Tandra Page 1071, December 20, 2009

Created on 12/20/2009

by Hanther

When I go to comics shops and book stores to meet the people who read Tandra, I get a lot of those “Where do your ideas come from?” questions. Quick answer; they come from the obvious places which means anyplace and everywhere. The problem is not how to discover ideas, but how to winnow them down to a manageable level.

Another question that comes up often is “How far ahead do you write your stuff?”

That’s not so easy to answer as might first appear. How far ahead I actually type the exact words as they will be read on the page is from a couple weeks ahead to a couple of months. By this I mean I generally write more than one page at a sitting. Then, though the words are ready to copy and paste to the art, I normally tweak the copy up until the last minute before I send it off to my tech guy for posting. Even then, if I see something that really annoys me after the page is on line, I can make the alteration and send it to my tech guy and have him replace the offending page that is already on line. That means, even though you have read the pages, you might want to check the back story on occasion to see if anything has been altered.

As to how far I plot the story ahead as opposed to the actual writing of the words themselves, I determined before the very first Tandra words were typed and before the first concept sketches were drawn there would be a war between Tandra and Earth. It has taken over a quarter century to get to the point at which the hostilities actually begin (and we are not quite there yet, but we are close) because I needed to set the stage and, seriously, an interplanetary war requires considerable stage setting.

How much detail did I set down when I first began to plan for a war story long years ago? Quite a bit, actually. I am moderately surprised with myself as I begin the war, how little the essential idea has been altered over time. The not too subtle references to the Climategate fraud are obviously of recent addition, but I knew thirty years ago the war would be brought into being by political manipulation. I also knew the oil rich Arabs would be involved and there would be enough treachery on both sides to satisfy even the most hardened cynic.

How far ahead do I plot my stories? Years and years so far as the primary action is concerned.

May the sun always shine on your parade!

Next Week; “Treachery Optional”

Tandra...more than escapist fantasy, it’s a revolution!

Hanther

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