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My Future Shock Hell: Breaking Into 2000 AD (And What I Learned While Doing It)

5/19/2014

52 Comments

 
I recently gave a talk at the Bristol Comic Expo 2014 about how I started writing for 2000 AD by pitching Future Shocks scripts. I’ve written up my notes as the following blog, covering everything from submission tactics to coping with rejection and why there’s really no such thing as ‘breaking in’

This blog positions me as some kind of veteran - albeit of a teeny-tiny patch of comicdom - so I'd better show off a couple of medals before I start dishing out advice. I’ve had two original series published in 2000 AD, that’s Age Of The Wolf and Dandridge. I’ve also written Tales From The Black Museum, Robo-Hunter, and Judge Dredd. So there.

​

But before I got to write all that, I ‘broke in’ by submitting Tharg’s Future Shocks (read on to find out why I just dropped the inverted-comma bomb). What the heck is a Future Shock? Well, according to the 2000 AD submission guidelines they’re “self-contained, four-page science-fiction short stories with a twist ending”. These things appear several times a year in 2000 AD and there are several genre variants that employ the same format. These include horror stories called Terror Tales, time-travel stories called Time Twisters and alternate-history stories called Past Imperfect. But do bear in mind, if you’re submitting, that Tharg is asking for Future Shocks!
 
Now, 2000 AD has an open-door submissions policy, which means anyone can take a crack at writing a Future Shock and have a fair shot at getting it published. As such, this is the route through which the majority of new writers come to 2000 AD. This was how Simon Spurrier and Al Ewing arrived, both of whom now write for Marvel. Arthur Wyatt, writer of the bestselling Dredd movie sequel comic Underbelly, also fought his way through the slush pile, as did, most recently, writer and artist David Baillie (whose excellent blog contains a wealth of behind-the-magic info) and novelist T.C. Eglington (author of popular children’s books The Spellbound Hotel and its sequel The Stolen City).

Having gone through this apprenticeship myself, from submitting my first Future Shock to graduating to my first series, I’ve learned a great deal. But before I go into any of that, first let me tell you what I’m not going to tell you.

I’m not going to tell you how to get your Future Shock submission accepted. Why? Because I don't know. I’m not the editor; I’m the freelancer. I’m the guy on the outside looking in and as such have no idea what the editor does or doesn’t do, what processes he may or may not go through, what he may favour or can't stand. (Here’s a good time for me to add a little disclaimer along the lines of ‘all opinions expressed herein are my own and do not represent those of Rebellion, yadda, yadda, yadda…’)

All I can tell you is what worked for me; and the truth is all anyone can tell you is what worked for them. Telling people how to break into comics (and Craig Mazin of the wonderful Scriptnotes podcast said exactly this of screenwriting in the US) is like telling them how to lose their virginity. I can tell you how I lost mine (and I usually will after six pints of Stella), but that’s it. Everyone’s circumstances are different. It’s therefore pretty much impossible to dish out one-size-fits-all advice.

However, one thing we can all agree on is that Future Shocks are super-hard to write well. And here’s four reasons why:

1.) You’re trying to surprise the reader with a final-page twist that they know is coming the second they see the words ‘Future Shocks’ on the contents page. Regular readers know these things contain twists and will have rounded up a list of possible punchlines by the time they've reached the bottom of the first page. 'I'll bet it was Earth all along, or the main character's really a ghost, or he's the killer he's been searching for all along, or maybe...'

2.) You’ve got only four pages in which to build a sense of character or consequence, so the reader actually cares about what you’re writing.

3.) It’s hard to avoid what’s been done before. Never mind what Future Shocks have been coming up with since they first appeared in 2000 AD in 1977, short-form sting-in-the-tail sci-fi stories have been doing their thing since at least the 1890s, when H.G. Wells was writing War Of The Worlds. Over a century later, even the most seemingly original ideas have likely been done to death already. (It’s interesting how at least two recent Future Shocks reflected this sense of a creative bottleneck by offering very postmodern spins on the Future Shock story: Simon Spurrier and Jon Davis-Hunt’s Hacked (Prog 1754, Oct 2011) and David Baillie and Graeme Neil Reid’s Time Is The Only Enemy (Prog 1837, June 2013). The first was a witty deconstruction of classic Future Shock tropes, while the second featured a Future Shock writer who essentially found himself in the middle of one of his own stories.)

4.) Competition is fierce. I asked Tharg himself, 2000 AD’s almighty alien editor, how many Future Shock submissions does the Nerve Centre receive? I was told approximately two a day. That’s 10 a week, around 40 a month and almost 500 a year. And how many Future Shocks actually got published in 2013? Seven.
 
What’s your best chance of getting a script accepted amid that scrum? Like I said, I don’t know, but here’s what happened with me. I started submitting in January 2007. At the time I’d had a lot of film journalism published, but had no creative credits. I’d written plenty of short stories and wotnot but had nothing published outside the small press. Once I had decided to target 2000 AD, I submitted relentlessly and got rejected half as much again. So the first thing I learned about writing Future Shocks was…

WRITE PLENTY OF SCRIPTS!

