[New Feature] Update (soon!) and Behind-the-Scenes Tidbits
Hi everyone. As ever I thank you for your patience! A new episode will be coming very soon, guestimating the 15th. (Of March, that is!) The aftermath of the kidnapping/PlayCity explosion involves the victims' loved ones and friends, and the police want some answers. Also, look for Beth to take a big step forward ... but will her darker side drag her a few steps back?
A sneak preview:
His little girl—he can’t help but think of her that way, especially looking so small and fragile among the machines surrounding her—is lying with her eyes open, staring out the window. Chelsea’s hair is matted and dull, her complexion almost the color of the white sheets covering her. Charles’s heart turns over at the sight of the bruises and sores on her face and neck. The sores are apparently an allergic reaction to chloroform, according to her doctors, but Charles knows those bruises are directly man-made. Someone struck her and blacked her eye; someone put his hands around her throat and squeezed, long enough and hard enough to tattoo his fingerprints on her skin.
Charles isn’t a violent man, nor even a very emotional one, but right now he is overwhelmed by a sick rage and desire to kill whoever did this.
In the meantime! I've been writing some posts in my blog outlining my efforts to improve certain aspects of ASF, in partiular some ouchy continuity/characterization problems from the past. If you're at all interested in the 'backstage' process, from planning to writing to technical stuff, you might find it interesting.
I'll be adding a third and fourth post to this series, with the next one focusing on what it was like to write a brand new pair of scenes for a Season Three episode (between Tristan and his mysterious lover) so many years out of synch. Spoiler Alert: it was bleedin' hard! But the results are really worth it, if I do say so myself -- and those of you who know me know that I don't say that lightly.
More details later. Anyway, just thought I'd link to this stuff for anyone interested.
Thank you! I actually just noticed reading that excerpt out of context does make it sound almost as if Chelsea's dead; that's an unintentional bit of creepiness--most readers know she isn't--but hey, I'm all for creepiness in this storyline!
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Originally Posted by Dana
Great update, Kira. Looking forward to the next installment. Now I understand what's been keeping you busy since the last episode
Wonderful to hear from you again, Dana! I think you'll be especially interested in this one coming up, as there's rather a lot of Beth in it. (Sorry to any Beth haters out there! )
Thanks very much to both of you for your comments.
Thanks for the update, Kira. It's nice to see that you're writing and actively engaged with ASF. I eagerly read your blog posts; I love getting that sort of deep, detail-level insight into another writer's process.
I'm not sure where I stand on the issue of modifying old episodes. For purely technical things -- cleaning up errors, subtly shifting timelines to work better -- I'm onboard. As for adding extra scenes, I dunno. I understand why you feel the need to do it, but at the same time, does it mean that those of us who have already read Season Three are going to have a different perception of current events, as influenced by the version of the past that we read, than people who start the story now will? I've never really seen Tristan and Beth/Danielle as having been "in love," per se, but rather having the possibility of it -- and Tristan's obsession never seemed crazy or creepy to me, but it did seem like an obsession with an idea rather than true love for a person. It strikes me as odd that someone who begins reading after you've added and tweaked scenes might go forward reading this as more of a love story, or at least have a different idea of Tristan's perception of the situation.
That said, best of luck, and I hope you get the next episode done swiftly and smoothly.
I'm not sure where I stand on the issue of modifying old episodes. For purely technical things -- cleaning up errors, subtly shifting timelines to work better -- I'm onboard. As for adding extra scenes, I dunno. I understand why you feel the need to do it, but at the same time, does it mean that those of us who have already read Season Three are going to have a different perception of current events, as influenced by the version of the past that we read, than people who start the story now will?
Wellllll I guess maybe so, they will get a slightly different perspective. I do plan to add the scenes to season 04 as flashbacks, however, so those of you who've already read s03 won't miss out. These are scenes I would have created as flashbacks on their own, by the way; I've always planned to show more of this relationship via flashback, mostly from Amanda's POV. After rereading the 3rd season, I now just prefer them to be included in the past episode 'canon' as well.
To be honest, these scenes aren't epoch-making or anything--ain't like Tristan proposes marriage or nuttin' like that. Just a bit more depth to Beth/Amanda/Danielle's side of the equation. Watch, everyone'll probably read it and think, "yeah, uh, this really doesn't change my opinion at all."
I can definitely understand the school of thought that would find this kind of revisionism a problematic issue or even a bastardization of one's art. I guess I've always seen this project as very different from a novel or TV show or film or really any static literary form; the unique nature of the web allows for me to look at ASF as a living story, one that's allowed to be gently refined or redefined. I can look at it in a gestalt sorta way and see what might work best IMO for the 'saga' (if that's not too grandiose a term), looking backwards and forwards.
