Interview With Cynthia DeVese

Quan

Cynthia is an educator and public speaker, who also happens to be one of my former graphic design clients. I initially helped her promote her book Coaching Your Child To Academic Success. Here are her insights into how she wrote the book.

What inspired your book? 

With my career being in education, I have been asked the same few questions:  “How do I get my kid into college?’  What do we need to do to secure college scholarships.”  “How do I get my student on track for college?”  etc.   With that in mind, I began to journal my thoughts of the experience my husband and I were providing for our children – when they were in elementary school and  throughout their high school years.  I figured this could be a road map for other parents that would help them along their journey.  My true inspiration came from the parents and students who had no idea what to do next or how to become college and career ready.

 Did you start with an outline or did you make it up as you went along?  

I started with the journal and then I created an outline which detailed the order and follow of the chapters.

What researching methods did you use?  

I wanted the book to be an easy read for families who did not read often.  I researched authors who had written similar books and had a focus on college readiness along with educators who studied parent and community engagement which is important in the work of college and career readiness for students.  I also used my families personal experiences to shed light on how we supported our own children through the educational process – that to me was the best research I could share and it has proven to be most valuable for my readers.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Funny you asked, because that was a huge part of my research, the book, and the value that people have come to love about the book.  So many have commented that they feel connected to the stories in the book and how I share them with the educational aspect and points I needed to make.

How did your publish? 

I self published.  I did have a publishing consultant to help with the format, edits, and set-up.  The consultant was a local woman that I met through an associate who had self-published as well. 

Why did you do it that way? 

I chose to self-publish for several reasons. First, I didn’t want to experience the long drawn out process of finding a publisher and edits that could be brutal.  I wanted to share my story and how I saw the experience.  Secondly, I did not want to give most of the royalties to a publishing company…I wanted to keep the money to reinvest in my work. Finally, why not!  I had the vision, the knowledge, and the determination to move the project to fruition. It worked for me.

Who did your cover and marketing?  

I had a young man from my hometown create the cover.  I designed it and created a workable version of my vision.

Marketing has been all me.  

 How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?  

I would say about three.  I created a draft copy of the manuscript to have a few people read over for edits before I hired the publishing consultant.  So, when the consultant received it – the draft was fairly set.  The consultant took the draft and we created layout that I approved of along with a few more edits.  We sent it in to get a few draft hard copies which I requested a few more people read for edits…and then I was set to publish.  Remember, I’m an educator and the people I enlisted to edit were all educators – some with PhD’s, so I had a pretty good support team that volunteered to help me edit the manuscript.

What is the ratio of time you spent researching to time you spent writing?  

I truly can’t give you a definite answer. All I can say is doing your research is very important.

How did you make time to write? 

When I first began, it was more like journaling.  I would write my thoughts in notebooks, on pieces of paper and then file them away.  When my children were young, I attended a lot of sporting events, rehearsals, etc where I would just sit and wait – which gave me time to journal and write.  Once the children were older, I had more time during the evening hours so that became my writing time after work, dinner, and family responsibilities.

How does your published book enhance your other ventures? 

It’s an amazing add on.  I love to speak and provide workshops/trainings- so the book is a great entry way into certain venues.  I heard someone say that a book is your business card ….I can agree with that.  

What methods did you use to research for your book? 

I mostly googled authors, educators in the same field.  I purchased their books and took note on how their writing style, their book cover, I also looked at their reference and used those that would benefit me and my work.  My book is a personal and family story, so a lot of what is in the book is our true family experience.

Who are the people that would benefit the most from reading your book, and how did you determine that? 

Parents, guardians, family members, educators, and students interested in college and career readiness for students K-12 grade.  I knew that my book would focus on preparing students of all ages for college and careers.   I’m an educator with most of my professional work years in higher education, so I can share the work I do without much effort.  I have the education, experience and life knowledge about helping get students college ready.  I have personally helped thousands of students as well as my own children with the process and to get over $200K scholarships.  I know this audience very well.

 How did you decide what order to present your topics in? 

Education for children begins in the womb.  So, I knew if I wanted to help parents be successful at helping their children be ready for college…i would need to start as early as Pre-K.  So, this is how I decided to present the topics in order of grade level and what is needed at each stage of the educational process. 

How did you ensure that your advice, memories, and recollections were accurate? 

I self-published which allowed me the integrity of my words and my stories.  When others were editing, I could provide clarity and choose whether or not I wanted to accept their recommendations or not.

 What would you like your readers to gain from reading your book? 

