![]() I think you can usually tell when something’s been written that way, and it doesn’t feel very lifelike. But I usually don’t have an articulated reason or explanation for why I picked each moment. If I do this for long enough, I’ll eventually arrive at a rough version of the complete story in my mind, and then I can finesse that to a degree as I start sketching on paper. I often start with an idea or a character or a scene, and then just let it slosh around in my brain for a long time, often while doing other things. I’m not sure I completely understand your question, but I think you’re assuming that I have a more strategic, methodical approach to writing than I actually do. Q: What are the most reliable methods you have found to select the moments that must be conveyed in a story, and to compose them in such a way that it affects your artistic vision? I can’t really articulate why those endings have that effect on me, but that sensation is something I’ve thought a lot about, and have probably been chasing my whole career. I could watch those a hundred times and still feel chills when they cut to credits. ![]() The films 45 Years and The Ice Storm come to mind. ![]() Some of my favortie short stories by John Cheever, Raymond Carver, and Otessa Moshfegh are good examples of this. There’s a certain kind of ending that I love, and it’s hard to describe, but it usually contains a mixture of surprise, mystery, simplicity, and unspoken feeling. It’s hard to give any clear advice about this, because it seems contradictory to say, “You should really think carefully about the ending, but don’t think about it too much!” Maybe the best way to describe my approach is that I try to use my conscious mind to reject or edit the bad ideas, but I allow my subconscious mind to surprise me with the good ones. I give a lot of thought to my endings, but I also try to arrive at them intuitively. I don’t think the two approaches you describe are mutually exclusive. Q: I was wondering how often you explicitly think through how and why an ending works, versus going off a more intuitive feeling? It might seem more economical to cram a lot of dialogue into one panel, but not only does that tend to overwhelm the reader, it gives the comic a stilted tone, as if the characters are frozen in time while reciting their words. Of course there will always be exceptions, but for a scene like this one-in which I’m basically trying to make the reader feel like they’re sitting there with the characters at The Cheesecake Factory-I find that simple, easily-digestible panels with a sentence or two of dialogue work best. I’ve found that too much text-regardless of how beautiful it may be-will cause a reader to skim or skip ahead. For this scene from Killing and Dying, for example, I imagined the conversation playing out in real time, and then tried to replicate that as best I could by breaking up the dialogue, expressions, and gestures into panels.Īside from trying to make a scene feel natural and believable, the main thing I’m thinking about with regards to pacing is holding the reader’s attention. I usually just try to tell the story I have in my mind, and I keep editing and adjusting the rough draft until it reads the way I want it to. Q: My question is about “pacing in comics.” What’s your process for “nailing down” the story’s pacing per page and panel? Do you go by story beats or information you deem important, or both? Feel free to identify yourself in the comments here, and if anyone is interested in collaborating, they can get in touch with you. I’m not sure, but it’s possible that an agent or a publisher could act as a “matchmaker” and help pair you up with an artist. How does someone approach illustrators / artists / cartoonists when it comes to collaborating? Q: I can’t draw for shit, in part because of a neurological condition that causes my hands to constantly shake as if I were 90 years old.
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