Creating art for the age of the distracted

Why should we do things the way they are always done when it doesn’t feel right to us?

I just finished putting the finishing touches on my second mini-novella. It’s finally up on Amazon, Apple, Kobo and more, all available here

A typical book release just didn’t feel right when I started this series.

I wanted to release it in a way that made the writing process more fun and less of a job for me.

The idea of writing and editing 150-200 pages just felt like massive work and it was hard to organize my ideas around that.

I have had a strong pull towards the idea of manga as a form of art since I first got over my fear of it in my late 20’s.

I was scared of manga because when I had started studying Japanese, I casually enrolled in a few classes in university and my classmates were beyond obsessed. They creeped me out. It was literally all they could talk about. I wanted no part in that.

Also a lot of the artwork just looked creepy to me. I don’t fancy baby faces with unrealistic body types. I mean, if it’s a real natural body with impressively unique proportions, that’s another story I guess, but I am not one to lust over carton characters.

When I came to Japan I avoided manga for a while but eventually I came to see just how diverse manga is as an art form. There is literally something for everyone.

I felt drawn to the surreal realism of Asano Inio and the conspiracy driven stories of Urasawa Naoki. And despite all my hesitance towards Japanese animation, I loved Naruto as a kid, so there was always that.

So when the idea of writing a novel felt like too much, the release patterns of manga were always in my mind. I didn’t make the connection right away…

Due to the weight of the project my attention was often pulled away from my writing and I struggled to keep up with it. Then this idea became clear in my head. Why can’t I just release one novel in 5 parts. It’s not just good for me. It’s good for the reader too. The modern age doesn’t always give us the time or peace and quiet to get sucked into a book and there’s more to read than ever.

I am aware that this is a model which goes back to the old days for novelists, serialization.

I don’t know much about how old novels were serialized back in the day, but I heard about old sci-fi stories being told in parts through literary magazines. Every week or month the story would continue and you’d pick up the magazine and follow the stories you liked. Then eventually, the full book would be released if there was a demand for it.

I’m not sure where but I’m sure this must still be a thing somewhere. I’ve never really read a literary magazine.

Manga is always released like this though. First each chapter is released in a monthly or bi-monthly magazine. Then later it’s released in volumes of 4-12 chapters (some manga's have really long chapters and some shorter). Then sometimes it’s re-released into bigger volumes of 25 or more chapters if it’s a long manga.

The way most manga writers write is that they have the whole story outlined and then they draw each chapters artwork a few weeks or months before it’s published in the magazine.

This writing process allows someone to release the first part of their work and get feedback before they finish it. This model appeals to me a whole lot because feedback motivates me to focus and work on what I wanted to work on but couldn’t focus on easily.

The challenge with this is that when you have feedback, it’s often easy to lose sight of your vision. You don’t want to let down your audience, and once they start telling you what they want, it’s hard not to listen, even when you know better. Look at the TV show Heroes for a perfect example of how this can backfire. Or look at many musicians or artists careers after many years. It’s always hard for them to outdo they’re earlier work and pleasing everyone becomes an unattainable goal, rather than the joy of the craft. Yeah

Still…with the way my mind works, easily distracted but constantly creative, breaking my novel up into parts seemed much more do-able and fun for me.

That’s how I eventually decided to split Confessions of the Damaged into part 1.1 - 1.5 or 1.6. Each part is not quite novella length, I believe those are around 80-100 pages. It’s about half that, around 40-60 pages per volume. Each volume takes around the same time it would take to read about 2 or 3 manga volumes, since those are mostly visual.

A series of mini-novellas.

I find this not only to be easier on myself but easier in the modern reader. With all that’s going on in our lives, it’s nice to be able to read something in one sitting even when we’ve been busy at work all day or working on our own projects.

I think it must take around 40-90 minutes to read each mini-novella, but I’ve written a layered story with many connections, and many chapters could easily stand alone as short stories. Many of these stories are heavy too so I could see how someone might want to read them one chapter a day, and really take their time.

I hope the reader can really savor each chapter, rather than gulping it down. There is a lot that goes on with the emotions while reading and I often try to guide the reader through darkness into light, through order into chaos into order, or the other way around.

I find myself crying or feeling a sense of warmth with some of these chapters and so I would prefer to sit with them for a while, rather than rush through.

This style may have been around for decades already but in the modern, self-publishing environment all kinds of new possibilities open up. Distribution is much easier and I can do everything on my own terms. Collaborations and experimentation becomes easier.

That’s why I considered the artwork for a long time. By splitting the book up into 5 or 6 parts, there is room for 5 or 6 different cover images. That creates an opportunity to work with different artists and with so many talented people around I wanted to find different art style to match with each volume. I also wanted this serialization to help serve as promotion for these artists, even if I am paying them.

There are other experiments I’ve been considering but those are under wraps now.

If are interested, it might be best to start with Confessions of the Damaged 1.1 at a wide variety of websites.

I hope it helps you untangle deep knots inside yourself like writing it has done for me.

🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