• Jonathan Hickman… on Writing.
Jonathan Hickman is the writer of the boldly creative new comic books The Nightly News, Pax Romana, & Transhuman, all out through Image Comics. I believe he is doing a lot to “change the face” of comics by pushing people expectations of what a comic could be. His books merge heavy design, prose & screenwriting techniques, as well as exceptional traditional comic book storytelling.
He also writes a great column for iFanboy.com titled Concentric Circles. Here is some of his great writing advice from a recent column:
“I write stories that I want to read. If at any point in the ‘writing process’ I mentally check out of a story I throw it away and start over. Accept that it’s shit and move on.”
“Here are a couple of other tips that we in the hack writer cabal find useful:
1. Keep it simple.
2. Don’t telegraph. A good story doesn’t turn, it unfolds.
3. Always have a theme.
4. Action should explode – think of this like a Pixies song – soft, soft, loud.
5. When a character becomes interesting, kill them.”
“It also helps to not have an ego about yourself or your work. Remember, it’s just a single story that you drew from what you believe to be an endless well of ideas existing inside of you. Not everyone is going to like your story because it’s not for everyone. Create. Move on.”
You can read the rest of Jonathan’s column at iFanboy here: Concentric Circles
Or you can find out more about his books here: pronea.com
