Status Updates From Invisible Ink

"In 1993, there were, as I understand it, more comic books published than in any other year. Just a few short years later, so few comics were selling that many wondered if the medium would even survive. Why the big turnaround? Lack of story and story-craft."

"The term self-expression has had a harmful impact on storytellers. Stories are not about the storyteller. If your focus is on yourself, then it is not on what is best for your story."

"...quotable dialogue is not the primary job of a storyteller."

"Think of it more as making discoveries rather than decisions. You will then find yourself looking for things that illustrate your point."

"Be careful of this; it will not serve you well to give into the things you already do well. If you go through the ritual pain of doing the very thing you don't want to do, you will become a better writer. You will ascend."

"Understand that I'm not saying that one, feminine or masculine, is better or worse than the other. On the contrary, I am saying that one without the other is a lie."

"Why is it that all of these forms—mindless action films, soap operas, comic books, pornography, and romance novels—are considered 'trash' by most of us? Even those of us who indulge in them regard them as guilty pleasures. It is because they are unbalanced."

"The worst of us has good in him and the best of us has some bad. That is a truth that many of us want to deny, but as storytellers it is the truth we must illuminate."

I love that.

"But here's the big secret—we are all the same. The more you dip into your own behavior, good or bad—the more others will see themselves, and you will fade into the background."

"Few of us have much respect for someone who has had things too easy. We admire struggle and sacrifice."

All this stuff about "ritual pain" is really interesting, it puts words to a part of storytelling that I haven't yet been able to grasp super well.

"We are all resistant to change. There is an old blues song that contains the lyric. 'Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.'

There is more than likely something about yourself that you would like to change or that you should change but it is too difficult... So we rarely run toward change. This is true of your characters as well."

Wow, what a clear explanation of the show don't tell concept.

🎶 A duck walked up to a lemonade stand 🎶

"Every decision you make should be based on the idea of dramatizing your armature idea."

"...they want to say a thousand things in one story, not realizing that to say too much is to say nothing at all."

"'Competition' is not a theme. A theme (or armature) might be, 'Competition is sometimes a necessary evil.' Or, 'Competition leads to self-destruction.' Saying that your theme is competition is like saying that your theme is 'red.' It really says nothing at all."

The unhealthy decision! I can see how this would further drive a story forward.

"Whatever your 'talking duck' is, let people know right away."

Gonna be taking notes on this book here for ease of reference later, so just bear with me on this one, Goodreads friends 😅