In the last post, I threw out the term "comic book philosopher." As much as I always feel like I'm still learning my trade, the truth is I've picked up a trick or two when it comes to writing stuff.

Some of these Writers' Tips will be practical, real-world how-tos. Others, like today's installment, are practical on a very different level. Being a writer means believing in something.

This is what I believe.

• Making things is more important that thinking about making things.

• When I moved to Los Angeles, when Tom and I formed UglyTown (before it became a publishing house), I had an idea that being a writer meant I could write anything that needed to be written: television, film, books, video games, Web sites, etc. We found out that this city, and the entertainment industry in general, does not work this way.

• I actually had this moment: at a party I was talking with some guy. I asked what he did for a living (something I have since tried to avoid). He said he was a television writer; he asked if I was "in the industry," and I immediately said no. I paused, thought about it. "Well, I won an Emmy -- does that make me in?"

• During the last two years of high school, I spent a ridiculously large amount of time painting a mural 10' x 60' on the school's cafeteria wall. My senior year schedule went something like this: I woke up early, got to school about 2 hours before class, got a cup of coffee from the faculty lounge, and painted until the first period bell. I mostly slept through class. After school, I when to work at an environmental lab and performed experiments on hazardous industrial waste. I came home for a quick bit of dinner and went back to the school, where I would paint alone in the empty building until after midnight.

• Teachers in high school would always say to me: "You must want to be an artist when you get older. I take it you'll be going to art school after you graduate." No, I would always respond, I'm already an artist. When this painting is done, I will be done with painting. Then I'll do something else.

• The things that you make are never as important as the process of making them.