Different readers come to the series in their own way; some never read earlier seasons except through recaps, and while the recaps are exhausting exhaustive, they're not complete -- a recap-reader's understanding of the story entirely depends on what I chose to include in those summaries. Others read current stuff and then go back to read S01 even after they already know who killed Camilla (or that she's the one who died in the first place!). Still others start with new eps and never go back at all. And some, as I mentioned, start from the first ep and slog their intrepid way through the current stuff, bless their determined little hearts!
Each of 'em will digest the series in his/her own way and have a unique POV as a result. (Of course, even if everyone read the series exactly the same way, we'd all still have our own unique points of view.) I've gotten used to so many varieties of readers that I don't think of any one way as the ideal method for moving through the story.
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I've never really seen Tristan and Beth/Danielle as having been "in love," per se, but rather having the possibility of it -- and Tristan's obsession never seemed crazy or creepy to me, but it did seem like an obsession with an idea rather than true love for a person. It strikes me as odd that someone who begins reading after you've added and tweaked scenes might go forward reading this as more of a love story, or at least have a different idea of Tristan's perception of the situation.
I definitely see your point! I think I've probably given an overly optimistic view of how much this scene accomplishes. I don't think it does much to imply that this is a major love story in progress (at least not at the point it'll be inserted); but what I intended all along -- and what I think/hope the new stuff shows a little better -- is that it wasn't just sex there. See Cassie & I already told the story of Tristan being obsessed with the idea of being in love; that's what Camilla was about. I mean, he did love Camilla, and vice versa, but he was hooked on that almost pure ideal for so long that it did become obsession. In the Beth plot, Tris's journey was supposed to be almost opposite: very impure origins leading to love.
Apart from their last scene together before the Big Unveilling of Beth-as-Danny, I think I did a piss-poor job of indicating that, and I guess I want the audience to have the same understanding of that as I do, because that's where I'm coming from in the current story, and that's where Tris and Amanda are gonna be coming from with this story, so it'd be nice if the readers are able to be on the same page as the rest of us!
So I guess the long and the short (mostly long) of this is that by the time the flashbacks air, everyone will see this the same way.
Admittedly what I'm really asking y'all is to hope/trust that I have more sense than George Lucas (not just Han/Greedo but adding Luke's dumbass scream in Empire) or even Steven Spielberg (e.g. removing the guns from the dudes in E.T.). It's my sincere intention that I'd never go back and change anything that would destroy continuity by pretending something didn't happen, or that'd make a character seem less himself or herself. It's totally a judgment call as to whether Tristan obsessing creepily over Beth is 'himself' or not.
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That said, best of luck, and I hope you get the next episode done swiftly and smoothly.
Thank you, Michael! Your encouragement means a great deal to me. And your critical perspective is just as informative and useful, so I truly appreciate your taking the time to comment honestly.
Thanks for the clarification (and for taking my comments in the spirit in which they were intended!). I do agree with your point that every reader is going to have a unique POV on the story anyway, based upon life experience, when they read the story, means and circumstances of consumption, etc. Even with a static work such as a novel or film, there isn't a sole way of digesting or processing the material.
I suppose it all comes down to a philosophical difference in how each of us, as web producers, views the nature of our work.
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Originally Posted by kira
Different readers come to the series in their own way; some never read earlier seasons except through recaps, and while the recaps are exhausting exhaustive, they're not complete -- a recap-reader's understanding of the story entirely depends on what I chose to include in those summaries.
Heh. That's why I love my recaps. They're the best possible version of the story I've sloppily written in the episodes!
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Originally Posted by kira
Others read current stuff and then go back to read S01 even after they already know who killed Camilla (or that she's the one who died in the first place!).
Not an uncommon way to take in material, I don't think. I'm just about done watching the entire series of Six Feet Under on DVD, even though I knew many of the plot twists along the way and I know how the finale plays out. It's the journey and not the destination, yada yada.
Six Feet Under is one of the rare series where you can honestly say that in the end...
Spoiler
Everyone dies!
Just bumping this because I've posted a new blog entry relating to the Season 03 editing, this one an in-depth analysis of the surprisingly challenging act of writing new scenes for an old season. Appropriately titled: Revisiting the Past: 3: Old Season, New Scenes, it's actually not just about writing the new scenes, but also an essay on setting a complex storyline's 'rules' and sticking with them; playing fair with the audience while still lying through your teeth; crafting an intricate long-range story; and perhaps most of all, how reading old material gave this jaded author a new chance at love. If you enjoyed the Tristan arc that culminated in the surprising revelation at the opera gala, you might find this interesting. And probably just a little bit scary -- I'm aware I probably come across very John Nash/Beautiful Mind-y.
