A Pro Speaks: Gail Simone on Gen13

I'm sorry I post so much about Gail Simone, but she is really awesome, and Newsarama is putting out this series of interviews with her where she keeps saying insightful things.

Blame her, not me.

So the G13 kids started to seep into my brain, and ideas started coming, and thoughts started to seep in, and I decided to do the book. Funny thing is, I don’t think I ever actually said yes...suddenly I was just plotting issue one with no idea how I got there.

That’s big time comics, friends! One day you have a clue, and then BOOM! You’re finding clever ways to rip clothes off teenagers!

I've had this happen to me more times than I can recall. Inspiration can strike any time, anywhere. Though, I have it happen to me more in certain situations than in others. I think I read somewhere that Stephen King had a lot of his ideas come to him in the shower, happens to me all the time. Riding the train helps too, because I see all these people and my mind wanders and starts telling stories about some of the more interesting people.

Though, there is the other half of writing, where you have to create your own inspiration. This can be difficult and frustrating, but is also totally worth the effort. I find it's best to sit down and meditate on the story told thus far. There are always elements of your own story that you can use to drive the story, I think. I think it's always important to introduce lots of plot elements at the start of a tale, so you can work with them later on, and to draw interest. It's by no means an easy thing to do, but neither is writing a story, and that's what we're talking about here.