Don’t Write Comics (How to Write Comics)

3 August, 20173 August, 2017Leave a comment

In this four-part series of articles on LitReactor, you’ll hear from Kelly Thompson, Kickstarter crowdfunding author legend and the writer behind Heart In A Box (Dark Horse Comics, 2015). Kelly also writes Hawkeye, Phasma, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, A-Force, Jem & The Holograms, Misfits, Power Rangers: Pink, and Mega Princess, a creator-owned middle grade comic book series.

hawkeye-kate-bishop-by-kelly-thompson

Thompson’s Hawkeye is pitched as Veronica Mars meets superheroes. Shop Volume One from a local indie bookseller at IndieBound

Don’t Write Comics: How to Write Comics Part One

If you’re interested in comics solely because you think it might be easy or that it might be a shortcut to another end (like having a movie made of your comic) let me just stop you right here and point you towards the exit. While it’s true that some screenplays get reverse engineered into comics, and then after being successful comics are turned into successful films (30 Days of Night springs to mind), there’s nothing “quick and easy” about making comics. In fact, if you’re not well connected to artists (and possibly some publishers) and/or willing to lay out your own money upfront in some cases, then it can be the very opposite of quick and easy. In order to make good comics, I truly believe you have to already love comics. It’s the love that’s going to get you through.

Identify What You’re Writing
Read, Read, Read
Getting Professional Help

Part Two

So, against all my advice last time, you’re still planning to write a comic book series, huh? And you’ve done all your research as detailed in Part I, right?

All right then, let’s talk about what you need to pull together in order to pitch the project to publishing houses.

What You’ll Need
Specifications
The Script [Also check out my (Lara’s) post on Formatting a Graphic Novel]
Stumbling Blocks
Accepting Reality

Part Three

Now comes the hard part. Because now you have to find someone way more talented than yourself to invest emotionally, mentally, and physically in your project.

And if you want the really good art, you’re probably going to have to pay for it.

Paying Is Key
Sequential Pages Are King
Where to Look
‘The Right’ Artist

Part Four

I always recommend using an agreement, whether you are strangers or best friends, because no matter how well-intentioned everyone is at the outset it never hurts to have clarity between all parties, and a clarity that is written down, dated, and signed, is best.

Agreements
Collaboration

Recommended Book Cover Designers

6 April, 20166 April, 2016Leave a comment

Yesterday I posted 7 Tips for Authors Working with a Book Designer.

I also created a new page of recommended book cover designers. You can find it under the “Getting Published” tab in my navigation menu.

Have an illustrator or book publicist you’d like to recommend? Comment below! I’d like to create recommendation pages for these services as well. Please include link to their website.

(Comments are moderated. If yours doesn’t appear right away, it will once I’ve approved it.)

The Kinds of Queries that Work, from Query Shark

17 December, 201430 March, 20165 Comments

Two queries on Query Shark I recommend every querying writer to read. They are #246 and #179.

From 246:

This works.

The first sentence catches my attention. The rest of the letter tells me who the main character is, what her problem is, who the antagonist is and what he wants, and what’s at stake.

If I took on YA novels, I’d ask for pages.

From 179:

Yes! This is exactly how to start a query. We know what Jessica wants, and who is trying to thwart her.

…

At this point we know the characters, what they want, and have a sense of who they are. There’s nothing extra here, but also nothing left out.

If you take a look at all of the winning queries on Query Shark, they aren’t all the same. Because there is no formula for writing good query letters.

But there are ingredients common to successful queries: Character + Want + Change + Conflict + Stakes.

Start your query with whichever drives your novel most. (See my post on WATCh) If your character and/or world is truly exceptional, and his or her choices or that world drive the plot, start with the hook. If your plot is a chain reaction of cause and effect which started at the inciting incident, start your query there.

I’ve categorized some of the winning queries from Query Shark, so you get an idea which ones might be a better model for your own query:

Ones that begin with what the character wants: 179, 174, 261, 211 (Character stories and thematic “Answer” stories)

Ones that begin with the inciting incident: 255, 246, 236, 199, 192, 191, 175, 162, 123 (Time stories and external Answer stories)

Ones that begin with an exceptional character hook: 223, 217, 212, 172, 168, 120, 114 (World*)

*Note that even World-based queries need to start with character. A query needs someone for us to empathize with. Your first line might give us the hook, your next might give us the inciting incident or what that character wants.

From Idea to Novel

12 December, 201414 December, 2014Leave a comment

A beautiful post from YA author Jackie Lea Sommers. Go follow her before her book comes out and she gets all kinds of famous.

JACKIE LEA SOMMERS

How does an idea become a novel?

First, you throw away the match. Then you hold the idea in your hands like a flickering flame. You protect it and you breathe life into it: research, conversations, prayer.

You put flesh on it. That is, you create characters. You make them look like real people, broken and complicated, and you make them want things.

Then you look around and see where this idea is happening. In space? In post-apocalyptic London? In a dollhouse? You open your fist and let your idea and your characters start to run around in this new terrarium. With any luck, they will make very bad decisions.

Then you write about it. Pen and paper, laptop, 1921 Woodstock typewriter, whatever you’ve got. Start putting the words down. They’ll be bad at first, but you’ll fix them later.

After 20 drafts or maybe 220, you take off your beret and…

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