Joss Whedon - A Short Interview ...

And So, The Fairytale Ends ... ( For Now ) ...

Just a brief post this time around. My first children's novella, 'The Fairytale Thief' has now been completed. It's all done, all finished up, the story has been told and come to its end. 
After nine months of writing it inbetween other projects the adventures of Anna Sparrow and the cat who isn't just a cat have come to a conclusion. It was always intended to be a one off story but now i've reached it's end there's still plenty of ideas i want to explore further and expand on.
So further down the line i wouldn't be surprised if i'm writing about the further adventures of Miss Anna Sparrow.

Well, that's it for now.

See you soon ...

James  

Dan Abnett On the Writing Process ...

A Call To Arms ...

Well, after a frustrating stop, start beginning to the year things are now moving along really nicely. I've been surprisingly prolific over the last two weeks or so, more than i expected. Both issues 11 and 12 of  'Modern Days' are scripted, these being the first two issues of Vol. 2. The mysterious priest with a liking for frock coats now has a name, Joshua St. John, and he's a formidable antagonist for the main characters of the series.
On a related note a few months ago my regular collaborating artist/ illustrator had to drop out due to personal reasons, so i've now put out a call to any artists out there ( as well as fellow writers ) to work with me on both 'Modern Days' and other projects i have planned, such as an anthology comic book.
The call reads as follows;

Writer/ creator looking to work with writers/ artists/ illustrators on creator owned projects in the comic book medium.

The idea is to work as a group under the umbrella title of DreamStorm Comics. This is a labour of love, independent project with the ultimate aim of selling our work and getting our names out there.

Essentially it would involve writing and illustrating as well as character designs and sample art pages.

Full scripts, character profiles and synopsis will all be available when needed.

Anyone interested can contact me on my Facebook site under  'James Ellis/ Pilgrim's Progress', on my Twitter site under 'jamesellis71'
And also on my National Theatre Wales pages under the name of 'James Ellis' & 'James Ellis- DreamStorm Comics- Writers & Artists' or my E- mail address, 'james.h.ellis71@gmail.com'

And of couse, on this very blog.

Until next time,

James

Books And Imagination—A Conversation With Neil Gaiman ...

When The Unexpected Comes knocking ...

Wherever you were last night, if you heard a distant sound that was part surprise, part delight, and part 'oh, that's why i love being a writer!' then that, gentle reader was me. Without warning I had that moment when what i was writing truely surprised me, that what the character said truely surprised me, what the character did truely surprised me, and where this surprise then took the story truely surprised me.
Wait, what? That's not what i planned is it? But of course if the story follows your exact plan then you're doing something wrong, you're just joining the dots aren't you, just slogging out the story, just going from A to Z.
You're not feeling it.

That moment when you suddenly find you're not as sure the story is going where you thought it was going is both the best and the scariest feeling a writer can feel. It's the moment when the story and the characters truely come alive, when something happens you truely hadn't expected. Suddenly you're not feeling as comfortable with where its going and so in turn the reader shouldn't feel comfortable either.
If you never expect it to happen in the writing of it, then the reader hopefully shouldn't expect it to happen in the reading of it.
The effect of these moments can sometimes be small, or they can take your story on a truely different course. Hence, that distant sound last night when i realised that just a few unexpected moments had completely changed what i thought the story for Volume Two of 'Modern Days' was going to be. With just a few unexpected decisions my whole idea for the next seven issues had taken on a completely different shape, and most important of all, the story was a lot better for it, better than what i'd planned.
When that distant sound of the unexpected comes knocking, listen to it, it might be scary but it's great too, and that, gentle reader is what being a writer is all about for me.

James

Philip Pullman - Open University 40th Anniversary Lecture ...

What's In A Title? ...

