Okay, Iām going to start with some Actual News once again, which is that my new book - the latest Mega Robo Bros graphic novel, CARNIVAL CRISIS - is out TODAY!
Hereās the blurb:
Alex and Freddy face their greatest danger yet! The return of their most terrifying enemy, a robotic malware virus causing robots to rebel against humanity, and a growing anti-robot protest movement - it's a lot for two robot brothers to cope with. But when the robot malware strikes during the carnival, the danger dial shoots up to the max! Will Alex and Freddy be able to resist - and save the day?!
I think itās the best MRB book yet, Iām really proud of it, it feels like this one really is where everything kicks up a notch. (I know I always say that, or some version of that. But this time itās REALLY TRUE.)
Available direct from the Phoenix, from Bookshop.org, from Amazon, and indeed from bookshops everywhere. Support your local independent bookshops! And also support ME, cool, thank you.
If you would like to celebrate this momentous occasion you can join me for a special online MEGA ROBO MASTERCLASS, tomorrow, Friday 4th August! All the details and tickets are here. And donāt worry if you booked but canāt make that time for whatever reason - a recording of the event will be sent out afterwards to all ticket-holders, for you to watch at your convenience. Come join us, I think itās going to be really fun.
Okay! Thatās the news, now for the WRITING CHAT. L Roxby left the following comment on my post the other week about writing story outlines, and I thought I would try and give it a proper answer here.
I love hearing about this kind of early(ish) development stuff! Especially since I'm currently in the midst of trying to work out where the line between "too much planning that will inevitably get thrown out once I start actually writing" and "not enough planning which will cause me to lose steam halfway through" is on a long comic project. How much long term stuff do you usually have planned out from the start, if any?
I was thinking about this, and about whether I even have a āusualā process. I feel like Iām always figuring out what Iām doing a writer, from scratch, every time I start a new thing. But thinking about it, I did recognise there is a bit of a pattern to How Much Planning I Do, that can be traced over time.
MO-BOT HIGH - my first big comic series, and I was so excited I went into it with a monstrous, giant long term plan: character arcs, technology, the metaphysical nature of the storyās universe and how that would come to be revealed to the characters over roughly forty to fifty volumes of comics.
(Yes I know this was ridiculous! Look, I was young, I didnāt know. Like basically 100% of people who have grown up reading manga and then start making their own comics, I wanted nothing more than to create my own EPIC SAGA straight out of the gate. Pro Tip: DO NOT DO THIS.)
ā¦because then of course, the comic that was publishing it got went out of business as I was roughly 5% of the way into this epic story, taking my rights to continue the story with it, and I got to spend the next seven or eight years disappointing children who were desperate to know When Was Book 2 Coming Out.
(Did I mention? DO NOT DO THIS.)
MEGA ROBO BROS - maybe as a reaction to the above, I went into Mega Robo Bros with a much more flexible approach to planning. From the very beginning I had a sense of the overall story, and I knew some key things about how it would end, but I had no idea how long it might take to get to that ending, or indeed if we ever would. I started out just writing a bunch of self-contained short stories of various lengths, exploring the characters and the world and just having fun there. And it was only as it became clear that the series had legs that I started to allow myself to do some tighter planning, in rounds of increasing ambition; first for the arc that would become the bulk of Book One / POWER UP, then for the bigger story that would span over DOUBLE THREAT to ROBO REVENGE. And then finally, I remember sitting out in the sun at the Edinburgh book festival a few years back, and having a bit of time on my hands between events, and finally knuckling down and planning out the last few phases of the story; the stuff that begins in CARNIVAL CRISIS and will carry us through all the way to the very end in Book 8, [TITLE TBD]. I think maybe it was only once I finally felt reasonably secure that The Phoenix wasnāt going anywhere any time soon, and wasnāt going to stop wanting more MRB any time soon, that I finally allowed myself to indulge my Epic Saga cravings.
DAUGHTERS OF THE DEMON - and just to bring us up to speed with my most recent / current story, which involves absolutely no planning at all, and is 100% a case of me just Making Stuff Up As I Go Along because it feels like a fun thing to do at the time. I think this is probably a reaction to working on MRB for ten years, but I am currently in love with this way of working. Not aiming any further into the future than the next punchline or cliffhanger; just enjoying the journey and trusting that itāll take us somewhere fun.
ā¦sorry, that was a long and extremely self-indulgent bit of reflection. To attempt to answer the original question: I suppose I tend to have particular moments or scenes in a story planned out from very early on. I think endings are really important, and kind of the whole point of stories, and they are almost where the stories start for me. I donāt necessarily mean in terms of plot details or specifics, but just in terms I guess of key emotional or character beats, or just the tone and feel that you want to end on. I think it can be really useful to have a sense of that stuff, to keep you motivated and give you something to aim towards. But I guess Iād caution against doing too much detailed heavy plot planning early on. Partly because it can sting and feel like time wasted if you are forced to abandon it for one of the million real-world reasons that stories can be interrupted. But mostly because it could restrict your ability to have fun later on. I certainly discover more about my characters the more I write them, and you want to leave yourself room to be led by the characters and by whatever cool new ideas you might have along the way. So Iād suggest having a goal in mind, a target on the horizon, but leaving yourself plenty of room to explore and have fun as you get there. And I think the more you write, the more you come to trust your own instincts and abilities, the more you feel comfortable driving without a roadmap in that way.
If anyone has any other questions about any of this process stuff, please do fire away in the comments and Iāll try and answer them here. In the meantime thanks for reading, have a good week, and OH HEY DID I MENTION, MY NEW BOOK IS OUT TODAY, COOL, THANK YOU.
Thank you so much for answering my question!This was very interesting and it's given me some stuff to think on!