Friday 29 January 2016

Making a comic out of your novel

The early 1980s were a great time to be a geeky kid with a big imagination. On the back of a crop of really great films for kids (both large and small), such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ET, Krull, The Goonies, The Black Hole, the world of Dungeons and Dragons was just taking off. Alone in a big old scary house, with just the resident ghosts and my imagination to keep me company, I was in heaven.

The invention of Dungeons and Dragons arrived just as my eyes, ears and mind were starting to open to grand stories and story telling. Into this maelstrom of exciting possibilities, three of my biggest literary inspirations then turned up in my life; J.R.R.Tolkien, Fighting Fantasy books and 2000AD.


At the age of eight, when I heard our class teacher Mrs Jones read us The Hobbit, I knew straight away that I wanted to write stories. 'The Warlock of Firetop Mountain', the first Fighting Fantasy book, taught me the excitement in telling a fantasy story. And when I peered into 2000AD, I knew that some of those stories I wanted to tell would be comics.

I haven't told a story as a comic - yet. But I know I'm halfway through a trilogy which would make a blinding comic and I was lucky enough to meet a supremely talented artist called Warwick Fraser-Coombe at Comic Con London 2015 who was able to take my vision of the main character from The Damned, Inquisitor Poldek Tacit, and turn him into a comic character on shiny paper.

What little I've seen and experienced of the comic book marketplace suggests that it's a huge and vibrant industry, but one where, unless you get your break and make it with the big boys, it involves a huge amount of effort for very little financial return - a bit like any form of publishing then! Comic book artists are driven, spirited, passionate individuals who produce their work because they love the medium, the art of telling stories and seeing them come to life.

If you can, visit the next ComicCon at your nearest city and spend a couple of hours chatting to comic book writers and artists at their stalls. They'll renew your faith in humanity and fire your imagination.

One day Tacit might grace a tome or tomes courtesy of Image or Dark Horse comics? In the meantime, enjoy staring into the stony face of the main man drawn by Warwick. And be sure to say your prayers tonight! Tacit's armed, and he's not afraid to use his revolver and his faith against you!


Sunday 24 January 2016

Always back up your manuscript on the cloud!

Seeing a grown man weep is never a pleasant thing. For goodness sake, avoid witnessing it or experiencing it at all costs. Back up your work - and not just on your computer!

The Fallen proved to be the most difficult novel I have written to date; follow up pressure to the critically acclaimed The Damned; trying to keep the momentum and energy going from that first book; the 'Difficult second album' syndrome.

Nine months into the project and I had sixty thousand words, all of which took me to dead ends and cul-de-sacs. Unlike The Damned which poured onto the page and which I wrote without a deadline, with its sequel, things were not going so well and I had a deadline which was looming. I was in trouble. I was panicking. I decided a long weekend away in a lonely caravan on the cold Dorset coast would be just the ticket.

I packed up my laptop, reference books, notes, plus provisions; beer, whiskey, snacks and headache pills, and went down there. The caravan was just what I needed, bleak, bare, cheerless and perched on the very top of the cliff top.

I opened my laptop and  … my writing software crashed. Knowing I had saved it just before I headed down to the 'writing cell', I restarted it only to find my manuscript had corrupted, sixty thousand words crushed and mangled together in some weird 1960s beat poem of epic proportions. Chapter 1 had been thrust into Chapter 62. Half of Chapter 13 had been sliced and chopped and inserted into 12. One minute the inquisition were chasing demons and the next they were in bed with them. The whole thing was a disaster. And my only copy was the one which I had saved to my machine. The previous saved version was two weeks and thirty thousand words old.

I wept and held my shuddering head in my shaking hands.

If only I had backed up off my laptop.

It's obvious, but sometimes you just don't think about it. You must. I do, now.

Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Documents, there are loads of these cloud services which connect to your machine just like additional hard drives at your disposal. Not only is your work safe, but it's also accessible anywhere. So if you happen to touch down in Timbuktu and wished to do a spot of writing on the local PC, as long as you can get a wi-fi connection to grab your work, you're all set up.

Don't become a weeping casualty. Don't suffer experiencing a grown person cry. Back up your work on the cloud.

NB: I spent the entire first night in the caravan, about 6 hours, unpicking the entire mess of words and phrases. I don't use that story writing software anymore.

Saturday 2 January 2016

2016 - the year of thrills, spills and mystery!

Happy New Year!

December turned out to be the perfect book end to the year. After toiling hard all of 2015 with book two of The Darkest Hand trilogy, The Fallen, my editor at Duckworth and I finally finished it and put it to bed - or at least under the nose of the line editor to sort out my misspellings!

It was a huge relief to finish it before the year was out and have some time off from writing to recharge the batteries. When I started to write the second novel in 2014, I was warned that The Fallen could prove be the difficult second album, and it certainly was. It sent me to the edge of sanity and, at times, over it. Writing a novel is a difficult thing to do. You doubt your abilities, you lose your writing voice and style, you question where you are going with the story and what you are trying to say - and with a follow up novel, these troubles are magnified.

We got there, in the end, just, holding on to the last of my marbles. The church bells rang in celebration that I had finished - and my mates breathed a sigh of relief that I wouldn't be moaning any more to them about the trouble I was having.

And, most importantly, we've ended up with something I am proud of. It takes the thrills, spills and mystery of its predecessor The Damned and stretches them close to breaking point. The action and pace is unending and, perhaps at times, unnerving. I think I've written something which really can be called a 'page turner' and which hopefully will not disappoint fans of my writing.

With the The Damned I set out to write something which would be my statement to the world, something to move and perhaps make people think. With the The Fallen I've written something simply to entertain and excite. I sincerely hope it does.

It was lovely to have most of December away from the writing pad. I needed it, a chance to recharge the batteries, let the imagination restock and appetite return. At times I did find myself picking up my writing pad and jotting down some ideas but when those possible nuggets of inspiration do fall out of the fountain of creativity, you have to jot them down.

Now, fatter than I was a month ago but more fired up and raring to go, I've started to structure book three, The Risen. And it's already shaping up to be an appropriately huge conclusion to the trilogy. This detailed planning of a novel is a new thing for me. With The Damned, with Ripped, (a second unconnected novel I wrote), and The Fallen, I wrote without a coherent plan in place. I had a vague idea of where I wanted to get to and let the joy of writing take me there. I got lucky two times out of three, but the third time cost me dear in heartache and headaches, grey hairs, fingernails, my agent's patience, my mind and several of my years.

With The Risen I am taking a different tack and planning everything out meticulously. Story plan, chapter plan, character paths, everything worked out to the letter before I start. This way I'll hopefully save the sanity of all connected to the project, not to mention my own personal well being! Also, being a conclusion, everything needs to fit together and end beautifully. Or as beautifully as Inquisitor Poldek Tacit will allow.

And then that really will be the final 'book end'.

At some point in January, the plan for The Risen will be done and the writing will commence. By early summer I am hoping to have the first draft completed.