When A Genre Inspires

I grew up on 80s-90s romantic comedies, and let me tell ya, those movies and TV shows were so unfunny, so harmful, and so toxic, that I wasn't a fan of the genre for so long. 

And then, I found South Korean TV shows and series, what we here in the US lump together as "K-Dramas".

The Korean shows seemed to emphasize healthier relationships and the misunderstandings between people's personality types or societal ideas about intimacy, sex, and other heteronormative standards. 

Not saying they were blameless and promoting hardcore feminist, womanist, and egalitarian values. These rom-coms were still based on stereotypes about what happens between a cisgender and heteronormative relationship, but the better written ones would spin these ideals and norms on their head. Or have a deeper indictment about how such romantic relationships are seen through a Korean society prism.

All in all, though imperfect in many ways, viewing such culturally different storytelling helped broaden my own storytelling skills.

Another extended tweet

A lot of monthly Writing and Art Prompts have helped push my storytelling and illustrating skills. Glad to participate again this Pride Month, which forces me to actually sketch out OCs that would otherwise remain in my head. 

For example, I came up with high school English teacher, Mr. Bakker. Wrote about him in early scripts, and finally fleshed him out in December 2021. In October 2022, I drafted an episode about his work-relationship and friendship with my male love interest, Peter, but before that, struggled to find a first name for him. 

Sometimes, a character's first name comes to me. Sometimes, their last name. Rarely do I get a full name. 

Now, for this Pride Month, I finally get to draw Bakker and his husband, Gonzalo. And then struggled to research a last name and possible cultural background for Gonzalo... *sigh* 

The creating doesn't end, but hopefully, you'll like the characters I introduced last year and the newer ones this year! 

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH. 

My story's story on humor

Humor has always been important to me as a longtime fan of stand-up comedy, an avid sitcom watcher, and preferring comedic actors over drama actors. 

So when I decided to work on my webcomic, Summer to Winter, I knew humor is especially difficult to write and therefore, convey well in a narrative. This is why I not only relied on my graphic skills, but I tried to rely on what made me laugh growing up. 

I have always liked the idea of Romance Comedies. I mean, I'm an avid Romance novel/graphic novel reader. I also LOVE comedians! They are some of my favorite celebrities! And when they're starting out, I usually become a Day One Fan, following their careers throughout the years. With this in mind, I have the best of both worlds when it comes to Romantic Comedy. 

However, I noticed a pattern. Most of my favorite Rom-coms were often overseas fare. When I did watch or try reading US romance comedies, what we made and viewed as romantic comedy seemed manipulative, bordered on obsessive behavior, dysfunctional, and even dangerously toxic, none of which I found funny. 

That's why my WIP rom-com's humor seems heavily influenced and inspired from Britcoms (British comedy/ sitcoms), early US sitcoms (the 70s-90s), and the situational misunderstandings that occur in a lot of Asian comedy media.

So far, my readers (some beta) are getting my brand of humor and have become invested in the overall story. And now that I plan on revitalizing the comic through art software and self-publishing it to multiple platforms. I'm also editing it and will let more eyes look it over beforehand.

Wish me good luck and whatever prayers you invest in to help me along. And thank you, my Dear Readers, for believing in this blog.

The Comic Story I'm Working On

The more I explain about the work-in-progress comic I'm currently drafting, the more I have to keep explaining to justify a premise that, in this case, needs no justifying.

In a nutshell, SUMMER TO WINTER is about a high schooler who falls in love with her teacher. Eight years later, the two reunite and begin a relationship. Sounds simple? Pure and wholesome? Well, not to some who I told the synopsis to. Without even waiting for an explanation, folks assumed the worst. They assumed a toxic relationship. Something wholly inappropriate had the high schooler and her teacher started that kind of relationship. But they didn't and I wouldn't write that.

I'm not judging other writers for writing about that. Writers we can write whatever (as long as it doesn't hurt or harm innocent people). There's all sorts of ethical and moral issues with writing certain topics. That's not what I'm getting into with this post. What I AM SAYING is most of my story ideas stem from conversations I've had or eavesdropped on, rumors I've overheard, folklore, family history, and the tales read and/or spoken to me or that I've read over time. 

When I was in high school, I heard a rumor about a student and a teacher(rumors are great fodder for storytelling. I'd rather turn a rumor into a story idea rather than repeat it) and it went something like this: 

A teen girl likes her teacher and goes after him. He rejects her, citing that it's inappropriate. Student tells him she's set to graduate and that she'll come back for him. 

The 'story' is when she DID graduate, she went back to see him and they ended up together. In another version, they got married. 

Now, did this really happen? A lot of folks have asked me. I don't know. I don't know if this was a true story or made up. So is the nature of rumors. 

Depending on circumstances or situation, you may not get the real life drama behind the story, but the 'What If?' is compelling enough to want to write about it! 

