I can't write comedy, and some how, that's funny.

I have never considered myself a comedy writer, but that isn't to say that I don't write comedy. Rather, I never set out to write comedy, and in so doing the comedy tends to write itself.

If any of that makes sense, I hope what follows will as well.

I am a writer of characters.

Usually, I have a rough outline of a plot, hardly a skeleton to build upon. I start with a simple idea, usually a question.  I see something, or read about something, and ask "What if?" Lots of times it has to do with looking at something from a different angle.

A lot, or a few, notes go down next. But that all just sits in a pile and does nothing if there aren't any characters to march through it and kick up the dirt. Otherwise, it's just a garbage heap of useless words.

Just writing that paragraph gave me a simple idea. A Garbage Heap. What follows is finding the story, and the first question I ask is "What is it like working on a garbage heap?" You know, those people who take our trash to the dump, and those that sort through it. Some for recycling, and those who scrounge around the dump looking for things they can sell in order to survive. (I know old door nobs can bring a penny or two.) But the job isn't interesting enough. So what if I changed the question: "What is life like for those who live on the garbage heap?"  I think there is some drama in that, and maybe some comedy too.

(Almost forgot my blog's topic there didn't I?)

We'll have to wait and see if I actually discover a story in garbage heap and expand upon it.  I see a lot of drama, even depression, about the people living in lean-to huts atop or even inside the garbage mounds.

But is there comedy among that garbage and depression?  If you find the right characters there are.

What if our story is about a teenage girl working along side her parents looking for scrap and selling what they can. She has a boyfriend, but when he shows up to take her on a date (what kind of date can there be on a scrap heap), she complains that he was cuter before he took a shower.

Okay, that might not be the funniest thing in the world. Like I said, I don't write comedy.  However, if I wrote this story completely out, I think our little Dust Bunny (yes, I just named the girl Dust Bunny. The boy's name is Smudge,  no, Kruntch ) would have a whole lot of funny things to say as she is clearly the only person on the garbage island that enjoys being there.

The point, if there is one, is that comedy like everything else in a story comes out of character. Creating a funny situation and dropping your characters into it doesn't necessarily make it comedy.

Learn about your characters; find out what makes them tick, and what ticks them off. Don't tickle them; annoy their pants off. They'll tell you what's funny when they start throwing mud back at you.

Maybe I will write this story sometime. Maybe set it on a garbage planet (this story is getting gout of hand).  (Kruntch is out; the boy's name is Smudge again. The letter K didn't test well.)

Then we'll discover if I can write comedy or not, and see if I am really worthy of being:

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity  (certainly not of comedy).

A Good Kick in the Pants.

Do you have someone who's willing to give you a good swift kick in the pants? You should.

Someone willing to tell you when you're heading in the wrong direction, or not moving at all. Who can pull you off the couch and down into the desk chair and stand over your shoulder to make certain you start working.

They'll remind you of what your original goals are and help you refocus on your target once more.

You might get momentarily upset with them. After all getting kicked in the rear hurts. But the sting will fade, and it'll be soon be forgotten as you thrown yourself back into the work that is your passion, whether it be writing the novel that's been collecting dust, or finishing the next page of your comic book.

Or, get back to writing that blog you left hanging several weeks ago.  (Who, me?)

For me, that person is my fiancée Shannon Muir who last night wanted to know what I was currently doing in my writing. I told her of all the plans for this project or that.

That's when she gave me that strong swift kick in my pants.

She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but reminded me of all I was capable of, and what I should do to get myself moving again. I had no right to complain I didn't have enough time (that's an easy one, I know you've used it too), but she gave me the kick saying that I'm only working three days a week while she works a full five days and sometimes more and is still able to find the time to write the latest installment in her WILLOWBROOK SAGA series of novels.

Shannon also gave me some guidance towards how to get myself and my books noticed and revive my existing websites to use them for the best outcome and promotion.

So with her standing over my shoulder ready to give me that next hard kick, expect to see more of my work, and more activities out there starting this week.

Thanks Shannon it only stung for a little while, I still love you.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

Are these the Heroes you're looking for? And have you found them recently?

Are these the Heroes you're looking for?

            And have you found them recently?

I've been doing a lot of old style pulp writing recently, and had a sudden thought about characters. So I wrote down several brief character descriptions

Tell me if you recognize them, and if you thought I got them correct?

•           He was raised by loving parents who taught him right from wrong; to respect others, and to help his neighbors, who ever they might be, however he could. He has moved to the big city to do just that.

•           Raised by a single father, he never knew his mother. Reaching adulthood, he discovers his is heir to a distant and mysterious kingdom. He will become king if he can bring the kingdom together, even though they see him as an outsider; even as an enemy.

•           Recruited for a special police force, his personality is both greatest strength and greatest weakness.

•           She was raised and loved by her entire family, but when they are threated she must turn away from them in order to save them.