 A better understanding of how to support, advocate and coach their children to academic success.  

 What are you writing now? 

I am in the process of writing a book/workbook on achieving equity in schools.

What is your advice to other writers?  

Do what makes you feel best.  Not everyone is comfortable with the route I took.  I did most of the work myself.  I did not spend a lot of money to produce my book, but it is a high quality product.  Do your research, be thorough and take the time to make sure you have all the necessary components of a well written book.  If you decide to self-publish make sure you have several people help to edit the book.  I would recommend hiring a consultant to proof/edit your manuscript and to help with the design and layout – if you have never done it before.  Be careful to not overpay…get a few estimates or work with someone you know who has self-published before.  Good Luck and happy writing!

Be sure to get your copy of Cynthia’s book, “Coaching Your Child to Academic Success”!

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Movie Trailer Plotting

Quan

There are many, many reasons why I enjoy storytelling. One of the reasons I like to tell stories is to create those “cool” moments that you as an  audience  love to witness, whether it be reading, watching, or participating in.

I guess this is why most people who know my writing consider me more a “plot” emphasizer than a “character” emphasizer. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love to create deep, complex, interesting characters and follow them around. Heck, the real  action  of my debut novel “The Leopard Man” (which is available for  free  right now at my  website) doesn’t start until halfway through, after I’ve introduced you to Ashlynn, the heroine of the story and one of the coolest, most likeable characters I’ve ever created. But when I get a story idea, it’s usually before I have characters to fit into the story, so I have to create a story outline that interests me enough to want to write the darned thing in the first place. That means I spend a lot of time coming up with plots that have gripping twists and turns, and plenty of moments where the  audience  will experience it and be like “whoa. That was pretty intense.” And, of course, everything has to build to that BIG moment at the climax of the story.

Basically, this is something I call “movie trailer storytelling.” When I plot out a story, I’m already envisioning the film version (whether the story is a screenplay or not), and every good film (even a lot of bad ones) has a good, enticing movie trailer. I’ve learned that the best trailers are like ultra-condensed  versions  of the actual movie, where the first part of the trailer establishes the problem the movie addresses, then crams in a ton of the cooler moments in the movie, throws in some establishing  shots  putting the stars in an enticing light, and ends with a cliffhanger and/or  memorable  quote that will stick in your head forever until you go see the movie and find out what happens next. (note to all film makers: your movie will not be considered classic unless it has at least one  memorable  quote. And “I see dead people” is already taken).

This is what I have in mind when I create my story plots. I want those character-establishing moments which would be the equivalent of the hero shot in film (you know, the shot where the star of the movie walks in and the camera makes him or her  look  larger than life and all eyes are on him or her). I want those tense, dramatic moments where you don’t know which way things will go next. I want those big  action  sequences and the inspiring moments where the central character is doing the impossible. And I damned sure want that  memorable  quote.

I already have it mapped out. I write that quiet moment right before all hell breaks loose, and I progress the story from that. I develop the plot and at every opportunity in the story I add a cool plot point, thinking always of where it would be positioned in the movie trailer. Of course, the ultratense Hans Zimmer background orchestra music is playing in my head as I write this. And when I have the rough outline of the plot done, I go in and refine the big moments for even more tension, and I have to have that one cliffhanger moment where it looks like the proverbial feces is really about to hit the fan.

For instance, when I wrote The Leopard Man, I knew the main action was going to be my teenage heroine Ashlynn running for her life from the book’s main villain, her English teacher Mr. Barter. But when I’m writing the plot in movie trailer mode I had it set up like this:

Quiet moment: Ashlynn goes to school and in a key scene, meets Mr. Barter for the first time.

Moment to change things: Ashlynn’s dream where somebody warns her of the Leopard Man.

(here you go into your emotional soundtrack music)

Key moment 1: Ashlynn is shown befriending Mr. Barter afterschool.

Key Moment 2: ashlynn gets his first waning from her brother about getting too close to her teacher.

Key Moment 3: Ashlynn nearly runs somebody over in the hallway trying to get to Barter.

Key Moment 4: Barter says something ominous while meeting ashlynn’s parents for dinner.

Key moment 5: Ashlynn and her mother get into a big argument over Barter

Key moment 6: Ashlynn daydreams about kissing Barter passionately.

(here the music changes into the overdramatic, somebody’s-about-to-die music that builds to a crescendo)

Key moment 7: Ashlynn gets an ominous warning from her track coach about using her running to save her own life.

