This is the eleventh edition of The Voice In Your Head Is Mine. The date is July 27th, 2020. If you're receiving this email and have no idea what's going on, well, fuck. I guess I blew it. Or maybe you blew it. Either way, you're here and this is Zac Thompson's weekly newsletter.
It’s the morning on Monday. I spent the entire weekend offline and it was delightful. There’s something really refreshing about coming back to writing work on Monday and my laptop is there on my desk - cold to the touch. It’s been sitting in the shade for two days as I collected myself and my thoughts. As a freelancer, I don’t get that luxury often. So I’ve learned to cherish it.
Communication
I’m overly communicative. Sometimes it’s a problem. I love to talk and get overly excited whenever anyone wants to chat about stories. It’s a trait that I’ve held for years and has only been made worse as I’ve aged. As a professional writer, you’re always testing small tidbits of things on people whenever you get a chance – a line of dialogue, a shot idea, the construction of a scene, the things that work or don’t about whatever piece of pop culture people are devouring. I can’t turn it off and it’s a problem. (The other night, I was watching a movie on Discord with a few friends and they could hear me furiously scribbling notes on the other end of the line for almost the entire 2 hour runtime. I’m still being teased about it).
But I digress. I’ve been thinking a lot about communication as it relates to collaboration and I’ve come to a simple conclusion: you can never have enough of it.
As it relates to writing comics this can be expressed in a multitude of ways. Let’s get to the obvious – you should be talking to your co-creators and making sure any questions they have are answered quickly and clearly. But you should also create an open channel of dialogue between you and the people you’re creating a world with. Everyone needs to feel safe to express themselves and build the world - together. You should start a project with a long exchange between you and your collaborators where you ask them what they love to draw, color, letter and the stories they’re currently obsessed with. As best you can, you should tailor the story to their needs and tastes. That way everyone’s fully invested in what they’re doing.
Now, for me, this comes down to the script. Making sure that my scripts are open and communicative as possible. A step inside my head where you can get a look at my thought process behind some of the decisions on the page and the best approximation of what I imagine the layout looks like, the lighting, and the color. My scripts are filled with small asides to different members of the team where need be.
Here’s an example from Lonely Receiver #3:
Do I imagine a weird lettering thing on this page? Well, I’ve got to ensure that’s clearly communicated on the page with a little note to the letterer. It doesn’t need to be verbose. It just needs to help the person get into my head.
Realistically, I believe a comic book script should be as transparent about your vision as possible. It doesn’t matter if your vision is communicated in three sentences or thirty, so long as you’re communicating clearly.
And here’s Jen’s final art in colour:
Just ensure that everyone feels like they have a seat at the table. Make sure that everyone feels like they have a voice and they are collaborating with you instead of merely doing their job. Open and honest communication has the same effect on creative relationships as it does any other - it strengthens that bond between the two people. It creates a unique space where anything is possible because people are empowered to do their best work.
Oh and I almost forgot - don’t be afraid to speak up when something isn’t working for you. Your teammates will thank you for being honest. I promise.
The Rental
I took in Dave Franco’s The Rental over the weekend. It’s a horror movie about two couples who rent a vacation home for what should be a celebratory weekend get-away. As you can imagine, things get pretty deadly as the story trudges forward. I guess it’s a send up of Airbnb and the sort of weird tension you feel by staying in someone else’s home but it fails to make an impact.
I wanted to like this movie. There’s a lot of interesting horror to be made about the gig economy and the weird world we’ve been thrown into where we’re taking taxi rides in other people’s cars, spending weekends in each other’s homes, and spending more and more of our time online.
And yet, the script by Franco and Joe Swanberg doesn’t want you to think about any of these things. Their script features bland/unlikeable characters with little to no motivation or reason for existing within the story. None of them feel particularly memorable despite the amazing cast (Dan Stevens! A Girl Walks Home Along At Night’s Sheila Vand!).
The movie sadly devolves into a pretty classic slasher with very little to offer modern audiences outside the premise. Which is a shame. The final ten minutes basically explore the premise in full, after all the major cast members are off screen. It’s a bizarre decision that robs the story of every ounce of tension. Because you find out about most of the horrific stuff within the story after it doesn’t matter. It’s bizarre.
There are moments of beauty in the film. Coastlines with crashing waves, sprawling mazes of pacific northwest forests, and stunning views baked in golden sunlight. But beneath all of that - there’s nothing. No substance and very little style.
I wanted so much more from this.
And I’m let down by modern horror yet again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I May Destroy You
On the flip side I also took in the first three episodes of the brilliant I May Destroy You. The show is created, written and co-directed by Michaela Coel for BBC One and HBO. The series is set in London and stars Coel as Arabella, a young woman who seeks to rebuild her life after being raped.
As you can imagine, it’s tough to watch in places. But it’s such a raw depiction of life in your late twenties/early thirties that I couldn’t look away. It’s open, honest, and leaves you with this awful feeling in your gut for Arabella. Who often feels so naked within the show that you can’t help but cringe and care for her in equal measure.
It’s also a powerful depiction of disassociation and how we create narratives about ourselves that are detached from reality. I’m blown away by this show and will session through the rest of season one in the next few days.
I Know What’s On Your Mind
This week’s playlist. Right here:
Everything Else
Last week began development on my first Big Two series as a solo writer. It’s legitimately a dream gig that I can’t say much about right now. But I’ve been given an opportunity to weave a lot of my environmentalism into this one along with my love for horror. I can’t believe the book was approved and that I’m able to tell this story but I’m not going to ask too many questions.
And no, it’s not the character you think. For many of you, this will come out nowhere, and that’s half the excitement.
Another thing that’s been brewing in the background of the last year may get announced in the next two weeks. It’s so overwhelmingly surreal that I still don’t have the words for it. But one way or another, you’ll find out more about it on August 12th (or sooner) and that’s all I’ll say.
Now I’ve got to go proof letters on Lonely Receiver #3. We’re aiming to have advance PDF’s out to folks this week to give them a look at what we’ve been up to. And I’m so so so excited. Those waiting for copies, don’t worry - they’re coming!
See Ya
Be good to each other.
Z