I’ve been reading Manga for ever.
I’ve been writing Manga almost for ever.
Last year, in between projects when I had a moment to catch my breath and reflect on things, I got to wondering; just exactly what makes a manga story, a manga story.
Is a manga story even unique unto itself?
OR
Is manga for all practical purposes, defined by the art and not its story?
These questions stuck with me for some time, eventually becoming the first step in a deep dive into a medium and art form that’s very dear to my heart.
I’m currently writing a new book on “how to write manga” that sets out to answer these exact questions. And a few others, looking at the manga medium from a strictly writer’s perspective.
Stay tuned.
* I was originally hoping to have this book ready for publication by the fall of 2024. I hit a wall in development as it became exceeding difficult to write another “how to write book” with the use of AI taking hold in the writing world. Decades ago in the graphic design world, as Adobe released more and more features opening up “design” to greater number of people, there was this sudden massive shift and drop in quality.
Clients didn’t care.
They thought they could do much of it themselves and turned a blind eye to all the mistakes they made.
I’m seeing a direct parallel here now with technology in writing.
The amount of people that actual care, is plummeting.
I feel like passionate, independent writers are quickly going the way of the Jedi. A few of us will remain, but we’ll find ourselves living in far-off sand dune caves, or swamp wigwams with limited contact to the outside world.
As you can see by the background image of this page, Manga IS a passion of mine. I have not cancelled this book, but I don’t have any release schedule at this time.
** I wanted to come back and post this excerpt from a social media post from a first-time writer I recently stumbled upon. This is much of the new writing world today;
“I watched YouTube videos on how to write better stories. So I wrote the story in blocks (usually just a paragraph or two), then fed them to ChatGPT to edit and make them sound more professional…”