August's update

Okay, work has really moved along on the serial story I'm working on. Last month I met a great artist who just happens to be local. We've been doing character and set designs and are starting on some early pages. We seem to work very well together, so I'm looking forward to a great presentation to pitch with.

As regards last month's problem, I'm going with mostly B: I'm going to kill off half of the old guard in issue 1 and the rest early on in issue 2.

So here's the revelation that changed everything I was doing with this particular project (currently called "Hillingham") I created a set of characters that have solid motivations, flaws, interesting powers, and fairly complex personalities. Problem is, as an author, I've been trying to develop plots that will showcase how cool these guys are. Wrong. Now I see that I need to develop plots that will do horrible, nasty things to them. Things that will force the less positive aspects of their natures toward the surface. See who cracks and if they recover.

I know, it seems obvious - after all, this is a variation of the solution to my other project. But as they're completely different genres as well as different media, I just couldn't see what was sitting right there in front of my nose.

July's Update

San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone; I think I picked up the con crud. :(

I've decided to take a different tactic on writing one of my projects. Rather than plot out my main character's arc, I'm going to hit all my prep work from the antagonist's point of view. It's my opinion that the heroes would probably just sit in a living room, eating chips and watching TV if it weren't for the bad guy's plans. So I'll focus on the bad guy and then allow my good guys to give glimpses into the evil machinations as they come into contact with the various results.

In another project, I'm stuck at the start. I'm working on a serialized story and have at least four different ways to begin. They all have their strong spots, but none of them are jumping out at me in a big way.

The main thrust of the first arc involves a group of tried and true heroes who are murdered. Their apprentices (for lack of a better word) are left alone in a hostile situation without a support structure and have to grow up fast. So the actual meat of the story is supposed to focus on the apprentices and how they come together as a group. Here are the various options:

A) The heroes are killed off over the course of four installments. This lets me set up the fact that these guys are a tight force and whatever is hunting them is just that much better, it lets the audience come to care about the characters, and it installs some suspense as to "who's next?" The pov would be from the apprentices' side as the mentors' plans continue to fall apart. But, it means that their storyline doesn't gel till late in the game.

B) I kill off the heroes in twos and threes throughout the first installment. This has both the pros and cons of A, but at a lesser intensity.

C) I kill off all the heroes in the first scene. This opens the series in a very active way, but doesn't allow for anyone to actually care about them at all. This option would have me giving some information through the apprentices reactions. And this does let me focus on the apprentices, who after all, are the focus of the series.

D) I kill off almost all the heroes before the book begins. The series would open just after the first fight - where bodies are strewn in a warehouse and three scrappy figures are trying to make their escape (one of which wouldn't make it).

I've been struggling with this decision for a while now... No closer to an answer.

And Here We Are Again

I've finished the Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways course and have to say that it is incredibly awesome. To me, the course is all about perception and focus: how to look at what you're writing to get the most out of it. Right now she's got a few video critiques of people's work at writercrashtest.com - definitely worth a look-see.

As for me: work continues on the CCG project. We're getting into a focused development phase on two parts of the game that have been pushed aside for a while: Goals and Events. Still looking good, still moving at a glacial pace due to day jobs and having to coordinate schedules.

I've made a breakthrough on the outline for a novel that I'm really interested it. It's ambitious; possibly too much so. I'm wanting to take four primary characters through separate, but related plotlines, and by the mid-point, weave them together into one story arc. The difficult part for me will be to maintain the related nature of the separate stories without being heavy-handed about it. I have a primary theme for the book and established some sub-themes but need to flesh it out a bit more.

I'm also in talks to do a webcomic, though this is a very early stage discussion. Could end up being a supernatural/occult drama, a very light-hearted rpg themed romp, or a "buddy picture" with vampires, werewolves and such. The sticking point will be getting a commitment from the artist, but that's always been my row to hoe.

I'm Not the Most Reliable...

...at posting a blog. But that's not really news now, is it?

The animated project for iTunes saw some movement today. Quick breakdowns on the first 5 episodes. Good. I'm a consultant on the project, so the actual writing duties will fall to someone else, but I contributed two characters (and revisions on 3 more), a B plotline that should continue through at least 4 arcs, and a story structure to keep consistency between episodes and arcs.

One of my projects, Imperivm, is going through a revision and refinement of game mechanics. Looking very strong now. I think it's got at least another two revisions to go before we can move on to implementation. I have come to the realization that this project will not see a novel from me for quite a long time. Why? Because this was always concepted to be in a certain format, a format I love working in. All of the story elements were designed for the ccg format. It has to do with how mysteries, twists, dialogue and other pieces of the pie are laid out over time via art, text, names, mechanics, and so on. The audience can't jump ahead, but they can align the pieces they have in different ways to see how elements relate to each other and how those relationships can change based on how they're viewed. This just cannot be done in another format. There might be a possibility within the digital realm... I'll have to explore that and see what the options are.

I've still got my sci-fi project percolating in the back of my head, but I think it's going to stay on a back burner for a while. Too many other things going on.

I haven't given up on novels for some of the projects, like High Stakes. For that, I'm going through Holly Lisle's awesome 6-month writing seminar, "Think Sideways." If you're interested, it's definitely something I would recommend to anyone.