Master Seminar with Kieron Gillen: Surviving Work For Hire Writing

When Image released Kieron Gillen’s first book, Phonogram, in 2006, he presumed that – at the absolute best – he’d be a semi-underground creator, toiling in obscurity. More so – that’s what he wanted. That’s who he figured he was. By the end of the decade, he was writing Uncanny X-Men. He was as surprised as everyone else.

Since then, he’s won awards. He’s written some of the biggest books in the industry. He’s made new characters popular enough to be spun off to their own books. He’s created huge creator-owned hits. Yet he’s still shocked when Marvel’s Editor-In-Chief calls him.

Kieron has thought about it extensively, and thinks he has useful answers for any writer. Especially as a writer who hopes to do good work in a system which is best described as a cross between “everything you wished for” and “a gleefully nightmarish machine that will eviscerate your hopes and dreams.”

To some, working for the Big Two is the dream. To others, it’s a means to the end. Whether you’re a dreamer, a cynic, or both, Kieron has things to tell you. Dig beneath truisms like “Be Good, Be On Time, Be Pleasant” to see how you can use Work for Hire as much as Work for Hire uses you.

In short: Horror stories! Moments of triumph! Things to do! Things not to do! LOTS OF THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER DO! In short: how to be the writer they want you to be – without becoming the writer who can’t look in the mirror.

Topics include:

• Planning your career, both critically and commercially
• How to pitch and when not to
• How to plan a story, and what to do when a major crossover crashes into it
• Why the job isn’t professional fanfic, alas
• When to say “Yes” and when to say “No”
• Everything he knows about the writing of serial 20-page American comic books
• Amusing horror stories, and how to survive them