•           A police scientist discovers something in his lab that allows him to fight crime in ways no other cop can.

•           Traumatized in childhood he struggles to prevent it from happening to others.

•           Two police officers are sent undercover to a distant city. They must use their training to fight a new kind of criminal, while struggling with their personal relationship.

•           Kidnapped to a new land; he must act like one them to survive while saving them from themselves.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

Ring Tones and Novel Writing

With CLOCKWORK GENIE already on virtual stands and book shelves, and REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST about to join it in the next few weeks, it's time to start working on another novel.

The next novel, which I am planning to do a pseudo-NANOWRIMO through the month of February, will be a Young Adult fantasy which I've had sitting on the shelf for several years and have decided now was the time to dust it off and make it ring.

Speaking of making the story ring, can someone explain to me the use and necessity of ring tones?

In my story a cellular phone plays an important roll (does anyone call them cell phones anymore, or are they all smart phones.)I've been thinking about what ring tones my lead teenager would program into her phone. The more I thought about it, I began to wonder what would be the point.

Why do people have ring tones? Why purchase a song to play when someone calls?

I have had a cell phone (three or four) over the last 15 years, and have always set them to silent or vibrate. Never saw a purpose to have the ringer on.

You want to know when someone is calling you, that's for certain, but how many of us like to hear when other peoples phones start ringing.

If we're fast enough, we usually can answer the phone just before the third ring, so why do people want to extend those rings by turning them into songs?

Have you ever noticed that when someone has a musical ring tone, the longer it plays the harder they have in shutting it off and it usually becomes a real embarrassment?

While in the movie theater there is always that slide that comes up repeatedly to remind you to turn off the your phones, or worse that audio clip where every sound in the theater is amplified with every possible phone or noise that could be made.

Recently the Muppets did a very nice version of this before their movie.

Why is this even something we have to think about any more? People's phones ringing loudly and long, in the theatre, middle of church, a business meeting, or dinner.

Yes, some can hear the buzzer of my phone. Usually when it vibrates through the table or desk. But it's usually low enough it doesn't bother anyone. But I do turn it off in the theater.

The other day I was watching a rerun episode of THE MENTALIST, and there was major mistake with the use of a cell phone. The lead of the show has just broken into someone's home. Only a few feet inside the house, his phone rings. His phone rings. This was not done for comic effect. You'd think that if you were going to break into a house and not want anyone to know you were there, you'd turn the phone off or have it on vibrate. The Folly Department can just as easily drop in a Buzzing sound as it does a ring tone. Other than receiving important information about the B Plot, the use of the phone in the house had no purpose. A woman nearly catches our lead in the house, but not because of the ring tone.

So my question is a serious one, and is research for my novel. How many people actually have audible ring tones? How many have simple ringers, and how many have longer songs?

I'm probably going to ask my teenage niece about this. She is a Young Adult after all.

My next question to her will probably be: Do you actually use your phone, or is it mostly used for texting and facebook? I don't want to write cliché teenagers in my story, but the phones have become an integral part of their lives.

I may have been rambling here, but in doing so I find that this is all very important to my novel. Not only are cell phones important to the story, but also so is being annoyed by the ring tones.

This has been great talking, thank you for all the help. I appreciate – RING RING – Excuse me, gotta go answer that.

(Oh, like you didn't see that joke coming from the start of this blog.)

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity.

NanoWriMo - A Novel this November

Am very proud of my fiancée Shannon Muir as she begins working on her latest novel as part of NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). As she types away at her keyboard, I know several of my online friends are doing the same thing.

I was contemplating starting one as well, but have too much to do this month.

You see, just days ago, I types the two most glorious words to an author, and I typed them twice.

"The End"

I typed it first on a short story, which I submitted to a publisher for consideration as part of an anthology.

Then I typed them again on my first novel.

Two years ago I did participated in NanoWriMo, and completed the novel I worked on that November, but it was far from perfect and had so much in it that there is no way I could truly consider it finished. Even now I know it needs a page one rewrite.

However, about two weeks into that NanoWriMo, I had an idea for a new story. The concept came to me whole, and while not wanting to interrupt the book I was working on; I jotted down a full page of notes of this new tale and put it aside.

But the more I worked on the story for Nano, the more my thoughts lingered to the new one. So when December rolled around, I jumped head first into the new novel.

The first draft of the story flew from my finger over the next few weeks, though I had to admit that the climax stunk. So in the rewrite I discovered other characters that lived with in my novel's world and had their own parts of the story to tell.

As I asked more questions about the characters and the world they lived in the story expanded and became much better.

With Shannon acting as my editor, I went through several rewrites and the story kept getting better. Much more so than what I had originally jotted down in a flash.

Now the novel is finished and I am currently painting the cover art and formatting it properly to be release as an ebook, by the end of November.