Key moment 8: a man in ashlynn’s dream turns into a leopard before her eyes.

Key moment 9: Ashlynn’s father reels off statistics about kidnapped children and how many of them die.

Key moment 10: Ashlynn and her friend run for their lives, but her friend trips, and ashlynn watches her friend get grabbed by a dangerous-looking man with a very sharp knife.

Key Moment 11: Barter is seen on the phone with some harsh words for whoever is at the other end.

Key Moment 12: While running, Ashlynn narrowly avoids getting her head bitten off by an angry pit bull.

Key Moment 13: Ashlynn’s mother screams at her while driving on the highway, forcing the car to swerve.

Key Moment 14: in her dream, Ashlynn is cornered by the leopard when she reaches a river.

Key moment 15: A dangerous-looking man startles Ashlynn from behind while she is hiding in a church.

(music stops. Only silence)

Cliffhanger/memorable quote: Ashlynn and Mr. Barter are alone together near a deep forest, when Barter looks down at Ashlynn and asks her “Ashlynn, have you ever been double-crossed?”

Now, does that make you interested in reading my book? If it does, then movie trailer-styled plotting works! Because all of these key moments are in the book. Want to know what happens next? Go to www.quanwilliams.com and download your free copy RIGHT NOW.

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Spaceballs and the Power of Branding

Quan

I just picked up a few DVDs of classic movies I grew up on. I’ve been making an effort to grab these films, mostly for my own personal enjoyment, but also to share with my nieces and nephews. I’ve learned that a) many of these films are definitely not as tame and family-friendly as I remembered them to be – even with a PG rating, and b) lessons I learned from these movies shaped a lot of my life views and lifestyle. That’s a pretty powerful thing when you think about it.

For instance, I let some of the teenage boys at my old dayjob check out the classic space spoof SPACEBALLS, by Mel Brooks. The movie is still as fun and funny to watch today as it was when it was made back in 1987.  But one of the running jokes stuck with me in ways that only now do I understand its effect. Spaceballs had a subtle subtheme criticizing the voracious consumerism of moviegoers and sci-fi fans. Everything from the strategic name brand and product placement (we call it “Mr. Coffee,” sir) to the advent technology (We’re looking at NOW, now, sir) to even scenes of Rick Moranis’s Lord Dark Helmet playing with his official SPACEBALLS action figures spoke to fans of franchises like STAR WARS and STAR TREK and their incessant need to own a piece of the franchises they adore. One of the children at my job was an unrepentant Trekkie and Harry Potter fanatic, who jumped at every opportunity to add memorabilia and merchandise to his already massive collection or books, games, toys, movies, and random knick-knacks that tie into these franchises.

The point was driven home quite blatantly when Mel Brooks’s Yogurt character went on a diatribe explaining the power of merchandising, hocking everything from SPACEBALLS plates to SPACEBALLS talking dolls and everything in between. He even mentioned the possibility of a sequel (fittingly called SPACEBALLS: The Search For More Money). Once he opens your eyes to that aspect of the film, then you can’t not see all of the SPACEBALLS merchandise they have strewn about the movie. There’s even an official SPACEBALLS placemat in a random space diner towards the end of the film!  

So what affect did this have on me personally?

Isn’t it obvious?

While many high-falluting, artsy-fartsy creative folk talk badly of this as a form of “selling out,” I am firmly entrenched in the opposite camp. Once you attach a price tag to your object of creative expression, you step out of the realm of being a creator and you become a business person / entrepreneur.

And what is the ultimate goal of being in business?

Three words: Get. That. Money.

Some people may look at Bill Watterson’s refusal to license Calvin & Hobbes as a noble attempt to maintain the integrity of his creation. I look at is as a HUGE missed opportunity. The C&H product would have been enhanced, not diluted, by proper merchandising. Think about it: Peanuts and Garfield are still beloved franchises despite having their own TV shows, movies, and endorsement deals. The Heathcliff and Dennis The Menace cartoons and movies added dimensions to the central characters that were only hinted at in the comic strips. The Boondocks TV show still offers the same biting criticism of Black America and America in general, but is now exposed to a MUCH wider audience that doesn’t necessarily read newspapers. Meanwhile, the only people who give a hot darn about how “brilliant” Pogo and Doonesbury was are comic strip snobs. Watterson would have only added to the legacy of his characters by giving people more access to them than just the comic strips.

