Blogs and author websites are extremely important. I know because every writer of my acquaintance has told me so. I do have a website but I have no idea what to put on it. I'm not published, self or otherwise, and that leaves me with a nice blank, filler page sure to impress every agent from here to Toledo.
I felt like giving up until I saw this very funny blog by fellow ANWA member, Kate Stradling, called Average Everygirl. The blog, is smart, funny and unique. It made me realize that a blog has to represent the real you, me, us ... whatever.
I asked Kate to share a little bit about her blog and how it came to be.
-PJ Switzer
AVERAGE EVERYGIRL
by Kate Stradling
The idea for Average Everygirl lurked in the back of my brain for ages before it actually surfaced. Patterns run rampant in literature, and my mind was looking for a way to distill them down to succinct explanations.
The lurking manifested in doodles. I wasn’t serious. I just needed to get some of the more frustrating patterns on paper. I scrawled three or four comics and let the project rest.
And, like bread dough, it rose.
One night, on a whim, I jotted down 15+ scripts. I called it The Adventures of Average Everygirl, a reference to the medieval morality play, Everyman. The formula was simple: characters with descriptively generic names engaging with each other according to—or in opposition to—common literary tropes.
I originally thought it would create a fun addition to my oft-neglected blog, that I could post maybe a comic a week as content, sans commentary.
Instead, because I’m a masochist, I’ve been posting a set of comics per week, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, each with topical remarks about either the trope or my reaction to it.
And 60 comics later, here I am.
I draw in Inkscape, a free and open source vector graphics program. The comics serve as a brief and hopefully humorous introduction to trends in literature. I also have a one-panel series, Grammar Nazis through the Ages, that I use to discuss topics on historical linguistics and language change.
(Sounds riveting, right? But it totally is!)
This project has allowed me a personalized venue to express my thoughts, and for that I am grateful. This was definitely not something I envisioned for myself even a year ago, but it manifested “line upon line,” as the scriptures say. It has taught me, among other things, that the most important part of creativity lies not in the initial dream, but in moving forward one step at a time.
Links:
Inkscape: https://inkscape.
Average Everygirl (index): http://katestradling.
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