TINY UPDATE 1/17: A Very Tiny Update
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So, a few weeks ago, I had this very ambitious idea.
What if, rather than the usual chaos I subject myself and my editors to, I built a regimented system where I get everything done incrementally? What if I write roughly five pages a day. They don’t have to be good pages, they can be incredibly rudimentary (usually that means the panel descriptions are barely existent beyond things I’m worried I might forget if I step away from the computer), but I need to do them. Ideally, as early in the day as possible. Ideally, before all the demons in California wake up and start sending emails. If I successfully do that, I can face whatever chaos comes later in the day knowing that my most crucial work has already been taken care of. And any extra work I manage on top of that is gravy.
You can tell this plan is working very well, because I’m writing this post at 4:30AM in the morning.
Truthfully, I’m up late tonight because I was up past 5AM last night scouring through my banking information to figure out who all I needed to send 1099s, then slept in past 1PM. Thus creating a feedback loop that I’m going to try to snap myself out of tonight with the help of a little melatonin in time for the post-holiday work week to begin in earnest. BUT, it’s a victory to be in this position not because I’m chasing a work deadline. I’m not sure how, or why exactly it’s a victory, but I remain certain that it is.
In all seriousness, I’ve resisted the idea of writing every day for pretty much my entire life. I’ve always been a sprinter. Using the necessity of a firm and imminent deadline to try and force myself to make a lot of decisions. Often on all-nighters, with an artist who needs pages in the morning. When you’re green as a writer and you’re just relying on your gut, and you don’t really have any principles behind why you’re structuring a page a certain way, or having a character talk in a certain way, it helps to have that kind of pressure. It forces you to just make a decision, any decision and then move on. It used to panic me in those rare moments I didn’t have that pressure, because then I had the time to deliberate. But the deliberation time wasn’t of any use to me. I wouldn’t be able to make a choice because I wasn’t used to making choices for reasons. I only knew how to work from my gut.
I’ve noticed something in the last few months… Without the noise of the internet droning out my inner thoughts, and with my brain buzzing with new ideas and curiosities… I find it much easier to make firm decisions without the imminent pressure. More than that, I know why I’m making the decisions I do. Writing is really just the act of making a bunch of decisions in sequence, on paper. Comics are a great medium as a writer because there are a lot of decisions you make that aren’t important. I don’t need to make a panel description read prettily, I just need to make convey what I have in my mind to the artist. Dialogue is where you need to be more deliberate, and I’m finding more of a joy in that deliberation than I ever have before. I enjoy making a bunch of decisions, in order, that I know why I am making. Maybe that’s always been just a basic fact to a lot of writers, but I’m getting here at the 10 year mark of professional writing, and it’s pretty fucking great.
I’ve been thinking a lot about deliberation lately.
When I stepped away from social media, one of the big reasons was that I wanted to reclaim the voice inside my head. I wanted to deliberately choose the things I was thinking about, and when I wanted to think about them, rather than when some algorithm wanted me to think about them. I wanted to make better use of my curiosity. Spend my time reading books, plays, and comics… And more than that, I wanted to spend more time thinking in that kind of aimless way where I’m not trying to solve anything. I’m just letting my mind go off on a little journey by itself, so I can see what I can get out of it.
And then, when I turn my attention to the tasks at hand, I start making informed decisions. I feel like my Bullet Journal has been really helpful at keeping my chaotic brain in order while I tackle all of the work on my plate. When I started getting to a certain level of success, suddenly I had a lot more calls to make and emails to respond to, and my natural anxiety kept me worked up into a constant panicked state. Always worried I was missing something crucial that needed to be tackled, that if I didn’t take care of right away I was going to forget forever. With my Bullet Journal, I have a place to stick any idle tasks that I suddenly remember I have to do, and then I can let it go until it’s time to look at the list and deliberately knock something off of it. The difference between this and when I was just winging it is honestly astonishing. But it’s still just a step in the direction I want.
I mentioned a few of my goals for the year at the top of the month. Two of my most important goals are getting ahead, and spending some time (ideally two months) fully unplugged from work. That means working at a steady, deliberate pace, where I am making sober decisions in sequence. Letting myself breathe and think, and letting go of the noise allows me the kind of deliberation that I think has made me a more effective writer and businessperson. So let’s see if I can keep it up. I have some benchmarks I’ve set between now and the end of the month, and if I manage to successfully hit those benchmarks, then I think this is the beginning of a whole new way of writing for me.
Talking about it out loud makes it sound a bit more like it’s about efficiency, but it’s more about preserving the head space to know why I am doing the things I’m doing, so I can understand them better, and then make better and better decisions. Not because it means writing more scripts, or selling more comics, but because it’s more satisfying creatively and it’ll give me the room to evolve into the sort of writer I’m going to grow into next.
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This is one of those wonderful weeks where I don’t have any print comics on the stands, so the rest of this email is going to be pretty brief. This Friday, paid subscribers to this Substack will get the next entry of BLUE BOOK. But this isn’t going to be an entirely quiet week… Tomorrow, I have a pretty big announcement coming out. A real dream project is going to be unveiled to the world, and I’m going to throw up a Substack post with some thoughts about it once it does.
It won’t be my only announcement this month.
Last week, I talked about how Sam and I were watching the docuseries PRETEND IT’S A CITY by Martin Scorsese about Fran Lebowitz. This weekend, we watched its predecessor, the documentary PUBLIC SPEAKING. Between the two, I think the more recent series is the more sophisticated work, but really any excuse to listen to Fran Lebowitz speak is good.
I cleaned my Cast Iron Skillet poorly the other week and some little blooms of rust came to life in the base of my pan, so I scoured it, cleaned it, and reasoned it this weekend. There’s something really special about caring for cast iron. It’s not quite like working with a sourdough starter or something like that, but there is this kind of constant, conscious care required that is both like and wholly unlike caring for a living being. The knowledge that if I do my job right, I could have this skillet for decades is really moving to me. I’m sure I’ll manage to fuck it up somehow. At least it’s not something I’m going to break.
Bill Sienkiewicz announcing that he’s going to crowdfund a collection of STRAY TOASTERS in April is incredibly exciting. I will be throwing money at it on Day One.
I failed to knock out out a play this past week, so this next week I’m going to try to knock out TWO plays so that I haven’t totally fucked my New Years Resolution this early in the year.
Last week was very chaotic for a lot of reasons that I won’t get into here, but please do me a favor and cross your fingers for me this week. I can use all of the crossed finger energy that you can muster.
Have a good one, people!
James Tynion IV
Brooklyn, NY
1.17.22
On pins and needles awaiting the world reveal! Excitement doesn't begin to express the anticipatory feelings! Really glad to be apart of this journey!🤞
🤞🤞