Writing Wednesday: The Cartoonist Who Couldn't Draw
Sorry for the last post! I tried going to play laser tag last night then regretted it almost immediately because it took me too far away from a computer.
This was yesterday's assignment for Creative Non-Fiction, to write about a person's obstacles in life, how they can overcome those obstacles, and how those struggles can be put together in a narrative outline. I wrote about my roadblocks in becoming an animation screenwriter.
Melissa wants to create an animated television show someday. These are her obstacles:
1. She cannot actually draw.
2. She can’t contribute to the voice-acting either.
3. Or write songs (all the great cartoons have songs).
4. She has no creative partner to complement her every strength and flaw.
5. She doesn’t have many friends that are as interested as she is in animation.
6. She lacks advice for entering this unusual career field.
7. There is no animation industry in her city.
8. She has no way to gain relevant job experience right now.
9. She needs to earn money to pay for her graduate program in animation screenwriting
10. She is enrolled in a creative non-fiction class that won’t let her write about supervillains like she wants to, all the time.
These are ways she can prevail over these obstacles:
1. Practice her mediocre doodling skills until they’re good enough for rudimentary storyboards and character designs that she can hand off to real artists.
2. Accept the fact that she will never be a super renaissance-man creator that voices half the characters herself, and befriend some talented actors.
3. Same, except with songwriters and musicians and people that actually know things about music and don’t listen to songs and say things like “that was good because… reasons…”
4. Find an artist who can’t write and who shares some of her inspiration, tastes, attitudes, and ~creative desires~.
5. There has to be some sort of local animation club, right? Somewhere? Otherwise, she can force friends to sit down and sigh at The Iron Giant with her.
6. Scour the internet for a friendly animation screenwriter that can offer her tips on breaking into the industry. She runs a popular cartoon blog, time for some networking!
7. The only solution for this is to move far away, unfortunately. But at least she’ll be close to either Disneyland or Disneyworld.
8. Find a job writing anything for anyone, and hope grad school will give her the connections she needs.
9. Find a job writing anything for anyone for great pay, and hope that grad school will give her the scholarships she needs.
10. Use the non-supervillain pieces she has to write for this class as part of her portfolio for local writing work, and tell stories about as many cloning machines and ray guns as she wants in her free time.
This is how she can combine these challenges into an exciting narrative:
Melissa has loved cartoons her whole life, and it’s her dream to create an animated show of her own someday. The only trouble is that she can’t draw. And in a time where some of the most successful shows have creators that write, design, animate, voice-act, and perform the music, what’s a girl to do when he only knack is for writing? Enroll in an online Creative Writing MFA program with a focus on animation screenwriting and storyboarding and keep watching as many cartoons as possible, of course! Join Melissa as she laments over the lack of an animation industry in hometown of St. Louis, grumbles over the freelance writing work she takes to pay off her student loans, attempts to wrangle her mediocre doodles into passable character designs, all while searching for the perfect partner, the person with the art skills to match her writing skills. Will she get the help and experience she needs to make her dream come true? Will she find her creative soulmate? Will her tales of heroes, villains, sassy reporters, and science gone wrong become a success? Tune in next fall on Cartoon Network to find out!