Friday, February 19, 2010
ok, so this week i spent the time modeling the 3D for my illustrations. I also got some good advice and/or possible directions to go in as pertaining to my book layout. i made my appointment with sweetland and its this coming monday at 10:30. I e-mailed the person im supposed to meet with because the sweetland policy states that each student can only meet for thirty minutes, and they are to bring the written work with them in paper form for the counselor to read. I told the guy my writing was long, about 55 pages, so since we only have 30 mins, its kind of impossible for you to sit there, read it all, then give me feedback. is there a way i could send it to you and have you read before hand so that we can discuss. He said no, sorry, but we dont read the work before hand, you can bring it in and we can have some broader conversations on the work, we can look at parts of the work and discuss. I said ok, and ask if there was someone else, or some other way to have someone read my work and really give me feedback, he said again, no, we dont read the work before hand. I thanked him, and will be seeing him on monday. I guess hell read tidbits and we will have discussion on whatever parts he does. Ill see how it goes. FUCK!!!! DAMN SWEETLAND BULLSHIT!!!! now, i realize that i might be speaking a bit soon seeing as how i have yet to go to the meeting, but i have a feeling that this meeting is going to annoy the piss out of me. I only have thirty minutes minus the time its gonna take him to read what hes gonna read, then im gonna have to verbally explain the story, and hes gonna ask questions, questions that would be answered already have he would have read. now, im sure from what he reads he can give me grammar and sentence structure help, which is always wanted. but c'mon now, i need comments on story, the structure of the story, how to better develop the characters and their relationships, how to better drive the feelings across that im trying to communicate, i need deep criticism on the story itslef, as well as grammar shit. any asshole can give me grammar and sentence structure help. sigh. well anything he says to me i can definitely use, and i appreciate him taking the time out to help me. jesus, can someone please point me in the direction of an actual writer that is willing to read and seriously critique my work, not this surface level bullshit. with all the money i pay to go to this damn school its a shame that its so hard to find. but like i said, i have not been to the meeting yet, who knows, it can be exactly what i need.
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Tyrone,
ReplyDeleteWow, I can see how frustrating this must be, particularly imagining how many productive meetings you could have had if you had started going to Sweetland back in the beginning of November when I first suggested it. Hopefully you can figure out the best of the time you have left.
-Stephanie
Tyrone,
ReplyDeleteThe resources are available if you know where to look for them and are willing to ask. I know Stephanie sent you and email last semester with the names of specific people at Sweetland that specialize in graphic narratives. Find that email. See if any of those people might be more helpful than the one guy you talked with. You could also make appointments with them for the different parts of your story separately to get more out of your time. I know this seems frustrating, but it is also asking a lot of someone to read the entire 55 pages. I am interested to see how much progress you've made on the writing since I last gave you feedback on it.
Try talking with professors from the English department. I took a class with Professor Eric Rabkin in the English department who offers a Graphic Narratives class for undergrads and grads. You could contact him and see if he has time. Get ahold of Phoebe Gloeckner and see if she can give you feedback on parts of it. Or come to our in class critiques with specific questions on how you might develop the characters better, giving your peers an overview of the plotline, and excerpts that you read out loud. A lot of times reading something out loud can help you figure out where things need to be edited. A key to getting solid feedback on your project is figuring out ways to give us excerpts to respond to, so that you can actually get the rich feedback you want. Come up with a standard summary of your story, clear cut and uncomplicated so people won't ask questions about storyline, then hand out a scene and read it out loud to get feedback. There are a lot of avid readers in the class who would be able to give advice on character development and relationships if you are direct in what you want feedback on. Rather than talking about the whole story, take out certain parts.
You can also give some copies to your friends or family who are also interested in comics, manga, graphic novels, who would be able to give you input on what they would like to see.
It is just frustrating for us to see you getting behind in this when we have been trying to push you to go to Sweetland all year and could have been giving someone your story little by little each week. Don't think of Sweetland as a one shot thing either. Find the right people to go to and develop relationships with them. This kind of networking is important for you as an artist.
We haven't met up in a while; I would really like to talk with you before spring break.
Erica