23.3.12

Catching nightmares and contemplating picking up pencils and performing my own art experiments...

Having written a lot of stories on this March Madness trip (it's Day 23 and that means I've got 23 manuscripts) I'm finding very interesting things as I enter the end stretch. For a start I'm tired of looking at computer screens. I think without the obligation to type up tales every day, April is going to be designated as a time to unwire and get the hell offline. Constant keyboard rattle is making me crazier and spending more time hooked up to the internet is giving me bad vibes...

Anyway, with regard to the writing itself I'm finding that the more I go on the more I want to try different stuff, push boundaries and screw with convention. I'm typing up ideas, looking at them and thinking "maybe I should have attacked this as a comic script" or "does this work as a picture book and would an artist, publisher or other third party get it and really understand what is on my mind here?"

I'm also more inspired to get back to some sketchy-doodle action after taking a bit of a break and that's no doubt partly due to the 'cyber-drain' I'm feeling. Altogether, I'm pushed towards taking some of the tales I've spawned over the month and trying to visualise the ones that are less ambitious myself and today's effort is very suitable.

What I've got today is "The Nightmare Catcher" which has a dark shadow being - the Nightmare - creeping into a child's room only to be caught by a dreamcatcher before it can work its evil will on the sleeping child. It's another reel of rhyming couplets but I've approached it more from a visual perspective and have particular ideas about it being a chance to experiment artistically. The more limited scale and the opportunity to play around with style makes me think "yeah, I should probably try this one myself" and if I like the accompanying images maybe I could self-publish it on the web or in a zine or small-press-style picture book.

This thing is now tiring me out but I'm getting a kick out of the challenge and the discoveries - both finding that the word processor doesn't recognise the word "apotropaic" and that by writing lots I end up wanting to draw more, especially in the moments where I get a sense that what I'm writing won't ever see visualisation.

Basically, I may draw today's -and other day's tale - myself at some point and I'm going to probably be ramping up the experimental in the final stages of this odyssey.

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