![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_zimmerAs I do with every single note I get, I ignored it. It's amazing how pissed off this makes people.
The note was about how I warn on the very front page that The Un-Iverse is structured like a novel and needs to be read in its entirety in the proper order to properly be digested and appreciated.
This person, this published writer, thought that was an asshole thing to say. People sample comic books in and out of their runs and that specific "demand" will chase people off.
First of all, people can "sample" other comic books because they are NOT structured like a novel. And an Author wanting their work to be read as intended is in fact a reasonable want from a creator. I'm sure there are plenty of people who think Stephen King is an asshole for basically calling every single person who reads the last page of the book first an utter monster and a bad person. But he's allowed that opinion. And while my view is not nearly as extreme regarding spoilers (although I avoid them, I get why other people eat them up) I am confident people picking up the saga midway through will get almost nothing from it. It will not just be hard to follow. The character moments I've spent years building will not land and mean nothing.
As for scaring and chasing people off? Dummy, that's why the note is there! I'm warning people ahead of time that the saga is NOT for casual readers, and requires an alarming amount of commitment up-front. Does that chase people off? Yes! Deliberately! I don't want people to waste their time on a huge sprawling saga they'll need to pay attention to and reread several times without knowing that's the deal ahead of time. I would guess the front page of the site chases off a LOT of readers, especially casual ones. I am perfectly okay with that. The readers who are willing to delve deep after that specific warning are my kinds of people, and who this is actually for.
This person, a published author, they reminded me, was annoyed I refused to take notes, or change my story or approach via feedback. Almost all other writers do this, I'm told.
And you know what? Most fiction sucks ass. There are very few creators who are consistently confident in their own visions, at least enough that I actually trust them at the time.
I LIKE the way I do things. I LIKE that my saga is a mess. I LIKE that some people hate it. Hell, I LOVE that last bit.
I could be way off base here, but I always get the sneaking suspicion Jasper Hansen also utterly ignores notes and finds them useless, no matter who they are from. He can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's something I dig about his work, and it's why I feel our stuff vibes in spirit, if not content.
The note was about how I warn on the very front page that The Un-Iverse is structured like a novel and needs to be read in its entirety in the proper order to properly be digested and appreciated.
This person, this published writer, thought that was an asshole thing to say. People sample comic books in and out of their runs and that specific "demand" will chase people off.
First of all, people can "sample" other comic books because they are NOT structured like a novel. And an Author wanting their work to be read as intended is in fact a reasonable want from a creator. I'm sure there are plenty of people who think Stephen King is an asshole for basically calling every single person who reads the last page of the book first an utter monster and a bad person. But he's allowed that opinion. And while my view is not nearly as extreme regarding spoilers (although I avoid them, I get why other people eat them up) I am confident people picking up the saga midway through will get almost nothing from it. It will not just be hard to follow. The character moments I've spent years building will not land and mean nothing.
As for scaring and chasing people off? Dummy, that's why the note is there! I'm warning people ahead of time that the saga is NOT for casual readers, and requires an alarming amount of commitment up-front. Does that chase people off? Yes! Deliberately! I don't want people to waste their time on a huge sprawling saga they'll need to pay attention to and reread several times without knowing that's the deal ahead of time. I would guess the front page of the site chases off a LOT of readers, especially casual ones. I am perfectly okay with that. The readers who are willing to delve deep after that specific warning are my kinds of people, and who this is actually for.
This person, a published author, they reminded me, was annoyed I refused to take notes, or change my story or approach via feedback. Almost all other writers do this, I'm told.
And you know what? Most fiction sucks ass. There are very few creators who are consistently confident in their own visions, at least enough that I actually trust them at the time.
I LIKE the way I do things. I LIKE that my saga is a mess. I LIKE that some people hate it. Hell, I LOVE that last bit.
I could be way off base here, but I always get the sneaking suspicion Jasper Hansen also utterly ignores notes and finds them useless, no matter who they are from. He can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's something I dig about his work, and it's why I feel our stuff vibes in spirit, if not content.
Well ...
Date: 2025-04-15 10:03 am (UTC)My audience and I have built up a generally familiar set of warnings. Some of them are things I've specifically been asked to indicate like "Asking for help and getting it" or "This includes graphic descriptions of delicious food you may not be able to find or make." Once in a while, someone bitches about it, but the approach fits my audience and I'm not giving it up. Same with my footnotes. I have readers who are from different cultures, the whole QUILTBAG, had a deprived childhood, etc. and they need those references. About 19 times out of 20, people appreciate it; as for the other one, it's not addressed to you, just skip it, but don't diss what other people really do need.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-15 10:47 am (UTC)And you know my stuff will never be as polished as that professional published author. But it's entirely my voice. And that's something I need the work to be.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-15 05:12 pm (UTC)Agreed.
