I ended the last post by promising to get into the nuts and bolts of story telling. So as not to make myself a liar, we'll dive right in today.
I often start piecing together a story with a lot of brainstorming on an idea that I already have, a kernel of some kind that I am sure will grow into a marvelous tree if it is nurtured with the proper quantities of imagination and hard work. If you don't have an idea to start working from then I don't know what to tell you. Go read a book.
Spend more time thinking.
But if you have that glorious kernel then you have a starting point from which you can create a brainstorm of hurricane force, rivaling even Katrina. I personally enjoy fueling this electrode typhoon with scraps of cheap paper and Bic pens. Cheap disposables serve a function for the cautious, focused, personality. Someone who might define him or her self as "neat." There is less pressure, psychologically, when you work with low grade instruments. With quality instruments the pressure to perform is on, and that can easily crush the tender creative sprouts that are so necessary to telling a good story.
I have developed a taste for Bic pens over the years to the extent that they have become a bizarre fetish property that I am very particular about. I find using a Bic frees me from the constraints of perfectionism when I need to brainstorm or sketch ideas. Bics also embody other characteristics that I like, however, and all disposable pens are not the same. You can still go wrong with the wrong Bic. I prefer the opaque white plastic pens over their harder clear plastic counterparts. The plastic is flexible enough to bend as you make marks, thus leveraging the character that those marks have on the page. I find black ink is better for increasing the contrast you can get with the page as well, although other colors certainly can have their uses. The retractable tip pens are more convenient also, and they don't have caps that can be lost. Another unexpected benefit is that the ink is cheap, almost sticky, enough so that you can use them to sketch with lighter lines almost like you might use a pencil. Varying pressure gives a darker line as desired.
Before I get swept away in my raptures about Bic pens, let's got back on subject and talk about paper.
Your choice of paper affects your brainstorming ethos as well. I bought some three-ring binders, a three-hole punch, and a ream of computer paper a while ago for just this reason. The computer paper is cheap and I feel no guilt about marring it's surface with bad lines. The three ring binder also takes away the pressure of wasting space in one of my precious sketchbooks. I trust you can figure out the subsequent benefits of the three-hole punch yourselves.
Over time the binder becomes a creative journal that chronicles the progress of a story in the making in its entirety. Anything can be three-hole-punched and my binders quickly accrue all sorts of things in them from penciled panels, to tracing paper, to ink blot sheets with interesting patterns. Anything that had anything to do with the creation of a story finds its way into the binder until it bulges like some scrapbook gone obscenely wrong. As it ages it takes on the look of some arcane tome of knowledge. Before I die I will bury it in a cave to be found thousands of years later as some sort of future dead sea scroll.
Peoples will war over the meaning of its contents and I shall be revered as a god.
Tomorrow we'll talk about how to use cryogenics to freeze yourself so that you will live to see a future where the howling masses worship your graven image. We'll also talk about how to start turning your brainstorm into a story.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Why comics are not like writing.
Comics differ from other methods of storytelling in many ways. As such, the process of storytelling in comics is as different as one media is from another. The primary issue created by comics is one involved with editing. In non-visual forms of story telling it is relatively easy to go back and re-write or edit previously written material. This is substantially different from the prospect of being forced to re-drawing a particular scene in a comic. The implications of this do not become clear until they translate into practice. Let me put forward an example.
You want to draw a scene in which two characters are having a conversation over lunch. Halfway through the scene you decide that the scene is really better suited for a bar than for a restaurant.
A re-write is in order.
If you are writing a book you can go back and change the setting of the scene, rework some of the details, and adjust the story accordingly. Now, I do not consider myself a writer. I have always focused on visual arts, and visual storytelling. It isn't that I can't write, or even that I don't, rather I have chosen to focus my time and energy on other things. That being said, I have written before. I have personally experienced the difference between these two media. I am not putting writers down when I say that it is much harder to edit comics. Allow me to continue with the example.
You are creating a comic book. You want to switch from a restaurant to a bar. Unfortunately you are not working with an idea made up of words. You are working with a physical product sitting on the table in front of you. The ink is drying, seeping into the page like an oil stain on your driveway, and now that you see it, in practice, you realize the truth. The only way to make the switch is to redraw everything. The entire page, for as many pages as you have been working on this scene, must go. Let us now take this to its logical conclusion.