And to my earlier point, if he valued his artistic integrity so much, then why sell the strip at all? Give it away for free if making money isn’t that important. By distributing your strip through the newspaper syndicates you were already subjecting yourself and your product to dilution and censorship by the editors and bigwigs in the syndicates. Just ask Aaron McGruder or Berke Breathed how much creative and editorial freedom you REALLY have when dealing with those guys. Since you’re basically whoring out your product anyway, why not get the most for it, from as many consumers as possible, in as many markets as possible?

This is the life lesson I picked up from SPACEBALLS, and I follow it religiously now. There is no way I’m going to bother making a creation that lacks cross marketing potential. All of my novels have been written with a potential movie, video game or TV show in mind, and they can all easily be franchised into book series if they had been successful enough to warrant that. And you especially saw it on my GODMODE website: In addition to the book, I’m showing you the book’s soundtrack, and as much merchandise from book-related images as CafePress will allow. The hidden gem of this is that the cross-promotion, merchandising and licensing goes both ways. If people find a GODMODE T-shirt interesting enough to buy, that person becomes a walking advertisement for the source material, especially since I make sure this site’s URL is on every piece of merchandise. 

I make no apologies for wanting to get the most out of my creations, and for exploring every opportunity and option to do so. If I can increase awareness of my product and profit from it in a new way, I’m open to exploring it. This is the process of branding, and all successful companies (and individuals, for that matter) do this.

So if you like my products, buy them! And check out all of the related merchandise to see if it also appeals to you.

And since I’m talking so effusively about SPACEBALLS, then why dontcha check the movie out again to see what I’m talking about?

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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.

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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.

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Writing Your Batman Story

Quan

I’ve been told that every halfway decent writer has at least one good Batman story in them. I agree. Batman is a beloved character, and can be placed effectively in almost any type of story.

For instance: I wrote an alternate universe treatment with the bat family as counterterrorist agents instead of superheroes. Also, I want to write a trippy, futuristic Batman story, starring a grown-up Damien Wayne (Batman’s biological son and the current Robin) wearing the cape and cowl,  based entirely on Prince’s Batman soundtrack. Have you read his lyrics? Wow. It would be Damien going up against the Sadistic, hedonistic PARTYMAN to stop him from flooding Gotham with the deadly psychadelic drug “Lemon Crush.” I probably won’t ever actually write it, but it would be pretty darned cool.

I have a few more doozies in the vault. I would divulge what my treatments are, but I’m saving them in case DC ever comes calling.

Now, I wonder what YOUR Batman story would look like…

You might wonder just exactly how you can make a Batman story if you don’t normally write superheroes. This is where Batman’s versatility comes into play. So, beyond the usual superhero fare, Batman is also the World’s Greatest Detective and a master specialist in hand-to-hand combat. So if your writing forte leans toward Crime, Detective stories or procedurals, and even thrillers, Batman is a perfect character to build a story around, even without the superhero baggage.

Is steamy romance your thing?  Batman has gone through numerous relationships. He has been romantically involved with Vicki Vale, he has a love child by his arch-enemy Talia Al Ghul (instant baby mama drama!) and was recently left at the altar when he tried to marry Catwoman. There are even stories that have him hooking up with Wonder Woman, and one particularly creepy (for all the wrong reasons) tryst with Batgirl. You can play into the conflict between Batman’s mission and his need for intimacy.

Are you a Sci-Fi or fantasy writer? Batman’s gadgets and futuretech should be right up your alley, and Bats has even thrived in fantasy settings. He has literally fought Demons, Vampires, Zombies, and Sorcerers, and has been portrayed as a literal “Dark Knight” on multiple occasions.

Wanna do Horror? What can be more terrifying for a criminal than a being stalked by a man-sized bat in the darkness? You can also play into the mental illnesses of the bad guys (Hannibal Lecter has NOTHING on Batman’s rogues gallery) or how scary it can be for victims of the bad guys. One of the Bat villains LITERALLY specializes in inducing fear, in fact.

If family drama is your thing, you can’t get more dramatic than the Batman family. He is an orphan himself, and has raised no less than four young men who all have quirky personalities and issues with each other. Everyone connected to Batman has dealt with personal and even familial trauma, from Commissioner Gordon with his vigilante daughter and sociopathic son, to Harley Quinn’s abusive relationship with The Joker, to the complicated family tree of Ras Al Ghul, Talia and Damien Wayne.

