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Imaad R writes...
Hi Greg! I'm such a big fan of you and the spectacular team's take on Spider-Man. I grew up with Spectacular, (and young justice!) and it came back as a big inspiration in my life as an artist and writer after insomniacs fantastic games and rereading the classic comics from when I was a kid. You have created my favorite versions of these characters by modernizing them and giving them that classic feel in ways that blow my mind. Im a pretty classic spidey fan (i love lee/ditko/romita) despite being in my teens and I value cohesion like your take did. I have a question however from an aspiring writer to a professional;
If I think that a version long passed (yours) was the best version of something, what can I do to personally find a way to make my own take, despite having a similar mindset? Should I be afraid to be similar?
I would really value your opinion and again, thanks for your fantastic and inspiring work. Really hoping to see more of your stuff!
Greg responds...
Well, first off, thanks.
Secondly, as a professional, I really wouldn't spend much time (even much idle brain time) adapting something that you don't own, unless you're (a) being paid to do it or (b) you have a reasonable hope of being paid to do it. And even for (b), I wouldn't recommend doing very much work until someone said, "Yes! I love where you're going with this. Let me pay you to go further." Instead, I'd recommend coming up with your own original thing. Blow us away with that. And then maybe will want to trust you to adapt something that is theirs, e.g. Marvel with Spider-Man.
But finally, to get to your question, I guess I wouldn't sweat it too much. If I adapt Lee/Ditko or Lee/Romita comics, I'm still borrowing from what came before. And I'm not stopping there, nor am I shy about "stealing" from any of the source material from any era. Because, that's NOT stealing. It's adapting. I'm sure my adaptation had many similarities with others that came both before or after Spectacular. Of course it did. We're all going back to the same source material. So how could it not?
Andrew writes...
Hey Greg, how do you plot seasons and specific episodes, do you set end goals to achieve in the story or do you begin to plot and see where the story flows naturally?
Greg responds...
Um, both. Go through the ASK GREG ARCHIVES for more detailed responses. But we use index cards with events marking tent poles in our stories, and then fill in with more index cards until every season, every episode, every scene is fleshed out fully.
Ben Sloman writes...
Hey Greg!
I'm a big fan of your work - particularly on Young Justice and The Spectacular Spider-Man...I was wondering
1. If there's a possibility of the Young Justice comic series returning anytime in the future? As I've been re-reading them recently and forgotten how great they were in expanding the world you've created!
2. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer starting out...particularly in the TV and comics business?
Greg responds...
1. Nothing to report, but I'm still hopeful.
2. Please check out the WRITING and WRITING TIPS sections of the ASK GREG ARCHIVE.
Rick Jones writes...
(Sorry if it's been answered but I did search the archives, and your answers about plotting YJ have been very illuminating.) Are there any books or guides to plotting a series? There are plenty of books about "how to write your pilot" and such, but I haven't had any luck finding suggestions for how to plot a series.
Greg responds...
I would think there are, but I haven't seen/read any. My method has been trial and error, learning by experience.
Sebastian writes...
Hi Greg. I'd like to ask for some career advice.
1. I would love to write for animation. Besides writing as much as possible, what steps should I take that would make me a better writer for this art form?
2. I love animation, but cannot draw nearly good enough for any type of decent storyboarding. Is this something I need to fix in order to write for animation? I'm good at describing what I want to see, but I'm worried not being talented at drawing will hurt my chances.
3. I'm curious on your stance in terms of writing CAMERA ANGLES and TYPES OF SHOTS in the script. Traditionally, I've been taught to leave that to the director as much as possible. How do you tackles this when you write?
4. In action sequences, how detailed do you go? Do you give a general description for the director or an actual play-by-play. For example, is it more: "they trade punches, parrying each other until Clara gets an opening and hits Harry across the face." OR "Clara goes for the uppercut, but Harry leans back and dodges, then attempts to sweep her legs. Clara jumps over the kick, then grabs his shoulders, and head butts her opponent. She makes up for the previous miss with a fist to the face." (Just came up with that, so obviously not the best examples but hopefully that suffices).
