Professionalism
an article by Drowemos
I am not a professional
Occasionally someone will get on the web filled with spite and anger and yell something to the effect of “How dare Drowemos portray himself as a professional writer.” Now I’ll give you a moment to get over the shock of that someone gets on the internet with spite and anger. I know it’s weird but it does on rare occasions happen.
But the weirder part of all this is the implication that I am portraying myself as a professional. That would be something to be upset about I suppose if I ever said that I was a professional anything. I don’t think I am a professional comic writer. I don’t think I am gifted with ungodly talent of prose. Hell 87% of the time I can’t even spell the words in this bloody language.
Now I do hire professional artist and I do accept money from reader to pay these artists. The artist and readers are part of a professional exchange. I however am merely a middle man. I take the money and forward it on to the artist. I have not now nor do I ever expect to get any money for my writing.
I have said this before and I will say it again; writing comics is fun. Writing is fun. I make comics because I enjoy doing it. Even if I didn’t have a processional artist to work with I would still write little scripts of my own. I caught the writing bug and I don’t see myself getting over it any time soon.
The point is I never claimed to be a great writer or even a good writer. I am occasionally a clever writer. I will continue to write and practice and maybe I will one day I will become a good writer and maybe I never will. Honestly I don’t really care. I just enjoy writing.
So the second implication that people make is that if I am putting my work on the web I must think it’s great. This is a vast misunderstanding of what I am doing here. I put my work on the web to get better at writing. I put it on the web because I feel there is so much for me to learn. The web offers a great community to help people improve their craft. I put it on the web to be criticized. Granted I don’t want to hear that I am a worse subhuman monster than a zombie bastard clone child of Hitler and Satan. But real concrete criticism is greatly appreciated. (except, of course, for spelling corrections that as I have said under the dyslexia post is a lost cause for me)
But this begs the question if I don’t think I am great then why am I paying a professional artist. Frankly, because I can. I can make enough money off the comic to get some pretty pictures. And I like pretty pictures. Their umm… pretty and stuff.
But isn’t this a waste of talent that could be used for better writing? I suppose so. Heck if you had a really good comic idea and you are a great writer I would be open to the idea of moving money and an artist over to your work, for a percentage of the profit of course. In fact I would highly encourage people to drop me a line if they think they have a great idea for a comic. If it really is good I help produce it.
I could never envision myself as a professional writer. I might however be able to envision myself as a professional middle man. Setting up processes to get money from readers and forward it on to talented artist. I think I am starting to get good at that.
Got a great idea?
Email: Talent@exiern.com
Greetings! I have been enjoying your comic for quite some time. I remember finding it a long time back when your original drawings were up and new ones were coming in that were done by I guess Boom Studio, or Studio Boom, I forget the order. I remember thinking it was odd that there was so much difference between the way it was drawn at the start and now. I think I read it around the time that Tiffany was escorting the wizard through the forest and the dragon attacked the men while Denver was off, upset in the woods. Anyway, as I said, been following it for quite a while and I really, really like the story. The art is good, too!
Couple questions for you: 1 – if you don’t mind sharing – how much does it cost to work with boom studio? Their website is rather bereft of . . . well, most anything besides their flash video.
2 – any plans on opening payment options for membership up to those of us with Visa cards? I’d love to chip in and donate to help keep it going.
Considering doing something of my own webcomicy, but far less visual updates, more text with culminating drawings.
3. how do you find the combination of wordpress and comicpress? Rather easy to use? I’m not very website savvy. Well, thanks for the time! Good luck with everything, and you can count on me to keep reading and enjoying.
About 1% of the “professional” writers make a living at writing, if you discount those who are living out of their cars in order to write. If you apply the normal criteria to writing that is used for professionals in other fields, there are almost no professionals out there. I prefer what one Stage Magician of my acquaintance said: “I don’t agree with the term Semi-Pro. Just because I don’t have TV specials and make thousands of dollars per show doesn’t make me any less professional than anyone else. I’m a Part-Time Pro!”
Drowemos you have an engaging story with entertaining characters. These characters have depth and are developing over time, something many so-called pros fail to achieve. The pacing is right for the medium, which is often hard for webcomics but you hit it right the first time. There is a great balance of tension, humor, horror and even romance all without detracting from the overall storyline and we often find ourselves blindsided by side plots that become more important like the recent girlification of Tiffany.
YOU may not call yourself a professional but your work tells a different story. I know writing and writers very well so don’t base your standard off whether you get money for your work or not. Nobody else in the writing industry does anyway. Believe me you are a professional. As for spelling that has never been important to a writer, hence the occupation of “proofreader” in the printing industry.
Holy crap, after reading this I decided to check a criticism about Exiern, and wow, you’re right. Several hatters seem to be gravitated to just mindless bashing of your writings, personally? I don’t see it. Exiern is a constant source of amusement for me, it’s over the top humor makes me think that you do this for a living. If I may make a sujestion (some thing I’m not prone to do) why not settle down with one artist and maybe find work at a studio? professional or not, your writing is great. After all, what makes us professionals?