February 10th, 2023
10 Feb 2023 · page 1154 of 1306
Exposing my characters to the pains of creation, as a treat
Cast: Heinrich Wolfe, Jack O'Malley
Comments (30)
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As hilarious as the contrast with Wolfe is, it does the heart good to see Mal looking so genuinely chipper for once. He's come a long way!
Their roles have certainly reversed since we first saw them together.
Oh man, the struggle is real. I feel you, Wolfe. (Psst, does anybody know any tips or tricks for dealing with said struggle? Asking for myself >.> )
personally i find just breaking away to focus on something else when you're on the Bad Spiral can help. involves having two projects ongoing, but one can be a small thing, like knitting or mini painting or a nice cake. a wee success at something else or progress in another direction often evens me out
but then the pressure is on not botching that second thing up :(.
Not much of an artist myself, but engineering and programming require some creativity too: Getting your mind off of it in some way. That can be a little side-project like mentioned above, changing location, doing chores that need doing anyway, a walk outside, hanging out with friends, or even just a shower (the term "shower thought" exists for a reason).
Anything that (gently) gets you to think about other things, without the futility of "trying not to think about it".
On the other hand, if you can't just get up and do something else right now: In programming there is the idea of "rubber duck debugging". If you're stuck on a problem and just can't find a solution, it helps to explain the problem to someone else (or something else, like a rubber duck on your desk).
It's not limited to programming of course, and your audience doesn't necessarily need to respond or solve the problem for you. Inanimate objects are patient in that regard.
I think the key is simply that by explaining it to someone else, you're really explaining it to yourself from a different perspective, which can lead to new insights.
Sidney Malik of this very comic is one of my favourite examples of a creative problem-solver, and we often see him thinking-out-loud and bouncing ideas off of the people around him, regardless of whether they're following.
One of my favourite examples: https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/june-30th-2017
I tend to get hobbled by perfectionism. When that happens I like to think of the G.K Chesterton quote: "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly".
A not-as-good-as-you'd-hoped real thing is much better than a perfect thing that only exists in your imagination!
Perfection is the mortal enemy of "good enough."
For some things, though, good enough is not good enough. In Wolfe's case, if he leaves that note in, he will hear the compromise he took there every time he hears this piece.
It might be better for him to pick up at the end and keep going -- perhaps the rest of the piece will tell him what choice to make. But, no matter what, yes, he needs to get that passage right.
Perhaps it is terribly excellent! Or perhaps, like Weird Al or MST3K, it is excellently terrible!
I'm glad that Mal still looks perpetually exhausted. He wouldn't be himself without eye bags.
or maybe he worked hard on the smudged eyeliner look
Keeping the eye bags, but according to the clock in the foyer in the previous comic, awake before noon AND in a good mood
"the clock in the -"
(checks previous comic)
(squints)
WOW that is some attention to detail. Nice spotting, @baronhaynes!
If you are not sure if it is right then it is not right. But maybe it will do.
At least he leaves the coffee/tea/drink.
Probably brought it for Wolfe in the first place, since he knows he hasn't left his room for 2 days.
They're both so cute, damn x_x
this page is making me so so happy aaaaa... I'm especially loving all the expressions...
Good on Mal being reasonable about song-writing.
AWWWW! HE BROUGHT HIM TEA! These two are just too good for this world! I love this friendship so goddamn much!
That swap in outlooks(to a degree, though the average is positive) is delicious ^^
Seriously though, it is nice to see Wolfe, perhaps unconfident, yet working through it, and O'Malley having clearly found ground under his feet, after struggling for so long.
"You cannot hear this yet!"
"... there are two concepts of importance surrounding you: One is called atmosphere, and the other house. The former makes it somewhat difficult not to hear you anywhere within the latter."
Seriously, Wolfe, don't set yourself up like that. You don't want to prompt Mal to give thoughts to "soundproofing" your room. Or on installing a PA system all over the town ...
Go with the "build it fast and fix it later" approach.
wow relatable
Hey, I'm rereading the entirety of Widdershines yet again and noticed that a bunch of comment pages appear to have gotten misplaced as there are Hangman's Knot and Which Hunt comments on No Rest for the Wicked pages starting here:
https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-2nd-2012
And ending here:
Widdershins A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins! KateDrawsComicsJust thought you should know.
Love this comic. ♥
Mal smiles through an entire strip? Unheard of! Is he a bit more at peace with things now?