WELCOME TO THE LABYRINTH: Mid Year Update
She’s back, baybe.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2023 Project Update
What I’ve Been Reading
Plan For the Year
The Hobby Report
2023 PROJECT UPDATE
Thank you all for your patience. I’ve learned with things like substack, it takes me time to discover how to best use it. I start with a bang of excitement and dreams, get overwhelmed by the enormousness of the endeavour (read: discord), feel guilty in my shortcomings, get inspired again, repeat. I think this cycle is true of most honest artists, the ones who don’t fancy themselves undiscovered geniuses. The “genius” artists never seem to run out of things to say, believing there will always be a captive audience.
And, to be honest, they’re correct. It’s very easy for me to second guess the interest in the audience, to doubt the reader’s interest… which often makes the readers doubt themselves. Why doubt a genius if they don’t doubt themselves?
My very first industry job was for a theatrical marketing company. I started as a runner, driving hard drives with unreleased Disney movies around Los Angeles. After a few months, I got promoted to the ambiguous job of “BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR”, which is a fancy way of saying “PAYING FOR A PRACTICAL FILM DEGREE”, in which I learned how the studio systems work and also how to call people on the phone without becoming a shivering glob of millennial jelly. I spent my time tracking movies for the company, and holding meetings about why we should go after certain movies, but not others. In those meetings, my boss would always ask me to show my work, explain how I thought through every option, leaning on me as if I were a walking wikipedia. So if I so much as hinted at the idea that I wasn’t sure, he would question all the work that I’d done. Even if I had the answer.
I am not, by nature, a certain person. It’s what makes me a good writer. I am fascinated by doubt, by grey areas, by big questions of morality and ethics. I don’t always believe there is an answer. But I do believe in the process.
This substack is a process. I have no doubts about that. Every labyrinth is a process. I hope you continue to join with me on the journey. And know that you’re not alone in trying to figure out the process.
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NOW, project updates.
Not sure if you’ve heard, but the WGA is on strike.
This does and does not affect me. On the one hand, a number of projects I’ve been working on are now stalled. Months of pitching, of developing, of arguing with Business Affairs— silenced. Blessed peace.
On the other hand, picketing is a lot more work than expected. As is organising a themed picket! We did a Newsies picket outside Disney, shouting the lyrics of fighting injustice to the bosses who taught us how to fight.
However, I’m currently in London, where I’ve been for the past month, so my picket hours have shortened drastically. But that doesn’t mean the work has slowed down. Animation, comics, and audio drama are (as of right now) not covered until the WGA, so I’m still working.
TV
I’ve been taking this time to work on a number of TV Samples! For those of you who are interested in TV (and I promise, I will get to that in the 101 series), a sample is the script your agent uses to pitch you to studios, networks, and Showrunners. It’s like your calling card that tells people you can write. For many years, those samples used to be called “specs”, because they were speculative episodes of a currently airing TV show. It’s why the WB Workshop and Disney Fellowship required specs. It used to be industry standard. Loads of writers you love broke into TV in the 90s with a Star Trek spec. And then 2010 happened.
As I was starting to get into the industry, it became more and more common for those hiring writers to ask for original samples rather than specs. At first, we all rejoiced. Hurray! Finally, my space opera slash dance academy masterpiece will be discovered!
And that worked… for a little while. Now, we find ourselves in a new interesting dilemma. Turns out your space opera slash dance academy pilots may be a masterpiece, but you can’t write in someone else’s voice (which is, essentially, the most important part of writing for TV). Not only that, creating an entire functioning government for your space opera slash dance academy masterpiece for FREE is not lucrative. You’ll end up spending seven years on a pilot someone will read in, generously, thirty minutes.
People still ask for original pilots, though. So, we still write them. I’m currently writing a first draft of a procedural pilot and waiting to get notes on a sci-fi pilot. Next newsletter will discuss TV writing, and I’ll go more in depth on what I intend to do with these, and why I chose these types of pilots to write.
ANIMATION
I’m currently writing a freelance script for a company I’ve never worked with before, which has been exciting and terrifying. I’m always nervous at the start of working with new people — even if I’m friends with them. What if this is where someone finally tells me how horrible I am? What if everyone up until now has just been nice, I ask myself, paying me just to make me feel good? It’s a silly question, but all fears are silly. Unless it’s venomous. But so far, writing hasn’t included Venom (percussive sting).
I’m also developing something I cannot talk about. HOWEVER, we’re in the concept stage of the development process, which has been exciting. For years, I’ve been perfectly happy working in someone else’s world. Even on projects solely mine (like Red Rhino), it’s rare for there to be design meetings. There’s elements of this project that have reminded me of working on Supernatural, for better and worse. But the elements of joy, the true moments of glee, are discovered in working with others, when the artists come in with their Pinterest boards and rough concepts. I find the process humbling. Art is not just one person. Art is like church, created when two or more are gathered.
COMICS
The email comes out at the same time as the final TIM DRAKE: ROBIN issue. What an absolute ride. I’m so grateful to the amazing artists, colorists, letterers, and editors I’ve had on this project. It truly has been a labor of love. I’m not sure what will happen with Tim after this, but I’m grateful for the time I got to spend with him. (And I’m sure I will write more about the process at a later time.)
AUDIO DRAMA
So what’s going on with Red Rhino? I’m so glad you asked! I don’t believe in writer’s block, at least I don’t believe it should be called that. Writer’s block for me has always been fear. And for the last few years, I’ve been afraid of Red Rhino. The more I’ve written in other IP realms, the more I’ve feared my own original concepts. What am I thinking, no one cares about original superheroes. What am I doing? Is there enough heart in this? What does that even mean?