What's in a title, well, for me, quite a lot actually. A title can be many things. It can be a statement. It can invoke a feeling. It can set the tone, and it can ignite the imagination and the curiosity, or it can sum up the story you're telling in a few simple words.
So once you have a good idea of what it is you're writing and what it's all about then coming up with a suitable title should be easy right? Yeah, if only it were that simple.
This age old problem has been brought into sharp focus again for me lately while i've been working on the possibility of a comic book anthology of origin stories. The ideas and the characters for each of the five series to be included came pretty fast and surprsingly easy, but the titles, oh the titles, they were a different story altogether.
The title of the anthology was also problematic as i wanted to invoke the feeling of those classic anthology series such as Detective Comics and Amazing Fantasy. I wanted to invoke a certain feeling. I came up with numerous titles, most of which were awful, titles which ranged from the uninspired 'Comic Anthology' to the more interesting 'Amazing Worlds', 'Universal Stories' and 'Tales of the Modern Age.'
I had all of these titles bubbling away in my head for days. Most of them were interesting, but none of them were right. And they weren't right because they didn't feel right, they didn't bring to life what i was aiming for. Nothing worked, not until the moment i was doing something else entirely and two little words popped into my head.
' Tommorrow's Tales.' They were perfect. They felt right. Somehow these two words together perfectly invoked what i was after. Somehow it told you what i was aiming for.
I'd love to say this has just been an isolated case, but oh no, every single time i put myself through the same thing, whether it's an overall title, an issue or chaper title or even the name of every character within them.
So what's in a title? For me,
everything ...

James 

Free Verse: Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean ...

The Readthrough, The Play And The Graphic Novel ...

Well, it's been a busy time on the creative front of late. Last Tuesday was the first script in hand reading of my first theatre play, 'A Matter Of Light And Darkness,' and it went as well as i'd hoped. It was  a great night, and very worthwhile. I had a lot of great feedback and i learnt a lot from it. All in all i have to say a merry time was had by all.
Then on on Saturday i went to see the theatre production of the play, ' The Utah Bride' by Carmen Medway- Stephens, which i would highly recommend you get to see if the chance arises.
And yesterday i finished up the last few pages of the script for issue 10 of 'Modern Days' which means that Volume One is now all finished script wise. All in all it's 245 pages of comic, over 400 pages of script, and five months of solid work and research, and so far it's my proudest achievement as a writer. I have to admit i'm really looking forward to writing Volume Two which i should be getting to in the new year ...

James

The Play's The Thing ...

Well, lot's going on at the moment. Just finished the script for issue 9 of 'Modern Days' yesterday, which means if things go as planned issue 10 should wrap up the story of Volume One.
But that's not the whole story. Oh no, there's still plenty more to come in Volume Two.
There's angels a plenty, there's gods and there's talking owls, there's old friends and new enemies, there's a mysterious priest who likes to wear frock coats ... oh, and there's tragedy too.
But anyway, i digress, that's all coming up next year.

At the moment, well, this coming week in fact there's going to be the first informal "script in hand" reading of my first theatre script, 'A Matter Of Light And Darkness'.
Yep, a real live reading, with real live people performing the parts, and not just the voices in my head.
I'm looking forward to this. It should be a great night. I've been busy re- writing the script inbetween working on 'Modern Days', and it'll be very interesting seeing how people react to it.

James

An Evening With Warren Ellis ...

A Writer In New York ...

Neil Gaiman: 20th Anniversary of ' The Sandman' Series ...

How I Arrived So Late To Writing Comics ( Part 1 ) ...

