Monday: Taking a Break...

Dear Gentle Readers,

As you have probably noticed, the frequency of these posts has declined in the recent months. I have been telling myself that I will recapture the fire and drive that powered this blog for these last several years, but I suspect that it is now time to face the truth:

I simply have said almost everything that I have to say about writing for television.

It used to be the case that every time I wrote a scene -- or watched a scene -- a little nugget of writing advice would occur to me. But now I find that I'm consistently being reminded of points that I have already made, examples at which I have already pointed.

I have received hundreds, possibly thousands, of letters during the time I blogged here, all of them kind and thoughtful. Thank you. In fact, some of the letters which remain unaddressed may still be answered in this space as I stumble across answers and notions.

I'm not abandoning this space. I will probably post here from time to time as I continue to learn how to write, and I'll pass my realizations along to you. I may also use this space as I originally had planned to: as a place to notify you of airdates and personal appearances.

I hope that I will get a second wind, discover an untapped well of writing wisdom to share -- I think sometimes it's necessary simply to practice what one does in order to learn more about how to convey the secrets of doing it.

And, of course, I hope to organize the thoughts I've presented here into a book at some future date.

But in any case, I thank you SO MUCH, Gentle Readers, for your time and attention. I have loved talking with you through this medium and I hope I'll return to it in the future!

Love, Jane (Your Gentle Writer)

Feverish Comic Book Thoughts

I promised a very long time ago that I would talk about the process of comic book writing. I've already mentioned that comic book scripts vary enormously from author to author and publisher to publisher, so it's possible that the process I'm going to describe is only one way that these things are accomplished, but this is how I've experienced it.

First, I come up with a story, remembering that it generally has to be quite simple. You can't get a lot on a page, so you have to keep that in mind. I also try to make the story more action-packed than I normally would do in a similarly long stretch of television. It's worth thinking, too, about things that would be hard or expensive to do on TV, since this is your chance to, say, make a character shrink or fade away or turn inside-out, or make a city burn, crumble or float. You can think big on the comic book page. (Although some things stay the same -- huge crowd scenes can still sometimes be problematic, I was told, since you're burdening the artist with a very complex drawing.)

Next, I try to carve my story up into roughly page-sized pieces. I will find out during the writing process (every darn time) that I've overestimated the content of each page and I'll have to simplify the story. Presumably, a better writer would learn how to anticipate that.

It's a good idea to look for act-break like little moments of suspense at the end of each odd-numbered page so that the reader is compelled to turn the page. But, honestly, I don't sweat these too much. If I can make it happen, great. But I don't want to twist the story around to the tyranny of the page break.

Some parts of comic book writing are incredibly specific to the genre, like sound-effects words. You get to figure out how (and where and when) to suggest the sound of a body hitting the ground or a bullet being fired, or a blob of taffy flying through the air. (Answer key: k'thumph, blamm and fweeee!)

My scripts give pretty detailed descriptions of what I imagine for each panel, so when I'm writing the script I have to think visually. I picture an action, and then have to figure out if there's a single snapshot that would capture that action, or if I'll need to spread it out over multiple panels. If there's a conversation, I have to boil it down to its essentials so I don't have pages of nothing but drawings of two people on a park bench. It's a challenge. If you read a lot of comics it will undoubtedly come easier to you. As in all writing, there is no need to re-invent anything. Others have worked out a lot of this already and you can learn a lot by studying how other writers have tackled these challenges.

Once the script is turned over to the artist, I get to communicate back-and-forth with him or her. Artists are, of course, uniquely equipped to tell you what will and won't work to communicate your idea visually, and they have loads of creative ideas of their own. Let them run with it! I find it's best to just make clear what I was HOPING to convey and then let them convey it, because their ideas about this are always better than mine. (On my most recent effort, I got to work with Georges Jeanty, who is a genuine genius -- fantastic.)

I got to weigh in on preliminary drawings and even colors during the latest issue I wrote, and it's fascinating, seeing it all come together. Comic books feel both very autonomous and very collaborative at the same time -- it begins entirely under your control, without the limitations of a filmed production, and it ends entirely in the hands of others. It's one of the most satisfying final products, too, for a TV writer, since it's both a physical object and a lot faster than a novel.

Lunch: juice and Tylenol (home sick with flu)

Jane in Progress

Monday: Taking a Break...

Feverish Comic Book Thoughts

Previous Entries