Getting Work You Love: Working In-House

Last time we touched on the things you must do in order to pursue a published gig as a creative. This week, our three-part series continues with explanations on what it takes to make it in-house.

This entry is all about getting an office job as it were – an in-house job is one where you go in, 9 to 5 to do some creative work. I currently have a job like this and as head of the design department, I get to look at all the candidates who hope to get work of this type. Some are exceptional, but many are lacking in some very basic but very key components.

To start, let’s look at some job titles usually carried by in-house creatives. They are:

·         Designer

·         Illustrator

·         Photographer

·         3D Modeler

·         Concept Artist

·         Art or Creative Director

·         And the list goes on…

Now - to reiterate what was said in our last entry - if you want to work in jobs like these, you need a portfolio. I’ll say it again. Artists. Need. Portfolios. I don’t care if you’ve never worked as an artist before in your life – if you have a portfolio, you have 90% of what is necessary to be hired as one. If you don’t, then you basically have nothing. You may laugh or you may cry, but 9 times out of 10, when it comes to immediate rejections, the reason is always the same: the person failed, in their introduction letter or resume, to provide samples of their work, be it a link to an online gallery, a disc, or prints.

As a person considering you for a job centered entirely around your ability to create and to do it well, I simply must see what you’re capable of. Goes without saying that I’d rather see you send a portfolioand no resume than vice versa. And I want to see your best stuff, only. Look again to our first entry for some basic tips on creating a great portfolio.

What goes into your portfolio for an in-house job is, as always, up to you but you would serve yourself best if you had some work that was similar to the type of stuff you’d be doing for the company.  As an example: an employer may be impressed by your show-accurate rendition of Sailor Moon, but if you’re applying for a graphic design job for a healthcare company, you’d be better suited bringing some brochures you’ve laid out and leaving the illustrations at home. Competition for these jobs, especially when advertised in papers or online, can be pretty fierce so don’t think you can get away with bringing your C-game.

If you don’t have anything that would fit, then instead of creating something specifically for that company, you should first take inventory of what your portfolio does show, and question whether or not you’d want a job within that particular industry. Be honest with yourself. If you’ve got a portfolio crammed with illustrations of motorcycles and edgy ads, then a position at Harley-Davidson might be a great fit for you, whereas a job in-house with a vacuum cleaner company, might not. It’s worth your time to seek out a job you love because unlike published and freelance gigs, you can count on spending loads of time within the company’s walls, and that means immersing yourself in their brand. Want to be happy as a creative person? Remember to seek out work you love, and not just work you “can do”. Always and in any economy.

Too, you’d do well to understand the hierarchy of jobs within the design/creative fields. Generally speaking you have: Entry-level or junior designers (jobs for people right out of college or new to the field). Designers and senior designers (both for people with some experience), art and creative directors (the management), Marketing Managers, CMOs, COOs and Presidents (the bosses of the bosses). Feel free to apply to any job, but make sure you have had experience in the field before you expect to break into anything above the basic “designer” level.

You should know basic business etiquette – dress well, not too much perfume, flat shoes, etc. Even if they say the initial interview is casual, dress smart. Again, you’ll be spending a lot of time within the company, and the people in charge want to make sure you’ll fit in with them during those hours.  Oh – and please… Don’t bring your cellphone to the interview, or at least shut it off. Don’t bring your mom, either.

So, what about the resume? Do bring a resume. Simply show that you’ve had a good working history. Try to avoid gaps - If you’ve freelanced, then make sure that’s in there, too! As I said, this isn’t as important as the portfolio, but some firms put a stupid amount of emphasis on college and previous work – and frankly, companies like that are often clueless about hiring a good designer, so don’t feel bad if you don’t get a job there because of these things. Speaking for myself, I mostly use resumes to keep tabs on contact information for candidates I’m interested in, so make sure a working phone number and email address are both present on your resume. Oh – and answer your phone if you get a call or at least call-back in 24 hours!

See you next week, where we'll discuss how to get work as a freelancer!

Getting Work You Love: Getting Published

Welcome to part one of a three-part series on getting work that you love! The first chapter I'll be covering today will be good for writers and artists alike who want to get their work in front of the masses in a publication of some sort, a book or other media of their own creation. Next week, we'll explore working in-house for a company as a staff creative on salary. After that, we'll dive into going freelance, where these two worlds are more or less combined.

If you're an artist or writer, then one of your big goals may be to see your work in front of the eyes of millions. To get published nationally or even internationally is an aspiration of many, and in this day of the Internet, instant feedback and endless avenues for exposure, it's something which can be achieved far more easily than in years past. Of course, competition is still fierce and not everyone has a spot available to test-drive a new talent, so preparation and all-around excellence must be expected of anyone wanting to get into the game.

