I have the fourth chapter of my zine planned, and I’m ready to go onto the fifth. I was getting disappointed during the week, because I wanted to be moving through that planning faster. I had enough of an idea for it that I thought I could move quicker. Didn’t work out that way. But last night, I got through like seven pages, making up for the rest of the week. It really helps to have the blank thumbnails ready ahead of time, both in terms of having something to imagine my thoughts on and in reminding myself what the page count actually looks like in practice.
I also want to say something about Thunderbolts* again, since I mentioned it last week. The Sunday after the movie came out, they changed out the poster image on the Regal app (and I assume elsewhere) with one that gives away the surprise ending. I’m just so mad about it. Why spoil your own movie like that? Not everyone who wants to see it will have seen it in the three days since it premiered. I know the defense of this action will site social media and the internet, but that’s BS. TikTok isn’t making Marvel show such blatant disrespect to their own movie, the people who made it, or their fans in that way. The more I think about how that surprise goes, the less I like it, too, so it feels like they couldn’t wait to take away the unique identity of this great movie to make it this different thing that’s “better” for their marketing and won’t last beyond the one scene in another movie they’re doing it for. It sucks.
Anyway, I want to do something a little different today. I’ve mentioned before that the revelations about the nature of the Demon Realm in Dragon Ball Daima change a lot about my plans for my own Dragon Ball fanfiction, Dragon Ball ‘Redux’. Any time I have to rethink part of a story, it becomes an opportunity to rethink the whole thing and how it’s been done. So now I’m thinking about rewriting parts of the whole thing. Specifically, I’m thinking about the fight sequences. I want to use this as like a public-facing worksheet to try out different writing styles that reflect the fighting styles of the characters. Prose has never been my strongest skill, and it’s not the thing I’m going to be devoting most of my time to, but all my recent artistic growth is making me want to level up my writing skills, as well, by actually thinking about literally how I write.
So here goes. First thought is simple. Short and sweet. Don’t always need to be complete. No commas. Right to the action. Punchy. Fast. Bold. Sometimes I can go a little longer to really emphasize the idea of a barrage that doesn’t stop. Helps if the others are short. Don’t need much. Just keep going like this until the right moment. Bam. That’s the fight ender.
I also want something a bit more flowing, a bit more elegant, a bit smoother. Something that reads easier, reads faster, is gentler on the eyes. Maybe the gentleness isn’t as important, the thing that matters is the flow. Maximize the use of commas, minimize the use of conjunctions. No one needs conjunctions. Sometimes it’s ok to have short sentences like that, you don’t want everything to feel like a run-on, the important thing is to feel like you’re moving swiftly. Keep moving, keep flowing, keep the strikes coming, overwhelm the opponent with that stream of attacks. There’s still changes in movement, changes in intention, changes in the action. There’s a rhythm to it, like a dancer, like a ballerina.
I can also go in the opposite direction and maximize the use of conjunctions and minimize the use of commas to make these really long sentences that feel like they have to be run-ons or like I already finished the point a long time ago but it keeps going and going and going for like a whole paragraph and after a while you think it has to stop or like something has been messed up but really it all hangs together because English is a loose and messy language with lovably plastic grammar which lets you do a lot of things that seem like they should be illegal but it’s all good and if I write like this it really feels like we’re going for speed and being unrelenting and just go go go no stopping at all.
Of course, there is a character. She’s special, and has a different style than the others. One that makes me think about how information is presented, rather than how the words are said. That’s something that makes me think of a particular writing style, sure. I kinda feel like I’m a PI giving a monologue. That’s good, that’s a fine image. I’m tempted to say this isn’t as circuitous as I want, and I’m probably not there yet. Like that previous sentence could have been said earlier in the paragraph, as a mysterious tone-setter. Or that’s also a misdirect, because really it’s this other thing I’m getting to. This is rough. Really will need some work.
Honestly, so much of the story is going to be so dramatic. It is a drama, and the fight scenes are, like, so serious. I don’t even know if this is a voice I could use all the time. Would I even want to, really? Like, it’s so silly, you guys. I’m leaning into it more now. It just seems, you know, kinda fun to have a person who fights like this. Like, so casual, so friendly. Wow, you guys, so in my head, I’m saying this in Valley Girl voice. Isn’t that crazy? I don’t really have an image of what a bubbly, ditzy fighting style is like. I just want to keep my options open. Is that so wrong? Come on!
I’m trying to think…I want to keep this exercise going…it’s hard. I landed on the use of ellipses…they’re an interesting piece of punctuation in a fighting scenario…kind of the opposite of what we’re going for. There’s power in how long to go between ellipses…and when to end the sentence…and how it should move. As I write this…I guess this is what a grappler would feel like…someone who’s focused on ground fighting…moving from one lock to another. Then it’s set. Everything moves fast once it locks into place. That’s a strength of not using commas here…you can have a slower pause between clauses…no one will notice how swift the tide changes…the same sentence can change direction…the ellipses create the opportunity within the same idea…
The final concept I landed upon is to consider the use of diction. Perhaps it’s worth the effort to phrase every individual idea in a sentence with words of the highest caliber. At this moment, I am trudging somewhat, as I search my mind for an appropriate role model. A British aristocrat pops into the noggin first, though perhaps they are not actually in vogue here. I find myself substituting words, as if possessed by a thesaurus, with nary any room for intent. I can safely surmise at this point that that’s the issue in this predicament. If I desire a highly intelligent pugilist, I require a more specific reason to doll up my language in such a fashion as this. It is a most entertaining exercise, nonetheless.
Ok, I think I’ll end it there. Writing is fun sometimes. The sheer volume of characters makes this a truly daunting task, and I still have to consider what it looks like as the two characters fight. How do their styles conflict with one another? It’ll be a lot to think about. Oh, and the picture for today is a little doodle I did about body volume. I want to keep that in mind more as I draw figures, so that I don’t exaggerate too much or force myself into design elements I didn’t originally intend. It’s easy to forget how much of a person’s body is one thing versus another sometimes, and how it all fits together.
Weekly Art Blog 5/4-5/11/2025
Life in the Gutters 