This is great! Allow me to be the bad guy here and say, "THIS IS SOOOOO NOT HOW I DO THINGS!"

It's a great article no doubt and will help people do their thing. But I operate differently, as you all know...

1. Characters and story go together. I DO want to use certain characters but the story has to fit. Or vice versa. IF my adventure is in the jungle, I'm not not using any arctic or desert troopers. BUT IF I'm dying to use Snow Job or Dusty, there ARE clever ways to make it work. Make them main characters, uh, it's a lil harder. As Justin said, he likes to use Hit N Run. I tend to use a rotation of characters with a few anchors. So from 1 story to the next, I have a few characters that the viewers will remember from before. Star Trek DS9 did this with O'brien and Worf, yes?

2. I don't script. That's too much work. I have a storywriting degree and I refuse to put THAT much effort into this unless there's money involved, y'know?

3. I don't always shoot in order but your figure, movies and stories are done in parts. It's no secret that movies have a tendency to shoot WAY out of sequence and sex scenes are done at the beginning when the people don't know each other very well... But uh... I shoot out of sequence but the OUTLINE is a must.

4. I like to break conventions. I'll do some things you aren't supposed to do and see what happens. :P

5. I wing the dialogue. You really think in Transformations that Gung Ho was gonna take Bombstrike under his wing. It's just the energy of the story, not the shoot. He could have been hacking on her for all we know. BUT I purposely wanted a more humanistic side to show thru for ALL my characters. EVEN if Sonneilon is this evil mofo, the viewer is seeing WHY!

6. On that note, I am creating my JoeVerse and people who read it are party to it. They watch as it forms, see how things are different and who knows, maybe they'll like some of the ideas. Yeah, people didn't like Colton as the sexist, redneck that I made him out to be... But I also made him a hardass (as per the DD comic) so it's ALMOST justified. For there to be 2 generals, there has to be a dynamic. Kirk/Spock. Picard/Kirk. Sarge/Reaper (doom). What fun is it if the two top kicks are the same?

I push the limits whereas, I think Justin remains in the Joeverse. Leatherneck is Leatherneck. He won't ever pilot a mech. He won't ever NOT be a Marine. You see a figure in his dio, you know what to expect. BUT in my dios, I like to twist and manipulate the mind. NOT that I have a gawd complex, I just ENJOY being able to do things in odd ways. The Simpsons! HOW many episodes are advertised one way and the story is SOMETHING else entirely??? Harry Potter! It's practically a mystery and it's not JUST for kids. Like... 1st Harry Potter movie. DO we NOT think it's Snape after the Sorcercer STone and then BAM, it's really... uh... TUrban dude??? THAT'S manipulation.

It's no secret that I got into storywriting scifi/fantasy because I loved the CREATION of the world. Creation of the characters. Mind you, I don't CREATE everything. A rock is a rock and a tree is a tree. There's only so much that you can push on a reader. That is why characters like Duke and Cobra Commander get VERY little time. 1, I haven't figured out what to do with them and 2, EVERY DIOIST'S stories WANT to use someone else! We can watch the cartoon if we want Duke and Cobra Commander!

End of line.