All fall down

Aside from the not-exactly-inconsequential matter of two months of no posting, the train seems to have been, if not derailed, then certainly shunted off the main track. My search for an artist for Heartless has thus far proved fruitless (ha!) and the experience has taught me much about the process, stuff that only getting-beat-down-regularly is willing to teach. He is a harsh taskmaster.

As a result I have siphoned my creative energies off in two different directions, namely two new stories called, for the moment, Broken Hearted and Signal. With Heartless as a guide I've made good progress on both, having almost fully broken down Signal to the point where I can write script pages. Broken Hearted is a little more in the can-I-do-this and if-so-how phase, trying to work through story and world problems that have resulted mostly from the setting.

What I have noticed is that most of the story ideas I want to develop incline toward science fiction, Warren Ellis aside there doesn't seem to be a great inclination within comics to write interesting science fiction and part of me would like to see that change. Another part of me would rather it stayed that way so I can corner the market but seeing as I can't-even-find-an-artist at present, perhaps I'm being a little optimistic. Or, you know, wildly, idiotically optimistic.

Apologies for the hyphen madness, it was intentional.

Writing ain't (:)) easy

If it is easy then I'd be concerned. I struggle to write, everyday is about wondering whether I’ll make the connections in a story and be able to write about it. No doubt I’m not alone in this. Everyone’s been in a place where you just stare at the screen for an age without managing to add anything of value. I know there are all kinds of theories for getting on; leaving the piece at a point where you’ve got more to write, doing a prescribed amount of work then stopping no matter what, finishing in the middle of a sentence you can pick up next time you sit down to write etc. The problem for me is if I’m on a roll, writing for all I’m worth, then I don’t want to stop. It seems like the easy option to say ‘Done my bit for the day’ when it’s evident to myself, if no-one else, the words are ready, willing and able to continue. But by the same token, writing until you’re flush out of ideas/inspiration, leaving yourself a flickering screen full of frustration next visit, isn’t exactly ideal either. Hence the dilemma.

Personally I’m beginning to find that sitting down to write only becomes unbearably difficult when I don’t have a plan. Writing the script isn’t easy, but it’s the easiest part of the process because by that stage the story is fully planned out, broken down into manageable chunks and all the dots have been joined. Getting to that stage is where all the effort and frustration come in; teasing threads of story out of the loosest connections, melding characters based on a feeling, throwing away bits you like that don't work, this is the skill of a writer and it ain't easy.

Breaking it down

I was lucky enough to get a look at another writer’s, Chad Michael Ward, project bible a few weeks ago. I have started one for Heartless, as you may have seen below, but as with all things writing his and mine were quite different. What I found most interesting were his scene breakdowns. Working as I had been in beats within a single issue (or the equivalent of page wise), I was used to smaller units of story at that stage. Seeing five or six large blocks of story with specific beats inside, as the scene breakdowns were, made a whole lot more sense. Although technically it is adding another stage to the process, what it does do is allow a smoother breakdown from a single paragraph for that block of story, to several segments that make it easier to script.

Luckily this came before I’d fully understood and broken down Heartless’ storyline, so that issues 2-4 and possibly 5 if there is one, are going to be easier to work out. Looking at how it works now, it seems like an obvious step, which makes me wonder what else I’m missing on the road to a final draft. Obviously learning is part of the process and in some cases can only be achieved by doing, but I am concerned that I may not have enough of the theory and basics in my head to think I can write a decent script at this moment. That’s not going to stop me trying but [note to self] I’m going to try and spend an equal amount of time reading up on writing.

So if anyone does have suggestions on good books/articles/resources, please let me know.

