I haven’t updated this blog with a new post in a while. I appreciate everyone who reads this stuff and actually look forward to my ramblings.

Late 2013 and early 2014 have been keeping me VERY busy. Since writing is now my day job, I have multiple WFH (Work For Hire) projects I have to stay on top of every month. Next to that are my personal comic projects that are in various stages of being written, edited, drawn, and lettered. The biggest thing in that area is that we have started production of the Chaos Campus Act 2 issues (#21-40 plus EC #6-10). I’m a much different (hopefully better) writer than I was when I started the Chaos Campus experiment, so hopefully this section of the saga will improve the series (and make up for mistakes and missteps of the first Act).

As you may or may not have noticed from my Events & Signings page, I’m doing a lot of shows this year to promote and sell my current library of titles. That has been a fun, but draining experience (be sure to read the Bleeding Cool articles for more details).

The biggest thing throwing my usual schedule off is that I have started writing novel manuscripts. Writing prose takes a much different set of writing muscles than writing scripts, so it takes much longer and more out of me. I am determined to get at least 4 books written and published within the next five years, so wish me luck on that front! The first will be Corporeal (which you can find out more about with this link). Following that will be The Children of Mercury Heights series of books. More about those later.

Well, that will do it for this blog update. Please keep coming by to see me at the shows… I love talking to you guys in person!

As mentioned on Twitter, I’m attempting to write a novel as a creative palette cleanser.  It’s a crazy little experience.

Also as mentioned in that Twitter entry, I can only seem to work on this novel for two hours… from 1am to 3am.  I work on scripting from like 10am to around 6pm (that can go up to 8 or 9pm on a really good day).

Now for some random musings I haven’t revealed on Twitter (aren’t you lucky)…

• First Sentence Terrors

Off and on I’ve been doing research on the craft of prose writing and other things related to creating a novel (since I’ve been a script writer for the best part of the last decade).  One thing that stops most potential writers in their tracks is the first line.  I understand the fear… it’s the first words a reader sees of your work.  That line could be the difference between someone continuing into the story or putting the book down never to return.  That’s a lot of pressure… pressure that I avoided.

How?  By realizing that this is a first draft.  Not even a first draft… a “trash draft.”  I’m just getting as much of the story as I can down in whatever form it comes out in.  My first sentence is a reminder to myself to research more about car accidents.  Why not?  I don’t plan for anyone else to see this draft anyway.  Maybe Denise and John, but they understand, lol.

• Story Changes & Character Motivations

Originally this story was going to be a comic book mini series… but everything I wanted to put into it wouldn’t fit into four to six issues.  Then I considered making it a TV series, but then I got caught up in freelance work and couldn’t devote any time to it.  After a few months passed I realized I wanted to begin the story at the beginning of the incident and not years later as I planned.  Then I made the antagonist the protagonist’s brother.  So though I had plans and ideas on where the series would go, because of the character and story changes a lot of the motivations and plot will go in different directions.  On one hand I like the challenge and adventure of seeing the new places the story will take me.  On the other hand it’s a bit confusing having two unfinished versions of the same story swirling around in my head.

• Scripting Jobs & This Prose Project

Speaking of things being a bit chaotic swirling around in one’s head, I still have my scripting jobs.  There are the freelance gigs I’m doing along with my creator owned projects that I have to stay up to date on.  That’s a lot of writing to do during the day and it’s exhausting, so devoting the time and energy to this prose project is something I’m still getting used to.  For a while there I was getting to bed around midnight-ish so I could wake up early to work on a “normal person’s schedule.”  This 1-3am novel writing schedule is throwing my regular schedule for a loop.  I’m sure I’ll figure out how to balance it all, it’s just the learning curve is a doozy!  @_@

Alright, there were other points I wanted to bring up, but I can’t think of them at the moment so I’ll guess I’ll wrap up this blog entry.  Thanks for stopping by and taking part in my insanity.  I need to do more blog entries so maybe I’ll do a follow up soon.  We’ll see.

Until then, back to work I go!

Check out a really deep and in-depth interview I did with Richard Caldwell @ The Lottery Party: http://thelotteryparty.com/interviews-b-alex-thompson/

It’s roughly two and a half months before SDCC and I need to get as much as possible ready before then. As I become more serious about writing being my career I have to think more about branding myself, how others can brand me, and the type of writer I’m perceived as. What is my BAT brand? My stories tend to fall in three groups:

1. Dark Horror – Serious, graphic violence, blood, adult language, nudity.
2. Horror/Humor – Morbid comedy, the above stuff just toned down some, more humor.
3. Horror/SciFi/Action – Though one genre might dominate, the other two are close second.

So I’m pretty much a Horror writer. Yeah, I know we’re all surprised at this revelation. Knowing this, I know this is where I need to market myself more, but I don’t want to just be trapped in that realm. I have some All Ages stuff in the works. Some other irons in the fire.

I also want to do a webcomic. For years I’ve balked at the idea, but I dunno… after reading a few on a regular basis, the format seems interesting and my brain “gets it” now. So after so many requests, I’m making CC a webcomic… posting the pages from the older issues. The first 20 issues should keep things going for about 5 years with 3 pages a week. It also shouldn’t encroach on the print version and should actually do a nice job promoting the print versions.

I’m also planning a new webcomic that I’ll turn into print versions later. That one’s a bit more challenging and intimidating, but it’s also exciting. It won’t have monsters, gore, or nudity, but it has humor and drama and I like it. John has to get back to me on his comments on what I have so far, but when I sent him the original idea for the concept he REALLY loved it. So if he digs it, I hope other people will too.

So yeah… gotta make websites for those which will be a new and mind boggling experience. Then the main Appro site needs a major upgrade/facelift.

And I still have the usual roster of projects in different stages of development to work on.

@_@

Rewriting and revising about 8 stories while with what little brain real estate is left I have 2 stories I’ve just started and another idea gestating. This is the most real work I’ve done in months and holy hell it’s tough, yet satisfying. My brain hurts, but not hemorrhaging yet, so there’s still more I can do.

Two stories had decent enough act 1’s that after 9 straight hours of work I was able to send material to the artists. One story resulted in 32 pages (a full issue) and the other only 17 pages. 9 hours for almost 50 pages.

And that was the “easy” stuff.

*Insert the “Peter, You Suck” song from Forgetting Sarah Marshall here*

The story I thought was pretty much done is one of the worst offenders. I have to restructure the story because I’m switching protagonists, plus a ton of other structure issues. ARG!!!

Enough of this hard work. I’m here to read and then off to play with one of my newer ideas.

Spent yesterday lettering CC #16. Three pages to go needing three bubbles of dialogue. I’m sure John will take care of them with ease.

In other news, yesterday I discovered I went too deeply in-depth with all the characters in the new project I’m working on. The characters from the intended prologue took lives of their own and demanded their own story. So now I have two stories. Oy. Now one story has a the cool hook and about 9 decently scripted pages… with 91 pages left of I have no freakin’ idea. The other story has almost fully developed characters, maybe 3 decently scripted pages, pretty much a decent outline and bulk of a full story, but now I have to figure out a sellable hook.

Again I say, oy.

I almost look forward to my crappy day job tomorrow just so I can develop these stories some more.

Oh, and my amount of needed research has just doubled. Weee. @_@