Submitting Future Shocks is a war of attrition in which scripts are your ammunition. We’re talking World War Z tactics here, whereby you get over the wall by clambering up a pile of rejected scripts, each one better than the last. Now here’s the next thing I learned…

REJECTION IS A CERTAINTY!

After getting hit by several of these horrible little form letters, you’re going to feel as though you’re feeding all your hard work into a shredder. I coped by telling myself…

WRITE LIKE YOU’VE ALREADY BEEN REJECTED!

Here’s some good news: All you need to care about is writing your script. You can’t control what happens once you’ve posted it. You can’t control whether it gets accepted or rejected. You can’t control what artist might work on it. You can’t control whether the readers will love it, hate it or dismiss it as ‘filler’. Hell, you can’t even guarantee Royal Mail can get your submission as far as Oxford! So don’t distract yourself by worrying about the possibilities. Focus on the script you’re writing. Don’t worry about failing or succeeding. Keep a clear head. This allows you to bring all your experience and ability to bear, and this will help you write as well as you possibly can.

While attempting to maintain this Zen-state (not always successfully), I knuckled down until I had a stack of scripts on file; around six or seven. So, as soon as that rejection arrived I could fire off a replacement straight away. Of course, if the editor had included any feedback with that rejection (e.g. ‘too many panels per page’, ‘you need to dramatize the story rather than just narrate it’) then I’d review the script I was about to send out, just to make sure I wasn’t making that same mistake twice.

IMPLEMENT ANY EDITORIAL FEEDBACK!

This went on for about three years, in between other writing jobs, including film journalism and subediting, until I got to a stage where Tharg let me pitch ideas instead of having to write the entire script. By now I’d been regularly writing film and comic-related reviews, articles and interviews for the Judge Dredd Megazine. It's perhaps safe to assume that the fact my copy always met the brief, the word count, and the deadline, went some way towards convincing Tharg that I was a safe pair of hands.

Soon after, I ventured an idea for my first series (Age Of The Wolf), which got accepted, after which I was ‘in’, although ‘in’ means whatever you want it to mean. No one gives you a certificate. Tharg doesn’t invite you to the Nerve Centre and say ‘I dub thee a script-droid’ (and if he did he’d probably only anoint you with a clip round the ear and threats of further violence unless you returned to your cubicle straight away).

Having gone through all that (the submitting Future Shocks not the Betelgeusian beatdown), I can probably distil everything I’ve learned about submitting Future Shocks into two broad categories of wisdom…

1.) ASK YOURSELF WHY YOU’RE DOING THIS

2.) GET IN BY GETTING GOOD.


Let me break these two down, starting with the first one.

Having spoken to many writers over the years, I reckon there’s three types of people who submit Future Shocks: fans, aspiring professionals and established professionals. The fans aren’t in it for long haul; they’re just taking a punt on a cool idea, which is still a perfectly valid reason for submitting. These guys and girls are in the game on a casual basis. The aspiring pros, however, are in it to win it. They want to write comics professionally one day. The established professionals
are already making a living out of writing and for them this is just another outlet. These folks may be seasoned journalists, or fiction writers with several novels under their belt.

In terms of who stands the best chance of writing the sort of script most likely to get accepted, the established professionals probably have the edge, if only because they can write well enough to get paid to do it. The aspiring professionals probably have the advantage over the fans because they’re more likely to have studied the techniques that make a good script. Notice my emphasis here not on getting accepted, but on writing a good script. Because the surest route towards acceptance is to…

WRITE A GOOD SCRIPT!

I’m reminded here of an anecdote I once heard about an agent who telephones a publisher and says, ‘My client’s written a 10,000-word novel. Would you be interested in publishing it?’ To which the publisher replies, ‘Depends which words and in which order.’

To write a good script you’ll need to know how to build up an idea, how to tell a story visually, and understand drama, character and plot (and how those last three are all the same thing). So the advice to the underdogs out there has to be…

THINK LIKE A PRO EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT!

Don’t think like an amateur. Think like the writer you want to become. Get good at what you’re doing.

When I first started submitting I guess I was somewhere between aspiring and established (lots of work in niche publications and not much else, but I’d been around the block enough times to know what I was doing). When I started writing comics, I made all the usual rookie mistakes, which Tharg got me to wring out of the accepted scripts before they went to the artists. But once I’d made that first couple of sales and emerged blinking into the wonderful world of professional comics writing, I started to realise that a lot of the terminology I was used to hearing when I was still a Future Shock virgin didn’t really reflect the truth, certainly not as I was experiencing it.

For starters, ‘breaking in’, as I discovered, is really more like ‘seeping in’, like mould. I recall Simon Spurrier saying something to this effect elsewhere, but ‘breaking in’ implies there’s this one barrier, this single door that you have to get through, on the other side of which is this wonderful Wonkaland of comics in which you’ll never be rejected again, in which editors will queue up to give you work, and you’ll get paid to write whatever you want. That dream may come true way, way, waaaay down the line. If you’re super-lucky.

For now, the reality of submitting Future Shocks is this: You will exhaust yourself breaking down that door, getting that first script accepted, and once you’re through, guess what you’ll find on the other side…? Another door. And behind that, another door, and so on and so on. And each of those doors will be as hard to get through as the last. Submitting never gets any easier, even after you’ve scored a few sales, even when you get better at it. It’s like a video game where your character levels up, but the monsters just get stronger, and so the challenge remains the same.