>> And I find a lot of people really don't approve of other people figuring out their own way themselves.<<
Yes, and that's a problem. It's less of a problem than it used to be, because they no longer have a bottleneck. Anyone can go online and publish whatever the hell they want -- which is how some worldviews have a voice at all.
>> And you know my stuff will never be as polished as that professional published author. <<
I'm a published author, and also an editor. The professional publishers are nowhere near as concerned with polish as they used to be; a few decades back they fired most of their editorial staff who took care of polishing manuscripts. Now you'll see mistakes on the first page of a book and nobody cares.
However, writing is mostly about practice. If you write a lot, and pay reasonable attention to what you're doing, you will get better over time.
>> But it's entirely my voice. And that's something I need the work to be.<<
Good for you.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-15 05:22 pm (UTC)I do write a lot. Every day. Each day and week and month I do it I get better at it.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-15 08:05 pm (UTC)A great deal of my work is available online. Be aware that people have lost whole weekends down that rabbithole, so it's best to explore when you have some time.
Here on Dreamwidth, the Poem tag has thousands of my poems, mostly narrative but some other styles. How To has a lot of my nonfiction. I did a guide to my meta for
Over on my author site, the My Work tab has the pulldown menu for various things including Serial Poetry (with poems in series-chronological order) and Shared Worlds (where some of the fiction is).
Also despite being a professional wordsmith, I still write fanfic for fun. My most popular series is Love Is For Children (The Avengers).
I also do prompt calls. Next up will be the
>> I do write a lot. Every day. Each day and week and month I do it I get better at it. <<
That is awesome. :D I'm always glad to see another writer developing their craft.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-15 08:13 pm (UTC)I'll check your stuff out tomorrow.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-15 09:18 pm (UTC)That's quite an accomplishment!
>> I'll check your stuff out tomorrow.<<
Cool. Let me know if you have favorite topics and I can point them out for you. There's a huge amount of stuff to go through.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-16 10:19 am (UTC)I'll let you know if I do.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-16 11:19 pm (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-17 01:07 am (UTC)https://gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/2020/02/welcome-to-gilda-and-meek-and-un-iverse.html
I read three of your poems at that link. I'm going to read some more later tonight. I thought they were cool in that I have never read any other poems like them. You were sort of pushing the medium there, which is brave and real.
Edit:
I JUST read The Velveteen Rabbit. Real is my new favorite word.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-17 04:04 am (UTC)I'm amused by the idea of blaming the mayor for hiring an idiot. If only.
I have boosted the signal on my blog.
If you have a crowdfunding mode active (e.g. you sell swag of your characters, or you have a donate button) then you might be interested in the Rose & Bay Awards.
>> I read three of your poems at that link.<<
I'm glad you liked them.
>> I'm going to read some more later tonight. I thought they were cool in that I have never read any other poems like them. <<
:D There aren't a lot of people writing narrative poetry, which is most of what I write; and when I write linguistic poetry, that's even farther out.
>>You were sort of pushing the medium there, which is brave and real.<<
Yep, that's me. I'm a pushy little thing.
>> I JUST read The Velveteen Rabbit. Real is my new favorite word.<<
Yay! :D
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-17 10:20 am (UTC)I finished The Adventures Of Aldornia and Zenobia. Pretty subversive stuff. Your characters don't like being told how to behave and refuse to take the note. I like that.
Edit:
Would you mind if I added you to my friends circle?
Edit 2:
Also read Dragonsilk (or at least what was on LiveJournal). Still looking around.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-18 03:20 am (UTC)That's a good sign.
>> But I am just so consumed in putting the rest of the saga to paper I can't really focus on swag. Maybe if it had taken off I wouldn't mind somebody else handling that (I LOVE swag!) but I'm too busy right now to merchandise! <<
It's okay. You can always come back to swag if you have more time later.
>> I finished The Adventures Of Aldornia and Zenobia.<<
Yay!
>> Pretty subversive stuff. Your characters don't like being told how to behave and refuse to take the note. I like that.<<
That's pretty consistent across all my work.
And yes, this is one of several series I wrote explicitly as subversion, in this case, live happy lesbians because I was annoyed by the dead lesbian stop-trope.
>> Edit:
Would you mind if I added you to my friends circle? <<
Go for it! I can't add people back right now because my account is jammed, though.
>>Edit 2:
Also read Dragonsilk (or at least what was on LiveJournal). Still looking around.<<
That's cool. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2025-04-18 03:48 am (UTC)I will add you to my circle and feel free to add me when you get unjammed.
