A Good Week

Well.... what can I say about this week?

On Monday I started reading again, specifically a bunch of Darren Shan books, mostly his Saga of Darren Shan series. First off, I love them and I love how they develop. The gradually get darker and darker as the character of Darren delves deeper and deeper into the realms of the Vampires and the Vampeneze. Initially I got these books on my Kindle because I’d seen the movie ‘Cirque du Freak’, based on the first couple of novels, and really quite enjoyed it, even if it was a little childish at times. The books though are almost entirely different. Things happen a lot slower but you can see the plots growing and getting more and more complex as Darren ages and learns more about his new people. The film, in comparison, shoves huge chunks of the novels together, giving Darren his nemesis almost instantly and revealing almost all the information about the character of Mr Tiny within the first hour. Characters are switched around, brought in too early, completely left out or just created out of nowhere (You know who I’m talking about little monkey-girl).

Secondly, about the books, they helped me realise something about my own writing. You may know if you’ve read my archives, numerous as they are (*cough*) that I’ve been having trouble editing my completed novel. Since I’ve started working on the first page I’ve always felt that something wasn’t quite right about it. When I was reading the Shan Saga, as I refer to it, I realised that it was possible that I was using the wrong perspective. So I switched it around. I’ve spent this week rewriting my manuscript in 1^st person and already I’m seeing an improvement in the writing.
The trouble with my story is that it’s somewhat of a mystery. I’ve got some characters that know everything, some that only know parts and one that hasn’t a clue what’s going on. The temptation with writing all that in third person though is to reveal too much. All too often I found myself writing exposition that wasn’t needed or was coming too soon, now that I’ve switched perspectives though I’ve stopped that happening. The reader is only told as much as my main character knows, which at the end of the day, isn’t an awful lot. I’m actually starting to believe that I’m going to be able to finish editing this novel and make another step down the path to being published. 

I’ve also been working on my newest web-comic idea oSaM. The script was finished at the beginning of May and I’m now halfway through the edits/rewrites. It’s a fun thing to do and it feels like it’s going the way I want again. It’s also helping me stay inspired about the story itself and while I’m rewriting I keep coming across all these things about my characters that I didn’t know. It’s a lot of fun.

I’ve been drawing as well while I rewrite, sketching my characters and mostly doing anatomy studies. While I’m still unsure about the style I plan to use a good grasp of anatomy is essential when drawing any form of humanoid. In the past I’ve not bothered trying to learn and as a result my characters have looked odd and out of proportion. Now though I’m happy to say that even in my most cartoony of styles they’re looking normal and it’s easy to take a step towards imagining them in reality.

Basically, I’ve had a good week full of creativity.

There is a big painting bubbling away in the back of my mind though so who knows, next week I might even be able to talk about that.

Ciao.

The Sunday Workspace: A bit of everything.

So it's the first Sunday Workspace post. I've got a lot of projects going on at the minute so there's a good chance that this is going to be a ridiculously long post... you know, just for a change. Sadly, the photos aren't exactly the best quality, given that I spent most of the day hungover, unable and unwilling to do much more then shuffle between the kitchen and the living room. Enough of that though, I'm fully recovered now and intending to start and finish this blog.

First up, this is my big pile of crap. It's basically a shelf where I place everything that I'm working on, whether writing or drawing or a book I'm reading. It could probably do with a bit of tidying and I fully intend to get on that... tomorrow. On my pile of crap shelf right now are my journals, several books that I'm reading and the little pile of Works in Progress. At the bottom of that pile is also the stuff that needs to be put away or is waiting to be stuck into the Sketchbook Project book.

Speaking of, this is my Sketchbook Project stuff. Those scraps are hopefully going to go towards creating an image for one of the pages. The covers need a bit more work but I'm going to do those at a later date, once I've gotten the pages a bit fuller. I just love that filling of a book slowly filling up and looking through to see more and more pages being filled. I really need to get some PVA glue and more paper scraps though so that I can start sticking stuff together.

 These are my story notes, right now there's two different sets; one for the novel, in the green portfolio and the other for a new idea that's gradually taking shape in the notebook and sheet of paper. As I'm slowly getting back into the swing of writing for my own amusement there's only 2 but at some point I know there'll be as many as 5 or 6 sets of notes there. It's the way my brain works.  I prefer to write the basic info by hand, as well as usually the first draft. It takes a long time and my hand ends up sore but that's just the way I like to work. It does lead to me having a lot of notebooks and pads of paper lying around. It gets worse once there's loads of written loose sheets everywhere. We'll find out how I solve that problem at a later date though.

These are two of the pages for my webcomic. I'm slowly getting the hang of a new technique I'm trying for my pages so these are really quite experimental. I'm attempting to blend both traditional and digital media for this next chapter as it seems to be easier for me to draw most of the page on paper. I find it comes out how I want much, much better. This pictures a bit unclear but you can also see the handmade notebook I have where I sketch out individual page layouts before I put them down onto paper. That too is something I'll come back to another day.

As it is, this is what's in my workspace right now, I'm going to be working on several of these things in the next week and who knows, I may have new images for you to have a nosey at.

Out with the new. In with the old

My plot is coming along nicely. I've got most of the points figured out, I just need to work out a couple of details, mainly for the later part of the story. I'm one of those writers who prefers to have everything figured out before writing a single word of the story, it's weird but that's just the way that I am. There's a slight feeling of impatience within me though, like I really want to start writing even though some points still aren't clear to me. I think part of it is because soon I'm going to be forced to spend days at a time working on my webcomic, rather then writing. The first page is set to be released on Saturday.. very nervous about the response, particularly as the third page, set to be released the weekend of my graduation week, isn't finished yet. In fact I have to redraw it. Any way this blog is getting off topic from writing into comicing and although comicing does involve writing I need to say what I was going to say.
I love Terry Brooks. I've rediscovered what it was that I loved about the novels. They're good old-fashioned sword and sorcery novels that have an element of our past and history within the way they're written. Like a film produced in the 70s and 80s. It might not be the past/history for most people but given that I wasn't even born then it's the past for me. Anyway, too often now fantasy novels are written for the action, there's very little character development or the main characters are ridiculously young and are coming of age. With Brooks though it's different. Oh don't get me wrong there's action... great sword battles and slashing fire between enemies. But he also focuses on the characters, letting readers know what they're thinking, suggesting their past and issues they may have to the reader rather then shoving it down their throats. I can't help but think as I read them "That's how I want to write, I want the best of both worlds" It's how I used to write, or at least try to write, as long as I can remember. I'd try desperately to get a balance between character and story. I was only about 12 at the time though so I struggled to figure it out properly. Gradually I just sort of wrote what I want to, often trailing off within the first few chapters as the characters just sort of got stuck and the story went nowhere. Now though, I'd decided "Screw those coming of age stories that come up in fantasy. I want a proper fantasy novel with swords and sorcery and dragons and monsters." I can't find one to read though... other than Brooks' Shannara series. I'm going to write one.
Right after I finish my BBQ Pork with mushrooms.