Craig's Blog

GM of Shudder. Co-Creator of Z Nation. Executive Producer of Black Summer. This blog is no longer updated but I've left posts about writing up in case they're helpful to anyone.

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Writers on Writing: Jose Molina

Jose Molina has written for every TV show you’ve probably ever watched: Agent Carter, Firefly, Sleepy Hollow, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Haven, Grimm, The Vampire Diaries, Terra Nova, Dark Angel, and many more. He’s also one half of the Children of Tendu, an excellent podcast about producing and writing for television (go listen to it RIGHT NOW). 

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

I’m different than a lot of writers in that, if I’m not on assignment or on a deadline, I don’t write every day. If I’m working on a project on my own, I tend to do a lot of thinking and circling and jotting down notes as ideas come— sometimes they’re scenes, character insights, themes, whatever. I’m not very regimented at all. It tends to make my progress a little slow, but once I dive into a script, I know exactly where I’m going and don’t have to figure out as much on the page as many people I know.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

Again, if there’s no deadline, it doesn’t matter to me at all. If I have a self-imposed deadline, I’ll force myself to focus on those broader ideas more frequently and at least devote a few hours here and there to nailing down certain things. What’s the script About (capital “A” — what’s the point of the story?), what are the major character arcs, what’s the tone/feel of the show. Into that thought process, I start to come up with a loose architecture: act breaks, twists, etc. If it’s a coming of age comedy (yes, I’ve written one of those), the plot can be relatively light; if it’s a fast-paced page-turner, I need to focus a little bit more on plot.

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

At the very beginning, I’ll handwrite a note on anything I have at hand. Sometimes I’ll lose those notes, but the very act of writing them down helps me remember them. If I don’t lose them, they all go into a big Word document that’s usually just called “X ideas” (X being the title of the project). That document will grow and grow as a stream-of-consciousness “journal” where I dump everything. Then I might open a new document called “X break,” in which I’ll start putting together the shape of the thing. Sometimes I go straight to the dry erase board here. Off the board, I go to script. No outline. By this point, I’ve spent enough time thinking everything through enough that I don’t need to spend the time piecing together another document. Plus, I still want to surprise myself as I write the script. The board will tell me where a scene/act will need to go, and I’ll figure out the details on the script. I use Final Draft for the script. So my tools are Post-Its (or napkins or whatever), Word, a dry-erase board, and Final Draft.

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

The best thing I can recommend is to find your own tools. I’m not a fan of prescriptive advice. Figure out what works for you, and do it. I’ve tried using other people’s processes, and they always end up frustrating me and making me feel like a shitty writer. I’m not. I was just trying to be a writer I’m not.

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between?

Um… see above!

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along?

I always have an ending. Usually, a ridiculously specific ending, down to the shot and the dialogue. (I wrote one pilot where I came up with the ending for the whole series. In fact, I wrote the final scene and have it saved somewhere.) Sometimes the minutiae will change as I near the finish line, but I’d be hard-pressed to find an original sample where the final scene changed from what I intended it to be when I wrote FADE IN.

Once you get started, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft?

If it’s a pilot, maybe 4-6 weeks from FADE IN to FADE OUT. If it’s a screenplay, maybe 2-3 months… but, in truth, I haven’t written many features. I take so long to start the script stage that, once I dive in, I’m essentially swimming to shore.

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising?

It tends to be pretty close, especially in terms of structure. One feature I wrote, I threw out the entire thing and re-started from scratch (with the same story), but that’s been the exception. I’ll get notes from a circle of people I trust and adjust accordingly, but (other than that one feature) it’s usually been at least 75% of the way there.

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

This is one part of the process where I DO tend to be pretty regimented. If I’m composing (i.e., if I’m not doing notes), I write from home. I don’t even like writing in the office when I’m on staff. (Again, unless I’m doing notes or in prep, in which case I may have questions for my showrunners or someone might have a question for me.)  

If I have a choice, I write from home. In my office. Door shut, no music, no white noise, nothing but me and the screen. I honestly don’t know how people do it any other way. The biggest deviations are “write on the living room couch” or “write on the patio table outside.” Again, no music, no noise, nothing.

When I have to compose at work, a lot of the times I’ll go outside and pace and probably look like a crazy person. There’s too much noise and there are too many distractions in a production office for me to  handle all the voices in my head with any additional hum of activity.

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

New ideas go on a Post-It. That’s for later. Seldom is that a challenge.

I use the internet for research as I write, so I don’t ban myself from going on. If I get an email, I’ll usually check it, read it, and not reply until I’m done writing at the end of the day. As most people can attest to, the majority of my emails come at night. (Like the aliens in Aliens.) Same with social media, for the most part, although I’ll allow myself a break between scenes if I’m not crunched. Other than being in my “safe place” to write, I like to keep from getting too stressed about it. If I’m not in the zone, maybe fucking around online for a while will help relax me and find the zone. If I’m in the zone, maybe screwing around will help me stay loose. Maybe not. It varies from day to day. How’s that for helpful?

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

If I’m on deadline, I suck it up and get it done. If I’m not, I won’t force it. In either case, I’ll usually talk to friends about what I’m working on; verbalizing your thoughts can help organize them in a way that you don’t realize until you actually have to put the words together. And sometimes a friend’s off-the-cuff comment can lead to insight you never knew you were missing. “So you’re writing JAWS meets DRIVING MEETS DAISY?” “I thought it was more BRAVEHEART meets ANCHORMAN, but sure.” A good writer friend is invaluable. Sometimes even if you think you’re totally on track, a simple question can expose a problem you didn’t know you had. And vice-versa: you might think you’re flailing and someone will say “you’re closer than you think.” Before I get into “closed door” mode, I try to air out my ideas and see how they land with people.

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

Aging helps. The longer you do it, the less intimidating it is.

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out?

They could’ve told me — and, in fact, did — but I wouldn’t have believed them. And this is more about Hollywood than it is about writing. And the short version is this: everything you’ve heard is true. You’re not Quentin Tarantino, you’re not a special snowflake, the rules DO apply to you. When I first came out to LA after college, I read a bunch of books and articles that described the horrors of Hollywood. I thought to myself, “that’s not gonna happen to me. I’m different.” I wasn’t. And, chances are, neither are you. You might be a true talent — a visionary and a genius — sincerely, you might be. But if you’re going to try to tackle the entertainment industry you should do it with your eyes open. Read William Goldman’s “Adventures in the Screen Trade” and take every word to heart. You might achieve a lot of early success — hell, I'd worked on Star Trek, The Iron Giant, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer before my 26th birthday — but it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. Bring some Kleenex.

—

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Jay Faerber

Give us the log line of who you are and what you’re currently working on:

I've been a comic book writer for almost 20 years. I currently write Copperhead for Image Comics. I've been writing TV for the past few years, too. I most recently worked on the first season of Zoo, for CBS.

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

I'm doing some form of writing almost every day -- even if it's just thinking or talking about writing. All the TV shows I've worked on have run pretty traditional writers' rooms, which means all the writers are in the writers' room for most of the day, every day, breaking story. Talking about the season, or a specific episode. When an episode is "broken," and all the major beats are hammered out, the writer of that episode leaves the room to write up a story area (or story arena, or story document -- a 1-3 page document giving the broad strokes of the episode), then the outline (anywhere from 10-25 pages, laying out each scene), then the script.

