Archive for the 'Media Franchise' Category
Why One-Offs Are Commercially Inferior
Since I started writing, everyone has advised me to write short stories. Here are a few of the more common things people say:
“It’s easier to try and break into the biz by selling a short story first.”
“A short story is the only way to keep your early work manageable.”
“Once you’ve done a ton of short stories then you can graduate up to doing novels.”
My problem is… I just don’t have any interest in writing short stories. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I don’t have anything against them, I just find myself more invested in full stories.
Jane Espenson has an interesting post that gets to the heart of the matter.
“I recently read one of those collections of short stories. You know the kind, the “Best Short Stories of two thousand and whatever it is now” kind of thing. In the introduction, the editor talked about how she would have thought that short stories would be the increasing in popularity now, as we all lead fast lives with small amounts of leisure time. A short story for the subway ride, a short story before turning out the light to refresh for another hectic day… it seems to make sense. She was puzzled as to why this doesn’t seem to be happening, that novels still seem to be the preferred unit of prose-based fiction.
Well, I can tell her why. Start-up costs. You have to invest a lot of attention in the start of a short story. Who are these people? Are they firemen? What year is this? Hey, are we in China or something? Picking up a short story requires an investment in attention and care far beyond what reading the next chapter of a novel requires. There, we already know what we’re in for and we only have to worry about what our guy is going through next.”
That’s exactly it. I’ve got a pretty high reading comprehension, and I still sometimes find it difficult to get into a story at first. The ramping up process for the reader takes quite a bit of investment. The reader does all this hard work getting to know your characters, wrap their head around the premise and the plot, and then the story is over.
13 comments
Genre Market Research
I recently found a post-nuke series called Deathlands. Is it good? I don’t know yet. I just received my copy of Deathlands #1 ‘Pilgrimage To Hell’ today. Maybe I’ll dissect it here when I’m finished. Something interesting is that GraphicAudio, the publisher, has a specific marketing strategy. There are seventy or so Deathlands books, and a large number of them are audiobook only. They state their target as long-distance commuters. I find this interesting as it’s not often that publishers have such a narrow target audience.
More important though, I like to go through everything within my genre to make sure that my ideas haven’t already been exploited by someone else. In most cases, they haven’t been. My configuration of setting and character elements has enough of its own identity that it won’t be confused with others. This is good, but it doesn’t make the fear go away. I have this paranoia that one of these days I’ll pick up a novel and read exactly the novel I was writing. This is mostly an irrational fear, but in some ways a healthy one. It’s good to know what’s out there.
Is anyone encroaching upon your ideas?
2 comments
Skywalking an Intellectual Property
A few facts & observations from Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas,
“When he finished editing American Graffitti in February 1972, Lucas went right to work on his idea. He wrote each morning and spent the rest of his time researching fairy tales, mythology, and social psychology.”
Notice the start date for Star Wars was five full years before it was finished in 1977. Intellectual properties take a lot of time, energy, and research to develop. Remember that you’re not just writing a story. You are creating a universe, characters, and unique mythology.
“As usual, George had difficulty getting his ideas on paper; he decided to write a story treatment (an expanded synopsis), rather than a complete screenplay. By May 1973, he had completed a bewildering 13 page-page plot summary.”
Note the 1973 date. It was over a year from the start date that he had a very messy 13 page treatment. Progress on new I.P. can be slow and frustrating. Even guys like Spielberg and Lucas are not immune.
“Star Wars ruled Lucas’s life. He carried a small notebook in which he jotted down names, ideas, plot angles–anything that popped into his head.”
A Moleskine? Carry with you a way to jot ideas wherever you go, no matter what. You never know when and where an idea might strike you.
“He was struggling to create a new universe, a reality that did not exist outside his imagination.”
This statement reveals more than you might think for its simplicity. We often view our work as “writing a book,” or “telling a story,” but the reality is a lot more complicated than that. We are synthesizing new worlds. Until we order the ideas and events, these unique new worlds exist only in our heads. If anyone else is ever to see and understand them, there is a tremendous amount of work to be done to make those ideas not only strong, but relevant and relatable.
“Infusing a fluid, dramatic movie with a moral structure was a task Lucas dreaded. He had dozens of story elements, but no cohesive plot. His characters evolved and adapted like proto-organisms. He couldn’t decide where to begin and where to end Star Wars. Morality was the least of his problems.”
Even the legendary George Lucas had problems in putting together his vision. Our modern society, especially in the United States, is caught up in this myth of the overnight success.
Someone arrives on the scene with an amazing, world-changing piece of work and we all assume it appeared out of nowhere like magic. This is how many have treated the phenomenon of Star Wars — it was just another movie cranked out by the system, from one guy who happened to get lucky? Such a view goes beyond ignorance in my opinion, and into the realm of outright stupidity.
Five years to develop an I.P. is par for the course, and not a walk in the park. Lucas suffered from anxiety and hypertension, to the point of illness. He pulled his hair out. He couldn’t finish treatments and scripts. At times he felt powerless, or even helpless, and blamed himself.
Being only human, he struggled just as we do to organize and clarify our ideas. And he spent years doing it before he could see his vision in its final glory. If we think we are going to skate by suffering any less than he did we are sorely mistaken. This is the price of admission for creating a new intellectual property, and why the barrier is so high.
“Lucas’s first draft screen-play took a year to complete, until May 1974.”
In many of the screenwriting books I’ve read, there are claims plastered throughout that a script can be written in two weeks or a month. Sure it can. As National Novel Writing Month proves, so can a novel. Just about anything can be created in a two week or one month time frame. But it won’t be Star Wars. An I.P. of that magnitude takes time and a lot more heartache.
“Lucas sent Alan Ladd, Jr., a synopsis of his second draft on May 1, 1974.”
“…the second screenplay was finished on January 28, 1975.”
“The third version was delivered August 1, 1975.”
We’re talking an entire year for the second draft. Don’t feel bad if your magnum opus is taking a long time. You have to push forward in spite of the odds, and be prepared to sacrifice the number of years required for hard synthesis.
If you take anything from a book like Skywalking, take at least the knowledge that creators like George Lucas have already walked down the same path and succeeded, so you know it’s possible.
At the very least, you’re not alone.
5 comments
