A Week in Writing #251

Sometimes a week in writing is a week of taking care of the business side of things and not the creative. Such was my past week. I seem to remember I was busy but I don't have all that much to show for it.

Let's start with what I did do, which isn't much and won't take long to write about. I did some work on my review for Sabrina, completing the synopsis and working some on a new review for Their Own Desires (1929), an early talkie starring Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery. I had recently seen the film was playing on TCM and since we don't have a lot of early talkies and no Norma Shearer films on Trophy Unlocked, I thought it would be a good idea to see it. We watched it on Friday night and I started to work on the review on Saturday afternoon.

This past Saturday, Trophy Unlocked celebrated with its 950th, a re-review of  Tangled by Paul, who started the blog about eight and a half years ago. The day before, we published Trevor's review of the recent release Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On Sunday, we published my review of Men In Black: International, a new release we saw on Friday afternoon. So that's about it for this week's creativity.

No new rewrites on The Runaway and no new queries on Broken People.

No new pages for Powers Squared, which isn't really all that unusual for the middle of the month. Most of the activity seems to be at the beginning and ending every month.

That doesn't mean nothing happened on Powers Squared, just nothing exciting. This has been more a week of behind the scenes things. Spent some time on Monday registering a couple of issues for copyright. This is probably something I needlessly sat on but it had to be done.

Paul and I then spent some time talking about tiers and rewards for the Kickstarter we're planning for next month. Nothing finalized but at least we're thinking about what we should be doing. We're trying to make plans for what we can offer but we're open, so if you have any ideas on what you'd like from a Kickstarter for a comic book, please leave a comment.

I also spent some time listening to podcasts from ComixLaunch. Still wanting to build up our mailing list. You are, of course, welcomed to join our mailing list at  https://mailchi.mp/9ac7714b0aaa/powerssquaredcomicbook.

Did some very basic research on representation for the comic book, The advise we were given at the Ground Zero Animation Expo wasn't quite true. No one will talk to you without an agent, especially a network. Don't think I'm going to have the time to concentrate on this really until after the Kickstarter.  Too much to do and so little time.

A Week in Writing #250 | Report from the Front Ground Zero Animation Expo

This past week was a bit of everything with a little work done on most of the projects. The one thing I didn't make any progress on was my review of Sabrina, but that was not mission critical as Trophy Unlocked currently has a plethora of reviews ready to go. This week's Saturday Morning Review was Trevor's review of Trover Saves the Universe, a VR game for the PS4 developed by Justin Roiland, the man and voice behind Rick and Morty. We'll get to Sabrina in due time. I hope to wrap it up this week, time permitting.

More work was done on the rewrite of The Runaway, though never as much as I'd like. Sort of taking things a little slow this week, trying to get back into the swing. No new queries, and no progress on the synopsis of Broken People. And to complete the triumvirate of disappointment, no word from the editor on Familiar Stranger. Just like last week.

Though it wasn't my intention, the bulk of the week was spent on Powers Squared. Rachel delivered not only more tiffs, but the thumbnails for the last four pages of Issue #11, as well as ideas for the cover. She is usually very prompt at the beginning of the month with the thumbnails and I should have been expecting them from her.

I also spent some time, in prep for the Ground Zero Animation Expo, working on a Pitch Packet for Powers Squared. We think it would make a good animated series and one of the reasons for attending the Expo was to attend the panel Developing and Pitching. Having attended, I had to rethink much of what I had already done, which is a good thing.

The panel was moderated by Daniela Rodriguez and Marc Monroy, neither of whom I had heard of prior. Actually, until the panel started, I had no idea who would be running it. As it turns out, in keeping with the looseness of the Expo, there was no prepared presentation with both wanting to rely on Q&A. For those who know me, you'll be surprised, but I was particularly verbal at this panel, something I'm not usually at these sorts of things.

While Daniela and Marc were free with advice, it should be noted that neither had successfully pitched a show. Marc is an illustrator for hire and has worked on other people's pitches and Daniela had pitched a show at Nickelodeon where she works, though it didn't sound like it was picked up. Not that their advice was not good, it was not the sort of expertise one would expect, at say, Comic-Con.

I was able to ask about what should be in a Pitch Packet, or Pitch Deck as they called it. According to them, a packet should be no more than 6 to 7 pages front and back. There should be a synopsis of the story, some description of the main characters, focus on the physical world of the series, referred to as the physics. And there should, of course, be the artwork. Listening to this, I realized I needed to completely revamp what I had done, which I began to do later that night when we got back from the Expo.

They were also quick to point out that there are a series of green lights. Having a pitch greenlit does not mean it will ever get on the air. Usually, a studio will have to sell it to a network or streaming service so they, too, have to greenlight the series. And there is, of course, development, which can take months or even years and still end with no series. No guarantees in life or in pitching. Try not to feel discouraged.