When I'm staffed on a show, I've still got my comic book workload to maintain, and so far I've been able to handle that mostly on the weekends. Sometimes, if I'm really pressed, I'll work on comics early in the morning, before the writers' room starts up.

When I'm on hiatus from a show (like now!), then I'm more like a freelance writer. I work from my home office, but still try to be at my desk, working (on comics or a TV pilot), Monday to Friday, from about 9am-4pm. I take weekends off, and travel fairly often, too.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

If I'm working on a TV script, I'm usually on a tight deadline. I've never had more than seven days to write a script. And on Zoo, I wrote an episode in one day (although everyone involved knew it was a first draft, and that I'd go back and refine the dialog and stuff -- we just needed to get something to production so they could prep). In those cases, I usually set some sort of quota -- like, I'll want to write half the script in a day. Then get to the end the following day. That's just writing, full-out, without looking back. The vomit draft. Just to have something to revise, as opposed to starting from scratch. It's all psychological.

If I'm not on a show, and I'm working from home on a comic book, I also usually set some sort of quota -- I want to get to "X" by lunch and then "X by the end of the day. But it depends on the specific script and how quickly it's due.

If I'm not actively writing, but instead I'm starting to develop something new -- just taking notes, or spitballing ideas, whatever. Then it's more about the hours worked, since I can go all day without writing more than a few sentences. That's when my 9am-4pm schedule comes into play.

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? Do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

I do all my writing on my MacBook Air. For TV scripts, I use Final Draft. For comic books, I've used MS Word (or OpenOffice) for years, but recently started using Pages. I'll occasionally make handwritten notes on a notepad, but I do almost all my writing by typing. It's just so much faster.

All the TV shows I've been staffed on have used big dry-erase whiteboards. On the last two, we've used magnetic dry-erase tiles. So we can write a different story beat on each tile, and then move the tiles around if we're restructuring an act. So much faster than erasing and re-writing stuff.

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

I still know a lot of writers who print out scripts to make notes on, and at the risk of sounding like a judgmental snob, I encourage all of them to use their iPad and a stylus. It saves so much paper! I use an app called GoodReader that lets you open PDF and mark them up with a stylus -- so you can make notes that way.

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a script before you start writing. Do you typically develop ideas in a writers’ room or do you generate them on your own?

For TV, yeah, all the shows I've worked on have been very room-driven. We break stories collaboratively. Some shows broke their episodes more thoroughly than others. In other words, on some shows you had every single beat hammered out ahead of time, while on other shows, the writer had a little more room to improvise and flesh out the script on his or her own. And of course, by the time we're approved to go to script, the studio and network have already signed off on the outline. So they know the general gist of the story.

Most of my comics career has been focused on creator-owned comics. Which means I have the final say when it comes to story decisions. So no one has to approve anything ahead of time. It's a nice counterpoint to working in TV. So with comics, I develop all my ideas on my own (and sometimes bouncing ideas off the artist I'm working with). I like to outline each issue before I write it, just a simple sentence or two about each scene, so I know what's going on and I know how many pages to allot for it. Oftentimes, the outline takes longer to write than the script, since the outline is where I'm really "breaking the story."

What’s that development process like and how long does it take for an episode?

Ideally, you can break an episode in a week. That's what we always shoot for -- so for instance, on Monday you'll start talking about episode 7 and by Friday it'll be "off the board" -- meaning, it's ready for the writer to go off and start writing it. That's the ideal scenario. It never quite happens, though. Inevitably, it'll take a few days longer.

The shows I've worked on have all been pretty serialized, so a lot of work goes into picking up where things left off in the previous week, and then setting up cliffhangers that will pay off in the following episode. So we're juggling all that stuff, in addition to the standalone elements that are unique to this particular episode.  

Do you create a detailed outline before you start writing or do you keep things more loose?

That's up the showrunner. On Zoo, our outlines tended to be pretty detailed. Lots of sample dialog and stuff, so they'd run over 20 pages. It means they took longer to write, but the flipside is that you have a lot of the script already written. You paste the outline into the script document and you've already got 20some pages in there. It feels like you've got a head start.

With comics, I tend to keep things more loose. I'll loosely outline each individual issue, but when I reach the cliffhanger for that issue, more often than not I don't know how I'm going to get out of it in the next issue. That's a problem for another day. But I like the challenge of it.

Once you get started on the script itself, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft?

Assuming I have a solid outline, I can do a first draft in two days, no problem. But when I say "first draft," I mean a draft that won't be seen by anyone. Just me. So I'll knock that out in two days, then have a few more days to go back in and polish it and get it presentable. I can comfortably write a script in four or five days. I've heard of people getting two weeks to write a script. I don't know what I'd do with all that time!

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising?

Again, my first draft is a vomit draft -- it's got the scenes in the right order, and the bad, on-the-nose dialog. Just so I can get a skeleton of the script. So then I do a fair amount of revising, yeah.

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

I like to write at my desk, in my home office. Some shows I've been on require the writers to write on site, so you're handy if someone needs you for something. And that's fine. Then I'll just sit in my office at the studio and write. But if I can, I'll stay home. Regardless, I like being at a desk in a quiet space. I don't sit on the couch, I don't go to coffee shops.

I'll change it up if I have to. I've written in hotel rooms before, and on planes. And in my relative's attic one Thanksgiving! But that's out of necessity.

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

Having a deadline is a pretty good incentive not to get sidetracked. If I'm on hiatus and I'm working on something without a tight deadline, sure, I'll surf the internet more. Maybe participate in an interview about my writing habits.

I'm pretty good about not getting sidetracked by new ideas. If I'm on deadline, I'm pretty focused. If I'm not on a tight deadline, then sure -- the allure of some new project may be tempting. And sometimes, if I have that luxury, I'll give in and switch projects. But only if there's not a tight deadline. The deadline trumps all.

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

I'll think. A lot. I'll play Playstation -- with a notepad at my side, because  just focusing on something else will often knock something loose. Or I'll go for a walk and talk it through with my wife. Sometimes just describing the problem to someone who's not stuck in it will help. Usually she doesn't even have to say anything -- I'll realize the answer just because I said the whole thing out loud.

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

Just reminding myself that I can always revise it later.  One of my favorite writers, Stephen J. Cannell, once said you have to "let yourself be bad" or else you'll be paralyzed by a need to be perfect. Let yourself write "the bad version" first, which you can then revise into the good version.

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out?

I think it helps to remember that thinking is writing. There will be days and days where you don't actually get much typing done. Maybe even less than a page. But there are some stages in a project where you just need to think about the project -- and that's natural. Don't feel like you've been unproductive on those days. Embrace them as a necessary part of the process.

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Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

This is a stunning library cake. From here. 

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Robin Sloan

I'm Robin Sloan, author of the novel “Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore,” in addition to many stories and other projects online. I'm currently working on my second book.

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

Every day! And then I give myself a "weekend," but it jumps around -- it's almost never Saturday and Sunday.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

I tend to have a specific section or "module" I want to draft, and length-wise it can range from 500 to 2,000 words. My way of getting myself going in the morning is therefore to say something like: "Okay, today I'm going to finally write the part where Fernwen gets the Golden Horn of Griffo! GO!" And then -- this is important -- later in the day, when I finish drafting that module, even if the draft is terrible, borderline incoherent, I allow myself to feel productive and victorious. The little two-stroke engine of "say you're going to do something" / "do the thing" is powerful and it can pull you all the way home.

