PROCESS PART 1: SCHEDULING AND WORKFLOW

…Or How Do I Write So Many Books?!

The most common question I get from readers is how the hell do I manage to write so many books and always be drawing one too? (Actually, that’s not true; the most common question I get is “How do I pronounce my name?” It’s Lemeeer not Lemyre BTW.

So, in this first series of process posts, I will try to demystify how I schedule all my various projects and my weekly work routine. Then, in future process posts, I’ll get into my writing process from pitches to outlines to scripts and provide examples of each from the books I have written. Then I’ll do a step-by-step look at my drawing process too.

These posts will be for paid subscribers, so if you’re interested in this sort of “how-to,” you know what to do!

PROCESS: PART 1: WORKFLOW AND SCHEDULING

I think the first thing to say about all of this is that the real secret to juggling so many projects isn’t any sort of magic trick or trade secret; it’s honestly just a combination of being organized, making schedules for yourself, and working hard. I know that’s not a sexy answer, but it’s the truth.

The second thing is that, in reality, I am never writing or working on as many books as it seems because I work so far ahead; I have often written the books you are reading a year or more before they come out. Having said that, I do want to try and get deeper into how I schedule and organize my projects because saying it is one thing. Doing it is another.

I learned a lot about juggling multiple projects, from working in restaurants and as a line cook. When it gets busy in a restaurant kitchen, you need to stay organized and learn to stagger the orders so you don’t get behind. When I started writing more than one book at DC around 2011, I applied this same thinking to my scheduling. A lot of this means compartmentalizing the projects. Meaning you get focused on what’s in front of you and learn to put all the other stuff you have to do out of your mind until it’s time to work on them. It can be really easy to get overwhelmed if you think about EVERYTHING you need to do on each book. So, I don’t. Instead, I think of what needs to be done that day, and I do that. Then, when it’s done, there’s one less thing to worry about.

As the Giant in Twin Peaks says to Agent Cooper, “A path is made by laying one stone at a time.”

The other key is getting really far ahead of my artists. This allows me to pick and choose what I work on each week and each month without having it dictated to me by deadlines. I know that some writers and artists thrive under the pressure of deadlines but not me. They paralyze me. I need time and space to think and put projects aside for a while if I’m not feeling inspired. I know that this is how I do my best work, so I have created a system and structure that gives me this luxury. The key to this is being way, way ahead of my artists.

I am anywhere from 6 months to a year ahead of whatever book or issue of a series my artists are at any given time. This allows me to only work on the book I am most inspired by each month. I can pick and choose when I work on each project. That way, I am never writing all of them each month. I stagger them. So, for example, for one month, I’ll work solely on Bone Orchard for Andrea Sorrentino. I’ll write as much as I can for this book and this world and let myself get totally immersed in it. Then, when the energy and inspiration end, I’ll put Bone Orchard aside, and the next month I’ll move over to Black Hammer or Little Monsters.

So the secret truth of my productivity is that I usually only work on one book each month. I write two or three issues at a time in big bursts, getting really into that story then setting it aside for several months while I work on other books.

To give you an example, my writing schedule since Summer ’21 months looked like this:

• AUGUST ’21: I wrote Bone Orchard Book 1: The Passageway. This was a 90-page book, and I wrote it all in one big burst across August, then set Bone Orchard aside (This will keep Andrea drawing for several months).

• SEPTEMBER ’21: I felt inspired by Black Hammer so I started writing the next core BH story Black Hammer: The End. I wrote the first four issues of this over September and Oct.

• OCTOBER ’21: I pretty much took October off of writing and worked on the story for Fishflies, the book I am drawing for this Substack.

• NOVEMBER ’21: I wrote a 28-page Bone Orchard story for next year’s Free Comic Book Day.

• DECEMBER ’21: I got into another Bone Orchard groove and wrote the entire 2nd 5-issue series, Ten Thousand Black Feathers, over two weeks on my Holidays away from the studio.

