Category: General Writing

Dear Warren Elliss…

Quan

Just for laughs, here is an open letter I wrote to Sci-fi & comic book writer Warren Ellis back in 2001 on the evolution of the comics industry. Let’s see if my opinion then holds up to what the industry is like today…

Hey, Warren (and anyone else reading this).

Just finished a couple of your essay books, namely COME IN ALONE and FROM THE DESK. Brilliant stuff, and I agree with nearly all of it. I love reading up on creator’s opinions on the industry and on the craft. As an aspiring writer and lover of comics myself, I always gain new insights from what you all have to say, whether I agree with it or not. Comics were the reason I started writing and drawing, and it led me to a Graphic Design degree and three finished novels I’m seeking publication for (Okay, one was already published, but by a vanity house. I got suckered into thinking they were legit, so that doesn’t count).

Like I said, I agree a lot with what you say about diversifying the comics market past the superhero, and I think the industry takes stabs at it periodically, with mixed results. I remember the brief time that fantasy comics like Tellos and Battle Chasers were all the rage, and that was followed by the boom of crime comics such as 100 Bullets, Powers and Losers. And then there were the 80’s licensed comics, which were big for a little bit (actually they DID bring back the Micronauts like a lot of these geex were begging for, but ironically, nobody bought it). And now Marvel’s trying on the sneak to bring back romance comics (at least, it seems that way to me).

I try when I can to support new comics ideas and independent publishers. If the premise on a book is intriguing enough, or if the buzz on a book is big enough, and I can afford it, then I’ll add a non-Marvel/DC/Image/DHP book to my usual pulls (currently Fred Perry’s GoldDigger, New Avengers, Joesph Linsner’s Dawn and The Green Lantern Corps). I want to be one of the geex telling the world “I told you so” when the next Ninja Turtles or The Crow or Road To Perdition becomes a worldwide phenomenon. I loved telling the movie geex drooling over Frank’s awesome SIN CITY flick that “the books were better.”

I am blessed to have also dealt with comics shops that heavily support books that are alternatives to the superhero, also (too bad the majority of them are out of business now). The one I currently get my books from is big into that. They display their independent stuff right next to their mainstream stuff, and the staff talks with the customers and encourages them often to try some of the non Marvel/DC stuff. Also, when people come in and request specific books they often order a few copies for others to try out, too. They were big supporters of Alias (that umbrella publisher of various indie studios) and a lot of people who frequent that store gave Alias a chance. Ditto with Antarctic, Crossgen (RIP), Devil’s Due and Dreamwave (also RIP). I do wish they’d carry more Oni, but I’m splitting hairs.

I think the industry has taken a shift towards some of the things you’ve been preaching about. Publishers are now expanding their book marketing way beyond the comic store crowd, and I’m seeing Marvel comics in supermarkets next to the magazines. The Graphic novels section in the bookstores is constantly growing, and there’s been a big push to get readers buying commix in new and unique ways. The cross pollination of commix into other media (Video Games and Movies, most notably) hasn’t hurt. Publishers are now also realizing the selling power a well-known or highly reputed creator has. I think that’s part of why Bendis and Millar write 75% of the Marvel Universe (with Claremont getting the other 25%), why Johns writes roughly 75% of the DCU, and why Jim Lee draws damn near every cover for DC. I think it’s only a matter of time before we get that Powerpuff Girls book written by Johns and illustrated by Lee, BTW.

In my hometown, surprisingly enough, the biggest and best place for quality comix has been the library, with its ever-increasing collection of graphic novels and TPBs. It’s the latest trend in libraries, apparently. They stockpile these things and hope it draws in more young readers (or in my town’s case, it gets the all the brats hanging out at the library after school waiting for the bus or surfing blackplanet.com on the library’s computers to actually pick up a book while they’re there). And only half of the books they get are of the Superhero, Marvel/DC variety. True, a bunch of it is manga, but I’ve also used the library to pick up lots of great Graphic Novels and trade paperbacks I wouldn’t been able to afford by myself – stuff like Little White Mouse, Blankets and Persepolis. I recommend stuff to them all of the time, and they go out and get it. One time, they even had all of their American Splendor Books on display next to the DVD of the movie!