That first bit about preparation and excellence starts with having a portfolio you can be proud of. To those of you who do not have a portfolio which is either online, in a book, or preferably, both, pay very close attention: You. Must. Have. A. Portfolio. This is true not only of this first exploration into the world of the working creative seeking to be published, but those looking to become in-house and freelance artists as well. Nobody will care that you're an artist or a writer until you have a portfolio together.

So how do you go about making a portfolio? Simple! Follow these two rules:

• Fill it with your best work.
• Fill it with works that showcase the type of stuff you'd like to be doing.

And that's it. How many pieces you include, what they are, diversity amongst them and all of that is up to you, so long as whatever is going into the thing, follows those two rules.

Now, if you are looking to get published somewhere, I assume you've done your homework and have pinpointed a few publishers which already do work you'd either like to be a part of creating, or which publish things similar to the idea which you'd like to have published. If not, you simply must do that.

Too, you have to research who's hiring. Some outfits aren't actively seeking new talent, and you very likely won't get anywhere with them by sending blind submissions in. And I'm not saying that if it's a dream of yours to work for a company of this type that you shouldn't send things in, but you certainly shouldn't feel discouraged if, in doing so, you don't hear back from them. Save the "not hiring" crowd for last or skip them until they are hiring.

Most publishers have strict guidelines when it comes to how, when and where they accept submissions. Some comic book companies only accept submissions from artists attending conventions and stepping into their portfolio reviews, while others want small files to be emailed to them, and still others have long, extensive processes which artists and writers need to follow to a "t" if they want in. Of these, I personally prefer the portfolio reviews. Not only do you get to meet people in the industry, face to face, but you get instant feedback on your work -- so even if you don't get hired, you'll very likely walk away knowing what needs fixed in order for you to do so. Especially if you're just starting out in comics, go to these whenever possible.

As for writers, the process is much the same, but I've not heard of a live portfolio review for writers happening anywhere, so you may be relegated to sending your stuff in, only. It's a little tougher for writers to break-in to comics, as well. Many places simply aren't looking for new stories as much as they're looking for artists to help bring existing stories to life. That should not discourage you, especially if you're good. Here again, pinpointing a handful of publishers you really want to work for is key, and follow-up as well as persistence is too. It doesn't hurt to get to know the people you'd potentially be working for either, by seeking them out at conventions and taking genuine interests in the kinds of things they're working on at the moment, and the type of things they're looking for in a writer for that series.

One of the other avenues writers take, and artists too (though I'll say, to a lesser extent) is to find an agent. Especially if you're looking to write a novel, you should seek out the most current volume of literary agent lists, such as "The 20XX Guide to Literary Agents" which is published each year and available on Amazon.com. An agent will take a look at your work (your portfolio) and if you're marketable, match you up with a publisher. In exchange for this magical service, they'll then take a fee out of your book sales once it's on the market. It's oftentimes a lengthy process, and agents aren't quick to accept just anyone so several inquiries over several months or even years are often necessary. But again, if you're persistent and the quality of your work continues to improve with each submission, you'll eventually break in.

One final note for writers of novels especially, here -- there are several scam publishers out there. They're easily recognizable by the copious amounts of money they require you to sink into them supposedly publishing your book, before publishing it. Be aware that the majority of real publishers have the money to front the costs for a book they believe will sell, and unless you're self-publishing, the amount of money spent to publish your work should be no more than the cost of postage to send your submission in.

No matter what avenue you've taken to get published, and no matter your skill level, preparedness, or how long you've been working towards your goal, you can pretty much count on one thing, only: Rejection letters. And that's hardly a bad thing!

Most rejection letters will leave a sting the first time you read them. Don't worry, though, as the sting gets duller the more you see them. Too, most won't be particularly helpful in terms of what's required for you to break through the red tape and get your work published. Editors usually have their desks cluttered with submissions on any given day, and a detailed response to each creator about the particulars of their work -- what works and what doesn't -- would be impossible. Those that do point out what needs to be fixed should be cherished, saved, even framed. A thick skin may seem necessary when an editor criticizes your work, but it isn't. Seeing their critiques for what they really are, is.

Here's the biggest secret about editors that practically nobody will share with you: Most of them aren't talent-hating-know-nothing-jerks. Almost all of them want you to succeed, and they want you to do better. If an editor has taken the time out of his or her day to tell you, specifically, what you missed the mark on, it's because you're so very close to being someone they'll hire, fixing these nuances, big or small, will put you over the edge.

And now it's time for a breakdown.