So this is what I did. I didn't want an imbalance. I didn't want an illegal relationship. I knew about peers who were minors and abused by adults. I didn't want to normalize such in any story I write.

I am a romantic. I love romance. I love romantic movies and shows, comics and graphic novels, I love romance novels. I'm a sentimental person, probably to the point of being schmaltzy. I don't deny it. I like when couples wear the same clothes. I like when a couple cosplays together. I even think it was cute reading about such a couple that the guy crossplays his characters so he can wear the same clothing as his girlfriend. Don't judge me. Don't judge him. 

I've even been reading more representative romances, the kind I've always gravitated towards when younger: interracial, intercultural, interfaith, and inter-ethnic. 

I also have been reading a lot of webcomics and e-manga that shows LGBTQIA+ romances. The more representative of real life, the better!

So, getting back to my story, SUMMER TO WINTER, I wanted to expand on that rumor I heard from my high school days. I wanted to see behind the scenes. And I wanted it to be a sweet love story with a lot of steam to get the pulse racing. And I love comedies, and life can be hilarious, so that's in there too. 

The draft pages I've been posting to my writing group and to my Instagram - I also post the SFW (Safe For Work) pages on Facebook - Hey, my bosses, coworkers, family and family friends are still on there! I don't feel comfortable posting there! - but the rest is received by my Twitter chat group and my Insta followers, and the feedback is intense and mostly positive. 

Pretty much in a nutshell, I continue to write the stories I wanted to see on TV, in the theatre, and in books. And I've been getting those stories, but now I'm getting even more that I didn't know I wanted, and that's perfect for me as a storyteller... 

Stay inside as much as possible, be safe and take care, Dear Readers!

How Does Your Reader Feel?

On the telephone with a family friend, she brought up something interesting:
She not only asked about characters as if they were real. My friend believed that my rate of progress (drafts that I'd shown her) was greater than how I felt about my output. What I saw as the tip of the iceberg, she viewed as a great deal and fascinating. It not only opened my eyes to what I was attempting to accomplish, but lifted a veil of discontent I had been feeling for weeks.
There is no excuse for it, the feeling of inadequacy a creator feels for the project. Is it because we as creative types strive to outdo our last job? Does this feeling help us to create better and hopefully stronger each time?

Earlier fans of my storytelling was my oldest niece. Or rather, she being younger, became an unwilling audience once my stories became tiresome.

School friends were my next readers, except I was known as the Artist, illustrating my tales first.
One summer in 1989 (I think), stuck in summer school for math and all of us watching "Summer School" vhs tape from the library, I completed a full comic story. I used notebook paper and my favorite writing pens at the time. I used highlighters for color. I used a copier machine, and then, passed the copies around (I think they were two) during class. I'd like to feel this helped me and my classmates get through the monotony. By the time the booklets were passed around, everybody had their opinions: the story was good but the ending was rushed, or they didn't like how the hero's problem was solved so coincidentally. These comments came from friends and foes alike. And though I was annoyed by the reactions at the time (so sue me! I was 12-14 years old), I learned how much I had to delay resolutions. There had to be delayed satisfaction and a solution (if any) solved organically.

Fast forward to a secretarial position with the public education district office, and another short story was published. With many of my tales and ideas, I use my latest obsessions or readymade knowledge. Mine at the time was the history of the Middle east. Always fascinated by the cultures that gave us astronomy, algebra and the number zero, I decided it was time I wrote another story within my 'Tabber the Red' series. These are standalone yet linked stories set on a feline world. Yet, unlike what I was reading and seeing on shelves, my cats were upright, wore clothing, had different cultures, religions, were separated by ethnic groups and/or nations. So much like our world but so different.

My story took place during the ancient world of the lynx people. There was a messianic figure and the prophecy that drew him and his followers. Adventures ensued and this was one such tale. When my editor learned I could draw, he insisted I illustrate my story. I drew a caracal (a lynx cousin that inhabits the deserts) character wearing a head covering. The story was published both online and in a trade paperback edition. When I told one of my coworkers, who had showed interest in my writing, a budget analyst, about how to easily obtain the story, she told me that I must never give a story away. She told me that when it was available in print, she would purchase it.
I belatedly realized my coworker was Muslim and began to wonder if she would take offense to my story.
Later, she exclaimed excitement to me about the story and its characters. She thought that the Middle Eastern flavor of the book was thrilling. Its dark fantastic undertones she brushed off as she was used to reading horror. I was elated and told her I was glad she enjoyed it. That coworker told me she would keep up with my stories from now on.

Again and again, there is validation to this lonely life. It never fails to excite me that such seclusion from living in one's head can still lead to touching others.

The Storytelling Animal - by Jonathan Gottschall

The Storytelling Animal - this book appears interesting, and I'm going to try this out.