After 100 Star Wars comics, Charles Soule shares what he’s learned about writing in the franchise

Charles Soule — author of comics and novels both within Star Wars and outside of it — reached a major achievement this week when Star Wars (2020) #25 dropped. To date, this is the 100th Star Wars comic the storyteller has written. And he still has many more stories to tell.

Speaking with StarWars.com, Soule spoke about initially coming to the realization that he’s the first writer in Star Wars canon to reach this milestone.

"“When all of this occurred to me, it was really just late last year, probably. I was just, ‘I wonder how many of these things I’ve written,’ and I just started adding it up because it was something that you do to procrastinate from doing the actual work of writing the issues. I realized how close I was to writing a hundred. Like, I was very, very close… And then I did some more procrastination slash research slash analysis, and looked to see what some of the other prominent Star Wars comic book writers had done. And I realized that, at least in the modern canon, no one else had gotten there.”"

Though widely known for his work on Darth Vader (2017), that Star Wars comic run wasn’t actually his first venture into the franchise. His licensed writing in a galaxy far, far away began with the Lando miniseries in 2015, followed by the Obi-Wan and Anakin miniseries in 2016. That same year began his Poe Dameron series.

Before he ventured into a galaxy far, far away, Soule wrote comics for both DC and Marvel, including Swamp Thing, Thunderbolts, She-Hulk, and more.

Currently, Soule is writing the Star Wars mainline comic series, and is also one of the five original authors crafting stories as part of The High Republic publishing initiative.

Now a Lucasfilm Creative Consultant in addition to his continued work on Star Wars comics, Soule has forged a monumental and impressive path through a career in storytelling. But he pointed out that telling stories within a mega-franchise like Star Wars doesn’t just happen out of nowhere. Even when you’re already writing within the Star Wars universe, he said, it takes practice to get really good at it.

"“Honestly, I think writing Star Wars is like playing an instrument, and I use that metaphor a lot when applying it to just different things that you have to have a constant, sort of, applied effort. I’ve used that phrase twice in this interview, but like, it’s about practice and working hard and incremental improvement. And so every story you tell is both a story in and of itself, but it’s also a stepping stone to the next story you’re going to tell. I think there are a lot of things about writing Star Wars as well that you don’t get on project one. You have to figure out how to dance between the raindrops in the way that so much of the story has kind of already been told, and you’re working within an established history.”"

You can read the full interview with Charles Soule on StarWars.com.

Star Wars (2020) #25 is out now wherever Star Wars comics are sold.

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