That all being said, I still love the Marvel/DC superheroes and make no apologies for it. At their best they are iconic, excellently designed characters who use their unique abilities to solve unique problems, mostly in spectacular and creative ways. To me, superheroes speak to the ability in everyone to find a way, to overcome and to make things happen. It’s great to see these heroes put to the ultimate test in so many different ways, to see them pushed to their breaking point and beyond, to see how they make it through and whether or not they compromise their principles in the process. These guys are metaphors of aspects of the human condition, the everyday trials and tribulations we all go through except with the volume turned up 100-fold, the stakes incredibly higher and the clothes tighter and stretchier (unless you’re Brittney Spears or Lil Kim, in which case that last point is debatable). It’s great entertainment, when handled with intelligence, creativity and integrity. In my opinion, the principles in superhero stories are prevalent in all great stories. James Bond is a superhero. Hari Seldon from the Foundation series is a superhero. La Femme Nikita is a Superhero. Stone Cold Steve Austin is a superhero. The CSI guys are portrayed in a superheroic light, as has been George W. Bush at times. In fact, I even believe that King David and Jesus Christ are superheroes! No one can tell me that the feats of the great people in the Bible aren’t comparable to today’s superhero stories (I’m also unapologetically Christian).

I agree that it’s ridiculous how superheroes dominate the industry, but I still believe there is a place for good superhero stories. I’ll read a good Green Lantern comic (the Kyle Rayner one) just as quickly as I’ll read an issue of Scud the Disposable Assassin. I love the vast ensemble cast of GoldDigger as much as I love watching how the disparate personalities in New Avengers try to coexist. I enjoy the epic, widespread, unpredictable mayhem in Infinite Crisis as much as I enjoy the terse, understated, controlled action in Usagi Yojimbo. I respect Bone as much as I respect Astro City. I just wish I was filthy stinking rich, so I could buy every single book that I want to read and support. I also wish I was rich so I could pay these ridiculous gas prices, but that’s another rant altogether.

But don’t mind me. I’m just a ranting and raving comic book geek who’s only real wish is to see more well-written, quality black characters in comic books. (God bless Grant for putting two of us in 7 Soldiers. How much you want to bet he kills one of them off?) Hopefully someday you’ll be mentioning me in one of your essays in the same breath as your other writing buddies like Grant, Mark Waid and Garth Ennis.

Take care, and keep writing the cutting edge stuff.

To everyone else: Ellis has written a TON of awesome stories, both in comic book and prose form. This one is by far my favorite.

I Wrote an Unprintable Novel! Now What?

Quan

Every now and then I go through my old archives to see if there are any unfinished ideas that I could mine for inspiration and/or new material. This process was how I got around to doing new material for THE SEIZURE webcomic and for its spinoff webcomic, WEEKEND HEROES. Recently I dug up an old novel manuscript I had written way back in 2002 which never saw print…and probably never will.

Why will it never see print, you may ask? Well, for one, the writing is EXTREMELY raw, and I have no motivation to polish it up. Also, I’m entrenched in my current projects like trying to find representation for these two manuscripts I just finished and writing their follow-ups.

But the main reason why I won’t pursue finding an agent or publisher for the novel is that I’m not too sure I want this book to represent me as a writer. You see, I was in a very dark place in my life when I wrote the story. I had just lost my job to corporate outsourcing, I nearly lost two relatives and a close friend to the attacks on 9/11, the music group and entertainment corporation I had been a part of for the past 2 years was on the verge of dissolving, and I had just been screwed over by an auto mechanic on car repairs. I was NOT a happy guy. At that time I had an idea for a story bouncing around my head because I saw Christopher Walken’s character portrayal in “Last Man Standing” and loved how he portrayed a remorseless thug. I wanted to write a story about that. I had visions of this badass old thug walking down the street with some Deliberately-paced death metal playing behind him. He’d swoop into a city, do some dirt and leave. Kind of like Jack Reacher, except this dude has no morals whatsoever (but he does like dogs). I was also into John Malkovich’s criminal mastermind characters, and I came up with the idea of what if these two guys were pitted against each other? And that was the genesis of my unpublished crime novel BAD MEETS EVIL. While prewriting I heard of some writers debating on whether you could write an engaging story which was devoid of sympathetic characters, and I took that as a challenge. So this story evolved into a full-on evil-fest, starring seven dastardly people (each loosely representing one of the seven deadly sins) locked in a competition none of them could win. There’s a big illegal money deal going down, and everybody wants in on it: from The lazy CEO Vick and his Lustful, philandering wife Barb, to The arrogant Human trafficker Ken and his Wrathful crooked cop brother Abe, to the Greedy Private Investigator Kwame and his Envious girlfriend Terri, and of course The gluttonous superhoodlum John who is at the center of it all.

