How Comickers Create A Business Plan

A lot of artists suck as businessmen. They just don’t want to deal with the business side of art; they don’t want to deal with the math and the rules, and it always makes them feel a little dirty.

Well, they need to get over that.

The first step is to create a business plan. You don’t have to make it really complicated and you don’t need a degree in economics to do it; it’s actually pretty straightforward. The plan just sets down what your basic goals are and how you’re trying to accomplish them. You don’t need to make it formal; you can set it up on a whiteboard.

[A whiteboard may actually be best for some people: It makes it all visible and allows you to check things off the list as you accomplish them. It also allows you to change things quickly, allowing you to adapt to changing situations as needed.]

At its simplest, a business identifies your goals, your marketing strategy, and any challenges you foresee. By setting these down on paper (or other medium) you are better able to plan ahead and deal with challenges as they come up. You should not be afraid to change this as you change your goals, how you do business, or if new challenges present themselves; this is your document so feel free to make changes as you see fit.

Business Plan Basics

The first thing you want to do is set basic goals. You don’t have to be grandiose; just make the goals straightforward, like how often you plan on putting out your comic on which days how big your buffer is going to be, and how long until you basically get enough strips together before you feel comfortable tying it all together and turning it into a trade paperback. Not everyone’s goals are going to be the same, but you need to set some sort of goals if you want to move forward.

You also need to set some sort of goals when it comes to how you want to get out the news that you have a comic and when it updates. This marketing plan. should include social media, but should also include comic ranking sites; even if you never really get high up into the rankings, it does help getting your name out there.

You want to figure out merch; this is how you plan on making money from your comic (advertising, shirts, a trade paperback, using it as a portfolio). You should also consider these prints and posters; too many great artists forget that their fans want to see what they can do and that means artwork. The key here is that you want to define how you plan on making money just so you basically have a detailed out what exactly you’re planning to do in order to make money.

[Even if you’re doing this a writer, this is important. Just as an illustrator is looking at print-on-demand sites, you should be looking at freelancer sites and blogging, as well as how to monetize your blog. Even a Youtube channel can work if you have something interesting to say.]

And then you want to look at your challenges. This can be a lack of money, resources, legal issues, pretty much any potential issue that can come up. This can be your need to pay for convention passes, printer ink, even allowing for software or hardware upgrades; anything that can possibly be a problem needs to noted here so that you can better deal with it.

So…What Do You Need Again?

Ultimately, a business plan is your pathway to the success of your comic. You need to establish goals, how you plan to make money from it, and what challenges you foresee; the business plan establishes these and how you plan to conquer them all. So even if it’s just something on your whiteboard or it never leaves your computer, you need to establish some sort of plan to succeed. You can’t succeed without a plan, so make sure that you have one.

How To Find Inspiration

Here’s he deal: I can tell you what inspires me or I can tell you a lot of inspirational sources. It’s easy to tell you what has inspired me, but it’s almost impossible to tell you what’s going to inspire you; every writer is different and has their own different perspective and point of view on things. Because of that the stuff that you find really interesting won’t be the same thing someone else finds interesting.

So realize that just because something inspires me it may not inspire you. In fact, what inspires me could actually create a block in you. Nonetheless, let’s look at what inspires people and hope something in my approach helps you.

The Places to Find Some Gold

There are some places where everyone finds some inspiration. The first places you should try are having a conversation with someone or reading a book. You should be doing a lot of those anyway. Conversations are important because the best way to learn dialogue is to listen to what other people are saying. You also need to be reading books in the first place, not just for your own personal enlightenment and education but because it’s necessary to see what everybody else is doing and how they deal with whatever problems they encounter.

Conversations help inspire us because sometimes we get into a cool groove and start exploring things, be it philosophical questions or interesting situations. Those conversations exploring what people would do in specific situations and how they would deal with them sometimes inspire us, as writers, to see what would happen. We do that by taking the ground covered in the conversation as the starting point and go from there, and then write about the problem is solved.