4. What should I do to get hired on a show? I know that connections are key, but as someone who has no connections, what's the best thing for me to do? I have a spec of another show and a pilot for an original series. I'd love to be a writer's assistant, but that also comes about through connections. I have occasionally messaged a creator on social media and asked if there was any opportunities on their show, but I know that's hardly a good method to pursue a career. Any guidance on this aspect would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to answer these fan questions.
Greg responds...
1. Sebastian, I'm going to refer you to the ASK GREG Archives on "Writing" and "Writing Tips" and "Biz, The". No offense, but I've answered this basic question so many times, it's kinda pointless for me to right it up again.
2. I can't draw stick figures well.
3. When I began in animation, we used to do much more directing in our scripts, as opposed to live action scripts, where you are advised to stick to Master Shots. Nowadays, we limit that calling of shots and angles, etc., to specific needs, e.g. we need a close-up on that light switch being turned off or a wide shot to reveal who is in the room or a tight close-up on a character's lips turning up into a cruel smile, etc.
4. I go for the specifics, because it expands page count. And page count equates to time. And if you're script is too long, you'll have to cut. So we try to get an accurate sense of time in the script, even if the board artists chose to choreograph the fight a bit differently.
5. Pre-pandemic, my first question would have been, "Where do you live?" And if your answer was anywhere other than Los Angeles, my second question would have been "When are you moving to Los Angeles?" Now, all the old rules are out the window, at least for the time being. I'm not sure what to recommend. Some of the advice in the archives should still be helpful. Otherwise, we're all just going to have to wait and see what happens, post-pandemic - assuming we ever get post-pandemic.
DK writes...
As a writer and creative, you've been responsible for some of my most cherished childhood and adulthood favorites. Given your experience, I wanted to know what one's approach would be when they come up with a story that they could see manifesting as an animated series? Do you flesh the whole story out as if writing a novel, or do you try and create episodes on paper and tell the whole story; is the process entirely different altogether? I would love your insight on this sensei. Thank You
Greg responds...
Are we talking about selling or producing? They're two very different processes.
Jacob writes...
Hey, Greg?
I'm an aspiring writer. But mainly just as a hobby. Yes I know, writers who write for fun will likely never become accomplished writers.
Bit of dark humor aside, um. I seem to be stuck in a creative rut.
For the past seven months I've made up ideas for superhero stories. Yet, every time, I get quite far into the creative process, and my mind just disconnects. I end up lacking motivation to write, I scrap the idea, and I start over.
I was wondering if you had any advice from writing Gargoyles, or really anything else, that might be able to help me out of this cycle I find myself in time and again.
Thanks,
~Jacob
Greg responds...
My main advice is to write every day. EVERY. DAY. Think of it as a muscle that you have to exercise and build up over time. Some days you may only write a sentence and get stuck. But the next day you write another sentence. And the next day, you cross out the first sentence but write two more. Etc. You work the problem.
More advice is to break every notion down on index cards. Keep adding cards. Pull cards, but never destroy them. If you cross something out, only put a single line through them so you can still read what you wrote. (You never know when an old, formerly-rejected idea may prove useful.) Then once you have your cards feeling right, you write it up as a prose document.
FallenLegend writes...
Hey there greg i fiorst want to say that you're a writer I admire deeply and try to emulate you my writting. One dream of mine is seeing you writing a full Superman series (m,y favorite superhero). I know silly, but I fee like you would be fantastic
Onto my question.
How do you manage to keep us guessing with so maby questions. I mean whenever you answer a question there seems to be another around the corner.
How do you acomplish that? I mean most writers when they answer the big questions, theres nothing else to. Yet with you whenever you answer something a new question rises.
Thank you greg
Greg responds...
We just think of our series as real worlds, with on-going issues. Nothing ever ends, so no answers answer everything. The characters keep moving and advancing on all fronts, including the heroes, villains and supporting cast. Once you keep that in mind, it's harder NOT to raise new questions as you go...
Anonymous writes...
Can you tell us the meaning of the colors of the index cards you use to plan your shows?
Greg responds...