So, as you can see, I was only ever working on one book as a writer each month. But I’m so far ahead of the release dates, and it’s all so staggered that all these books will start coming out at the same time next year, and it will look like I’m working them all at the same time…but I never really was.

Now, this is all a bit more complicated than it looks because, of course, I am not just writing one book a month; I am also drawing one and working on a TV adaptation at the same time that I write these projects. So how do I juggle that?!

The good thing is that writing comics for other artists, writing and drawing my own book, and working on the TV adaptation are all three very different disciplines, and they use different parts of my brain. If they didn’t, I would never be able to do all three without burning out. But the fact that they do tap into different creative parts of my brain helps keep each fresh because I can jump between them each week.

So how does my average week look?

Okay, the first thing is that drawing comics takes much much longer than writing them. It is just a more labor-intensive discipline, and it requires more physical hours at the drawing board to draw a comic page than it does to write one. So, in order to draw a book at a pace of roughly 20-pages/month, I need to put in at least 6 hours a day at the drawing board. The good thing here is that this is still very much my first love. Drawing comics and telling a story visually is like nothing else and is the one thing I would do if I could only do one of the different jobs I do in comics. So I schedule my week around drawing.

I get to my studio around 8 am each day, Mon-Fri. And I start drawing right away. I am a morning person and do my best work earlier in the day. So I go right to the drawing board and get at it. As I mentioned, in a future process post, I’ll get step-by-step into my drawing process, but for now, in relation to my schedule, it’s important to note that I draw like this, six or seven hours a day, usually four days out of the week.

On the days that I draw, I usually only draw. No writing. Of course, there is always a barrage of emails and other small things that need to be done, but I take little breaks through the day to keep up on that stuff. I don’t do any writing these days, though. Instead, I put all my energy into drawing.

Then, usually one day each week, I put on my writer’s hat, sit down at my desk, and just write. It gives me a well-earned break from drawing, and I just get really into writing that day. Some weeks this writing day may be working on a script for Andrea or Dustin, or it may mean working on a draft of a script for the Essex TV show.

So that’s really what my weeks look like. Mon-Fri I am at my studio from 8 am to about 4 pm. On four of those days, I draw all day, and one day I usually write. Some weeks this may change up a bit. Depending on what’s going on, I may need to do two or three days of writing and draw only a couple of days. But on average, it usually works out to be four to one drawing.

Then I don’t work at all after 4 pm or on weekends. I work hard and am laser-focused when I am at the studio, then I shut it down and go home. I may keep up on emails through the evening when I can, but otherwise, I leave work at the studio. And on weekends, I may tinker with a script or write one of these Substack posts, but not every weekend. Only if I have some downtime and my family is busy with other things.

Four or five years ago, there was a time when I was doing a lot more than I am now. When I was at Marvel in 2016-2017, I think there was a period where I was writing 6 or 7 books a month and drawing one. Looking back, I honestly don’t know how the hell I did that. I was working ALL THE TIME. I was drawing all day and then writing a script almost every night at home. I guess that was a different time, and I had other ambitions then. I was still trying to build my career and took on as much work as I could get. But, luckily, I am at a different place in my life and career now and can just do the projects I want to do, and I can work at a much more relaxed pace.

Right now, I usually draw an average of 15-20 pages a month and write the equivalent of one or two comic scripts. It’s a lot of work, but when that work is the thing you love to do more than anything, it never really feels like a burden. Some days can get stressful and hectic, but I know how lucky I am to be able to do the thing I love and make a living from it. I struggled for many years and worked a lot of shitty jobs to get to this spot, so I try not to take it for granted and make the most of it each day. And, in significant part, it’s all of you who support my work that makes that possible. So, thank you.

Okay, so I hope that sheds some light on how I do what I do. If this all brought up any questions, you can leave them in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to answer them there.

I’ll try and do the following process post on pitching and outlining a series in about a month or so.

-Jeff