In review, here are the main points to getting published which you should remember. Feel free to copy and paste these, and stick them on your wall, next to your rejection letters, until you're published:

• Put a portfolio together.
• Put things in your portfolio which are awesome.
• Put things in your portfolio which are of the type of work you'd like to be doing.
• Don't be afraid to cater your portfolio to a specific publisher by tweaking the body of work you showcase, relevant to the work you see yourself doing for a given publisher.
• Send your samples to everyone who is hiring.
• Send samples to a few places who aren't hiring, but don't be discouraged if you don't hear back from them.
• Follow the rules when sending submissions. Even if they're tedious.
• Take your stuff to a convention portfolio review and get a professional opinion.
• Seek out several agents and submit your works to them.
• Expect rejection letters. Even if you're the best artist/writer in the world.
• Don't take rejection letters personally.
• If you get critique, take it as a compliment to your potential, not as an insult.
• Improve
• Keep sending things in and don't be afraid of rejections
• Understand that breaking-in is hard work.
• Take reality checks in stride. Remember - if someone "you're better than" is doing work and you're not, it's very likely they worked harder than you did, faster than you could, or they actually are better at art or writing than you are. Don't get discouraged. Just improve.

If you've got talent, eventually someone will take a chance on you, and you'll get your first published gig. You've gotta want it, and you've gotta be persistent, but if the first is true, then the persistency should come naturally for you. Keep at it!

See you next week, where we'll discuss the ins and outs of working in-house!

Making Comics: Artist Tools

When I was younger, getting comics wasn't something I'd say was a chore, but it was certainly a task. When you're in small-town Pennsylvania, your nearest anything is often a good half-hour drive out of town, so getting a hold of anything as exotic as a new issue of a comic book becomes something of a ritual. These days, if you want a new issue of something, it's often as easy as opening iTunes and waiting for it to download. If not, then you can go online and read a webcomic or find a synopsis within a review if you're particularly lazy and/or broke.

Things certainly have changed when it comes to how we access and consume comic books, but the same can't really be said for how the comics themselves are created. And that goes for digital comics and webcomics, too.

Here then, is a run-down of some popular tools needed to create comics then and now:

The Canvas - Your basic 11x17 cold-press bristol board was the standard comic book sketch pad back in the day, and for many of us old-heads, that's not changed. In the olden days, publishers would sometimes send you complimentary boards if you were working on one of their books, but it's certainly more common to request the artist purchase their own. I like Blue Line Pro boards which you can order online, but Strathmore makes tablets of 24 boards, some pre-lined, specifically for comic books, which you can purchase in stores.

It's worth mentioning that these days, it isn't necessary to have a physical canvas to work on at all, if you have a drawing tablet and know what you're doing with a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Indeed, and especially with the increasing trend of publishers requiring artists learn to be pencillers, inkers and colorists all in one, some illustrators prefer to work entirely on the computer.

The Drawing Tools - Pencils and pens were the order of the day back when I started doing comics professionally (and that was a decade ago, already. Yeesh!). Not much has changed here either, when it comes to yours truly, at least. As I've said in countless blog posts before this one -- I am a pencil snob. I like a .05 lead in a mechanical pencil the best, and I prefer to work with Staedtler Mars pencils and graphite. For pens, I like Pigma Microns and the oldschool Rapidograph pens you have to load with ink. Some inkers prefer working with brushes and quill pens, as well.

Naturally, techniques aren't staying exclusively traditional in this arena. Vector programs like Adobe Illustrator are excellent for making sleek lines when inking, digitally. Here again, all you need is a tablet, a computer, and the program itself. And, bonus, with Illustrator's pen tool being so versatile, I can say from personal experience that it's not impossible to do some inking with a plain old mouse and forego the tablet requirement entirely!

The Colors - I knew more than a few colorists, back in the day, who were having great success painting colors onto their comic boards using gouache and watercolors. I knew far more who were using Photoshop to color their comic boards, however. It and programs like it are still standards to this day for this reason.

What's interesting about colors, to me at least, is noticing a trend of artists going back to the old ways of coloring a piece of artwork, and this sort of resurgence into using paints, markers and inks. The reason for this is, I think, better scanners, software and printers capable of picking up and recreating the delicate nuances of such media. Many artists, I'm sure, simply prefer to work by hand as much as possible, and some stories just lend themselves better to this more analog approach.

The Typography - One of the many points of fascination within my portfolio comes from the abundance of old Sonic pages that contain hand-lettered text. These are wonderful little treasures, and I would go so far as to call them relics of an age gone by. You simply don't see hand-drawn type any more as computers have become quite good at making good-looking typography.

It wasn't until I was acquainted with some exceptional letterers that I myself started to pick up a few things about the nuances of typography within comic books and how those things should be handled. It's unfortunate, but with the ease of  creating text in the computer age, we've lost a bit of the art. So while it's a simple task to put words to comic these days, it's by no means easy to do it well. Checking out a few comics printed some years in the past with hand-drawn letters is, I think, essential to achieving great results with text created by computers.

