animation, comics, exhibits, events, etc!

In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics,  fiction and radio dramas.

This week should bring my musings to a close on the subject of empathy. I’m sure I’ll return to it at a later date as my conviction remains that it is our brightest blade as writers and as human beings. An elderly bong smoker in the Haight once said to me that she believed the greatest enemy to the modern world was the lack of imagination folks have nowadays. The use of our imaginations enables us as writers to go into perspectives we can’t accept and gives us a basis for attempting to understand the motives of those we disagree with. It is the basis for empathy.

Read more

In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

As writers, we are by nature introspective creatures. We always know what we think about things. Sometimes it takes a ridiculously long time to get there, but we tend to arrive at opinions. We have too many or two few of them — depending on your spiritual elevation.

This is wonderful, if we couldn’t tap into what we think or believe,  we wouldn’t be very good at laying down the words. We’d be paralyzed with not only what to write but how to write it.    Introspection is one of our great strengths.

So too is the opposite: empathy.

Sometimes our characters don’t represent our own world view, but being empathetic is crucial to their creation and execution. We need to honestly “feel” them. If we can’t treat those with whom we disagree with the weight they deserve, then how can we treat our characters as living potent beings… And we must!  Characters are as real as we let them be and believe me when I say that the more crystal a character is in your mind the more potency it emerges onto the page with.

Read more

In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

I’ve been contributing to the Sequential Art Collective blog for some time now and thought it appropriate to write about what it is I hope to achieve through these essays and through our organization. If it hasn’t become apparent through the text or if you are a new reader this will give you a chance to see what I represent towards this collective.

This blog (an ugly word if ever there was one) is a place where I have been asked to share my experiences as a writer, creator, and enthusiast. I think I’ve delivered on this for the most part. I’ve shared some of my techniques for slogging my way through written works as well as some of my social opinions regarding the state of comics. I fully intend to continue this way. Choosing whatever “feeds my fire” to discuss.

Some folks have said that my work here is unfocused, long-winded, and rambling. Some folks have said that this blog isn’t “about” anything and needs to have more of a viewpoint from which to emerge. They believe it isn’t consistently pointed, funny, or exciting. I aim to spin those talking heads like the pea soup puker in The Exorcist!

Read more