Zwol.org

Soul... mwahahaha!
Just kidding.

Here, we have a poll, and a related . Individual answers should depend on your tax records and what you list as your primary/secondary occupation.

If you earn enough from both to list both art and writing. Note: Technical Writing is technically a different field (it does not require character development, plot development, or ), so it's income should not be counted.

If don't earn at least enough to pay rent solely from writing/art, don't list artist/writer/both, no matter how hard you try. If you live at home, assume 300 per month is the mnimum to list. If you

Why this poll?

Because, according to my math, based upon the number of writers and artists on this board, there should be AT MOST, 164 REAL writers, and that assumes 100% of the people are professionals, which I am not, and that the people here reflect the actual population. There should also be 10 times that number of REAL ARTISTS.

However, the minimum is far more dire. The minimum is a low, low 1.5 writers if the population of Zwol reflected the general populous... I have to expect more professionals than that. However, not every style of writing I would consider suitable for fiction.

Got to go. I'll be listing 'daily grind' myself, at least until I publish something. Part of the problem is that I'd rather work in a graphical medium, but finding an artist is difficult.

I'd disagree with the comment on the need to exclude technical writing. It's still writing, it's professional, and it results in income for writing well. I know lots of technical writers, and most don't write about engineering topics, and the writing style is nearly always informational or educational, not marketing. I also know marketing writers, and what they do is certainly creative writing, and one might even claim it has elements of fiction. Consider amending the poll to include different categories of writing, as well as categories for work related to that involved in comics creation, which might include graphic design, web design, programming, production, editing, marketing, promotion and sales. That should provide a lot more interesting and comprehensive information.

True, but technical writing does not require dialogue, characterization, or plot development. It's not all marketing, but some of it can be. Marketing is more creative (I ought to know, I write jingles for fun). However, it is typically short and does not build the skills necessary for a total charactersization. (Though, admittedly, the Geico Gecko has come a long way).

graphic design, web design, programming, production, editing, marketing, promotion and sales are all interesting, and excluded for this poll. You don't need those until AFTER you get a comic made. And if you sacrifice the quality of your comic for those skills, well, I won't be reading it.

Many programmers do write creatively and do other creative tasks, the same with other professionals. However, their ability to multitask is not relevant to their ability as a single-tasker. (The question is, how good are they at the one thing that I, or you, need them to be good at?) It would make the poll too large and burdensome. Why? Simple, there are no check boxes, only individual selected results, meaning that I can't sort them out well. Even with check boxes, I still wouldn't get valid data. (As the check boxes might be from a few people with many skill or many people with a single skill).

Basically, mathematically, the poll is an order of n^2 problem. (Programmer nerd mode here). The problem is, with 2 possibilities, it's 2^2, or 4. With 3, it's 9. With 5 it's 25... and now you see the problem. You need 8 for your poll, which requires 64 choices, which must then be added up by anyone trying to understand the data. (Even this one requires a bit of math. So, I'll save that information for another poll.

The purpose of my poll is to determine if a person has a single relevant skill... or two. Like marketing, it is targeted to what I need to know. In fact, people with two relevant skills are actually less relevant as they have less need of a partner. (They may still need a partner, but they can work on their own, just potentially less effectively, so their desire might not be as great. Though, they may be more useful as a partner).

A more relevant poll would be a second skill for writer/directors about what other skills they have. However, I don't feel the need to collect everything in this one poll. This is not the uber-ninja-leet-poll of all... but a single poll that I have made to help me find what I need. If you need something else, you can make your own poll. If you don't want to compete with my poll, I figure my poll should be pretty well flushed out (and have most of the data I need within a couple of months. (Though, I am going to leave it running for a year and bump it at least once a month, so I can see how monthly fluctuations in readership vary (for the possibility of targeting when I seek a partner. I am in no hurry, a day or a year, what I want will be made.)