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Editing Vs. Writing
2007-06-19 16:09:29
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The graphics interface isn't working quite right today, so I can't upload images--which means that I can't talk about what I was going to talk about. So let's do something else instead.
Yesterday, in response to my post about the story idea that eventually morphed into a FANTASTIC FOUR SPECIAL (albeit in a greatly modified form) somebody asked if it bothered me at all that this kind of thing happened. And the answer is, not a bit. In fact, it's the nature of the job, and something you'd better be prepared to do if you want to be an editor of comics. You're going to be called upon to throw out dozens of ideas, and to fix problems and plotholes in other peoples' ideas on a day-to-day basis. And, in the end, ideas themselves aren't all that valuable--it's what you do with them that really counts. So if you're going to be so frugal with your concepts and your notions, then you're not going to be able to get very far in this business as an editor.
At the same time, the editor shouldn't be writing the books from the back seat, which is a temptation that I've seen torpedo assorted editors over the years. As much as possible, you've got to make it your mantra that Creators Get The Credit, Editors Get The Blame. And it's your job to help make the creators look good, but not by doing their job for them. So while it's good to put various ideas in the air, you also want to give the creators enough freedom to make of them what they will, to improve on them as they're able to. In the case of that FF Special, Dwayne didn't simply write my idea--he took it as a springboard from which he built a story that worked for him, and which came from his imagination far moer so than mine. As a means of illustrating this, here's my description of that story concept, from an e-mail to Mark Waid dated 2/5/02, and which I later sent to Dwayne as a starting point in thinking about that Special. As you'll see if you read the finished story in question, it isn't the same as what follows:
I've also got another idea for a FF story--possibly even for #60, though it may be too involved for that (and let me say right off the bat that I'm in no way looking to backseat write the book--I'm just tossing all of these crazy ideas out so that they go into the overall hopper, and then we figure out what makes sense and what we want to do. So if anything I suggest sounds awful or lame or dumb, just say so). I was somewhat inspired by, of all things, a really nice issue of ULTIMATE X-MEN that I read out today, the narrative wraparound for which was Professor X writing an article about his position on the place of mutants in the world, and his particular efforts in that arena. It had a number of good bits in it, and structurally was so different from what I'm used to seeing in an X-Men story that it made a real impact. And that's the sort of thing we're going for with our run, so...
What if we lead off with "My Dinner With Doom."
Let's postulate that Reed has been invited to a banquet at the Latverian Embassy by Doom. It's a day of truce--perhaps the birthday of Doom's mother, or some particular Latverian holiday or custom that compels the cease-fire.
So it's a gourmet meal, with a tour of Doom's personal art collection, recitals, and whatnot--a meeting of cultured, "civiized" men that serves as a backdrop to point/counterpoint their respective points of view, methodologies, and personalities. But what's really going on outside of the Embassy is a chess game of sorts between Doom and Reed--one in which all of the moves on both sides have been made and put into motion before Reed even arrived. In essence, Doom's putting some kind of plan into effect, either taking some ground on the global front in some way, or a more directed attack against the FF. And the other members of the FF are all in position to neutralize Doom's offensive--Reed deduced and anticipated Doom's every move in the broad sense, and sent his team into the field to counter-punch where necessary while he and Doom met over the truce table.
By the end of the meal, as Doom's offensive has been thwarted and his internal temperature has been building behind his cool fascade, he says words to the effect of, "There is nothing you can do that I cannot!" And Reed says that he at least can stand and meet Doom face to face, eye to eye, with no barriers between them.
And Doom reaches up to take off his Iron Mask, to rise to Reed's challenge.
And he can't. He can't do it. He just cannot get himself to remove his mask and uncover his personal blemish before his foe. And Reed finishes his wine, thanks Doom for the evening, and departs--with Doom seething, and a renewed vow of vengeance in the offing.
Anything there?
As you can see, Dwayne kept the basic idea of the Latverian day of celebration but he made it specific and thematic to the whole piece, he took the notion of the metaphoric chess game and made it an actual chess game that Doom and Reed had been playing in their heads since college, he added all of the action set-pieces and changed the basic structure of the idea, he added in the locket that belonged to Doom's mother that he was trying to recover from Reed, and he totally changed the end beat. And what he did made for a different, and hopefully better, story.
More later.
Tom B
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Speaking of graphics...
Who makes the final decision on covers - both art and layout. For example the current issue of Ms Marvel has the banner moved lower to accomodate the art - is this the artists choice, do the artist and the editor talk about these things in advance? And I notice that X-Men, Uncanny and New X-Men have brought back the top left corner boxes (with little heads) - who decided to bring that back? Cheers!
Posted by NewChad on 2007-06-13 03:51:58
nabokoved again
One thing I like very much is what Julio Cortazar did in "hopscotch " or the way Lovercraft begins his novels, the proceed is that the story had run without you and you're taking the train, so it is a way to not lose time with installation or things, but to make discover what happened...
Take one story , one solution is to tell it and respecting the chronologia,
and another is beginning ...after something, a crucial event,
I 'm thinking especially to the movie by Christopher Nolan " Memento ", this is the same story, the same idea, but one way to tell will make it different and maybe far better,if there is not a real osmosis between the writer and the editor, then you have to have a real good sens of argumentation,I think it's the same problem for the writer if , for a month , he wants to write all the texts without the letter A , or E, or both, he has to have a pretty good reason, or had falled in a particulary multiverse....
Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-06-13 04:03:33
Control
It seems to me that one of the biggest differences between a Writer and an Editor is the final amount of control. As someone who likes to control his output, and a writer, I could see that it would be some-what frustrating as the Comic Writer to write up your script and send it out, hoping that as much as can gets through to the published version. In other words, I can imagine a lot of finger-crossing is involved with the Writers' babies that get sent off to the Editors. But in your place, once you've decided everything - correct me if I'm wrong - that's it, it's done. You've done your polishing and tweaking and then BAM, it's a finished product. I would suspect that people who enjoy rigid control over their work might prefer that end of the business, as no one is going to step in and start fiddling with the book after them.
Between the two, it seems that a connection based on trust would be necessary to keep both happy in their work, as well. Especially the Writer. Because if a Writer didn't trust their Editor, having to hand off their hard work to them to get sliced up would probably be terrible. But if a Writer has an Editor they can trust, it would lessen the blow to hand them work that they can trust the Editor will do justice to and improve via his/her lofty view of it.
Is this dynamic true to life? And out of curiosity, are there ever problems with this Writer/Editor relationship? Do you get ticked off, hurt Writers? You already mentioned Editors who establish TOO much control...how does that end up affecting the Writers you hire?
Posted by PseudoSherlock on 2007-06-13 09:40:41
in the mood for publishing...
....TOO MUCH CONTOL IMPLIES BIG MONEY INVOLVMENT.
( I think :) nuf' said you bet !
Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-06-13 11:05:08
overall though...
Yeah, I can see editors as having the potential of being big pains in the rump BUT I have seen the importance in having an editor from a novelist's POV. Read Tom Clancy's early works like Cardinal of the Kremlin or The Hunt for Red October and then read later Tom-Clancy-is-too-famous-to-need-an-editor stuff and there's a definite sloppiness there. Overlong scenes, ungainly dialog...a good editor who's there to sharpen an author's skill and provide a third person perspective on a work can be critical. A good piece of work is such because the creator is so involved, sometimes it's hard to see the flaws when you're so close, it's the people farther away who can see what's not working and throw ideas at the creator for review and edit...
Posted by fellwalker on 2007-06-24 12:01:26
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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."
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Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four. |
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