Back with a Bitch

My best intentions were defeated by a series of shitty events called Life. It tends to get in the way of planning occasionally and last month it chose to obstruct me no end. So rather than write I ended up doing critiques of other creator’s writing they'd sent me, something that ended up being both enoyable and valuable. The crazy thing about looking at someone else’s work is how clear everything seems to be up to a certain level. Why a medium shot here when a wide shot gives much more scope to the artist, do you need a caption there? etc Removed from the involvement of creation, analysis seems comparatively easy. I guess that's why there are so many critics :)

I’ve found it quite enlightning, both in gaining knowledge of how to tell my stories and understanding how narrow-sighted the initial creation process is. Given my own scripts to analyse in the same way I would fail miserably because I have not yet become as discerning and dispassionately cutthroat about my own work as I can be about others. Inevitably you’re attached to your work while it’s being formed, or I imagine you should be, so one of the hardest things to do is judge it’s worth commensurate with your present ability. Harder still is that I like my stories and the frustration that I’m not able to just sit down and put the whole piece to bed in one sitting, kills me sometimes.

Partly, I think my attention span has just dwindled badly since university, my own fault no doubt, and also I haven’t found a means that I’m happy with of turning story idea into script quickly enough to not get distracted or frustrated. Despite my lengthy process post earlier, it’s not proving as fertile and conducive as I’d like. But I have recently found out a few things that helped in altering ‘my way’ and I’ll detail these later in the week. [/End Bitch … hopefully]

The Writing Habit

Whilst browsing the nethernet today I was introduced by Bryan Richmond to an article in Locus Magazine on Cory Doctorow's techniques for managing/avoiding distraction whilst writing in the web age, full article here.

To borrow Brandon Seifert's summary of the article, Doctorow's techniques look like this:

1. Make a short, regular work schedule. He shoots for one page, 20 minutes of writing a day, seven days a week. When he does a page a day for a year. he's written more than a full novel. And he can always find 20 minutes.
2. Don't go over your goal. Even if you want to. Because if you force yourself not to, then the next day you'll be dying to pick it up again (I've received this advice before).
3. Don't stop writing to research something. Throw in a "TK" ("to come") in its place and leave it for later
4. Don't try to control your writing environment. Just write.
5. Don't use a word-processor. Use a text editor. It's less distracting.
6. Don't use real-time communication tools while you write. They just distract you.

They are for the most part common sense, but things you likely don't do. Personally I'm going to try and adapt the parts that would be advantageous to me, particularly the page a day idea - my writing production is all over the place at present. However, some of the advice I'd struggle with because no matter how ingrained it became, letting a juicy idea wait until the nexy day or not writing a passage that's perfectly clear in my head would be next to impossible for me. I'd HAVE to write it down. On the flip side, perhaps that's a part of my problem.

Ideas

The problem with being able to choose any idea from all the various ones percolating upstairs, is that you can get caught finishing exactly none of them. Focus is a word bandied around often without any real thought to the specific types of application in which it should be used. As regards ideas for myself, it means not being distracted by the latest shiny eureka-moment that comes along, because it may or may not be an idea worth pursuing.

Egotistically I believe many of my ideas are worth using but in reality, and in time with experience, it will no doubt prove to be narcissim. Until I reach that point though it is a challenge to avoid the siren call of possibilities. Yesterday, for instance, I had a quick flash image for a type of story I wouldn't normally consider. The hook, which came to be instantly, is unique as far as I know (which admittedly doesn't say much) and offered several further ideas that really got me thinking. But therein lies the problem, I should have been putting the finishing touches to an 8 page anthology piece. Not a hangable offense certainly, however it is something that would cause problems when I do end up against a deadline. Sorting out how I want to approach new ideas now will hopefully help me further down the road. You can't pitch unfinished ideas after all.

Process

This is one of the most interesting aspects of comics for me, how do x number of creators get to the same point – finished comic – from so many different approaches. From a writer’s viewpoint I’ve been refining my process almost constantly as I learn new things and try to feel out what works for me.

