5 Tips for would-be comics writers

Alan Moore, 2012. Photo (C) Isabelle Adam. Creative Commons License.

Below a small article published in 1999 on the pages of Comic Buyer's Guide, reprinted in 2003 in The Extraordinary Works Of Alan Moore.

ALAN MOORE'S FIVE TIPS FOR WOULD-BE COMICS WRITERS

1. Don't.

2. No, really don't.

3. DEFINITELY don't—I mean it.

4. Whatever you might be imagining about a life of writing, it's not like that.

5. OK, if you're going to anyway, if you're going to be a writer of any quality, you will have to commit yourself to writing— which is something that, when you're young and idealistic, sounds incredibly easy to do, but you should commit yourself to writing almost as if you were some ancient Greek or Egyptian committing yourself to a god.

If you do right by the god, then the god may, at some point in the future, reward you. But if you slack off and don't do right by your talent or your god, then you are heading for a world of immense and unimaginable pain. If you have a gift that you choose to pursue, then you have to pursue it seriously. Don't be half-assed about it, but realize what that commitment means.

Committing yourself to writing will mean, to a certain extent, your writing will become the most important part of your life—and that's a big thing to say. It can have a distancing effect upon other relationships. It can be sometimes quite a solitary life. If you're committed to your writing, you're going to spend most of your life indoors in a silent, empty room, concentrating on a pen and a piece of paper or their equivalent. Be prepared to take it seriously and be prepared to follow where it takes you, even if that takes you to some very strange places.

This is by no means the most glamorous profession.

Don't say that I didn't warn you.

Alan Moore