Batman is also a master of disguise and an expert intel gatherer/saboteur, so espionage and political thrillers would also be a good fit for him. You can also cover political drama and conspiracy theories via The Court of Owls, or personal stories of trauma and recovery like when Batman’s protegee Dick Grayson (Nightwing) got shot in the head and went through a total personality change in his recovery from that. And Batman’s dry wit and gallows humor could lend themselves well to comedy writing. He was even put into a Japanese Samurai story to great effect. You can put Batman into literally any story scenario and have a basis for a compelling story.

A good Batman story is no different than a good Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple story. It’s just a good detective/crime/superhero/horror/thriller story, starring Bruce Wayne. Even if you don’t ever intend on approaching DC with your Batman story, you can still make one. Just replace Batman with an original character that has similar traits, or grab one in the public domain, and voila! Instant original story you don’t have to worry about getting sued over.

A simple way to get started is to take a story or trope within a genre you enjoy writing about, and simply ask yourself what would happen if it were Batman starring in the story instead of your usual protagonist. What would be different? What can and would Batman do differently than your usual protagonist in handling the situation? How would the circumstances of the situation react to him? Would any of is allies and enemies be involved? And then you just build from there.

Just to illustrate my point, here is a story where an evil, twisted version of Batman shows the real Bats different versions of himself in other lives, where his story plays out quite differently.

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Interview with Anne Zoelle

Quan

Anne Zoelle is an old friend and classmate of mine from waaaay back in Elementary school. Her mother was actually our fifth grade English teacher, and one of the first to truly encourage my creative writing. Anne herself has gone on to build a nice name for herself as a writer, first in the realm of historical romance under the pen name Anne Mallory, and now as a fantasy writer.

What inspires your writing?

Challenges! I like to do things I haven’t done before, or explore craft pieces I haven’t tried in depth. These don’t have to be big challenges—it can be writing a book with the aim to make the reader feel as trapped as the main character, or writing a book in first person for the first time, or writing an entire (long!) series in one single POV, or writing three books all at the same time, or writing two separate stories that get weaved together, or redeeming a character who has done terrible things and doesn’t regret them.

So I try to ask myself with each new project—what writing craft can I explore that I may have only skimmed before? I find this very invigorating, and it keeps writing exciting.

What is your process for developing characters?

I write a lot of scene snippets to get the feel for characters. Most of the snippets have to do with emotional arcs and turmoil—focusing on what is holding a character back, why they think that way, terrible internal thoughts about their past, etc. Snippets usually consist of  5-10 lines of dialogue between characters or the internal thoughts of just one.

I don’t have any set process for starting, but I will bop between writing aides early in the brainstorming process as I’m figuring things out (I love reading craft books). I tend to start with character motivation/flaw/ghost elements, then write a few scene snippets, then start a character profile, then write more snippets, then start a Story Engineering spreadsheet, then a few more snippets and maybe even a few entire scenes, then go back to internal elements trying to match and find conflict between characters and characteristics, then I might write more in the spreadsheet, maybe develop a few more snippets, then start writing in earnest.

Development varies by project, but I do whatever it takes to get to know the characters in the story. They are always my primary concern, even when I could write a million words about the world around them.

How much time do you put into your worldbuilding before you start writing…or do you just make up elements of your worlds as you go along?

I do a lot of the big picture building before I start, but I build out a TON of the more intimate world details as I write the first few chapters. The way I write/revise lends itself to creating the big stuff first, then building out the smaller world elements as I go—littering future snippets in side documents as a sort of loose scene outline.

The main world, theme, and ending elements are thought through before I start the first page, and I often do discovery chapters or scenes to investigate characters and possibilities. Discovery scenes may or may not make it into the final book. I have hundreds of thousands of words in scenes and snippets that didn’t make it into my five book series. I try to think of those words as research instead of waste. I definitely write more than what ends up in my final draft.

Do you start with a story outline or do you make it up as you go along?

I do a little of both. From the first bout of brainstorming, I start with the characters and a base world or “world nugget.” Next I figure out the ending of the story based on the character development referenced above, as well as a few key emotional turning points. From those things, I start to build outward. A little world, a little motivation, a little more world, maybe a first chapter, more filling of an outline, maybe a turning point, a written snippet of emotional angst, a little more world, a bit of a black moment, dialogue from the ending, etc.

While writing Chapter 1 and 2 everything is fluid and subject to change. By the end of Chapter 3, I have usually written an outline of emotional snippets that become an actual guide for the book—and they stay pretty static. For me, the first quarter of a book takes longer than the rest because of this.

Actual plot (what is Point A, where do they go, how do they get to Point B, how do they find Thing C…) tends to develop as I write. At the beginning, I don’t need to know they go to the Prime Widget Shop to buy widgets unless someone has an emotional issue with widgets and that needs to be shown on the page. So I write the head, build out the skeleton, then start crafting the monster as I work my way through.

