Starting a Project with Questions

Alright I know how it goes for everybody. You got an idea for a story buy your mind is bombarded with a ton of questions.

When writing your story, you should start with the basic questions:

• Who
• What
• Where
• How

To me, the basics are getting a clear vision of what your story is about. Moving on from pantser to plotter/planner, I learned to ask questions on what my project will be like in terms of tones and subject matter.

Let's begin.

Who-It's obvious, yes. But if you're thinking about building a world of your own design, you have to ask who are your characters. What do they do for a living? Whom do they have contact with? Highly recommended.

What-In terms of plotting the story, you have to ask yourself what the whole story is about. If you look at the foreign film En La Cama, you see the plot being about two strangers engaging in a one-night stand which becomes something more intimate.

Where-Location, location. This is the essential aspect to the story, in my opinion. A fictional setting can go in many different ways. Futuristic utopia, medieval fantasy, or a noir period. Now to bring the "who" aspect of worldbuilding to center stage, this is where it comes in. Your characters populate the world. Keep in mind that when giving the world you created whatever rules you have in mind, it has to maintain an equal level of reality too.

How-Another essential factor in creating your story setting is to ask how does it work. You got your population, governing body, limitation of resources, and so forth. What's key about it is to get an idea of how your world works for your characters, like say, how they interact with one another or where do they draw their source of energy for the whatchimacallit powering the city.

However you plot your story, remember to ask yourself the basic questions "who", "what" "where" and "how."

What I'm doing for 2017.

Okay since everyone's got goals for 2017, I'd like to share what I'll be doing this year.

• Read Young adult fiction and comics.
• Make a budget plan.
• Reach out to five people.
• Volunteer at a community event.
• See a show at the Civic Center Music Hall.

And that's all for ya, cats.

Where'd He Go?

Hey, everyone.

*Looking at my calendar*

Wow, I had no idea it's been a month since my last post. For anyone who's wondering I've been a very busy man with a few projects in progress. I'll keep you posted.

1 Love

New Years Eve 2016

Happy New Year, world!

Movies and Books that Inspired my Writing

Hello all Black Thursday/Friday survivors!

I'm back on the blogging horse to answer one of the most simple writing questions...What inspired my comics?

Considering how I wrote my "first" piece of fiction off the top of my head, I've no idea. In the years of writing my comics I came to realize some aspects came from books, movies and comics. Here are the following.



1) The Howling (1981)

2) Blood & Chocolate

3) Darkman (1990)

4) The Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs




















5) The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris

And there you have it. My top inspirations for fiction friends.

Source for Creating Characters: Yourself.

Your first, best source for characters is your own personality.

Writing For Comics & Graphic Novels with Peter David, page 46

When creating characters for your stories the greatest challenge is making them "real". Personality traits. Flaws. Character tics. Take your pick. But did you know you can add something really cool to your characters...Yourself.

Well, not all of yourself into them. Just bits and pieces. Your past to your experiences as a high school teacher. We writers invest aspects of ourselves to create identifiable characters in a manner of ways. For instance, Diana Rowland has poured in all her years in law enforcement for her Kara Gillian series, giving it the realism not all crime solving/urban fantasy books have. Comics icon Stan Lee would tell you about the "origin" of Spider-Man from his teenage years when he was, to a degree, a lonely kid desperate for acceptance.

When writing my own stories, I've plucked a few things from my own personality to add to my characters, and some were without even knowing it. I named a character Andre McDyess ("Andre" short for my name; McDyess after former NBA player Antonio McDyess). Plus, I gave him five percent of my sense of humor. My superheroine in a comic book series was crafted from my experiences in a US History course at a community college, and I equipped her with some of my own quirks, like coffee and Pop Tarts for breakfast when on the go. Sorry, no super powered mayhem involved. One of my most flawed aspects I'm not proud of is being a smart ass. That's what I share with another one of my characters because let's face it, we all have that one friend or relative who'll shoot his/her mouth off.

The more honest you are about yourself, the more you can give readers something to identify with in terms of characterization.

Importance of Preparation.

There's nothing important than being prepared for what's ahead. Job interview. A first date. You name it, preparation is key. I thought about all this when I decided to pitch my graphic novel later this year.

(You heard right. I'm pitching my very first graphic novel in two months.)

Back on preparation, you have to be ready for the moment you've been looking forward to for a long time. Plus, you got to have the following requirements: Research. Support system. Patience. Professionalism.

I bring these factors to center stage because they play their own role in preparing for pitching your story to an agent or comic book publisher.

Research-This is very vital in getting published here, cats. You have to do your homework on your target publisher or an agent you've heard about. Ask yourself questions like what genres are they looking for or is the agent good or bad. Take a moment think about it while you dig for information on those working in the field.

Support system-We all need a group of people to help with a project. Beta-readers, writing groups (in person or online), a trusted friend. It makes all the difference on which route you take. I've come across good people in my writing groups who gave out their two cents worth on my projects.

Patience-The key factor is patience. Why? It's a long process. Drafts, revisions, and rewrites. It takes a long time to get it all down. For the past few years I learned that being patient is all part of the process. On the draft aspect of writing, it's taught me that no project is perfect from the beginning. It's the first step to making the book the way I want it to be through revisions and rewrites.

Professionalism-Like any business you're getting into you have to brush up on professional etiquette; you're dealing with professionals. Reading various sources on how to navigate the comics industry, I had to be honest with myself about my own professionalism and see about how I can improve them.  

With these factors you're all set to make your publishing debut. It's important to have these because publishing professionals will know you came ready to work with them and they'll be ready to work with you. I know I'll be ready to be a professional comics writer when I pitch my graphic novel or comic series.