While writing this story, I ended up pouring all of my anger and frustration at my situation into the book. The result is a story that I wrote to intentionally offend and disgust as many of its readers as possible, regardless of race, religion, gender, social status, or sexual preference. I wanted to piss EVERYBODY off. The story was basically my middle finger to the whole world. Once done, there were actually some people brave enough to want to proofread it (I warned them about it, though. I told them that after reading it, they might want to take a bath). None of them could get past the first chapter. But it was for a reason other than the story being offensive. They simply couldn’t find my central protagonist interesting enough to want to read any more about him. That’s the cardinal rule of storytelling, it doesn’t matter how virtuous or evil your hero is, he has to first and foremost be interesting. And in that regard I failed. And that was the end of that, so I moved on to another story.

I think some people would think creating unpublishable works to be a waste of time, but I beg to differ. First of all, it’s good exercise, and helps a lot towards developing your voice and writing style. Secondly, it can be very therapeutic to just cut loose and not worry about grammar and character development and all that other stuff that content editors harp on. Just let the imagination run and see where it takes you. Thirdly, your unprintable story might have some ideas in it you can come back and mine later on for other more salable projects. Who knows? Maybe someday you’ll see some elements from this story in something else I publish. Stranger things have happened.

Now Leaving: Your Comfort Zone

Quan

If you’ve looked at the body of my writing work, I think it would be hard to pigeonhole me into any particular genre of fiction. I’ve written comic books, Young Adult novels, Business Melodrama, Science Fiction and Survival Horror. I just published a literary love story, and I wrote a crime novel that will never see print. And right now I’m seeking an agent for both a high fantasy epic and a thriller with some elements of high fantasy. I never gave much thought into what motivates me to switch genres and styles of storytelling. I could say I just go where the story takes me, but that would be too simple.

Truth be told, every story I’ve written has been a challenge to myself in some way, shape or form. I get inspired by books I read, TV shows I watch and movies and video games I enjoy. And these stories inspire me to tell my own. I often ask myself “wouldn’t it be cool if I could write XXX kind of story?” and being the impulsive guy I am, it doesn’t take me long to hash out some ideas for that genre and style.

For the Thriller I just wrote, it started off as a prequel to an epic urban high fantasy series I’m planning. But as I was writing it, I didn’t really know how the story was going to get from its beginning to the point where my saga started. I’m usually a big “plot” guy, and I’ll spend a lot of time outlining the plot points and twists, creating a roadmap for where I want the story to go. But this time, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time pre-planning my story, and I really just wanted to start writing. So that’s exactly what I did. I only had a handful of vague plot points in mind when I started writing this story. I had two or three events I wanted to build up to, and I had a general idea of how I wanted it to end, but I left myself completely open with this story. I just created some characters, created a world for those characters to inhabit, and put the central character in a dire predicament. I then just followed that character around in this setting, observing his actions, getting inside his head to find out what he’s thinking and feeling as he does what he does, and writing everything down. This style of storytelling is counter-intuitive to every other book I’ve written, and it was uncharted territory for me. It was kind of scary. But it was also thrilling to be “winging it” and basically making the story up as I go along. And I turned out great; “Needle of the Southside” may be my strongest story yet, and I already have a ton of material in motion to take a similar journey in its follow-up book.

