[B5JMS] JMS: Episodic storytelling

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: janmschroeder at aol.com (Jan)
Date: 31 Jan 2003 23:25:18 GMT
Lines: 14

It occurs to me that in some ways you're trying to learn to tell your stories
in the fewest possible words. From writing novels (250-350 pages), to plays (?
pages) through TV episodes and Movies (50-100 pages) and audio dramas (?
pages), you're now writing a fair number of comics with only 22 pages, though I
know that the scripts are more with your panel descriptions.

I'm just wondering if this is a progression you've been doing deliberately, to
find the perfect balance of verbal and visual maybe, or just how things
happened?  Maybe your background as a journalist is telling ("specificity is
your friend")?  Or should I start working on getting telepathic so you can just
p'think your stories this way?

Jan


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 11 Feb 2003 08:40:34 GMT
Lines: 34

>It occurs to me that in some ways you're trying to learn to tell your stories
>in the fewest possible words. From writing novels (250-350 pages), to plays
>(?
>pages) through TV episodes and Movies (50-100 pages) and audio dramas (?
>pages), you're now writing a fair number of comics with only 22 pages, though
>I
>know that the scripts are more with your panel descriptions.
>
>I'm just wondering if this is a progression you've been doing deliberately,
>to
>find the perfect balance of verbal and visual maybe, or just how things
>happened?  Maybe your background as a journalist is telling ("specificity is
>your friend")?  Or should I start working on getting telepathic so you can
>just
>p'think your stories this way?
>

I think (p'think?) it's just the way things have laid out lately.  In truth
it's very difficult for me to tell a short story; with me, everything's a long
russian novel.  Even with the comics being 22 pages each, they are still part
of a larger story or arc, and the RS and Midnight Nation stories were/are both
just plain big for a form that usually measures arcs in 3-6 issues.

Just long-winded, I guess.
 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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