Whatever your personal preferences and tastes, doing artwork and incorporating design that is both nice to look at and fitting of the work should be your goal. Don't be afraid to try new things... or old things, for that matter!

The Worst Things Good Parents are Teaching Creative Kids

This past week on Twitter, I lamented the fact that I might soon have to place a banner on the Gloryhound Website that read, in big red letters and 72 point font:

"Don't Go to College!"

I think that would be a pretty huge tragedy. Still, with the costs of education rising to out-of-control proportions and ill-prepared students walking into interviews without the stuff they should have gotten in school to show for all the money they spent, I wonder. And I worry.

Having looked at the issue as someone who's been in the art industry both as an illustrator and a designer for the last decade, I think we need to rearrange some of the common misconceptions out there about taking a job in the creative fields. I believe some of that starts with teaching parents what kinds of conversations are okay to have with their kids who want to get into industries that involve visual art, writing and music.

Here are but a few things that I've heard well-meaning parents tell their kids:

• You need to go to college for art and the opposite: Art school is a waste of money. These are both very narrow viewpoints on art school in general. Speaking as an art school graduate, I can say if you have a child who is skilled at drawing -- and pay attention to the word skilled, here, because your kid can't just draw every once in a while on the margins of his books at school and be expected to get an enjoyable career out of it, then art school is an excellent resource. Please don't be that parent who sends their child off to art school because they needed to go to school for something.
  And that's another horrible misconception - if you're telling your kids that they have to go to school, then it's on you if they don't end up doing anything with their lives, mom and dad. Sorry. The fact of the matter is, art school is not a waste of money for kids who have real potential to become artists. Be careful, because college recruiters are some of the craftiest salespeople out there and will gladly tell any schmuck he has what it takes to be the next great designer. Don't buy it if the child doesn't love it, because it is expensive.
  
  And that brings me to my final point on this matter: If you've got a gifted kid and they deserve a good school, make sure they can afford it. As it is with any field, school doesn't guarantee a job. It's the work you put in, after you get the degree, that counts. It's the portfolio you've put together. It's the drive you have to go out job-seeking and doing freelance. It's not glamorous for those first few years and creative jobs are often some of the most competitive. But if there's hustle, a job will be found.
• You will never make money with your art and/or you will make money after you're dead. It can seem to be a scary thing, especially to parents with kids fresh out of school who are still lingering around the house. It's important not to get into this mentality that says there are no good jobs to be found in creative endeavors. I've been working for 10 years and the whole time, the economy was never good.
  
  Aside from landing 9 to 5 jobs, artists have a unique and excellent opportunity to become freelancers, which is in my opinion, where all the money is, anyway. It just takes more work than landing a job. I encourage every artist who is new to the game, to take a hard look at their portfolios and then take time to fill them with pieces representing the art they'd love to do. It's especially true with art school students, that a portfolio could become cluttered with any old assignment to show off versatility. But versatility can sometimes be a crutch. Showing that you know how to do one thing and do it better than the competition is at the heart of any business, and when you sell yourself, your portfolio should always be reflective of that one thing you can do exceptionally well. Maybe it's illustrations of pin-up girls, and maybe it's laying out postcards. Whatever  it is, seeking work you love and doing it to the best of your ability is how you make real money as an artist.
• You should do that project for Aunt Sally for free. Yes and no. I find it interesting that many of the people who proclaim artists aren't marketable are the same ones who request artists work for free.
  
  Look, there are a million websites out there which already cover this problem far better than I could. Here's the bottom line: If you're an artist, and even if you know someone, and yes, even if they're family, you should probably be charging money for your services. In the end, it's always up to them, but it's good practice for the kid to start setting expectations to be paid for their hard work. And more than likely, Aunt Sally will be only happy to pay.
• If you do art as a job, you will hate it as a hobby. Simply not true. If anything, you should be encouraging your child to look at what they're already doing as a hobby, and as a parent, help to guide them into a path that will use the thing they find themselves doing for hours on end, as a means to earn a living.
  
  I hear you saying, "But Dawn, where will my kid find work as a concert pianist?" and I truthfully don't know. But I do know that concert pianists make a bunch of money and some might even be doing it right in your home town. Seek people out who can get the child started in that direction, and let them know what to expect and how to go about it as a career. An apprenticeship is ideal, if you can get one.

 

Perhaps if we start here, there will never be a need for me to put that banner up on my website. And that's good, because I sure hope there never will be.

How to Write (Good) Fanfiction

I've been asked when I was going to cover this topic, so without further ado...

