March 11th, 2008 Scraps
Namely, it makes it very difficult to update when you can’t remember your own password to your own site! Sigh… Usually I create my passwords based on a very simple, easy to remember formula but apparently this time I did something weird. And since I’ve changed browsers the remember function wasn’t and I had to reset the password. Of course, then I had to log into the webmail to retrieve the new password. Can you guess what happened? Yeah, apparently I forgot that password, too. But! Obviously I fixed it all because here I am (helps to not have forgotten the webpanel password that lets one reset webmail passwords!) and now I can get on with the actual update.
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Doing break-outs on the plane was an absolutely inspired idea! I haven’t had much time to stop and look at them since I got back (a month ago! where did the time go?!?) but I believe I got through page 50-something, planning wise. Very cool, very cool indeed. Of course, this is just scribbles on a single-spaced rough draft of a manuscript. But soon… soon….
New plan! ScriptFrenzy! is officially allowing both adaptations and comic book/graphic novel scripts as part of year 2. Of course, they moved it to April from June, but that’s okay, I’ll manage. Anyway! Because of the revamps guidelines and the fact that no actual script for Wedding Tarot has been written yet, I think it safely falls into the ‘okay’ area and so I’ll spend next month converting what I can of the story into the script.
But that’s not all! (Wow, I’m really going overboard with the exclamation points, aren’t I?) This year I learned about a little something called Small Press Idol. While I briefly considered killing myself slowly by trying to enter the companion project to Random Acts… this year, it occured to me that that would be, in fact, unwise. Instead, I’m sort of playing along (the ‘home game’ so to speak) and working through the required steps based on the rules and the feedback from the judges on the people actually brave enough to enter so that by this time NEXT YEAR I can debut art for Wedding Tarot as part of Small Press Idol ’09 and, perhaps, use that as a publishing venue. Of course, that does limit what I can show here, art-wise, before the competition but I don’t think it’ll be a problem. This year’s goal, after all, was to get the script written. If I want to start on the art, I’ve got 72 cards that need designing!
Of course, if I get that far ahead (it’s March, folks, and while I know its still early in the year, I know my schedule, too). I may choose not to wait for SPIdol and just go ahead and start designing for web-release or self-publishing. It’s up in the air. But it still exists as a possibility until I decide otherwise. Got it?
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January 27th, 2008 Scraps
First I was sick for a weekend, then I had company, my Friday evenings have not been very productive. I did make it to the bookstore, though, and found some resources for both the deck and the book. Of course, the one book I thought I’d found for wedding customs turned out to be one I bought back when I first started the manuscript, they’d just changed the cover! Whoops! Brought it back and exchanged it for some other books on graphic novels in general. Now things are all about getting ahead on other projects before I travel in 2 weeks so I’m not sure how much blocking is going to get done before then. Might be a good project to take on the plane, though! Oh, yeah, ding! We have a winner. I can totally mark-up copy on the plane. Awesome idea.
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January 4th, 2008 Scraps
Or, well, actually that would be Act 1 Scene 2, still gotta get used to the new structure.
I had planned to work on the book tonight but last nights writing plans kept getting skewed so it was time to fall back a step and grab something else just to be able to count a smidgen of productivity for the evening. Based on the early brainstorm, I ditched the two chapter title/filler pages between original chapters 1 & 2 and now am up to page 21 and not quite through the engagement Act. Apparently I really was writing scenes and not chapters when I started out and the flow of the pages is really working for me. When it’s printed, many of the odd-numbered or right-hand pages will end with something that will make you want to turn the page and see what’s revealed next. This is all part of the blocking process, the planning the visual cues and is kinda cool that–so far–I don’t really have to force these page-turns, they are just happening naturally.
Another brainstorm I had while working last night was that there will probably be 9 Chapters or Acts. The reason behind this plan (which could change the farther I get, of course) is that each will then correspond (though how closely is still yet to be determined) to a card in the 3-tier past-present-future spread that will come into play as the ‘wedding spread’ towards the end of the book. Whether only 9 cards will come to Tessa (the main character) or if there will be fewer or more still remains to be seen. I think the original draft which is about the first third of the book only had a single mystery card but that was one of the details that I knew would change when the prologue got a severe decapitation and the focus of the story shifted a tiny but important notch. An additional benefit to the 9 Acts is that I could, theoretically, put out each part as a printed serial, depending on interest, etc. 9 also works as a good number of months to plan the wedding that the story revolves around, etc. It’s a good number in general.
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December 31st, 2007 Scraps
So, 2008. Yeah. Time to get some work done, don’t you think?
Well, I do, and to that end I’m really hoping this production diary will <strike>guilt me into</strike> keep me accountable for finishing the graphic novel that will be “Wedding Tarot.”
The process, as I see it, will go something like this:
- Breakout the novel-in-progress into pages and panels.
- Format said breakouts in Celtx so it looks like an actual script.
- Finish the story in Celtx, in format, from where I stopped in Nov.04 after NaNoWriMo ended for the year.
- Actually create the Tarot deck that goes with the book (and will feature in the art for the gn).
- Draw the graphic novel.
So far I have the Prologue and original 1st Chapter broken out and somewhat edited. Since the Chapters are turning more into Scenes, I’m thinking that some reformatting is going to happen and the chapters I do have are going to be smooshed together to form larger Acts. But this is just a working theory based on the first 12 or so blocked pages. Regardless of the format, I’m serious about getting this project in the works. Likely as not (read as: unless I get lucky and find a publisher between now and then that loves the project and doesn’t ask me to change anything integral to the story) I’ll web-publish first and then go to print based on interest, but that’s a ways away. The goal for 2008 is just to get the script done and edited. If I actually complete that before the end of the year and can start on the art that’s awesome, but I’m willing to accept baby steps with this project. Also, the Tarot deck progress will probably be concurrent to the editing of the starter-novel, not exactly its own step, but I do have to decide on the card backs and the style of the card fronts–if not actually create them–before I can start on the art for the book. It’s going to be a messy process.
And, for the record, the reason I need this diary to keep me accountable is because I have a lot of other things on my plate. I’m not just writing this book. I work fulltime, have a twice-a-week webcomic and write several articles a month for a website. Two of those three currently make me money, which is why this is item number four on the jockeying for position front, or five if you consider the fact that I do have a somewhat active personal life as well. Somewhere I read that in order to handle a life like this, the thing that needs doing is to stop wondering ‘how am I going to manage all of this’ and just do it. So I’m just doing it, taking a teensy leap of faith (really more of a hop) and seeing where I land.
Here’s to a productive new year!
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