Part Of The Process

In my desire to try and get this blog updated weekly (which seemed like such a good idea at the time...), I'm going to post something I try and avoid talking about as much as humanly possible: the writing process.

I generally hate reading blog posts about people's writing processes, because they're not mine, and they're as alien to me as the Martian language. And, if I'm being brutally honest, I find them dull and pretentious; the ones I've read are usually filled with stuff like "Well, I meditate in front of a lump of asparagus for twenty-three minutes before I sit down to craft my tales" and "I must achieve the right frame of mind by stroking my Mr Stay Puft toy's belly before I can put fingers to keyboard." And this is where my attitude to writing in general clashes with other peoples.

For the last few years, I've concentrated more on writing comics than prose (and, yes, the rumours are true: both require different skill sets to do effectively), and I think this has led me to adopting a far more...focused attitude to writing. I've turned out a significantly higher amount of work, and my list of published work has increased, too. More importantly, though, the way I think about writing has changed significantly. I've begun to look at it more like a job, something I have to do even when I don't want to (helped by the fact that I've agreed to write stuff for people and actually had to do it even when I wasn't in the mood). On top of that, there's been some upheaval in my personal life over the last couple of years which has taught me dispense with pretension and just to be able to sit down and write where ever and whenever I need or want to. As a result of that my writing process has been streamlined considerably, and, basically, goes like this:

• I think of an idea. I let it foment a little, maybe send it off to play with some other ideas kicking around my head, or maybe I just start putting them together like LEGO blocks and see what fits. 
• When I have something vaguely story shaped, I write it down very roughly (spelling mistakes, bad grammar and all)
• I begin to break the story down into script form, sometimes using bullet points (with one point being a panel)
• I write the first draft of the script.
• From there, I'll usually leave it and come back to it and re-read and re-write.

Everything in between points 3 and 4 is simple logistics. And by that I mean, figuring out how many pages I have to fill, how big is the publication it's going toward, how many scenes I'll need and how many panels per page I'd need to tell the story completely.

And that's pretty much it. There's still a lot going on around me that means I can't afford the luxury of "set writing hours" or "set writing days" yet, so I have to make do around the chaos. But I've found that liberating, and, more crucially, it gives me time to get away from the keyboard and think; I can work ideas around until they're something worth using and then scribble them down.

So, there you have it. My obligatory writing process blog post. It may differ from yours, or others that you've read, but, really? I don't care. It's my process and that's all that really matters. Now let us never speak of it again...

An Experiment...

I suspect the interesting part of this blog post will be at the end of this post, so you may want to skip ahead to the challenge below by clicking here.

Last week, I set myself a challenge: conceive and write a five page comic script in a day.

I know the a few people reading this will scoff at that and say "I could do that!", and y'know what? Maybe you could. But for me, it's not that simple. I've learned the value of taking time away from the basic idea of the story to let it fester grow and develop into something worthwhile. Doing that also lets me figure out scenes and characters, the basic building blocks of the story that I can slowly start to put together. It's also why you'll sometimes catch me talking to myself... *ahem*

I have written five page scripts in a day, but I've usually been working from outlines and/or using established characters. I've also managed to outline a complete short in a day, but I've never tried to conceive and write a brand new, original piece of fiction in a day. So, I thought why not? It could be just what I need to flex the old writering muscles a bit.

Before I did it, though, I decided to set myself some basic rules:

• It had to be an original piece, with characters created by me
• It had to be no longer than five pages
• It had to be SF or horror
• It had to be a complete story, with a beginning, middle and an end

(I also coupled that list with my own personal rules for writing scripts - I might save telling what those are for another blog post).

Early[-ish] in the morning, I took a walk into town to clear my head and see if I could shake an idea loose - thankfully, it did, or it would've been a pretty short experiment and a long day of battering my head off a wall. So after that, I had the basic plot elements and a vague idea of a lead character. From there, I began to figure out an opening page that would establish the set up, and then... Everything started to come apart.

Over the last couple of years, my "process" has changed and I now tend to break down comic pages before I start scripting them. I try and figure out what needs to happen on each page and then break that down into a set number of panels, and then figure out what happens in each panel. Sometimes, I'll do it in my head and sometimes I'll write it down in a notebook for later. This time, though, I made the mistake of jumping straight into the scripting without breaking the pages down, and immediately found myself realising why I make the extra effort to do breakdowns.

So, after a long few hours hunched in front of the screen, trying to work out pages on the fly (as well as doing constant re-writes of pages before I even completed them), I finally managed to get a draft together. I wasn't happy with it, but I had one, and, more importantly, it worked as a story. I should point out here that I had a lot more to say on the process of scripting and the frustration that came with it to write up here, but, really, it's just a lot of nonsense about writing words on a screen, and you can probably all do without reading it.

I'll admit, I walked away from the script for a couple of days and purposely didn't look at it again, because I wanted to see it with a fresh pair of eyes and maybe polish it for submission (that's also the reason why I've been so vague about the contents of the story). Alternatively, I might just post it up as an e-book instead, and let everyone laugh at it see it.

The key thing I took away from this whole daft experiment was that I can sit down and come up with ideas and write when I have to. I don't need to sit and wait around for the starts to align to summon Cthulhu to act as my muse, I don't need my special "writers pen," or to have the "right vibes" flowing around me. I can do it any time I want, and I bet any writer worth their salt can too.

So, here's the challenge to any writers out there reading this (and I doubt there's many, let's be honest): conceive and write a comic script using the same rules outlined above in one day.

To recap (and if you don't want to scroll back up), those rules are:

• It has to be an original piece, with characters created by me
• It has to be no longer than five pages
• It has to be SF or horror
• It has to be a complete story, with a beginning, middle and an end

If you decide to take this on, maybe consider posting links to it in the comments, or maybe just leave a note there saying how you did. If nothing else, it might be good writing exercise. Or it might not, I don't know.

