Archive for the 'writing workshops' Category

March 22, 2011 | Creative Soulery,DA Series: The Graphic Novel,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writing Movements,writing workshops

So, as you all know, I’ve decided to turn the DA series into a graphic novel series. My homework was to take the first 5 pages of some comic books that he gave me and re-write them. I thought about that and eventually decided to change it up. I told Bryan that I wanted to script out the first 5 pages of DA Book One. When we met up last Thursday, Bryan had brought examples of his earlier scripts. He also brought sample scripts for X-MEN XENOGENESIS by Warren Ellis and a sample script from CATWOMAN. I tried reading those manga books I mentioned in the above link (for the teen speak) and couldn’t grasp the concept of reading left to right. Or whatever. Too confusing.

However, I did enjoy reading Richard Sala‘s CAT BURGLAR BLACK.

Trying to script the first 5 pages was extremely difficult.The first chapter in Book One is basically the agents heading up Y.I.D. going over the special “deal” with Draven and going over her first assignment. That’s it. The first 5 pages are the agents explaining the deal.

So, here I am, trying to capture all that.

When Bryan brought the first scripts he wrote, at the top, it said “What Not To Do.”

Basically, it was everything that I did in describing how I wanted the panels to look. LOL

I sent him what I did and here’s the first page with his comments (CLICK TO ENLARGE).

Once I get the hang of this script writing thing, I should be able to do it like this (CLICK TO ENLARGE):

See the difference between mine and the X-MEN script?

In regards to this first assignment, he tells me at the top that I need page numbers and asks me “How do you want pacing?” A typical comic book is 22 pages and the whole thing is scripted in 7-9 pages. The whole thing! My “homework” was 6 pages. Granted, graphic novels are different from comic books and I’ll have more leeway in telling the story, but yeah, I’m definitely a nube here. LOL.

In the left-hand margin he says “A lot of movement. Break it down to photos!”

At the very bottom he gives me a tip from Stan Lee: “Never use more than 28 words of dialogue per panel.”

Cutting dialogue and description is going to be hard for me. Especially description. I’m used to describing everything, from what a person wears to scenery to facial expressions. I mean, I’m going to have to cut out a lot of shit!

During the course of our 2-hr meeting, Bryan and I talked about a lot of stuff:

~ Breaking my novel down into 3 acts

~ Figuring out how long I want the novel to be

~ How many pages do I want my GN to be

~ How many panels per page should I have? The typical number is 4-6

~ Start thinking VISUALLY (very important)

~ Study more graphic novels, especially the ones being read by 13-18 yr olds (and hopefully it’s not those manga ones)

~ Read up more on the GN industry (because I need to know the jargon) which is why I bought Scott McCloud‘s UNDERSTANDING COMICS and THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO CREATING A GRAPHIC NOVEL by Nat Gertler and Steve Lieber.

~ As a writer, I’m going to have to leave my ego at the door….because it’s going to be all about the illustrator, not the writer.

~ Illustrators and writers have a partnership and everything should be 50/50

What I love about working with Bryan is that he comes from the comic book world. Section 1138 is the first comic book he’s creating, yes, but he knows comics. He’s been reading them forever. I, on the other hand, have not. I’m coming from the novel world. We view my novel in two different ways and I love getting his opinion/impression/whatev of my novel. I see my novel as just words, he sees them visually and can tell me, “this could be one whole panel, no dialogue” or “you can show her facial expression here instead of saying this”. It’s going to be difficult, transitioning from novel writing to writing a graphic novel, but I know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel: Bryan. He’s going to show me how to do this and we’re going to get through this together. He’ll help me create a graphic novel and I’ll help him edit his comic book. A win-win situation.

One of things Bryan mentioned was the fact that my novel should start somewhere else within the story, like an action scene. Which makes sense if you think about it. The majority of the t.v. shows me and my husband watch start out with an action scene. And then the rest of the show is piecing together what happened. I want all the books to begin with a debriefing and end with a psyche eval (it’s part of Draven’s gig and she has to have one at the end of each assignment). So for instance, in Book 2, it would begin with a little recap of what happened in Book One and then segue into assignment #2. By the end of our meeting, Bryan was able to condense the first chapter (10 double-spaced, typed pages) into just 3 GN (Graphic Novel) pages! Three, peoples! I even got a little giddy when he gave me the suggestion for the back cover: a file showing her case. Hah! How awesome sauce is that?

