I write comic books for a living. It doesn't pay the bills, really. It's barely enough for any kind of living, in fact. But it's very satisfying -- I write stories and people like me for it.

Recently, I’ve started writing for other comic book publishers. I listen to their stories and I turn these stories into comic book formats. While not soul crushing, it just takes away time that I could have dedicated to my own work.

I do it because it pays well. In a comic book market where there is literally no money doing your own comics, writing for someone else ensures a little more money comes into your house and you can pay the bills.

Anyway, I've been in situations where I’ve had to write stories where parts of it didn’t really work for me. I’ve conveyed this to the creators, but they’ve gone ahead with whatever they’ve envisioned anyway. It’s annoying, but still something I can live with. It doesn't hurt me in any way, because these aren’t my creations. I can go on with my life normally. 

Recently, however, I've been working on a project that has my name on it as the creator. I’m supposed to have created the thing, I’m supposed to have engineered character, the story, the works.

A few months into the project though, the story was completely re-written. Not by me, the client. The client, very clearly, had no interest in what I find good or bad. They just went ahead and changed the entire story.

Nothing I’ve written has stayed in this new avatar.

Nothing.

I didn't know what to do. 

I was still the writer on the project, I still had to script the whole thing, but I didn’t recognize the story anymore.

I was being paid well, sort of, so clearly I'd have to keep writing, at least until my soul shriveled and fell down a dark hole in hell somewhere. I'd probably have to write more than one issue of the thing, and that’s fine. I have my expectations set now. But I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up.

I have enough work so this isn't as soul crushing as I expected it to be.

But it's god damned hard. 

As I write this, I've finished writing forty pages of the monster. I have a hundred and sixty pages of the beast to go.

Hopefully I'm not too broken up by the end of it to not come back safe. 

Until the monstrosity is dealt with, I'll...

God!

I don't know what I'm going to do until then. 

Anyway. 

Stay safe. 

Be happy.