On a day like today, I can just feel it.

Having a whole day in which to write, smack dab in the middle of the work week = joy beyond measure. I can only imagine how cool it must be to get to do that every day, as my actual job, rather than on rare occasions when I can take a vacation day for that purpose.

As I may have mentioned last week (can't recall at the moment and too hurried to look it up – I'm burning daylight here, miles to go before I sleep, and all that jazz), I'm taking Wednesdays off work this month to get my first-ever submission ready to go out on February 1^st. As it turns out, I'm using some of that time this afternoon to write this column, but that's okay – I'll just swap this time for my reserved column-writing time this evening.

And to make this column even more special than would otherwise be the case, interspersed throughout are a few images from TWILIFE, to:

(A) give you a little sneak peek, and

(2) see (A) above!

Oh, and the most important reason of all -- to:

(C) improve my street cred!

So, it's been a great morning, working on the submission. I've been really getting into the nitty gritty of the entire story arc, working to flesh out all four issues in some detail. The first issue script has been done for some time, and I've had the key plot and character points and overall story concept in my head for many months. But for the actual, official pitch, I need to include a plot synopsis that is short, sweet, and to the point.

Like a kid in high school who has to turn in an outline along with their five-page report on the Battle of Gettysburg, so they write the paper, then having completed that, write up the outline from there (because outlining's so dang hard and complicated, right, and it's so much easier to just start writing the report – we've all done that, right?) -- so like that kid in high school, to get to the five sentences per issue plot synopsis I need (that's an arbitrary thing of course, but it needs to be short and sweet if the entire pitch is going to fit on one page), I'm writing out the entire story in prose format, in great detail, including dialogue, characterization, ideas for page and panel progressions, etc. And from that, I'll take out my editorial weed-whacker and distill it down to five sentences per issue, or at most, a 25-sentence synopsis of the entire story.

It feels kind of dumb to do it that way. But I've got to say, I am finding it so helpful in getting a better understanding of the characters and their motivations and fears, I think it's going to really open me up when it comes time to write the remaining scripts (yes, I'm being 100% optimistic about my chances of finding a publisher interested in TWILIFE – call me a crazy dreamer if you must!).

This process, as long-winded as it is, is helping me break on through to the other side with this story, to that fabled point where the questions become more like “I wonder what she's gonna do in response to that” rather than “I wonder what I should have her do in response to that.” These characters are coming to life, you see, and I'm starting to back up a little and get out of their way, so I can gain a better vantage on what they're up to and how they're each dealing with the dynamic of the story they're caught up in.

It's the most fun I've had since... the last time I had a day off work and got a lot of writing done. Which is not the same as the last time I had a day off work to write, which was last week, when I did not get a lot done. The afternoon was good, but the morning was a black hole.

* * *

Which brings me to Caleb Monroe's latest Making Good column, in which he interviews John Rogers, who's written for standup, film, television, and now comics. If you don't know who John is (and I certainly didn't before I read this interview), he's been co-writing Blue Beetle with Keith Giffen of late, and next month takes over as the solo writer. And he's also the scribe behind the upcoming Transformers movie.

So, the dude's got credit. He's the real deal as a writer. And he had some absolutely splendiferous things to say about writing, that I will take the liberty of quoting from here (and then you should go read the entire interview for yourself, because it is honestly one of the most educational and inspiring interviews with a writer I've ever read).

John Rogers' Pearl of Wisdom #1

Caleb: Have your years as a writer taught you any secrets to budgeting writing time?

John: 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.

John Rogers' Pearl of Wisdom #2

Caleb: What would you say is the #1 mistake you see aspiring writers making?

John: 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.

John Rogers' Pearl of Wisdom #3

Caleb: What advice would you share with other aspiring writers about balancing writing with other aspects of their life, like family or friends?

John: 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.

* * *

Why was last Wednesday's morning writing time so unproductive for me?

See Pearl of Wisdom #1 above:

“It's ALWAYS easier to do ANYTHING but write.”

Like the little cues that John Rogers mentions (certain tunes on his iPod, etc.) that help get him into the right MindSpace for writing, I have my own set of cues. Only mine are more like Negative Zone cues or Bizarro World cues, because for me at this point in my development as a writer, the only cue that is 100% effective is Butt in Chair and start typing.

Or, Butt in Chair and stare off into space.

Anything else I might do, once butt has been successfully applied to chair, is a first step down the road to damnation and perdition (i.e., writing time used for NOT writing). Even if it's a few minutes searching for the perfect music to write by, or just a quick check of my email, or maybe scanning a few headlines on MSNBC.com, the result is 9 times out of 10 the same.

“It's ALWAYS easier to do ANYTHING but write.” Truer words were never spoken.

But if that's true, why do we struggle to do it in the first place? For me, it's because of this one simple truth:

NOTHING is EVER more satisfying than having written. And nothing is more simultaneously exhilarating and frightening than that progression of moments that leads to “having written:” when your butt is in the chair, fingers on keyboard, and your MindSpace is full to overflowing, supercharged, and crackling with creative energy.

Okay, I guess that was two simple truths!

* * *

The San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) is right around the corner. Okay, not really. But it sure feels that way to me, because it'll be my first time to go, and so it's all a big, scary, mysterious mystery to me at the moment.

That's why I've asked a handful of writers and editors Everything I Always Wanted to Know About SDCC and Wasn't Afraid to Ask.

Look for their answers in an upcoming column, possibly as early as next week!

Elton Pruitt writes comic books in the bustling metropolis of Little Rock. His first published story will appear in Sequential Suicide, due in early 2007. He hasn't smoked a cigarette in 746 days! And if you visit him in EltonSpace, he'll be delighted – particularly if you subscribe to his blog!