Creative Seasons

Seasons come and go

Art by CJ Oechsle with colors by Bea Navarro.

How many seasons are in a creative year?

Four? Two? None? I’m pretty sure the answer is the universe’s favorite:

It depends. -The Universe

This past year I think I only had one. Maybe two of those seasons myself. The first came when I worked on the above project with my friend, CJ Oechsle. He and I have known each other for a few years now and had worked on a few things (the Ennead logo and a variant cover) but we knew we wanted to do more, so we created an 8-pager for an anthology that launched (and funded) this past fall on Kickstarter. I’m proud of this one, and who knows, it may turn into something a bit bigger still.

The other creative season I had in 2022 came shortly thereafter, during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), when I made some serious headway into the first edition of Amashik’s worldbook and the first novel I imagine in this fictional world of mine. I’m still chipping away at both, but I hate to say it, these creative streaks were a bit shorter than I would’ve liked. I have been creating in fits and starts ever since the start of the new year.

As I’ve mentioned before so much of indie writing/comic creation is wrapped up in things that aren’t writing: crowdfunding, marketing, conventions, etc. These things are notorious for channeling what otherwise could’ve been creative energy into other things.

Things Aren’t All Bad…

Art by Edward Lilley with colors by Bea Navarro.

I’m happy to report that this week I was able to outline the second half of Volume 2 and all of Volume 3 of the comic series. Most of what you know as The Rule of Nine has existed as stacks of notes for quite some time now so to get the broad strokes of the middle and end of the series on paper was a huge win for me. The story that makes up issues 1-10, along with what is slotted to serve as issue 11 (or 12), have been scripted for the better part of two years. I’ve not written any new scripts for this project since 2020 or early 2021. I’m excited to start again.

Next time my muse comes to town (and I have time to chase it) I’ll do a scene by scene breakdown for what will eventually become Volume 3. I like the idea of wrapping up the loose ends of this saga with three oversized issues, each about 60 pages, but we will see how the story makes its way into the world. It’s all subject to change.

The business side of Ennead is moving along smoothly. Fulfillment will begin within the next 7-10 days for my latest campaign, while the prelaunch process for my next has already begun. I’ve got something special planned for the prelaunch process this time that I’ll announce soon, but if you haven’t already go ahead and sign up for notifications now. All other Kickstarter plans for the year are currently still intact.

I’ve got one show under my belt in 2023 with two more coming up soon and two additional applications in the works now. I’d love to make 6 shows this year, so fingers crossed that all these work out in my favor.

How Many Creative Seasons Will I See in 2023?

I’ve got no clue and even less of a desire to try and predict the amount of creative work I’ll get through this year. I’m finding rhythm in my life once again in other ways so I’m hopeful those will have a positive impact on my life as a writer. Only time will tell. But I’m happy to report I’m reading consistently once again (5 books thus far in 2023), I’m back to training in the gym with regularity (4 days a week), and I’ve gotten back around to setting designated time aside for creative endeavors (2 days a week).

The ideas are certainly coming together as we make our way into warmer weather here in the northeast of the United States and that always gives me a bit of a jolt of energy. I have a few ways that I plan on putting it to use.

I’d love to hear from a few of you though, is there something you want more of from me in 2023? Let me know in the poll below:

Thank you for your continued support,

JL