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...

Musing on past projects

I've been doing a bit of homework recently, in preparation for BICS this weekend.  As Christian has been playing about with the website quite a bit this week (more on that in a later post), I've been keeping busy by reading through some of my old work from a way back, and it's become apparent to me that my script for "Come & See" could use a bit of lick and spit.

"Come & See" is one of the ongoing projects of Roland's and mine whose page isn't quite ready for the website, but you'll see some stuff about it soon. It's a big project that Roland and I have had on the back burner for a while, and frustratingly it's one of those things where other things have just kind of queued up in front of it and pushed it away. A guilty part of me thinks I might have been ignoring it because I knew it needed work.

It's not the first time I've taken a second look at it, either. I rewrote the first part of it about 18 months ago, back before I got to work on the big script I've mentioned before. That rewrite was from a script that I wrote several years earlier. It's feels like it, too. It reads like a script by the me of 2001, that the 2008 me knocked into shape in a slightly lazy way.

I like to think that I've come along as a writer a fair bit since then, and as it's a project that's quite dear to me I'm going to stall the kids book until after Christmas and spend the next couple of months working on this one. It will definitely benefit from a little love and care, and who knows, a proper Version 2 of the script might get a bit more attention than it did the first time round the block.

I'll be on a comic-writing high for at least a couple of weeks after BICS this weekend, so I may as well harness that positivity and put it to good use.