This week I talk to John Rogers, who has written stand-up, television, film and now comics. Not only does he have some great insights to share on the differences and similarities between writing in the different industries, but as an experienced writer he truly has a lot of wisdom to share on living the life of a writer in general:


What was the first comic you ever read?
 
Either Grell's Warlord or maybe Jon Sable, Freelance.


I understand Blue Beetle is your first comics work, which you've been co-writing with long-time funnybook scribe Keith Giffen. Starting next month you'll be taking over all the writing chores yourself. What is the most important lesson about writing comics you've learned from Giffen?
 
I'd say three things. First, always lie to your editor. He's an absolute bastard that way. He makes Baby Jesus weep with his cruelty to humans in suits.

Second, compression. Giff's just amazing at cramming tons of dialogue, character beats, and big weird comic ideas into a limited number of panels. He'd always tweak me to find the ONE moment in a conversation or fight to be the representative moment.

Third -- no limits. Keith lets his mind run, and then reels the ideas back into something we can actually sell. Honestly, if we just tossed up what Keith's first ideas were on every issue, we'd be writing an adults-only horror-comedy book that would make Vertigo piss itself. But the lesson, to go out to the weird place first and then come back, not stay in the mundane -- that was very inspiring.

 
What would you say the main creative difference is between film and comics?

Creatively? First off, budget. At some point when you're making a living writing features, you become painfully aware of when you've crossed a line and written something practically unshootable. Just freeing yourself from thinking in terms of what's "practically" possible is a big creative step, and certainly one I don't think I personally made until issue #10 of Blue Beetle.

Second, the serial nature of comics, which is one of the reasons I'm attracted to both comics and television as storytelling mediums. You can spend three years working on a movie, but those characters will only exist for two hours. And then, probably, you'll never see them again. I love developing long arcs, examining process in characters. For example, I'm glad we had three or four issues of room to take Jaime's family through all five stages of death and dying when reacting to Jaime's disappearance and return.

Then there's the scene structure. In film you write the scene, and generally leave all the camera moves to the director. You're actually trained to not direct on the page, it annoys the camera jockeys. But in comics, you're the writer, director, and editor. Your artist is like the DP. It's brutally hard writing, comics is, the hardest I've ever done.

 
What would you say the main practical difference is?

I can definitely feel that train-wreck momentum riding on the monthly schedule. Things can get pretty intense in the film process, particularly if you specialize in rewrites, like I did for a while. I've been on movies two weeks out from shooting, with no second act. That's nuts. But usually, I have some meetings, show the execs what I'm going to do, then I bugger off for ten weeks. None of that in comics. It forces me to plan and outline in far greater detail than I ordinarily do. 

 
Along these same lines, what would you say the main creative difference is between television and comics?
 
I won't wimp out here and say "budget". No, in this case I'd say "actors." You soon find, in television, that some actors can hit the lines, or have the same vision of the character...and some don't. That means you have to bend the character in subtle ways, to the abilities of that actor. 

Now, often you get great surprises, and one of my favorite things about television is when an actor makes the words better, brings something you never anticipated to characters you created. During the Global Frequency pilot Michelle Forbes told me what Miranda Zero's home looked like -- and it was far, far more interesting than anything I could come up with.

 
The main practical one?
 
Honestly, besides money...hmmm, the process is even more time consuming and the schedule tighter, so you need to be able to work with multiple co-writers on a staff. That's a learning curve for both writing processes and just in mastering personal politics in the room.

 
Can you describe your creative process (for comics), from first idea to completed pages?
 
For an individual book, I break it down into the three acts -- information, complication, resolution. I pace out, then, treating each page as roughly a scene, I pace out all 22 pages. Matt Fraction actually has some sample pages in Casanova I found interesting to help me visualize this process.

After that, I run straight through, over-writing each scene so I get all the ideas in. Then I edit back to 22 pages, and roughly 5 panels a page so the artist has room to play. There are times, during that edit, that I discover a subplot has to go, or a moment needs more time...but that's why I do it. The process will probably evolve as I grow into comics writing.

 
Has going from co-writing to flying solo on Blue Beetle affected this process in any major way?
 
Very much so in the plotting. Keith's been doing this a long time, so he's just got his feet under him 24/7. I mean, he likes to stay loose issue to issue, and even when he's writing or plotting he just kind of...goes. Just starts typing. And somehow winds up with 22 pages. I, on the other hand, need to see what I'm doing in a more discrete sense. I just broke all 12 issues of year two, so I could tweak what revelations were coming when, how the characters would beat out, that sort of thing. I sleep better knowing that's on paper, even if it changes.