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

I'm a big note-taker, and those notes are mainly scribbles in pen on the pages of the little notebooks I carry everywhere. After I've filled one, I'll sit down at my computer and go through it again, transcribing the scribbles into my digital storehouse as plain text, multiply-backed-up. Then I pitch the notebook, gleefully. As for drafting, it's all on the computer, even the roughest stages. The idea of writing complete sentences longhand fills me with dread.

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

I'm on OS X and I use Scrivener, although I ignore and/or disable 98% of its features. Mainly I like its ability to organize lots of little scraps of text. Sometimes, if I need to just power through a section, I'll pop open a new document in iA Writer and write without encumbrance. Lately I've been tempted by Ulysses as a sort of Scrivener/Writer hybrid, but I don't yet trust its cloud storage. ~I need to know where my text files are.~ And I need to have like nine copies of them.

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between?

As I mentioned, I take a lot of notes, but that's at a stage before even prep or planning. My notes database is a big pot of story-stew: my interests and preoccupations and half-formed ideas all simmering together for months, sometimes years. I can dip a ladle into that anytime and come out with something interesting.

After that: all of my detailed outlines have failed miserably, but I do always have a plan for what I'm doing. I sometimes talk about my stories as Progressive JPEGs, a la dial-up internet, evolving from blurry fields of color to detailed images over time, the progression uniform across the whole piece, beginning to end. It's really the right metaphor for me! -- but I don't think I can use it anymore, because there's a whole generation now that has no idea what I'm talking about. Maybe I could create a Progressive JPEG simulator and post in on my website somewhere, and then just link over to that…

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along?

Honestly, I have not ended enough stories satisfactorily to answer this question with any seriousness. Like a lot of writers, I'm still figuring it out!

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

I split my time between writing at home on a table that I love and writing in an office in a city that I love. But I should say that for me, much of the work happens between places. I leased an office as much to establish a long, walking commute as anything else. Solvitur ambulando. [Craig: “It is solved by walking”]

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

The indispensable tool in this regard is Freedom, a tiny program that shuts off your computer's internet connection for a defined period of time. Freedom's great power is that it's a one-way switch: once activated, it can't be paused or deactivated short of restarting your computer.  Honestly, Freedom is probably the most important app I use every day.

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

Letting it sit always helps, of course. Even a stretch of a few weeks can be hugely helpful. Mainly, for me, the benefit is that when I return to the thing, I can see the good parts again. It's a nice feeling to pick up a piece of writing you despaired over and say, hey, this part is funny. This part, too.

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

Not really! I will say that the more I treat writing like a bodily/athletic activity and less like an mental/abstract one, the better I seem to do. By that, I mean both that it's something your body does (which is inarguably true) and that metaphors of muscular exertion, stamina, conditioning, etc., have been useful for me.

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out?

Here's a two-part answer:

1. I'm not sure I (or anyone) can be "told" much at all in this regard. I think you have to experience the work yourself, and then, when you do "learn things," it's not like finally reading the right bit of pithy advice but rather getting a new block of DNA grafted into your cells. Specific; intrinsic; organic.

2. Whether that conjecture is correct or not: I'm quite sure I haven't yet learned ("learned") any of the most important things yet, so I'll put off dispatching advice to my former self for another few decades at least.

—–

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

Dear Sad Puppies, I’d like to share some thoughts with you (Part 1)

If you’re a Sad Puppy reading this I probably don’t know you personally, but I bet we have many things in common. For instance, you like science fiction. Hey, so do I. You’re probably enough of a fan to know there are such things as conventions, SF fandom and, of course, Hugo Awards. Me too. You also probably think the books and stories that you really, really like should get a Hugo award. I also think the things I really, really like should get Hugos.

There are others like us, and some of them share the things they like by publishing recommendation lists of works they think are Hugo worthy. The idea is that fans might try reading something due to these recommendations, and if they like that thing they might also consider voting for it. Many authors also list their eligible works each year so fans who are inclined to vote for them know which things can in fact be voted for. (Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of what is and isn’t eligible because readers often don’t know or remember publication dates, which determine eligibility.)

However, it’s possible to overdo it. The FAQ on the Hugo Awards site even has something to say about self promotional efforts: “Be careful. Excessively campaigning for a Hugo Award can be frowned upon by regular Hugo voters and has been known to backfire.” The words are italicized for emphasis not by me but by the person who wrote the FAQ. Note that the FAQ is addressed to the entire world, not to a specific group within fandom. In other words, anyone anywhere who excessively campaigns may face a backlash. It’s actually happened before. 

Now, let’s jump back in history to 2013 when the first Sad Puppy campaign was launched by author Larry Correia. If you read his blog posts from that time, you’ll notice Larry was quite actively campaigning to get this work nominated. He started with a post titled “How to get Correia nominated for a Hugo. :)” where he explained that he was nominated for a John W. Campbell Award a few years earlier and didn’t win, and now he thought he deserved a Hugo. He followed that with three more “How to get Correia nominated for a Hugo" posts urging voters to nominate him, and in each one expanded on the reasons why people should help him get a Hugo.

In these posts he also explained exactly how few nominations he’d need to get on the ballot, how much a voting membership would cost his fans should they choose to vote for him, and even counted down to the Hugo nomination deadline to try and spur his fans to action (sort of like the ending of an eBay auction). Larry really wanted to win a Hugo and he was upfront about it, to the point where he instructed readers how to register, how to vote, what to vote for and when to do it by.

(In Part 2 I’ll address some of the other things he talked about, but for now let’s just stick with the campaigning stuff.)

Now you may personally think this amount of campaigning is fine and that Larry was deserving of your vote, but if so this is where you and I start to diverge in our mutual love of fandom. I don’t think excessive campaigning is cool -- even when done with humor as Larry did -- and as noted in the Hugo FAQ most fans are also likely to think it’s not cool. And it was pretty obvious early on in Larry’s campaign that most voters didn’t agree with the tactics he was using to try and get himself a Hugo.

That stance against campaigning has nothing to do with the personal beliefs or the politics of the campaigner, but rather their actions, i.e. campaigning to an excessive extent. And yes there was a lot more going on with Sad Puppies besides just campaigning, but even if that’s all that had ever happened, it was extremely doubtful voters would have responded favorably to Larry’s campaign to get himself a Hugo.

As it turns out Larry didn’t end up getting himself nominated in 2013 despite all that effort, so we don’t know what voters would have done. I strongly suspect -- based on the aforementioned history of Hugo voters rejecting anyone who excessively campaigns -- that he wouldn’t have done very well. That was born out in 2014 when after another campaign Larry did get himself nominated, along with a bunch of other works that he championed, and didn’t do very well. When the fans had a chance to vote on Larry’s picks (which of course included himself), they predictably decided not to bestow a Hugo Award on any Sad Puppy nominee. Larry’s own novel finished last in the voting, barely ahead of No Award.

Although this year Larry recused himself (somewhat) from the Sad Puppies, the campaign continued on and got even more works nominated to the Hugo ballot. Those works were subsequently voted down even more vociferously by Hugo voters. 

