Let’s talk accountability.

A common issue with writers is that you get a lot of ideas, but it’s hard to figure out which ideas are just ideas, and which ones have the ability to be something more. A story or even a book.

Last year I had an idea I loved. I told it to my wonderful wife Brooke, who I trust as my sounding board, and she told me it sounded like it had the capacity to be my best story yet. But when I sat down to write it, I kept bumping into brick walls. Something wasn’t clicking. I even tried switching it from a graphic novel to a novel, but I couldn’t quite make it work.

The point is, at any given time I might have several different ideas at various stages of being worked on. Sometimes I even forget I had an idea I wanted to work on! So I thought I might try an experiment in accountability. I’ll share with you, my loyal and attractive newsletter audience, what I’m working on, and keep you updated in the months ahead. And that way if something drops off, you can say to me, “Hey, what happened to that one project?” And I can either say “It didn’t work and it’s dead to me,” or “Oh yeah! I ought to try to resurrect that one!”

I’ve seen a lot of writers I know and admire do this, like Neil Kleid (check out his new Comixology Original series Medieval!) and Joey Esposito (check out his new Kickstarter for his horror GN Madam!).

So here we go, my first accountability check-in! (But first, a musical break.)

Accountability Check-In

Project Favor: This is the middle grade graphic novel that Max Bare and I have coming out from Papercutz…sometime. You’ve seen me talk about this before, and you’ll see it again, dagnabit! Even though I recently turned in the final draft, there’s still lots of work to be done before this ends up in your hands.

Project Golden Gloves: Another middle grade graphic novel, but with a very different setting and tone from Project Favor. This one’s kind of a horror/sci-fi/superhero blend. I quite like it. I’ve done two drafts and am working on the third, and after that I think it’s going to be ready for some pitching to editors. In fact, I really should be focusing primarily on this since it’s the closest to being done, but I keep having other ideas I want to explore. Other ideas like…

Project Crystal: The idea for this one hit me like a bolt while I was taking a walk in the woods on my birthday last month. This would be a middle grade (non-graphic) novel, and also the first thing I’ve written for kids that isn’t sci-fi or fantasy. I’m only a couple of thousand words in on this one, but I’m taking it to my local SCBWI writing group to get some early feedback.

Project William: This is the book I mentioned in my intro - the killer idea I just couldn’t make work. But I don’t want to give up on it. This is a middle grade sci-fi idea, whether it ends up being a novel or a graphic novel. I think I pretty much know what the issue was and why I couldn’t make it work earlier, but there’s a world of difference from knowing what the problem is and knowing how to fix it. I hope to return to it some day.

Project Townie: The odd man out, this is an adult crime/mystery novel. It’s also the only non-graphic novel I’ve ever finished (kind of). I started writing it over a decade ago, put it aside for a while because I was concerned it was going to be too short, and then eventually decided to just finish it and see what happened. And, indeed, it was too short. I think the first draft clocked in at around 45,000 words when I’d ideally need it to be around 70,000. I’ve played with it here and there in the last couple of years, but recently I was listening to a writing podcast, and something one of the guests said made me realize exactly what I need to do to get it to really sing. (Well, maybe not exactly, but at least broadly). So now I want to dive back in and see if I can really get it to work. There’s a lot about the first draft that I love and I think it would be cool to have an adult novel out there alongside the kids’ GNs.

And that’s…most of it. There are a few other things kicking around the old noggin as well. Right after I had the idea for Project Crystal, I had an idea for a dumb pun name for a book and shared it with Brooke as a joke. But then, of course, my brain was like “But…it could be a real book as well.” I don’t think I’ll work on it actively enough to be added to the accountability tracker, but you never know.

Links to Cool Things

• We’ve been on a concert kick lately, because nothing beats live music. We recently saw David Byrne’s Who is the Sky? Tour and the DEVO/B-52s Cosmic De-Evolution Tour. If you get a chance to see either one, they’re both a ton of fun. David Byrne especially is one of the great performers. We’ve now seen this tour, plus American Utopia on Broadway and a special screening of Stop Making Sense in IMAX, and each one was an experience.

• My friend Alex Segura is an incredibly prolific writer, so I admit I can fall behind on trying to keep up with everything he has coming out. But I did recently enjoy his DC Comics miniseries The Question: All Along The Watchtower. It feels like the story he was born to write, and I just wish the mini had been longer!

• I’m always interested in ways to get kids reading, and especially reading comics. So I’ll be watching this new kids’ comics magazine, Hullabaloo, with great interest. They’re on Kickstarter now!

So the plan is to return to the accountability tracker frequently in upcoming newsletters (at least in ones that aren’t part of the A Lot to Process sub-series). Keep it tuned here to see which of these ideas I make progress on first. It’s like a horse race, only much, much slower! (And if you aren’t subscribed, please don’t forget to subscribe!)