Problem Number Three - The Job

This will probably be very long.

I'm a writer.

What does that mean to me? It means that I'm not going to wear your uniform. I'm not going to press your buttons. I'm not going to wash your dishes. I'm not going to feed and clean your old people.

It means I write things. Words. Sentences. Sometimes even paragraphs.

Those jobs I listed above? Those shit jobs? In my worldview they don't help me get from Point A (a blank page) to Point B (a full page). Why should a Mathematician need to know how to spell?

I'll write pretty much anything and everything. My only published work to date came about from a grade school project. We interviewed senior citizens about the history of this sub-area of Philadelphia. There was even a book signing when I was in High School. I was the only person who attended. As if that wasn't bad enough, my former Principal called me "Kenny." Better than "Brain" I guess, but not by much. I signed 3 copies of the book and then I left.

I've written enough poetry to publish a book. Of course it was all for/about someone who I no longer care for...but good writing is good writing, damn it!

I have portions of novels done, but nothing I'm really happy with as it was all written over 10 years ago.

Comics are my thing. I've written quite a few full scripts worth of crap. Some of it worthwhile, some of it not. Nothing ever really got past that point, however, as I have no artistic ability and nothing has worked out with an artist as of yet.

I'd actually stopped writing for a bit and did some illegal activities online. Fun. But at least I got to talk to people from all over the world and some of them are very good friends.

Like Tim.

The other month Tim suggested we collaborate on some kind of writing activity. I've known Tim almost as long as I've been out of work (which is either really cool or really sad, depending on your POV). I trust him and his tastes and sensibilities, so I agreed. I've enjoyed the snippets of stuff he's shown me over the years and even played armchair-editor to some of those ideas.

I told him I was open to any kind of genre, really. He brought up superhero stuff as sub-genres could be brought in to play. Okay, that's fine. For me, it's probably easiest that way. Having read the amount of superhero comics that I have, I find it very easy to write in that genre. The only problem, really, is a fresh take on something. It's easy with company owned stuff (at least for me, I have a ton of new ideas for those toys, but they aren't mine) but creator owned stuff is a little more difficult, IMO. With another genre like Noir, everything would have to be built from the ground up. I'm okay with that, like I said. It's not really something I have much experience writing, though. If we went with that, I think Tim would end up doing the heavy lifting and I'd end up filling in the blanks. At least with this superhero thing we've discussed, it's a more collaborative effort. Plus, in the one conversation we've had about it so far, the ideas came very fast for us both. I think we need to discuss it a little further before really digging in to it.

I don't really have much else going on. No "real" job. I'm pissing what little money I have away at the bar. Blah blah blah. So I'm committed to this thing now and I think at least I will learn a thing or two by the time it's all done.