Charming Monsters

My husband & co-conspirator, Jim Zub, has been blogging about his writing process over the last couple of days. Considering that Jim manages to be a prolific writer on top of juggling a hectic work schedule, he’s got some good ideas on how to get writing done when you’re fitting it in to tiny slices around the rest of your life:

I’m a story planning junkie. I know there are people who just dive in and start writing ‘page 1′ without any idea where things will go, letting the muses kiss their fingertips clattering along the keyboard, but I’m not one of those people. I plan a lot of the story structure up front and it’s time consuming, but once that idea and pacing phase is done I write fearlessly because I know the overall plan and won’t lose my way. I can clearly visualize scenes and anticipate how they’re going to play out, driving me to get to them. If I come up with better ideas along the way or inspiration strikes a scene, I can work it into the structure and adapt. I rarely need to cut or heavily revise material because I’ve built a solid story foundation to work from.

So, how does that work?

The first thing I do is brainstorm a series of point form ‘things’ – facts that need to be relayed to the reader so the story makes sense – character traits, settings, antagonists, goals, character changes or revelations. It’s a giant jumble of story ideas, characters and key moments – the raw story ingredients all piled up.

Then, I look at the length of my story. If it’s a work-for-hire comic story then the format is probably a set number of pages. If it’s my own project then I rough out how much space I think I’ll need to make it work (number of issues or number of pages for a self-contained graphic novel). Once I know the number of issues/chapters I can start to plug in my jumbled pile of elements and get a sense of story flow.

You can read the whole thing online in two sections: Part One and Part Two

I’m just back from a glorious five-day writing retreat and doubling down on busy, as usual. We’re less than two weeks from San Diego Comic Con and I’m scrambling to keep on top of all the press relations, organization and general juggling required to to make sure the show goes smoothly. I’m also doing rewrites on season two of my webcomic, Rocket Fox, pulling together some pitch materials for my agent, and working on the script for book two of a classic literature adaptation project. Whew!

That said, I managed to fit in a quick chat with the podcast crew over at ShiftyLook last week, before my writing retreat, and the interview is now up! Collette, Tim and I chatted about YA fiction, writing process, and of course my ShiftyLook webcomic, Rocket Fox! The podcast is available here – I’d love to hear what you think! It’s my first audio interview, and I was crazy-nervous, hence some of the rapidfire babbling.

Lsat week I was in New York for Book Expo America, a great experience I need to blog about as soon as I dig out from under the workload that accumulated during my trip! The best comics-related programming at the show was definitely the Hottest Graphic Novels of 2012 buzz panel, moderated by John Hogan from Graphicnovelreporter.com. Linda Yau has a good write-up at the Lincoln Heights Literary Society, and The Beat provides a list of featured titles with cover images and ordering details.

Good Comics for Kids interviews Scott Robins and Snow Wildsmith about their new book, A Parent’s Guide to the Best Kids Comics. Scott and Snow were kind enough to send me a review copy, since a couple of UDON’s Manga for Kids titles are featured in the book – it’s a fantastic resource for anyone looking to gain more insight into the exciting kid’s comic market, and I can’t wait to write up a proper review (see above re: workload, ugh).

And on a creator note, Faith Erin Hicks posted a charming one-page comic about her process for developing a new book. It’s sweet, funny, and instantly recognizable to anyone who has tackled a larger creative project!

Interesting article from Jason Thompson on io9 about the challenges facing the manga publishing industry, with an extensive focus on the complete lack of digital strategy by most Japanese manga publishers. (North American publishers are generally hamstrung on digital by a lack of rights, a question UDON gets asked on a regular basis.)

Nine good tips on how to get started marketing your book (for free!) from Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

The Beat provides a summary and discussion around a recent hot topic on Twitter: are cartoonists doomed to die poor (while pirates dance on their graves)?

In American Censorship news, Arizona’s ban on ethnic studies will keep a wide range of great books out of the classroom – including Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Lindsay Doran in the New York Times on what makes a movie ending “happy” (some great writing craft advice here).

A charming animated short with definite appeal to book lovers!

This was filmed at Type Books on Queen West, one of my favorite indie bookstores in Toronto. I’ll have to make the time to stop by this weekend and pick up a new book or two, to show my appreciation for them allowing the filmmakers after-hours access to the shop*!

* – I say this despite having gotten a whole new stack of lovely books for Christmas, along with an e-reader which I’m excited to try out. Good thing I also have a new bookshelf!