Zwol.org

I am very aware that what I am going to be asking everyone's opinion on is very controversial so I am expecting very aggressive responses to this but I am asking for people to please refrain from letting your emotions get the best of you and to treat me and anyone else with respect. We are all adults or for the very least would like to be treated as such so let just state our opinions and agree to disagree.

Now I have noticed since I've tried collaborating with other writers to get more practice that there is a lot of people that claim to be writers that have no idea what they are doing. A "writer" I spoke with told me an EXTREMELY vague idea for his story and after I threw out a few story ideas said "ok is it time to write the script yet" I mean I'm not a writer but it doesn't make sense to me to think you can write a script off of such a vague idea with no plans for any story or character development whatsoever. I top of that the story didn't make much sense and everything that he insisted had to be in the story didn't go well together, he got frustrated when I would tell him that and the worst part in my opinion was that he committed to having the entire story finished and drawn out in less then a week. That was just one bad experience I had but it opened my eyes to why writers get less respect in their craft than an artist. With an artist you can instantly know if he is good or not by looking at their portfolio but with a writer it takes a little bit of digging.
I have never said that I am a writer simply an aspiring one because I do not have the skills to claim that title. I feel that is one of the negative things people assume about writers, that they are all amateur and I dont think that actual writers should be looked at in a negative light because of this. In my experience with the story I am currently creating I have learned that writing itself might not be to difficult but it does take a level of skill or the script will not send the message intended and that there is a lot of hard work that goes into creating a great world with believable characters. I have been creating a world full of characters for about 3 months now and I am nowhere near finished. The amount of research I have done with technology, history, and psychology has made a large dent in my time but it is what I needed to do to make the story just that much better. Not to mention the amount of brainstorming, scrapping ideas, and then more brainstorming. The fact be thing I will say is that I have the benefit of thinking of new ideas while I am out and about. The main poin that I want to make is that in reality it seems to me that it takes a lot more time to create a story then to just simply draw the pages.
I mean an artist needs the script from the writer to even draw the pages and the writer not only has to create the world but has to use his creative vision to plan out the panels and to work out the angles and dialogue.
That doesn't take away from the fact that a writer will always be held back if they do not have an artist. It just seems to me that writers need much more respect then they are given. I understand that it is very difficult to be an artist and that it is a very time consuming task and I don't mean to take away from everything they do but I'm just astounded at how little respect is given to writers. Am I the only one that feels this way?

Great topic. I think that great writing doesn't necessarily need artwork to make it great. Look at stories that take form in comics, movies, games that come from the same source.

I wholly agree writing is hard. A lot of research (as you're finding out) goes into putting action on a page.

You need to find things that are written well (usually it's when you're not aware of it and just following the story) and learn from them. How did the elements of the story come together? What did the writer give to you the audience that made you want to watch it in under 3 minutes? That kind of thing. If you can develop that sense of seeing the good stuff and be willing to try and hit that level then you're on the right path.

(I'm dating myself) The actor Richard Burton said he never read reviews of his movie roles because "the bad ones make me depressed all day, and the good ones never last long enough."

Something I've been considering doing once my jobs are decently finished is posting my portfolio again and looking for new artists for short projects. Why would I do this...? Remember how you said that you never know for sure if a writer is good until you work with them? Same is true for working with artists as well, simply looking at the portfolio is no guarantee that you'll work well with the other person. It's just the way it works. And if I experiment working with other people than the next time I have a job I'll have a list of pencilers, inkers, colorists, and letterers to recommend for the job which will make my job easier since I won't have to roll the dice on working with another artist.

As for writers, there's a simple solution to your dilemma. ASK FOR A PORTFOLIO! Always. I agree that writers should be held to the same standard, that they should always share the entirety of their idea and have a script sample. I don't entirely understand why there's a double-standard but there it is. Also, there seems to be a huge turnover in terms of writers having the "next big idea" and then bailing on the craft when in doesn't work out. The reason for that is that they may be in love with the idea, not with scripting itself. And starting any new craft can be incredibly humiliating as no one is anywhere near good right away.

That's why I think it's a good trend that there are writers on this site who charge for their services. It can guarantee a good writer since you are buying their time and the writer is confident enough in their work to sell it. I know I did so well here that I'm going to be raising my rates a little.

But keep on digging! Next time though request writing samples.
Sincerely,
Ruyei

Ruyei. It doesn't seem like you actually read my post. You speak as if I'm saying I'm an artist complaining about writers but that was the complete opposite of what I was trying to say

Well I was responding to your issues finding good writers. I'm sorry as if I sounded like I was chastising you, but in your post you seemed disillusioned with the writers that frequented this place and I wanted to respond to that.

-Ruyei

Ok that's fair enough. Thank you for the response.