Marcos Mateu-Mestre, Wings A Shadow Cast, and That Infernal Artist's Block

"If we are going to tell a story. we need to believe in it and its characters. If we are going to move an audience, we need to be moved ourselves first. We won't be able to give something that we don't have"

Marcos Mateu-Mestre, Framed Ink

I bought this book the other day. and so far its excellent. That particular passage has inspired me as I have been struggling mentally with my own graphic novel, Wings A Shadow Cast, that I have been working on this summer.

I think MMM is right, we must be moved. I believe in my characters, I believe in the story as a whole, but I don't believe in the script I have in front of me. It's wrong. I couldn't place my finger on it exactly, but tonight as I began to work on another page, frustration leaking out of me, I realized. The script just doesn't make sense to me.

I don't know what I'm going to do about it just yet, but I'm definitely going to have to change some things up a bit. I already realized that I wanted to redo some of the pages that I have already finished sometime down the line, but for the time being I was just going to push through and finish it all regardless.

I don't think I will though. I had given myself a deadline of May, as I wanted to first book to be finished for SCADcon, but I think I would rather give myself more time and be confident in what I have, rather than rush it and be diffident about it.

I realized that the artist's block I have been feeling toward any of the pages is because I didn't agree with most of them. I talked with my girlfriend alot about it tonight, and during the course of that conversation came to that conclusion. I just don't a have the confidence in the script that I need to have.

She told me that I just came unblocked, but now was frustrated about it. I think she is right. Now I know why I had the block, why it wasn't coming out how I wanted, and now I have to start over. But this is a story that is very personal to me, and it has to be done right. No half-assing or cutting corners, and if that means starting over then I'll do it.

I would like to that Marcos Mateu-Mestre for writing such an excellent book that I can read and learn from.