Writing routine, not really, but I have a drawing one : after breakfast, I start my day with about one hour of drawing as warmup before starting my daily job.
#WritersCoffeeClub#Writing 05 Is it okay to use a preposition at the end of a sentence?
My only texts are dialogues, so if it’s something a character could say, I guess it’s ok. Some of my characters like Esther or Lady d’Arcy are perfectly educated people, who know grammar at their fingertips. Erie is not natively English-speaking, and has learned mostly with Lady d’Arcy. She still has a strong accent but masters syntax and grammar. But others are much less educated.
I am currently working on my third attempt for the Raymond Leblanc contest, the biggest European comic challenge. I already shared the 2nd page, so here the first one
Erie has been created for another story 20 years ago. Then I let this project on a (mental) shelf until I think of the story with Esther. I needed another character and had the idea of reusing Erie.
#writerscoffeeclub 09 Do you avoid or embrace adverbs? He said provocatively.
Yet another question for which my answer is: my only text are dialogues in speech bubbles! Some people would overuse adverbs, some would use them sparingly, according to their education and their personalities
It’s not really a talk, but I did a comic con a few weeks ago, to sell the artbook. Annnd it forced me to get some commercial skills 😅, speaking to people in order to convince them the buy my art
Yes dreams - well nightmares would be more accurate - are an important part of the story.
Here’s the overall plan of the story, each cell being a page. Black cells are nightmare sequences. As you can see, they will be inserted regularly, like the chorus for a song. I want them to end like dream sequences in Little Nemo in Slumberland, when Nemo awakens in the last panel.
I love maps but I don’t have any use for Esther and Erie: my characters live in a world quite similar to ours, so no need to explain too much. There’s some differences (for example, London is named Great Albion, the Colonies are where Canada is) but I think it’s understandable without too much explanation.
#WritersCoffeeClub#Writing 14 Regardless of the genre you write in, do you bring in ideas from other genres?
I think I stick pretty good with my initial idea which was to tell my version of classical Victorian horror stories, like The Island of Dr. Moreau or Dracula, but with some modern ideas (like having a dark skinned woman as main character). As in the Penny Dreadful tv show, I quickly added some characters from other public domain stories (although I also myself to rewrite them).
Since I am the artist, my POV is slightly different than most others. But still, a professional cover art could be a big advantage. Doing cover art is not an easy task. It requires both artistic skills but also marketing ones. And a well known name could an advantage in itself, to give visibility to the book.
For Esther, it’s just that I liked how it sounded and feels quite Victorian.
For Erie I don’t remember how/why I chose it but a fun fact is that I gave her felines features only to discover a few years later that the Erie people were also called the Chat ("Cat" in French)
For the Chamberlain, I choose to name them after Smashing Pumpkins members (Jimmy Chamberlain and D’Arcy Wretzky)
When I wrote the original story, I had an ending idea that appeared to be only the end of a book, since I added 2 more books later. Then I rewrote the whole story when I changed the Erie’s background but I kept the final ending, that I find very satisfying, because you can understand it in two different ways, one quite optimistic, the other very sad.
One of the main reasons I participate to the Raymond Leblanc contest is to gain more visibility by the publishers, in the hope that one would be interested.
That said, after having self published the artbook, I will consider also self publishing the main story if no one is interested this year: the project is mature now, and I need to release it in one way or another.
Another reason I participate to the Raymond Leblanc contest is to get feedback from professional editors. I put examples from the last two years and a page from this year for comparison.
#WritersCoffeeClub#Writing 25 How do you feel about writers who write outside of their gender/sexuality/race etc?
I feel extremely concerned by this one, having a black female character who appears to have a lesbian relationship while I am an old white cis heterosexual male (but I’m left handed!) Also racism is an important topic of the story, Erie having been the object of segregation all her life. 1/2
Why having a black woman as main character? Just because I like to draw dark skin. But Esther’s a lady of the upper class in a Victorian world. I end up with a character that is not the stereotype of the black woman. Lately a black Muslim woman has discovered Esther and she loves her. I’m quite proud that black people love Esther. (2/2)
That you are concerned is a good sign. I worry when I hear authors say they "understand" the life experience of people like me. They seldom do. That doesn't mean they can't write an acceptable approximation, after all that is what I do. But the " I understand" usually indicates a closed attitude.
@NaraMoore One thing I try to say in the story is that everyone can oppressed while possibly being the oppressor of another: When France built itself as a nation, it sought to forge a national unity at the expense of its minorities. One of my great-grandmothers only spoke Breton when she married her husband who only spoke French. Her children only spoke French because teachers beat the Breton-speaking children. I said I was an old white man cis het but I am also the child of this story
@NaraMoore Another thing is that I do not claim that what Esther or Erie live is general for an entire group or population: I tell their own struggles to get a better life, in my universe (which is not ours). What interests me above all is their personal journey. Obviously I have to give them a status quo which is based on elements of our world so readers can identify to them.
In my second novel where I first introduce an ace character, I noted that I made no claim the character represented a general life experience ace individual, only that it was based on my experiences. I follow enough ace individuals to know that what I write may not reflect their life experience.
@NaraMoore I went to a masterclass last year and one of the editors I met asked me what my comics was about, and I said, I want to tell a story like Robert Charles Wilson: simple humans, not superheroes, who are put into supernatural situations and they just try to go through all this. I am not interested anymore by stories about the fate of the universe, big laser guns and gods like characters.
As far as you describe it that is my aim as well. I don't know who R.C. Wilson is but the rest would be something I would say. I try to write normal (if eccentric) characters who are thrust into a supernatural world and how they get through it.
I regularly ask an AI to write or draw some of my idea: if it fails to do it, it’s good for me 🤣 More seriously I don’t take too much attention to this (even if I reuse some characters from other artists, in fact I change them to the point I could rename them if needed)
#WritersCoffeeClub#Writing 27 Hollywood is filming one of your works. Which actors are playing the main roles?
This one is easy for me :
Esther: since I discovered Netflix Lost in Space TV show, I use Taylor Russell as reference
Erie: since leonines are equivalent to Native Americans, it would nice to have an actress with these roots. She also needs to be very small, so I would pick Blu Hunt who plays Danielle Moonstar in New Mutants(she’s 5′/1.52 m, a little taller than Erie)
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