BTW, as I mention in the post, there are spoilers for the end of season 03. Of course, if you're already a reader of the current material, you already know how things turned out for Tristan and his partner. But if anyone's in the middle of reading through past seasons and wants to avoid a seriously big plot spoiler, it's probably best not to read.
playing fair with the audience while still lying through your teeth
I love reading your thoughts on this ~ especially since I can definitely relate. I think there's a special breed of neurotic compulsive (I like to say: devoted) writer who perilously toils over the same work for umpteen years, resulting in that epic-quality storyline that is so enmeshed it's nearly impossible to touch one thread without having to unravel the whole deal.
I feel like I have spent a lifetime (twenty years is close!) walking that fine line of trying to be fair with regard to the integrity of my overall storyline. I don't think it's easy, especially when, as you note, you've changed over the years, your writing style has changed, and your characters have become other people in the interim. Nevertheless, I'm absolutely convinced it can be done (I have to believe that for myself), and that, in the end, it's still the final product that matters (and how you feel about it).
And just as a side note about the character description thing: I think it's a novelist bent and I like it in a web series. I think some series suffer from insufficient "grounding" both in terms of setting and character (allowing or trusting the pictures to do too much of the work).
I don't know, in the end, whether all the agita is worth it (it really only has to be for you). I think your readership is faithful, understands the nature of web fluidity, and while maybe some might think: churn the freakin' story out and forget about it! (which made me laugh outloud because I read "churn" as "chum" the first time; and I guess either could work), you've got something worth the effort to improve and it's yours, so I still feel it's safe to snip that apron string attached to the notion of "published and done" and glory in the godlike joy of reinventing the world if it so pleases you.
~ And then we get to watch, which is scads of interesting (and makes the rest of us feel less John Nashy).
Thank you! I guess my sense of playing fair does revolve around storyline integrity. I think the devotion to slaving over detail in Reconstruction is absolutely worth it, as it's evident right on the page. Each scene and illustration contains the DNA of all the knowledge and history you've digested, even if it's not literally part of the text or picture. It's there in the background, grounding the saga in reality, even if it's heightened or twisted reality in some cases. So that as a reader, I feel this universe is real and thriving even outside the boundaries of the specific vignettes we're seeing.
That's what I try for with ASF; not as successfully, I don't think, especially because ASF's pacing is so wretchedly slow. But the notion of a thrumming, busy, sprawling community that exists even outside the story is what I wanted to create for the series.
(Of course, strictly speaking I was referring to the more game/puzzle-like sense of the term, which is used in mystery-writing. )
And hey, if my scary ramblings can help others feel less Nashy, it's definitely worth it!
Oh, I think you sell yourself short on the "world" you've created. I think it's in many ways easier (or maybe just for me) to create a world that's so different from the one we currently live in. I can't even begin to imagine trying to write something contemporary and I very very rarely read anything in a contemporary setting because it's hard to relate to that world. I think the great thing about your series is that it's accessible, period. For schlubboes like me and for the people who actually don't need context.
And maybe you think the pacing is slow because you're crockpotting the writing (long simmer to cook), but from the reading end it certainly doesn't feel slow!
Oh, I think you sell yourself short on the "world" you've created. I think it's in many ways easier (or maybe just for me) to create a world that's so different from the one we currently live in. I can't even begin to imagine trying to write something contemporary and I very very rarely read anything in a contemporary setting because it's hard to relate to that world. I think the great thing about your series is that it's accessible, period. For schlubboes like me and for the people who actually don't need context.
LOL, I haven't ever seen 'schlubboes' in text. Seriously, thank you very much, that is an extremely generous and encouraging comment. I guess the grass is always greener -- or harder to grow? not sure of the correct metaphor -- on the other side of the fence, 'cause I bet most of the rest of us couldn't fathom the research and intelligence behind developing a believable, detailed, artistic nineteenth century series on the web.
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And maybe you think the pacing is slow because you're crockpotting the writing (long simmer to cook), but from the reading end it certainly doesn't feel slow!
Heh. Well, that's certainly a relief. But I dunno, call me crazy or hard to please, but four days in eight years seems a leeeetle slow-paced to me. Even after cramming lots of stuff in those four days, that's mighty constpitated.
But if it feels quickish to you, that's damn good to hear.
Well maybe I'm a patient reader. It's taken me three years to finish Stephenson's Quicksilver (going on four!). I may die at the age of 104 clutching a copy of the last installment of the Baroque Cycle.
I dunno ~ to me it's not the pacing over the years, it's the pacing from one piece to the next. It's all the beats in the writing. Time in the real world doesn't exist. It's the time in the story that matters.
