Sunday 26 February 2012

You are feeling sleepy...

Bayou Arcana now has a Wikipedia page! Not much new to report on that front, except I hear sniffs of the possibility of a table at Kapow for the creators. No idea bout Bristol yet, but Markosia will probably be making a small fuss over it for its launch.

Work on Broken continues, albeit rather grudgingly. I'm in the middle of the 'crushing slog' part of the writing process which takes up the middle section of the story, and I'm basically writing streams of dialogue, making sure it contains the relevant information. Then I'm assembling pages out of it, building in the dramatic notes and beats as I do the panel descriptions.

It's a method I've employed before to good effect, especially with scenes that are absolutely dependant on exposition, which have a tendency to be really flat if you don't pay close attention to their structure. However, having done it before doesn't mean it's not a massive ball ache.

That being said, I'm making good time. I should be hitting the halfway point in the script by the end of the month, which will leave me with all of March to try to complete it. I was planning to have it finished by then, but I'm not going to be surprised if it slips into April during rewrites. Not that I'm not going to try my damnedest to have it finished before then.

Yeah, see my determination. Grr. I am a lion.

Will be glad when this evening's activities are over, though. I'm feeling pretty drained at the moment and it's proving difficult to not just sit here and dribble. I have the script open on my desktop now, and I'm currently looking at seven pages of solid dialogue to translate into scenes. Tonight, when my brain is barely working.

In hindsight having a valerian tea before getting to work might have been an error in judgment...

Zzzz....

Sunday 19 February 2012

Happenings on and off the Bayou

The Bayou Arcana machine continues to trundle along, garnering more and more attention. I've been confirmed as a guest at Kapow in London in May where I'll be one of the panellists for the BA talk. Here's hoping I don't make a tit out of myself. I have a feeling that the majority of the questions will be directed at and fielded by the female creators and by Jimmy, so I'm not worried too much.

The official announcement on the Kapow webisite is here.

Some more Bayou Arcana links to throw down here, too.
Preorder at Amazon.
...or at Markosia's own website.
And finally, the official Blog/Website of the creative group behind it.

In other Bayou Arcana news, it's not all been ice cream and balloons. Regrettably, "Comfort and Joy" - the story I wrote for it - will not appear in its entirety. Instead, several pages will be included as a lead-in preview-type-thing for Volume 2, in which it will appear. It's disappointing, and the reasons why are things I think everyone would prefer me to not broadcast online, but there is a significant upside to the situation. I still get credit, I still get whatever cut I was originally due to receive, and I now have a guaranteed place, credit and payout for a volume 2 that I didn't even know was happening. So every cloud and all that.

Outside of the swamp, work advances slowly but surely on "Broken." I'm into the meat of the story now, having got a good introductory sequence sorted, and now I can get properly stuck in. It's been an extraordinarily precise business to write, this one - because the plot is dependant on the slow release of pivotal bits of information as the story progresses, and because of the very narrow page count, I've had to keep extremely focused on hitting all the points I need to cover in each scene as efficiently as possible.

The end result, so far, has been a story that doesn't mess around, gets straight to the point, builds the characters into the story rather than the story around the characters, which is how I usually work, and despite being my usual wordy stuff, is pretty visual as befits my 'show don't tell' rule. I'm really enjoying the way it's coming together. The pace of the work isn't as fast as I'd like, and I'm still only about a fifth of the way through draft 1, but I think the work will start coming a bit thicker and faster from now on.

In any case, I'm tired, so I'm spending the rest of my weekend dossing around and playing video games, so be off with you.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Back to work

...so now that I am finally back online I've been able to start writing Broken again. I haven't managed to do a lot - mostly just getting through the opening scene. I've been trying to make sure enough relevant information about the plot is there to make what's going on clear, but still leave a lot unexplored in order for it to be revealed later. I think it's going quite well. The opening is punchy, visual and interesting.

In the dark days before my internet was reconnected, I didn't do any writing - I tried, but I did't realise how often I have to look things up online as I write. It made the whole process incredibly frustrating, so I made the decision to do a little pen-and-paper work instead. It was all about working out the order of events, structure of the story and when certain things will be revealed, etc.

The story has wound up as another 'dual timelines running in parallel and intercutting' type of story, which is a device I use a lot. It works and I like it, and although I may use it a bit too often in my writing, it's a good way to add an additional layer to the story and to keep the reader wanting to move forward through it. It also allows you to build a series of mini-cliffhangers into the story as it progresses, which can help build a sense of intrigue/suspense/whatever you want to call it. It's not easy to get the structure right, and one little change can seriously screw everything up, so the order of events needs to be carefully plotted out beforehand. So that's been keeping me busy.

In other news, Come & See was unfortunately rejected, which was disappointing but not a total surprise. It got some good feedback, which was encouraging, but basically it still doesn't have a home. Another thing I'll have going on while writing Broken will be to compile a list of alternative publishers for Come & See and start sending the submission pack out to them. It's not an enormous list, but it should keep me occupied for a while.

There have also been some developments in the world of Bayou Arcana that have been a bit disappointing. I'm not sure how much I can talk about, but suffice to say I'm still very much in the book, and have volunteered my services for May's Kapow show, where the book has a panel going on.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a teensy hangover and need to go lie down for a bit. You have no idea how difficult it has been to make this blog entry even this coherent...

Friday 10 February 2012

Backstreet's Back, Alright?

Phew! After over a week of being utterly internet-less which almost sent me off my nut, I'm back among you fine web folks. I feel like I've been wandering directionless through fog, and now I can finally see clearly again.

Minor blip in the schedule of blog posts notwithstanding, I shall be spending some of this weekend catching up with stuff and I shall report back with my rather tardy weekly update.