The 2011 New York Comic Con is headlined by events promoting The Avengers movie, AMC's The Walking Dead, and the new Batman: Arkham City game. In the midst of all these promotions, however, are artists and writers who are looking to improve their work and soak up whatever knowledge they can get from these industry veterans.
If you can't make it out for New York Comic Con and still want some great advice on improving your work, have no fear! I will be sitting in on many of these creative panels this weekend and bring you advice from these amazingly talented people. First up, I have the panel “The Other Side of the Table: Lessons from Creators” which featured David Gallaher (High Moon), Reilly Brown (Cable & Deadpool), Raina Tegemeier (Smile), and Carolyn Belefski (Curls).
Here are some of my favorite words of wisdom that they had for aspiring writers and artists.
1. David: Work while you are fresh in the morning. Kiss your husband/wife, eat your breakfast, and then work. Don't wait until later in the day because you might have a bad day or other priorities will get in the way later, and you won't end up working.
2. Reilly: Time management is everything. You have to schedule time with your family, time to eat, and time to work. If you don't manage your time well, then you won't be efficient with it. Also, have your studio set up with everything you need close by and ready so you don't have to go hunting for supplies.
3. David: Set a day aside for marketing. Update Facebook and Twitter, send out press releases, write out checks, etc.
4. Carolyn: Before starting a web comic, have plenty of them finished and ready to go. Figure out how many you will be posting each week and how much time it takes to put together each one.
5. Raina: You have to remember that you are a writer first and an author second. Work on your book now. You can talk about what your book is later.
6. Carolyn: Try to sketch or write for 15 minutes each day for a year before going to bed. It's not a lot of time out of your day, and when you write or sketch every day, you don't get stagnant.
7. Carolyn: Do not worry about naysayers who view your work as a hobby and not as real work. If the people in your life care about you, then they will understand that this is your passion.
8. David: When you start telling a story, draw yourself a map. It makes it as easy as possible for you to keep track of what is going on, and it shows you at least where you are now and where you are heading.
9. Raina: Endings can be a struggle, but sometimes as you write the story, the ending will come to you. (Or you figure out that you don't have to write an ending at all, which is great!)
10. Carolyn: Keep a notebook on you at all times to jot down ideas. You can have a brilliant idea one day and forget it the next. Do not rely on yourself to keep all these ideas in your head.