So words like ‘breaking in’ don’t reflect the truth and yet do determine your view of the business you’re trying to get in to. So…

BEWARE ASSUMPTIONS!

Another term that can be deceptive: ‘comic writer’. If you want to become a professional comics writer you need to know what that means in reality and not what you think it means based on what you’ve read in interviews and other such promotions. I always used to assume, even when I had plenty of professional experience, that if someone was referred to as a ‘comic writer’ then they spent 100% of their time writing comics, when, of course, that’s very often not the case.

For many freelance writers, writing comics is just one gig among several. Chances are they’ll be toiling through two or more deeply unsexy writing gigs that they won’t want to mention during that interview with SFX magazine. They may be making the majority of their income proofreading recipe books or writing marketing copy for a high-street bank (I’ve done both). Lucky is the writer who can straight away launch a freelance career based on a creative niche like comics, which is why you need to be aware of the bigger picture at all times.

FUTURE SHOCKS ARE NOT THE BE-ALL AND END-ALL!

If you’re submitting Future Shocks with an eye on becoming a professional comics writer (that is, a freelance writer who works in comics), then submitting Future Shocks should be thought of as one fishing rod among many. Write other things for other outlets and see what bites. Do you know an artist? Have a firm idea about how you can self-publish something that will actually reach an audience? Then go for it.

Over the years, I’ve met a heartbreaking amount of people who’ve become fixated on writing or drawing for 2000 AD above all else, who’ve built the idea up in their head until it means more to them than is healthy.

ASK YOURSELF WHY YOU’RE DOING THIS!

The answer to that question shouldn’t be because you have to, because you’ll be a failure if you don’t, because getting a script accepted will validate who are. Stephen Pressfield’s awesome little book The War Of Art rightly warns of the dangers of staking your self-worth, your identity, your reason-for-being, on the response of others to your work.

Why was I doing it? Because I was a freelance writer who wanted to work for a paying creative outlet. I didn’t let it mean any more to me than that. Of course, emotionally it means way more to me than that. My inner fanboy is constantly bouncing up and down squealing ‘I write for 2000 AD! Woo-Hoo!’ But I keep him locked away when he needs to be and never let him get in the way of the work. Now, lesson two…

GET IN BY GETTING GOOD!

This came from an interview I read with former 2000 AD editor Andy Diggle, from Comic Heroes magazine. He said, "Everyone always asks how to break into the industry, but they never ask how to become a better writer. That's the answer - you break in by getting good at it."

So how do you get good at writing Future Shocks? You start by reading the two compilations Rebellion have published, that’s The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks and The Best Of Tharg’s Future Shocks. But you also examine the foundations upon which the series is built. Future Shocks are short twist stories, which – never mind those found in Will Eisner’s The Spirit or classic anthology comics like Tales From The Crypt – is a form probably as old as the short story itself. While submitting my Future Shock scripts I read plenty of twist stories by those whom I had decided were the masters of the form, particularly Saki and O Henry. I watched shows like vintage Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

You’re reading and watching these to examine how they work, but you’re also familiarising yourself with the types of stories that have since become cliché. You’re becoming literate in the form.

Now the classic advice about writing, which you’ve no doubt heard a zillion times, is to read as much as possible and write as much as possible. I’d argue these two disciplines alone are actually of limited benefit to a writer. You need to read a lot? Definitely. Write a lot? Certainly. But you also need to take time out and…

STUDY!

Let’s say you want to become a great comic writer, you’ll dutifully work your way through the classics: Eisner, Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and everything else that finds its way onto every ‘100 best graphic novels list’ ever. But unless you know why you’re reading these books all you’re really doing is ticking titles off a list…

DON’T JUST READ IT, STUDY IT!

What’s so damn important about Watchmen anyway? Why does everyone say I have to read it? Don’t rely on the opinions of others, no matter how unimpeachably expert they may be. Challenge everything you’ve heard about this book. Approach it like you’ve never heard of it. Make up your own mind. Have the courage to disagree.

With a clear head, unclouded by hype and reverence, ask simple questions. What techniques is this story using? What effect does this create? What are the story’s antecedents? What’s the historical context, the circumstances in which this story was produced? What do you know about the person who wrote it?

Take nothing for granted. Develop an aggressive, even arrogant sense of what you think works or doesn’t work. Cultivate a sense of taste. Compile your own canon. Fuck ‘the classics’.

The same goes for writing. You can write a dozen scripts, but if you’re not learning more about what the medium can do, experimenting with new techniques, and being brave enough to fail, then you will never improve and every script you write will suck just as much as the last one.

There’s three strands to learning how to write anything (comics, novels, plays, anything)…

1.) UNDERSTAND LANGUAGE

2.) UNDERSTAND THE MEDIUM

3.) UNDERSTAND DRAMA.

The first is a given. If you want to write professionally, but can’t be bothered to learn how to string a sentence together, or how grammar and syntax work, then you’re the equivalent of a plumber who doesn’t know which way up to hold a monkey-wrench.

No editor worth writing for is going to accept poorly written English. If your Future Shock synopsis contains more than one typo or grammatical error, then I’m pretty sure that’s all the excuse Tharg needs to reach for another rejection slip. He’s got a filing cabinet full of these submissions, which he needs to get through before lunch.

