If you’re eight years old, and you want to be a writer when you grow up, and you want to give yourself an adorable little-kid sized kidney stone, you worry over whether it’s ever going to happen.

Are you good enough? Lucky enough? Are you ever going to get published?

And you carry that hopefully-only-metaphorical kidney stone around with you for years. Through an awkward adolescence. And through four years at Awkward University. And through… well… maybe it gets better and maybe it doesn’t.

Anyway, if you’re good enough and you’re lucky enough, and I mean really, really lucky, maybe it does happen for you. And by “it,” I don’t mean the non-awkward thing.

Maybe you get published, and people read your work, and let’s say that some people like it and some people don’t, because – let’s be honest – that’s what always happens. And suddenly you’re, okay, not smarter or taller or cooler or more less-awkward, but you’ve got that one thing to be proud of.

And maybe you think, Cool. Now I can finally pass that kidney stone I’ve been carrying around with me for the past twenty years.

Huzzah!

Except right then, right at that exact moment of almost-contentment, the reality hits you.

Now you have to do it all again.

Holy son of a crappity-crap-crap!

Welcome to Think Like Tomorrow, Volume 2.

Now, I know right about now some of you are probably scratching your heads and asking, “Wait. There was a Think Like Tomorrow, Volume 1?” For you, I offer the following, by way of a brief introduction:

My name is, as the byline suggests, Drew Melbourne. I’m the writer of ArchEnemies, a quirky superhero series published by Dark Horse Comics. The first mini-series will be available in softcover this January. (We politely recommend this volume as essential reading.)

Think Like Tomorrow is a column about writing, about writing comics, and about me writing comics. It’s meant to be informative and funny and a third thing, because I like things to come in threes.

The first volume of TLT focused heavily on the question “How do you break into comics as a writer?” Volume two, as this week’s introduction suggests, will focus heavily on the question “How do you stay there?”

Though I had some useful insights in regards to that original question, when it comes to the new one, I humbly admit that I’m just winging it.

And now I remember what that third thing is:

If you like to watch a guy fall on his face, pick himself up, brush himself off, mumble something inarticulate along the lines of “I meant to do that,” and try again?

Well, you're in for a big treat.

That was for the new folks. But the long time readers are asking a different question:

“Where were you?”

It’s been a few months since the last installment of Think Like Tomorrow, and I’ve been busy. ArchEnemies #4 shipped in early July. A few weeks later, I did a big signing at San Diego with AE inker Joe Rubinstein. And I met with some Hollywood types, the result of which is the recently announced Sam Raimi ArchEnemies film deal.

I’ve been working with my editor on the ArchEnemies trade. In addition to the spiffy new cover, we’ve prepared some cool new back-up features. We also had the chance to make some subtle edits to the main story that the production schedule didn’t allow for the first time around.

I’ve prepared pitches for a number of new projects—most notably ArchEnemies 2.

And I eventually broke down and got a new day job. I spent a year as “just a freelance writer,” but the lure of health insurance, grocery money, and a reason to get up before 2 in the afternoon proved too strong. I’m back at The Princeton Review as Director of Online Support for Distance Learning.

Ironically, as a kid, I always dreamed of being a comic book writer or a fireman or a Director of Online Support for Distance Learning. Two down!

I said that the theme of this volume of TLT would be “How do you stay there?” How do you translate one moderate success into a thirty-year career in comics?

Well, step one is finding your sophomore series.

For some folks, this is an intuitive process. For instance, friend of this column Hugh Sterbakov is following up his freshman series, Freshmen, with a sophomore series called Sophmores Freshmen II.

I mentioned that I’ve been talking to Dark Horse about ArchEnemies 2. Will that be my sophomore series? Maybe. But that’s not the only property that I’m developing right now.

Here’s a rundown of projects that you’ll be hearing more about in the coming weeks:

Long time readers will note that Heroes of Tomorrow has been in development at Top Cow roughly since the dawn of time. There was a brief window earlier this year when it looked like the series was going to get fast-tracked (or at least tracked) for 2007, but that’s looking less and less likely now.

But don’t count Heroes of Tomorrow out just yet. The good folks at Top Cow and I may still have a trick or two up our sleeve.

Next time I’ll talk more about a few of the new projects, and I’ll tell you what you should and shouldn’t be writing.

Because I don’t trust you to follow your own instincts.

Drew Melbourne is the writer of the column you just read and of various other things that he mentioned in the column that you just read. To find out more about his comic ArchEnemies, visit ArchEnemiesOnline.com. To find out more about Drew himself, visit DrewMelbourne.com. To find out more about kidney stones, do a google search or visit wikipedia.