Mark Crilley: Three Burning Questions from the Creator of MIKI FALLS

I've decided, for better or for worse, to write this blog entry as a series of questions. Read on, and if you have anything to say in reply to any of them, by all means leave a comment. I'd be honored to know your thoughts.

Question #1: What do you do when you cant tell people exactly what your story is about?

My upcoming graphic novel series, Miki Falls, is just such a story. It is, in essence, a supernatural love story in which a Japanese high school student (the "Miki" of the title) falls for Hiro, the mysterious new boy in town who absolutely refuses to make friends with a single soul. "Not with you. Not with anyone." The reason Hiro can't make friends is a secret: a truly mind-blowing secret that isn't revealed until the end of the first book. So I can't tell any prospective readers about who Hiro really is. But—and this is the real problem—Hiro's secret life is the thing that really makes the series interesting and, hopefully, different from any other love story you've ever read. So what should I tell people when they say, "What is Miki Falls all about?" What do you do when you've written such a story?

Question #2: Have you ever written a story from the point of view of someone who is drastically different from yourself? What did you do to get into the mindset of that character?

The Miki Fall books are written from the point of view of a seventeen-year-old Japanese girl. I am a forty-year-old American man. Needless to say, I had some serious imagining to do if I was going to make this work! Happily, I once lived in Japan for more than two years and my wife is Japanese, so I had a head start toward trying to see things from Japanese point of view. And creating a seventeen-year-old’s perspective was mostly a matter of looking back on my own high school days and trying to relive the intense emotional ups and downs of those times (plenty of downs, in my case). As for seeing things from a girl’s point of view, well, I think I mainly had to focus on the basic things that men and women have in common and go from there. Also, I am lucky to have an editor who is a woman (and, more importantly, just a really fantastic editor), so she was able to get me back on track when I wasn’t getting the voice quite right. What kind of experiences do you have writing from the point of view of someone unlike yourself?

Question #3: Do you think a graphic novel—a.k.a. a comic—can be as emotionally involving as a traditional novel? Have you ever tried to write a graphic novel or even just a short comic strip?

Let's face it: A love story only works if you care deeply about the main character. If you do, the whole story begins to matter to you in a very personal way. If you don't…well, you'll probably just roll your eyes and kick that book to the curb. I believe very strongly in the power of comic book storytelling. Sure, a graphic novel is going to have far fewer words than a traditional novel, and so something is sacrificed in terms of the cumulative effect of knowing the thoughts and feelings of the main character for page after page after page. Still, I think that a graphic novel love story, done properly, can really pull you in and provide an experience that no other form of media—not novels, not movies, not theater—can quite duplicate. My favorite aspect of comics is the ability to depict subtle changes in facial expressions over a series of panels. (I've included an example from Miki Falls at the end of this blog entry.) So I guess it's pretty clear that my answer to this question is a resounding "Yes, darn it!" But how do you feel? Have you ever read a graphic novel that really touched you on a deep level? And have you ever tried your hand at creating one?

Here's wishing all of you the very best in your writing endeavors. I do hope you will one day have that magical experience of walking into a bookstore and seeing your very own book on the shelf. Trust me, there is no feeling like it on earth.

Oh, and thanks in advance to anyone who replies to my questions! I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Mark Crilley
Author of Miki Falls: Spring

Learn more about Mark Crilley at www.markcrilley.com.

Judson Roberts: Serve the Reader

What guidelines do I personally use to steer my course as a writer? I try to always keep in mind what I hope to experience as a reader—what I'm hoping to find, whenever I open a new novel and begin to read a new story.

For me, my most wonderful, memorable experiences as a reader have been those times when I was totally swept into a story. The world it was set in was so vividly portrayed it became real, a place I could see, could experience in my mind, and the characters came alive for me—I cared about them, I gloried with them in their triumphs, and wept for them at their tragedies. For those all too brief hours while I was immersed in the book, the life I lived was not my own, but that of the characters and the world of the story.

Some of my favorite books, ones that have taken me on that kind of journey, include The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, and Shogun, by James Clavell. Shogun gave me the additional wonderful experience of learning about a past culture and period of history I'd previously known nothing about. I believe that understanding history is vital, because what has happened in the past shapes, often in subtle ways, what is occurring in the world today, and what will come to pass in the future.

My hope, in writing the Strongbow Saga, is to give readers all of those same kinds of experiences I most treasure as a reader. I strive to create stories in which they will vicariously experience the adventures of Halfdan, a young Dane, as he struggles to find his way in the face of treachery and danger in the ninth-century world of the Vikings; that they will be able to really see the world he lives in, to understand the fascinating culture of a people who valued above all else courage, honor, and integrity; and will learn at least a bit about the many ways, now mostly forgotten, in which the Viking peoples shaped the history of the Western World.

My advice: As a writer, strive to be a storyteller and serve well those who will read your work.

Judson Roberts
Author of The Strongbow Saga, Book One: Viking Warrior (available now in paperback!) and The Strongbow Saga, Book Two: Dragons from the Sea—pre-order your copy!

Susan Juby: The Ultimate Do-Over

For me, writing is a form of wish fulfillment. This is strange, because most of my characters aren't successful people. My books are filled with oddballs, misfits, and obsessives of all types. But they all do things I wish I'd done or could do.

My latest book, Another Kind of Cowboy (HarperTeen, Fall 2007), is partly about a young man who devotes himself to his passion for horseback riding. He's naturally gifted and he's also a terrifically hard worker, unlike his best friend, a girl who's only moderately talented but very wealthy.

When I was younger, I rode competitively. I was a decent rider, but I was handicapped by a lackluster work ethic. I believe that the word my coach used to describe me was "lazy." I eventually quit riding to go to college.

As the years passed, I began to regret not taking my riding more seriously. I'd had opportunities to train with well-known riders and hadn’t pursued them, mostly because doing so would have interfered with my social life.

When I became a writer, I realized that my stories gave me the chance to do things differently, at least in my imagination. Writing a book is the ultimate do-over. You get to be and do anything you want. You get to organize the world of your story in such a way that anything is possible.

It’s fantastic! So now instead of lamenting the fact that I wasn’t exactly the queen of follow-through, I can let my characters pursue the passions I didn't. I can investigate what it would be like to be an incredibly hard worker and I can imagine what it would be like to be fabulously wealthy.

The best piece of writing advice I ever got was to make sure you know your characters' deepest desires. I don't always know what those are right away, and I have to find out over the course of the story. But once I have figured out my characters' deepest yearnings. I know I'm going to have a character and a story I'll enjoy writing about.

So what are your deepest desires? Do you see those desires reflected in your characters' lives?

Susan Juby
Author of Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last