Babel Clash

Morgan,

I’ve considered the screenplay thing. Who hasn’t at some point daydreamed about giving their acceptance speech at the Oscars - the one for most awesomist screenplay? (Or is that just me? That category exists, doesn’t it?) I’ve also had three novels optioned for film, so in some ways I had things to tangibly hang that daydreaming on.

But I’ve actually be quite shy about it. I’ve tended to think that writing novels is what I do, and that I might be better off leaving screenplays to the professionals. With that in mind, I was happy for Alan Taylor to write the screenplay for Gabriel’s Story, and for Andrew Grant to write the one for Acacia: The War with the Mein. Walk Through Darkness never got that far, but I also didn’t push to write it myself. There are always novels to be written, and ultimately that’s where I think my focus needs to remain.

As for comics… Again, I’d love to see my fiction in comic form, but I’m not actively trying to make that happen myself. I’ve moved a half-step that way, though. I’ve just completed a three part story for George RR Martin’s Wild Cards novels. I quite enjoyed writing about a half-snake vigilante called the Infamous Black Tongue. He’s definitely a comic book character, but I wrote him as straight fiction in this case. It does take me a little closer to that part of the world, though, and I like that.

Related posts:

• Medium Hopping
  We’re talking about genre hopping, but we also have medium or format hopping.  We have authors such as Mike Carey and Dan Abnett writing comics.  Jim Butcher wrote a Dresden Files comic.  Neil Gaiman is writing screenplays.  George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones and Charlaine Harris’ True Blood are...
• Re: Medium Hopping
  The short answer is that I’d love to if the opportunity arises!  Not so much screenplays.  I tried writing a screenplay once at the urging of friend Kris Meyer.  He liked a horror short story of mine called “The Harlequin and the Train” (4200 words) and thought I should try...
• Genre hopping
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• Lots of Hopping
  Jeff, I very much looking forward to that reading. It means me coming out of the woods for an evening in the city. Haven’t done that for a while. It’ll be good fun, I’m sure! Paul, I appreciate genre mixing. I have to admit I don’t feel cool enough to...
• In (brief!) defense of genre mixing
  Yes, you can hear agents cringe and editors spit out their coffees at the mere mention of genre hopping or mixing; their jobs made, somehow, infinitely more difficult because there is no pre-fab marketing niche for your novel that mixes SF, western, and cozy mystery! I say that with tongue...