One of the things Marc mentioned, and he did do most of the talking during the panel, was that some animation studios are making comics out of their stories to get attention for their IP. He even said if you have a comic book, you're about 90 percent there for a pitch. Having a comic book, that was something I took great interest in and pursued with him afterward on the floor of the Expo at his table.

Of course, with any Pitch panel I've been to, they are long on advice on what to have in your deck, but short on how to get it in front of someone at a studio or network. The advice is usually to look at the website of where you want to pitch, which led to a little misinformation. In our one-on-one talk, Marc suggested we contact Netflix, who is trying to ramp up their animation and is looking for new IPs to exploit. He suggested we follow the steps on their website and submit the comic book through that. However, in looking at the Netflix website, they are not open to unsolicited submissions and only work with literary agents. So, there is an extra-extra step involved.

They also recommended copyrighting your pitch, which is not a bad idea, however, they can take 6 to 8 months. In my experience with actually pitching a series, I registered it with the Writers Guild of America, which seemed to be sufficient, cheaper and quicker.

Overall, I had a good time at the GZAE and would recommend it to anyone interested in getting into animation. The floor is very manageable and everyone seems interested in engaging you. There were a few vendors in the mix as well, though surprisingly there was only one directly selling something that could be used to actually animate.

As I wrote, I started to rework our pitch deck, but I think I need to put that aside to concentrate on our Kickstarter and adding more names to our mailing list. Oh, the fun never stops.

A Week in Writing #238

Why is it the first week of Daylight Saving Time always kicks me in the ass? I have enough sleeping as it is but for some reason, it's always worse the first week in whenever the time changes; spring forward or fall back, it's always the same. Just a little precursor to explain why this wasn't my most productive week.

I had in mind to write a bit of a rant about having to wait but I've calmed down a bit since Friday. I don't know about you but I'm not getting any younger and so it bugs me when people always make you wait to get a response, sometimes months. And I'm not talking about agents, that's bad enough but all the well-wishers, advisors and editors who don't make an effort to communicate back, even though they say they will. I'm sometimes sorry that I don't point people out by name on this blog but I know the momentary delight I would have in naming people would also probably mean that we're no longer "working" together so I don't. I will say good things about people but I don't want to be calling people out by name when I'm angry/disappointed. Chances are they don't read this blog or its excerpts which I put out on various social media sites but why take the chance? This might be the week they read it and there would be a bridge burned in my wake. But I'm really getting tired of waiting on people. As I said, Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit to quote Twenty-one Pilots, why doesn't it inspire you, too? I want to get as much done as I can and waiting for feedback is not how I want to spend my time. (Trust me, this is way calmer than what was going through my fevered brow on Friday afternoon.)

Now that I got that off my chest, I can talk about what happened this past week.

Rachel sent us pencils for the last four pages of Issue #10 as well as the cover, all of which look good. I still find it exciting to see the story come alive through her drawings. In some cases, it has been a while since I've seen the script so seeing it drawn out makes me like it all over again. And there is quite a difference between the thumbnails and pencils. Things we liked really come into focus and it is only when we see the pencils does it start to look like a comic book.

No word from our colorist so far this month. Nina just attended her first convention as an artist and it seems to have gone pretty well for her. Did receive an invoice today, which means pages are forthcoming.

Added another shirt to our merch at artithmeric.com. Sorry, I have to mention such mundane things, but I do want to make money from the venture. It is, after all, the desire to make it self-sustaining.

Still kicking around ideas for the Kickstarter. Trying to come up with a printed option that we can afford. Spent one night this week making the pages smaller to fit in with the publisher's template. Kind of a pain and I still have more to do to get them ready. After #10, I'd like to get back to a more standard page layout to save me from having to keep doing this.

Paul and I uploaded our 25th vlog A Week in Powers Squared, which you can watch here.

Thursday was Pi day = pie day, so we had to go out to get pizza. That, of course, means less got done than usual but sometimes you have to put family first. Am I right? On Saturday, we went to see Wonder Park, which Trevor has reviewed, but we also decided to get new phones, since ours are about 6 generations old and our then-current carrier didn't want to do anything to help us. Well, that turned into three hours to get everything moved over, except I had to spend time at home transferring my own files and I really don't want to get into the frustration all over again, but suffice to say that pretty much killed another day.

Talking with my co-creators about doing a pitch packet for Powers Squared, you know to make it into an animated TV series. We own the property and we've worked about a fair number of stories and I think it would be a good series. Besides, what's the harm in trying? We had attended a session about Pitch Packets at GZAExpo or through them. Not sure what sort of time commitment we're talking about, but it would seem like the next step in some ways.

