The other day in Art History, and I had a conversation that somehow wound up arriving at the suggestion that I should find someone to draw my comics and I should just write the script. The word "Dedication" got thrown around, leading me to feel mildly offended this evening while I was writing a paper...for some reason. ANYWAY...I am pretty sure he did not mean to offend me, but I pondered on this as I wrote my paper, trying to assess why I didn't just write or draw one aspect, why it appeared that I lacked Dedication, how do you define dedication, and why I generally avoid Collabs.

1 & 4(lol). The first question was probably the easiest to answer and can best be answered with help from one of the two people I've ever been able to properly collaborate with,Hannah aka (The other person I have collaborated well with is .) As Hannah and I have been sort of working on and off on a super hero comic(still in scripting, don't get excited), Hannah has put a lot of effort into creating the personalities of these characters, and even went to buy a cartoon book so she could pen the characters out herself. Although I have done some sketching for the characters, because this is more Hannah's baby than mine, I know she has a definite image of what these heroes look like, which I will have to accept once we get into really designing characters o_0...but it brings up why I don't just hand over my writing or drawings to people. I don't trust them to render them the way I see them in my head. My short stories make me happier than a squirrel in a pecan grove, and many of the characters I see quite differently from what other people see. For instance, I have a short story with a character whose defining characteristic is the scent of peaches, and I asked my mom what she though he looked like. Her response was "blonde, a little chubby, with dimples." This is not what I saw at all. I don't trust people to convey the feel I want for my characters, which is something I think many writers feel, which is why I find collabs difficult. and I just click really well, and we are both good writers, so it's easier for us to bounce back and forth on things.

2& 3(sort of). Why does it appear I lack dedication? Probably because I don't update my comic every week. It's been over 6 months since Bad Coffee was last updated. Now I was going to provide justification for that, but that's just excuses. I went back and reread the comic back then, and it wasn't what I had remembered writing. I want to deliver a high quality, well-written, well-crafted piece, and I did not feel I had done that with what I was looking at. I don't think that indicates a lack of dedication or patience with the comic, I think an ability to critique one's work is a blessing. I made the decision then to rewrite and draw the comic, removing unnecessary characters and elements. By not giving up, I think that proves dedication. Just because you do not see a person's work, that doesn't mean it isn't there. I've also been assessing the comic itself and trying to decide how to adjust the craft of it, which takes time. I will give myself the "I'm a senior in college" excuse. I'm a double major who has to maintain a 3.5, which is tiring enough on it's own.

-Kathryn