All this resulted from NanoWriMo. My original book sits in a virtual sock drawer, and one day will come back to life.

This has been a great experience for me, and I wish an equally great experience to all my friends that are writing their novels this November.

Keep Writing.

POST GHOST BLOG - The Masked Ghost

I can’t believe that it’s been nearly a year since I first had the ghost of an idea that quickly became grew and became the pulp serial known as “Revenge of the Masked Ghost.”

I’ve already writing about the “Secret Origin of the Masked Ghost” so I won’t go into it much here other than to remind you that my original concept came out of the question: How does a family deal with discovering that the mysterious masked vigilante is their brother or son? It was long before I was writing away expanding the idea into a full story premise (I was using a pencil on a pad of paper).

I posted the first few chapters on facebook and then chose to set up its own website and keep adding a new chapter every week. A few weeks liker I started a new job so the story had to move to a new chapter every other week.

As I mentioned at the beginning, it was an experiment, but a successful one I think. I usually wrote each chapter with in a day of posting it straight to the web. Proofed as best I could in the time I gave myself, and then would later go back and repost a cleaned up version of each chapter. Probably should have made certain every word was spelled right before I posted, but I wanted to do it this was and so kept doing it.

Twenty Five chapters later and the Masked Ghost has had his Revenge.

So what happens next for the Masked Ghost, for Margaret and Donald Raymond?

I really can’t say, I really don’t know. I do plan on bringing together all the chapters together fill in any plot holes and maybe expand upon some of the character or action scenes. Then possibly will release it as a novel, most like an ebook. I’ll let you know.

Before I do that I have to finish up another novel, that only needs a little more reworking before I declare it done and let it loose on the world.

But don’t worry; the Masked Ghost isn’t too far away from my thoughts. There maybe future stories in store soon enough.

Thank you all for your support, comments, and reading the serial.

I especially want to thank the crew at ALL PULP for posting announcements as each chapter was finished. Please send your support their way. I really liked writing pulp, and it was great to know there was an audience out there.

It was also fun to participate in #TuesdaySerial There are a lot of other great authors there. Go check them out.

For now, the body is in the ground, the mask is folded and put away, but the Ghost is restless. Go back and read the entire serial from the start, and get your friends to do the same.

"Revenge of the Masked Ghost"

Next week I’ll be at San Diego Comic Con International. I’ll try to post something about it for you.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

“Don’t take NO for answer!” Right, but it is an answer.

“Don’t take NO for answer!” Right, but it is an answer.
by Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

The other day a friend was griping about being told NO by studio executives after he pitched them a show idea. He was really upset, and needed to vent.

In the back of my mind, I’m screaming, “You Got to Pitch a Show!”

One of the greatest entertainment industry experiences I’ve had so far was when I got to pitch my own television series to two of the cable networks.

The difference between his pitch and my pitch was that he got an answer.

For my friend he received the answer of “No.” For me, I didn’t get any answer at all.

After weeks went by I had to write e-mails and make phone calls until I finally discovered that they had chosen to “pass” on my show. Somehow everyone else knew that both networks had passed on my project except me. They didn’t tell me.

‘Pass’ is another word for ‘No.’

A ‘No’ hurts, but not hearing anything hurts a whole lot more.

I have waited days, weeks, and even months to receive answers from story submissions, art consideration, and even job interviews.

This is one of those places where “no news is good news” doesn’t work. For one reason or another, the person you made contact with just doesn’t get back to you. Yes, a lot of them are busy and even their assistants don’t have the time to respond to every entry that is sitting in their slush pile of scripts, art samples, and resumes. Others however truly don’t like to say ‘no’. That makes them the bad guy, and they don’t want that. If I don’t respond, just take it as a ‘pass’, I don’t want to hurt your feelings.

Whether that’s true for all of them or not, I don’t know. But a form letter would be nice from time to time. At that least that tells me that my manuscript made it to your office. And if it required coverage, there might be a check mark next to the reason you chose to ‘pass’.

It’s an answer.

It might not be the answer you’re wanting, but it is an answer.

Anything beyond a form letter with even the smallest explanations of why they said ‘no’ is also not what you want to receive, but it is what you need to receive.

Now that you have an answer, learn from it, so the next time you submit – whether it's the same pitch or not – you will be better than you were before.

Next, here comes the part where I will freely admit I’m not good at:

Get an answer! Follow up.

Write a brief thank you message to whomever you just met with: the studio executive or the hiring manager, or whoever it. Thank them for taking the time to meet with you and briefly remind them what it was about.

After a couple of weeks if you haven’t heard back, write another short note. Reminding them of you and your project, and you hope to meet with them again whether it is on this or another.

As I admitted, I’m not good at this, but I do my best. My networking skills need improvement, but the only way to improve is to do.

Don’t be rude, but fight to get an answer.

So “Take No for an answer.” Learn from it, find out what they didn’t like. Improve upon it for the next pitch, interview, drawing, or audition. Turn it around and make their next answer to you a ‘YES’.

