Wow I got my blog back!
Hey I gave it up for a good reason. Sue did some great work on showcasing Shannon as the guest artist. To give you readers a teaser, I got to look at some of Issue 2.2 ship designs. You guys are going to love this.
Now I have some great news coming down the pipe……buuuttttt I can’t say anything. Just trust it me – it’s going to be great.
March 19 we are going to be at Tempus. This is a one-day Steampunk gathering at the Mark Twain house. Just follow the link:
Now I want to drop a “MY TWO CENTS” this time around. It all stems from working with the editor of Dark Brain Comics. Andrew Zar is a great guy to work with because he’s an easy-going editor. If something doesn’t work, you can always chip in a new idea and he loves or adds his own take on. However I’ve worked for some really tough editors. So I want to give you up-n-coming writers an idea how to work around these guys.
My Two cents……
When you get paid to do a job, remember one thing: Whether you’re right or wrong do what your editor wants!
Think about this, you’ve just worked your butt off to get this paying gig, you’ve stayed up nights reviewing the storyline, and you’ve polished the rough chunk of dirt into a shiny diamond. Then the guy who writes the check comes back with some pretty heavy re-writes that drastically change what you had created. What do you do?
Here is what you do. You look him/her straight in the eye and you tell them that these are some really good ideas. Yeah I’m telling you to suck it up! The reason to swallow your pride you ask? Answer: For starters, it’s not your dream. You need to work with the dreamer that came up this story. You need to use yours to bring this dream to life.
Now here is a common problem, the guy who is paying you really wants a certain idea to happen in the story. He won’t budge on it. It must happen, it will happen, and you know as a writer knows it just won’t work. The first thing you need to do is still tell him it’s a good idea. Yes a little butt kissing helps. The next stage is to show him different scenes you’ve planned out with that “must happen” scene in it. Show his version and then start working in different ways that scene can play out. With a slow march towards different ideas the editor/check-writer will maybe see things differently. This plan allows you to prove there are more ways to tell a story and it keeps a good work relationship in intact and the paychecks coming.
Next week, I’ll talk about working with an editor who isn’t paying you.