Newsarama's Writer's Workshop: Bryan Edward Hill & Rob Levin Double Header

Ready for a Writer's Workshop double-header?

Because Bryan Edward Hill and Rob Levin are living proof that two heads can be better than one, as they've been juggling mythology and international intrigue with their Top Cow book Broken Trinity: Pandora's Box, the latest issue having been released this week.

Yet how does this dynamic duo work their magic? We sat down with Hill and Levin to discuss how they navigate characterization, plotting and the sheer challenge of filling in the blank page.

Newsarama: Guys, first and foremost, can you tell us a little bit about how each of you got into the world of writing? What made you guys decide that writing was the career for you?

Bryan Edward Hill: For me, it was very personal. My father died when I was a kid and that same week I read an issue of BATMAN. Obviously, I had a profound connection with Bruce Wayne. His anger. His loss. How he as a character turned that energy into something empowering.

I was given so much from those stories. Fiction can heal in a way nothing else can. When I started thinking about a career, I realized that I wanted to be part of that tradition. There’s a beautiful democracy in writing. It’s a blank piece of paper and a pen. In Hemingway’s hands that’s THE SUN ALSO RISES. In Frank Miller's hands that’s SIN CITY. In Brian Azzarello’s hands that’s 100 BULLETS. Once you start walking into that legacy, it’s very hard to not get passionate and obsessed.

That being said, if Great Britain would have given me citizenship I probably would have just joined MI6, drank martinis and caught mega villains for Her Majesty.

Rob Levin: I think there's some old writer cliche about "you're a writer because you don't know how to be anything else." While admitting that makes me feel somewhat useless, there's some truth to it. I've always been drawn to stories. When you connect with a fictional experience and it feels like something that's made about or for you, there are few experiences that special or that resonant.

A lot of my writing, though escapist, is really about trying to create that experience for the reader. I'm trying to forge a connection, and that's the reason I write. As for what got me there... I can't trace it to any one moment or experience. But when in doubt I always blame "Ghostbusters."

Read the full interview here.
Source: Newsarama