Preface

Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.

—Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith

If you’ve opened this book, you either are a writer, consider yourself to be a writer, or are determined to become one. Not any old kind of writer, but a professional writer. And not any old kind of professional writer, but one who writes for animation or comics or videogames or maybe all three.

It can be done. It can be done if you’re driven enough, passionate enough, persistent enough, and too plain stubborn to be easily turned aside.

One hopes you’re not here for the status, at least not in the “real” world. Even someone as wildly successful as Stephen King is treated with scorn by some in the literary establishment because he writes “pop” fiction. You can guess the esteem with which an animation writer or comics writer or game writer is held outside their fields.

In fact, a lot of people seem oblivious to the fact that the products of these media are written at all, leading to this particular exchange that I’ve had more times than I can count:

“What do you do?”

“I write animation.”

“Oh, you’re an artist”

“No, I write animation.”

“Do you draw the pictures, too?”

“No, I write the script. You know: the action, the dialogue.”

Blank look.

One also assumes you’re not here looking to get rich. Although it’s certainly possible to earn a living, the odds of becoming wealthy from working in these fields are against you. Writing is hard work. Getting a job writing is even harder.

If you’re the type of person who reads this and says, “I don’t care. I love animation! I love comics! I love games! I have things to say. I have stories to tell. I have words to shape. I must write.”—then I greet you with open arms. Welcome to the madhouse. Let’s start the tour.