It changes from show to show, even from season to season. And on YJ S3, because of index card shortages of specific colors (this happened, believe it or not), it changed more than once DURING the season.
As an example, in YJ S1:
Green - villains
Red - Justice League
Blue - The Team (hero stuff)
Purple - The Team (teen stuff)
Yellow - Stuff where a specific date matters (like holdays)
White - Stuff that we're laying pipe for but will not objectively reveal to the audience at this time
Jack Carpenter writes...
I've heard a lot about the "core truth" concept you and your team use in your approach to characters.
Are some of these core truths secrets, or would you tell us any that we ask?
Greg responds...
I don't think they're secrets because we put it all up on screen. But my inclination is to let our interpretation stand on its own, influenced by each viewer's own interpretation, as opposed to explicating everything in writing here. Still, I don't mind talking process. I'm not going to go down a laundry list of characters, but if someone were interested in one specific character as an example of the process, I might - depending on my mood and clarity - answer this kind of question once or twice.
FallenLegend writes...
I have questions regarding adapting DC comics.
You see there is certain fan adaptation running around on the net( I won't mention it for obvious reasons) , and to be honest all the changes seem silly, cringe inducing and fanfic like.
Yet all your changes seem logical. I mean replacing Aqualad with Kalduram or Cassie as Wondergirl would be controversial but it's logical and I like it. You even improved on many characters like from the source material like Artemis and Sportsmaster.
Most of the changes you have done are like apple products they just work.
So my question is How do you make earth 17 feel so cohesive and faithful despite doing some heavy changes to the source material?
Greg responds...
Well, for starters, it's Earth-16.
But otherwise the goal is to get down to the core of every character that you're adapting and be true to that. Not all the details matter, proven out by the fact that over 75 years of comics history, a lot of the details about any given character keep changing. But who the character is at her or his core does matter.
All this is influenced by what we've already done in a universe that we're trying to keep cohesive and coherent, so we think about how any new character would fit into that schema. Or if they'll fit. Things like scope effect us too. For example, we talked about including Supergirl in both Season One and Season Two, but her story was too big to fit in either season without derailing our main overall plot or skimping on her story. We'll get to her eventually - no promises as to when - but it'll have to be when we could do justice (YOUNG justice) to her story.
B writes...
I think that in #3 of this question (http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=22075), Lenny was actually asking if a company would consider a recommendation *for* a more seasoned producer, not *from*. i.e. If the newbie who's idea was picked up by the company wanted Dini, Cook or Vietti to produce it, would the company consider that request or just provide their own producer? (I have a feeling I know the answer, but wanted to clarify what Lenny was asking)
Greg responds...
Ah. Yeah, I didn't get that.
I guess you could ask for whomever you wanted, but whether they can cooperate with that suggestion will depend on a load of factors, including but not limited to availability, cost, interest, studio needs, etc.
Anonymous writes...
Hi! I'd like to ask you a question from a writing standpoint if you don't mind. When juggling a lot of plotlines, how important is it to develop relationships on-screen? On the one hand, obviously the main couples should be. But for the minor ones/background characters, I'm not sure if it's better to leave their relationship status static (which would be unrealistic for most) until I can properly develop something for them, or sometimes put them in side relationships based on chemistry even without much prior development. This would be provided that these relationships could be used to further individual storylines, just not important enough to warrant too much attention from the main plot. It's okay if you don't have an answer, but I'm curious if you do.
Greg responds...
Every character should have his or her own life, even if you don't always have the screen time for it.
Eric writes...
I found a tumblr post that talks about great characters with the link below.
http://giancarlovolpe.tumblr.com/post/98392197924/a-study-in-creating-great-characters-by-aaron
I also remembered you answered a question like that.
"I believe they exist as fully as possible. I create backstories for them, whether or not those backstories will be revealed on screen or on the page. I make them real to me."
So for the actual questions:
1. What do you think about the tumblr post? I think "compelling" and "fascinating" seem too subjective.
2. What exactly do you mean by "exist as fully as possible"? I'm guessing you want to give as much of an image of a character as you can, but I'm also sure that's the main task of any story.
