Nice Job, Dummy
Inspired by some stories by Michael Deforge.
You will need:
Pencil or pen
Paper
Paper or very thin, smooth bark to write on
A problem
Instructions:
List five issues you are having difficulty solving (personal, financial, societal, etc…) and then pick one. Try to pick one that you can visualise.
In four or five panels, describe the problem (exaggerate and lie as needed). Be as true to your characters as you can, especially if things get out of hand.
Invent an unlikely solution to the problem. It can be anything, but it should be unlikely. A novel solution.
Add a few panels describing how this new person/thing/action solves the problem.
Add a few more panels in which your solution goes awry.
Example:
Thoughts:
Something I love about Michael Deforge’s comics is how situations evolve in completely unexpected ways. You get the sense reading his work that he was as excited as his readers to see what was going to happen at the end. No matter how crazy things seem to get in his stories though, they feel true. Not factual, but honest, true to the characters and the worlds he builds.
When I work on stories that I have completely mapped out in my head, stories whose endings I know in advance, I am less interested in making them. I find that creating goals or constraints for myself that ensure that I cannot predict a story’s path helps keep me interested in my work, and motivated to see it through.
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