So, in between working full-time, school, and taking non-school related courses like grant writing, I’m going to turn my novel into a graphic novel. This is going to be my way of giving myself some “me” time and not be so consumed with school all the time. We plan to meet a few times a month, and take it slow: 5 pages at a time. Yeah. This. Is going to be interesting. Hope you all stick around for the journey.

Lessons Learned:
~ GNs will be 126 pages long
~ GNs will have 4-6 panels per page
~ Be less descriptive
~ Watch word count

Technorati Tags: X-MEN XENOGENESIS, Warren Ellis, Richard Sala, CAT BURGLAR BLACK, Stan Lee, Scott McCloud, UNDERSTANDING COMICS, THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO CREATING A GRAPHIC NOVEL, Nat Gertler, Steve Lieber, Section 1138

March 15, 2010 | Reading is FUNdamental,SARK-ism,Sunday Scribblings,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writing Movements,writing workshops

Today’s word of the day is brought to you by Sunday Scribblings: The book that changed everything

Make Your Creative Dreams REAL
A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, Avoiders, and People Who Would Rather Sleep All Day
by SARK
May 2004, Simon and Schuster, ISBN: 0743229215

First of all, I’d like to point out that SARK is one of my favorite authors and literary crush. I am a SARK disciple and pray at the alter of SARK. If she were a cult, I’d join and never look back. I’ve met her several times and have had the pleasure of attending a couple of her workshops. And each time, I’ve come away feeling energized. She has the most amazing presence. Her regular attire of lounge pajamas could be the reason, but I’m sure that’s only part of her charm.

This book changed everything…for my writing. Because SARK (a.k.a. Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) introduces the Micro Movement Wheel.Click image for bigger view

It’s to help you complete a huge task in increments of 5 sec-5 mins. As you can see in this example, the “dream” is in the middle and each of the 12 sections has a task. Each of these can take 5 sec-5 mins, until eventually, you get further every time and have reached your “dream”.

I applied this activity to my writing, but call it Writing Movements. When I actually have Writing Movements, they get posted here. The results of the Writing Movements, not the actual writing itself. I’m superstitious like that. But I digress…

It works! I’ve finally found something that works for me! Hallelujah, praise the Lord, pass the biscuits!

I use this when:
1) I’m not feeling very productive
2) Trying to crack through writer’s block
3) Procrastinating about writing.

This book was made for me because my other middle name is Procrastination (it’s just not on my birth certificate). I love all this woman’s books, but this one has a special pocket of my heart. The one for writing.

Technorati Tags: Sunday Scribblings, Make Your Creative Dreams REAL, A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, Avoiders, and People Who Would Rather Sleep All Day, SARK

May 11, 2009 | A Royale Pain,A Whole Latte Trouble,Book One,Book Stuff,Book Two,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Movie Queue,Random Thoughts,Revision Heaven,School Daze,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up,Writing Movements,writing workshops

I think this was the best weekend over. On Saturday, I spent the day with SARK. Not just the two of us, although that would’ve been hella cool, but me and about 29 other people. Two of whom were men. She was conducting her Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper workshop and it was FAB.U. LOUS! I love this woman. She’s my favorite author. I have a nice little collection of her books. I always feel uplifted and inspired after being around her. Her workshops are very creative (and I mean that literally because she has you writing, drawing, collaging, etc) and interactive. You get up, walk around, meet other people, interact with other people, do group activities…Did I mention this workshop was fabulous? If you love this author, too, then you need to attend one of her workshops. The money will always be worth it. She signed my book and a couple of Mother’s Day cards for my Mom and sister. Very cool.

Sunday was Mother’s Day, as you know. With my family, it’s a ritual to go out to breakfast. Our usual restaurant is Village Inn, but the one we always go to was closed down. So we invaded the Coco’s near Scottsdale Fashion Square. I say invaded because there was 16 of us!!! Me and Mr Maul; my sister, her husband and their 4 kids; my parents; Jackie and Brandon (long-time family friends), their son Mario, and their daughter Nikki, her hubby James, and their 2 daughters. Technically, it was 17, but one of Nikki’s daughter’s is an 18 mo old baby. We had a great time. I hadn’t seen my 15 yr old nephew since his final football game and that was in…Feb? Long time. He’s getting so tall and his voice is getting deep, too. It’s just a trip.