On December 5th, 20011, i will be 40 years old. The big four oh! I've been writing since the age of 6 and at the age of 39 i finally began writing my first comic series.
Why did it take me so long?  Well, it began like this. In 2001 i had an idea for a novel, then called 'The Immortality Of Snow'. Well, actually i had many ideas, too many in fact, more than i could possible fit into a single novel. That was my first problem, should it be a trilogy, or maybe five books, or more? It didn't take long for me to realise ( well, about one abandoned synopsis and three continually rewritten chapters ) that what i had in my head was certainly not what was ending up on the page. I soon became convinced that the ideas i had were better than my ability to turn them into a story.
Something about the story or the way i was telling it just didn't feel right. The ideas felt good, the characters felt right, but nothing else did. So after a lot of unsucessful rewriting and more than a few sleepless nights i finally decided to put it on the proverbial shelf.
And for ten years it stayed on that shelf, never forgotten, just gathering dust and filed away under that heading of 'The One That Got Away'. But for those ten years it kept nagging at me, tapping me on the shoulder every few months or so. I had a gut feeling that if one day i ever got it right it had the potential to be the best thing i'd ever written.
And then in May of this year all of that changed, ironically while i was working on something else entirely. At that time i had been reading/ catching up on a lot of Neil Gaiman's work and i had just finished reading his modern classic 'American Gods'.
I happened to mention this to a friend. "Have you read  his 'The Sandman' series?" i was asked. I hadn't. I'd heard of it of course, but i hadn't really read comics since my early twenties, at least not properly or regularly.
So on my friend's advice i began reading 'The Sandman' and something very strange began to happen ...

James

How I Arrived So Late To Writing Comics ( Part 2 ) ...

As i lost myself in this fantastic, unusual and varied world that Neil had created i slowly began to realise that he was doing the sort of things in comics that i had been trying and failing to do in a novel. I'd always wanted my story to deal with immortality and gods and lots of the more weirder ideas i'd had over the years. I'd wanted to tell a story that jumped back and forth through time to different periods, had a lot of different characters and that was quite often told in a non linear storytelling form as well.
I'd been slapped in the face. I'd been slapped hard and i'd been slapped good. It was now clear to me that 'Modern Days' was a story that had always meant to be told over a period of time, as a comic, in installments, at 22 or 24 pages at a time, but also a story that would work as a far larger story when read in one go.
I'd never attempted to write a comic script before though, or for that matter any kind of script.
It had always been prose for me. That was all i'd ever written, all i'd ever wanted to write.
So that first script for the opening issue, issue #1 of 'Modern Days' became a very steep learning curve for me to say the least. I read as much as i could as i wrote. I re- read 'The Sandman', i read the 'Death' spin offs, i read Alan Moore's 'Watchmen', i read Joe Strazynski's 'Rising Stars', and so on, and so on. I read and i learned as much i possibly could.
And in the midst of all this i fell in love with comics again. I realised that you can do anything with them. and more importantly, and most surprisingly i realised that i now enjoy writing comics more than i enjoy writing prose. Hmm, yup, go figure.
And so, i guess after years of writing just prose this is how i arrived so late to writing comics ...

James 

Alan Moore ~ Advice for young Artists ...

Just Who Is James Ellis? ...

I'll give the About Me section a miss for the moment ( Too many projects going on as usual! ) and just give you all a brief heads up on just who James Ellis, this apparent writer, really is.
I was born Lee Denzil Jones. I wrote my first fiction at the age of six. I write novels, short stories, graphic novels, poetry and songs, and i'm about to attempt my first scripts for theatre and television.

I am currently writing a trilogy of novels aimed at young adults called 'The Dream Spheres'. I've finished the first and i'm just about three quarters through the second.
I'm also writing a novella for children as well called 'The Fairytale Thief' which hopefully should be finished early next year.
I'm also writing scripts for a graphic novel series called 'Modern Days', which i think might just be my magnum opus or my most interesting failure when it's finally finished.

Yup, guess i just love writing.

Btw, you can also follow me on Twitter as JamesEllis71 ...

James

My Official Co-Writer ...

And So It Begins ...

Hello and welcome to the official James Ellis blog/ journal/ and just plain old rambling about the highs and lows of a being a writer. This is where i'll be trying the best i can to chronicle and make sense of my writing life on a daily or weekly basis.
I'll also be updating often on the various projects i'm working on, the events i'm attending, and all the things i'm currently interested in.
Well, that's it for now. Just a quick hello in this post, but i'm sure the ones to follow will grow to be longer and far more rambly...

James