The five issue run of “Take A Chance” is being auctioned off on eBay by somebody or other, in case someone would like to have a copy.

Yesterday, unrelated to this auction since I didn’t know about it, and therefore randomly, because I was feeling gloomy about the prospect of ever, ever, ever finishing the series (I’m pretty gloomy about ever getting a graphic novel out, for that matter. Or getting paid by the Dabels. Anyway.) I had the vague thought of continuing it online as a crowdfunded novel. In my copious free time, obviously, but I wonder if it’d sell. *eyes kickstarter, vaguely*

I sat down to write a blog post and immediately ran out of energy. Oops. Oh well. Perhaps all I’ll say, then, is that my breasts, they are pneumatic, yea veritibly. They attach to my body with no particular nod toward gravity or believable angles of descent or, indeed, shape. They are, in fact, comic book breasts.

Too bad I don’t have a great Chance or Rogue costume to go along with ‘em. :)

currently: amused

1. Ardian Syaf will be lead artist on DC’s upcoming GREEN LANTERN CORPS title. Key phrase: Source “Artist to Watch” Ardian Syaf … has put together a remarkable resume [in less than a year] including BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN, PHANTOM STRANGER and an arc on SUPERMAN/BATMAN. Not too shabby, eh? *beams like a fool* Go Ardian.

2. Last night, watching Leverage, the following conversation ensued:

Kit: Wow, Christian Kane is really cute with glasses.
Ted: Yeah, but he’s not your type.
Kit: He’s not?
Ted: Of course not. He’s built like me.

My husband knows me so well. *laughs* :)

3. Sharon Lee talks about the myth of the wealthy writer.

4. Pursuant to yesterday’s post, there are still two sets of FIREBIRD DECEPTION and PHOENIX LAW (and rather a lot more copies of PHOENIX, if people just want it) up for sale if anybody wants ‘em.

5. I guess thing #5 is metrics, ’cause I can’t think of anything else right now. :)

The Road Home: miles to Isengard: 122.2
ytd wordcount: 64,500
ytd km swum: 22.5

currently: ecstatic

This weekend a fellow writer and friend emailed to say she’d gotten her first comic-writing contract, and did I have any thoughts/suggestions/advice/epiphanies, having written my own comic series. Indeed I did, and I’ve been vaguely meaning for ages to write those thoughts up, so she provided me with an opportunity to do so. So here’s what I learned about writing comics:

* turning the page is often a sign of a scene change. Not always, but it’s a good rule of thumb, and if you’re *going* to change scenes, it’s better to do it at a page turn than mid-page unless you can be very clever with your frames to show some kind of continuity leading into the new scene.

* Wally Woods 22 Panels That Always Work is probably something every goddamned comic writer, nevermind artist, should be given right away.

* Alan Moore is reputed to work within a 210 words per page format. More than that and the reader starts going “too many words” on a subconscious level. I have observed this in TAKE A CHANCE, where a couple pages were too dialog heavy and I went and counted and yeah, was like around 250 or something. More detail on that here.

* I go to a fair amount of trouble to describe panel layouts and angles and details. This is a technique I picked up from reading how Neil Gaiman wrote comics (and he apparently got it from Alan Moore). The important bit, really, is to end (or begin) the script with, “But if you have a better idea, go for it; you’re the artist, after all.”

* Story beats: I think this was maybe the most critical thing I realized while writing Chance. I was using 22 page scripts there, so basically you’re looking at, say, 11 scenes. Each scene became a story beat, to some degree, and I *really* had to get those figured out ahead of time before I started writing, because otherwise it got sloppy and out of control almost immediately. It’s like a mini-synopsis. “Page one: Intro. Page 2-3: Heroine in action on the streets. She meets a “helpful” powered hero who is embarrassed when he realizes she’s “one of them”–but she’s “NOT LIKE YOU.” Page 3-4: cut to Chance at her day job; use the words “NOT LIKE YOU” as her introductory phrase to keep continuity, so we know who the unmasked woman is. Backstory: Nila arrives with information about the man who killed Chance’s son.” And so on and so forth. Without the story beats I’d have lost my mind right off.

* Keep it simple. I did too many complicated things–too many frames per page (4-6 is good, up to 9 sometimes) a lot. I think it’s the novelist in me. That and the Bendis fan.

* Remember that the action in comics takes place between the frames. We’re just seeing still shots. Apparently it annoys the crap out of artists when a writer has an action and a reaction in the same frame. :)

* ALL CAPS usually emphasizes words in dialog bubbles or text boxes. On the finished page, those words end up slightly bolder.

* Don’t forget color, light and time notes for the colorist. Separate them out, because a colorist won’t necessarily notice them in the body of a description. So a page might say “COLORIST’S NOTES: this scene takes place during sunset” at the head, or “Grey rainy day” or “night shot” or whatever. I forgot those a lot.

* If you have ideas on where the text/word balloons should go, put those into the header: TEXT BOX (upper right): sorts of things. It may help the artist laying out the page. (or he might ignore you entirely. Nevermind that detail. :))

* I found it helpful to write most of a page’s dialog before I started trying to script the images. It gave me a flow chart for the page, by telling me kind of how much information was going to get dumped, and then I could work with that in how many panels I needed and things. I’d often get halfway through a page of dialog and then find myself going back and starting to write in the images, but it got me started. And it helped me not forget clever lines. :)

So there you go. Those are helpful things I learned while writing Chance.

miles to Morannon: 138 (completed!)
miles to Minas Tirith: 5.8
ytd wordcount: 245,800

currently: working

Apparently Chance #5 is out today! YAY! That’s the last of this story arc!

