I’ve been busy over the last few weeks; finishing Mechanicum, writing a second four-part comic strip (of Astartes goodness) for Boom! and writing my story for the Tales of Heresy anthology. I had a great time doing all of them, but they were all very different beasts: a novel, a comic strip and a short story. It was a shift of mental gears to write each one, but I found it useful to work out some of those mental muscles that lie dormant when you’re going from novel to novel. Writing a novel is a big undertaking, with lots of words, lots of characters, lots of events and, crucially, lots of space…

When I write a novel, I know I have lots of give along the way in my word counts. Some scenes end up longer than I anticipated and some end up shorter, but that’s fine. I’ve found it’s never a good idea to expand or cut a scene just because it hasn’t matched up to what I thought it’s word count would be. The length it ends up is, generally, the right length, so even when I go over on certain bits, I know there’s going to be areas that’ll take up that slack. I’ve gotten better at estimating how long sections of a book are going to be or how many words a novel is going to take to get done, though it’s clearly an ongoing process, as I still seem to overrun. In a novel, you can allow characters and events to develop slowly (if that’s what you’re after), taking your time and not forcing the pace. Having said that, I much prefer to get things moving quickly and efficiently, driving the story onwards with a muscular plot and robust characters. The point is that with a novel, you’ve room to expand and contract or alter the pace as the story dictates. With a comic you don’t have that luxury.

When I plan a comic out, I distil. I write an outline for the entire story, always thinking where the episode breaks might occur, then take each episode and break it down into sections. Each of those sections gets a number of pages assigned to it until I’ve allocated all my available pages. I draw up a page planner, showing the single pages and double page spreads, and then scribble what’s going to happen on each page, so as to fit each section into the pages I’ve allocated. While I’m doing this, I’m looking at each page with an eye to where the big splash pages or full-on double page artwork needs to land for maximum visual impact. Comics are primarily a visual medium and you need to bear in mind how people look at these pages and design the story to serve that, making sure you prime the reader for the biggest visual impact. It’s a lot of fun planning out and writing a comic strip, but it does force me to be very disciplined when it comes to the number of words on the page and how they all fit together. Which is something I think will only be a benefit to me in terms of my longer work.

Short stories are another kettle of fish entirely, the restricted word count meaning you have to get in, tell your story, develop your characters, satisfy the reader’s expectations and then get the Hell out of Dodge very quickly. It can be tough when you’re used to word counts in the region of a hundred thousand, but it’s also very useful at focusing me on thinking what exactly is this story about – what’s the lead? When that’s figured out it becomes a lot easier to trim away the fat and leave the story lean and doing what it needs to do without either taking too long to get to the point or having to be massively compressed towards its ending. This discipline stood me in good stead with Mechanicum, when it came to its ending. As written in the synopsis, the novel was going to go massively over its word count, so I took a day and went back into what I’d written already and what the themes and ideas behind the story were. Once I’d reminded myself of that, I knew what parts of the ending to jettison and which parts to concentrate on. As things turned out, the ending wasn’t the one I’d originally planned, but the book is all the better for that.

So, just some thoughts on the three different forms of writing I’ve been doing recently. Not exhaustive by any means, but just some things that were burned into my brain again recently. After the humbling lesson of Mechanicum, I remembered the adage I’d taught myself (and then forgotten) that it’s never a bad thing to keep reminding myself of the things I’ve learned along the way. It’s easy to get overconfident, thinking that you have this writing lark down pat, but every now and again the manuscript will sit up and say, ‘No, I ain’t playing.’ At times like that, I need to refresh myself with what makes a good story, a good character and an interesting book for my readers (and me) to read. I think that any writer who thinks they know all there is to know is on a slippery slope, so I’m currently re-reading all the various Turkey City Lexicons, Writing 101’s I own to remind myself of the things I learned by doing all these years. I may be an Old Dog, but I can still relearn some New Tricks.

Right, onto some answers to previous posters questions:

Xhalax 1: Yeah, I’ve stopped arguing with folk on forums too, as most of the points I see are ones that are cans of worms just waiting to be opened. And getting into a petty argument would do me no favours, so I just don’t bother. And as to your cabinets and books not matching…I’m afraid I can’t help you there, and yeah, the paperback of The Killing Ground will be along next year, so you’ll probably be ready to read it by then. And sewing sheep…? Don’t let the RSPCA hear you say that!

Dju 1: Looking forward to seeing what the French for Mechanicum is… Shame you’re not around for Games Day this year, but I guess you have a good excuse ☺.

Ant: I did indeed have a bottle on standby, but didn’t crack it open until the following day, what with it being just after midnight when I typed the last few lines…

JP: Well, I suppose if you look at Pathfinder that way, maybe it’s okay, but we spent the entire movie laughing at how bad it was, so in one respect it fulfilled the qualifications of Movie Babylon by being entertainingly crap. And I think you hit the nail on the head with the anonymity thing. Trust me, if folk said some of the things they’ve said on the net to my face…

Xhalax 2: How very Homer. “Every time I learn something new, I forget something old!”

Hades Wench: Cheers for the congratulations, much appreciated. I saw the debate on the origins of the name ‘Phoenician’, but didn’t want to jump in, as it looked like you were all having lots of fun with coming up with your own ideas. Mostly it came from the idea of Fulgrim having his own sobriquet, similar to Horus. When I started thinking of one, a name based on the idea of the Phoenix rising from the flames seemed the most appropriate, given what had happened to his Legion in its early days. The more I researched into the legends of the Phoenix in different cultures and what the Phoenicians were known for, it became more and more appropriate. There are lots of similarities between Paradise Lost and the Horus Heresy, many of which are deliberate and many of which have come about by chance. For example, when I put Horus in the House of False Gods, I had him in there for nine days (nine being the number for Tzeentch, which I thought kind of appropriate) but which is also how long it took Lucifer to fall to Hell from Heaven according to Milton. Layers upon layers…

Gildor: Mostly, yeah, but see above for a fuller answer.

Xhalax 3: Haha! I was waiting for some fist-shakage once you got to the end of the story. My work here is done, and yes, greater ramifications ahoy!

Lord of Nonsensical Crap: Mark’s no relation to Dave Gibbons (as far as I know), but he’s a top artist, rocker and mate, so three good strikes in one. Glad you’re looking forward to Mechanicum, but don’t expect as much Chaos-weirdness as likely appeared in Ben’s book (though I haven’t read it), since this is the birth of the Dark Mechanicum, where they are first exposed to the power of the Primordial Annihilator. Chaos is creeping in here, it’s not yet fully taken over their forges and designs. Soon though…

Right, that’s that taken care of. I’m off to grab a bite to eat and then head off to the gym before getting the bus to the airport, where once again I’ll be visiting the paradise (lost) that is Glasgow. See ye on the other side.

Cheers,

Graham