Do you want someone sitting instead of standing? You can't change it. Do you want your two characters to shake hands instead of hugging? You can't change it. Do you want you characters to wear sweats instead of suits? Guess what! You can't change it. The only way to fix something that is in any way important to the scene, is to redraw the entire scene. You can't just keep the parts that you liked. If you are a writer, you could change the setting and keep the dialog. No problem. Making a character stand or sit would be as easy as re-writing the action. Comics are different. Comics are like a concrete sidewalk. A lot of preparation goes into the job before you start pouring, but once you do start, it sets up fast. And once your sidewalk has set the only thing you can do is to get out your sledge hammer.
What is the lesson that we need to learn here? Do your prep work right. Plan ahead. If you are used to writing a story as you go, take a word of advice. Don't. You can't have a curving walk once you've given it corners. If you don't think it all the way through before you start you will wind up with a mess.
So what kind of prep work do you do? Ah... Now we get down to it at last.
Process.
Process is everything. Everything we have been discussing until now has just been to lead up to the specific mechanics involved with story creation. Next time, we'll get down to the nuts and bolts.
You want to draw a scene in which two characters are having a conversation over lunch. Halfway through the scene you decide that the scene is really better suited for a bar than for a restaurant.
A re-write is in order.
If you are writing a book you can go back and change the setting of the scene, rework some of the details, and adjust the story accordingly. Now, I do not consider myself a writer. I have always focused on visual arts, and visual storytelling. It isn't that I can't write, or even that I don't, rather I have chosen to focus my time and energy on other things. That being said, I have written before. I have personally experienced the difference between these two media. I am not putting writers down when I say that it is much harder to edit comics. Allow me to continue with the example.
You are creating a comic book. You want to switch from a restaurant to a bar. Unfortunately you are not working with an idea made up of words. You are working with a physical product sitting on the table in front of you. The ink is drying, seeping into the page like an oil stain on your driveway, and now that you see it, in practice, you realize the truth. The only way to make the switch is to redraw everything. The entire page, for as many pages as you have been working on this scene, must go. Let us now take this to its logical conclusion.
Do you want someone sitting instead of standing? You can't change it. Do you want your two characters to shake hands instead of hugging? You can't change it. Do you want you characters to wear sweats instead of suits? Guess what! You can't change it. The only way to fix something that is in any way important to the scene, is to redraw the entire scene. You can't just keep the parts that you liked. If you are a writer, you could change the setting and keep the dialog. No problem. Making a character stand or sit would be as easy as re-writing the action. Comics are different. Comics are like a concrete sidewalk. A lot of preparation goes into the job before you start pouring, but once you do start, it sets up fast. And once your sidewalk has set the only thing you can do is to get out your sledge hammer.
What is the lesson that we need to learn here? Do your prep work right. Plan ahead. If you are used to writing a story as you go, take a word of advice. Don't. You can't have a curving walk once you've given it corners. If you don't think it all the way through before you start you will wind up with a mess.
So what kind of prep work do you do? Ah... Now we get down to it at last.
Process.
Process is everything. Everything we have been discussing until now has just been to lead up to the specific mechanics involved with story creation. Next time, we'll get down to the nuts and bolts.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The importance of being creative.
I was going to take a few words this post to address some of the narrative issues involved with storytelling in comics. Before I could put my plan into practice, however, I was confronted with an even more pressing concern in the sphere of creative decision making. The issue now at hand is Creative Space.
If you are involved at any serious level in any creative enterprise you will by now have discovered that you don't seem to want to work just anywhere. There are special places or certain variables that need to be fulfilled before you feel that you are in the right mind to write or draw or compose that ode to your long dead childhood pet that you have postponed writing until conditions were more favorable. Recognizing that this is true is an important step to resolving the conflict that wages within your raging creative bosom. An only slightly less important step is that, once having ceded this incontestable truth, you immediately set about identifying the variables that are so key to success in your own creative endeavors. Meeting the identified criteria is often not that hard, but identifying these criteria often leaves you in the role of the illustrious Dupin, sleuthing out answers to the unsolvable where others have failed, and failed miserably. These answers, obviously, will not be the same for everyone.
Sometimes they are very bizarre.
Counter to what you may initially think, location is not the most important variable to nail down. In point of fact almost any location can be made suitable for work if the other important factors are identified and met. Perhaps I can lend a hand, from my own experience, as you attempt to make your way through twisting labyrinths of illogically deduced riddles. But more likely, far more likely due to the personal nature of one's Creative Space, this will be a textbook case of the blind leading the blind.
I first thought that one of the criteria necessary for me to get comfortable in my own Creative Space was to have everything put in order. Dishes cleaned, bills paid, hydrangeas watered. The opposite is true. The people who look the busiest are quite often the greatest procrastinators alive. But what they have found, which makes them so productive, is an eternal wellspring of energy that (and I say this at the risk of redundancy) can never be exhausted. They have found something that they can always put off.
