From the first time I found out about Twitter, I knew it was something I wanted to use actively. Since the advent of texting, I have always loved the idea of quick, limited messages rather than always having to send people fully formed emails and that’s the basis of Twitter. What makes Twitter so amazing to me, however, is that it takes what is functionally a text message and opens it up to a variety of web based features that really make it special. Of all the features unique to Twitter, the one I like the most is the Hashtag because it allows you to mark your statements by subject matter so that anyone looking for comments on a topic can find them regardless of whether or not they follow you…

Today’s lesson in Failure is: You Can’t Avoid The “Bad Times.”

Recently, I noticed the Hashtag #tweettomy16yearoldself popping up a lot, and it made me want to check out what was being said. Although the actual Tweets people were posting were varied, all of them fell into a few basic categories. Some, of course, were just meant to be humorous and snarky, and that is bound to happen in any open forum. The rest, however, either were comments on what a person wished they knew (or knew to avoid) or were comments that said everything was going to work out okay in the end.

That dynamic of “I wish I knew back then…” makes me think about not only the point of doing a column like this but of advice in general when it comes to Indy Comics. Most people who have legitimate questions about what it takes to stay involved in Indy Comics for the long haul are looking for the same “advice” that people are giving themselves on Twitter- They want to know A) “What can I do (or not do) to keep from making mistakes?” or B) “Will everything be okay in the end?”

On the very basic level, answering question “A” is the whole reason I do this column. Yes, there are some general things which can and should be avoided which will save you a lot of future Fail. And Yes, there are some core things which everyone should be doing when it comes to making and selling their Comics. And even if you are talking a matter in degrees and you are at the fine tuning stages, there are always bits of advice that can help you from complete crashing and burning. All that is not even debatable.

What most people REALLY mean, however, is not that really broad based when they ask such questions. Deep down, most people want to know how to have “trial and error” success without the “error” part.

The answer to that is- you can’t.

When I look back at all the failures, both small and great, that Daniel and I made to get us to the point where we are today, I honestly think that all of them were necessary.  Sure, a few of the failures could have been made a little less spectacular, but over all, it was doing the work of making Comics and trying to promote ourselves and our work with our full energy and effort that caused us to learn to be who we became.

Ask yourself this question- if you had ten bullets, and you knew ahead of time that only one would hit the target, and you knew which bullet of the ten was “the one,” would you fire the other nine anyway?

Why “waste” bullets, right?

The issue here, however, is not just hitting the target- there is something in the Human makeup when we try to do something with excellence, believing that we actually CAN accomplish our goals, that can’t be faked. If you KNOW the other nine shots won’t hit the target from the outset, you can’t trick your mind into putting in the effort as if they could, and you miss out on all the other aspects that make the shot that DOES hit the target so special.

There are a great many things that are outside of our personal control that we can’t predict the outcome of. Some people believe these things are simply “Chance,” and that there are totally random aspects to life that are just happen.

Personally, I don’t believe that to be true, especially as it is applied to making Comics. I believe that honestly trying and failing is NOT a “waste,” because in those efforts you perfect your craft and yourself in ways that simple “practice” will never accomplish. That’s not to say that sketching and warm-ups and practice writing have no value- simply that there is nothing that can really replace actual “In-Game” action.

I am 100% in favor of people going into making Comics with their eyes open, and seeking advice and trying to avoid pitfalls. At some point, however, such micromanaging becomes counterproductive, because you actually miss out on the direct lessons that YOUR Failure will provide YOU.

I have a good friend of mine who has been trying to move forward in his Comics career, and his announced method of doing that has been to pitch his ideas to established Publishers, and if his pitches are rejected, to move on to developing another pitch. While I have nothing against pitching a series or idea, I think the “trial and error” value of doing that is you become potentially very good at pitching things. The problem with that is that the work involved with doing a pitch is like an apple, while the effort involved with making a finished Comic is like a five course Italian meal. Yes, there may be apples here and there within the finished meal, but one would never be confused with the other.

As for question “B,” I think that how “okay” everything will be in the end will very much depend on how okay YOU are with making mistakes and learning from them. If you are an “avoid anything that might miss the target at all costs,” person, then I think you are setting yourself up for a type of Failure that doesn’t have a happy ending. If, on the other hand, you are cool with that and are willing to enjoy the ride even if that ride occasionally crashes into a brick wall or three, then yes, everything will turn out Okay because your 16 year old self needs to know that Failure as Opportunity for Growth isn’t so bad after all…

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