The Development of the Menzuo ~ Solar Warrior’s Series
Many people ask me how I went about developing my Menzuo ~ Solar Warrior’s series. I am going to do my best to answer this question that is so frequently asked. Here we go….
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE STORY AND CONCEPT FOR YOUR MENZUO?
Back in 1996, while my best friend, Marcus McDowell was in the Baystate Medical hospital, battling cancer, I visited him every day. While there, we used to create our own short comics to ease his mind from dealing with the pains of his cancer. We both wanted to create the ultimate superhero that kids could grow up with. This superhero would have all of the best super powers and would become the ultimate superhero, ever created, hence the birth of Menzuo.
I created the biography of Menzuo, and Marcus illustrated the character. We also created an entirely new universe with other warriors and super villains. Our time getting lost in each character and action scene, completely made him forget about his pain. Unfortunately, Marcus passed away eleven months later, just before Christmas and never got to see the completion any of the stories.
After Marcus passed, each of the characters that we created stuck with me. It was as if I had a running movie playing in my head, and I had to get it out.
Being a huge fan of superheroes and fantasy, the concept of putting a story together became a fun and healing project for me as I tried to deal with that huge loss in my life. I didn’t want to create a comic book. I wanted to create a superhero, chapter book. This was my mission and the best way for me to express my story.
I loked at all of the characters that we created within the eleven months and I also added a few characters to the story, to make it flow the way that I wanted it to. This is where the process started. So, here is how it all started for me…
• I put a layout of all of the characters that were created for this story in front of me (this was the beginning of my brainstorming process).
• I thought of a story to develop around all of the characters and especially the main character (give each character a background and purpose).
• I created an outline of my story (conflict, resolution, structure of the story, ending, then the beginning ‘very important’, significance of each character in the story, then select a title)
• I start the story with an ending. This part changed several times by the time I got to the ‘so called’ end of the story.
• Now it was time to write. I started with the entrance of the main character into the story (first draft)
• I didn’t worry about breaking up the chapters at this point as I just let the story flow (this process took about six months for me to complete)
• After reading the first draft, I typed it out. Oh yeah, my first manuscript was written out in pencil on paper. VERY OLD SCHOOL.
• During the second draft, I started to break up the book into chapters. I came to find that many things that I wrote didn’t flow or were in the wrong place. I had to maneuver parts of the story to make it continuously consistent with what I wanted.
• After the second draft was complete, it was time to read over the story and make my own changes (as you can see, this is a very long process).
• After editing my own story, I worked on the third draft of the story (now I have put together the book the way that I wanted but I wasn’t done).
• After I completed the third draft, it was time to re-read it again. I looked for any inconsistencies in the story and also if each chapter described what was written in them.
• After I was satisfied with my work, it was time to create the title. This was the fun part. It came down to three titles that I came up with but in the end, I chose: Menzuo in the Calling of the Sun Prince.
So this was my process of creating my first book. As the story ended, I purposely left many unanswered questions in the story. This kept my mind active on creating more. Once I saw that I had more stories to tell, I knew that I wanted to create my own series. I started the same process over, with the above bulleted outline. For me it was great to have created a biography of each character for the first book. This made it much easier to develop a theme for the rest of my books.
After a couple of months, I had an outline for several stories within my series. I saw that I had become addicted to writing and wanted to make each story come full circle. I had to keep writing. My writing process began for my second book: Menzuo S.W. (Solar Warriors) Legend of the Blue Diamond, shortly after.
With everything in front of me, the outline and the characters this story flowed effortlessly.
The best thing that happened after I published my first book, Menzuo in the Calling of the sun Prince, I was able to hook up with some great friends, who were willing to take my characters to the next level. Kein Bailey worked with me on the second book and helped develop many of the new characters and some of the old ones for the story. I later met Carl Harrison, who has taken my characters to unchartered territories.
With the help of Carl, Menzuo and the Solar Warrior’s have grown from just a dream, to a true reality.
Well…I hope that this has answered the question of the development of my Menzuo S.W. series. Please look out for my next blog as I answer the question of how I created the Heroes and Villains within the Menzuo S.W. series.