I will read more of your stuff tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 02:29 pm (UTC)First off all, anything "Platinum' about a Sesame Street soundtrack is 100% win. 👍🏾
And this is why I value your work. These days many people, including published authors, still think there are standards that every writer must abide by to be "successful". Well, pardon my French, but... who the hell has the right to make that judgement call? That's like saying the famous painters of old -- like Rembrandt, Da Vinci, van Gogh, and Michaelangelo-- got famous because they followed trends. Well, reality check for those ignorants: they DIDN'T. Michaelangelo didn't care what he painted, he just loved the act of painting. And van Gogh took his own life because he wouldn't conform to standards and he painted stuff that nobody valued except himself. Yet both painters are now household names in museums.
It's par for the course that a published author would take the time to leave such a stuck-up, conceited note on your front page. Lest anyone forget, I was a published author/artist once, and I found out personally just how not-grand such status can be. Don't get me wrong; I'm immensely grateful for the time I had with Alterna Comics, but in hindsight I can tell that if I stayed with them Lil' Hero Artists likely wouldn't have survived beyond the first issue (and Nick Vollmer would certainly have had a hard time keeping up with deadlines, since at the time he was managing a martial arts studios AND a position as a swim coach/lifeguard -- and we were around the same age at the time, in our mid 20s). But my biggest beef with this published dude who acted a prick on your site? That he DAMN sure isn't a creative soul.
The moment you sign a contract to work with a publisher (or if you self-publish with the sole intention of running your stuff like a business and making profits), I don't wanna be blunt here, but... you're a sellout. You're a sellout to trends, and to the idea of publishing for business. The comic book industry is in the shitter right now because it's mainly desperate hopefuls selling their souls to grease the corrupt machine that is "The Market". Statistics prove that working in this biz is a crapshoot; so many hopefuls walk into this biz hoping to strike it rich and "live their dream job", but the sad fact is that for its entire ninety-plus years of existence, the comics industry has mostly been contracts signed in blood and souls sold. So many creators (except for the rare indie creators who have more say in how their intellectual properties are used) get into the biz to write a comic / novel for an established publisher only to find that they get only lunch money in profits while their publisher pockets the lion's share form sales and basically ALL profits from licensing deals for merch, films, video games, and other media. It's nothing to brag about, especially when it's your main source of income (a mentality that even the pros suggest any hopefuls drop right away to save themselves a TON of heartbreak). And to your point about living Gilda And Meek and the Un-Iverse as it is because it's YOUR creation, YOUR baby, I'll just paraphrase a line from Captain James Kirk at the end of Star Trek Beyond:
"Comic book artists who sign up for this industry biz don't get to really tell THEIR stories and be happy with them, do they?"
*No. They don't.*
"Well, with all due respect... where the hell's the fun in that?"
I rest my case.
Keep it up with what you do with Gilda And Meek, Matt. At least you're staying true to yourself and are truly happy with how the story flows. And personally, it exemplifies the authenticity to your vision, which basically nobody in "the biz" can ever truly claim for themselves. 👍🏾
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 03:01 pm (UTC)And I asked them how the review was coming along they were like, "I can't do the review. The material is inappropriate."
First of all, I don't agree with that. But even if that were true, they already agreed to do it. Do you know what Laridei should have done in this scenario?
Given me a bad review! Like an adult. Tell me precisely how me saying religious demagogues are dangerous and a serious problem in our country is inappropriate. I would fucking WELCOME that debate.
But no apparently, Laridae feared (correctly, I might added) that dropping that specific note would make onlookers think they are full of shit. They would have maybe even checked out Gilda And Meek to confirm it. Instead I had to smile and pretend the thing was mutual to the Phantom Rater while they were being a chickenshit, desperate to be loved, but not desperate enough for it to actually be kind. Removing those ratings was a spiteful action. And it was the first thing that told me that Comic Fury was a bad place for me professionally, and that most of the people there, outside of some of them like you and Jess, valued entirely different things in art than I do.
I take my work very seriously, and talk about it quite earnestly, and it was impossible to do that on a forum where 90% of the topics were random, unfunny shit-posts.
Near the end of my very painful stay there I offered the opinion about shit-posts, "If any artist or writer posting in these threads believes they are honing their comedy chops for their own work in these shit-posting threads, they are very mistaken."
Yeah, I said THAT. And that meant I was NEVER gonna fit in there.
The published Author I mentioned last night wasn't giving me the business on my site. It was on Daily Kos. I don't allow comments on my site. Not because I'm afraid of bad feedback or trolling (although I don't love either), but because I am the site's administrator, and if there were comments, I'd have to monitor them and delete them if they were hateful towards of a group of people or just assy in general.