There’s a famous bit about how everyone outlines—some people just do it as a first draft.  🙂 Whether you write a whole first draft, a 90 page outline, or anything on the spectrum between, writers are doing some form of discovery in their first phase of a book.

How many revisions does it take to get a publishable book?

For my first 5 or so books, I went through around three personal drafts—the kind where you write to the end then rip everything apart and cobble it all back together. I found it really hard to stay motivated the further in the process I’d get, though. It was like ripping out nails to sit at my keyboard when I was tearing apart a completed but flawed project.

I started doing more backtracking as I wrote (editing large swaths before creating new chapters) and decreased the drafts where I had to tear anything apart. Then I started writing fantasy and I had this huge world that I had to keep track of and I began backtracking like mad.

Now, I revise as I go as a matter of course. That usually looks something like this—write 1st chapter, revise chapter, write 2nd and 3rd chapters, revise first 2 chapters. Write 4th chapter, revise first four chapters. Add a few more lines to the outline. Write 5th and 6th chapters, revise everything. Figure out the midpoint scenery in order to start writing to that element. Write to the midpoint. Take a look at everything, edit where needed, then write like mad to the end (stopping every 4 or so chapters to edit the last few–usually combined with sticking points).

This process takes longer, but I stay excited, and when I get to the last page in the book, I’m ready to send it to an editor that same day. There’s no going back to rip anything apart, because I already did that in smaller waves. I think it keeps my books more streamlined, but it DOES take longer, which can be a huge deficit to anyone looking to finish faster.

Ripping through a large mess makes me want to turn off my computer, but I know my process would cause others to shudder. Definitely find what works for you. Find out what gets you into your writing chair. What makes you excited? How can you get that excitement to overflow or overtake the things you dread? Keep track of what makes you excited to get in your chair and what makes you dread it. Try to figure out a process that sinks the scale to the former.  🙂

How much research do you need for your stories?

It depends on the story. Sometimes I have to dive deep into steam engines, how ballpoint pens were invented, or ancient sites and what could be buried there. But sometimes I’m writing a world I already know pretty well—so less of the research “grind” is required. Still, there’s always something to look up.  🙂

What researching methods do you use?

I have a stable of research books collected over the years, but I still find myself online first. I usually do a general Google search, then I go to Wikipedia for their overview, citations, and links (the “See Also” links can be a treasure trove). Then I’m either back to Google to look at scans from historical primary sources, Google Scholar, or Google Maps—or I’m off to museum websites, libraries, books, etc.

Museum websites are usually chock full of interesting articles and tidbits, and I highly recommend both idle and focused browsing through them—it can spark some great ideas.

Do you draw on personal experience?

I draw on personal experience for some character details or interactions, but because of the genres I write in, I either have to check secondary sources and historical accounts or I get to make up fun things like how magic works (I have no personal experience casting duplication spells that allow a duplicate me to weed the yard at the same time I’m finishing a book, alas).

Writing about the human condition is always at least a little personal, but reaching past personal experiences to try and figure out how someone else thinks is a journey that is continuously fascinating.

How did you publish?

I first published traditionally. I entered a contest and my editor was one of the judges. She contacted me as a result of reading my book through the contest.

I published 11 books with HarperCollins, then decided to hop on the new, fun train of indie/self publishing.

Why did you do it that way?

When I started, traditional publishing was the main avenue for getting books in readers’ hands. I enjoyed my years with HarperCollins very much. But by 2011, self-publishing was providing higher incomes for genre authors who were not in lead/marquee traditional slots. Since I was looking for a change in what I wrote (historical to fantasy), it was a great time to try a new road.

How long did it take to land representation?

I negotiated the first two book contracts with HarperCollins myself, then hired an agent on the third.

Who did your indie covers and marketing?

Damonza.com did five of my covers and I did three. For the new series out in the fall, an artist is creating cover illustrations that I am very excited about. As soon as she is done, and indicates whether she’s open to more book projects (this is her first), I’ll plaster her name everywhere for people to contact. She’s fantastic to work with.

I do my own marketing.

How much forethought did you put into your spinoff and follow-up novels?

A lot! They had to match the first book and build on the world and characters. But, I will say that sequel novels with the same characters automatically get you past the “who are they” questions and discovery and into the “who are they striving to be in this next step” or “what is driving them now” queries. So there’s both more and less required.