I believe the only way to truly improve as a storyteller it to challenge yourself and step out of your comfort zone. Even successful writers (actually, ESPECIALLY successful writers) can get complacent and fall into a rut, telling the same types of stories in the same style over and over again. This is why Steven King will take a break from writing horror to write stories like The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Dark Tower and The Stand. It gives one a chance to freshen up, and learn new things about ones self as a writer and storyteller.

So my challenge to you is simple. Try something different. If you’re used to writing modern fantasy (especially if your Vampires glitter and your Werewolves are emo), take a stab at writing a crime story. If rustic heartland romances are your thing, take a shot at writing a political thriller. If you write historical fiction, then maybe you can shift from the past to the future and write some hard Science Fiction. And you can even stretch your muscles stylistically, like switching from the female protagonists you always write to a male one, or switching from Third person to First person (or the even bigger challenge of Second person), or switching from writing in past tense to present tense. In doing so you might broaden your horizons and discover some new things about your voice that you never knew you had before.

You don’t even have to commit to a whole book of it if you don’t want to. Maybe just a short story, or a simple scene just to see what it would feel like and read like in your new style or genre. And whatever you don’t finish you could just put in your writer’s vault for future idea mining. This would be a great way to improve your storytelling acumen.

Judy Blume is one of my favorite children’s authors. The Fudge series of books is legendary. But did you know she writes books for adults, too? Give this one a try.

Picking Through the Remnants of Unused Stories

Quan

Like most writers, I have gotten a lot of story ideas. We get bombarded daily by “what if” questions that are begging to be answered in our own particular style, with our own particular voices. It would be foolish not to record these ideas. Even if you cannot utilize an idea now, it is something you very well might want to revisit at a later date.

Sometimes, that “later date” actually arrives. I was in the midst of promoting my sci-fi horror novel Godmode and I had gotten the itch to start writing a new story. Problem was, I didn’t have any new ideas to explore at the time, not that I wanted the hassle of building on an idea from scratch anyway. So I picked up my old archive of unused ideas and undeveloped concepts and thumbed through them to see if there was anything that struck me at the time. It is always good to keep some kind of record of your unused ideas, whether it be some kind of database, or a journal, or a folder of notes, or something. I have folders of unfinished comic books in storage, as well as CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs full of stored ideas and unfinished manuscripts. It was my unfinished comics that game me inspiration this time, and I decided to adapt one of them into a series of novels.

Some of my best projects have come from recycled ideas. All of my webcomics were continuations of ideas I had come up with back in my college days, and the current stories I am working on now are ideas I had ten years ago but never did anything with.

Sometimes an idea you come up with can be literally ahead of its time, so it might need to sit and percolate for a while as you mature as a writer and as a person. Once you’ve built up skill and confidence in your craft, and acquired more knowledge and wisdom, then perhaps you might be ready to tackle that idea and give it the attention it deserves. This was the case with the manuscript I’m seeking representation for as of this post, an urban high fantasy epic with very deep political and socioeconomic themes. When I first drew up this story as a four-issue comic book series back in the year 2000, I was only scratching the surface of what I could do with this story. But 14 years later, I’ve grown a lot, learned a lot and seen a lot, and now I’m more prepared to plumb the depths necessary to truly tell this story.

So when sifting through your pile of lost ideas, how do you choose which one to dust off? It’s not an exact science. You can go by feel. Which of your old ideas is speaking most to you at that moment? Writers have a mysterious intuition for stories, where one idea or concept burrows its way into your mind and won’t leave you alone until you do something with it. Does one of your old unfinished stories do that to you? Is it begging you to come finish it and won’t get out of your head until you do? Then that is obviously the story you need to be picking up. Or your motivation could be purely financial. Which of your story ideas is the most marketable? Compare your ideas to what is popular now, or what might be popular in the future, around the time you finish your story. As of this writing, there’s a big surge in popularity for Young Adult adventure books starring white, teenage females. Before that the hot thing was Young Adult high fantasy starring white, teenage boys. If your idea fits what’s popular now and you can crank a book or three out of your idea within the window of that genre’s popularity, then go for it. Otherwise, think about the future and try to gauge what the next trend will be, and see which of your book ideas fit. Of course, some concepts are timeless (re: anything that can be easily adapted to a movie). So if that’s the way you want to go, then you might want to consider that.