Having worked for several years as a subeditor, I know how lazy writers can be when they think they can get away with it. But there’s no subeditor at 2000 AD to check your spelling for you or sharpen up your syntax before Tharg takes a look at it.

As I was rightly reminded by a member of the audience during my talk at Bristol, learning difficulties such as dyslexia need not be a barrier to writing professionally (it didn’t stop F. Scott Fitzgerald, Agatha Christie or Quentin Tarantino). Seek information and support from organisations like The British Dyslexia Association or charities like Dyslexia Action.

As for the rest of you, there are plenty of books on grammar and style out there (I’d recommend Constance Hale’s firecracker of a style-guide Sin And Syntax for starters, as well as several of the Chambers and Oxford guides on style and plain English). There’s no excuse, people.

The same goes for strand number two, understand how your medium works. We’re talking comics here, so the bible has to be Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics (a must!) and his third book, Making Comics. I’d also recommend Eisner’s venerable but still relevant books Graphic Storytelling And Visual Narrative and Comics And Sequential Art. Sorted.

Now, strand three, understand drama. This is particularly relevant when it comes to writing Future Shocks because you don’t have room to get away with spouting reams of exposition; it has to be this tight little six-pack of a story.

Here’s how drama works: your main character is trying to achieve something, but something or someone is standing in their way, and something awful will happen to that main character unless they achieve their goal.

That right there is the nucleus of storytelling and it goes back to the days of togas and inventing democracy. The key to understanding how it applies is to see how it exists within stories on both a macro level and a micro level, that is, to the overall story and within the smallest component of the story: the scene.

What does Indiana Jones want to achieve in Raiders Of The Lost Ark? The recovery of the Ark of the Covenant. What’s standing in his way? The Nazis. What will happen if Indy doesn’t achieve what he’s set out to do? The Nazis will take over the world.

Now let’s zoom in on that scene when Indy visits Marion at the bar in Nepal. What does Indy want to achieve at the start of this scene? He wants to convince Marion to tell him where to find the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. What’s standing in his way? Marion doesn’t want to tell him because she’s still mad at him about the way he treated her in the past. What will happen if Indy doesn’t find the headpiece? The Nazis will get it, discover the Ark’s resting place and eventually use the artefact to take over the world.

What you’re developing here is the writer’s x-ray vision, which will enable you to see through an overall premise or a single scene and identify what’s driving it. It’s the equivalent of an artist spending countless hours studying anatomy until they know instinctively how to structure a pose.

Let’s come up with a generic Future Shock premise right now. Let’s say there’s a guy in space-prison. What does he want to do? Escape. What’s stopping him? Bars, security guards, perimeter guns. What will happen to this guy if he doesn’t escape? We could settle for saying he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars, but let’s ramp it up a bit. Your stakes need to be as dramatic as possible. So let’s say he’s offended fellow inmate Big Xertlik, Anvil-Headed Nutter of Worlds, who will Scotch-kiss our hero into oblivion unless he escapes within the next hour. Ooh, a time limit. Now we’re cooking.

Now let’s zero-in on a scene. Let’s say our hero is on work detail, breaking rocks with a laser-hammer, and an alien guard is about to discover the hole he’s digging and through which he was about to escape. Oh crap. The guard is striding towards him right now! What does our hero need to do? Prevent the guard from discovering the tunnel and alerting the other guards. What’s preventing the hero from doing this? This bruiser’s heavily armed and so are his buddies. What’s at stake? Horrible tortures await those who try and escape, so our hero’s going to wish he was staring up at Big Xertlik, Anvil-Headed Nutter of Worlds, if that tunnel gets discovered.

LINE OF ACTION. COUNTER-ACTION. STAKES. THE ONLY FORMULA YOU’LL EVER NEED.

Obviously, you’d need to put a fresh spin on that space-prison premise and ask a whole bunch of other questions, like what’s going to make my space-prison story different from everyone else’s? How can I make the reader care what happens to this guy? What’s the twist at the end? Notice how working up a story is about asking the right questions. Learning about drama will help you understand which questions to ask and how you can give the best answers for the story that you have in mind.

Writers, being writers, like to romanticise, especially about writing. But don’t be fooled. The hard work involved in writing a story isn’t magic; it’s mechanics. It’s craft. It’s learnable. Yes, there’s instinct involved, but instinct is built upon knowledge and experience. As the French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix once said, “First learn to be a craftsman; it won’t keep you from being a genius.” (By the way, I found that quote in John Yorke’s Into The Woods, a comprehensive breakdown of the mysteries and function of drama, and another must-read).

And it’s the same with ideas. You shouldn’t worry about being unable to generate enough ideas to keep writing scripts. Learning about drama can help you build a Future Shock idea out of anything. Check out New Scientist, Wired, or a Sunday magazine. Find an article that tickles your interest and ask how can I turn this into a Future Shock? Who might be the main character? What might they want? Have fun…

MAKE A GAME OF IT!

