Monday, March 30, 2009

Writing is Hard: Inspiration and Breaking In

Inspiration

Comics writer Paul Kupperberg gives the most honest answer I've ever heard to the most dishonest question writers get asked: "Where do you get your ideas?" He starts with the notion that "thought is the enemy of art" and goes from there.

Speaking of idea-birthing, I've downloaded the transcript of Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan's creating Indiana Jones, but I haven't read it yet. It's 126 pages, but it's 126 pages of some really imaginative people hashing out the details on one of my favorite characters, so I need to find time to sit down with it.

Breaking into Marvel and DC

Robot 6 helpfully collected some of the advice that Marvel's talent scout CB Cebulski has been dispensing via Twitter about getting your foot in the door at Marvel and DC. Here are the two I found most helpful at this point in my career:
Yes, working in comics is a lot of fun, but it’s still work and has to be approached as such.

...each pitch is ultimately a unique experience. It will change depending on company, character, editor, etc.
Something I'm focusing more on this year is to see writing as work that I want to take seriously. Up until now, I've been enjoying it as a pastime and figuring that if I was any good at it, doors would somehow magically open for me. That's just not the case. I've known for a while that the act of writing is hard, but now I'm getting more savvy about the business of it too.

Something I've learned while pitching Kill All Monsters is that you shouldn't just create a form-letter pitch and send it out to everyone on your list. You can start with a form-letter, but it's far more helpful to customize it for each publisher. And I'm not talking about just changing the editor's name.

1 comment:

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Good luck with your pitches brother. I look forward to the days when I can read something produced by the big dogs.

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