I’ve been a Hugo voter off and on since 1988 when I attended my first Worldcon, and it’s always been widely known that voters react badly to campaigning. So had anyone done what Larry (and later on other Sad Puppies did), voters would have responded the same way. In fact, Larry isn’t even the first to try campaigning and have it not work. (Thus the reason it’s in a FAQ to begin with.)

So my thought to you is, while there was more going on around the vote than just Larry’s excessive campaigning (again, I’ll talk about that stuff in Part 2), we really never had to get past the campaigning issue to know that Larry’s tactics were simply not going to work. Not because of his politics, not because of his story telling ability, but because of his actions. 

[craigengler]

I was there to witness the Hugo Awards (not) burn and here’s what I saw:

I’m the guy on the right of this picture.

If you don’t know about the controversy surrounding this year’s Hugo Awards, this Wired article will get you up to speed. The upshot is that, of the 16 award categories where there could be a possible Hugo winner, only 11 were actually awarded. In the other five categories the Hugo voters chose not to give an award to any of the nominees.

This is a rare occurrence but has happened in the past because “No Award” (or “Noah Ward” as some people jokingly call it) is always an option for Hugo voters. I have voted No Award many times in the past, and each year Noah usually receives a smattering of votes in every category. It’s just extremely unusual for Noah to actually finish first. In fact, this year Noah “won” as many awards in one night as he previously had in the entire history of the Hugos.

This happened because two groups of disenfranchised fans (the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies) were upset that their picks never won Hugos and rarely even got nominated. So they bloc voted a slate of works onto the ballot to try and get their (and only their) preferred nominees an award. In response, the wider voting audience chose to hand out no award in any category where there were only Puppy candidates. In all the other categories, only non-Puppy nominees won. (This is why bloc voting, while not against the rules, is discouraged. When you try to force people to vote for things they don’t like, the results will predictably not be in your favor.)

According to various tweets I’ve seen, the Puppies have characterized their abject defeat by the wider voting audience as a sort of moral victory because, in their words, fans “burned down” and “nuked” the Hugos rather than have a Puppy win one. Larry Correia, the guy who started the Sad Puppies, wrote “Rather than let any outsiders win, they burned their village in order to ‘save it’.”

I attended the Hugos this year and so was at ground zero of the supposed village-destroying nuclear fire when the Puppy bomb went off. Far from being devastating and awful, it was an awesome, fun night where fans of all kinds came together to celebrate and have a good time. In fact, this was widely regarded by many attendees as one of the best Hugo ceremonies ever held.

I wasn’t expecting that to be the case. I thought the Hugos were going to be a grim, somber affair and wasn’t particularly looking forward to them at first. I hadn’t attended or voted on the Hugos in more than five years and came back into the fold primarily to register my displeasure with the Puppy’s tactics while getting caught up on all the reading I’d been missing out on. (Note: I voted No Award not because of the political ideology of the Pups but because I would vote No Award for any nominee bloc voted onto the ballot since it negates everyone else’s vote, which I believe is unfair. Bloc voting has happened in the past for individual nominees -- though not for an entire slate -- and the results tend to be the same. You may disagree with this POV and are of course free to vote as you like.)

But as I filed into the auditorium for the awards, there was a palpable atmosphere of good cheer and camaraderie. We all knew it was likely that nearly a third of the awards wouldn’t be given out, but that wasn’t the point. We weren’t there to celebrate what wasn’t happening, we were there to laud whoever won a Hugo (plus the John W. Campbell Award winner) and share their joy through their acceptance speeches. We also laughed and cheered as emcees David Gerrold and Tananarive Due hosted what turned out to be a rollicking ceremony.

Things started out on a high note when Gerrold and Tananarive praised ALL writers, artists and editors everywhere, not just ones of a particular political persuasion. They namechecked many nominees on the ballot, both non-Puppy and Puppy alike (noting that Puppy nominee Mike Resnick was one of the most nominated people in the history of the award). This was an obvious bid to pay tribute to fans of every kind and not to focus on the dividing lines between various factions.

Gerrold also quickly addressed the elephant in the room: the asterisk. Many people had been saying any winner or loser this year would forever have an asterisk attached to their award due to the controversy. But Gerrold and co. neatly turned that concept on its head by saying there would indeed be an asterisk, but because it was the largest Worldcon in history with the most voters, thereby focusing the asterisk on the positives and not the negatives. (He also had special wooden asterisks made that would be on sale after the awards, the proceeds of which would be given to a favorite charity of Terry Pratchett.)

In an especially smart (and kind) move, Gerrold asked the audience to applaud not for each individual nominee but for all the nominees in the category as a whole after all the names were read. That helped ensure no single nominee was ever booed despite the animosity of the voting process. The only time someone did let out a  boo...during a No Award result...Gerrold politely asked them not to and it didn’t happen again.

Gerrold also took on the burden of announcing the categories with No Award himself instead of having a special presenter on stage to do it. The five times no award was given, Gerrold handled it expeditiously and with no fanfare so the audience (and the nervous nominees in attendance) could move past the moment quickly. This helped focus the night on the 11 winners and not on the controversy.

For its part the audience was in tearing high spirits, applauding and cheering, laughing at the jokes and fun little skits (including having an award announced by a Dalek), focusing on the positives and spending little time on anything negative. Since there were still a lot of awards that were handed out, the night didn’t seem particularly shortened or bereft. Indeed, by the end it was full of such acceptance and good cheer that it was hard not to leave with a smile and a feeling of good will.

So, far from being “nuked,” these Hugos turned into the biggest, most well attended and most fun awards in history. They not only brought new attendees into the fold but also enticed lapsed people like me back to come together in a fantastic night of celebration. While it was unfortunate that some categories had no winner, it wasn’t catastrophic. Indeed it was fandom’s way of saying, this award has merit and needs to be earned and will never simply be given out to a slate because some people got together and mustered a certain number of voters. And if at times that means an award won’t be given in a category, that’s okay. The integrity and spirit of the Hugos is more important than that. We are not burning a village to save it, we’re simply inviting more people to the village and celebrating.

A few notes:

I had several friends who ended up on the Puppy slate. My No Award vote was not given out of any animosity towards them or the other nominees or the nominators. Which is not the same thing as saying I have no animosity towards a few of the Puppies, just that my vote was about the process, not the people.

I have previously been active in making changes to the Hugo Awards when I was dissatisfied with how they worked. I participated in the process that split the Best Dramatic Presentation category into Short Form and Long Form (so TV shows were not competing with movies), and advocated for the inclusion of an online/Web award category. This same avenue is open to anyone who is likewise dissatisfied with some aspect of the awards process...attend the business meetings, suggest changes and see if you can make a positive impact.

I have been nominated for a Hugo Award twice, losing once (for Scifi.com) and winning once (for Sci Fiction, along with Ellen Datlow). The first thing I did on seeing the person who “beat” me for the first award was to congratulate them and admire their Hugo statue. It was indeed an honor just to be nominated and I have no quibbles with the voters who did not vote for Scifi.com. I do not feel wronged in any way. 

I have never once agreed with every winner chosen by Hugo voters in any given year and have on many occasions voted “no award” in various categories. I nevertheless think the eventual winners should definitely have gotten the awards. Their wins were perfectly valid and the will of the majority of the voters.