Reading is always going to be a great source of inspiration, and not just fiction. Sometimes when we read we get curious about how we would handle something, if we could have done it better or explored it further. It becomes a challenge to us to do better than the other writer. Other times we will read something that arouses our sense of curiosity or sense of wonder and we feel the need to explore that. If we read an article on octopus intelligence, for example, we may be curious what an octopoid civilization would look like or even what they could create. This is why so many writers read history and science books and articles; there’s a lot of inspiration to be found there.

Some of My Inspirations

If you can find inspiration in a book then you can find inspiration in the movies, and I’m lucky in that I’m child of the 1980s; there’s a lot of great inspiration that canbe found there. One of the things you see in a lot of 1980s movies was the dreaded strip poker scene. The only problem is that you saw the beginning of the game, you saw the ending of the game, and sometimes you you saw a little bit as middle but you never actually saw the whole thing. Well, that’s what inspired me to do a strip poker script where you actually followed all the way through the entire game, and where the players actually discover something about themselves.

Remeber what I said about conversations? On a discussion board we were discussing “titles that would never be made into comics” and somebody suggested a really obnoxious title: “Sex Percussions”. I decided that this would be really cool name for something and it would eventually become the script for a web comic involving three elemental mages each of whom had power over a different element, a local forensics mage, and a hermetic mage. So you know, weirdness.

My person favorite idea is based on a throw-away concept in a role-playing rule book: It pointed out that a psychic detective would be able to put a group of supers in their place if they got out of control just by doing his job. I used that as the basis, had the collected secrets dispersed in order to distract the heroes from a crime going down, threw in a sibling rivalry, and just went with it.

And Then There’s Los Lobos Rojos….

Then there’s when you combine different sources of inspiration. “Love and Rockets” is arguably one of the best independant comics there will ever be. I sincerely love looking up anything by Los Bros Hernandez and that comic is definitely something you should try at some point. However, and this is the important part here, is that it’s grounded heavily in the Mexican origins of Los Bros Hernandez.

There’s a lot of really cool movies all about bands. So at some point it sort of clicked that I can do this really cool script about this rock and roll band that is just beginning; for some reason I decided to use “The Chipmunks Movie” because the idea of two bands going at it felt sort of natural. And I decided that certain scenes had to happen, scenes based on certain movie scenes or band stories. And then I gave it a Mexican twist. And a sweat lodge scene.

I never said you had to stick to one source of inspiration per work. If you have all sorts of ideas that may not work on their own, just throw them together and see what happens.

As you can see, you can get inspired by just about anything. Sometimes it’ll be a walk on the beach where you overhear something and that something will stick in your head until you do something about it. Sometimes you’ll read a newspaper article that hits you in the right way. So when you think you’re lost and have no idea what to write about, just step back and go do something else. You’ll be surprised just how quickly you’ll find something.

PS: Always keep a notebook on hand. Since you’re never sure when inspiration will hit, it’s always useful to have a way of recording the magic when it happens so you don’t need to recreate it later. That notebook will save a lot of frustration later on.

Classes Every Comic Book Writer Should Take

Few schools offer a comic book writing major. Sadly, this means that you’re not really going to find an actual curriculum that’s really going to help prepare you for the rigors of comic book writing. Instead, what you’re going to have to do is take a basic English major writing major, and cobble together a lot of electives to get the education you need. So let’s look at those electives.

The Basics

So let’s start with a “Language & Literacy” major. That should give you all of the basic tools. However, it’s not going to help you develop the visual library that you’re going to need. As such, you’re probably going to want to take a class in graphic design so you layout; just the basics, so you can understand what the artist is doing.

Of course, if you have a really weird idea, and you’re not really sure about being able to find an artist later on, you might want to take on split major in art. This means that you do not need to find an illustrator when you get serious about your comic; you can just draw it yourself.

