10 March 2010: Some recent thoughts.
I started Divided Sky in tenth grade (about eight years ago, now). It was haphazardly tossed together, a loose collection of ideas and characters more than a coherent story. I had a couple false starts, I wrote myself into corners, and the entire thing was amateurish and clumsy.
Some people liked it, and that's good. I've had some fairly tear-jerking pleas not to "let it die" after all these years. I'm glad something I created managed to get that kind of emotional attachment out of people.
But I don't know if I WANT to continue it.
I'm not the same person I was in tenth grade. I understand myself better, I have FAR more demands on my time and resources, and if I'm going to invest my limited free time into a project, it needs to be one that I'm passionate about.
I just don't know that I'm passionate about Divided Sky anymore. I don't know that I WANT to be beholden to concepts I came up with in tenth grade, and characters designed back in seventh. Of course there's a part of me that would be sad to leave it behind, but there's another part of me that desperately wants to move on and explore new horizons.
I still like comics. I still like drawing. I'm deriving a lot of pleasure from drawing simple "newspaper-style" comics lately. Short, silly jokes intended only to make the reader laugh. One big lesson I learned from Divided Sky was that humor is my forte - writing drama is very difficult for me, which makes drawn out superhero epics rather difficult.
I don't know. I've been tossing ideas around for a while, but none of them really reignite any excitement for the project. I'm sure it would probably sully my internet reputation as a "quitter" or something if I chose definitively to leave Divided Sky behind, but I'm curious to see where my passions would take me, and what kind of projects I'm capable of, if I cut ties and let myself explore freely new ideas and possibilities.
Since there's been some questioning and speculation about this project from the few readers that have stuck around, I decided to make this public. Thank you all for your continued support, and of course, I know you all understand that I don't say these things out of meanness or because I don't care about the people who supported my project. Quite the contrary, I refuse to take advantage of that support by producing something beneath my standards.
I can't make something good if the passion for it isn't there.
I have been through a number of personal challenges in the past several months, including having to pull myself out of a decidedly depressing artistic "slump" caused by several external stresses and circumstances.
The good news is, as a person and an artist, I am feeling much, much better these days. My creativity is back and I feel inspired to draw again, though I'm still allowing myself to explore drawing a variety of subjects to hone my skills before possibly embarking on a comic again. The last several months of Divided Sky felt like a burden, not a joy. I want to make sure that won't happen again, and I admit I am somewhat gun shy about restarting a considerable project at this particular stage in my life. I am a full-time worker going to night school for my masters degree, and a new homeowner with a fixer-upper that's required a lot of renovation and maintenance. My free time is getting to be a rare commodity.
Which means the bad news is that I can't make any promises about whether Divided Sky will return for sure or not. I'm toying with characters and concepts to see if I can come up with a clear, manageable story to tell. The major flaw of Divided Sky was that I charged headlong into it when it began with very little planning. Every false start and re-work was an attempt to save what was essentially a doomed project. If I am to attempt it again, it will be only after considerable planning and forethought, so that I can avoid a repeat failure.
I sincerely apologize for disappointing my readers with these events, and I thank you for your patience and understanding. If it's any consolation, I WANT to bring Divided Sky back in some form... but only if it's done right, and only if I'm not setting myself up to fall short of my expectations again.
Thank you.
My DeviantArt, where I'm still active as an artist, please feel free to follow me there.