Arise Atmon
It is time to resurrect this newsletter once again.
I have a theory. I've been spending far too much time and energy on twitter as my broadcast channel and it is part of the reason I've not been diligent about keeping up with these newsletter broadcasts. And of course, given the state of Twitter, I've been incresingly disinterested in broadcasting or engaging on there. Not that I can't stand discourse. Largely because I can't stand idiocy. And the rotting bluebird corpse is now magotted with it.
These will be shorter, quicker updates going forward. A substitue for tweeting but not as ephemeral. There is value to saying less but doing so with thought.
Musk's utter circus on twitter was the nudge I needed. I've been contemplating limiting social media use for a while in any case. I had a read of Cal Newport's Deep Work and found a lot of useful thoughts in it. I had previously talked about the sculpting analogy for writing. I found a writing as blacksmithing analogy stemming from newport's book. Aditya Bidikar, my letterer, has been extoling its virtues for a while on his newsletter. But in case, you are like me, deeply suspicious of prescriptive books and haven't gotten to it yet, I can say I found useful things in there. Not all of it...in fact, a lot of it thinks of humans as production machines and isn't particularly a useful stance when it comes to thinking about enabling yourself to do interesting creative work. But there are things in there about "flow" and creating a work-culture for yourself to achieve that in your work.
Speaking of work...
LAST WEEK IN WORK.
I spent a lot of it doing research. I've been scripting non-stop for a while and I need a window to figure out where a lot of these stories are going next.
I revised an outline for a potential tv thing at a streamer– let's call this THE ECHOVOICE. It's ended up being a twelve page document - a little heavier than I'd like but it's more of a bible than an outline. The initial idea I started with has evolved into something with shape and I'm feeling quite happy with it. It involved a fair bit of research into isolationist communes, 80s international drug trade and watching/reading a fair bit of survial horror.
I'm researching occult astrology for a game thing that I'm helping create the narrative for. Let's call this EATER. It's involved writing character bios and nuanced details of what should feel like believable humans. And it has simultaneouly involved researching outlandish ways to use dubious astrological ideas from various asian mythologies. It's the kind of stuff I particularly have fun with. Relating the impossibly huge and absurd to the intensely personal.
Started writing a long overdue proposal document for DC Comics. For something further down the line - potentially 2024 stuff. So I've been taking my time but also it's a project that is quite large in scope. More so in the width of things in encompasses rather than the length of a run. I'm already doing a long narrative with Detective Comics. I'm now trying to see if I can connect the dots in a different way. Let's call this THE STEED. It involves jamming with fellow White Noisers (My writing studio with the always amazing Dan Watters, Alex Paknadel and Ryan O'Sullivan.)
I've also been working on two creator owned projects. I owe Laurence Campbell and Evan Cagle scripts! And need to get a CARNAGE script out to Marvel. Too much stuff! Not enough time.
So I leave you with a couple of recommendations before I go off to plot and script.
I've finally gotten around to listening to Polyphia's new album. The Chino Moreno collaboration on BLOODBATH is a particular delight. So is EGO DEATH with Steve Vai but that one might be more for the Guitar nerds.
I'm reading Javier Marais
And while you can only get so much from a translation (The original is in Spanish.) - the prose so far is captivating and propulsive despite allowing itself a measure of intelligent playfulness.
And then there is distrust, of which there has been no shortage in my life either.
It's interesting how the law takes this into account and, even odder, takes the trouble to warn us; when someone is arrested, at least in films, he is allowed to remain silent, because, as he is immediately informed, 'anything you say can and will be used against you'. There is in this warning a strange -- or indecisive and contradictory – desire not to play entirely dirty. That is the prisoner is told that the rules will, from now on, be dirty, he is informed and reminded that, somehow or the other, they are going to catch him out...
Ocassionally, I wonder if social media has subplanted the experience of enaging with others. The push and pull of conversation has given way to broadcasting and picking sides in echo-chambers. I despair at these things.
Then I find myself at a friendly convention (Thoughtbubble was last week)-- sat at a corner table out in the cold grabbing a drink and smoke with old friends and new, I am reminded of the joy of company that has no need to display its alleigances. No need to demonstrate ideology, only participate in ideas.
<3 Talk soon.