You’re also going to want debate film making classes. I know sounds sort of weird, but this is going back to developing a visual eye; film making will definitely help you with that as not only will you be able to learn how to compose frames but you’re also going to be able to learn a lot of neat little tricks such as the rule of 180. Also, acting classes will help you develop dialogue skills, something that pays off when you’re trying to develop different voices for your characters.

Also, if you can grab a scriptwriting class go for it. While comic book scripts are their own animal, knowing the basics of scriptwriting can only help, and you are going to have to learn the limitations of the script format that you’re going to have to learn. Obviously, when you start actually doing your own scripts for comics, you’re going to find that there are many different ways you can write a script. 

So while it’s not going to help too much with format, it is going to help you start thinking in terms of how scripts are put together, as well as the three-act structures, and that is well worth the money by itself.

The Non-Writing Stuff

You’re also going to want to look at some sort of legal class. You’re going to be dealing with copyright and trademark issues, and having some sort of framework can only help. Most introductory law classes cover just the basics, but that should be more than enough. If you can take some business law classes as well do so; it can only help to know the basic rules and regulations when it comes to starting a business as well as how to defend it if necessary.

You may also want to throw some marketing classes into the mix. Even if you signed on to a major studio, you’re still going to have to do a lot of your own marketing; you may as well as know what you’re doing. Also, some accounting classes may not be a bad idea; even if you have someone else do your taxes, it can only help if your income and outgoing funds are properly recorded.

It Looks Like A Lot, Right?

Now, admittedly that looks like a lot of education, especially when you realize that you have to take core classes on top of all this. However, understand that this allows you to not only write comics but also communicate with your artist or not have to worry about needing one. It also lets you understand how to protect your rights as well as negotiate contracts better, as well as track how well you’re doing. It also allows you to better market your comic, ensuring that your comic will be a success.

So while it may look like a lot, the time will be well spent. All of this helps you become a better writer, and that alone makes it a great investment of your time and money.

Eliminating Writer’s Block The Easy Way

 I don’t care how good of a writer you think you are, but eventually, at some point you need to deal with a good old fashioned writer’s block. It’s going to be a major frustration. and that frustration is actually going to cause you to be more blocked. That block is going to cause you to use more frustrated which will cause more blocking.

You need to figure out a way to bust out of that feedback loop.

So let’s discuss a few ways while dealing with writer’s block, either how to avoid completely or if you do happen to get it, how to get rid of it.

Why Writer’s Block May Be A Good Thing

Writer’s block may not be a completely bad thing. Sometimes you’ll say to yourself, “This just isn’t working.” You’ll then stop, figure it out why, and delete what you’ve been doing. And then you’ll be able to go forward.

Sometimes you need to kill your darlings. You’ll do something really, really cool, get really, really excited about it. And they realize it really, really doesn’t work. Or worse yet, in order to make it work, you need to a lot more work than is worth it.

So you have two options: You can delete the thing completely. Or you can shelve it and work on it later. Yes, you’re going to hate having to kill anything because you put all this blood sweat and tears into it. But…it’s part of the process. every writer has to go through it. Every writer has a graveyard full of ideas. It’s just part of the process.

Just figure it out then move on.

Schedules and Blowing Through the Block

Keeping to a simple schedule can help kill writer’s block. Each day you should start at the same time and go for the same amount of time each day. You can go a little bit over, but try to keep going for the same least a minimum amount. And doesn’t matter if you’re actually writing or if you’re doing outlines. Are you moving the writing forward? That’s all matters.
 

You’ve done something. You’ve accomplished something. You’re good to go.

Get Away to Where the Block Doesn’t Follow

If necessary, go out and talk to people. You’re allowed to go play cards, go to a meetup, or even have hobbies. For some, it’s getting some exercise. Sometimes just taking a quick 20–30 minute walk is all it takes. Other people tend to be a lot more extreme. If you have to do an Ironman marathon to feel good about yourself.