You may think good and fanfiction can't be in the same sentence together, and if you look at some of the stuff people post online (My Immortal, anyone?) you may have a point. However, many people enjoy writing fanfiction, myself included, and it's been that way for years even before the Internet. Some of these unofficial or non-canon stories are well-loved by fans and there's no reason you yourself couldn't pen the next great fic to go down in fandom history.

In a very broad sense, we write fanfic for many reasons:

• We are looking to practice our writing or get started as a writer.
• We feel we can do a good job of writing in a world which we love.
• We simply get inspired to tell stories not seen in the actual canon.

Fanfic is not for the weak of heart -- people, even those who claim to be easy going about such things, will defend their own ideas of a popular tale, quite feverishly. But that shouldn't discourage you! You can learn many things from writing fanfiction, and not the least of these is learning to handle criticism gracefully.

Through writing, you will also learn what it feels to love what you're writing about. This is a very key element necessary in creating original works of your own. And of course, you can and should learn the basics of setting up scenes and characters for your own ideas, which fanfiction can teach you how to do.

When you write fanfic, you should write what you want and how you want, because there's no better use of fanfiction than to test the waters of reception for any given idea. If you are going to be a serious writer, you would do yourself a disservice following the popularized "rules" of fanfiction, such as pairing your original characters with actual characters, creating powerful characters, or alternate realities. You should simply strive to write characters in situations you would find fitting to them while keeping the whole thing interesting and enjoyable to your audience. Many of the best fanfics out there are the ones that don't follow the rules.

Still, you should try to follow these basics, as always:

• Use proper grammar and spelling
• Stick to one style of writing. If you're going for 3rd person omniscient, don't switch to first-person mid-story.
• Try not to make the whole thing one big porno. At least add some feelings and conflicts and stuff.
• Don't write "drabbles"... you cheater!
• Write as if you were gonna' sell the thing (but stop short of actually selling it)

And one last but very important item:

• Don't publish your fanfic if the author of the original work has expressed that they do not appreciate it.

Feel free to fanfic to your heart's content, but with one big word of caution: the minute you really start to enjoy the process of writing is the minute you should start considering penning some stories of your own. That is something you can be truly proud of and who knows: maybe people will soon be writing fanfiction of your stories!

Why Inspiration is Your Friend When Writing

If you're a writer, you've probably had this happen to you: You're sitting around, engaged in something as far from creative writing as possible, when it strikes. Inspiration! The thing that never comes when it's called and all too often comes when there's nothing to be done about it.

For as bad with timing as inspiration is, it's still our friend, regardless. Too, it's important to deliver on your inspiration right away, or at least, as soon as possible. Why?

• Something happened to inspire you. This likely means you're in a "good state" to write. If you can manage it, pull away from your current project and start acting on your inspired thought. Keep a journal and write it down, if nothing else.
• There's no guarantee you'll remember your awesome idea later. And that goes double for still being inspired when later finally comes. Don't waste any of it!
• Understand that inspired thought is rare and wonderful, even if you don't know how to use it right away. Again, write it down. A way will be found.

Sometimes people will come to me and complain of writer's block, but they have a million great ideas "saved for later". Don't be tempted to do this with your inspired thoughts. There's no guarantee of a "later" if you're stuck on the beginning of something! See what ways you can work with your inspired thought right now! When later comes, so will other inspirations, and you can use them, then. I say this too much -- don't fall in love with your first draft, and in a nutshell, this is why.

When inspired thought comes to you, don't squander it! Get a journal and log it, keep thinking on it, and as soon as you can, get writing!

Creative Writing From Start to Finish - Part III

We've come to the final part of our series on creative writing today, and I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed the journey. Since we’ve gotten through concept development, outlining, story structure and writing, it’s on to the last steps: timelining, theme weaving, and editing.

 
You might consider this the boring part of the tutorial and quite frankly, there was a time where I would have agreed with you. Nonetheless, the things we cover in this portion are equally, if not more important than the things we talked about in the last two chapters. And I promise, I’ll try to keep it all interesting. In fact, you may even enjoy it.

 
Writing timelines is a skill I always recommend people develop if they’re going to tackle a story, and especially one that is told in multiple parts or will otherwise be quite long and detailed. I don’t always save doing this for the end, and will often start timelining in the same instance that I pull my first story concept together, and work on it throughout the whole process. In general, my timeline isn’t finished until I’ve put significant work into my story, already, so there’s never a bad time to do one.


For a decent timeline, you’ll want to lay out major events of your plot, theme(s), and the actions of each of your major characters, in parallel lines along a span of time – the beginning and end of your story. When starting out, you may have a timeline that looks as simple as this:

But more than likely, you’ll finish with one as big as or bigger than this:

Whatever you end up with, your timeline has one purpose – to keep complicated plot points in line with one another. As you write your timeline, you will begin to see things line up in ways which may lead you to a theme, or two, which could help tie your story together.