At present my process currently looks like this:

1. Idea – could be anything from a character name to an almost complete story.
2. Explore idea – keep writing down anything that comes from the initial idea.
3. Write the story in full – once critical mass is reached on the idea, write down the story in shortened prose, hitting all the major beats where possible.
4. Break down the story into the major beats, giving you a rough idea of what form the comic will take – one-shot, mini/maxi-series, OGN etc
5. Issue paragraphs, one paragraph explaining what happens for each issue.
6. Single issue beats – can be as many as six or seven or as few as two or three. This also gives me a rough page guide.
7. Pages 1-22 (or whatever you decided after the above) – what information you want to get on each page.
8. Write it!

The first two parts are self-explanatory. For part three – what is critical mass? For me the simple answer is whatever you decide it to be, if you can see a story or a brief part of one at any given point, write it down. As this develops you will see how the story shapes up in general and that’s when I would commit to writing as much of it down as possible. What this does is give you a framework from which to delve into what exactly it is you have and whether it is enough to warrant going further. However this will depend on your intent, comics doesn’t put a roof over my head or food on the table, so writing comics to make money is different to writing comics for experience and to build a CV.

Shortened prose isn’t the best of descriptions but it is how I think of essentially getting the skeleton or synopsis of the story down in words. Basically, a few paragraphs that explains the whole story. For instance, here’s a great example from Justin Jordan who gave me a lot of good advice and from whom I’ve adapted several parts of this way of working.

Citizen
After a reporter’s wife kills herself and their young son in a bizarre act of social defiance, he is driven to explain what happened to her. He finds strange things on her hard drive that he can’t explain, and his investigation leads him to a series of similar acts all over the country, all connected by one word: Citizen.

Citizen is a living ideology, a group reaction to the corruption inherent in modern American society. It takes over the minds of people who read it, turning them into citizen and using them to strike against the government. In the end, the reporter is unable to convince anyone of the existence of Citizen, and frustrated by society, he kills himself in a public act of defiance. He has become a Citizen.
© Justin Jordan 2008

From this you should be able to define the initial important events (any story will be subject to change, sometimes on a large scale) and, depending on what events you wish to highlight, give you a basic walkthrough from beginning to end. These events or beats should also give you some thoughts as to what format best fits the story – is it an open-ended story that warrants an on-going series? If it has a clearly defined ending is it a mini or maxi series? How many issues will that take? Should it be served up all at once as an Original Graphic Novel? What about small instalments as a web comic? There’s a lot to consider about what form allows you to best tell your story.

Once you’ve decided on a format and are happy with the general story beats, you can break it down into successively smaller parts that should make the story a more manageable, enjoyable process whilst giving you plenty of freedom to explore. Deciding on a starting point will be a major component of this section. I read this incredibly informative article by Steven Grant recently, which may help you understand the benefits of really thinking about where you want the story to begin.

Dependent on what format I’ve opted for then, I can break the story down into whatever size pieces I feel comfortable with. You can do it by issue, giving you what part of the story each issue is going to deal with. Breaking it down further to see how each issue is tailored to serve that part of the story, right down to the 1-22 on a piece of paper to decide what each page, or even panel, should look like and how it builds the story.

I know this can be seen as a very drawn out and mechanical process, plus it hasn’t lead to me writing anything of note yet, but I find it gives me a lot of smaller goals to achieve and a very clear idea of every part of the story. This helps me to keep chipping away at a story each time I sit down to write. Ultimately though, there is no substitute for writing and gaining practical experience of what works for you. Hopefully this will have helped some but I’d love to hear from anyone with a different method

Chinks in the armour

Structure scares me. Sometimes I can nail it to the wall and tell you exactly how it should work. The rest of the time, up is down and black is white. Personally it seems like the hardest part of getting started. I can almost imagine established writers hoarding their golden formulas, locking them away on ninja trained, death skunks. I’ve read some very good articles, my sincere thanks to Caleb Monroe particularly for one of the best resources on comics and their creation, and read avidly the words of top writers. Ultimately though there’s a path I need to find, one which I can label ‘mine’. This isn’t to be unique or anything quite so precious, but simply to allow my ideas to come out in the way I see them. Otherwise there isn’t much point to all this is there?