What are you writing now?

I’m writing a three book series set in an alternative (magical) Persian Empire that I plan to release back-to-back in the fall. Writing the whole series at the same time has been invigorating, and there’s a good chance I’ll try it again with the next series.

What is your advice to other writers?

Find what makes you excited!

Develop coping strategies for whatever your regular “holdup” is. We all have them! There’s a reason writer’s block is so famous.

For me, writer’s block usually means I have a problem in the story that my brain won’t let me move past, but that my brain is too tired/overwhelmed/stressed/lazy to point out concretely. Rereading my WIP or reading craft articles are two ways that have worked to boot me out of a block even when I’d rather play video games. So if I keep avoiding my computer chair? Maybe I read a craft article instead. Or take a small worldbuilding item and work through it. Something usually shakes loose or at least makes me think about a different part of the story.

But sometimes we just need more sleep or self care! So take time for you, too.

Be sure to get your copy of Anne’s latest book, “The Destiny of Ren Crown” and check out the rest of the books in the Ren Crown series!

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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.

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The Failure of Crossgen Comics

Quan

Crossgen Comics founder Mark Alessi’s death went by relatively unnoticed, as opposed to his comic book contemporary Stan Lee. Which is sad considering Alessi was also a trailblazer in the industry. I remember when I stumbled across Marvel’s redux of the CrossGen Line of comics while in a comic shop a few years back. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, Crossgen was a revolutionary line of comics started by Alessi, who took a more corporate and businesslike approach to making comics. His line of comics focused on more nontraditional fare like Sci-fi and high fantasy, employed established writers like Ron Marz (Green Lantern) and Mark Waid (The Flash), and broke out new superstar artists. Alessi employed a different approach to how a comics company operated, bringing in its artists and writers as employees with salaries and corporate benefits instead of the work-for-hire, contract model used by Marvel and DC. The guaranteed pay was a huge selling point for top notch writing talent. Its first four books were very well-received and set the stage for an expansion of the comic line.

So if CrossGen was so successful then, you might wonder what the heck they were doing as an imprint of Marvel?

I believe the mistakes Crossgen made are the mistakes that a lot of upstart companies made. The biggest one is overexpansion. Crossgen’s first four titles (Sigil, Mystic, Meridian and Scion, respectively) were successful, so they added a few more books to their lineup (Crossgen Chronicles, Sojurn, the First and Negation) and they in turn begat more books (Ruse, Route 666, Way of the Rat and The Path), which was followed up by EVEN MORE titles (I’m going to stop naming them now), all within the span of three years. Simply put, there wasn’t enough shelf space at comic shops, and certainly not enough comic readers to support all of those books. Crossgen couldn’t keep it up, and they eventually went bankrupt. One of their comics got movie optioned by Disney, and eventually the rest of their assets were scooped up by Disney, who passed them off to Marvel, who published a couple of paltry book before letting the imprint die on the vine.

For the record, I DID NOT LIKE Marvel’s treatment of the Crossgen properties. I had a chance to read a few of the originals, and I found the storytelling to be excellent, and I don’t like that Marvel did nothing to preserve, rehash or continue the original storylines and characters (with the exception of Ruse, which is still true to the original). It flies in the face of everything the original Crossgen had set up. But that’s neither here nor there.

So how did having so many titles work against Crossgen? Simple: they spread themselves too thin too fast. I believe they assumed their growth in readership could sustain more titles.

Furthermore, they expanded into a lot of uncharted genres at once. This was also a mistake. They were making books about everything from spies to pirates. Nowadays, horror books are all the rage, but Route 666 was among the first mainstream books to explore it. The book was before its time, and people weren’t ready for it. Now, if a regular business took a gamble like that, most folk would think it too big a risk, but since it’s “only” comics, it would turn out okay. It didn’t. Trying to please everyone at once usually winds up with you pleasing nobody.

The final straw was announcing a creator-owned imprint, which they had neither the means nor truly the intent to support. That idea was stillborn, and a harbinger of the fall of the company to come.

My theory is that in it’s intent to be on the same level as the Marvels and DCs, and even Image and Dark Horse, they expanded too far too fast, and put out more product than their customers could support, without taking the proper moves to bring in new customers (yet another business mistake). They put out these new books with a minimum of marketing and promotion and expected the books to either sell themselves or for their loyal Crossgen readers to shell out more money to try the new stuff. A big company like McDonald’s might be able to get away with that: a small company like Fatburger can’t. Crossgen should have paced themselves better and taken the time to heavily market each book using media outside of the usual comics venues (ie comic shop ads, comic cons and the old Wizard magazine). The internet was pretty strong by then, also. They should have utilized that resource better, also.