3. You also said that you want to make the characters seem real to yourself, but how do you make them real to the viewer?
4. This one might be redundant, so it probably doesn't need to be answered. But just in case, how do you make characters and stories that the audience can enjoy?
5. I also know you've said that you write your passion, but how do you know it will appeal to others? It all sounds like being hopeful.
Greg responds...
1. Perhaps. But so is "relatable" and "sympathetic". They're directions to head not a detailed map.
2. It's not the main task to make of any story to make EVERY character in the story fully realized. My feeling is - within reasonable parameters - that it SERVES the story to have fully realized characters, who have their own backstories and motives that are specific to them.
3. I cross my fingers that if it works for me, it'll work for a substantial portion of my audience.
4. I write what I like, and cross the above-mentioned fingers. The alternative is pointless. If I can't get passionate about my story, how can I possibly expect anyone else to?
5. That's all it is. Honestly. See above.
Carl Johnson writes...
Hello Mr. Weisman,
I had just a couple of questions.
1. One thing about the animation industry is that once a season is over there is no guarantee that the next season will be picked up. Should some one have a plan B for another profession if the next season does not work out? Or is there plenty of work in California that if you did your job well, finding another one should not take long?
2.If someone has a animation idea they want to pitch and have all the details worked out (pitch bible, characters, story, and pilot script) how would they know when they could pitch the idea?
3. I had a question for attires for animation shows. Does it cost more to have different episodic attires for characters or do characters have only one attire to save time? I know in Spectacular, Peter had a winter attire with the jacket, or that one time he had the black shirt with brown pants during the symbiote removal episode but is there a choice on whether they can change their attire episode by episode to add more realism?
Thanks!
Greg responds...
1. Well, uh... There are no guarantees. I try to have other work lined up, pretty much always. And sometimes I'm just flat-out unemployed for stretches. This gig is not for the faint of heart, I guess.
2. I'm not sure I understand the question. If you're ready, pitch. But my caution would be to be careful not to poison the water. If it's a work in progress, and isn't actually very good (YET), then I wouldn't pitch. Make sure you're only showing the best possible version of what you've got. On the other hand, there's not much point in noodling forever on an idea. If it's solid, go for it.
3. Every design - and new clothes are a new design - cost time, which costs money. So, yes, in animation, we need a pretty good reason to give characters additional wardrobe. But if we need it, we need it.
RexBlazer1 writes...
Hello Greg,
Not so much a question as an attempt to clear some things up. You said that you didn't remember our first exchange, so, here's a link:
http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=21729
The follow-up exchange:
http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=21290
I do hope this clears things up. I checked the links on my end and they appear to work. If they don't work for you then I'll just have to copy and paste, which will probably take up more space than I wanted to use.
Greg responds...
Okay, yeah, reread it all. (You've got the links switched, but they're both there.)
As I suspected, I wasn't upset the first time. I don't even seem to be annoyed. I was just giving you my honest response to your question, which was that I thought to some extent it was the wrong question for a writer to ask.
As for the second post, as I noted, you seemed to have a better handle on things.
So no worries on my end.
Good luck with your stories.
qwerty writes...
As a general rule of thumb, how far do you like to plan ahead with stuff you write?
Greg responds...
All the way. At least to the end of each season, with at least some clear sense of where we'd go next.
Joshua Starnes writes...
I am getting ready to write my first professional scripts for animation. At the risk of asking a really broad question, what is the number one thing from your experience you would tell a starting out writer in the medium to keep in mind?
Greg responds...
Proofread relentlessly.
ClarkeC writes...
Hey Mr.Weisman, managed to check out Starbrand and Nightmask and it was pretty good to no one's surprise. Also congrats on a season 3 of Young Justice. I just have two questions regarding that show.
1. You mentioned that there was both a timeline(that only you and Brandon are privy to) and a series bible(with details like Vandal Savage being Attila
the Hun supposedly). In the context of Young Justice, is their a difference or are they more or less the same.
2. You mentioned on this site that you used post cards and a giant billboards with different cards with different colors to establish certain dialogue or plot points. Do you also use them for events off screen such during the time skip or prior to the series?
