December 22nd, 2009 by Neal

Hey, thanks to all the some thirty folk who sent me well wishes for my birthday! I didn’t know I KNEW that many people, and usually my birthdays are all quiet and the like aside from me grousing because of the impending holiday.

I was in a funk last week worrying about the birthday, arbitrary number or not, and you guys helped me realize how many cool good people I have in my life. Kindest regards for that.

Only one regret… I went to get albacore tuna, my fondest desire, and apparently it has a SEASON. A SEASON? Wha? You mean culinary animals with mating rituals based around lunar cycles aren’t available to purchase immediately? Well, I would have glowed in the dark from mercury anyway, so I found some really, really great New York sausages from Newman’s Fish (a place I found over the summer) and Kristen made me the best damned spaghetti EVER. So then, everything is perfect. I even have some ice cream for later.

I don’t think I’m growing mature, but in retrospect this has been a year of realizations for me of how and why I want to live my life, and yeah, you can be cynical and say a bunch of people on facebook wishing you well is a shot in the electric dark, but to me it means that I’m crawling out from a lot of youth and travail with a group of folks, which is all you can really want in life next to a book contract and good spaghetti.

Living in hope has been grand.

The twenties were all about believing I was going to shoot off like a rocket and dealing with the reality (I’m now grateful for) that life doesn’t work that way. Arrogance and any kind of success after a life of working as hard as I did would have burned me out. Much better, I think, to achieve a minor success doing exactly what I believe in, and eventually find the people to support it and surround myself with them.

Kristen especially. This song makes me happy I’m with her, and expresses pretty well what I think of her. Jesus, she’s waiting quite a while on this lump of coal.

Accourse, the song is supposed to be about Elvis and Entwistle, so what do I know anyway.

December 22nd, 2009 by Neal

I am turning thirty in one half of one hour.

I made the choice in my life to be a writer. Here is what happens as a result of that choice, in 29 more minutes:

Of course, old age also has its dementia consequences. This was me trying to figure out how to keep Kristen from talking my Spanish decoder ring:

Adieu, fair youth, adieu!

Soon, all I will be is an old man, babbling, trying to hold on to what he once was…

The only thing that will not age, over time, I am convinced, is my sense of humor.

It’s been the same for 17 years, so it can’t even drink yet.

Now, for bonus points, play all of the videos a the same time. GO!

December 18th, 2009 by Neal

Okay, nine hours of editing, the script is completely reformatted, edited down, and I think… I THINK…. in the can.

One more read-through, and it’s set, I do believe. I can do that leisurely tomorrow.

Sex in Trade done been traded.

December 17th, 2009 by Neal

Neal tired. Neal did much editing. Neal changed the entire script format, culled even more dialogue, and is at peace with the form, to a degree, at least.

Sadly, Neal has one more day until he’s supposed to take a week and a half off, so he may be:

As it stands, though, I feel relatively confident I may succeed. And if not, hey, what the hell, I’ll work on.

I learned so much from this script, it feels rad.

December 16th, 2009 by Neal

There is something very fun about discovering a new medium and a new way of coming at my craft. I’ve written some forty comic scripts (I think seven have been drawn), but something always jumps out to nip you in the ass and say, “Hey, you don’t know all you think you know.”

I can academically look at a script and know that pictures drive a comic, and that the words should be minimal, but the decisive factor of how minimal is a matter of both taste and subjective judgment, and I haven’t fully formed that judgment yet. I study scripts from professionals, I look at what works in a comic and what doesn’t.

Bendis, for example, has a ton of dialogue. Others have small dialogue, but many panels. Others have few panels and medium dialogue. I’ve been looking at them all, particularly the ones I admire.

Past Lies, Whiteout, Queen and Country (less mystery, yes, but usually with an element of intrigue), Criminal. They all come at it from different angles.

Hal is a jabber-jaw, which is a real pain in the ass when trying to cull it down. I have spent most of this third draft taking down the dialogue. It quite literally went from 163 pages to 143, I think it is now.

My novels were coming up short on word count because I edit so hard, so I spent a lot of effort learning how to make my character express himself more, how to elaborate on surroundings more, and now I turn around into a minimalism on beyond levels I’ve experienced.

It’s fun, if scary. I’m still working at it.

I thought I was going to be done tonight, but now I realize I need to pop in at least a few more drafts. I’ll probably finish just in time to turn thirty. Wootah.

December 9th, 2009 by Neal

Talking Heads had it right. Songs about building and food. It is not saying a simple thing in a complex way, it’s a complex thing in a simple way… and this is pretty damned sweet when you’re down:

December 9th, 2009 by Neal

…is done.

At least the rough draft. Now, to edit…

December 8th, 2009 by Neal

I’ve pounded out the mystery portion of the book, and now I’m hitting the denouement… this all went so fast. Comics are definitely faster than novels, but oy, kind of strange nonetheless.

I’m really enjoying this process.

December 8th, 2009 by Neal

Look at it for a minute. You’ll get it.

Or if you don’t, please, spike your Tab with Drano.

This is real, btw, not a manip.

Math fail, ethics fail, and hypocrisy fail all in one.

December 7th, 2009 by Neal

I guess that’s as good a line of dialogue to end a day on as any other.

I did a lot today, but it doesn’t feel like it. Ah, action scenes.