A Ramble of Glory

I can’t think of anything to put into my blog this week. At least certainly nothing worth a few hundred words that might be anyway interesting to you.

Just over three more weeks of my job at the community college, and the good news in that is that my hours have increased from 12 to 30 hours a week. Am still looking for something that I hope to start soon after, but having that extra pay.

A lot of work that I’m doing now is working on a database in Excell, it’s not as interesting as working on the Alumni News Letter (You can see a sample of my work here: http://conta.cc/g8gSPc), but I’m still blessed to have the job and the paycheck.

While I’m writing this, I’m finishing up the pencils of the latest page of FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY. We’re currently in the middle of Issue 13 of the book. Or it would be if this were published as a book. But I also realized that if this were published as book, wishful thinking would put the Issue number somewhere around 114.

No, really. I mean it. This coming June marks the 10^th anniversary of the first appearance of FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY. And if we had been continuously publishing since there we’d be reaching 120 issue come June.

Of course, it might not all be FGHOG, because I’d also be doing the supporting book TALES OF FLYING GLORY which would be stories about our heroine’s grandmother back in World War and other characters that have appeared in the background, been hinted at, and other who are still waiting to surprise you and us.

We’ve got a lot planning for Flying Glory and her rock bank of heroes, and I’m sure I’ll be writing about some of them here too.

On other story notes, when I began this job I told you had to stop putting out a new chapter of REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST each week, and now only put it out every other. I’ve found that works the best for me and probably will continue to do so even after this job is finish. In the next week or so I’m also hoping to put up some artwork based on my vigilante and his friends.

Began this by saying I couldn’t think of anything to write. Apparently I always have something to say. I’ll let you decide if it was interesting or not. Got to go send the penciled art off to my editor (co-writer and fiancee).

Night all.

Spellchecker can be your friend, but don’t let it be a crutch.

I write the above, and this blog, not just to teach those who need to know, but to acknowledge I have made the mistake of relying too heavily on computer spellchecker programs many times.

If you can’t recognize your own faults and learn from them, how can you teach others?

That squiggly red line for spelling mistake, the squiggly green line for grammar, they show up regularly in my work, and I try my best to squash the squiggles. (Squash the Squiggles. Would that have made a better title?)

A great thank you goes out to all who have stuck with me and reading both my blog and my serial ‘Revenge of the Masked Ghost’ for the last several months. Not only because I’m really glad to know you like my work, but that you’ve put up with a ton of mistakes slipping through. (Look there goes a red squiggly now; I just typed ‘miskates’. Interesting sounding word, but wrong.)

Went back and reread my book review as well as the Megamind blog, and I’m embarrassed by how many mistakes were in both of them. Really surprised when a totally wrong word shows up. Spellchecker can’t help with those. Have no excuse for any of it other than to say I write each blog (including this one) rather quickly at the last minute. Shouldn’t do that, I know. I did correct the mistakes in those entries.

I didn’t get hired for a writing assignment recently because the client found spelling mistakes in the writing samples I submitted. He thought I had a lot of good ideas, but couldn’t sit over my shoulder and correct each mistake that came along. Of course, he’s right. Even though there would be an editor on the project it’s her job to fit it into the over all theme and format of the book, not fix each and every wrong spelling or misplaced comma. Those should have been take care of long before it gets to the editor’s desk.

Lesson learned. I’m trying very hard to correct every mistake I can possibly find, though I will invariably miss something.

Sometimes I think the spellchecker is wrong. Is the word ‘correct’ used correctly? Computer says it’s not.

I admit to having a problem with ‘sound-a-likes’ such as ‘then’ and ‘than’. I need to pay more attention to that.

Next lesson. After you’ve squashed the squiggles, print the darn paper out and read it.

Yes, we’re supposed to be a paperless society, but it’s not going to happen. Print it out and take a pencil to it. There’s something even better you can do to find mistakes, read it aloud. It’s embarrassing, sure, but find someplace you can be alone and read to hear your own words. You may even find that the words (even spelled correctly) aren’t the right ones after all. Hearing is far more powerful then sight when it comes to catching problems.

When I’m finished with this blog, I’m going to follow my own instruction and print it and read it aloud.

Lastly, there are people who see bloggers as the new journalists of our society, if so they should at least try to learn the proper style of newspaper and journalistic writing and that includes getting your words spelled right.

I may not go back and correct every mistake in all the blogs I’ve written, but do intend on proofing again each of the chapters of the serial.

Again, thank you for putting up with my bad spelling, because without fixing that I can’t truly say…

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

The Road is Narrow and Long, but full of Curves.

A couple of weeks ago I told you that I finally got a job. I still have it, Thank God.

As I got started it soon became obvious that I’d be doing something a whole lot different than I expected.

