Thread by @PaulTobin

Okay, I'm gonna talk about my climbing gym for a bit, but hang on, because the topic is going to swing to comics.

So, as some of you know, I joined a climbing gym a few weeks back.

It's officially called a bouldering gym. We climb walls and giant fake rocks. No ropes. No nothing.

And it's HARD. At first I couldn't do ANYTHING. I spent the first week in the kid's room, flailing in weak fashion.

I'm better now. I can climb routes rated B (Beginner) or 0, or 1, or 2. Even a couple of 3's.

It goes up to "9" in the gym, and there are even harder climbs (up to 14) in the wild. So, I'm basically STILL just a flailing rookie.

But I'm better. I go there a lot. I'm getting stronger. Smarter. My endurance is strengthening. My muscles changing.

And I watch other climbers for hints on how to move and how to think. The walls are puzzles to solve, and it takes time.

And WHEN I'm watching other people, I see a lot of brand new climbers, and almost all of them are INCREDIBLY impatient.

They come to the gym like I did, with an inflated sense of what they can accomplish.

So they skip the beginning climbs. They go for 3's and 4's or even harder.

But their endurance / knowledge / muscles don't have a CHANCE against climbs like that.

Their grips fail. Every time. No matter how good of shape they're in, they're not accustomed to the proper holds, the muscle strain, etc.

But they just keep trying those climbs out of their ability range, & they get DEJECTED as they literally fall on their asses, again & again.

I see them standing, glaring at the walls, grumbling, aching, feeling like failures.

They refuse to do the small, easy climbs. The ones that WILL systematically train them to accomplish the harder climbs.

It's the repetition of the lower level climbs that train their muscles, endurance, grips, and teach them proper positions on the walls.

But they won't do it.

So they fall on their butts again and again. And then they feel like failures. And then they quit.

So... let's talk about comics, now.

I've watched a LOT of beginners trying to break into comics, and they quite often make the same mistakes as these rookie climbers.

Rookie writers begin with ideas for EPIC 500 page stories.

Rookie artists skip beginning stages, forgoing sketchbooks, anatomy. They go right into massive pinups or complicated / intricate pages.

But they're not trained yet. They're effectively trying to climb past their own ability.

It's NOT a matter of talent at the beginning. It's a matter of training your artistic and creative muscles.

It's a matter of allowing yourself to grow into the task. To accumulate experience, knowledge, & the ability to plan a route up the "wall."

If you don't allow yourself a period of training, time to learn the craft, the ability to translate what's in your head onto the page...

... then you WILL fall onto your ass.

And you'll fall SO many times that you'll begin to DOUBT yourself.

You'll think you don't have the talent, when the truth is that you just haven't built up your artistic muscles.

You NEED those early successes. Allow yourself to ACCOMPLISH tasks. Small ones at first. Larger ones later.

Trust me; it's not only OKAY that you stay in the beginner's room for a time: it's NECESSARY.

For writers, do short stories. 1-4 pages. Later you can do 8-10 pages. Eventually building yourself up to a full length issue.

Much later, when you're creatively BUFF, you can unleash your epic.

As an artist, increase your artistic language. People. Emotions. Animals. Perspective. Vehicles. Environments. Etc.

EVERYTHING that you see... DRAW it.

And draw it AGAIN and AGAIN.

Creativity is a muscle. It needs you to hit the "gym" a hundred times. A THOUSAND times. It needs you to SWEAT.

Or else you will always be falling on your ass.

Okay, that's it for now. I guess this was a long-winded pro tip or something. I just want people to ENJOY making comics / novels. It's FUN!