 
Is your process different when writing film or television?
 
I'm a little looser writing for TV. But no -- pitch, point outline, script. Many times you find things in the story when writing, and you change it up on the fly, but that's for everything I write. 

 
Do you have "office hours," so to speak: specific set times during the day or week when you write, or is it a more fluid situation? Have your years as a writer taught you any secrets to budgeting writing time?
 
Here's the thing. It never gets easy. It's ALWAYS easier to do ANYTHING but write. I have little cues. A timer on my cell phone, certain tunes on my iPod. I fire those up, and years of creating associated habits help me slide into my mental writing zone. You see, when I was a stand-up comic, I was always on the road. I had no office, so I constantly had to create this sort of traveling mental "space" that my brain associated with writing. My friend Mike is always horrified that I’ll go to a mall, sometimes, and write in the food court. But I did that for years as a comic, and sometimes it's just better that way.

Back when I had a day job, I set the alarm clock an hour early and wrote, so I always had at least a few pages under my belt every day. Now, I go to my office every morning and bang out AT LEAST four one-hour blocks of writing, of straight-up new pages. After that, if I get more, great. If not, I got something, and I spend the rest of the day outlining or researching my other projects.

That doesn't always work. Some scripts seem to write better in different parts of the day. I've had two movies that just refused to show up on the page until after 9 at night. I hate those, but there's nothing you can do about it. You just know that your subconscious is doing this for a reason, and you dig in. However, I still put in the hours on those pages, just at a different time.

That didn't use to bother me, but I have to admit -- I hit forty this year, and that's beginning to beat the hell out of me when it happens.


What would you say is the #1 mistake you see aspiring writers making?
 
Not treating it like a job. By which I mean -- you get ahead by putting your head down and generating good pages, and then getting work. Shitty work, but work. You'll have good days, and bad days, but they will all be the SAME days  -- filling blank pages. Alone. People always ask me "Wow!  How did you get to write Transformers?" Well, I got to write Transformers because I wrote American Outlaws seven years ago, and all the incrementally-slightly-less-crappy jobs that occurred in between got me here. Put your head down, do the work, and a decade later you suddenly have a career. PLAN ON IT TAKING THAT LONG and plan on it being damn hard work along the way. If you're okay with that, then you can take a swing.

 
What's the best advice you could give someone looking to break into any of these industries?
 
It's different now. Although straight spec scripts and agenting are still valuable, and are responsible for the bulk of the work, I'd say finding some buddies and just MAKING something cool is now a valid alternative. I've seen novels sold by being blogged first, and artists hired because of their mini-comics. Just get it the hell out there.

 
What advice would you share with other aspiring writers about balancing writing with other aspects of their life, like family or friends?
 
I alternate, depending on my mood: "You have to treat it as if you're going to night school", or "you have to treat it like a chronic disease." You need to make time to write, and it'll be much easier if your friends and family know you have this obligation, and treat it as such. Set a goal, either in page count or time, and you get it done. Listen, even after years of writing for a living, it's still easy for family to walk in, see me staring at the wall, and assume I'm not doing anything. Don't be shy about sharing what you're trying to do. At the very least, friends asking, "Hey, how's your novel coming?" will shame you into getting more pages done.

Sometimes time just doesn't seem to be there. I understand. But eat lunch in, with a notepad on your lap. Skip the hour of television. Hell, I know writers who used to scribble on legal pads as they drove into work (don't do that, by the way). When I bartended, I had a pad behind the bar where I could jot down ideas. Even now I carry a couple index cards so I can dash off bits during lunch or waiting for someone at a meeting.

 
Any final advice on the life or craft of writing in general?

It's lonely. Not always, but often. Your writing is a series of choices, and only you are responsible for them. You and you alone. That's both wonderful and sickening at the same time.
 

Do you have any current or upcoming projects you want to plug?
 
Transformers is coming out this summer. Blue Beetle, of course, and I did a story in BOOM! Studios' next anthology, Ninja Tales. It's a ton of fun. Ninjas. Einstein. A-bombs. Pick it up.


Thank you, John!



Caleb Monroe bought Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #16 when he was 11 years old and it was all over after that. You can learn some more about him here.