Date:         Mon, 21 Feb 1994 16:45:42 CDT
Sender: COMIC Writers Workshop <[COMICW L] at [UNLVM.UNL.EDU]>
From: Bill Hayes <[IANR 012] at [UNLVM.UNL.EDU]>
Subject:      Writer Woes

> My question is how can a new writer who has no talent for art get into the
comics industry? Every single time I ask that question I never get a straight
answer. I would really like to know. Brandon M. Easton

Brandon --

You may be getting an oblique answer 'cause just about any time you (meaning
I or some other "pro") give somebody the straight shoot on that question,
they generally don't wanna hear it! ("Well, that may be the way someone else
has to go, but *ME*, I can write my own rules!")

First off, get over feeling (or at least expressing) that you have no talent
for art. At the very least, as a writer working in a graphic storytelling
medium, you're going to have to be able to "see" the images in your mind's
eye and convey that through the written word that's going to subsequently
paint something in the "real" artist's head. Even if you can't draw a
straight line (my personal stock answer on why I'm a writer instead of an
artist), you've got to be just as handy with the knowledge of the bag of
tricks available to the medium. If you haven't already, check out Scott
McCloud's "Understanding Comics" and Will Eisner's "Comics & Sequential Art"
for focused looks at the tools and how to use 'em; also, track down a copy of
"Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" for ways to develop that "no talent"
in art.

Enough compassionate, helpful crap. Here's the down an' dirty helpful crap.
You want the real scoop on breaking in as a writer? Fine.  First, eat a bag
of nails and get used to that feeling, 'cause that's pretty much what you're
going to have to go through, especially in comparison to the (relative) ease
at which an artist can get his work assessed (and sometimes picked up!). An
editor -- whether it's someone who knows his stuff or one of the 15 watt
bulbs that draw a salary and make your life miserable -- can do a quick
glance at a page of art at a con or in an office and make an immediate
assessment as to whether or not somebody's in the ballpark of employability.
Your work, however, demands a greater chunk of time (if you want more than
"Nice typeface!") for them to gauge your ability through a proposal you're
going to hand them. They can't glance at it at a con -- too many people --
and give you anything that approaches a fair judgment. The most they can do
is promise to get to it later, and hey, outta sight, outta mind.

What's a writer to do? Plan your attack. First off, any initial written work
is a springboard -- beginning, middle, end -- no more than one page, double
spaced. *Don't* go over this limit; I can't tell you the number of proposals
I got as an editor with notes that said, "I just couldn't condense this great
idea to less than fifty pages; once you've read it through, I know you'll
agree!" And I'm sure I would, if I was to go and dig it out of the landfill
it ended up in after I tossed in in the circular file (and I'm one of the
nice guys!). The one page rule satisfies several requirements: 1) Any editor
has the time to scan one page -- maybe not at a con or while you're in an
office, but certainly as it passes before their eyes on the way to the stack
of papers they've got piling to high heaven. 2) If in that one page you've a)
told a complete story (nothing is more maddening than "And to find out what
happened next, buy the story!" See the landfill note above...) and b) made it
punchy and captivating, you demonstrate to an editor that you can not only
structure a complete tale, you can also tell it in a lively fashion.

Take that one page and make a bunch of 'em. Now, I don't mean run off xeroxes
of the same story, I mean create a different one for each person you're going
to pitch. Target different editors with their specific characters;
theoretically, they're going to know their stable better than anyone else,
and that will allow them to judge your abilities the best way. It will also
cut down on them passing your proposal off to someone else and you having to
run around after God knows who to find out what's what. Present that proposal
to an editor -- via a con or the mail -- with a note that you'll follow up in
several weeks. Do so with a friendly note, and then maybe a call a few weeks
after that. The idea is to remind them that you're alive, and try and get any
indication as to whether or not they plan to look at your thing, or whether
they want you to walk east 'til your hat gets wet.

That smooths the road, but it's still paved with broken glass and razor wire.
What you can then do is team with an artist early on and submit your work
together -- his samples, your one page springboards. He may end up getting
work and leaving you in the cold, but an editor's interest in an artist may
also trigger the editor being willing to see who the artist is hanging with;
also, if the artist does get work (and he's a stand up guy) he may be willing
to put in a good word about you with the editor. Another tack to take is to
get a staff job at a company (no easy route in its own right) and begin a
pestering from within; this works, as evidenced by the number of pros who
started out as staffers at one joint or another.

Finally, check your pride at the door. Don't be picky about your first
assignments. Your chances of pitching and getting a brand new character off
the ground or jumping on the X-Men are south of zero. Write *anything*, prove
that you deliver on deadlines and content, and you build the clout to work up
to choosing the work you want to do.

I'm not feeding you this stuff to discourage you -- or anyone else reading
this -- I'm just delivering an honest answer from my perspective. I hope
that's more'n you've got from asking that question in other circles. I wish
you lu
ck.

Best,

D.G. Chichester