When you're lucky, the bit that leaps into your head is the first threads of the tapestry. More often than not, I have found, the initial inspiration occurs well into the story, and I am left with the question,"Okay, now how the heck do I get there?"
With The Glass Isle, the comic-book I am creating, the initiatory vision was the end of the story. There are some tremendous advantages to this: I know where I am going, and I know what threads I need to weave into the pattern to get there. I know what the story is about (trust me, this is big. Writers rarely know what we are writing about until we are done the first draft) and I know what tone I need to affect to get the payoff I want for that ending.
From this ending sprung all the major characters -- the rash princess Moira, the heroic Brogan One-Arm, the malevolent Heremod; and, above all, the quietly brave young nashi, Tuuk-ta-ek-ek-iv. From this ending I also got my treasured beginning; knowing where the road would end, there was only one place for it to start.
And so, we begin, as young Tuk pulls the sheet over the dead forms of his parents, the consolative Doctor Mok-Mok at his side...
...next: so what the heck is a "nashi" anyways?