Themes are sometimes credited as the glue of a story, since they do such a nice job of unifying things. At its core, a good theme is simultaneously the lesson and inspiration we get through reading and one of the best ways a reader can make a connection to our real world from one of fantasy. The main theme supports the plot. As with many things, themes are best if kept simple and able to be described in one sentence. A good theme may be as simple as “If we work hard and stay optimistic, we can achieve anything.”


The best way to define your theme is to read through your writing and see what kinds of ideas have already tied themselves together. It’s very likely that you’ve placed a theme into your story without even realizing it. Working with the above example of working hard and being optimistic, you may choose to emphasize a point in your tale when a character achieves something through hard work, in an especially poignant fashion. If you find an instance where a character does not get what they want through hard work, you may keep it as a conflict or re-work it so it better fits your theme.


There are artsier themes, as well, and you may choose to keep them secondary to the main theme. Themes revolving around the rising and setting of the sun, change of seasons, and other such things are in this vein. For example, you may choose to align each of your characters with a season, and when your summer character has her moment of glory, you may choose to depict it happening on a hot day in July. Themes such as this are wide open, and serve as nice little extras your audience will appreciate if done well.


Your final phase of writing will come with the editing process. As we’d discussed in the last entry, you will want your story to be moved along in a way where each scene is set up to show off a character trait, move the plot, or both. Everything else is fluff and should be discarded.


Let’s think of an example scene where two characters are conversing. One character may reveal she’s looking to have more adventure in her life, thus revealing something about her character and setting up a major plot point where it is assumed she will soon be on some epic journey. Her companion may state that he’s traveled to a place full of wonder and excitement, revealing something about his character in turn, as well as taking the next step into the plot. It’s very tempting for beginning writers to start a scene such as this with the two characters talking about the weather and what a nice day it is, but unless the weather is a factor in the plot or a character’s future actions, our audience doesn’t need to know too much about that stuff and it can be left out.


Finally, as you review your writing, you want to make sure you’ve done a good job of showing and not telling. What I mean by that is, it’s easiest to simply state that major plot points are happening as they happen, and give away the objective of characters by equipping them with dialogue which states specifically what it may be – but it’s hardly interesting.
 

Check your work and read over it. Are things too obvious? Do you leave room for your audience to imagine once in a while? Did you find yourself writing more of “the full moon was out” and less of “faint rays of light glinted off of broken glass, providing the only illumination to the ground”? Now is the time to fix little nuances such as these and make them more interesting.


One last word on editing – if you’re doing a professional job, pay for a professional editor. You will be glad you did.


So that wraps up our little course on creative writing! I hope you’ve enjoyed and I hope you’ve learned something in the last three weeks. There is so very much more to cover on this subject than what I’ve given you here, so I recommend you look into books and other articles on the subject as you continue to grow as a writer.


Remember – there’s no better way to learn how to write than to start writing. Stay creative, until next time!

Creative Writing From Start to Finish - Part II

Today we continue our discussion on the creative writing process.

When we began our discussion on creative writing, we covered the basics, such as plotting story beats and breakdowns. This time, we’re going to get into the meat of the matter and do some serious writing! We’re going to be fleshing out the skeleton of a draft you have on your hands, by this point.

If your story seems to be flowing well, even before you put little details into it, then you’ll have an easier time of some of the things this blog post will cover than if you start writing and hope to pull it apart and re-align it, later. Short of that, however, you shouldn’t feel bad if a central theme or some of the deeper aspects of storytelling aren’t present just yet. We’ll be covering them, next time.

One thing you can do if you find your story doesn’t have the kind of flow you want it to, or if you think you would like it to be a bit more solid, is to break down your plot points. Most stories have at least an A and a B plot, and often, C, D, and E plots, too. Your A plot will be your central story – it involves the main tale which is being told. B through Z plots are all secondary, and it’s up to you to keep track of them alongside your A plot so the whole of the story can dovetail and make a great ending.

As a general rule, when it comes to content I often allocate 60% of my story to the A plot, then the remaining 40% to my B, C, D, etc. plots. None can be more important than the other in terms of the audience’s interest in its resolution, but the A plot should be more important in terms of what is being resolved, and especially if your story is one piece of a bigger continuity. For example, my A plot may involve my main character going on a journey to recover a hidden treasure, and my B plot could involve secondary characters staying behind and getting into trouble without the main character there to help them.