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Jimmy Palmiotti

Jimmy Palmiotti is a well-known comic creator who’s currently writing or co-writing Harley Quinn, Powergirl/Harley Quinn miniseries and Starfire monthly for DC Comics and in the middle of writing a feature film screenplay.

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

Every single day about twice a day…deadlines are kept at bay by doing this. Only when I am traveling do I take breaks.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

I go with the ideas and scenes and the deadline push. I never count pages or words, that's a waste of time for me. I know what is due and when to get it in because I keep a wall calendar with all the deadlines written on it. All I have to do is look up from the desk and I can see where I should be at any time.

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

I have a note pad, use my iPhone notes , my computer and a word program. That's about it other than my brain , which can hold planets worth of material .

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

A note pad handy always.

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between?

I think about the gig, research what I have to and then outline as much as I can and throw down any ideas I may have, no matter how stupid and then edit. I do this over and over till the gig is done.

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along?

I always know where I want to end the story. The best part of the trip is the trip and that always changes.

Once you get started, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft?

I usually do a final draft that I edit. I don't work twice. I don't start typing till I know what I am going to do.

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising?

Very close…minor revisions and then I send it in. The editor may have some notes, but I always argue them out with them.

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

I write almost anywhere I am. Always taking notes , getting ideas and only when I am ready to put them down do I go to my office and type them.

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

It’s called being an adult and understanding you have a deadline to meet. Anyone that spends a lot of time on the internet doesn't really want the job. The work comes first then you can play all you like when you are done. Nothing is more important than (my wife) Amanda to me…so my work is always second to her. It’s how I have a wonderful life…I know my priorities.

New ideas come and go and I write them in a book to reference at another time.

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

I go to the movies and get unstuck by not thinking about my work.

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

Not a one. I work in the morning every day. Earlier the better.

—–

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Scott Allie

I’m Scott Allie, Editor in Chief at Dark Horse Comics, and long time editor for Mike Mignola’s books. I’m currently writing Mike’s Abe Sapien series.

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

I do not write every day. Full time job, family, two kids, I don’t find the time to do it as often as I like. I tend to write in bursts—once or twice a month I’ll grab a series of nights, mornings, and weekend days, and "catch up" on my writing.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

The goal would be a number of hours. I aspire to doing two hours every day, Any less and I can’t get into what I’m doing deeply enough to get anywhere.

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

I work on a MacBook Pro, in Word. I write, I print it out, mark it up in red, write notes on fronts and backs of the printouts, and then save a fresh draft with those changes. I love legal pads, and sometimes put my energy into those. I’m going on vacation, and am not bringing my laptop, so I printed out the notes for the story I’m doing next, and have a legal pad to write long hand. I love doing that, but generally find the laptop faster.

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

Pilot G-2 07 red pens, but that might be the editor in me talking …

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between?

I used to change up my process every time, but in the last few years I’ve fallen into something that works for me. I have scattered notes. I pull them together, get them into one Word document, and add to it, not worrying too much about order or shape, until there’s a decent amount of material—ideas, scenes, bits of dialogue—to work from. None of it is in script for at this point. There comes a moment when I have enough of the raw material, and then I get it into order—sequence. This is the start of the outline, but there’s not a moment when I’m done with the outline and move to the script. I think of it as cellular division … I have a paragraph, and that’s the first cell. Then I add detail, add detail, and it breaks into multiple paragraphs. Usually that’ll get to the point where it’s five or more paragraphs, and then it starts morphing into the script. 

With a comic script, you break it down into pages. The script tells the artist what to put on page one, then page two, etc.—it’s not a like a screenplay, where you have a rough target number of pages, or a prose book, where you have a target word count. With a comic, you usually know that you have 22 pages, or 20 pages—it’s a set number, and it’s precise. So at the point where I have my handful of paragraphs, I break them into scenes, and then I figure out that the first scene will be a certain number of pages, the next scene, and it has to add up to 22. So if I’ve decide the first scene is say 4 pages, I start adding detail to that scene—that paragraph—and again breaking it into pieces, until it becomes individual panels, individual lines of dialogue, and then I try to trim it into that 4-page scene that I determined … So from going through the initial notes through the rough “outline” to the final script, it’s a very organic process, where no stage is ever done, so much as it starts evolving into the next stage. And this whole process applies to a five-issue story as much as a one-issue story, and even, to a degree, to a whole series.

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along?

The ending is usually nailed down pretty early in that process. Sometimes it changes completely, but I usually have something well before I’ve broken the paragraphs down into individual scenes. The end is the hardest part, nothing else works with out the end, and the way I like to structure things, I can’t really nail down the details of the beginning without a pretty clear view of the end. Sometimes I throw out the end and put something new in there, which is fun to be able to do. But if I love an ending that I come up with early in the process, then I’m doing everything I can to set it up properly.

Once you get started, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft?

I don’t have that meaningful an answer for this, because of how I stop and start around life and my day job. The real work is getting to that point where I have the handful of good paragraphs that set up an issue, or an arc. That’s probably like twenty hours of work writing, but endless hours of time kicking it around in my head, talking to the right people, walking around with it. And then when I have those good paragraphs, the outline, as it were, from there it might only be twelve hours of writing to get to something ready to really share.

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising?

I do a lot of fine tuning, with feedback from a few people, and more time spent with it, but usually the structure is there. Sometimes I’ll get to the end, and decide to throw out some big part of it—maybe the last third, or some big chunk of the middle. Ideally the revision is just going back over it and setting up the ending better, fleshing out the themes or the character arcs. Punching those things up. But sometimes I realize at the end that I didn’t get a certain character where she needed to be earlier, and I have to shred a couple scenes and replace them with something new.

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

Either a coffee shop in the neighborhood, or the couch in the front room with the shades open. Sometimes other places, but those have proven the two most reliable spots to get anything good.

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

I don’t … if I’m into it, I don’t get distracted. If it’s really working, I don’t go astray. And if I’m getting distracted, I’ll let myself, because sometimes the distractions kick something into the mix that was needed. The goal is to get to that place where it’s working, and have enough time that I can stay there long enough to get the most of it.

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

Talk to a friend. Talk it through. I was at this art school a couple years ago, Illustrators Masters Class, on the faculty. I was writing Abe #9-11, this three issue arc that I had worked out pretty well, and I just needed to do the script while I was there. I knew the story. But I was having trouble. I grabbed this one artist, Dave Palumbo, who does a lot of cover work for us. We went to an all night diner and I talked it through with him. He asked me questions, he threw some ideas my way, he responded to what I was telling him. Some of it he seemed to like, so I emphasized that stuff, and the stuff that got a blank stare, I moved away from. He spent like two hours there with me. The next night I was still in turmoil over it … self-doubt. I grabbed another artist there, Iain McCaig, who has a great take on story. I was reluctant to talk to Iain at first, because he’s sort of exploding with ideas, and I was worried if I pitched him something soft, he’d say, No, do this! and run with it, and in my indecision I’d just get swept along. But we sat down, I told him the story, and as I was telling it, I started feeling like it was working. And I got more excited about it. And when I got to the end, he just laughed, and said, Well go ahead and write it!

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

That’s the part that continues to change all the time. Sometimes my gimmick is just to read something. Like two pages of Poe, or some old true ghost story,or find something on the internet about the place where I want to set the story. There’s a pioneer cemetery by my house that’s been helpful lately … I usually just need something small to shake the dust off.