Remember that freedom you felt as a kid when you were writing or drawing? Back before it all came to mean something? That lack of self-consciousness is what you’re trying to get back to, because that’s how you’ll stand the best chance of doing your best work. If you’ve received a dozen rejections, then clearly you may have to ask yourself whether your best is ever going to be good enough for this publication. But the only way to find out for sure is to give it your best shot.

And that's all I had to say on the subject of Future Shocks. I was going to include a section on twists, different types, how they work and so on, but I didn’t have room to include it. Plus, it’s a bit advanced, so I’ll probably end up doing this as another blog at some point…

In the meantime, have a listen to this podcast recording of a 2000 AD writers panel I also did at Bristol with the mighty Al Ewing (Judge Dredd, Loki: Agent Of Asgard), hosted by the good folks at Everything Comes Back To 2000 AD...
52 Comments
Roy
11/17/2014 11:23:08 am

Thank you so much for sharing this. It's easy to understand and inspiring. Great advice for writers in general. Did you ever write a post on twists?

Thanks again,

Roy

Reply
Alec
11/18/2014 09:26:02 pm

I did indeed. Here you go, Roy: http://alecworley.weebly.com/blog/the-five-types-of-twist-ending

Reply
Nicolas
12/9/2014 11:38:35 pm

Thanks a lot for this invaluable advice! Sorry, but I have only one question, please: Do you think 2000AD will accept submissions from outside UK? (I'm from Argentina) Once again, thank you so much!

Reply
Alec
12/10/2014 10:29:35 pm

You're welcome, Nicolas, and as far as I know 2000 AD welcome submissions from outside the UK. Just be sure to follow their submission guidelines: http://www.2000adonline.com/submissions/
Good luck.

Reply
kyle
9/29/2015 07:03:48 am

Hello, I'm currently creating something to submit to 200AD but i have come across a problem with the wording and was wondering if someone could help me. By four pages do they mean four pages of script or a script compromised of 4 comic strip pages?

Reply
Alec Worley
9/29/2015 10:47:17 am

Hi Kyle,
What they mean there is four pages of the comic you're describing not four pages of the actual script. Each page of the comic may take up several pages to describe in terms of the panel descriptions and dialogue.
Hope that makes sense. :P
Good luck and thanks for reading.
Alec

Reply
kyle
9/29/2015 12:50:57 pm

Thank you for the clarification and advice.

Reply
Alec Worley
9/29/2015 11:50:40 pm

You're welcome!

Reply
kyle houston
10/10/2015 04:02:56 pm

I'm sorry for bothering you again, but would they prefer the script in printed format or hand written?

Reply
Alec Worley
10/14/2015 11:55:28 pm

No worries, Kyle. Definitely type it up and send a printed copy. NEVER send a handwritten script. That's an instant rejection as far as I know. Hope this helps.

Reply
Kyle Houston
10/16/2015 03:26:40 pm

Thank you, you've helped a lot.

Dominic
2/5/2016 08:17:23 am

Thank you so much for this, Alec. As an English language and creative writing student, not only has this further inspired me, but it has also served as motivation. I found this to be a very raw and transparent representation of the industry I hope to find myself working in someday.

Reply
Alec
2/8/2016 02:22:05 am

Good luck, Dominic. Don't let it break your heart.

Reply
Jim
8/6/2016 12:51:48 pm

Do you know if 2000 AD has a preferred script format (such as the graphic novel formats available on Final Draft software)? Thanks!

Reply
Alec Worley
8/6/2016 11:25:39 pm

No need for fancy-pants Final Draft templates or anything like that, Jim. Just make sure it's typed, clear and legible. The story's the thing. Good luck!

Reply
Joe W
9/23/2016 10:31:00 am

Prepping submissions at the minute and came across your blog -- really appreciate the advice/reassurance. And now for the question no-one wants to answer! How much, ballpark figure if you like, do 2000AD PAY for Future Shocks? I mean, we're just hacks in the end, right? Just kidding ;)

Reply
Alec Worley
9/24/2016 09:06:55 am

Hi Joe.
Okay, straight off, I can’t tell you (if for no other reason than I’ve signed a release form that says I can’t disclose stuff like that), but here’s what I’d say…
DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT!
Seriously, at this stage you’re as good as doing it for free. Focus on getting the story right and ignore anything else.
I completely understand where you’re coming from, though. Before I got in I was constantly trying to figure out how people actually survived financially writing comics for a living. The truth is, you can’t - at least not for a good long while when you can either land a regular slot with a major publisher or have enough experience to get regular work from a bunch of different outlets (not all of them comics). I always heard the words ‘comic book writer’ and thought that that person must earn a living writing comic books. A reasonable assumption, right? After all, if someone tells me they're a 'firefighter' I assume that's how they earn a living. But the truth is most often ‘comic book writer’ is one of several titles that come under the more accurate umbrella term of ‘Freelance Writer’. That guy or gal whose interview you just read in SFX about their new comic book gig may also be a ‘Subeditor’, ‘Radio Play writer’, ‘Night shift warehouse worker’, etc, etc, etc. It’s a constant juggle. If you’re ultimately angling for a regular gig with 2000AD then it's best to think of Future Shocks as a kind of work experience or apprenticeship. Sorry couldn’t be more help there, Joe.
Good luck with the submissions.
Alec

Reply
vinn
9/23/2016 07:25:39 pm

hello Alec,

very informative, thank you for the post. i do have a question about submitting though...

to whom should one address the submission? it's awfully hard to find the actual submission editor's name.

unless it needs to be addressed to Tharg?

thanks!