While I am a writer with a background in comics and animation and fully intend to continue to do more of both as well as episodic television and my novels, I had gotten to the point that I had to find a job outside the entertainment industries.

In the past, however, anytime I moved off my original path things never went well and I found myself guided back on to the road of my goal.

So what does this have to do with my current job? A lot, actually.

Through people I know personally I got an interview at my local community college. The very college I got my AA in Drawing and Painting. What I understood the job to be was as an office assistant, using Word and Excel and answering the Phone. Well, that’s not quite right.

What it turned out to be was managing and writing the Alumni News Letter.

Wait, did you read that right? I’m writing. I actually have a job writing. You don’t know how thrilled that makes me.

Not only am I just going to be writing the “look what’s happening on campus” and the “we need money” articles (I’ll do those too), but I’ll also be writing more creative articles about the people and the history of the campus.

It’s not animation or comic books, but its still back on the path where I belong.

I’m a writer, and I’m writing. It’ll only get better.

My point in all that ego boost is that many times you will hear that no matter what you need to stick to your dream. If you love it, no matter how hard it is, you’ve got to keep at it no matter how hard it may seem.

And this is where I return to the road I began on. Where you want to go, your goal is on a long narrow road. As long as you keep moving forward you’ll reach eventually. Sometimes that road has a lot of bends and curves in it, and it feels like its taking you far from your goal but what its really doing is taking you on the scenic route so that you’re all the more prepared for the goal when you reach it.

Enjoy the road, its an adventure.

A change in the weather, a change in the Deadline.

Hey, look, it’s Thursday evening and time for my weekly brain dump of a blog.

Thanks everyone who has been taking time out of your busy schedules to read my rambles. I really appreciate it.

This blog was always supposed to be about my writing and about my career. Sometimes, however, it became a place for me to vent and complain. I don’t want that to happen regularly.

A few weeks ago I wrote about my job search and how it hadn’t been going well, so I have been devoting a lot of my time to writing and drawing the webcomic FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY, my novel, my serial REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST, and this blog and pushing to keep a deadline for each one of them as if I was on a paid assignment.

It looks like my deadline schedule is about to change.

I have a job.

(I can hear you all cheering out there. No wait, that’s a cricket outside my office window.)

Yes, that’s true, I have a job. Or rather a short term, part-time job between now and this coming February, but it is a job.

I praise God for this job as I would any other.

Being a part time job of only twelve hours a week I should still have plenty of time to write. Hopefully I will find someone who will pay me to write, but I’m still going to write no matter what.

Which brings me to the shifting of my deadlines. I don’t want to really change anything, but know something has to give a little.

Each new page of the webcomic will still be posted on Sundays, and this blog should still be able to make its appearance each Thursday (as you can tell it doesn’t take much brain power). As much as I don’t want to, am going to post the serial every other week. Not only will it ease up my schedule, but I’ll be able to improve on the story.

I intend to post the next chapter this following Tuesday, and then two weeks later.

Thank you for your understand and support. It’s really been great to know that people are out there reading my stories. Know any publishers or producers you could point my way? (Seriously: Does anyone need an assistant for a couple days a week?)

Would love to hear from you either here in the comments section or at my Twitter account: Kevinpsb00

Thanks, have a great weekend.

Hitchhiking across the Galaxy to find your Writer's Voice.

What am I going to write about today? I have no idea.

Or rather, I had no idea until about three minutes ago, at which point I checked facebook to discover one of my friends had posted a news article stating that the UK’s television network BBC4 would be airing an adaptation of Douglas Adam’s science fiction comedy novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.

So why does this warrant a mention in a blog about writing? Because it reminded me of reading the original novel, and Adam’s magnum opus The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

The question I would like to pose to you this week is this: As a writer have you ever found yourself writing in another author’s voice? Was it intentional, or purely by accident?

Years ago while in a college creative writing course I was assigned to write a comedic short story as part of my final.

During that same semester, a friend of mine loaned me his copies of the original Hitchhiker’s trilogy (I have never read the books that followed). As an avid fan of Doctor Who (at that time I was really into the Tom Baker years), I really enjoyed the Douglas Adam episodes. (If you like the Matt Smith run, go check these out). So I really got into his novels.

Hitchhiker was slowly seeping into my unconsciousness as I read the novels that semester. So that when given an assignment to write this short story I found myself writing with Mr. Adam’s voice. Even my teacher noticed it.

Got a pretty good grade on it too.

That wasn’t the only time I ended up writing in another author’s voice. After I read a Sherlock Holmes story, I end up writing certain scenes with Arthur Conan Doyle’s voice. And because I read tons of Ray Bradbury, I can come up sounding like him as well.

That works for some things, and Adam’s voice works for others, but you know what voice really works best for my stories?

My own voice.

Sometimes I think it would be a whole lot better if I could write that that author, or that scriptwriter, but in truth it really wouldn’t be. More likely it’s going to come across as a poor imitation.

