On how I work (Part 1)

I've gotten a few questions about how I work lately.  So I thought instead of writing a huge tome about how I work in e-mail and copying and pasting it numerous times, I'd just throw it on my blog and direct people to it. 

A couple notes right off the bat:
#1)  Any time I refer to a project, I am talking about LEGACY as that is the current project I am working on and is freshest in my mind.
#2)  I may use shorthand in some ways.  Such as BWS for STARS ON BLACK BACKGROUND or ECU for EXTREME CLOSE UP.  If you're confused, leave me a comment and I'll explain my shorthand.  Most of what I use is common in the movie and comic book industries.
#3)  When I talk about writing a script, it is a full script with panel by panel descriptions.  This is the only way that I write for comic books.  I never do "Marvel Method" or "Plot method".

THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE PROJECT

This is the first, and in my opinion the most important part of the project.  You come up with a concept.  As Legacy has been in my mind since I was a teenager, I've had years to refine this concept down to a single sentence.  "The Journey of Light and Darkness."  Or "The Battle of Light and Darkness."  Both of these are equally important to the story of my project.  One is the journey that light and darkness take in the story, the other is the battle.  Light and Darkness are eternally at odds.  No matter if you are Christian or Non-Christian, this is played out in any mythology.  Light and Darkness are also synonymous with Life and Death in many cultures and belief.  An allegory so to speak.  (I made a funny!)

Now that I have the concept, what form does it take?  Generally about now I start scribbling in a sketchbook.  (Well, not really for Legacy as it's been drawn, redrawn, and I'm as familiar with these characters as I am familiar with my son.)  But let's examine a hypothetical project, how would I decide what form this would take?

At it's very base it would be black and white.  Okay, not very entertaining.  So what forms does the darkness and light take?  In this hypothetical let's say Light is Humanity and Darkness is an invading Alien Race.  So who would be the figureheads for these two forces?

See how my thinking progresses?  See how I continually boil down the concept to what it needs to be for the particular project?  By moving in this manner while creating a comic book series (Or novel series that doesn't sell worth beans), you become intimately familiar with all thoughts and assumptions that people will have.  In essence you are continually boiling away the garbage (dross) to be left with the pure metal.

In the case of a group book, it'd be "This group is Light."

In case of a Zombie Apocalypse things are much simpler.

Now I'm trying to keep this somewhat short, and since I'm writing this one just before 1:00am it's probably a lot shorter than what I will write in the future, but I feel that you're getting an idea on how the conceptualization of the project takes place in my mind.  Idea------Basics-----How/Who-----Basics------Plotting.

Next I'll talk about writing the plot (no, I never draw from one) and the scripting of a project.