Sunday, January 09, 2005
Mid-serial Crisis
An early start with Laura saw a round of bacon sandwiches, coffee and fresh orange juice for breakfast. My new Simpson’s DVD also got a hefty airing while I thought about a possible break from the planned path of Jackie and his journey to Edinburgh. It’s quite simple: I will withhold one piece of information from issue 40 and not introduce it for a while after he gets to Edinburgh. This keeps the suspense up and leaves the plot more open for the future. After all – I don’t know most of what is going to happen when he gets off the bus at St. Andrews Square do I?
Something else is bothering me about Hunting Jack. After not having read the issues in detail over the last few weeks, when I look back with a fresh pair of eyes I am left wondering if it is balanced correctly between the drama I want and the flow. I want it to be a good read but I want to avoid having in meaningless, mundane passages that don’t actually add any substance to the plot.
Maybe I’m looking at it more from a novel perspective when I think of it like this, because I think as far as issues go as part of a serial it works okay as it stands. I think.
But if I were to transform this into a novel, then changes will have to be made. As it stands, I am increasingly of the opinion that it lacks depth of character. I like the plot – I just think the characters need more work due to poor dialogue.
I worked all afternoon on the story. The junction between Glasgow and Edinburgh is proving to be a difficult transition. Up to now the plot has unfolded naturally and the ultimate goal and main story is in my ‘line of write’. However, there are a couple of loose ends from Glasgow that I really should have decided what was to happen with before getting this far. And so much of today revolved around planning and questioning the validity of my decisions, though I did complete issue 41.
Leaving a loose end to be picked up later or tying it up seems an easy decision to make in theory. In reality, it is much, much harder.
On another related note, my editor at KIC wants to give the serials ISSN numbers. This is the same as an ISBN number for a paperback but intended for serials and internet productions.
I am reluctant to do this as I think it may interfere with my chances of having the story published traditionally. The conversation is still on-going so we shall see what route it takes as I know other authors at KIC are querying this approach.
Something else is bothering me about Hunting Jack. After not having read the issues in detail over the last few weeks, when I look back with a fresh pair of eyes I am left wondering if it is balanced correctly between the drama I want and the flow. I want it to be a good read but I want to avoid having in meaningless, mundane passages that don’t actually add any substance to the plot.
Maybe I’m looking at it more from a novel perspective when I think of it like this, because I think as far as issues go as part of a serial it works okay as it stands. I think.
But if I were to transform this into a novel, then changes will have to be made. As it stands, I am increasingly of the opinion that it lacks depth of character. I like the plot – I just think the characters need more work due to poor dialogue.
I worked all afternoon on the story. The junction between Glasgow and Edinburgh is proving to be a difficult transition. Up to now the plot has unfolded naturally and the ultimate goal and main story is in my ‘line of write’. However, there are a couple of loose ends from Glasgow that I really should have decided what was to happen with before getting this far. And so much of today revolved around planning and questioning the validity of my decisions, though I did complete issue 41.
Leaving a loose end to be picked up later or tying it up seems an easy decision to make in theory. In reality, it is much, much harder.
On another related note, my editor at KIC wants to give the serials ISSN numbers. This is the same as an ISBN number for a paperback but intended for serials and internet productions.
I am reluctant to do this as I think it may interfere with my chances of having the story published traditionally. The conversation is still on-going so we shall see what route it takes as I know other authors at KIC are querying this approach.
Colin 11:19 pm