As long as my immediate Creative Space is in order, as long as my horticulture is taken care of, all I need is a list of things that desperately need to be done. Then, I can avoid doing these things by working hard on my comic. The level to which I am capable of doing this is epic. On some days I find myself putting off making the list of things that I need to put off. On these days, great feats are accomplished.
Creating a consistent atmosphere is key to providing the focus necessary for Creative Space. For me, the largest part of this Space is my music. In this modern world of scientific wonderments, music is portable. This is a benefit that allows you to take some of your Creative Space with you. After all, it is sometimes necessary to have more than one creative arena. A place at work, home, and school for instance. This being said, there is one area that will be the Capitol of your small creative City State. This is the area where I keep my hanging plants. Hanging plants may not be your thing and I understand that. But whatever these elements are you need to identify and procure them. No amount of fussing should be considered over-indulgent.
Once this area is settled upon I recommend you move in the bulk of your creative implements. This infestation of artistic accessories will cement this space as your own in much the way that I imagine wasps secure their hive to your home, stuck to your gutter near the door you need the most. Waiting.
You will undoubtedly find that once you are comfortable, and this area has become familiar, you may not want to work anywhere else. Do not be alarmed. That was half of the point. The purpose of your creative space is for it to help you when you are there. By definition your creative space cannot be everywhere. If it means that you have a tough time "getting creative" in the check-out isle, well, sacrifices must be made.
Once you have christened this space you may find that you are able to get down to work there in a way that you cannot rival anywhere else. That is the ultimate point of your Creative Space. The value of having a workplace where you can create effectively far outweighs the downside of not feeling in the mood to work when you are not there.
If you are involved at any serious level in any creative enterprise you will by now have discovered that you don't seem to want to work just anywhere. There are special places or certain variables that need to be fulfilled before you feel that you are in the right mind to write or draw or compose that ode to your long dead childhood pet that you have postponed writing until conditions were more favorable. Recognizing that this is true is an important step to resolving the conflict that wages within your raging creative bosom. An only slightly less important step is that, once having ceded this incontestable truth, you immediately set about identifying the variables that are so key to success in your own creative endeavors. Meeting the identified criteria is often not that hard, but identifying these criteria often leaves you in the role of the illustrious Dupin, sleuthing out answers to the unsolvable where others have failed, and failed miserably. These answers, obviously, will not be the same for everyone.
Sometimes they are very bizarre.
Counter to what you may initially think, location is not the most important variable to nail down. In point of fact almost any location can be made suitable for work if the other important factors are identified and met. Perhaps I can lend a hand, from my own experience, as you attempt to make your way through twisting labyrinths of illogically deduced riddles. But more likely, far more likely due to the personal nature of one's Creative Space, this will be a textbook case of the blind leading the blind.
I first thought that one of the criteria necessary for me to get comfortable in my own Creative Space was to have everything put in order. Dishes cleaned, bills paid, hydrangeas watered. The opposite is true. The people who look the busiest are quite often the greatest procrastinators alive. But what they have found, which makes them so productive, is an eternal wellspring of energy that (and I say this at the risk of redundancy) can never be exhausted. They have found something that they can always put off.
As long as my immediate Creative Space is in order, as long as my horticulture is taken care of, all I need is a list of things that desperately need to be done. Then, I can avoid doing these things by working hard on my comic. The level to which I am capable of doing this is epic. On some days I find myself putting off making the list of things that I need to put off. On these days, great feats are accomplished.
Creating a consistent atmosphere is key to providing the focus necessary for Creative Space. For me, the largest part of this Space is my music. In this modern world of scientific wonderments, music is portable. This is a benefit that allows you to take some of your Creative Space with you. After all, it is sometimes necessary to have more than one creative arena. A place at work, home, and school for instance. This being said, there is one area that will be the Capitol of your small creative City State. This is the area where I keep my hanging plants. Hanging plants may not be your thing and I understand that. But whatever these elements are you need to identify and procure them. No amount of fussing should be considered over-indulgent.
Once this area is settled upon I recommend you move in the bulk of your creative implements. This infestation of artistic accessories will cement this space as your own in much the way that I imagine wasps secure their hive to your home, stuck to your gutter near the door you need the most. Waiting.
You will undoubtedly find that once you are comfortable, and this area has become familiar, you may not want to work anywhere else. Do not be alarmed. That was half of the point. The purpose of your creative space is for it to help you when you are there. By definition your creative space cannot be everywhere. If it means that you have a tough time "getting creative" in the check-out isle, well, sacrifices must be made.
