Meet Seth Singleton

We recently connected with Seth Singleton and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Seth, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from my parents and myself. My father grew up in a two-room dirt-floor house. He and his family picked cotton and grapes seasonally. The only way he could make sure he had enough money for food and clothing was to work for it. He gained a trade in the Air Force and suddenly his entire world opened up. Because of where he had been, he didn’t understand how you couldn’t see that things could get better. Even when things were hard, even when we faced challenges, he found a way to work harder and do in one day more than most people can in a week, My mom was such an amazing example as a teacher. I can’t remember how many nights I saw her up late reading new material, building lesson plans, and doing more grading than any human being ever should need to complete. She didn’t share my father’s optimism and did not enjoy the work she had to do but she saw it as her responsibility and she took that responsibility seriously.
I get that sense of responsibility from both of my parents. They taught me that when you commit you have an opportunity to take responsibility. That responsibility is a trust. It’s the kind of question only you can answer.
When I committed to writing I discovered that the only person who could determine how much I wrote was me. That included edits and revisions. I was the only one who could decide how many times I would try to rewrite a sentence or a page to make it better.
Today, like then, the question is mine alone to answer. I believe each time I try is a time I get to try, I’d rather try than let it pass me by.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I write stories that build people up. I do this for companies and for original concepts that I am passionate about bringing to life. I am the head writer for the comic strip character Greedy Greg at HAPSIE and lead writer for Digital Dimension’s Spellcasters: Major League Magic comic book and other projects still in the works. I am also the creator of a comic book story called The Tragic Nerds for an anthology series due out from Sequential Art Publishing in 2024. I love talking about stories. I have a podcast called Storytelling with Seth that focuses on stories, creators, artists, thinkers, and innovators.
I have been moved by stories my entire life. They are the one thing that can bring about the biggest change in how people think and feel. It’s a gift, a responsibility, and one that I want to show I understand well enough to make others feel the wonder and beauty I have witnessed.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I believe that a willing spirit, a beginner’s mindset, and confidence in my strengths, have served me best in my career. They did not all come at once. Of them all, the confidence in my strengths took the longest. I always had the confidence to try and believe that I was good enough to try, but it took a very long time for me to believe that I had the skill and experience to succeed. The difference between succeeding and trying was significant and it kept me from believing that there were things I was good enough to win.

I have since learned that if I am willing to put in the work I deserve to win. I also believe that if I am willing to put in the work to win I am also able to accept constructive feedback with a mindset that is not bound by ego or pretense. I don’t always have to agree with everything that I am told but I do need to consider it and consider what I can learn from it.

To anyone who is on this journey, I would encourage you to find voices that you trust and listen to them. They may not always say what you want them to or what you would prefer to hear, but they can show you things that are hard to see on your own. If you’re willing to consider that someone else can show you what you cannot see on your own you will understand even more, the wider world and the roles that we and others have and play.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am always looking to collaborate with other artists. As someone who writes comic books, but does not draw, there is a limit to how much of my stories I can bring to life on my own. There is nothing better than meeting an artist and having a great conversation about hopes and dreams, what is possible, those things that are almost possible, and the kinds of stories we want to tell through comics. It’s a chance to share your wildest hopes and deepest yearnings, and when it is with someone you trust, it can encourage you both to say things that might seem scary or foolish and know that, even if they are, they are heard without judgment and are part of a conversation that can lead to something inspirational and magnificent.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Photos by Tracy Singleton

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