Types of comics that you CAN'T write?

Dark Spider · Post by **Dark Spider** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 7:54 pm

In another thread here, I came to the realization that I can't write stories that deal with a relationship with a direct parent(s) and child(ren). I'm not aware of the underlying issues of that, but I decided that I now want to write a credible story using that relationship. This is so I can prove to myself that I CAN write that type of story. Not only am I going to write this story, but submit it to my university's creative writing magazine "Folio" in the hopes that it gets published.

I was wondering if any of you guys and gals have a similar situation....where you have a story idea or type of comic that you can't write.

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:01 pm

Slice of life, something not-normal always happens. Sometimes I think I'd like to do a short romance comic or something and then it always turns out I'm no good at writing completely normal things.

Mais, c'est la vie.

Black Sparrow · Post by **Black Sparrow** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:01 pm

I can't write gag-a-days.

I attempted it a while ago with Playing with Knives. It was a sort of mutual exercise between me and Voricus, where I worked on my gag writing, and he worked on his art. The gags came much harder to me than writing normally does. I trudged along at it, but it became too much work, and Vort was pushing my funny along anyway. He ended up with the entire project.

Ataraxia · Post by **Ataraxia** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:13 pm

Mercury Hat wrote:Slice of life, something not-normal always happens. Sometimes I think I'd like to do a short romance comic or something and then it always turns out I'm no good at writing completely normal things.

I think I have the opposite problem. I can't write larger-than-life epic situations well. The fantastic elements in my stories are just another mundane aspect of daily life for the characters who live there.

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:19 pm

I can do almost anything. I've written horror, for example, and am currently writing a romance (with plenty of action and adventure as well otherwise I wouldn't enjoy it). Unfamiliar genres slow me down but as long as I have a couple of books in those genres I can analyse how they're done.

The only thing I can't do is write badly. And I don't mean bad bad. I mean bad even for the purposes of humour. I could not have written, for example, the fifties sitcom dialogue of Pleasantville.

Comicing is a different matter. You need an appropriate art style as well. I certainly couldn't do noir, as an example.

- Joel Fagin

RemusShepherd · Post by **RemusShepherd** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:23 pm

Hmmn. Don't know what you can do until you try, I guess.

I don't see the point of autobiographical comics, unless your life is really interesting. But could I write one? I think so.

Hmmn. Bodice-rippers. I don't think I could write one of those typical, heterosexual, bodice-ripping romance novels, nor could I do a comic like that. (Are there any comics like that? Mary Worth no longer counts.

)

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:28 pm

I've consistently proven my inability to stay serious or write gag-a-day strips. I must have some kind of story and there has to be some humor in it somewhere.

Also as much as I've tried I can't draw anime style to my own satisfaction.

Not to say there's anything I won't try.

Edit: Oh... I've also be told I can't draw sexy....

Prettysenshi · Post by **Prettysenshi** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:50 pm

I know for a fact I can't write humor/gaming comics. Just cuz that's not what I'm into. If I'm into it at all, I think I can pull it off.

Dark Spider · Post by **Dark Spider** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 8:58 pm

[quote=""Peter, did you put the new cover sheet on the TRI forms?""]I've consistently proven my inability to stay serious or write gag-a-day strips. I must have some kind of story and there has to be some humor in it somewhere.

Also as much as I've tried I can't draw anime style to my own satisfaction.

Not to say there's anything I won't try.

Edit: Oh... I've also be told I can't draw sexy....[/quote]

How much humor are you talking about when you say you can't stay serious? Because as long as the story itself stays serious, then the whole thing is serious. But there's nothing wrong with peppering the dialouge or situation with bits of humor...just as long as it doesn't compromise the credibility of the story.

The reason I say that because I took a look back at an old story I wrote called "Magic Skill" because it had a mix of humor and seriousness of it. After reviewing it, I came to the conclusion its simply too serious to be a comedy. The plot deals with an orphan girl getting revenge for a wild beast that slaughtered her adoptive family. But there are some humorous situations that make light of the characters and make them more believable than flat out drama ever could.

Nanda · Post by **Nanda** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:11 pm

Action. I know almost nothing about it, and find it completely uninteresting. I would be a lousy, lousy action writer.

The Neko · Post by **The Neko** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:13 pm

If I had a nickel for all the things I can't write, I'd be.... uhhhh.

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:16 pm

I think I'd have a very difficult time writing romance, although anything else I'd likely be alright with.

edit: Like Merc, I can't write anything "normal".

Shishio · Post by **Shishio** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:39 pm

Good ones.

SergeXIII · Post by **SergeXIII** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:54 pm

-Romance.

As a philosopher, I have nothing nice to say about such things.

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:01 pm

Schopenhauer had a lot to say about romance.

And I suppose I can do a serious story if I try... but humor will work it's way in somewhere. Dialog. Something in the background. Irony at least.

Jim North · Post by **Jim North** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:10 pm

I keep trying to think of something I haven't tried writing yet, and I keep coming up empty. I think about the only thing is Romance, though I have tripped around the edges of it. Maybe I'll try a straight Romance tale one of these days.

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:13 pm

Ditto, Jim. There was romance in my last comic and I did well enough on it that I'd like to focus more on it in the future.

But to do it without too much angst... therein lies the problem for me.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:43 pm

Random humour comics. I have to get them before I could write them. I never understand them. So I don't write them.

I prefer the mundane slice of life sort of stories, and it's what I stick with in my own work. Nothing remarkable or fantastical or improbably generally happens at all in my strip (with the exception of the spirits in the cemetery, but even they are just regular, normal characters when you look past that). I find the little things in life more interesting than any of that stuff.

Kasaii · Post by **Kasaii** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:02 pm

I am terrible at writing stand-alone jokes. Everything winds up connecting to something else down the road.

EVERYTHING.

Swordsman3003 · Post by **Swordsman3003** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:15 pm

The things I write consist only of one catagory: Pure Awesome. So, I guess I can only write one genre.

edit: i realized that the joke might not be obvious... I haven't written anything....