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out?

You’ll never get to the point where you’ve figured it out, so give it all you’ve got today. It’ll be different and probably better next time. The truth is, the thing I think is most important changes from year to year. That actually just keeps it fun and fresh for me. What I’m going for evolves enough that I can’t tell you the thing that would’ve been most important in 1994 … Hopefully I’ll learn something this year that trumps all previous lessons. My favorite little writing koan comes from Joss Whedon, something he said in the middle of our work on Season 8, which was, "Fall in love with moments, not moves.” But if someone had told me that in 1994 I would’ve just spent the next ten years trying to figure it out anyway …

—–

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Greg Pak

I’m a comic book and children’s book writer and filmmaker. Right now I’m working on “Action Comics” and “Batman/Superman” for DC Comics and a new children’s book called “ABC Disgusting” that’s in the middle of its Kickstarter campaign even as we speak. It's an alphabet book about disgusting things drawn by the great Takeshi Miyazawa. Check it out at http://abcdisgusting.com! I'm also writing "Kingsway West," a new creator-owned comic series about a Chinese gunslinger in an Old West overrun with magic. You can pre-order that at KingswayWest.com.

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

Almost every day. Some days I’m working on outlines. Some days I’m hammering out actual script pages. Some days I’m revising scripts or tweaking dialogue. But when you work on monthly comics, you generally have to work nearly every day for the books to come out on time.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

I don’t track words or pages on a daily basis — I just work towards making my overall deadlines. The need to make those deadlines and keep my jobs tends to be incentive enough. ;-)

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

I write on Macintosh computers — a desktop and a laptop. I print out pretty frequently and edit by hand, because I’m old enough that my brain still works that way. And I carry around a small notebook for working on ideas when I’m out and about.

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

I know it’s a horrible, horrible cliche, but I’ve actually grown to really dig those Moleskine notebooks. I use the skinny ones that come in a three pack. They’re small enough to carry wherever but substantial enough that you can write in them comfortably without a table or backboard. And this is super goofy, but I love that they come in different colors. When I start new projects, it’s fun to bust out a new notebook with a new color.

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between?

Depends on the project. Sometimes the whole project takes form in my mind and I can start roughing out an outline almost immediately. Other times I just have a certain image or concept in my brain and I have to take notes and work through the ideas to find the story for a long, long time. This fall I’m coming out with a creator-owned comic book called Kingsway West that I’ve been working on in one form or another for literally two decades. Some projects just take a while.

On the other end of the spectrum is a project like ABC Disgusting, which is a children’s alphabet book about disgusting things. Once I had the initial idea, I spent a while taking notes about disgusting things for each letter of the alphabet. Then I spent a little time figuring out what the actual emotional storyline was (it’s about a boy trying to gross out his sister, who ends up hitting him with the biggest gross out ever). Then I hammered out the script in a pretty short amount of time. I’m not saying any of those steps were easy or effortless (although it was all a blast); I’m just saying that it was easier to have that whole project in my head at once and see what it needed to be a bit quicker than some other kinds of projects.

Now it’s possible to take a short cut and start writing before you really know what your story is. But for me, that’s never really worked well. I have three or four screenplays that are about two thirds done, but since I didn’t outline them from the beginning, I stumbled into cliched plots and lost the will to actually finish them. So I really try to outline enough ahead of time to know my story before I start writing full script.

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along? 

Yeah, I always work better if I know the ending as early as possible. The ending might change. But in order to know whether this scene right here and now is working, I have to know what it’s building towards. Later I can rework it all. But I need a plan.

Once you get started, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft?

About 75 percent of the time I have before my deadline. ;-) That sounds glib, but it’s true — the work expands to fit the time available. So for a comic book script, for example, I tend to have my first draft roughed out a couple of days before I have to turn in the final script, which gives me time to clean up and refine.

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising?

I do tons and tons of revisions. Nothing is final until it’s actually printed. In comics in particular, first I have a page-by-page outline, which I send my editors. Then I revise that and hammer out a first draft of the actual script. Then I revise that and it goes to the artist. Then I look at the art and revise the dialogue to match. Then that goes to the letterer and we get the actual ballooned version. And I try to limit my revisions here, because anything extra here means extra work for the letterers. But sometimes you discover things don’t quite work right when ballooned, so here’s one last chance to tweak the dialogue a bit.

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

Mostly sitting at my desk. But I switch to a laptop on a couch. Or I print out and revise while eating lunch. Or sometimes I pull a Mark Twain and write in bed. A little change-up can help. Probably it’s just moving from place to place that gets the blood flowing and resets the brain in a beneficial way.

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

During the course of the day, I’m generally working at different times on three to five different stories. That’s the nature of monthly comics. So I have to be able to switch from one story to another without a lot of warning or prep. That being said, you don’t want to be in a position where you’re having to make those switches every thirty seconds. So concentrating on one task at a time for discrete chunks of time is key. Sure, there are always distractions available, including the internet and other projects and redesigning your website headers. And sometimes it’s a great idea to indulge in those distractions in order to reset your brain. But generally, the need to make my deadlines creates remarkable focus. If I don’t focus, I don’t get paid. ;-)

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

One of the great things about monthly comics is that I have editors I can call up. Sometimes I’ll bang my head against a certain story problem for a few hours, and I’ll suddenly remember, hey, I could call my editor! And I do, and we talk, and more often than not, we work out a solution in minutes. Very often what feels like a “problem” in storytelling is really just a failure to decide between equally viable options. Having a creative partner like an editor or co-writer can help nudge you to decide one way or another very quickly so you end up actually working again rather than agonizing over a simple choice.

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

For years, I’ve wanted to do more creator-owned projects. But it can be very hard to make time for creator-owned work when you’re doing work-for-hire books. Those hard deadlines always take precedent — as they should, frankly, if you want to be a pro. Eventually I realized the way to force myself to make the time for creator-owed work was to make the creator-owned work into a job. Developing the Code Monkey Save World book and running the Kickstarter with Jonathan Coulton, for example, created huge obligations and hard deadlines. Basically, I took a job with myself and had to make the deadlines, which was great.

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out?

How about this: No one is a genius. It’s all just having a story to tell plus hours and hours of hard work, year after year and project after project. That’s sobering because it means that first thing you write is probably terrible. But it’s incredibly freeing and inspiring because it means that yes, with hard work, we all can get better.

You know, maybe someone did tell me that, though. In some ways, that’s the message of that great Ray Bradbury essay, “Drunk and in Charge of a Bicycle,” which describes his early years as a writer when he gave himself the task of writing a short story every single week. I read that essay as a kid and it made a big impression on me about the joy of creation — and the need to work really, really hard to get better. Sobering and hugely inspiring all at once.

—–

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Mark Waid

I’m a comic book writer getting ready to mark his 30th year in the business this fall. Within the industry, I’ve also been a publisher, an editor, a production man, a letterer, a colorist, an artist--basically, at one time or another, I’ve done everything short of stapling the comics together. Currently, I’m working on Daredevil, S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers for Marvel; Strange Fruit, a creator-owned historical fantasy for BOOM!; Empire, my series with artist Barry Kitson for my own digital company, Thrillbent; and I’m spearheading the revival of Archie Andrews for Archie Comics.

