As I have mentioned elsewhere, Rapid City is comic that is largely based on my life. The characters are based on people I know, and the events are often versions of things that actually happened. Of course, it is seen through a thick lens of metaphor.

Add to that the fact that I have been working on it, in one form or another, for about 4 years.

I know these characters pretty well. In fact, I can just put them in a scene and stand back and let them talk. It comes so naturally at this point that I have to actually slow them down a little to catch it all.

My task as writer, when it comes to dialog, is not so much like construction anymore. It is more like sculpting. I take the huge messy glob of language and I trim it back and tease it until it fits the shape I need it to fit. And I am really getting into it.

It makes me feel like a writer to just open up the creative flood gates and write down everything that comes out. But it makes me feel like a good writer, a professional writer, to surgically triage which lines get to live and which lines must die.

To guide me in this I am turning back to some of the harsh, mechanical, writing principles I have picked up in books and classes over the years. To apply these ideas as more than just theoretical guidelines, i have given myself some rules.

At the top of each notebook page, I have written S.C.A.L.A.P. Start Scene As Late As Possible.

If you can start a scene without some detail, then get rid of the detail. You don’t need it. I imagine the scene, and then I pick a starting point for it. I keep moving that scene forward until it doesn’t make any sense. Then I move the start back about 1/2 a second.

Done.

Or rather, begun.

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• Process.
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Today, my new column appears for the very first time over at Stumblebum Studios.

It is called Don’t Call It A Comeback and I am very proud of it.

Check it out, and let the good people at Stumblebum know what you think of it.

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This is totally cool.

I was recently interviewed by A.C. Hall at Stumblebum Studios. It’s great and I am very happy about it. Check it out.

For those of you who are reading this that just came over from that interview. Thank you very much for your interest. Welcome. Please take a look around, and let us know what you think.

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Writing this comic is really fun. Working with my friends Micah and Jason is really fun. Even the business parts are a fun challenge, because they mean so much right now.

Taglines, however, are so hard to write that I am having trouble discussing them now without using foul language. As part of improving and updating this site, we have been trying to update the description you see when you visit the “Rapid City” page.

We have about 3 or 4 sentences to not only describe our book, but to make people want to read it. Unfortunately, if you are reading THIS, you are probably already interested, and thus are not much help to us.

Teaser tags like this have been written for every movie, comic, book, TV show, video game and whatever else for decades. And they are so compact an stylized that EVERYTHING has been made cheesy and cliche.

So, whatever you end up seeing over there, know that it was the product of lots of hard work, and strangely probing questions from Micah.

Oh, and thanks for being the ones who are interested despite the tag.

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This past weekend I did some writing in rural Massachusetts. A change of scenery helped me get some new perspective on the Rapid City story arc.

I wrote a part of what will be the emotional climax for one of our main characters.

It says what I need it to say, but it is so hilariously out-of-voice for that character (and for my usual writing style) that I cracked up every time I read over it.

Despite that, though, it does have a certain weight that I hope I can preserve when I translate it to something less laughable.

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This scene is well into Act II.

I am going leave the details out, so as to not spoil anything.

This is Sidekick and Wraith trying to get some information out of an uncooperative enemy.

Sidekick: “So, we were thinking about playing good-cop-bad-cop with you. Only,…

(punches guy in the stomach)

…I don’t have to be all that good, because my partner here is the worst cop in the world. You see those bones sticking out of his arms? Those aren’t his bones.”

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Here is a piece of the script I have been working on. It is a bit raw. But it will give you a look at what Micah and Jason are getting. Enjoy

SIDEKICK

“Come on. Battery here says there is some kind of trouble downtown.”

EXT. AIRBORNE OVER THE CITY.

Battery has his flight rig on his back and is carrying Viper and Sidekick.

He forms speaker cones over their heads so that he can talk to them as he flies. Sidekick is still carrying his sledge hammer.

BATTERY

(as he tells this info, we see it.)

“I heard this on the Police Band radio. Some military shipment got jumped on the highway. The MP guys must have stopped the hijackers, but something went wrong. The cargo busted loose and is rolling towards downtown.”

(back in the moment)

“CRAP! There they are!”

The four Tank Bots are patrolling ??? Square Park. A few remaining people flee the park.

Amp waves from a rooftop below, she is there with Flamethrower.

AMP

“Hey!”

The three guys land.

BATTERY

“I am glad you guys are here. Amp, Flamethrower, this is Viper. I think you guys know Sidekick.”

FLAMETHROWER

“Yeah, we’ve met. So what’s going on down here?”

AMP

“What are those things?”

BATTERY

“Some kind of Army robot. And it looks like they are marking their territory right here in ??? Square.”

The heroes gather on the edge of the building and watch. Maybe one or two people are still running away from them. A dog is tied up outside a store and barks at the robots. Robots pause. Dog barks again and one of the robot blast it to nothing. Heroes gasp in horror. Especially Amp.

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