Once you have christened this space you may find that you are able to get down to work there in a way that you cannot rival anywhere else. That is the ultimate point of your Creative Space. The value of having a workplace where you can create effectively far outweighs the downside of not feeling in the mood to work when you are not there.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The Greatest Story Ever.
It's really easy to read a book or a comic or watch a movie and never think about everything that went into the creation of even the simplest of stories. There are plenty of stories that I've read that I have thought were, shall we say, less than stellar. And when you take in one of these stories you think, "Man that was terrible. I could totally tell a better story." And you might be right. But what you don't realize is that it is going to take a lot of work for you to prove it. Let me add some context to my rambling.
I am currently working on telling that totally better story. In fact I am currently on page sixteen of the first issue of a comic about Space Marines. Space Marines are awesome. And the conclusion I reached (somewhere around page seven) is that knowing you can tell a better story and actually doing it are two very different things. I think that, at some point, most of us who identify ourselves as human beings have had an idea for a story. It usually gets as far as having the beginnings of a shell of a plot before we become convinced that this is, in fact, the greatest story ever.
Maybe if you're industrious you scribble out some notes about this incredible plot, or you start making some character profiles or sketches. At this point you believe you have accomplished the really hard part. You have an idea. Other people don't have ideas. Certainly not ones as great as yours. Maybe you believe that all that's left is to flesh out the details and you'll have it. Your mind races around gathering up bits and pieces, "specifics" that you think are really important to making your world a believable one. You might even spend a long time compiling lots of these "specifics" which you collect in a notebook, or three-ring-binder. Now all you have to do is sit down and hammer it out. If you have ever done any of the things I have just described above, if you are that type of person, let me enlighten you.
You are not within a hundred miles of a great story.
I have been that person before. I may very well still be that person now. That is why I am writing this. I seek to chronicle the creative process behind the story which will eventually give itself birth from the loins of my mind. That is what this blog is going to be. At all of page sixteen I am hardly a hardened professional imparting trade secrets to the "green horns" who look up to me expectantly, waiting for tidbits of hard won knowledge to fall from mouth, like so many small flightless birds in a twiggy nest. I am, however, one step beyond that wide eyed phase of "specifics" scribbled in notebooks, or three-ring-binders. So that is where this journal begins. If lengthy analysis of the creative process of making comics does not sound like something you will be interested in, I recommend that you get off at the next station.
The ride will likely only become more turbulent from here.
Forthcoming will be my thoughts on the writing process for those first pages and the difficulties that comics present to writing a story "as you go." But for today, I will stop here.
I am currently working on telling that totally better story. In fact I am currently on page sixteen of the first issue of a comic about Space Marines. Space Marines are awesome. And the conclusion I reached (somewhere around page seven) is that knowing you can tell a better story and actually doing it are two very different things. I think that, at some point, most of us who identify ourselves as human beings have had an idea for a story. It usually gets as far as having the beginnings of a shell of a plot before we become convinced that this is, in fact, the greatest story ever.
Maybe if you're industrious you scribble out some notes about this incredible plot, or you start making some character profiles or sketches. At this point you believe you have accomplished the really hard part. You have an idea. Other people don't have ideas. Certainly not ones as great as yours. Maybe you believe that all that's left is to flesh out the details and you'll have it. Your mind races around gathering up bits and pieces, "specifics" that you think are really important to making your world a believable one. You might even spend a long time compiling lots of these "specifics" which you collect in a notebook, or three-ring-binder. Now all you have to do is sit down and hammer it out. If you have ever done any of the things I have just described above, if you are that type of person, let me enlighten you.
You are not within a hundred miles of a great story.
I have been that person before. I may very well still be that person now. That is why I am writing this. I seek to chronicle the creative process behind the story which will eventually give itself birth from the loins of my mind. That is what this blog is going to be. At all of page sixteen I am hardly a hardened professional imparting trade secrets to the "green horns" who look up to me expectantly, waiting for tidbits of hard won knowledge to fall from mouth, like so many small flightless birds in a twiggy nest. I am, however, one step beyond that wide eyed phase of "specifics" scribbled in notebooks, or three-ring-binders. So that is where this journal begins. If lengthy analysis of the creative process of making comics does not sound like something you will be interested in, I recommend that you get off at the next station.
The ride will likely only become more turbulent from here.
Forthcoming will be my thoughts on the writing process for those first pages and the difficulties that comics present to writing a story "as you go." But for today, I will stop here.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
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