I've Got Class

I've been keeping it close to the vest until now, but last month I enrolled in a comics writing course at NYU's School of Continuing Education or whatever the hell they call it. It's taught by Danny Fingeroth, the guy who edited the Spider-Titles when I started reading comics, and hwo also did a boatload of writing on other various projects. One of his latest gigs is Write Now! Magazine, which I read religiously; it's got plenty of good advice and interviews and sample scripts. Dern fascinating stuff.

Anyway, the first class was tonight, and I felt good vibes. I'm taking it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that I could use some fancy learnin' on the subject of writing comics. But, being honest with myself, a big reason for the class is to give myself a goose. If I've got one failing, it's my unapologetic love of 80's pop music, but if I've got a second failing, it's that I lack discipline, the ability to get off my ass and do what it takes. I hope to use my impetus to do well in the class to motivate myself to make some changes in that area, and others as well (like accepting the often non-linear nature of creativity, and learning new ways to judge success and failure). It's so crazy, it just might work.

Already, I've got an assignment to come up with three "springboard" ideas and an outline. I'm getting interested in it, and I think I came up with at least one good one-line synopsis on the train. So that's good.

Combined with therapy, this should get me back on track. Not that I expect it to be a walk in the park. But it's better than the alternative, right?