When you square away your A plot and its subplots, you can begin to do some long-form writing by following your breakdowns and story beats, and fleshing them out. If we talk about the writing process in the same way we'd talk about sculpting something, doing story breakdowns would be akin to setting up armature wire, and at this point we're ready to pile on some clay and begin to give our piece some shape. There are of course, many things to keep in mind as you write and they all go beyond the basics such as spelling and grammar.

Now is the time to decide if you’re going to be telling a plot-centric tale or a character-centric one. As I alluded to last time, sometimes you know which your story will be, right from the get-go. Sometimes it’ll take some feeling-out. Look at your outline and ask yourself if there’s more plot than character interaction, or vice-versa. If it’s even, then you may simply choose one or the other, or go with your strengths.

This should set you up to decide what narrative mode the story will be written in -- again, that is if you haven’t already figured that out. Third-person limited and first-person are often the most popular and I recommend them more than their omniscient counterparts to new writers. You may think these are terms for novel-writers only, but they are equally important for comic book writers to familiarize themselves with.

In my mind, omniscience is key and which person is in charge of it all is secondary. As a general rule, each chapter of a story should not go outside the boundaries of any one character’s point-of-view. In a third-person-limited story, for example, it is considered bad form to allow the audience insight into a character’s thoughts, and then into another’s without a means for doing so from the main character’s perspective. “Joe thought about a purple cow and Jane thought about a chicken.” would be better served as, “Joe thought about a purple cow and he could tell Jane was thinking about a chicken.”  as it does not imply an omniscient point-of-view and clearly marks Joe as the important figure of the tale.

When you’re sitting down to your keyboard, and your first words are flowing, consider focusing on your characters to keep things natural. Ideally, characters and plot work simultaneously, but that’s not something we always see at this stage. Now is the time to get acquainted with the “feel” of a certain character, a setting and a world in general. There will be plenty of time for editing, and we’ll certainly be doing plenty of that, next time, so write to your heart's content!

Not worrying about what you’re keeping in and removing at this point is absolutely okay.  You will write things that neither advance your story or do a particularly good job of defining character, and that’s also just fine. Do try to keep it in mind, but with the understanding that a little fluff won’t hurt you now, and in fact, may inspire you to jot down some really brilliant things as you go.

Writing dialogue is one of the most important tasks you’ll be tackling at this point. I’ll happily admit this: Dialogue or speech is sometimes a headache for yours truly. The golden rule is generally assumed to be this: Write your dialogue as if it didn’t require you defining whose mouth it came from. With practice, you should be able to write a line of speech and have your audience (and certainly yourself) immediately recognize who said it. And this is more than attributing accents or dialects – it gets right down to which words a character selects for their normal speech. As I said, it sometimes takes practice to not give a character lines which would be more akin to the ways you yourself speak, but it’s worth the time to commit to learning this very important skill (and you can indeed learn it)!

Try speaking your dialogue out loud. Does it sound funny to you, or does it sound like something you yourself would say? If you’ve got a good support network, get the opinion of a friend. People are quite valuable at this point in the writing process, if you have some good ones to lean on.

Of course, other people can also bring real headaches to your writing, especially if their critique is not what you were expecting. Go with your gut. If they point out something you yourself thought was wrong, then fix it. If someone has an issue with something you thought was great, then reevaluate it or get a second opinion before you erase it.

It’s always bad to write plot just for the sake of plot. If you go on for twenty, two-hundred or two thousand pages of an outline and get no deeper than, “this happens”, then you’ll bore everyone in your audience to tears. Far better you get used to writing “this happens so that this happens” and better still, “this happens, then this happens, so that this can happen”.

When moving your plot along, it’s also important to step into your protagonist’s shoes. How would you feel if the things happening to them, were instead happening to you? How can you best set up the plot around your character so that their experience becomes the reader’s? Set-ups are made this way: by the simple act of positioning a precursor to a conflict or other action. You may start out by showing a character getting ready for a big date, being nervous, and giving a sense that a lot rests on the outcome, before you show people a marriage proposal, as an example.

Naturally, this part of the writing process is going to take the longest, and you are certainly going to want to take breaks when you feel uninspired or when the dreaded writer's block hits. My best advice for combating writer's block, is this: don't ever waste a good idea. If you get a thought for a great plot twist or something that'll otherwise really grab your audience, don't wait to use it. See how it could fit your block, now, and use it right away if you can. I promise, another idea will come to you, later.

When you've finally finished your manuscript, you are ready to do some editing, which we'll cover in a blog post, next week! Stay creative until then!

Creative Writing From Start to Finish - Part I

Today starts a series of entries on one of my favorite subjects: creative writing. I’ve written on this topic in the past within other blogs, but I figured the Digital Storyteller audience could benefit from a solid, step-by-step system outlining my writing process.

