I have been fascinated this week with the idea of your specific voice in storytelling. Trying to understand the things that attract you most to a medium or say what is most on your heart. It all sort of cropped up in me after watching this interview with one of my favorite filmmakers M. Night Shyamalan:
He makes specific statement in there by saying that the reaosn he has found success as a writer is because in the end: “I’m just more me than they are them. That’s just the bottom line.” In other words be yourself, passionately.
I really thought about what does that mean to myself as an artist. What do I care about? What themes? What genre? Am I trying to copy others or am I just playing to my interests with no mind for my audience, making impersonal work?
I sort of realized that suspense movies have been my favorites all my life. In particular my favorite films have been: Jaws, Super 8, Unbreakable, Signs, Rear Window and Psycho. There’s a tonality in those that I love. And in the case of M Night’s movies and Super 8, a tremendous amount of heart. It lays on me to realize that sometimes I try to reach outside of these genres when I write and my voice figuratively stutters in these moments. Maybe the genres I’ve loved all my life should be embraced instead of run away from!
As a comics artist there are very, very…. very few artists who are tackling this particular type of book. There is a vacum in this area. And something I hope I can bring into the mix with Adamsville and some of the other ideas I have poking around in my head. It will be fun to see how others take my first suspense offering in Adamsville bk 1.
So how about you? What makes you tick? Are you being creatively honest? Give it a try, be more you than they are them!