Holy cow. End of an era, there, at least for me. And of course the graphic novel will be the *real* end of the era, I guess, but wow. Wow. Damn, congratulations to me! And to my team! Go us!

Also, because there has apparently been a big fat fail on the acknowledgments in this issue, I’m going to say this here:

miles to Minas Tirith: 497.2

currently: accomplished

I left the house to go on a walk this morning and a few doors down the postman said to me, “I’ve two packages for ye, is anyone there to collect them?”, so I turned around and came back home to collect them.

One was full of enough Pop Tarts and macaroni and cheese to last us the rest of the year. Lisa is the best human *ever*, and I owe her something spectacular (like postage, at the very least).

The other was full of issues 1-4 of Take A Chance.

Holy crap, guys. This is the first time I’ve seen most of these (I saw #1 at Forbidden Planet, bought it, and ended up signing it for Neil Gaiman at his own signing at Chapters in Dublin), and I’m completely stunned. The production quality is gorgeous, and…

…when I saw #1, I’d been looking at it for so many years online and in printouts that the impact was kind of lessened. But seeing four issues all together? That’s impacty. I’m honestly stunned. It looks like a comic book. I mean yes, of course, that was the idea, but I’m just…wow.

I have to admit that I mostly see two things when I look at these. One: I see the *incredible* talent of my team. Ardian Syaf‘s art is consistently gorgeous, Jason Embury‘s colors are just fricking phenomenal, and Melissa S. Kaercher‘s letters bring the book together for me in a way that–you all know by now I’m not a visual person. I go over the pages and the colors, but they come alive for me when the words go in, so when I get the lettered pages it’s like seeing everything for the first time. I very, very literally couldn’t do this without these guys, and I am just blown away to see all their work gathered into comic form at once. Wow. *Wow*.

…the second thing I see, of course, is how I could have done better as the writer. Where I’ve screwed up. But honestly, I’m not really coming down on myself with that. The important thing is I /can/ see where I need to improve, so I won’t make these same mistakes again. (I will possibly make all-new exciting mistakes, but that’s inevitable. :))

Wow. Just, wow. This is pretty cool, guys. God, I’m going to be *beside* myself when the graphic novel comes out! Speaking of which, sort of, with any kind of luck the fifth issue will be in the stores by mid-July. It’s in Melissa’s hands now for lettering, and hopefully it’ll be to the Dabels by Monday to head into production. Sorry about the delay there. I blame the economic crisis. :)

Also, did I mention Ardian is now NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING ARTIST Ardian Syaf? As he said, “That’ll look good on my CV.” *laughs out loud* YAY ARDIAN!!!!

God. *Wow*. I feel like some things that have been idling have just kicked back into high gear. That’s a very exciting feeling. It feels *good*.

currently: grateful

There’s no cover image up yet, but the Take A Chance graphic novel is up at Amazon for pre-order. The GN will include the original 5 issue story arc, plus the Free Comic Book Day issue, and audition art from various artists I’ve talked with over the past few years. And possibly some other stuff, essay-like things and who knows what else. In fact: what would people like to see?

Oh, and the Dabels have got issues 1-3 up at their online store. I’ll nudge them about #4, and hopefully the 5th and final issue will be available by the end of June….

miles to Minas Tirith: 285

currently: busy

Ardian’s on Batman: BLACKEST NIGHT blankets Gotham City in this 3-issue miniseries from writer Peter J. Tomasi (GREEN LANTERN CORPS, THE MIGHTY) and hot new talent Adrian Syaf!

Holy crap holy crap HOLY CRAP

*dances and dances and DANCES*

I knew it, I knew it, I *knew* it. I *knew* he’d hit the big leagues when I opened up the very first email with a portfolio piece for Take A Chance, what, four years ago now? And now he’s a HUGO NOMINATED ARTIST and has worked on the X-Men now, and Captain Britain, and now BATMAN. OH. MY. GOD. I am happy enough to *cry*. Oh my GOD.

*DANCES*!!!!!!!!!

My colorist told me so. :)

*goes to work, superheroically*

miles to Minas Tirith: 278

currently: complacent

Ok. I have done some work which I have been, for honestly no discernible reason, been putting off for about two weeks. I’d use my shoulder as an excuse for having not done it before now (it was color notes for the free comic book day issue of Chance), but really, I’ve typed as much over the past week as was necessary to do the color notes, so I have no idea what my problem was. Anyway, it’s done now, which means only a miracle is required to get the rest of the Chance stuff done and then it’ll be, well, finished. (Due to circumstances beyond his control, Ardian’s unable to finish the fifth issue, so Aleksandar Sotirovski, who is my artist-for-the-next-story-arc-assuming-we-get-a-next-story-arc, is finishing it up on very short notice. He’s a terrific artist and I can’t wait to see what he does.) And then I get to start putting together the extras for the graphic novel, which reminds me that I need to email Ursula.

*does that*

‘k, my shoulder’s kind of doing better, so I’m going to get offline so I don’t aggravate it. *scoots*

miles to Minas Tirith: 125

currently: busy