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

I type six days a week. (Saturdays I’m very protective of as my one day off.) But, as I assume most writers would answer, I’m writing all the time, day and night, whenever I have a constructive thought about plot or story.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

Your method is your method, and I won’t judge yours if you don’t judge mine. Routinely over the past 30 years, I’ve found that the harder I try to hold myself to concrete production schedules, the harder I rebel and the more time I spend screwing around. At any given time, I’m juggling a half-dozen deadlines and I have been most of my professional life, so really all I can do is try to get something completed every day, even if it’s just a scene. I have two speeds: “can’t start” and “can’t stop,” and the tragic reality of writing for a living is that you have to re-learn how to find that momentum every single day.

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

I’m just a laptop-in-the-recliner guy. I can’t handwrite anything because my typing speed is such that scrawling in longhand is like moving in slow motion. I’m just not comfortable trying to work outside my ordinary space.

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

Macallan 18. [Craig: Ha!]

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between?

Outlines are for the weak.  

I’m joking. Again, I won’t judge your method if you don’t judge mine. But to me, the fun of writing is all in the discovery process. I do have to have a strong, concrete opening thought up before I can bring myself to type or else I’m frozen in place, and I like having some idea of where I’m supposed to end up, but the rest is just making it up as I go.

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along?

Everyone’s dead right when they say that the ending is the most important part of your story, particularly if you’re not working in super-long-form, but eight times out of ten, the ending I think I’m headed towards isn’t the ending I arrive at. I always have better ideas as I go, and if I lock myself in too tightly, I lose all passion for the gig.

Because I work largely in a serial medium, many of my stories end in cliffhangers to be resolved next month. I am not exaggerating one bit when I confess to you that I almost never know how my cliffhangers will resolve. I just write to the most exciting, dramatic moment of suspense I can think of and then let the Mark Waid of four weeks from now worry about how to get out of it. It’s madness, I know, but again, the fun of the job to me is in the problem-solving. For the first ten years I wrote that way, I thought I was cheating somehow, but now I’ve just come to accept it. Plus, added bonus: if I don’t know how the cliffhanger resolves, then you can’t guess, and we’ll both be surprised.

Once you get started, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft?

Once I finally get rolling, I can finish a script of about 20-25 pages in about three days. If it’s taking longer than that (and it almost always does), it means that it’s broken in some way the conscious mind has not yet discerned.

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising?

After all this time, it’s basically there. I’m certainly never averse to doing second drafts if I or my editor (or both) feel there’s something off, but I do so much of my writing in my head that if you watched me during the day, the process would look to you like thirty minutes of me muttering punctuated by forty seconds of typing.

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

I ought to change it up more than I do, but right now, my options are limited; the office space I have has one recliner and that’s about it. And I have to write in silence, so public spaces are to be avoided.

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

I don’t, which is why I either (a) don’t write as much as I ought to or (b) write plenty enough but don’t have as much of a personal life as I should, I don’t know which. I love getting sidetracked by new ideas, so that’s not a roadblock. With the internet, at least I’ve found that once I get my momentum and get excited about what I’m writing, I’ll stop checking my email every seven minutes.

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

I go back to the last point at which it was clearly clicking and turn left to see what that sparks. I’m a firm believer that what we call “writer’s block” is almost always your subconscious realizing you’ve screwed up somewhere and trying to keep you from marching further in the wrong direction. When stuck, I think about my characters making different choices. I change the venue of the scene. I reverse the roles of the characters at hand. I try anything just to see if abruptly turning left triggers anything. Often, way often, it does.

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

Yeah. When I feel overwhelmed, I sit down and build a Lego set or do a jigsaw puzzle or engage in any sort of productive activity where the process is all laid out for me and I don’t have to make any choices. I just do what some instruction book or some cardboard boxtop tells me what to do, and then when I sit back down to the keyboard to start making choices again, I feel like the palate’s been somewhat cleansed.

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out?

That it means having homework every night for the rest of your life.

-----

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews. 

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Daniel Abraham (a.k.a. James SA Corey and MLN Hanover)

I'm epic fantasy author Daniel Abraham, urban fantasy author MLN Hanover, and the James half of space opera author James SA Corey.  I've also recently been the comic book script writer for the graphic novel adaptations of Game of Thrones, and a writer and producer on Syfy's new show The Expanse.  

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write?

It varies a lot. I aspire to having a regular schedule, but in practice, it's a little more chaotic. I write probably four or five days a week.  More when I'm running tight on a deadline.

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter?

I have a weird focus on wordcount. On a bad day, I can do maybe 750-800 words. On a good day, I can do 2,000. On a shitty day, I can do 6,000.

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process?

First stage outlining, I usually do on paper -- legal pads or lab notebooks. After that, I switch over to Scrivener if I'm working on a solo project or Word if I'm doing a collaboration. The other half of James SA Corey doesn't have a Mac, so Scrivener, despite its many virtues, wasn't something he picked up. Then the final read-through and layout pass, I do in Word.  

Any favorite tools you want to recommend to other writers?

The best tool I've got for writing is walking shoes. The thing that's helped me through technical issues most regularly is stepping back from the page and walking around the block a few times. Not with earphones or anything like that. The point is to give your head some time to just hang out with the problem.  

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between?

I do a lot of provisional, tentative outlining. Working through the story as I expect it to be, putting scenes in order, making notes of the things I expect to flow gracefully one into the next. But I'm never completely right, and that's fine. I'll make an outline and use it until it stops being right, then throw it out and make another outline that's closer.

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along?

I almost always know the ending when I start. A couple times I've been wrong, but that's not like the outlines. Outlines are always iffy. Endings are usually solid.

Once you get started, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft?

Depends on the length of the project and the consequences of biffing my deadline.

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising?

Usually it's close, but it's almost never been all the way there. Revisions are actually something I really enjoy, partly because you can have such a huge effect on how a story reads with relatively small changes to the text. Watching how cutting a few paragraphs in chapter three affects how chapter 20 comes out is part of the fun.

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up?

I've got a treadmill desk, a sitting desk, and a couch. I tend to use whichever one's quietest at the moment.

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas?

I've used a program called Freedom to block internet connectivity, and while it's been great for keeping me offline, it's kind of a pain when I then need to look something up. I've started just shutting off the wireless on my laptop. The extra step of having to turn it on has been enough to stop most of the reflexive checking for mail and news that otherwise eats up my time.

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do?

Take a walk or work on a different project. Or read. Every now and then, I have to go see how other writers have dealt with issues of structure and balance, just to remind myself how many approaches there are, and how many of those can succeed.

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write?

Oh my yes. I have a perverse fixation on word count. Part of what lets me go quickly is having the additional obstacle of a particular length I'm shooting for. So, for instance, almost all of my chapters are 3,000 words long, plus or minus a couple hundred words. When I start a book or a story, I can tell you within a couple thousand words how long the first draft is going to be. It's an axiom. I don't understand how people just head into a story and let it figure out its own dimensions. It's like starting a painting without knowing what size canvas you're on. That's just weird.

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out?

Writing is like chess, in that you have perfect control of it. There's no chance involved. Publishing is like poker. You can learn how to play and bend your odds one way or the other, but luck is always going to be a huge factor.  Don't take the failures personally, just get another chip on the board.

—–

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

Writers on Writing: Jane Espenson

I’m Jane Espenson. I’ve written for various TV shows -- including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica -- for more than 20 years and currently write for ABC’s Once Upon a Time.  

