I'm trying to beef up my postcount here for technical reasons, but in the meantime I realized that I haven't had a survey in a while. So why not kill two birds with one stone and do so in a productive manner?
1. What is/are your favorite ASF plot(s)?
2. Who is/are your favorite ASF character(s)?
3. Which single character would you toss off a boat in a piranha-infested lake?
4. Which unresolved mystery or storyline are you most hoping to see, well, resolved?
Normally I'd include more negative survey questions (such as which plots suck) but I'm fragile so now isn't the time to get bad news.
That's all, really. Not sure if anyone's around but if you are, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Well, Kira, it's surely been a long time. Usually I get updates when something gets posted to this forum by email but now for some reason I didn't so that's why I didn't check the website earlier. Well, not that it really matters
To answer your survey, not that at this point I remember much of the older plots
1. Plots: I like Beth's disease (as I'm sure you know) and the relationship with Tristan, I like Jem and the kidnapping and how he will deal with revealing the truth, and I like the Nicholls family intrigues (I love Hannah as a character and I'm interested in Danielle, Ian, and also Adele).
2. Characters (somehow in order): Jem, Hannah (sideword: I think she has a lot of potential as a character due to her unique position/character combination), Tristan, Beth, Rena, Chelsea, Ian, Adele
3. Do I toss off (a) the one which in my opinion isn't interesting anymore or (b) the one I hate most but who might contribute a lot to plot development (the villain-est of them all )?
(a) would be Doug White
(b) would be Alex Eckhart
4. Tristan / Beth. The mugging of Martina / necklace a close second.
Well, hope this helps. BTW if you include negative surveys I'll answer them as well .
That being said I hope we'll read more episodes soon.
All the best
__________________
Life has more imagination than we carry in our dreams.
Thanks, Dana! I was going to remove this test thread since I figured everyone was gone, but I'm glad I didn't. Very interesting answers, thank you so much.
As far as the toss-offs, Alex doesn't surprise me, but I was about poor Doug! But I understand it, actually. He's been lying in a hospital bed for ages and hasn't done much (even ignoring the years of hiatus). Pleased that you rate Hannah so highly; Jem, well, everyone likes Jem, but Hannah! That's rewarding. She's one of my favorites to explore, especially the dichotomy between her strong personality and her weak physical position, and her goodness/ethics vs. the highly immoral/illegal/dangerous world she lives in. Ryan's role in her life also needs to be expanded on.
Aw, feel free to add any negative stuff you like. I don't mean to sound like one of those writesr who can't take negative criticism. So any of the bad counterparts to the above questions are fair game.
The most obvious criticism is that there are no episodes, so don't feel it necessary to mention that.
This snippet of the next episode, just to prove I'm not completely dormant, is dedicated to your favorite plot:
Spoiler
Beth watches Tristan give Martina a Styrofoam cup of coffee, keeping one in his left hand as he lifts the other to lick some drops of the spilled liquid from his fingers. She’s mesmerized by the gesture. By his hands. The fingers are long, graceful, strong. She can imagine them touching her face, raking their way from her temples through her hair to clutch at her, drawing her near. The night of the opera, in the snow-covered courtyard … that must be what she’s remembering.
His gaze is insistent, intrusive—like his mouth was, that night. And maybe other times… She refuses to acknowledge it but there may have been other times. Like flickering shadows just visible in the corner of one’s eye, memories of this man taunt Beth, almost close enough to reach but then cruelly darting away, where she can’t grasp them...
1. Very much enjoying the manipulation of Martine by Alex/Danielle, the kidnapping storyline and parts of the Beth storyline (which I think I mentioned before, I just need more of a feel of her as a person, I guess. I can't really articulate it at the moment!)
2. Danielle, Jem, Tristan, Rena, Chelsea, the whole Nichols family really
3. Martine... as much as I love the storyline at the moment, girlfriend needs to step it up and dance with regards to finally taking on the people tormenting her.
4. Gotta agree with Dana on the Tristan/Beth front
Very excited to see the snippet and how much you've written already for WeSeWriMo, Kira!
Thanks for taking the time to respond, Ira. I know you have affection for the sickness that is Alex/Danielle/Martina. Beth is tough chick to get a handle on both as a reader and a writer, mainly because she's such a spectator to her own life. Her work with Kalid will give her a more active role in helping herself, and I think will help readers learn more about her real feelings and personality. The upcoming scenes with her (already written, yet!) are specifically geared to showing some of what she deals with on a day to day basis. We'll see the beginnings of her chafing at the restraints that Molly -- and the others, but she doesn't know about them -- put on her existence.
Poor Martina! She's already been tossed overboard with sharks, metaphorically speaking -- what else are enemies such as Adele, Alex and Danielle? -- but you want it done literally, eh? Yeah, she's pretty much Victim Central at the moment. And she doesn't even know about Adele yet! Obviously the slowness of this storyline is largely responsible for her continuing to be stuck in the morass of victimhood. There is further down for her to go, I'm afraid, but she will make a turnaround eventually.
I really appreciate reading your thoughts, Ira. Thanks very much!
I think it will be very interesting to see what Beth deals with on a daily basis. It will help define her more as a character. When is the next episode due?
__________________
Life has more imagination than we carry in our dreams.
Well, I'm participating in Web Series Writing Month in August and it's kind of a rule that we don't edit stuff we write, so while I've actually, technically, finished #4.41 (holy cow), it won't be properly edited and hence ready to post until September, I'm afraid. But if things go well with WeSeWriMo, I'll have three episodes in the bag for relatively rapid posting.
If you want, you can see some behind the scenes stuff about the writing of these episodes here in the ASF category of my blog. May be some very very minor spoilers there, but nothing that would really give anything away.
Thanks as ever for your continuing support, Dana. Beth and I need all we can get.
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Beth is tough chick to get a handle on both as a reader and a writer, mainly because she's such a spectator to her own life. Her work with Kalid will give her a more active role in helping herself, and I think will help readers learn more about her real feelings and personality. The upcoming scenes with her (already written, yet!) are specifically geared to showing some of what she deals with on a day to day basis. We'll see the beginnings of her chafing at the restraints that Molly -- and the others, but she doesn't know about them -- put on her existence. 
