Suvudu welcomes author David Liss, who drops by to talk about the switch from writing historical fiction to historical fantasy fiction, the biggest difference between writing novels and comic books, and more. David is the author of The Whiskey Rebels, The Ethical Assassin, A Spectacle of Corruption, The Coffee Trader, A Conspiracy of Paper, and most recently, The Twelfth Enchantment. He is also winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and children.
These days my career is looking a little different than it used to. It wasn’t that long ago that I could say I wrote historical novels, and that pretty much described my career. Now I write short horror fiction, monthly comic books, and my most recent novel, The Twelfth Enchantment, while still historical fiction, has plenty of elements of urban fantasy. As I travel in support of this new book, among the questions I’m most frequently asked are why I decided to write a fantasy novel and to describe the differences in writing comics and novels.
First of all, the move from writing historical fiction to historical fantasy fiction wasn’t that big a jump for me. I’ve always grounded my fiction in real moments with well-researched cultural contexts, but I’ve never written the kind of book that turns real historical events into fictionalized accounts. I prefer the freedom of playing with my own characters who can do what I think makes for the best story rather than working with historical figures who have to do what the facts demand. That being the case, re-creating the past ends up feeling a whole lot like world-building. My books tend to be very research-based, and The Twelfth Enchantment is no different because while there is magic in this book, it is all historically-realistic magic. For most of recorded history, real people practiced magic that they believed worked, and in my novel it does work. No one shoots sparks out of wands or makes horses fly. This is subtle magic based on real charms found in real books that real people read and used. So, like the other historical novels I’ve written, much of this book is made up, but it follows rules. I was still limited by what historians know about the past – it’s just that in this case, it’s historians of magic.
The biggest difference between writing novels and comic books is the shape of the storytelling. Comics are a visual medium, and every word on the page needs to be written while keeping in mind the image that will eventually go with it. Stories are told dynamically and with exciting or compelling or emotional pictures in mind. Then there is the matter of length. A novel can be as long as it needs to be, but most comic books are either twenty or twenty-two pages, and each page ought not to have more than five or six panels. And you can’t load those panels with text. It doesn’t look right. So the story has to fit the length of the medium, and that limits what characters can say or do.
It sounds constricting and limiting, right? It is, but then again, it isn’t. The comic book is like the sonnet. There are rules that you can’t violate in order for it to be what it is. There are requirements of length and, with a mainstream publisher like Marvel, with content as well. And yet, within those limitations, you can do and say anything. In a way, the form is freeing. Maybe one of the best new skills I’ve learned as a writer, after spending so many years telling stories in a particular way, is how to accept limitations in what I’m allowed to do and then present my work to readers who expect no limitations in the story. Getting it right is a skill I hope I’ve been able to bring to my novels.