I did not post my comic online to become a forum moderator. I want to focus entirely on my work. I'll discuss it elsewhere. But moderating other people on my site is a full-time job, and one I am unwilling to put in the time for.
Funny story about my art on Daily Kos. Somebody was telling me my artwork was shitty and they were hide-rated by people who believe that critic was being abusive to me. And after the fact I was "Guys, I'm glad you've got my back in most instances of trolling, but my art is out there. People have every right to call it shitty. That's the risk artists take going public."
And the ironic thing is I might not even entirely disagree with that specific slam.
Here's the diary I wrote after that big kerfuffle.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/07/31/2259399/-Confessions-Of-A-Sucky-Artist
no subject
Date: 2025-04-16 04:44 am (UTC)Man... I'm about to head off to bed real soon for work tomorrow, but I just had to write back after reading this. I mean, I know what the Phantom Rater did to you but it still hurts reading it again, how that experience ruined you. And your feelings and hurt were -- and still are -- valid.
I try to block out the hardships I had there, but to be honest I still feel hurt by how I was grilled there over things that the mods admitted I didn't deserve such curtness, and how I also was expected to bear it with a grin and basically "get over it". When a community turns on you over an honest mistake and makes YOU the problem -- and this was during a VERY emotionally painful time in my life, as you know -- and then tells you to "take your beatings like an obedient toddler", it's incredibly soul crushing and invalidating. And I had never had that experience from a place that serves as a gathering spot for creative individuals.
When I make an honest apology to someone and someone else tells me that "The first someone would like you to stop talking to them effective immediately; we think this is quite harsh, but will you comply?" it comes across to me as "Screw your apology. Get out of this person's life, or we will have to take disciplinary action". I was emotionally struggling -- and then I'm being told, "We heard you had a bad experience with your last therapist. It might not mean much, but we recommend you try again and hope you find a better one." Maybe I was just being unreasonable? I mean, I felt like not only was I now the problem, but also that my own hurt was being minimized in the interest of "keeping the peace". If there's going to moderation, it should be even moderation. I'll accept if I screw up. But if I'm told my apology is worthless AND I have to feel like I traumatized a bunch of people because I had an emotional breakdown from said rejection, that ain't right nor fair. And I know another fan of mine on CF who also got burned in a forum skirmish. They still post their work there, but as far community goes, they're basically mute.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-16 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 03:10 pm (UTC)Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse makes people uncomfortable.
The Human Centipede also makes people uncomfortable.
And yet, I would never put them on an equal moral plane. Making people uncomfortable to challenge their own perceptions and biases is what the best art does. BAD art makes people uncomfortable by simply deliberately offending them. I detest shock art for this reason. It's hacky and lazy and artists with zero skill demanding attention for offensive reasons besides actual talent.
Listen to me rant.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 04:39 pm (UTC)Getting back to the point of your post though I find that most people on the internet generally have useless advice. Weirdly it seems like there's an expectation that free content is illegitimate somehow and needs to bow to the reader for their attention even moreso than paid content which is already mostly hollow and pandering. You really need to build up a following before you have people who will take you seriously, and those are usually the people in your following and you'll still get shit from outside
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 04:59 pm (UTC)I think most of my fans are under the (true) impression there is no constructive criticism they could give me that wouldn't change ten other things majorly.
I was super impressed about a note you gave me about the First Edition of "Enter Tork". You found Gilda dismissing Bernadette's very true concerns over Meek giving the Idol of Light to Vic Puff and blowing them off because she wants to go home and take a shower stupid and annoying.
I love the moment because that's what I'm trying to get across. I'm trying to get across Gilda often takes the fact that the Universe clearly likes her and puts its thumb on the scale for her for granted, and is sloppy and careless when she doesn't need to be. And the most obnoxious thing about it happening in that issue is she is right! The Universe doesn't punish her for it and in fact rewards her laziness.
One of the major struggles I show for Gilda is that she contains a level of unhealthy hubris that could eventually lead to a bad end for somebody, not the least of which is herself.
Is that moment badly written and not plausible? Yes. Definitely. Would it make Gilda's ultimate arc about her uncertainty over Universal Design better if I plugged the obvious hole and came up with a better resolution? No. Not at all.
Sometimes the bad things that have to occur in The Un-Iverse aren't merely a bunch of beloved characters randomly getting killed off. It's sometimes having the reader suffer through piss-poor writing because I value characters more than plot. The Un-Iverse is not solely designed to be enjoyed. Sometimes it must be endured.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 05:10 pm (UTC)Their shittiness also stops people from looking too closely at them. Good. I want that.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-16 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-16 10:21 am (UTC)