Reply
Alec Worley
9/24/2016 08:43:25 am

You’re welcome, Vinn! I’d address it simply to ‘submissions editor’.
If it’s got the word ‘submission’ in it, it’ll find it’s way to the pile.
Hope this helps.
Alec

Reply
Joe
1/30/2017 04:14:54 pm

Hi, I submitted a future shock 1st Sept but still haven't heard back. Is this standard turn around time, and is there an avenue whereupon I can check progress or, at the very least, confirm that they received my submission?
Thanks in advance, and all the best

Reply
Alec
1/31/2017 09:42:10 am

Hi Joe. You'll almost certainly hear back, but you can expect to wait quite a while. Maybe up to 8-9 months if you're unlucky. I wouldn't call in as the editors got enough on his plate. For your own sanity, you've got to think of your submissions as disposable. Just forget you've sent it and get on with the next script you'll be posting into oblivion. :P Get your fingers in a bunch of pies. Don't just pin all your hopes on getting into the Prog. Have a bunch of projects on the go.
Hope this helps, mate.
All the best.

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Moralfiber
2/5/2017 11:31:24 pm

Hello! I want to submit my 4-page story but I'm moving out at the end of the month and the submission period ends March 1st. The only way they're gonna answer is by mail?

Does the Future Shock happen every year?

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Alec Worley
2/7/2017 01:25:27 am

I couldn't say for sure, but yeah I think the submissions are open every year. How about you address the SAE to a friend or relative's address so they can take it in while you're finding a new place...?
Good luck.

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Guy
2/9/2017 03:32:23 am

Hey great article, it really helped me as did the article on twist endings!

I have submitted my first script to the pile of oblivion and am working on my next and I was wondering, where else do we find work? I am an aspiring freelance writer without much experience right now and 2000AD is the only comic I have found which accepts open submissions without an artist on board. Just wondered if you had encountered any others?

Other than that its getting a blog started and practising my cookbook proofing for now I guess!

Thanks again

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Alec Worley
2/9/2017 07:56:06 am

Glad these helped, Guy.
Writer-only submissions are pretty rare, to be honest. Outside of 2000AD, there's Commando and maybe Viz. Others like Titan, Panini, etc will want to see a body of work before they consider you.
Since getting paid isn't a consideration at this point, I always recommend looking at small press anthologies like Future Quake and Something Wicked http://www.futurequake.co.uk/submissions They'll pair you up with an artist, and have got a very high standing with the fan community.
So long as you can write and are good enough to get paid for it via copywriting and wotnot, then you can semi-support yourself that way while branching out and working your way up in comics.
Hope this helps, and good luck
Alec

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Guy
2/9/2017 08:09:23 am

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply, i really appreciate the advice.

Love the Anderson trilogy, keep up the good work!

Alec Worley
2/9/2017 09:41:00 am

You're very welcome, Guy. And thanks for the kind words.
All the best, fella!

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Saul P Tiler link
7/14/2017 03:39:59 am

Hi Alec,
Thanks 'exposing yourself' in the TFS articles. I've been having a go for years and I can already see where I've been going wrong.
Also thanks for being tolerant with comments, a lot of those I've read are more about the mechanics of sending scripts rather than writing them and it's good of you to respond with what you knew.
Saul

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Alec Worley
7/24/2017 02:27:58 am

Glad the blog helped, Saul. You're very welcome and good luck!

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Ryan Smith
8/4/2017 06:25:01 am

I submitted a story just before the end of the deadline back in February and have received word today... Along with my rejected script haha

They said the story wasn't engaging enough, and I can accept that criticism. I mean I added a lot into it and tried to make it as unique as possible, but if the case states that it wasn't engaging enough for readers, then I guess I know where the main weakness lay. Hopefully I can correct that issue for my next submission.
After all... we live and learn haha

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Alec Worley
8/21/2017 03:00:52 am

Sorry to hear you got bounced, Ryan. But it’s to be expected, right? The best cure for rejection blues is pre-emptive: to have another script locked and loaded and ready for sending when that rejection arrives. But always, ALWAYS take what the editor said into account. ‘Not engaging enough’ can mean a lot of things, from the characters not being relatable enough, to the story’s central concept not having a strong enough hook. Perhaps think about your characters and ask yourself ‘can I see people relating to that situation?’ Take the oldest tale in the book: Aladdin gets three wishes. We can all relate to that story straight away. It gets us thinking ‘gee, what would I wish for if that was me...?’ Straightforward and simple is almost always to best way to go. In terms of hook, think where you’ve seen your idea before and make a sidestep. Try something as simple as ‘What if I changed the main character’s gender/species/age? What if I set this in a different time-zone, a different genre. What if I played this as horror? What angle would that bring to the table?’ Look for where you can distort a familiar idea in an interesting way. M. John Harrison once wrote, ‘Ask what [the genre is] afraid of, what it’s trying to hide – then write that.’
Hope this helps, Ryan.