If necessary, read or watch TV. You’d be surprised how well that inspires you to actually do stuff as well as allows you to keep track of what’s going on.
 

The key here is that sometimes the block is caused because you keep rushing at it and that actually empowers the block. Get away from it and distract yourself, and you’ll find that the block melts away on its own.

When it comes to killing writer’s block, either keep to your schedule, eliminate the offending writing, or just do something else; you’ll find it melting away.

Taking a Machine Gun to Your Darlings

The harshest advice any writer has to heed is that you must occasionally kill your darlings. And trust me: It’s a murder that hurts to the core.

Every so often, you’re going to find yourself in a situation where you’re going to write something you really, really love. And then realize that it really, really doesn’t work for what you’re writing. You’re going to have to figure out what to do with it and no matter what you decide it’s going to hurt: You’re either going to have to put it away in a dungeon, possibly to never to see light again, or send it to oblivion. Neither choice is easy.

Be Vicious

This is just part of the craft and you’ve got to learn how to edit yourself, but sometimes editing can hurt. You’re going to write something that’s going to fall into one of three categories:
 

1) You’ve got this really great chapter that has a really great flow and there’s some really great stuff going on in the chapter. But the chapter just doesn’t go with the rest of the project.

2) All of a sudden, you find out that you keep hitting writer’s block after writer’s block, and it all comes back to the same particular character, place, or item. It looks fine, and you like it, but you’re having problems proceeding.

3) The project you’re working on just totally sucks. The writing is pretty decent, but your heart just isn’t in it. The project isn’t right for you, you just don’t like the project, or there’s just some reason you’re having problems getting into it as much as you would like.

How To Handle It

Don’t stress; this happens to all writers all the time. When it does happen, you have three options:
 

1) Just delete the writing. No muss, no fuss: Just select it and hit backspace. Send it to oblivion and put it out of your mind. You may regret the time spent, but look at it as getting a bad idea out of your system; life is too short for regrets. You’ve gotten the idea out of your system and now it’s time to get serious.

2) Save it to a different file. The neat thing about computers is that we can cut, paste, and save things for when we really need them. Sometimes this is the best solution, especially if the text you’ve written can be used as the seed for something else. However, try to do this only for the most promising of seeds. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with a ridiculously huge file that’s just going to cause you stress later on.

3) Figure out what’s going on and deal with it. You shouldn’t look at this as wasted time as it actually helps you try something just to see what would have happened. You need to go through and figure out exactly what the problem is, be it a character or situation or arc or it’s just not something you like. Once you figure out the situation kill it or save it but do something to get it out of the way and move on.

It’s A Relationship!

Look at it like any other relationship: Sometimes your relationship is going to hit bumps in the road and you need to decide if the relationship is worth continuing or if it’s worth fighting for. If it’s toxic dump it, if you can save it, and if you need to eliminate it. I know it sounds strange, but just like a relationship there’s an emotional investment and you need to decide if you’re going to invest further in the relationship or if it would be better to just cut it off.

You’ve just got to realize that sometimes things just aren’t going to work out. It needs a working relationship: No matter how great the person is all relationships have their issues occasionally and you need to decide if the drama is worth it.

And just like every other relationship, there will be some emotional feedback. Sometimes you will be relieved at removing the problem, sometimes you’ll need a bucket of ice cream. You did just end an intense relationship, however short, so don’t be afraid to engage in whatever ritual you feel is appropriate, be it getting a drink or lighting a candle. Yeah, some are going to look at your strangely when they see you lighting yet another candle, but forget about them; this about you not them.

But you need to realize that killing your darlings is part and parcel of the job. Sometimes you need to make hard decisions in order to create the best possible writing, choices that you don’t like but need to be made anyway. Just remember to be merciful and you should be okay.

The Necessary Balance Between Light and Darkness

It’s sort of fun when you start looking at a lot of the really great writing, that there’s a certain level of balance about the characters. That is, the best heroes have a bit of darkness in them while the worst villains have a bit of the light.