Okay, let’s start with the basics. How often do you write? 

It depends how you define it. If you mean how often am I actively writing dialog in script format, it’s not actually that often.  Between Once and other projects, I probably write about 6 complete scripts a year, so that’s two weeks of writing every two months.  So… not so much. But if you count the process of working with the rest of the writers to craft the stories that become the scripts, then I’m writing pretty much every work day for nine or ten months of the year.  

Do you try to write a certain number of words each day, for a certain number of hours, or does none of that matter? 

I think that’s like asking a farmer if they try to do a little bit of harvesting every day. Sometimes you’re simply not at that stage of the process.  

Tell us about your writing tools. What do you do most of your writing with? And do you use different tools at different stages of the process? 

Mostly, I’m writing on my laptop, using Final Draft writing software, which is set up for script writing. But I also love to print out a hard copy of an outline or script and take it to a restaurant where I can sit and jot notes all over it without the stress of the cursor. I often end up rewriting whole scenes on the backs of the pages.  

Any favorite tools you'd recommend to other writers? 

Write where you’re comfortable in any way that works for you. I try to minimize noise/music, but others love playing music to help sort of score the scene they’re working on. Others love writing their whole script in longhand with a fancy pen – I need something faster than that.  Experiment with different places, methods, writing software, times of day, etc. The one tool that I can whole-heartedly recommend to everyone is having an outline. TV writing does not accommodate the “write your way into the story” method. You need to know what needs to be accomplished in every scene, because it’s serving the script as a whole. 

Let’s talk about prep and what work you do on a project before you start writing. Do you take a lot of notes and develop a detailed outline, do you just dive right in, or is it somewhere in between? 

Not only do I work from a detailed outline, but it would be nearly impossible, as a member of a writing staff, to do otherwise. On most shows, this is the primary job that occupies you every day: sitting with the other writers to come up with the structure of an episode – a structure that evolves into the outline.  

What about the ending. Do you know what it is (or at least what it might be) before you start, or do you figure it out as you go along?  

While you are writing your episode, the rest of the writers are coming up with the story for the next episode. If the show has any continuity across episodes, they need to know where your episode ends so they can know where the next episode starts. 

Once you get started, how long does it usually take you to complete a first draft? 

About four days, if the outline is detailed enough, but the result will be a little bit rough around the edges. I’m more comfortable with a full week. If there are story elements that were left open-ended in the outline, it might take longer. And if there is a real rush to get the draft into the hands of production, it can be done more quickly. Many shows give writers up to two weeks to turn in that first draft, which gives you time to write the first, rushed, draft, then set it aside for a day or two and then return to do a thorough polish with fresh eyes.  

How close is that first draft to being final? Is it basically there or will you do a lot of revising? 

This very much depends on the show you’re working for. For one thing, some rooms leave more “WP”s (writer’s prerogatives) in the outlines than others, which means you get to make more of your own personal choices in the draft. Naturally, WPs have more of a chance of being overturned by the showrunner than other elements do, leading to a longer rewrite process. Also, some showrunners simply leave the script in the hands of the writer for more passes than others do, as a matter of personal taste, which affects the amount of rewriting that comes from the original writer. At some stage, on most shows, the showrunner takes over to do a final rewrite. This can involve tiny dialog tweaks, or huge changes that affect every scene. Also, since it takes longer to write an episode than it does to film it, there are times during the season when there is a great rush to produce finished scripts, and the writing process has to move a little faster.  

Depending on the show, I’ve had scripts taken from my hands and essentially handed unchanged to the director, and I’ve also had scripts taken from my hands and rewritten so that none of my words remain. This undoubtedly has some correlation with whether I did a good job or not, but it often has to do with a lot of factors as well, among them the culture of that particular show.  

Back to logistics. Where do you do most of your writing? Do you ever change that up? 

I’m most comfortable flat-ish on my back on a bed, with my laptop on a my lap. It doesn’t have to be my bed at home – hotel rooms are AMAZING places to write – but I do prefer to be physically relaxed. But don’t feel that you have to write in your favorite place. You may have to write on set or on an airplane, and you’ll be amazed at how the surroundings fall away once you’re in the scene and “hearing” the voices.  

How do you avoid distractions like the Internet or getting sidetracked by new ideas? 

I use something called a “writing sprint,” which involves writing for short but very focused bursts of time, usually one hour. Sometimes I go on Twitter and invite others to write during the same hour. The hardest part of sitting down to write is often the sense that you’re sitting down for a long haul. But if I know I can stop in an hour, it’s much easier to get started. And often, at the end of the hour, I’m having too much fun to stop. As far as getting sidetracked by new ideas – that’s one of the reasons to have that outline locked down.  

If you find yourself stuck on project, what do you do? 

This is the one time you can sometimes “write your way into it”. If a scene is resisting me, I’ll remind myself of what the scene needs to accomplish and then just start writing a conversation between the characters and let them talk until I start liking what they’re saying. Then I’ll delete all the stuff leading up to that part. If a scene continues to resist being written, that’s sometimes a sign that something is wrong at the story structure stage – maybe the thing this scene is supposed to accomplish has already been accomplished? Or maybe these aren’t the right characters to do it? Think about the reason to have the scene and make sure the scene fulfills that reason.  

Any rituals, gimmicks or cheesy self-help techniques that help you write? 

Sometimes a snack helps.  

Finally, what’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about the realities of writing before you started out? 

Nothing. If they’d told me about the hard parts, it would have scared me off. And if they'd said it was the best job in the world -- I already suspected that.

—–

Check out more Writers on Writing interviews.

[craigengler]

How to break an episode of Better Call Saul

How to break an episode of Better Call Saul via Thomas Schnauz's Twitter account. 

[quotes-shape-us]

Drama is based on the mistake. I think someone is my friend when he really is my enemy, that I am free to marry a woman when in fact she is my mother, that this person is a chambermaid when it is a young nobleman in disguise, that this well-dressed young man is rich when he is really a penniless adventurer, or that if I do this such and such a result will follow when in fact it results in something very different. All good drama has two movements, first the making of the mistake, then the discovery that it was a mistake.

W.H. Auden (via quotes-shape-us)

[craigengler]

Steven King's Daily Writing Routine

I want to talk about writing now. Walk me through your typical day when you're working on a book. I wake up. I eat breakfast. I walk about three and a half miles. I come back, I go out to my little office, where I've got a manuscript, and the last page that I was happy with is on top. I read that, and it's like getting on a taxiway. I'm able to go through and revise it and put myself – click – back into that world, whatever it is. I don't spend the day writing. I'll maybe write fresh copy for two hours, and then I'll go back and revise some of it and print what I like and then turn it off.

Do you do that every day? Every day, even weekends. I used to write more and I used to write faster – it's just aging. It slows you down a little bit.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/stephen-king-the-rolling-stone-interview-20141031#ixzz3I49pkeve 

[craigengler]

Here are a bunch of photos from the Z Nation crew at Walker Stalker Con last weekend. We had a BLAST and signed what seemed like hundreds of autographs. Thanks to everyone who came out! And yes, that's me with The Walking Dead star Lauren Cohan (Maggie). She was so nice!

[theimpossiblecool]

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

Kurt Vonnegut.

[craigengler]

Yes, this: