Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

A question about comic book writing and artwork…

If all I want to do is write comic books and not draw them, why does everyone tell me I need an artist to show what I can do as a writer?

Francois-Marie Arouet V., Paris, TX

Dear Francois-Marie,

That’s totally a myth! And to prove it, I’ve drugged dragged Mythbusters supreme, Adam and Jamie, over to the Creative Adviser’s editorial cubicle of despair to shed some light on this subject.

… Read the rest of the article over at Pop Syndicate

Yeah, I haven’t been keeping up with the blogging very well lately due to all the programming I’ve been working on for my various websites. I’ve made enough significant headway I think I can start putting some of that time back into blogging, so here we go…

• Visions of Futures Past Ever wanted to look into the future? Take a little peek to see your successful future and maybe catch a glimpse of some lottery tickets? Well, this isn’t that kind of future vision… this deals with the mind’s ability to envision the future–thinking about dinner or picturing what you’ll be doing tomorrow or playing out tonight’s game in your head. Things we do all the time. Well, researchers have finally been able to map out the portions of the brain responsibile for this, and interestingly enough, it uses a lot of the same portions of the brain also responsible for remembering. Sure, it’s long been thought that your ability to place yourself mentally in future events used your memories to build up this little future mindscape, but it had never been proven until now.

• No, there is too much… let me sum up. A DVD that gives you a summary of the show Heroes? That seems like a very odd thing to put out there considering they have all the episodes available for free at their website (or if you prefer less commercials and larger viewing size, you can buy all the episodes at iTunes).

• On the subject of Heroes, does anyone have any theories on the symbol that keeps showing up (tattoo on Niki/Jessica’s back, on Dr. Suresh’s book, as the logo for Isaac’s comic publisher)? I know the popular theory is that it’s a cross-section of a DNA double helix (the fact that Isaac’s comic publisher is “Helix Comics Group” would seem to lean things that way), but I’ve been doing some research on my own into another area… vodoun (aka voodoo). This hit me when I saw the Haitian wearing the symbol on a necklace (in Haitia, you predominantly have Catholicism, but you also have vodoun). From what I can remember of vodoun (excuse me if I’m a bit rusty on the subject… it’s been a while since I’ve read anything on the subject), you have family spirits (loa or loua?) inherited by families. These spirits act as protectors for their families and can even enter the dreams of family members. They can also take over their bodies for a short period of time via a trance giving the human body the abilities (and personality) of the loa (most of the time this trance is use to warn families of misfortune… just like Isaac’s trances and the trances can also be powerful enough to force out the human’s personality making them blackout while the loa controls their body… like Niki’s personality switches). Anyways, the thing that made the connection is the fact loas can be summoned through the use of special symbols called veves. Interestingly enough, some of the loas are pretty interesting:

Erzulie This loa has two aspects that I’m aware of… one (Freda) represents femininity and love. Her other and much darker aspect (Dantor) is a warrior acting as a fierce protector of women and children.

Ogoun The warrior–essentially the god of war. He is also a spirit associated with blood… from violence and also from family members walking away unscathed from injuries when possessed by him.

Badessy A minor loa who rules the sky.

Papa Legba The loa who taught the mankind how to use and interpret the oracles (at least his African counterpart, Eshu, did).

And I’m sure there are others that show some similarities, but I don’t have all my reference books and such with me (so I’m going mostly off memory and quick net searches). I doubt they’d go that route, but it would be funny to see everyone’s reaction if they got deeply into all the genetic side of things and made the switcharoo where it turns out to be magic. ^_^

I’m a prose writer, can I make the transition to screenwriting?

Anne R., Lobster Bay, Maine

Dear Anne,

With resolutions flying about like spitballs in a school cafeteria, it’s the perfect time of the year for a question like this. And why’s that? It’s the diet time of year, and you’ll need to put your writing on a diet to jump over to screenwriting. You generally have up to 2 hours of screen time (approximately 110-120 pages) to get your story told in screenwriting, while novels can ramble on for 3-5 hundred pages (and up to 800+ pages if you read books like the Wheel of Time series).

So, you’re probably used to fitting your novel into a size 16, but to sell that screenplay, it needs to be slim and sexy. Don’t expect your screenplay to turn any producer/studio eyes unless you can squeeze it into a size 2. So, how do you do that? With The Creative Adviser’s Superfabulicious 5-Step Screenwriting Diet for Novelists.

Read more of this article here.