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Creative links
May. 24th, 2012 09:21 amI read a really interesting series of interviews with Dan Harmon, creator/headwriter of the show Community, doing a detailed walkthrough of Season 2 and the creative process that went into it: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. I found these posts fascinating from a creative standpoint. I'm not sure how useful or interesting they would be to people who don't watch the show, but since we just marathoned the first three seasons this winter, it's all fresh in my head and I was really interested in how the stories were built up and the characters' arcs conceptualized. In particular, he talks as much about what didn't work as the things that did: the ideas that translated poorly from script to screen, the high-flying thematic concepts that crashed and burned, stuff like that.
(It also made me depressed, because he was fired at the end of season three -- the current season -- and these posts make it abundantly clear that the show is his brainchild and most of what made the show fun, unique and interesting was his influence. I shudder to think what sort of neutered version of itself it'll be next season without him.)
While I'm linkdumping anyway:
Menial: Skilled Labor in SF looks like an interesting anthology to submit to. It doesn't pay much (the publisher is an indy small press, and doesn't have much money to offer) but they're great people to work with -- I had a story published with their e-zine side awhile back, Hetsie's Wonders. The deadline is June 30. I might try to write something for that.
Interesting post from Greg Rucka: Why I Write Strong Female Characters. I first encountered Rucka with his graphic novel "Whiteout", which is really good, and I liked his answer: I don't [write strong women]. I write characters. Some of those characters are women. Though he goes on to explain that it's more complicated than that: basically, he writes convincing women characters not only because he has empathy for all of his characters, but because he researches it. He asks questions to female friends and researches by reading female-authored books in his chosen genres. (I remember Stephen King saying something similar about writing Carrie, that he personally had no idea what being a teenage girl was like, but his wife did. So he asked her.)
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ellenmillion (of Torn World) talks about organizing shared story worlds for the reader. I found lots of useful tips in here for managing any big project with lots of content and characters, whether it has a single creator or multiple people working on it. (I'm still trying to figure out the most useful way to organize Kismet.)
(It also made me depressed, because he was fired at the end of season three -- the current season -- and these posts make it abundantly clear that the show is his brainchild and most of what made the show fun, unique and interesting was his influence. I shudder to think what sort of neutered version of itself it'll be next season without him.)
While I'm linkdumping anyway:
Menial: Skilled Labor in SF looks like an interesting anthology to submit to. It doesn't pay much (the publisher is an indy small press, and doesn't have much money to offer) but they're great people to work with -- I had a story published with their e-zine side awhile back, Hetsie's Wonders. The deadline is June 30. I might try to write something for that.
Interesting post from Greg Rucka: Why I Write Strong Female Characters. I first encountered Rucka with his graphic novel "Whiteout", which is really good, and I liked his answer: I don't [write strong women]. I write characters. Some of those characters are women. Though he goes on to explain that it's more complicated than that: basically, he writes convincing women characters not only because he has empathy for all of his characters, but because he researches it. He asks questions to female friends and researches by reading female-authored books in his chosen genres. (I remember Stephen King saying something similar about writing Carrie, that he personally had no idea what being a teenage girl was like, but his wife did. So he asked her.)
ellenmillion (of Torn World) talks about organizing shared story worlds for the reader. I found lots of useful tips in here for managing any big project with lots of content and characters, whether it has a single creator or multiple people working on it. (I'm still trying to figure out the most useful way to organize Kismet.)