Thanks in advance for time.
Greg responds...
1. They are two different documents. I'm constantly updating the timeline. The bible, I haven't looked at in five years.
2. Index cards, not post cards. And, yes, sometimes.
Zaggadabba writes...
1) How do you try to keep things unpredictable when you know that by the simple law of enough monkeys with enough typewriters, some fan out there will figure out any twist sooner or later?
2) How do you balance keeping a villain interesting/likable without making it so much so that the audience roots for them instead of the protagonist?
Greg responds...
1. Can't worry about that. We tell the stories that we want to tell. That our characters tell us we need to tell. Inevitably, some percentage of our audience will figure out our game. Inevitably, some will be surprised. If the story is well-told, hopefully both groups will still enjoy it.
2. Give them motivation that makes sense, but don't sugarcoat their actions.
Robert Misirian writes...
Hi Mr. Weisman. I remember we met in WonderCon last year and I asked you questions about writing spec scripts for cartoons. I remember you said that I should write three scripts, then go over them, and only submit one of them if you're absolutely sure it's good.
Knowing what you and your crew got away with in Young Justice, how do how people like you and Gennedy Tartakovsky on Sym-Bionic Titan get away with the TV-PG content and make your show with teens in mind? And since I plan to make TV-14 shows for the main Cartoon Network channel, would the channel accept them?
Greg responds...
You'd have to ask them. The needs of ANY given channel are constantly changing.
And I don't write for an older audience. I write on levels so it works for the widest possible audience.
Kelli writes...
Hi Mr. Greg! Firstly I'd like to say how much I truly enjoy your shows and shows you've written for, you've been an inspiration to myself as a writer for a long time. You're one of the greats!
I have some questions about writing, if that's okay.
1. As stated previously, I admire your writing greatly and wanted to know if there are some tips you could give me in writing a series focused on a team and writing for multiple characters? I'm currently working on my original ideas, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that a lot of my writing pace and story planning/arcing is influenced by watching shows such as Spectacular Spider-Man, YJ, TMNT and many others including comics like Kanan: The Last Padawan (I own every issue)that you've written for. But writing for multiple characters can become difficult since I write in third person.
2. Have you ever gotten "bogged down" so to speak in writing a series planned on spanning over a period of time?
3. Lastly, do you find it hard to focus on what's happening in the series currently instead of jumping to the conclusion because of exciment for the end? If so, how do you stay focused?
Just for fun question: When not writing for tv, what's your prefered voice for writing, first or third?
Thank you for your time, and I can't wait to read/watch what you write next!
Greg responds...
1. I've answered questions like this before, so check the WRITING and WRITING TIPS archives here at ASK GREG for more details. But it's hard to answer your question, because I'm not clear what you're trying to accomplish. When you say you're "writing a series," what does that mean? Television? Movies? Books? Comics? Short stories? A proposal for one or the other or all? Are you asking me about choreographing action or about juggling storylines or something else?
2. Sure.
3. Sometimes. DEADLINES help me focus.
4. I don't have a preference. It depends on the needs of the specific story.
Anonymous writes...
What do I need to write in character biographies? As I'm making my project, the way I do my character bios, I write a lot of backstor, the characters' personality, birthday and age, and a bit of present, etc. Is that all necessary or do I need to do them in a better order?
Greg responds...
There aren't any rules. You do what you need.
Marvelman writes...
Hi. A little while ago I requested a character oriented slant for a hypothetical third season of Young Justice. I want to rescind my request. As I sit here working on my YA novel, I realized that no writer can work that way. He/she can only tell the story she wants to tell and hope other people like it.
Greg responds...
Yep.
Taylor writes...
Hi Greg,
In your opinion, what are some of the key factors that separate a good story/script from a poor one (especially as it applies to writing in episodic television)?
Thanks
Greg responds...
Uh...
Good structure.
Story that comes out of character.
Dialogue that sounds like something human beings would actually say.
Some amount of surprise.
And if we're literally talking about the script itself: PROOFREADING!
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