Playing With The Law...

Over the last few days, I've been sorting through some old CD-ROMs, and I stumbled across something interesting: a Judge Dredd card set I made to go with Reko Productions' Card Games Deluxe. The game was, as the name suggests, a collection of card games (Klondike (or Solitaire, if you prefer), Quatro, Memory and Free Cell), but what made the program unique was that you could actually make your own cards for use with any of the games included in it. This gave rise to a pretty vibrant community of people producing their own cards for the game, covering pretty much every subject you could imagine, from various celebrities to cartoons and films. You can still find an active archive of those cards here.

During my younger, more wasteful days, I actually made up a few card sets for the game, some of which were  2000AD related (and I think may still be floating around the net). Looking again at the Dredd set, I can honestly say there's some odd choices of image used for the card faces, but they do represent a snapshot of Dredd and his world from that time. And they were the images I had to hand at the time...

Anyway, I thought I'd offer them up for download to anyone that's interested (if I can find the others, I may well offer those up, too). To use them, you'll need Reko Productions Card Games Deluxe, which you can download from their website:

http://www.rekogames.eu/

To get the Judge Dredd card set, click this link:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/s8w5qr

These cards are being offered "as is", and I have no plans to change them or convert them to a larger size for the newer version of the game. Instructions how to use them should be included in the main game. Also, once that link above is dead, it's going to stay dead.

It goes without saying that these cards are in no way affiliated with Rebellion, and if I'm asked to take them down, down they will come.

For now, though, enjoy!

Zarjaz #15 & FutureQuake #21 - OUT NOW!

The latest issues of FutureQuake and Zarjaz have been released from the FQ Publications stable and are available to buy directly from them now. As ever, both anthologies feature some of the best comic talents the UK small press has to offer - and me!

First up, we have FutureQuake #21, which has within its pages Call Of Nature by me and Jason Smith (with letters by Bolt-01):

When an alien race makes contact with Earth, the humans soon discover they're facing something that's just too big to fight...

This was actually the second version of this story - I hesitate to use the word "draft", because this version only used the title and a couple of basic plot elements from the first one; pretty much everything else is completely new. I wanted to try and bring a lighter tone to the whole "first contact" story, and Jason took that idea and ran with it, producing some really beautiful art - there are more panels in Call Of Nature than I can count that just make me smile, but to say more would give too much of the story away...

FutureQuake #21 features a cover by Gibson Quarter that looks like this:

You can find out more about the cover on Gibson's Blog.

FutureQuake #21 is available now from the FutureQuake Shop priced £3.50 (+ p&p). As ever, you can click the image of the cover over on the right side of your screen to head straight to the shop so you can see for yourself why the comic has been nominated so many times for an Eagle Award!

Remember to check out the FutureQuake Press Website and the FQP Blog for news and previews of upcoming issues - and be sure and check out the latter for the complete running order of this issue.

Next up is Zarjaz #15, an all "Dredd-world" issue, featuring a collection of tales from the mean streets of Mega City One and beyond...

I have to confess here that I'm feeling a bit spoiled with this particular issue. My contributions to it include my first Judge Dredd story for Zarjaz - the first one I ever wrote for the comic, and the first one to be published (er, if you don't include Death To The Future, of course...) - and my first collaborations with Zarjaz veteran David Broughton and the incomparable Kevin Levell!

First, we have Judge Dredd: The Taking Of Mopad 456:

Despite the towering city blocks that form the skyline of Mega-City One, there is still a severe housing shortage plaguing the city, forcing many citizens to live in mobile homes - known as Mopads - that remain constantly on the move through the millions of miles of roadway.

But when one Mopad catches the attention of Judge Dredd, trouble isn't far behind...

As I've already said, the story was an attempt to do a shamelessly old school Judge Dredd tale, trying to capture that feel the series had during the early-mid 80's, and Kev (who, I'm sure you'll agree after reading the strip, is a 2000AD art droid in waiting) just nailed it perfectly. It's left me desperately wanting to work with Kev again in the near future, but I suspect he's going to be a very busy guy...

My second contribution to the issue is Judge Dredd: Big JIMPin':

On the streets of Mega-City One, a Judge's reputation can sometimes be their most effective weapon in upholding the law, and JIMP's - Judge Impersonators - can go a long way to eroding that.

But when someone starts to impersonate Judge Dredd, the grand old man of Justice is forced to stamp it out quickly before his own reputation is damaged beyond repair...

Big JIMPin' was a tricky one to get right, I have to admit. I wanted to try and do Dredd in a the style of how the strip is written now, but it proved to be tougher than I thought. Still not 100% sure I got it right... Thankfully, I had Zarjaz and Dogbreath vet David Broughton on board to tackle the art and breathe some life into the strip in his own unique style. David has also posted something about the process of creating the strip over on his blog, and there's a rather nice write up of the strip over on the Forbidden Planet International Blog.

Both Dredd strips were lettered by Bolt-01.

Zarjaz #15 features a cover by Edmund Bagwell (based on a Chris Weston commission), and looks a bit like this:

The guys at Everything Comes Back To 2000AD have posted a huge collection of previews of this issue to whet your appetite further.

Zarjaz #15 is now available from the FutureQuake Shop, priced £3.00 (+ p&p) Earth money. Again, you can click the cover image over on the right of the screen to head straight there, but if you prefer to grab your copy from a bricks and mortar shop, you should be able to get them from your local Forbidden Planet International store and Orbital Comics in London in the coming weeks!

As always, for all your Zarjaz and Dogbreath news, check out The Quaequam Blog - but remember to set your browsers for maximum Thrill Power!