Okay, so now you’ve picked your story to rehash…now what? You need to look your idea over and figure out what it was that made you abandon the story in the first place. Maybe the subject matter was too personal, or maybe the story has a character in it you can’t quite figure out. Maybe the concept was too big to wrap your head around at the time. I have one story idea in mothballs because it would involve extensive worldbuilding and research into a foreign culture – in my case, feudal China. I also would have to delve into a myriad of different kung-fu fighting techniques, and figure out how to portray them properly in prose. And that’s in addition to the usual character and plot development stuff – involving nine different protagonists (yeah, my story idea is a little on the ambitious side). I’m not ready to do all of that…not yet, at least. Regardless, once you figure out what stopped you the first time, you need to attack that issue head on and figure out a solution. Or work around it, and develop all of the other aspects of the story you are more comfortable with. For instance, if one important character is an enigma to you, then develop everybody else first. Sometimes, working on another aspect of the story will actually present you the solution to the aspect that is bothering you.

Once you open your mind and focus on that story, you will be surprised at the things you notice around you that will help you develop it. Information in the news, or in conversations with your colleagues, or stuff you see in other media, will feed your idea. There were stories I’ve found on the internet that I otherwise couldn’t have cared less about, but now that I’m in tune with my new/old story idea, those articles particularly stand out. When you think like a hammer, everything becomes a nail. So start hammering away! 

BTW, One of the best examples of successfully rehashing an unfinished story is M. Knight Shaymalan’s Unbreakable/Split/Glass trilogy. check out the Wiki on how Glass was made. It’s absolutely fascinating.

Appendices and Story Bibles

Quan

When crafting a story, especially a novel or series of novels, a writer will accumulate a lot of background information on his or her characters and setting. You could possibly come up with pages and pages of extensive character study and research to flesh out your characters and settings. If you’re writing fantasy or science fiction, then you’re doing heavy amounts of worldbuilding, research and ideation on how to make your fantastic worlds believable. You could be charting magic systems, or creating maps for your lands or even inventing new languages. Yet for all of the extensive work you’ve down to build the foundation of your story, there’s a good chance that only a fraction of that information will make it into your novel. So you may be asking yourself what to do with all of that extra information? You have a number of options, including the option to not make any of it publicly available.

One good place to put the extra information is in the back of your book, as an added bonus to readers. It’s not uncommon for a high fantasy story to have a map of the world in the back, or a series that has an extensive history to contain a timeline of important events. This adds extra value to your story and provides a good reference point for readers who are intrigued by certain details of your stories.

There’s also a chance you could use the material as a marketing tool. On the website for my sci-fi horror novel Godmode (www.godmode.quanwilliams.com), I have sections specifically set aside for bonus information on my characters, monsters, and setting. You will find Character bios, a sample bestiary (with sketches), some background information on BAAL Pharmaceuticals, as well as a listing of some of the more important weapons used in the story. People stumbling across this can see these items and want to know more, which will lead them to checking out the book. If you are promoting via website like I am, the added content will also boost your SEO.

Be very selective in which of your materials you make available, especially if you plan on revisiting that setting in future stories. You don’t want to give away important plot points or character development beats too early. The secret is to have just enough background information to flesh out and tantalize, while drawing your readers – both new readers and repeat readers who will reread your story armed with new information that will put the story into a new light. For instance, Donnie Darko’s special edition features include actual text from a book on time travel and alternate dimensions, which explain the meta of what is happening in the movie to people who don’t understand the significance of certain events.

You must be careful in that you don’t give away information that will lock you into an inflexible continuity. There is always a chance you might want to change certain details for future stories but if the old information is out there, you might have a hard time explaining any inconsistencies. This is a reason why many of Magic: The Gathering’s story bibles for their various worlds, as well as the universe bible for popular anime series Tenchi Muyo, are very seldom published. As those franchises grow, details may change, and keeping those bibles close to the vest helps avoid discrepancies.

