Feb 28 2009
Feb 28 2009
The words “villain” and “supervillain” are commonly misspelled. Don’t mess them up!
Feb 28 2009
A few weeks ago, I revised the first two pages of Twilight to show how editors rip into even the manuscripts that are good enough to publish. Anyway, I redid the editing so now that will be easier to read. (You can see the original review here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you).
I also added the Twilight page to our series of reviews that draw lessons for writers from published works such as Eragon, Soon I Will Be Invincible, and Empire of Ivory.
Feb 25 2009
Hi, I’m looking to get published. My prospective publishers want me to provide information about my audience. Specifically, are you interested in my book about how to write superhero stories? Would you prefer information tailored to novelists, comic book writers or both?
I would really appreciate 5 minutes of your help. Thanks!
Feb 25 2009
I’m very fond of Spiderman Loves Mary Jane, particularly the way it ends its issues. The last page of each issue wraps up the plot of that issue and foreshadows the next issue. The cliffhangers are usually pretty strong and make the reader want to keep going. For example, check out these sample concluding pages.
Feb 20 2009
1. Read broadly and watch a lot of movies. If you’re only acquainted with a few well-known works, your stories will probably feel like they were heavily influenced by those stories.
2. Learn grammar, punctuation and spelling. It’s basic writing craft. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL. It will be extremely difficult (if not totally impossible) to get professionally published if you don’t have a grasp on these basic writing skills. It’s sort of like showing up for basketball tryouts even though you don’t know how to dribble. You will be the first one cut. If your submission has glaring spelling and punctuation mistakes, you will be the first one cut.
3. Professional publishing is extremely competitive. Most novel publishers, for example, reject more than 99% of their manuscripts. If you’re daunted by rejection, this is not a good field for you. Unless you’re freakishly talented, expect to spend months rewriting before you get published.
4. Try to major in something other than English or creative writing. Having knowledge in a field outside of writing will give you more material to draw on, which will give you an edge over other authors. Even something like history or political science will give you amusing anecdotes you can draw on later.
5. If you’re really serious about becoming a professional author, I’d recommend attending a private university. First, their class sizes tend to be smaller across the board, so writing workshops will probably be more instructive. They also tend to offer more money for undergraduates interested in taking on creative endeavors.
6. Blogging is good experience. It can help you figure out what attracts an audience and what doesn’t. It can also help you create and sharpen ideas. For example, this writing blog has generated at least one book worth of material about how to write well.
7. Writing fan-fiction is generally not good experience. It’s better to try creating your own worlds, characters, plot-lines, etc. The material you generate will be fresher and easier to use later.
8. In writing, there are no points for effort or personal circumstances. You’re judged only on the quality of your product. Please don’t be one of the writers that pleads for the mercy of publishers because they suffer from (usually self-diagnosed) dyslexia or whatever. If something like dyslexia affects your writing, you have three options: overcome the obstacles yourself, have someone else deal with the problem (by proofreading your work, for example), or find a new line of work. Even if you are dyslexic, you will be held to the same standards of readability as everybody else.
9. Writing teachers mean well and can be great sources of advice, but remember to take all advice with a grain of salt. For example, maybe the teacher doesn’t have a style similar to yours. If so, his advice might just mean that he’s not a fan of your preferred kind of writing. For example, we tend to prefer mass-market comedies and action stories rather than denser, literary works. If we told you that your work was overwrought and didn’t move quickly enough, one possibility you should consider is that it’s moving fast enough for the kind of book you’re writing. I’d also recommend looking for literary agents that have experience selling books like yours.
Feb 17 2009
Suggestion: if you’re going to advertise a bodycare product, please tell your model to do a pose other than “grimacing in pain.” It looks like she’s taking an acid bath.
Feb 17 2009
When we last left off, we were working on a cover for the first issue of Superhero Nation.
Feb 16 2009
“Heroes is like looking at an ex-girlfriend. You know there was so much potential there, and you want to believe in it, but you can’t look past the scathing flaws that make you wrong for one another.”
–Jeremy Alonzo
Feb 14 2009
Feb 14 2009
If your superhero has a secret identity, he probably has a day job. Here are some tips for picking an effective day job.
Feb 13 2009
These are some of the best and worst Marvel panels I’ve noticed over the past week.
Feb 12 2009
If you find it tricky to code tables in HTML, I highly recommend Tablemaker. You give it the data you’d like in the table and it gives you the appropriate HTML. Neat. Your table might look something like this break-down of our user statistics for the past year.
Feb 12 2009
The second page of Twilight wasn’t as bad as the first, but it still had many problems. This is how I would have edited it.
Feb 11 2009
This is how I would have edited the first two pages of Twilight. In particular, I found that the main character has a bland personality and needs better motivations.
If I had been the publisher’s assistant considering this work, I would probably have stopped reading at this point.
*Across the board, the author could have done more “showing” rather than “telling.” For example, I would have tried to show how terrified the narrator was by using syntax, her word-choice, body-language and actions. Terror is a strong emotion that should be more visible than it was. Although she’s purportedly terrified, she actually comes off as implausibly calm for someone facing death at an early age. It didn’t feel believable to me.
**********
If you enjoyed this review of Twilight, please also see my list of editing errors in the Twilight series.
Feb 11 2009
It will probably be a few days until I get around to doing regular updates.
Feb 10 2009
One of the many things that annoys me about X-Men is that mutants are sometimes referred to as a separate species (which is sometimes called “homo superior”).
Feb 05 2009
I am flabbergasted that the Bears hired Rod Marinelli as assistant head coach. He coached the Detroit Lions to the NFL’s first 0-16 record. He was nothing but a trainwreck for his team, or perhaps an Ebola outbreak if you want to get technical. It could be credibly argued that his 2008 Lions were the worst team in NFL history. Why would we inflict ourselves with this football leper?
Feb 03 2009
If you’d like to suggest any, I’d appreciate that. Here are some of the questions we’ve previously answered.
Feb 02 2009
Feb 01 2009
Feb 01 2009
Hi, I made this list of questions to help writers get the most out of their review forums. If you have a review forum or would like one, I’d recommend answering as many of these as you can. Just post your answers in a comment and I’ll place that information in your forum. Thanks.
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