Sunday afternoon, Mr. Maul and I went to see STAR TREK. I was never really a fan of the shows or the movies. I would catch episodes here and there, but never watched them religiously. Unlike my Dad, who was of the old school Star Trek. I think he watched some of the other shows, too, in all their different incarnations. The only actor from the original series was Leonard Nimoy, which was pretty cool. The actor that portrays him in this movie, Zachary Quinto, plays Sylar on the TV show HEROES (one of my fav shows, BTW). And he did a really good job. Odd cameos: Tyler Perry (the guy behind those Madea movies) and Winona Ryder as Spock’s mother. Really weird seeing her. Anyhoo, we liked it. I thought J.J. Abrams did a bang-up job and I hear another movie is already in the works (per Leonard Nimoy). For those that don’t know the background stories about the main characters, this movie kind of did that for you: for instance, I had no idea that Spock was half-human. Nor did I know that Kirk’s father was the captain of a ship….for only 12 mins. Sad story, that. Or that Kirk was named after his grandfathers. And I still have no idea what Uhura’s first name is. It was mentioned real quick in the movie, but when Kirk said it, Spock talked over him (it was a funny moment, really), so I didn’t catch it. But I have a feeling it was unique, I would’ve liked it, and would probably use it as a character name in a future story. LOL.

Writing Movement – Revisions for DA Book 2 are coming along nicely. I’m almost done with Chapter 5. Here’s a funny: we had an hr for lunch on Saturday, so I took the MS along to edit. And I discovered that Chapter 5 contained only 3 pages. 3 pages made up Chapter 5. LOL. I don’t know how that happened. Maybe I got sidetracked and thought I was done, so when I went back in, I created a new chapter and kept on going. Needless to say, Chapter 5 will be combined with Chapter 6. And I can tell, just with the chapters I’ve done so far, I’m not moving the story along too well. I can hear my beta reader saying “There’s too much Poe and Rico.” I may leave it as is for now and just wait for the comments later.

For weeks now, I was making the announcement that Book 1 was going to be released Oct 23rd, during Teen Read Week. Then last month some time (or it might’ve been earlier this month), I rescinded that date. The reason for that, simply put, was that I changed my mind. I thought I was going to go the same route as I did with my first two books and then decided not to. I’ve decided to dip my toe back in the traditional pool—again—but on a smaller scale: small presses, no agent. On Friday, I went to Barnes and Noble on my way home and spent close to $50 on books. I bought three romances (of course) and the 2009 Writer’s Market. So, in between revisions for Book 2 and Book 1 (whenever I decide to send it to an editor again), I’ll be making a list of small presses to submit to.

I also signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. I’m going to try my hardest to write Book 3 during that month. Notice I said ‘try my hardest’. By then, I will have started school—and possibly my 20-week volunteer mentor program—so it’ll be interesting to see how I’ll juggle all that. Within the coming months you’ll be seeing a new blog post title: Writing Thoughts. Unlike my Random Thought posts where I talk about, well, random things, Writing Thoughts will be about writing, in all its forms: from query letters to NaNoWriMo.

This should be interesting.

So, how was your weekend?

Technorati Tags: SARK, Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper, Village Inn, Coco’s, Scottsdale Fashion Square, STAR TREK, Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto, HEROES, Tyler Perry, Winona Ryder, J.J. Abrams, Teen Read Week, Barnes and Noble, 2009 Writer’s Market, NaNoWriMo

July 1, 2008 | Book One,Book Stuff,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Movie Queue,The 4-1-1 on Me,Weekend Wrap-Up,writing workshops

Saturday, I attended a writing class taught by former university professor and indie pub owner, Pamela Goodfellow of Goodfellow Publishing. She teaches a 3-Level, 8-week program, Crafting the Character-based Novel out of her home. She likes her classrooms smaller nowadays. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to taking the program and her being my editor. Saturday’s session had to do with scenes. I learned so much that I’ve decided to share the highlights with all you writers out there:

1) Get rid of dialogue attributions. These are the words you tag when your characters are talking: she said, she beamed, she laughed, she cried out, she teased, etc. I had no idea those even had a name until I took her class. Unfortunately, I do that a lot. As I’m sure all you other writers out there do, too. Pam says “If you are writing in character, you do not need to use dialogue attributions because the reader already knows who is talking or thinking. To show the reader this you may use action, reaction or emotional responses. You can also set up gestures and tagged responses for the reader to get to know the style of dialogue for each character. It is not easy to do. The simple thing to do is to use and attribution. But, if you want to write in character you must force yourself to learn by never using them.”