Personally, I feel that if they had simply stuck to their original four books, (maybe with two or three hit books like Sojurn, Negation and Ruse – basically keeping their book lineup small) and devoted more time and resources to heavily promoting those books, then Crossgen would still be an independent company, maybe with success comparable to the big four, which would put them in a much better position to expand and maybe land a few movie deals (one of their books, Abadazad, was in this process when Crossgen went under. Too little, too late, I guess). With the popularity of horror books and comic based movies at an all-time high, now would be the perfect time to strike with those.

So for all you aspiring entrepreneurs, let this be a lesson to you. Try not to overextend your reach too fast. Once you’ve found a niche you’re successful with, focus on building up what works, and expand within reason, making sure that each step you take is on solid ground before taking the next one. Research the market you’re in and make sure that it can support your new expansion idea. If it can’t, then there is nothing wrong with taking an idea before its time and letting it marinate until you and the market are ready for it. There’s nothing wrong with taking risks, but make sure you understand what you’re risking. And if there’s anyway you can minimize the risk, do so.

If you want to relive the glory days of Crossgen, they still have books available. Here’s one of their better titles.

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Metroid and Environmental Storytelling

Quan

While reading this excellent review of the hard to find fan-made AM2R videogame, I came across a term that intrigued me. It was a term I had seen before in Mark Rosewater’s articles about designing cards for Magic: The Gathering.  That term was “environmental storytelling” and it is what makes it possible for a game like Metroid 2: Samus Returns, that has no dialogue or cutscenes, to tell a complete narrative.  With this form of storytelling, you are using details within the setting itself to provide clues as to what is or has been happening. This is independent of any dialogue or interactions from your characters. 

For instance, in Magic: The Gathering’s “Scars of Mirrodin” storyline, the land cards  for each of the three acts in the storyarc are painted to show the once pristine environment gradually deteriorating over time as the world is infected by parasitic invaders. It is even deeper in Metroid 2, where each environment showcases how and why the ancient Chozo race created the deadly Metroid creatures before the monsters turned on their creators and destroyed them all. Everything is part of the tale, from the lack of creatures in rooms where a Metroid dwells, to the darkness and desolation of the abandoned factories, to the areas near the Metroid’s central breeding ground being completely devoid of life, to even little touches like the Chozo statue towards the end being broken with an icebeam upgrade lying at its feet to show that their advanced weapons weren’t strong enough to stop the Metroids from killing them. You can gain an understanding of what happened from paying attention to the details of the environment, without nary a word being said or any cutscene handholding you through the narrative.

I did something similar in Godmode. Elijah does a lot of exploring in that story, and each level of the building he is trapped in tells its own story as he discovers details about it. That includes exploring his old office, which was evacuated in a hurry for some reason, and coming across clues which show how hat occurred, and maybe even why. I tried to make it so Elijah and the reader are able to figure out the details, connect the dots and deduce what happened at the same time. I did cheat a bit with the triggered flashbacks, but the general gist is still there.

HOW TO INCORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING INTO YOUR NARRATIVE.

So now the question becomes how can you use that in YOUR story. Here are some simple tips:

1. The Devil is in the details. The biggest need is to make sure you pay attention to the details of your environment. Everything that describes where the story is happening can offer a clue to the narrative, whether it be the sights, or sounds or even smells of the setting. A place that smells of rotting flesh will tell you something died there. A place smelling of rotting flesh and bleach will tell you that someone died there…and someone else tried to cover it up.

2. Place key artifacts in the environment. Much like setting up a mystery, you can plant clues directly into the setting that tell exactly what happened or what is going on. It could be a television, still on, showing a news reporter speaking on a related event (something movies do a lot), or a trinket from some event that happened related to that event (say your story had something to do with a circus. You can have some circus peanuts laying around in your environment to allude to that).

3. Show the environment changing over time. Perhaps every time your characters go to a certain place, the lace has subtle changes to show that something is going on. Maybe something is out of place that was in place before, or the lighting is different, or something new has been added or taken away. This can denote that something in the story itself has changed, and this can add to the impact of that change.

If you incorporate the environment into your story, you should be able to make for a fuller, more immersive experience for your reader. I advise you give it a try for your next story.

BTW, if you haven’t played Metroid 2 yet, give the game a try and pay attention to the backgrounds to see what I’m talking about…

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