This Time Round Pt VI

craigengler:

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:

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.