A Picture Inspires A Thousand Words

A PICTURE INSPIRES A THOUSAND WORDS I just lately sat down, through Skype, with Pro Se Productions’s Tommy Hancock to talk about new pulp, my story in his anthology Sixguns & Spaceships, and a new project I’m working on for him: a short story based mostly on an illustration. It struck me, even as 12 months-finish work overload and other bullshit excuses stored me from posting last week, that this idea of starting with an illustration is worthy of additional examination. First, Tommy gave me the okay to share with you the sensible new pulp SF illustration by the proficient Adam Shaw. “Write to the Cover” I spotted this while simply flipping through their website online and was immediately in. How does someone like me, a collector of Ace SF Doubles, a died-in-the-wool pulp/Golden Age SF fanboy, move up an opportunity like this? All we authors have to go on is this illustration, with no further clarification. I get to resolve if that vast golden robotic is a good guy or a nasty guy. Is the robot attempting to kill our blue-clad heroine, or is it about to save her life? What’s she looking at? The guy in pink with the backpack and helmet seems shocked, but is it a happy shock, or an “oh crap, I’m about to get stomped to demise” surprise? What’s this girl’s story? What does her groovy ray gun do? Why is she wearing blue and the other guy’s in pink? Is this robotic artificially clever or remotely operated? Can it discuss? Does it have some kind of plan or agenda? That question goes as to whether or not it’s a “monster” or a “character.” In this case this illustration turns into a type of fee. It implies some set of rules, nevertheless free, and obtained my creativeness instantly and totally charged. A Paul Jaquays masterpiece! In that podcast I mentioned a e-book that I worked on at Wizards of the Coast: The Star of Cursrah by Clayton Emery. That book started as a portray, too. In that case we had commissioned cowl artwork for a novelization of the Second Edition AD&D reb oot of the traditional journey Tomb of Horrors. Alas, that e-book was by no means printed but the brilliant (then) Paul Jaquays portray remained and I finally requested, “Hey, can we still use that?” We might, and I had a sequence that was starting that explored a number of the historic, lost empires of the Forgotten Realms world, and this was a perfect match, so I despatched the illustration to Clayton and he wrote a incredible book, building from that image. It’s necessary, especially for you self-publishers on the market, to keep in mind that Tommy Hancock and Pro Se Productions has a professional arrangement with Adam Shaw to make use of that painting for his or her anthology. Paul Jaquays was paid for the duvet artwork, with all rights going to Wizards of the Coast, whatever the story it eventually introduced. Before you hare off into the fantasy, horror, and SF artwork-rich web to seek out art to encourage your subsequent story, understand you could’t just grab an arti st’s work and run with it. But there are two things you can do: Find an artist who’s as “up-and-coming” as you might be an author and introduce your self. Maybe work out some type of partnership agreement to share the proceeds. At the very least get a written release to make use of that piece of artwork on a non-unique foundation. Or, very carefully, go out and find public area art. And it turns out the web is full of it. In this case you received’t get artwork that looks significantly “trendy,” particularly for science fiction tales, however however, when you’re writing fantasy, some medieval sources or different old, traditional art pieces can provide inspiration for whole strange new worlds. And as an train, a minimum of, the weirder the illustration the higher the writing problem, and the greater your artistic freedom. For occasion, write a short story based mostly on this: Consider yourselves “prompted.” I dare you. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Reminds me a little bit of C.S. Lewis. He had a psychological picture of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in the snow that was the beginning of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” There is another benefit, here, too. If you begin with the quilt artwork, you don’t have to search out an artist who can seize your already fashioned psychological picture.