I may not be the greatest writer in the world, but I’d far rather not try to imitate the greatest writers in the world. Learn from them, absolutely, but not copy them.

I wouldn’t be surprised if my writing voice has picked up mannerisms from Adams, Doyle, Bradbury, and others, but I sound like myself. Whether I’m writing a short story, novel, script, or comic book, or even my little old blogs here, it’s going to be in my own voice?

Learn the from the voices of the author’s you greatly respect, then go an find your own voice.

Okay, that was nice and short. Actually had a point to it.

Thanks for reading.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Creative Professinalism.

Growing the Fruit of A Story.

A couple of people on Twitter recently suggested I blog more often. I would, really, but I don’t know what I have to say.

So what should I write about?

I got another reject this morning.

There, I said it. Someone doesn’t want me. They don’t want my script writing, and that publisher back in New York doesn’t want my novel either. So clearly, they don’t want me.

Okay, I’ve spit out that little bit of bile. And yes, I have had that thought. I’ve had it each time I get a rejection; each time I don’t get a job I apply for.

But I do not hold on to such thought for more then a few seconds. I can’t hold on to them. They are garbage; they are disease, they are rot. An infection that if it is not cut out of the body at the very start will grow and fester and destroy you from your very heart outward.

Yes, I know you’ve had that thought as well. We all have had it. But to survive we must never let those thoughts take root (I know I switched metaphors, go with me).

Some people will submit one story, one script, one set of art samples to a comic publisher, animation house, or what have you. And when that letter arrives (letter, e-mail, phone call, heaven forbid text message) they quit and give up never to ever try again.

I know that feeling as well, and the thought that follows; “I’ve got nothing else to write. Might as well give up now.”

Well if you do then you really have given up. You’ve quit, and you’re dead.

But sometimes, even if you think you’ve given up and quit, the writer deep down inside isn’t ready to let go. New ideas are being seeded in to your subconscious all the time, and when they start to make themselves known you’re going to have be ready to nurture them, and ignore the weeds of doubt and fear that have been growing in your field up till then. (Told you that metaphor switch would work. Didn’t know it then, but do now.)

If you try too hard to write a certain type of story, that genre you like, or that one that’s popular right now, you’re probably not going to get very far. But if you just start writing with certain themes and emotions behind it, then your stories will come and they’ll keep coming.

While I began to write this blog, I looked out the window at the apricot tree, and a spark of a memory came to me. We had a bumper crop of fruit this year (and they were really tasty), but they’re all gone now. After we had harvested as many apricots as we could (I had to climb on the roof to get most of them.) There are still a lot of them that become food for birds and the squirrels. Then there are the fruit that just falls to the ground and are lost. Sometimes these fruit fall and hit the roof over my office. ‘Thud’ and then a rolling sound before it falls off and hits the ground and starts to rot.

So, just now, my memory of this falling fruit became the first line of a new story:

She way laying in bed when she heard the sound of the apple hitting the roof overhead and then rolling along the slanted shingles before falling to the grass outside. It was a gentle noise, almost funny. Then another struck the roof and rolled, followed by another. Suddenly the apples began to strike the roof like a hale storm. Sitting up she could see them falling past her window. With a sense of fear she wondered what shaking the apple tree so hard.

That’s all I’ve got right now. Just one single image of falling fruit, and I suddenly have a possible suspense story. Is there an animal in the tree shaking the apples down? If so, how big could it possibly be? Or is it something or someone else?

I don’t know yet, but a story is growing out of the seeds of those falling fruit.

My point is that look around you at the most inconsequential things and you might well find the little acorn that can grown into a mighty oak of story.

But don’t let those falling fruit begin to rot inside you, because as I said they will if you don’t do something with them. If you give up, then everything rots.

So don’t let the rot start, don’t let the weeds have time to grow. No matter how you feel after getting that rejection; it’s not the end of the world. People don’t hate you. You’ve got a field full of more fruit ready to be harvested and turned into the greatest stories in the world.

What are you waiting for? Start harvesting, and don’t let it rot!

As to those rejection letters; Turn them into mulch to feed your fruit and keep writing. Just like I did here.

There, happy now. I wrote another blog. I had no idea what I was going to start writing when I began this. Now I feel like I’ve accomplished something.

What’s next?

Thanks for reading.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Writing, writing, writing.

