About 5 months ago, I thought I was ready to tell you all about my new project. I had written a first draft of a script that was, in my mind, a work of art. It had everything that I felt like I wanted in it and it was going to be the first part of a trilogy of books. It ended on a cliff hanger, of course, but I knew I was going to see all of these books through. So I brought my completed first draft of the script to my writing group and…

Rewrites: No Pain, No Gain

I have had the wonderful opportunity to become friends with a number of fantastic artists and storytellers. Ones that I genuinely fancy as more advanced than I am in the craft of comic making. These guys are people I truly respect when it comes to storytelling. So when we had a Skype meeting and they asked me some hard hitting questions that caused me to think deeply about what I wanted to create.

My story, as it turns out, was a bit of a hot mess. So much of a mess, in fact, that it genuinely sent me back to the starting point. The main things I was left with were my time period, an axe, a giant worm fight, and some of my sci-fi elements. But all of my characters were scrapped and most of my events… and even the idea of doing a trilogy.

Now, they felt worse about this than I did. I was excited. My mantra the whole time while writing this script has been: Great not good.

So I internalized all of their suggestions, questions, and ideas for about a month and decided to read Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder and re-read Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald (two amazing books all about screenwriting and storytelling). Then I got to work on my almost completely different project.

Outlines: Build Your House on Solid Rock

There’s a parable in the Bible about a man building his house on sand, and how terrible of an idea it is because when the rain comes, his house washes away. That’s how I was feeling. I had written an entire script, and the whole thing washed away without a solid foundation to hold it together.

But this time, armed with Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet (a breakdown of roughly 14 moments he’d found in every successful film script from his book, Save the Cat!), I set to work to get all of the major points set before building the script around it. And so I did. And then I did it again… and again. Collaborations are awesome because you can really figure your plot out when people are asking you hard questions.

Now that I’m onto my third iteration, I have what I would consider a solid footing, and I am about to start writing the new first draft… and it’s only for one book! Because of my focus on “great not good”, I’m going to make one book that I think is great. If it goes well, we’ll figure out other things for these characters to do (I think you’ll like them).

My New Project: Resonance Men (tentative title)

Things can change, but in the end, I think I have gotten to a point where I can really start including you all on some information about my project… finally!

Summary: At the turn of the century, former detective, Frank Lore, is recruited by a secret organization to stop a fallen god from destroying the world.

And here’s a pulpier pitch: 19th century science fiction involving interdimensional travel, mythology, and men in three-piece suits fighting monsters with guns and axes.

I’m going to be going on a journey to find a new style to do this story in as well, so that will be fun. I’m excited and I hope you all are too.