This series will happen in three parts – one today on finding inspiration, one next week on story beats and breakdowns, and a final chapter on time-lining and themes. I hope you stick around and get a little something out of it. Please note that my methods aren’t what I would consider universally good practices, and are simply ways which I myself like to write. You may be different, and you may even think I’m crazy at points, but that doesn’t mean you have to employ my methodology. In writing, as with any artsy thing, there are a million ways to do it right.

So! Where to begin?

Let’s take the question of “where to begin?” to start. If you are asking yourself this without having at least a tiny piece of an idea for a story, you should probably hold off on writing and first consider why you want to write at all. Here are some common reasons cited by people who say they want to become writers:

·         Writers make a bunch of money and I want a bunch of money.

·         I want to write so people think I’m smart.

·         I don’t like my day job and want a different one.

·         The idea of being a writer is sexy to me.

Yikes. You’d think I was kidding, but unfortunately I’m not. If any of the above are primary reasons you find yourself wanting to write, then now may be a good time to put the pen down and call your therapist. You need counseling and a life coach – not writing.

Now, if you instead said you wanted to become a writer for any of these reasons…

·         I have a great story itching to be told.

·         I read a newspaper article that made me think of an idea for a book.

·         My nephew makes me think of a character I’d like to write a story around.

…then you’re in much better shape than the therapy crowd and may just have the chops to do some writing! The key truly is to know that you have a desire to tell a story, no matter how much of it you’ve planned out already.

So, once you have a story in mind, where do you take it? You might find it best to return to the thing that inspired your original idea to do an in-depth analysis of why the story is appealing to you. Perhaps you read a book and thought about a story of your own set in a similar universe or written in a similar style – go ahead and read it again. If it was a friend or family member who inspired you, then you should hang out with that person a little bit and take mental notes. Whatever it is, now is not the time to lose your inspiration, but to build it up.

Once you have your inspiration covered, it’s time to immerse yourself in the world you’re building. Notice situations in your own life which could translate well into your story. Perhaps people in your life could become the basis for characters, and perhaps things you see in your daily life could be situations they find themselves in.

Start figuring out what your story will be about by defining where and/or when it will take place, who the main cast will be, and what conflicts will arise to challenge them. Sometimes, this’ll be clear as day to you. Other times, it’ll take you days, weeks or months to decide. Writing is often like decorating a house. Sometimes you buy a whole set of furniture, knowing it’s all going to come together to be something you love, and sometimes you buy one thing and slowly hand-pick items to go around it.

As I’ve alluded to in previous entries, I myself usually start by writing (and drawing) character breakdowns as my muse starts speaking to me. When you get to this stage, try to define things beyond your characters’ physical appearance, such as their wants and fears, but feel free to leave them vague until you hit a solid hook for any given character, which would make them interesting to your audience and to you as a writer -- and likely affect your plot.

Speaking of your plot, it’s a good idea to start considering it as soon as possible, too. If your story is character-centric, then you may have an easier time forming a plot as you develop your characters, who will be doing most of the “driving” in your story. If your story is plot-centric, then you need to consider a truckload of elements beyond your cast, such as major events, actions, and other outside factors which will push your story along. It may even be that you won’t know if you have a character-centric or plot-centric story at this point, and that too is okay.

One of the best ways to define your story at the very beginning is to see if you can break its plot down into a single sentence. “A boy falls in love with a girl who has secretly come from the future because she knows he is the key to saving her world” is a good example.

One other way you might write your plot’s first draft involves working backwards, starting with your ending. Too, some writers find it easiest to work in a formula, defining the basics of the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

It’s important to note that you needn’t, and shouldn’t, finalize things in one sitting. Invariably, you’re going to get a better idea the minute you walk away from your desk, and you’re going to want to use it. Don’t be afraid of swapping your ideas, especially at the start. Inspiration is your friend and you should never fall in love with your first draft.

On the other end of the coin, if you find yourself having trouble coming up with ideas, you might take a break for a while. I often take months to fully develop my first story ideas before moving into the breakdown phase, which we’ll cover in the next entry. Don’t be afraid to relax and take in ideas until you get something really great.

I consider myself done with the first phase of story-planning when I have these elements defined:

·         Setting: The wheres and whens of the story  -- its backdrop

·         Characters: The whos and whats of the story, not just limited to living beings but also important things and locations

·         Conflict: What is the main challenge that must be overcome, how is it resolved and what is the outcome?

·         Plot Synopsis: When I can tell my story in one sentence, then I know I’m ready to expand on it

You may choose to do more at this point, and you may even choose to do less. Some writers like to plot out their stories with outlines and others simply like to sit down and write, seeing where their whims take them as they go. Don’t feel pressured to do one or the other – as I’ve already said, they are both correct.

We’ll be covering breakdowns in our installment next week. Stay tuned!