I had an interesting conversation recently about fear. Normally, I find myself barrelling towards things that scare me (in a professional sense. I will barrel in the other direction from snakes or a swans.) But, with paid work being the priority, there is no space to face fear.
I find, in my processes, I need a lot of metaphorical space to take on the things that make me terrified. And, for whatever reason, doing a project that is entirely my own vision, with no studio input or network notes, goes against everything I’ve been trained in. I’ve been lucky enough to stumble into space to work out my process. Now, I have to learn how to make that space. A concept I only recently became aware of and have no idea what I’m doing.
But, we do it anyway. I think the story is important. It’s important for me. Maybe it’s important to just prove that I can.
Which leads me to…
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING
I took the month of June as a sort of indie college course month, thanks to my longtime friend Hillary Levi’s helpful resource list. I’ve managed to track down quite a few of these books and started to make a dent in the list.
A SWIM IN THE POND IN THE RAIN by George Saunders - George Saunders is brilliant, in that he learned from the greats. And in this book, he teaches you from the greats. I’m of course talking about the Russian greats. Russian writers is a sore point in my literature knowledge. I’ve not read much of them, other than Chekhov, and very few of his stories. Saunders is clearly an encouraging and empathetic teacher, and speaks to so many of my own fears. The piece of advice I’ve been mulling over most is the idea that I will never write like my heroes. It’s hard, the realisation that you will never be like the writers who inspired you. There may be elements of them in my work, but ultimately, I have to let go of the hope that I will be as creative as CS Lewis or heartfelt as Mark Waid. Instead, I have to accept that I am Meghan Fitzmartin. I can only write like me.
Plus, he has a substack!
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by William Strunk Jr. and EB White - I admit, I’m constantly terrified I missed a crucial grammar lesson when I was growing up. My schooling was varied, from homeschooling, to private school, to public school, with a dash of virtual school my junior year. Each curriculum was vastly different, I always felt like I had to figure out what I was supposed to learn on my own. Elements of Style has helped fill in the gaps.
Things not on Hillary’s List but I’m adding:
THE CRAFTY ART OF PLAYMAKING by Alan Ayckbourn - I’ve been wanting to read this for some time and it did not disappoint. This is a book not just for playwrights, but anyone creating and producing their own work. Many of the things he talks about felt relevant to writing TV, and helped me deal with a production meeting with a better attitude.
MONSTERS by Claire Dederer - I haven’t finished this one yet, but I’m on a panel for SDCC this year (more to be announced soon) and this is very relevant. But honestly, I’m grateful to be reading this as a writer as well as a woman consuming media. How do you deal with the artist and their art? Should you try to separate them? Can they be separated? Come to SDCC this July for more thoughts!
NOVELIST AS A VOCATION by Haruki Murakami - I’ll be honest, this one is a bit dryer, but also I’m only halfway through. I will reserve judgement until the end.
PLAN FOR THIS SUBSTACK FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR
So, now that I’ve recognised my failings and successes, what’s in store for the rest of the year?
Well, the first thing I realised, is that I have to start writing the next substack NOW. Which, is good for me to know. As soon as I finish this substack and put it out, I’ll get started on writing the TV 101, which I will put out the week after SDCC (another reason I need to start writing it as soon as possible.)
As for the premium content, that’s something I will be working on updating this week, so thank you for your patience! As I’m quite behind on what I promised, I’m going to be putting out some samples of my own animation and comics scripts for analysis. Starting with Justice League vs RWBY. I’ve already pulled the script pages and the clip, and I look forward to discovering what the premium content will actually be saying or showing, because I have no idea just yet.
THE HOBBY REPORT
Can travel be a hobby? Honestly, that’s what I’ve been focused most on the past few months. I returned to London for MCM, the London Comic-Convention, which I absolutely loved. It had a different vibe to an American convention. MCM skewed much younger, much queerer, and much more into anime than American audiences. It felt so inviting, in a way I haven’t experienced at American conventions. Being a woman in comics sometimes feels like an uphill battle. I need to prove to men that I can hang, that I actually have read comics before, that I’ve read comics for most of my life, that I belong just as much as they do. At MCM, I didn’t feel like I had to convince anyone I deserved to exist in comic spaces. What a (graphic) novel concept.
I also visited some friends out in Gravesend, a neighborhood outside of London. After a long and arduous journey thanks to a child’s scooter on the train tracks, not only did I discover Pocahontas’s grave and the continuation of the Thames, but also the best community centre inside a small church (a church Charles Dickens helped restore). It’s not often on many people’s tourist list, but if you find yourself in Gravesend, it’s worth exploring.
Other than that, I’ve been unintentionally touring Britain’s beautiful southeast! Friends visiting London meant a trip to Bath to see water bubble on its own (sounds simple, but I was entranced, I took many videos of the bubbling pool at different angles I have no regrets), then a soak in a warm rooftop pool while staring out at the British countryside. I understand 50% more of Jane Austen books now.
Then, more recently, I went to see the brilliant, the wonderful, the incredibly kind Paul Cornell in the Cotswolds! I’d always heard about the Cotswolds, and Paul took me (and Jackson Lanzing, who happened to be visiting at the same time, because the world is small) around to show off the beauty and impressive features, from limestone horses on the hillside to a folly with a reminder that sometimes it’s good to be silly.
Side note, check out Paul’s substack — I’ve been a fan of Paul’s for quite a while and you should be, too.
And, because I’ve been behind on my newsletters, I didn’t show you the finished antique coffee grinder we bought in Belgium! Here is what it looked like when we bought it.
And here is the finished product!
I’m so proud. And I don’t even drink coffee.
That’s all for now! Until next month,
Meghan Fitzmartin