We recently connected with Braxton Cosby and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Braxton, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
How I Developed My Creative Writing Career
My journey into storytelling wasn’t just education—it was immersion. Throughout my academic years, I dove headfirst into creative writing training, embracing everything from intensive workshops to specialized courses. These experiences spanned multiple formats: screenwriting that taught me visual storytelling, novel writing that honed my narrative voice, and comic book scripting that helped me blend words with visual elements to create something greater than either alone.
Looking back at my path, I wouldn’t accelerate a single moment. Each experience—every critique session, late-night revision, and creative breakthrough—was essential to my development. There’s simply no shortcut to discovering your authentic voice as a storyteller. The hours spent crafting characters, building worlds, and receiving feedback (sometimes painful, always valuable) shaped not just my writing but my creative identity. This evolution couldn’t be compressed or rushed; it needed time to breathe and mature.
Rather than skills, I’ve developed creative muscles that strengthen with each project. Every time I embark on a new story—whether it’s a comic book, screenplay, or novel—I’m exercising these storytelling muscles, challenging them to perform at their peak. I’m constantly sculpting my abilities to create narratives that resonate beyond my personal experience, stories that speak to diverse audiences across different backgrounds and perspectives.
My greatest obstacles? The universal constraints of time and finances. My imagination generates ideas faster than the clock allows me to develop them. The day only offers 24 hours, and my creative ambitions constantly outpace those limitations. Equally challenging is the financial reality of creative work. Both Starchild Comics and Cosby Media Productions house extraordinary talent—authors who craft compelling narratives, artists who bring visions to life, voice actors who add dimension through sound, and editors who refine every element to its highest potential. We have the creative foundation in place, but require additional funding to fully realize these imaginative worlds and share them with the audiences waiting to discover them.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
About My Creative Journey and Publishing Vision
I discovered my passion for storytelling during my formative educational years, where creative writing classes sparked what would become a lifelong dedication to narrative craft. This foundation evolved naturally as I explored acting, performing in various shorts, television productions, and films. This dual perspective—creating stories on paper and then bringing characters to life on screen—provided me with a unique understanding of storytelling’s full lifecycle. While I cherished the performance aspect, I found myself increasingly drawn to the foundational creative process of writing, where worlds are initially conceived.
A pivotal moment in my career arrived when a filmmaker approached me with an extraordinary challenge: transforming their screenplay into a novel. Ironically, it’s how me and my wife Shontel Cosby formally met, as she was an actor in the film and I was immediately intrigued by both her beauty and talent. With this being uncharted territory for me, doubt crept into my mind about the project. But rather than being intimidated by this substantial undertaking, I embraced it wholeheartedly. The process of expanding a visual medium into prose demanded every creative skill in my arsenal—developing deeper character insights, enriching world-building elements, and translating visual storytelling techniques into written language. My dedication to this project yielded remarkable results when the novel achieved bestseller status, validating my approach and opening doors to new creative possibilities.
My greatest pride lies in what we’ve collectively built at Cosby Media Productions. My wife and I share a vision of identifying and cultivating talent. As a small press, we’ve intentionally positioned ourselves as genuine allies to creators, offering comprehensive marketing solutions that rival industry standards without sacrificing personal connection. Our services encompass striking book cover design, strategic cover reveals, engaging book trailers, and targeted promotional campaigns—all crafted to give our authors’ works the visibility they deserve. This author-centered approach has yielded impressive results, with over 50,000 units distributed across digital, print, and audio formats.
This achievement feels particularly meaningful when I consider my grandmother’s influence. As an educator who dedicated over four decades to teaching, she instilled in me the value of sharing knowledge and stories. I often imagine her reaction to what we’ve accomplished—the pride she would take in seeing how we’re connecting meaningful narratives with eager audiences. Her legacy lives on in our mission, as we continue connecting exceptional stories with the readers who need them. At its heart, that remains our fundamental purpose: introducing powerful, diverse narratives to the widest possible audience, enriching lives through the transformative power of storytelling.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Resilience Through Creative Pivot
When Starchild Comics was just taking its first steps, I encountered a situation that tested my resolve but ultimately redirected me toward something more meaningful. We connected with an international creator who had developed a zombie concept with tremendous potential. Despite language barriers, the core premise was undeniably compelling—zombies have universal appeal, after all. I saw past the language challenges and recognized we could refine the script while preserving his creative vision.
After offering him a publishing contract that I believed was fair and supportive, everything seemed on track. Then, at the final moment, he withdrew, countering with demands for an upfront payment and significantly increased royalties that would have been unsustainable for our young company. Walking away from that promising project crushed my spirit—I’d already envisioned how we could bring those undead characters to life and introduce them to eager audiences.
In that moment of disappointment, something extraordinary happened. During quiet reflection, I felt divinely inspired to return to a character whose story wasn’t finished: Keesa from the award-winning BROKEN: The Young Hellions Series. What initially felt like a setback revealed itself as an opportunity to extend this beloved character’s journey into the comic medium. This pivot not only filled the zombie-shaped hole in our publishing schedule but actually aligned more authentically with our creative vision. What I initially perceived as failure transformed into a pathway toward something more meaningful and connected to our existing literary universe.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The Unlearning: Embracing the Rewrite
The most transformative lesson I had to unlearn was seeing rewrites as merely a technical step rather than the heart of storytelling itself. Early in my career, I approached revisions as something separate from “real writing”—a necessary but secondary process. I couldn’t have been more mistaken.
I’ve come to understand that rewriting isn’t just part of the journey—it’s where the true magic happens. This revelation transformed my approach across all mediums: screenplays, novels, and comics alike. The initial draft merely places clay on the wheel; it’s through revision that we sculpt something remarkable.
This understanding required genuine vulnerability—opening myself to constructive criticism and allowing others to challenge my creative assumptions. The editors I carefully select push me beyond comfortable boundaries, identifying potential I might never have discovered alone. My wife serves as my most trusted creative partner in this process, offering insights that help me chip away at the metaphorical stone until something truly exceptional emerges.
The collaborative rewriting process demands humility and courage, but the results speak for themselves. Each round of feedback strips away what’s unnecessary and refines what’s essential, gradually revealing the masterpiece hiding within the raw material of early drafts. Embracing this truth has elevated every story I’ve told since.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cosbymediaproductions.com
- Instagram: braxtonacosby and cosbymediaproductions and starchild_comics
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BraxtonACosby/
- Linkedin: Braxton A. Cosby
Image Credits
cover designs by Braxton A. Cosby