Here’s a section from a page of brainstorming doodles. Not sure if this guy will make it in the book, but its nice to have a full cast of extras if you need them.
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Archive for March, 2007
11 items.
This was a random doodle that turned into one of the characters already in my book. I also posted a sketch of him a while back. What’s interesting about this incarnation is how ominous he looks here. It gave me an insight into his place in the book.
Following up on the Pimawa sketch, this is one of his cousins. They’re called Jimjarians. In short, they are kind of like butlers for magicians. And of course they also work as assistants during performances, but in our world they disguise themselves as rabbits.
The rabbit looking dude on the left is Pimawa. He’s an important mentor type character. And you might have guessed from his appearance, his race gave rise to the association of Magicians and rabbits.
I have no idea what the guy on the right is or might be in the book. For now he’s on the callback list for extras.
I thought I’d post this poem from the beginning of the novel. I wrote it probably four years ago and forgot about it. I only remembered it after starting work on “The Conjurers” novel. I kept having this feeling that I had written something that would fit perfectly with this book.
After some digging through old files, I found it. Funny how the imagination works. Apparently my subconscious knew I’d get around to writing this novel sooner or later. So here it is:
Opening Night
It all started with a whiz, a bang and a clang
But no one could see for it was very, very dark
Then they all heard the small voice as it sang
‘Oh my, I believe I see a spark!’
The curtains were raised with a great whooshing
And bright light assailed the audiences’ faces
Then began the screaming and pushing
As people ran from their places
What horror had come to the theatre this night?
A new play begun for the merriment of the masses
Transmogrified to a tragedy and put them affright
A reflection of flames danced on someone’s glasses
The evening patrons towards the exits scrambled
From the stage danced the curtains like fiery dragons
Screams as the doors were found to be securely bolted
More combusting carrion dove from the bastions
The dramatic author in the wings stood unfelled
Gladdened tears lay upon his lips upturned
From the shrieking scheol a young child questioned:
“How are you without fear and by sorrow not impelled?”
His first reply was a hideous cackle
The form he took raised above any civil wrong
His wings spread to give flight to a rusty grackle
“My dear child, I had planned it all along”
Here’s another concept I did after writing about this creature. These are really fun background characters in the chapter I wrote yesterday. Big, lunky fish that swim above ground in dense fog.
This was a creature that showed up while I was writing. After finishing my ‘words’ for the day I did a quick sketch.
This is a new sketch of an inhabitant of the Conjurian. Not sure he is yet. It’s one of those drawings I keep on file until I meet him along the way. As I meet the characters in the Conjurian I’ll do a little more fleshing out, both in drawing and writing.
One of my favorite ways to create new characters is to simply fill pages with different brush strokes. Then I start fleshing a few out. Here are a couple characters I made using that method. From here, since I’ll be using these guys, I’ll jot down some background notes in my notebook.
These two creepy thugs will populate the prison colony of Grimgoria (working name as it sounds awfully familiar but I can’t place the reference).
This is one character that I don’t think will make the cut. But that’s part of the fun. Sketching away, populating an imaginary world. I like this lumbering guy, but he just doesn’t fit with the type of world that I’m creating. I’ll post some characters that did make it shortly.
Guess I should’ve posted this last week, but I’m in the midst of actual ‘production’ writing on the book. That’s my term for when the real writing starts. I still make notes in my journal, and of course sketches. More sketches later once I get around to scanning them in.
Monday last week began my 2500 word per day quota. That’s roughly fifty pages a week. It’s carry over from my screenwriting schedule so there might be some tweaks here and there. Especially considering a script is usually 18,000-20,000 words. Novels are a wee bit bigger; anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000. I had three chapters (plus the prologue) written before last week, but because of the two children’s books I’m working on, hadn’t committed to cranking out the novel. Well, since there’s a bit of a pause right now on the kid’s books, I couldn’t hold off on the novel any longer.
There’ll be sketches o’plenty as I go along, but I’ll also be writing more about the actual writing. This being my first novel, I’ll be learning a lot along the way and that’s mainly what I’ll jot down here on the blog. Oh and yes, I’ve started some sketching for the actual Conjurers website. The blog will stay but there’s many things I’d like to add. On that note, feel free to fire some suggestions my way about what you like and don’t like about book sites. I certainly don’t want the website to be just a billboard for the book (like many movie sites). I’ll be relying on my internet background to drum up some new and creative things that can be done on a book’s website.
My main goal in all my sites (including dogeatdoug.com ) is to not just promote the product, i.e. a comic strip or a book. Rather I love the idea of building a franchise and not in the McDonald’s sense or just in terms of merchandise. Really the goal is to find new mediums to explore ideas. For the comic strip I’m working on children’s books. That’s one example. But I also want to explore doing fully animated strips on the site. I still have a lot of brainstorming to do on the novel in regards to fleshing out the franchise. Obviously the first priority is writing the book…and re-writing it, and re-writing it again. But I’d love to spin it off into comics too. We shall see. I’m new to this, but the possibilities are dazzling.
To get a ‘tip of the iceberg’ idea on what I’m talking about, check out Atherton. It’s the upcoming series from Patrick Carman, and he’s done some really cool stuff on his site.