Of all the writing I do, why is blogging and journaling the hardest? Don’t have an answer; I promised myself to do more of this but end up only doing it two or three times a year.
But what I can say is that I’m really happy with my writing at the present.
Last November I participated in a novel writing contest called NANOWRIMO or National Novel Writing Month. Along with thousands of other writers, I had to produce a 50,000 word novel in the one month time.
There had been an idea bubbling in the back of my head for sometime, a science fiction story that I though would be perfect. So I wrote and wrote and wrote for those thirty days, and was able to not only complete 50,000 words, but also type The End to the entire story.
I put the novel aside until January when I gave it a read through and the first rewrite to clean things up, but what I discovered was that this story was far larger then I had anticipated. In truth, maybe I knew it would be too massive because I had first conceived the original idea as a TV series. I’m not going to give up on this story, but am going to sit on it for while and see if there is something more focused that can come out of the greater whole to tell.
That said, I am still a successful writer.
About half way through my Nanowrimo project an idea came out of nowhere. An idea completely different from the grand experiment I was in the midst of. I jotted down a “working title” for this new idea, and one line of the concept and put it aside. This new idea sat in the back of my head as I dealt with the first one.
With December and the Nanowrimo novel finish and sitting a virtual drawer, I pulled out the new idea and began to write a second novel completely from scratch.
I immediately began to love the characters that were growing in this novel; they weren’t restrained by the “high concept” of the first novel, and began to do what they wanted. It was fun to watch them and a great ride to experience their lives with them.
However as I approached the 50,000 words on this novel I realize there was no ending as I currently had it. These characters just wanted to go on past the original story.
So I knew what had to happen next. I put it away for a while.
In January and February of this year I did a rewrite on my earlier novel and gave it to a friend to read. The story was still too expansive so I worked on it some more, but knew I was going to have to rip the whole thing apart. Find what the heart of the story really was and fix some major continuity problems. So my science fiction story has once more gone back into the drawer. It’s not dead yet, but needs to sit for a while.
Pulling the second novel out once more I dove right in and pulled apart the ending that wasn’t working and began to ask my characters what they really wanted to tell me. And they told me. I found a whole new part of the story for a new character, and discovered secrets about several other characters I didn’t know anything about. The novel began to finish a whole lost smoother.
After letting my friend read this novel, and dreading similar notes as the first, I went back in for more rewrites and from the start to the finish and back again I fine-tuned it.
At the start of this month (June), and 80,000 words, I declare the novel finished! Because if I didn’t I’d never stop, or ever do anything with it.
Then after weeks of research I send the novel off to publisher. To make it all the more exciting; the postal tracking I used let me know the publisher received my manuscript on my own birthday. So I take that as a blessing.
I don’t know what will happen with this novel, or the one sitting in the drawer, or the new one that began to fall from my fingertips today, but I remain faithful and declare myself a successful writer no matter what.
Will let you know when I hear from the publisher and what happens with the rest of my writing. Maybe this blog will be filled with something worthwhile yet.

Best,
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

The Waiting

The Waiting.

Well, surprise, surprise, you didn’t have to WAIT long for me to post another blog. But this one is more personal than previous ones.

Anyone who know me, read a few of my blogs, or my brief grumbles on Twitter, will tell you that I have been WAITING for a job for a very long time.

People say I have the “patience of Job.” I would never wish to have to go through what Job did. I’ve told people never to pray for more patience, because God will provide it and provide more reasons to need patience.

So I joke that I’ve been playing the “waiting game,” as I wait to hear back from producers, publishers, and job’s I’ve applied for.

For this past week, I and many other members of my family have had to WAIT on something no on really wants to arrive. Death.

Earlier this year, one of my aunts died after many years of suffering from a terrible illness, she had it nearly as long as I have been alive. She lived a good life through out the pain, but then finally it was over.

Now, this week, we lost another aunt. In comparison to her sister-in-law, she was suffering from cancer for a very short while.

She had already lost her husband a few years ago, and her son was killed in Vietnam, so for her the WAITING on the approach of death was also the reunion with her family members in Heaven with the Lord.

The cancer was quickly taking over and winning, but her Faith made her strong and she was content in her Wait because she knew the rewards that were to follow.

This past Sunday, she closed her eyes and went to sleep. A peaceful sleep that even our visits to her room could not waken.

Now came the hardest of the WAITING, and that was for us; her family and friends.

Over the next several days, she remained in that peaceful sleep. Her breathing continued as the rest of her body failed. Each moment we thought would be her last, and yet her body held on.

Our WAITING finally came to an end this Wednesday evening.

Though the waiting is over, our pain is not gone. Whether it be loss or guilt, we hurt that our family member is not with any longer. Yet we know we are only WAITING for the time when we will join them in eternity.

Selfishly I think of all the things in my life that my aunts, uncles, grandparents, or another good friend that past in the last two years, won’t get to see whether it be my career in animation, or published editions of my comic book writing. Most of all I feel bad that they won’t be there for my wedding.

And there is more WAITING, as my fiancée waits on me. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m waiting on getting married until I’ve got a regular job to build up on. How she puts up with the waiting, and with me, only the Lord knows.

…they that WAIT upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 KJV)

Nine months have slipped by.

I can’t believe that’s its practically nine months since my last blog. I so intended to write more on a regular basis, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like there is much to write about.