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Saul Tyler
8/30/2017 03:51:19 am

Hi Alec,
To echo other people's statements, thanks for this. I've seen a lot of examples of scripts but you don't see a lot of examples of how to construct a synopsis....any clues?
Thanks Paul

Reply
Alec Worley
9/20/2017 08:04:57 am

So sorry for the late reply, Saul! Synopses are pretty straightforward. You simply tell the story as plainly and succinctly as possible. That said, it does help if you can ‘sell’ the story a little, that is, give some sense of how the excitement will play out.

Bear in mind that a synopsis differs from a pitch. A pitch (certainly with 2000 AD) is a short, sexy proposition that includes the essential Who, What, When, Where and Why of the story. On the other hand, a synopsis can afford to be more detailed, and usually comes once the pitch has been approved and you’re explaining how the story will play out episode by episode. Creator Jim Zub has some good advice on this score: http://www.jimzub.com/here-comes-the-pitch-part-two/

Hope this helps, Saul. And sorry again for the late reply.

Reply
Geoff McGrath
9/19/2017 02:35:27 am

Epic read Alec! Thanks so much.... Submissions have just opened for this year and I've 3 stories ready to go... so fingers crossed! Just not sure if I should send them all at once... from what I read of your blog here.. did you just submit a single one at a time...

Not sure if I would be risking getting them canned if I sent them all at once?

Cheers,

Geoff.

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Alec
9/20/2017 08:05:56 am

Cheers, Geoff! I’ve always sent one script at a time. I’m pretty sure I read/heard somewhere that The Mighty One prefers one script at a time to prevent overload. Otherwise, I guess people would be tempted to send in bloody great box files of stuff and the submissions droid would be buried in the crush! So yeah, pretty sure it’s one at a time. Patience required, sadly. Good luck, fella!

Reply
SCOTT link
9/27/2017 08:41:09 am

Hello Alec, great essay, so much insightful info! Hey, does 2000 AD accept writing submissions from American authors? I emailed them with this question and never received a response. As you say, Future Shocks are hard as hell to write, and, as a U.S. citizen trying to break into comics, I just need to know before I cannot commit any further.

Anyways, thanks, and continued success

-Scott

Reply
Alec Worley
9/27/2017 11:45:48 am

Hey, Scott!
I see no reason why they WOULDN'T accept an American submission. Though I'm wondering how they might post their reply across the Atlantic. I'm not sure they take International Reply Coupons - I remember having to mess around with those stupid things back when I was submitting short stories to US publishers years ago. Ugh! Nightmare. Your best bet would be to get in touch with 2000ad via Facebook or Twitter, and ask what you need to send them along with your self-addressed envelope. More chance of getting a reply, I would have thought, than sending an email. Hope this helps, Scott. Wishing you the best of luck!

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george pickett
10/13/2017 08:45:12 am

Sorry Alec, I've just noticed that you've already answered the synopsis question above - please disregard my previous reply.

cheers

George

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siddh
11/5/2017 07:45:20 am

hi great read
i live in india i want to submit my future shocks but i cant post it as it's very expensive for me.
So is there like an email address for this, as i cannot find it on the offficial website. Thanks

Reply
Alec Worley
1/8/2018 12:55:43 am

Siddh. Again, my sincere apologies in not getting back to you sooner! This here's the one question I always get asked and can never quite answer, i.e. 'How can writers from outside the UK send in their scripts.' I honestly don't know what the best thing to do here is. Sorry, man. My advice would be to get in touch with 2000 AD via Twitter or Facebook and ask there. They're really good at getting back to people. Sorry I can't be more help here, Siddh. Good luck!

Reply
Shaun
12/7/2017 06:10:30 am

Hi Alec,

Great advice, thanks for sharing. A couple of questions:

1) The 2000AD submission page says that they accept all genres (horror, fantasy etc) as well as SF. Would you still advise sending SF stories only as that is what they primarily publish?

2) You advised a previous poster not to sent in several scripts at once - but what about sending in 2 or 3 scripts separately before the March deadline - how would that go down?

Thanks again, and keep up the good work.
Shaun.

Reply
Alec Worley
1/8/2018 12:50:28 am

Shaun, HUGE apologies for not replying sooner! 1.) Definitely only send them what they've asked for, i.e. Future Shocks SF tales. 2.) If it were me, I'd say it's reasonable to send one script at a time, and if you haven't heard anything back in, say, three months, then consider it dead and send another. I know the long game sucks, buddy. But hang in there - and make sure you're pitching to other outlets, not just 2000 AD! The more fishing rods in the water means more chance of getting a bite, right...? Good luck!

Reply
Geoff McGrath
1/8/2018 01:14:12 am

Hey Alec, as you suggested, I submitted a single script the week submissions opened. Also spoke to Mike Carroll who said the same thing... one at a time...

It’s nearly 4mths though and I’ve still heard nothing back. I see you note that at that stage we should move on and submit another. Thankfully I’ve a couple of others ready for sending off.
I’ve nothing to lose I guess!

Geoff




Adrian
9/10/2018 07:03:33 pm

Hi Alec,

Thanks for the great advice! Following on from Shaun's question, what about fantasy with an SF twist in the tail? Hypothetically, say you found out that your barbarian hero was stuck inside a Truman Show-style bubble, and had been all along. Would that be SF *enough* for Future Shocks, or would the overall hacking-at-each-other-with-swords theme be out of place?

