first chapter.

So, I'll keep writing the books for now and working on the graphic novel revamp. I hope you'll go out and share this story with your friends. Together, we can make this grow together.