As far as other writings go, I've thought about The Runaway but haven't had a chance to work on it or anything else related to J.D. Barrister, including sending more query letters, which I know I need to do and harassing the editor on Familiar Stranger (see above rant). This week for sure, and I've probably been saying that for weeks now.

For Trophy Unlocked, I finished a rather lengthy review of Gone With the Wind (1939) which was this past Saturday Morning's review. Hadn't seen the film in years and didn't want to miss out on the opportunity. Trevor also published a review of Wonder Park. Wanted to start working on one for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which we watched last Friday night, but my computer was out of juice.

That was the kind of week in writing it was for me, out of juice.

A Week in Writing #235

This has been one of those weeks where Powers Squared has been dominating for me. I try to keep several balls in the air every week, but sometimes one will take precedence over another. This past week has been mostly about Powers Squared.

To begin with there are the pages of the current issue #10 (What's in a Name?). Rachel Wells, our artist, delivered us the final inks for pages 9-16. We received them in two sets and it took us a little while to look at them based on schedules. We try to get back to her or to Nina the same day we receive their work. We know from our own experience that waiting for feedback sucks, so our goal is to get back as soon as possible. Sometimes, however, there are times when we can't do that based on timing. But now we're down to the artwork for the final four pages and the cover.

Nina Gaillard, our colorist, sent us four pages this month, the first four pages of the same issue. She has a bit of a time crunch, with an upcoming convention, so we're not going to get the next four until next month. We want to be flexible and real-life does impact all of us.

With the first four pages in hand, we've sent them to Trevor to letter. So the beat goes on.

These are the usual activities but this has been a different sort of week. As I've written here, several times, that sales have never been what we want, which is a nice way of saying they're low. It's finally time for us to take control of our IP. Comixology has been supportive, in the past, but we don't have to be hamstrung by them and have the right and desire to get the product out there on other formats.

Being an independent comic book is a bit of a hindrance and it can be very hard to get traction but if we limit ourselves to only one channel of distribution, we're only hurting ourselves. We don't have the money to print a bunch of issues and warehouse them in hopes of selling them. The same with t-shirts and merch. To that end, we've been looking for some way to allow readers to print issues on demand.

This week, we've started working with our first partner in this, artithmeric.com, which allows independent creators to provide physical copies and t-shirts on a print-on-demand basis. We've put up the first five issues and three t-shirts this week on the site. This website is out of the UK so the prices are in pounds and may frankly seem high for our readers in the U.S. but we are looking at other outlets both physical and digital and there will be more announcements soon.

But to make that happen means formatting pages in the site's formats, which can be somewhat time-consuming to put together. And then there is updating the website to handle as well as making updates to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to announce these. With time being a premium these all take away from other work.

I've also decided, that except for a select few people, I'm not going to give the book away anymore. The point of it wasn't to have a free to own comic book. What makes me tired of this process, is even then, it takes them a long time to actually read it. The final straw for me was someone saying they liked the artwork. While I certainly have nothing against artists, in fact, I love the two we're working with, the last thing a writer wants to hear are comments from someone you've given a free copy to of your work that sounds, at least through omission, that they don't like the writing. "The artwork is pretty good." That really sticks with me and hurts a little, too. I'm sure an artist would feel the same way if someone said: "the writing is pretty good." It feels like someone who saw you act in a play, comments to you, "Yeah, that was a play you were in."

One last thing, on Saturday afternoon, Trevor, Paul and I attended a two-hour seminar regarding Pitch Packets through the Ground Zero Animation Expo down in Stanton, California. I was there to see what I would need to do to someday pitch Powers Squared as an animated series. The seminar was led by Caroline Foley, who has worked in the industry. The parts about putting together a packet were quite helpful, as well as what to be prepared for when making a pitch. As with all of these, there is the gray area about how to set one up, which you're supposed to do that through your various contacts in the animation industry, that you have, of course, already developed. Well, then.

I did spend one night this week working on a review for Trophy Unlocked. I had made the commitment to doing reviews of shorts during the month of February and I was one short, so to speak. In one night, I watched Buster Keaton's The High Sign, twice, then researched and wrote the review for it, found images and uploaded all to the blog site. That review was published as our Saturday Morning Review.

In addition to that one, we published the review of Green Book on Wednesday as part of our effort to watch more of the films that are nominated for Best Picture. We watched Bohemian Rhapsody on Friday and will review it sometime after the Academy Awards.

I'm afraid to say that between the formatting, uploading, and promotions for the new comic book venture, as well as writing a review, I haven't spent any time on the novel, The Runaway. I really hate that I haven't. Nor have I had the time to chase down the editor on Familiar Stranger, though I will email him after writing this.

As far as Agent queries, there is another goose egg to report. I only have so many hours in a day to spend on writing and something had to give.

If we're hoping to work with other platforms on Powers Squared, then I'm going to have to spend some more time next week on them as well.