I tried both and I must say that different world comes harder to me. You use a word and immediately begin to wonder if it was in use back then! Different sources cannot agree on simple matter of when fork came into everyday use. And if it's really different world, not having Roman empire for example screws everything up. Unless you're willing to pull Tolkien, a lot has to hinder on readers just not questioning stuff. But I digress, sorry!
I think "inside" pacing of ASF is good and fast. Of course, it would be nicer to have eps more often but what would you do. What was your productivity in good times, Kira?
Your blog certainly explained some things to me. When I was reading the sex scene, I was all in disbelief about description of certain someone, like, is it our homely X we're talking about? I guess even if I were in love, I would still be able to attest objectively that my paramour has short legs, for example, or mouth too wide, although I would probably find it endearing. But it works for the story, and Tristan isn't exactly most clear headed guy in the world!
Elena, why are you finding it so hard to get through Quicksilver? I don't know that series.
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Originally Posted by Cruella
I tried both and I must say that different world comes harder to me. You use a word and immediately begin to wonder if it was in use back then! Different sources cannot agree on simple matter of when fork came into everyday use. And if it's really different world, not having Roman empire for example screws everything up. Unless you're willing to pull Tolkien, a lot has to hinder on readers just not questioning stuff. But I digress, sorry!
No need to apologize, it's definitely an interesting digression. I think when creating a completely new universe, the biggest problem may be developing a world that's internally consistent and logical. If you establish that the government of Fantasticalia is ruled by the Ancient Order of Xopples who have enslaved other races using telepathy, you have to use certain rules -- like, say, all Xopples are frail, telepathic hemophiliacs who are understandably paranoid about any physical violence -- and make sure the audience knows and believes this setup. A writer shouldn't break the rules down the road -- let's say by depicting a warrior Xopple who gets into fights but never gets wounded, much less bleeds out -- just because it's convenient.
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I think "inside" pacing of ASF is good and fast. Of course, it would be nicer to have eps more often but what would you do. What was your productivity in good times, Kira?
During the first season, which is probably not a good example because there were two of us at the time, episodes were weekly with only a couple of planned breaks. The second season was the first one written on my own, and I think that took a little longer, but I was still writing very regularly. Same goes for the beginning of the third season, I believe. It wasn't until 2000 or so that my pace slowed down tremendously, and this corresponded with certain real life events, I'm not surprised in retrospect.
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Your blog certainly explained some things to me. When I was reading the sex scene, I was all in disbelief about description of certain someone, like, is it our homely X we're talking about? I guess even if I were in love, I would still be able to attest objectively that my paramour has short legs, for example, or mouth too wide, although I would probably find it endearing. But it works for the story, and Tristan isn't exactly most clear headed guy in the world!
LOL, yes, that is certainly true. Love or high lust is certainly enough to put rose-colored glasses on many of us. If I weren't trying to hide the identity of said partner, I would have shown more of Tristan's finding certain features endearing and sexy, despite their being what we (or at least the other character) might find less-than-ideal. That's pretty much what I've done with the newer scenes, at least the versions that are being used as flashbacks in current episodes (as opposed to the actual scenes as placed within the season three episode).
And it's also important to remember that as un-clear-headed as Tristan is, his partner ain't exactly reliable either.
Spoiler
Let's face it, among her many other issues, Beth is verybody dysmorphic, and while she -- and somewhat judgmental characters such as Chelsea and Danielle -- may describe her looks as everything from plain and frumpy to actually "repulsive" (as Beth calls herself), this isn't at all an accurate picture; it's just as inaccurate as Tristan's fog of sexual attraction/adoration. I think we get one of the rare objective views of Beth from Rena back in season three, when Rena ran into her shopping for a gown for the opera gala. Rena finds her put-together and attractive; of course, this was at a point when Amanda was in charge of things. Later there's the moment at the opera gala when Ian meets Beth, and he privately thinks she's a "curvier copy of Danielle." As besotted as Ian is with Danny, he doesn't find Beth ugly in comparison to his stepmother. So Beth's not as fugly as she believes herself.
I also had some fun in the scene at the opera where Tristan sees RealDanielle for the first time, from his vantage point in the audience mezzanine looking up at the Nichols family box. I described him as seeing Cameron and the gorgeous woman Tris thought was his wife, while on the other side of Cam was another woman. While in context, the audience probably assumed this was a reference to Beth, it's actually Tristan's first view of Danielle. And to him, she was only 'attractive', as opposed to the beauty he finds in Beth.
It's yet another benefit of the written medium, that I can show characters' appearances from different points of view and shape the audience's expectations thereby. (Also this ambiguity is a nice side effect of not using celebrity pictures.)
I'm glad the blog posts are interesting and even helpful. There's at least one more edition coming up, in this 'revisiting the past' series, involving some technical/creative features added to the S03 episodes.
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