Horrible is Wonderful!

Take the suits and the corporate executives' notes out of the creative process, turn to the Internet and some very talented friends and relatives. Spin out the idea of a musical comedy of a "low-rent supervillain wannabe" and you get Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

I kid you not. It's wonderful, funny, sad and arch all at once. It's 42 minutes long and was made for a budget "in the low six figures" according to creator and co-writer Joss Whedon. The fellow who gave us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Serenity TV shows, all which he made kicking and screaming at the TV execs about how much they cost and what the stories should say. (Fox screwed up Firefly so badly in broadcast order they didn't even air the pilot as the first episode.)

Enough of that. Give a creator a chance to cook up a story, without concerns about what you can't do. A death ray that doesn't work very well. A superhero who's not a nice guy. A villain with a crush on a girl he sees at the laundromat. All devised by Whedon, his two brothers and brother Jed's fiancee Maurissa Tancharoen.

But I give too much away. Watch the show at hulu.com or from the drhorrible.com Web site. See what can be done when story is king, and then the demand melts down the Web servers that deliver it to the eager viewers.

In a recent Time magazine article about the juggernaut of movies based on graphic novels, the beautiful creative space of writer Mark Millar — creator of nihilist graphic novel (and summertime movie) Wanted — explains it best.

His next comic is about a 100-year U.S. war in the Middle East, with superpowered soldiers and flying Islamic fundamentalists. It's the kind of idea that would get squashed at a studio meeting, where the poor performance of all the Iraq-war movies would be trotted out. But then, Millar doesn't need anyone's green light. He just needs an artist and a pen.

Now that's what I call a wonderful world to create as a storyteller.

SF (and fiction) basics, books online

Tor Books is giving away free SF novels through Sunday. I am a big fan of Battlestar Galactica (a SF TV series that is more well-crafted war drama than SF). Downloaded the novel that Tor has published, based on the series, to enjoy the story in print. Well written, indeed.

The author of this Battlestar Galactica novelization, Jeffrey A. Carver, has a Web site with great advice on getting over basic missteps in any kind of writing, as well as the specifics of creating an entertaining SF world.

Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

And don't forget to download your free books. Tor is ending the program, which probably rattled some cages in sales for this Macmillan imprint, on Sunday. Maybe most important is what Tor is doing now: putting everything it sells in electronic format, if the big publisher has online rights.

Tor's Patrick Nielsen Hayden notes: "Tor parent company Macmillan is actively converting all titles to which we have digital rights. It really is just a matter of time before the majority of our library is available in e-book form.... There are issues of workflow and rights, just as there are everywhere else. I think you'll see lots more e-books in lots more formats in the next few months."

What AWA stands for

The Amherst Writers & Artists practices form the foundation for what we do in the Writer's Workshop. The AWA group trained me in leadership, then sent me back into Texas to found my own personalized practices.

Whether you participate in our community as a monthly manuscript member, or one of our weekly Tuesday night series writers, the AWA foundations still serve all of us who gather around the Workshop's table. Pat Schneider is the guru of the AWA, and here's what she reminded us this month:

If you have lived, you have a story. If you can speak your story, you can write it. It doesn't matter who you are; you have been using language since you were an infant, and you already know how to use it to move those close to you. Everybody has a life, everybody has a story, everybody has a natural, internal understanding of craft.

This is a nurturing message no matter where you are in your writing life — learning how to speak out on paper, or polishing craft for submissions to publishers, or searching for the right story to start to tell in your own words. Everybody can write. We enjoy a mix of skill and experience levels among our members, including those who always hoped and knew they could write.

Prologue possibilities

I am taking a good hard stab at a prologue for my novel Viral Times this week. In the process I've discovered how few writing books address the nuances of this pseudo-beginning for a story.

Revision and Self Editing has a two-page section called "The Use and Abuse of Prologues." Good stuff. I found the advice in Manuscript Makeover even more helpful. "Some agents refuse to read manuscripts with prologues," Elizabeth Lyon warns, but the section also explains in significant detail how you can avoid undermining yourself by using a prologue. Also, Beginnings, Middles and Ends has good instruction on the subject.

In summary, a prologue has its mission: Tell parts of the story the reader wants to know before the main story commences. Set a tone with the best language you can craft. Raise questions, too, so readers are motivated to continue.

When smaller is a bigger start

Out on the Writer's Digest blog, a novelist writes a story about his friendship with an agent. Before long it becomes a career prospect. She finally asks when she can read his work.

He decides to give her an exclusive look as his first attempt to land an agent. Problem? She is new at agenting, in the middle level of a small agency. Crazy, says his friend. Get all the money you can. Good business.

Good advice if your writing is a business at its core. Nothing wrong with building a retirement and healthcare nest egg. But at the start of your career — and it's obvious from the blog that our writing hero is just starting, "defending my MFA" in the spring — smaller can be better. More attention, the start of a beautiful friendship.

A writer friend of mine went to the Writer's League of Texas Agents Conference last month. She pitched in a formal 10-minute session, but her most significant pitch came at breakfast. Casual, while she told the story of her story.

"Is is finished?" asked the agent.

"Finished enough, for now." My friend wants to enter her novel in a few contests first. (Very smart, to stand out in the query letters.)

"Send it to me."

Those magic words, delivered over a personal meeting. If your (fiction) book is done don't wait. Send, if you hear those words. And keep an eye on the potential for a relationship when you send. This is like hiring a doctor or a therapist or an accountant. Someone who can make a difference in the quality of your life, business and writing, too.