Reply
Alec
9/11/2018 01:16:16 am

Hmmm! Interesting question: ‘cos the SF title ‘Future Shock’ rather spoils the twist at the end, right? The reader will be going through your barbarian story waiting for the 'surprise' SF element to kick in... My advice would be write it and send it. If the story’s good enough, the editor won’t care whether it fits the definition of the title. And while you’re waiting for a reply on that script, forget you ever wrote it! Get busy on the next one, and the next one, and the next one... Read, write, study. Each script is a stepping stone to getting better and getting better is how you get in. Hope this helps and good luck, Adrian!

Reply
Adrian Bagley
9/11/2018 08:53:13 am

That helped so much! Thanks Alec, and especially for the speedy reply - the story's actually all ready to go, but I was playing 'if I was an editor, why would I reject this script...?' and gave myself a fright. It's comedy, which takes some of the pressure off the twist, I think. I.e., it's there to bring the comedy to crescendo, rather than to be the most original SF ending ever, IYSWIM. Time to get it posted, and get working on the next one...

Alec
9/11/2018 09:06:07 am

You’re welcome, Adrian. Glad it helped. Everyone gets the pre-submission jitters. Spending a minute or two to think why an editor might reject a script is always a good thing, even though it risks you falling in a spiral of second-guessing yourself. What will keep you straight and help navigate you through all that uncertainty is knowing the outlet (i.e. the comic, magazine, website, whatever, to which you’re submitting), the editor (their tastes and sensibilities), the readership (middle grade, YA, indie, horror fans, SF fans, ad infinitum) and – most important of all – your story. First and foremost you’re asking, ‘Does the story need this?’ Even if you’ve fallen in love with a gag, a character, a line of dialogue or whatever, if it doesn’t take the story forward then it probably needs to go. From there it’s just a case of being sensible. So much of this stuff is common sense – which you appear to have plenty of, Adrian. ;)

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Adrian Bagley
9/11/2018 01:07:55 pm

That's great advice, thanks! I'm a big 2000 AD fan (loved Dandridge and Age of the Wolf, btw) so I'm reasonably sure the style of comedy fits with the magazine. Fingers crossed eh? Thanks again!

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Geoff McGrath
1/3/2019 06:05:36 am

Just realised I’ve been seeing these comments for some time since I last commented and a lot has happened since I did.

I have to say I had my script ready to go the first week submissions opened. But it didn’t work out exactly as I imagined. I had several scripts ready to go, but despite submitting early into the process, they waited almost a year to reply which meant submissions were closed.

I got a ‘personal’ (my arse) letter from Matt Smith which was identical to the one received by several others. There was no critique offered apart from not being a good fit for 2000ad. Having read it for years, I don’t agree, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion I suppose.


In the process of all this I’ve had my work critiqued by 2 regular 2000ad authors and have had it deemed fit for purpose :)

But to be honest, my interest in publishing with Tharg somewhat diminished. So, I was spurred on to continue writing and since have joined with about 12 others we we’ll be publishing our own anthology later this year. It’s a pretty interesting mix as we’ve Brazilians, Americans, Canadians, Brits, Irish & Germans involved.

2000ad was a good starting place but I suppose I’m saying not to limit yourself to thinking they are your only recourse.

Appreciate your time though Alec in putting up with naysayers like me! Lol

Geoff.

Reply
Jacko
9/29/2019 11:08:13 pm

Outstanding advise
I have a story might have a go
But thanks for pointing out the pitfalls

Reply
Barrie
10/31/2019 08:16:44 am

Hi Alec!

Thanks for this wonderful advice.

I agree with everything you have said and taken it onboard.

I was just wondering if you had any advice on writing a decent synopsis?

I would think this is very important part of the submission as this is what the editor will initially judge your story on.

Thanks!

Reply
Alec
11/6/2019 12:40:14 pm

Writing a synopsis is an art unto itself. It mustn’t be too long, but you mustn’t leave out any important details that might cause the editor to reject it straight away. You’ve got to relay the plain facts, but you’ve also got to sell the story. You’ve got to put the editor in the reader’s shoes and show them how cool this is going to be. This subject warrants an entire post, to be honest, but in a pinch I’d say to bear these balances in mind. Make sure you’ve got all the main selling points covered: intriguing main character, interesting dramatic concept, along with all the overall twists and turns of the plot and the ending. (BTW, the key difference between a pitch and a synopsis is that the pitch is much more about selling the story, withholding certain information in the hope of intriguing the editor, whereas a synopsis is essentially describing the final product and convincing them the damn thing will work.) Also be aware of what I call ‘scaling’, that is, ensuring the the story you’re pitching is the right size for the thing you’re going to write. There’s no point writing a synopsis for graphic novel if you’re hoping to write a four-pager. Scenes and characters are what give a story complexity and thus mass/word count. So be aware that a four-page Future Shock will have room for only a couple of characters and scenes (any more and you’re starting to push it).
Writing a synopsis is also a good writing exercise, and trains you to use simple language that’s easy to understand with concise descriptions, and all that other stuff.
Hope this helps, Barrie!

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