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Kelly Sue DeConnickkellysue.com |
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Archive for the ‘work’ CategoryPowell’s Signing with Brian Michael Bendis19.10.2011 17:50 1
Please join Brian Michael Bendis and me at Powell’s (1005 W Burnside) this Friday evening at 7:30. Brian doesn’t do many public appearances any more, so if you’re a fan–this is your chance. Powell’s will have the Castle book as well as Powers collections and who knows what all else. (Brian also says he’s bringing some free comics for giveaways!) NYCC ScheduleI’m running a little late getting this up, I know, but here we go: Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Screen Shot 2011-10-05 at 9.45.20 AMDeadly Storm is currently #1 on Amazon in Graphic Novels: Marvel, Graphic Novels: Mystery *and* (?) Graphic Novels: Superheroes. I know it’s unseemly of me to be tickled by this, but it may never happen to me again. So I took a screen shot. Fan Expo Canada!
It’s all happening! My schedule as of right now: Friday the 26th
Saturday the 27th
Sunday the 28th
When I’m not at those events, you can probably find me at P002A… or on Twitter at @kellysue. See you there? Comics! The Blog InterviewJames Leask and I had a lot of fun with this interview over at Comics! The Blog:
Meeting of the (Milkfed Criminal Master) Minds
So this is going to be another drive-by process post. Today’s topic: meetings. Insert all the regular caveats here–ie, this isn’t meant to be advice, per se, but rather something more along the lines of, “this is how I do it right now, perhaps it will be helpful for you.” See also, “I’ve been at this a couple of years, but I’m no expert” and “we strive for progress, not perfection.” Okay. Moving on. Meetings. Yesterday Fraction and I had our biannual (twice yearly, not every two years–that’s “biannual,” right?) business meeting, wherein we sat down at our favorite coffee shop and in the same notebook we use for every meeting, we took stock of where we are, and checked in on where we want to be. Just like it sounds. At the top of the first page of the meeting notes I write, “Business – Kelly Sue – Status Updates” and then go about listing every work project/pitch/fragment-of-an-idea that is either on my plate or starting to creep near it. (Or very far from my plate, honestly–I write ‘em all down.) We talk as we go about where I’m at and where I’d like to be. If I have an idea or Fraction has a suggestion as we go, I make a note of it as a thing to follow up on. Once that list is exhausted, I move to the next page and title it “Business – Kelly Sue – Goals” and underneath it, spaced over the page, I write the following headings:
Here comes the hard part: then we flip back to the last meeting and check in on what it was that I had hoped to accomplish over the previous six months. Here’s the thing: it’s never good news. Or rather, it’s never entirely good news. Never once have I accomplished everything I put down for myself. I have, however, made progress every time that I suspect I would not have made without laying down my objectives in writing. We discuss and recalibrate and lay down my new objectives. Then we repeat the process three more times — once from the top for Fraction, and then once again for each of us with personal projects and goals (family stuff). The whole process takes a few hours and isn’t 100 percent fun, so we reward ourselves with a trip to the comic book store afterwards. Yesterday I got an Eddie Campbell gn I’d never heard of. Why do we do this? Because writing is our business and we take it seriously. Because we aim to have not just books, but careers. Because we believe in math and the statistics that surround goal-setting are staggering. Witness:
Okay, we could argue until the apocalypse about using income as a measure of “success” but I’m going to assume that the ones with the written goals were making more money because they’d accomplished more than the ones without. Can we agree that that’s fair? And really, with stats like that, where’s the harm? One meeting every six months is surely not going to hurt anything, is it? You don’t need to be married to your best friend and business partner to have a meeting and set some goals. You could do it alone, but I’d wager that you’d have more fun and more success if you talked a buddy into grabbing coffee and going through the process with you. The most important part is that you put it in writing. Want to discuss this post or something else? Comment below or join us at Jinxworld. Relevant threads: Desk Set of Shame & Day OneAll right, so… I promised some posts on methodology and whatnot–this’ll be the first of those. I want to offer up a couple of caveats before diving in: 1) I’m still new at this. I’ve been writing professionally for about 10 years now, but my first “Big Two” comic gig was about 2 years ago. I’m still a beginner. So with all that in mind, the first tool/practice/methodology I want to share is a quick one (as is obvious from the