2) The 3 stages of human emotional response are visceral (physical), behavioral (instintive and learned response) and chosen (where the story is)

3) Every scene has to have a hook.

4) Use place holders in your scenes. It’s basically explaining something that the reader should already know. Pam says “You use a place holder because you know the reader will understand it; usually a cliché’s or an explanation of something that had happened earlier in the character’s history. If you recognize this in your own work, when you go back to revise and edit, you can take that place holder out and write a scene to set up what you were trying to explain in the original scene. Then when the reader gets to the original scene he/she will already have the information needed and will feel so very smart to understand the emotions of the character he/she has become attached to. It is really a secret to “showing” and not “telling”.”

4) A character cannot have the same emotional curve at the beginning than they do at the end. Emotional Curve is the name given to describe the emotional development of a character throughout the story. For instance, a character who starts out cynical and untrusting of men at the beginning of a story can’t remain like that by the end. It doesn’t have to be a happy ending, but you have to show the character as growing and changing emotionally. Pam says, “It is the emotional changes that make the story real and relevant to the reader.”

One thing she did tell me was that I’d have to change it from present tense to past tense. That’s going to be a lot of work. Good thing I’m up for the challenge. Clearly, I myself need to grow as an author still–and as we all know, learning to be a better writer is a never-ending process–and I look forward to working with her.

Saturday night, the hubby and I went to see Wanted. Very. Cool. Movie. We loved it. It even had some supernatural undertones to it, which made it even more interesting. I mean, besides the fact that they were a secret society of assassins, they have this…unusual ability. The hero (James McAvoy) thought he was having anxiety attacks, only to find out it was nothing close. The one thing I’ve discovered lately is that–SPOILER AHEAD–I don’t like it when Morgan Freeman plays the bad guy. I haven’t seen his full repetoire of movies, but this is the third movie (Chain Reaction, Lucky Number Slevin being the first two) in which he’s been the bad guy and I don’t like it. I realize actors and actresses need to mix it up a bit, but he doesn’t appear evil to me. I can’t picture him torturing someone or being the mastermind behind a plot to do harm. Some people have it and some people don’t. He’s one of the people that doesn’t.

On Sunday… (more…)

Technorati Tags: Pamela Goodfellow, Goodfellow Publishing., Crafting the Character-based Novel, Wanted., James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Chain Reaction, Lucky Number Slevin

May 8, 2007 | Book Stuff,Calendar of Events,How coolio is THAT?,Writing Movements,writing workshops

I forgot to post on here–and MySpace–about my booksigning event I had on Saturday. Sorry. My bad. It was hosted by the Arts Council for Youth and it was fun. Except for when my tent almost blew over. That was not so fun (damned sandbags). Anyhow, we had an excellent spot near the Main Dance Stage. Besides the books, there was music, art, food, a raffle, and plenty of dancing. You can see photos from the Arts Jam Festival HERE.
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I started another AuthorMBA online workshop this week: Feng Shui for Writers: Move Your Stuff, Make a Sale. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? I couldn’t pass up the price. Why are you taking this, you may ask? Besides the fact that it’s geared towards writers and us writers need all the creativity flow we can get? I’ll give you one good reason: have you seen my office? I don’t write in here, I type in here. It’s obvious I’m in dire need of help and Bella Andre is going to show me what I need to do. I’ll be sure to share the results–the suggestions, that is. Not so much the actual physical results. That could take a minute. Or two–with all of you when the class is over.
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A guy contacted me through my Flickr acct yesterday. He’s doing a special project on his website about movie studio theme parks and there’s going to be a section about the Foxploration Tour in Rosarito, Mexico. He saw my ‘great’ pictures (the hubby and I took this tour on our honeymoon last year) and asked permission to use them and name me. How coolio is that? “Sure thing, dude,” I said. Well, I didn’t say the dude part, but close to it. You can check out the photos HERE.
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The writing deadline (scroll down to read) I mentioned not too long ago is now under way. Even though I had a bit of a head start when I made the first deadline (33 pages already completed), I’m finding that I’m writing more than my daily quota of 1 page a day. During the week, that is. I have an hour for lunch at my new job and I consider that to be Prime Writing Time for me. On good days, I can crank out 2-3 handwritten pages. On the weekends? One page. It’s been going quite well, although Draven isn’t happy. With the way she’s been acting up, you’d think I’d ruined her whole life or something. Such is the life of a writer. Lucky me. I’ll post a Writing Movement update later this week.