Writing in different mediums

Today is the start of a short break from work for me, just to recharge my batteries etc. And as I'm now done with both Salamander and Thunder from Fenris, I can have a little breather from intensive writing too. I do plan on working on some synopses and I might start fleshing out a short story (as you should always try to write something everyday if you want to hone your craft, in my opinion), but nothing too draining.

Given all this free time, I figured it was high time I did a little blogging. Apologies for my absence of late and the shorter nature of my more recent posts; sometimes it difficult to fit the little blighters in. I often think to myself 'ooh, I could blog about that', but then I'm knackered at the end of the day due to Shakespeare waking us up in the small hours (he can open the downstairs doors and the door to our bedroom - he'll happily batter his way in and run under the bed, making a lot of noise scratting and chewing generally), or Louise's snoring the night before (sorry, Lou) and I let it slide.

Bad me.

There's a few things on my mind at the moment and one of those has sprung from writing my first audio story.

Regulars to the blog will know Thunder from Fenris is a Space Wolf audio written for the Black Library and my first foray into this medium. Besides paring down your style so that the flow works for a spoken medium, there's also the matter of turning the story into a script for the purposes of the actor.

This means adding in direction and atmosphere for the opening of your scenes; attributing dialogue and narration, so the actor knows which is which and who is speaking before they speak; it also means removing any extraneous material such as any modifiers/descriptors for speech: For instance, there's no point in writing 'he mumbled' or 'he bellowed' for the actor to read; they'll be bellowing, mumbling etc in their delivery, rather you just need to add some direction (if you feel it's necessary; a lot of actors will use their own theatrical instincts to decide how a character my say a line - certainly the context and description in the story beforehand should assist and guide them in this). Anyone who's ever bought a script book or seen one will know what I mean with this adaptive process.

Now, I'll confess, I submitted this as a short story, straight up and down, and my editor reworked it. I actually felt more comfortable working that way; writing the story as straight narrative, rather than moving straight into script format - I was concerned the latter approach my stifle me creatively or provide a mental stumbling block. Not that I haven't done it before - I have. I've scripted audio books and adapted novels into scripts before. It's actually a very interesting process once you've got the words down. I had considered going back to Thunder from Fenris and reworking that too, but in the end I thought I was too close to it to make any qualitative judgements wholly objectively, plus the looming deadline (and with the edits for Salamander to write) sort of precluded it.

Poor excuse, I know, but I'm sticking with it.

Seeing the script in the flesh, so to speak, it was really interesting to see the minor tweaks and amendments that had been made. Visually, of course, it was very different - a short story of some 10,000 words broken down and re-worked as an 80 something page document, spaced out with directional notes, character 'parts' and segregated narration. It's so, so different from writing standard prose and offers additional opportunities for a writer to practice and articulate his or her craft.

For one thing, script writing definitely lends itself to dialogue. Generally speaking, a lot of these types of scripts (action, sf) need plenty of it to keep the story going. It also allows the actor to try on some different voices and some drama to go along with atmosphere generated by music and sound effects. Got to say, I am really looking forward to attending the recording for Thunder from Fenris. We work with a company called Big Finish who are simply superb at this kind of thing with top quality directors, producers, sound designers and a cadre of great actors. I certainly feel that my work is in very good hands indeed.

I recommend anyone try and have a go at adapting their written work to script format, I think you'll be surprised at the level of engagement and analysis required to make it work. It can also highlight issues of style that you might want to work on or just allow you to practice a different style.

Ever thought about modifying your short story to a film script for instance? During my academic years, training for an HND in Media Production that would precede my degree, I did some work adapting chapters from the excellent sf novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (incidentally, I totally love this book - it's one of the reasons I decided I wanted to be a writer - thoroughly recommended and very, very slickly done). This was an enlightening process, for the rigors of such a task are surprising. There's a lot you can do, a lot of tricks and quirks you can pull writing prose, that you can't do in film - and visa-versa of course. It highlighted to me the importance of scene setting, visualising your characters and, ultimately, dialogue. Again, I would totally recommend this process. Even thinking about your prose in a visual way, as it was a movie is no bad practice to get into. Remember though, even the biggest effects-laden blockbuster can fall flat on its arse if the story sucks and the characters are dull - you have been warned...

Something George Mann and I (my uber-boss and fellow author, as it happens) were discussing yesterday leads into the subject of different writing mediums - specifically comic books scripts. Much like a film script is as different again to an audio script (though there's crossover), the same is true of comic book scripts. Again, this is something I've had a crack at it in my time and it was interesting, discussing this subject with George, how comic book script writers can approach the process so differently.

My experience is pretty description heavy discourse detailing panels, flow, dialogue, scene setting - the whole works - but George was telling me how some script writers merely describe the scene very loosely - a conversation between two characters, for instance - and allow the artist to interpret the flow, panels and how it will all work.

One of the most interesting aspects of the comic books script process for me (again, this was me dabbling during my HND - in retrospect, what a bloody awesome course that was), was the whole panelling thing. The decision of how to divide your comic book page in terms of its panels really affects the pace, flow and how it is going to be read. It also might place constraints or free up the artist, according to how dense your pages are. It was one of the things that really fascinated me, like suddenly I was having to think it three dimensions instead of two. Not only must I consider the story, the characters, the dialogue, the locations, the scene; I must also take notice of the pace through panelling, where and when the panels falls and how that effects the story telling.

For instance, if I want a big one-page splash, a reveal or a great piece of action, then if I'm working in comic book medium of a double-facing page, then I need to be sure that splash appears on a left facing page (generally speaking, an even one), for maximum impact. The same is true for huge, double-page spreads - that would have to start on an even and end on an odd numbered page, otherwise the whole thing is screwed up. There's just that little bit of extra awareness needed to set things up and have them pay off as you intend. One of my favourite spreads in a recent graphic novel is from the Ultimates: Grand Theft America and the massive multipage, gatefold battle spread - simply awesome!

It really got me thinking about writing in different mediums and dusted off some old skills that I'd forgotten I had. I recommend anyone give it a go and just see how it makes you think differently about writing and flexes those writerly muscles in a different direction.

Right, off to get some coffee...