The year started off extremely positively, and it looked like I was going to have a job soon after. But that wasn’t meant to be I guess.

The did remain positive, though I had moments of frustration and disappointment, I was not going to give up on my faith that God has a great plan for me this year.

I did get to speak with, at least in e-mail form, several comic book professionals, as well as television producers. Even got to meet a comic writer/editor that I greatly admire, and if God has things set right there I might be doing some writing for him, but we can never be sure until it happens. I remain faithful.

I also met with a television producer who liked my writing quite a bit, and even sent samples around to people he knows. At the moment nothing is happening there either, but I don’t give up.

This year’s visit to the San Diego Comic Convention was perhaps my best when it comes to meeting with people and networking. I’m rather shy, but this year I was able to push though that and talk with people more.

Since then I’ve gotten to talk with others, and another comic book company is showing interesting in my writing as well.

One thing that I can mention here is that though I don’t have a lot to say at times, and sometimes it sounds like I’m complaining. I have discovered that facebook and mostly Twitter has become an excellent way to network and get to know people. If it wasn’t for Twitter I wouldn’t have gotten to talk with several of the professionals who are talking with me now about work. Thanks Twitter and everyone who follows me there.

So even if I don’t have a lot to say here in a blog, and I haven’t yet been employed whether it be creatively or in an office doing filing, this has still been a very good year. God has blessed me well.

Maybe I’ll blog more, or maybe you’ll find 140 characters on Twitter.

It's Raining outside

It never rains in southern california... Ya right!

Our back yard is flooded, but hasn't gotten in the house yet.

Boy this blogging thing is harder then I thought. :)

There hasn't really been anything worth writing about, but always happy to do so.

The latest page of FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY went up this weekend. I am really surprised at my art sometimes. Some of my work, and certain characters come across absolutely terrible, while other characters hit the mark perfectly and I find emotion and depth coming from their faces more then I expected. Check it out at www.flying-glory.com.

This past week I submitted a series proposal to a comic book company. Can't say anything in fear that it won't happen, but if nothing else, I am building a positive relationship with the editors.

The Christmas holidays are upon us, and I have to think gifts for family and friends. We all know how it's not that easy. We all promise to start making notes early in the year as we learn what he or she is interested in, but by the time the holiday's or their birthday shows up we haven't a clue what that idea was.

Other random thoughts before I sign off. I'm discovering that facebook and twitter are becoming more useful then I first thought they would be. I know I need to network more and this seems to be working out better then going to an industry holiday party.

Enjoy the holidays everyone, hopefully I'll post again before the end of the year.

After Comic-Con 08

I've been home now nearly a week since the San Diego Comic-Con, boy does time fly.  Other people have already posted their thoughts on the Con, and I probably don't have a lot to add, but here is a small ramble if nothing else.

I've been attending the con for many many years now, since it was at the downtown convention hall and watched it grow every year since then. The first year I was there the total number was 5000, today we reach over 120,000 people and can't really get much hire then that. 

Even though it was crowded, I wasn't really bothered by the crowds, I was a crowd to them after all.  I won't even blame the greater influx of Hollywood.  Someone the other night said that it was Hollywood was taking too much of the con.  But I see all this as part of the same. Sure there is a love of comics that have been pushed into a corner, but truthfully we are all part of the same world of visual story telling.  Over sixty years ago there were comics based on movies and comedians like Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope.  I think that the important thing in all this is that the world, if for only those four days a year, sees comic books, animation, gaming, television, and movies as equals and all have time to shine all interconnected. 

I guess I can say that because I have great dreams to be working in all those areas and see them all the same.  Sure writing for a comic is different then for movie, but it is still story telling and that's what I dream to do.  There are those who get into animation as a step towards live action writing, but there are also live action television and movie writers who are now writing for comics because they love. 

I haven't always been the best at networking with people at the con, and the crowd makes it all the more fun at trying it.  But I came away from this con feeling much better about things, and making greater contacts along the way.

Didn't expect my ramble to go in the direction it did, but that's where it is. I have a passion for story telling, visual story telling, "narrative illustration" as my professor and I called. So I'm going be working in this world right along side the best comic, animation, gaming, and movie giants.

Interested in working with me, check out my website: http://www.duelingmodems.com/~kevinpsb/index.html

Hope you all had a good time and enjoying your summer.

I wish there was a lot more to post. Some great message to send out, but there's not.

For a writer the hardest thng to do seems to be to write.  I had hoped to write something related to the "Why we Write" essays done for the Writer's Guild strike support.  But after starting it three times i end up so off topic that it wasn't worth it.  In the end I will have something to say about it all, but not now.

Right now my main focus is looking for employment. A "day job" to have while I keep writing.  Not having much luck there either.

On the side, along the struggling with an animation saple script, I am working on a non-fiction book that may hopefully work as a Bible study guide.  I'll let you know how that goes.