A Sailor and A Husband

Consider if you will Odysseus and Darth Vader. Odysseus was a great person: He was loyal to his wife; he was able to maintain a love for his wife over 20 years. He was able to figure out clever solutions to hard problems, and there’s no doubt that his crew was willing to follow him no matter where he would lead them. There’s no question the guy was a hero.

But for all of his loyalty, for all of his leadership capabilities, and for all of his problem-solving capabilities, he still had some serious issues when it came to straight, good old fashioned ego. Every time he screwed up, it was because of his hubris; his arrogance sometimes got in the way of making the right decision. He also had a pretty solid reputation for sadism; he once framed a man he had a grudge against, resulting in the man’s death.

So even though we recognize him as a hero he’s got some serious darkness in him.

A Man with a Force of Will

Conversely, Darth Vader in any other context would be a hero. He’s honorable; he even questions certain courses of action when they break bargains made or when they cause unnecessary death. He does what he can to make sure that his followers can follow his orders, and there’s no question that he’s definitely somebody who’s there to make sure things get done. He is unswervingly loyal to his emperor.

All of these are normally admirable qualities.

However, Darth Vader fully embraces his arrogance and anger. Whenever he is mad, it’s because somebody just questioned him on something, and he does what he can to punish that person. His promotion plan, based on killing those that question him, is famous. He’ll fly into the battle, regardless of how intelligent, just to show that he’s the best pilot around.

It’s this inability to control his anger and ignore his pride that makes him a villain.

Sides of the Same Coin

We recognize the good and the bad in a person even as we define them as heroes and villains. For heroes, it is their ability to overcome their flaws that make them heroic; by overcoming the demons within they can take on the demons without. For villains, it’s their inability to overcome their flaws that make villainous; it’s the very fact that we recognize that we could have followed them down that very dark path that makes them so scary.

So we need to remember as writers that our best characters are those characters that stared into the darkest parts of their souls and either backed away from it, fearful for what they could have become, or ran right into its embrace, not worrying about the price. Ironically, it is the hero’s fear and the villain’s bravery at this one juncture that defines them forever afterward.

By recognizing where that point is and exploring it we can create some very powerful characters. We need to decide where that tipping point is for each character and push them to where we need them to be. But we need to recognize where the balance between light and dark is and keep that balance as close as we possibly can in order to create the best characters we possibly can.

You’re Not an Impostor

All writers, no matter how good or bad we are, tend to go through some phase where we think we’re basically some sort of impostor, where it feels like we’re an alien who’s been sent here to record the human race, and figure out exactly what the human condition is all about. And because of that, well, we’re fully expecting somebody to come over to us and rip off our rubber mask and expose us for the alien that we are.

We all go through this.

That is, writers will always be that person who is on the outside looking in. That’s just part of who we are. That’s part of our very nature. We’re basically trying to find all these really cool little grains of reality and the only way we can do that is by looking in. We have to maintain a certain level of objectivity; we need to be the alien.

Because that necessary perspective, that is, where we’re necessary, we’re basically looking at things as they are we have a very definite different perspective on a decent average person. That is, we recognize the good and the bad in a person even as we can look at them overall. Most people don’t do that. They tend to look at people as either heroic or as villains. And there’s no real crossover. And that’s sort of what sets us apart at the same time because we recognize that difference. Obviously, we’ve got to be some sort of different race, because we’re obviously not looking at the same way everybody else is.

We’re obviously looking at from an alien perspective.

You’re trying to figure things out and you just look at it from a different perspective. But that’s what makes you a writer. Humanity needs that and it doesn’t make us any less human; we just have a different perspective. Just recognize that and learn to enjoy it.

So keep that in mind next time you feel like an impostor. That feeling will quickly subside, and you may even smile a bit as you realize that you like being a bit alien.