photo above, I have to get back to work): I keep a work journal. I use a bit of Mac software called DAY ONE, but if you’re not a Mac user, I’m sure that there’s a PC equivalent. If you rock it old school, all you need is a notebook and a digital timer (one that goes at least 2 hours). My work day runs from roughly 8am to 4pm, and I have set DAY ONE up to prompt me 4 times a day to make a journal entry. What that means is that a window pops up on the right side of my screen 4 times between 8am and 4pm, and 4 times a day I stop what I’m doing for a minute to tell the journal what I’m working on and what I’ve accomplished since the last entry. That’s it. It takes less than a minute and can be “snoozed” if I’m on a roll and don’t want to pause for even 60 seconds. What does it do for me? Primarily, it keeps me on task. If it catches me on a tangent, it gets me back on track. If I’ve actually (hey–right on cue there’s my window… BRB) been Getting Things Done, recording my successes puts wind in my sails. (I’m the kind of person for whom wins beget wins. I’m incredibly susceptible to inertia…. I wanted to do some kind of rollover text thing where I could insert this definition of inertia: A property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force… but it turns out I don’t know how to code for rollover text.) Beyond simple policing, having a work journal means that if I need to know what I did when, or to determine how many pages I get done on average over a specified period of time, that information is easily available to me. I need perspective in order to recognize patterns and keeping a work journal affords me better perspective than my baby-brain-addled memory. While we’re on the topic of auxiliary policing, I feel like I should also mention MacFreedom and Anti-Social. If you’re someone who gets caught up in the endless dopamine feedback loop of checking email/twitter/facebook/pinterest/whatever or is prone to surfing Wiki articles about writing instead of actually writing, these might be the programs for you. I have them and I use them on occasion, but I don’t find them to be quite as vital to my work flow as Day One. Okay, so that’s it! My first methodology post. Want to discuss it or similar practices that work (or don’t work) for you? Feel free to leave a comment below or join us over at Jinxworld. Relevant threads at present: Tunnels and LightsSo I wrapped a monster script at 5:10pm last night and I was somehow expecting to feel lighter today. I guess it hasn’t quite hit me yet. (The last two pages are still nagging at me. That might be the problem. I can tweak them yet if I want to, but the solution hasn’t materialized yet. Any minute now would be good.) In other news, SUPERGIRL 65 dropped yesterday! Most everyone seems to like it, so I’m pleased. I try not to care what other TEH INTARWEBS say — I think ultimately if I’m pleased with it and my editor’s pleased with it, then it’s a success and I ought to free up that mental energy for the next thing. (Caveat: I’m still very much rooted in Beginner’s MInd in this pursuit and nothing’s going to be perfect. Do the best job I can do and then make note of what mistakes I’ve made, what I can learn from, and MOVE ON.)… But I’m human. So I care. I was particularly concerned about the thoughts of the fine folks at MaidofMight.net and Supergirl Comic Box Commentary because I know Kara is very close to their hearts and… I don’t know. I don’t want to reverse-engineer and write what I think other people want, but I do want the superfans–the people for whom this character means the most–to feel I’ve treated the opportunity with respect. Does that make sense? Anyway, I heard from them both and they were both very positive. So. Big exhale. And as the two remaining books are each better than the previous, I think–I hope–we’re drawing aces. Big thanks to my collaborators Wil Dennis, ChrisCross, Marc Deering, Blond and Travis Lanham. Congratulations, fellas! Up next for me, an 8-pager for Marvel and a one-shot for another company that I’m more excited about than my scheduling would suggest. Then? I’m taking a little time to focus on A Creator-Owned Thing. On a personal note, my dad and step mom are coming to visit today and I could not be more excited. There’s so much more I want to share but I’ve got errands to run, two interviews to write out and some research to do today, so I’m calling it for the moment. Next post, I’m going to try to start talking about what I’ve learned about comics writing and my specific process over the last year and a half. See you then. EDITED TO ADD: Comic News Insider Episode 339, my conversation with Jimmy Aquino at Heroes Con has gone live! Me Too, Brother
Me Too, Brother, originally uploaded by Kelly Sue. Well… so much for updating every day. All I can do is try, I guess. Mini post today:
More when things slow down here a bit. |
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mini-series from Marvel Comics and for co-writing 
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