Regardless of what you decide, you should consider your notes and background information a valuable resource that will help in growing the readership of your story. Used wisely, you can greatly expand your universe, bring new readers in, and create a loyal fanbase of your current readers.

Here’s a Star Trek Compendium that illustrates my point.

Magic: The Gathering and the Art of World Building, Pt. 2

Quan

If you’ve read my previous post about how the card game Magic The Gathering uses its cards to build worlds, you know that I feel this could be a valuable tool to help a writer flesh out the setting of his or her story. I briefly explained how I did it, but now the question becomes “how can YOU do it?”

I have a few tips.

In MTG, the cards are elements of a world: flora and fauna, people, cultures, landmarks, important events, etc. Each card has its own mechanics that tie in not only to the game, but also to the element represented. For instance, if I were to make a card for one of my characters from my new manuscript Return of the Tyrant – an elf that is the last surviving elf in his world because he killed every other elf, it would be a creature card that destroyed every other elf in play and prohibited anyone from bringing any more elves out until that elf was destroyed. Now the card itself tells the elf’s story whenever you play it. To the makers of MTG, this is called “flavor.”
Each piece of flavor you add to a given element, whether it be a picture depicting the element, or some text explaining the element, or built into how the card works, deepens the story of the element and adds new dimension to your world.

Magic: The Gathering’s Color Pie

MTG’s foundation is a color-based system that defines every aspect of the game. there are five colors, each with its own personality and methodology, and that is the lens through which every aspect of the game is focused. (broadly: red=freedom and emotion, white=order and selflessness, black=selfishness and pragmatism, green=nature and balance, blue=intellect and invention) Each culture, creature, event and landmark is seen through the view of what color ethos it most closely represents. This actually makes defining the core aspects of worldbuilding elements easier because it gives you a base to develop around. If you have a culture of stoic warriors, you might want to lean them in the direction of a red-white combination, if you want some mad scientists, you make them red and blue or green and blue, and a mafia-like organization would be white and black. A cold, calculating manipulator could be blue-black, while a classic good guy could be monowhite.

Using a Game to Discover Your Story’s Theme

By using a game to develop your world, you can also detect broad thematic elements that can help you develop your story. Every world in Magic the Gathering has an overall theme, whether it be the adventure world aspect of Zendikar to the History-reverent world of Dominaria. once you discover the themes behind your world, you can use that as an aspect of your story. for Return of the Tyrant, the theme of extinction and lost civilization became prevalent as I was developing the cards in my game.

I’ve discovered two approaches to this method that work well. The first is what I call a Tourist mentality. You are a visitor to your world, and you are merely recording the stuff you observe as you travel through it. This is good for coming up with the people, animals, vegetation, landmarks, etc. that make up your world. The second is what I call the Historian’s mentality. Your job is to archive and describe in brief the histories and cultures that shape your world. This is how events, backstories and traditions get created…and often are good incubators for spinoff and follow-up stories.

Now, you don’t have to use MTG exclusively to do this. Any game can be used this way. even such classics as Monopoly and Chess. Or better yet, you can try your hand at inventing your own tie-in game. This would be a good idea because you now have a ready-made merchandise item once your book gets published.

Let’s Get Started.

Quan

Hello, urrbody!

I’m glad you took the time to come try out my new blog experiment. I’ve been looking for something I can give insight on for a while, and I realized that since I’ve written a bunch of novels and actually got 6 of them (as of this post) published, then maybe I can offer some insight to other storytellers out there looking to improve their craft or get the most out of their writing lives.

I think I have some unique perspectives on aspects of the writing life that some of you might benefit from. I especially intend to tie my topics in with how I approached them for my own stories, and you might even get some sneak peeks into upcoming books I’m working on.

Some of these will be updated posts from previous blogs, but most will be brand new topics that I want to address. Also, don’t be surprised if you see the occasional interview with one of the many authors in my network.

So stay tuned! I promise you’ll get something that will help enhance your mad writing skillz in every post.