As Robert noted in his Abigail's War post this evening (which, it should be noted, comes from afar while he attempts to take a holiday - ha!) tonight everything but the cover for AW is in.
I'm just breathless. At Sandrine's art (everything you see other than letters is hers). And just at the fact of it. It's a comic! A moody, broody comic, but a comic nonetheless! Where there used to be numbered boxes, there's... life.
Did I cross the cheeseball line? Sorry. Let me have it just this once.
Robert mentions our Vision Document. Let me mention something else, that I don't think we've discussed much around here (and if I've missed it, let me know!). Looking back at the Vis Doc, I noticed how important it was to me, despite this story being about a teenage witch in the 1690s, that the story have something relatable going on. Something universal.
Here's the beginning of Abigail's character description:
Somewhere deep down, Abigail is a regular 17th century girl. She's capable of being a kind friend, of having a crush on a boy, and would like nothing more than to find a place she belongs -- a place she can call home. But Abigail's anything but a regular girl -- upon witnessing her sister's death by hanging, Abigail received Rebecca's magical abilities. She doesn't understand them, and hasn't fully tested these abilities -- but she knows she's capable of great harm, and has no wish to harm anyone.
It was important to me that this girl with strange powers could have really simple desires: a home, friends, a crush on a boy. Otherwise, why on earth would we care?
This has got me thinking about how important it is for our characters to be grounded in some emotion, any emotion or desire, that rings true for us. I think sometimes it's what separates the merely-okay from the great.
So tell me: is this something you consider in your work? The ability for us to connect with your characters?
Comments
07:47 Tue Jul 15th, 2008
Connecting with at least one character is crucial for me in my stories. That's why I took deliberate steps in Deutschmaschine to have her interact freely with several persons so that we can see them through her. You can't get that without taking your time. When a comic is all about plotline-and-action-and-twist-and-once-again you just go through the pages going "awwww"... but I, myself, tire of it if there's no soul to it all. Like Smith would say, it needs.... PURPOSE!!
09:03 Tue Jul 15th, 2008
I totally agree Yen, right now Broken Nexus is all about one girl's struggle to find what she lost for so many years (no I'm not going to tell you what... you can read it :O. I think I missed this in my first pitch, which was more team based and thereby gave me less page time to try and build that connection so it came across very one-dimensional. Something to learn, I can't wait to read the finished product.
17:17 Tue Jul 15th, 2008
I think this is something I have been trying to deal with, considering the more-or-less self-imposed limitations regarding this in relation to Alma. I'm dealing with a guy who is reserved to a fault, interacting with a group of other people who are equally reserved to a fault, so how can you really get emotional connections with people who are trying so hard to be rational and/or emotionally neutral [at the very least]? Also, at the core Alma is just a silly little mystery, structured pretty clunkily around a guy who doesn't know what's going on. As such, the relatability had to come from that aspect. The reader, ideally, will also not know what's going on, to a degree. I also don't want Mallory to be an idiot, so there's the standard "mystery story" balance in there to worry about. That said, I do hope to develop and reveal more human aspects to the characters, but that's more of a long-view hope. Show it in the cracks, the little moments when the character's guard is down, that single time Mallory calls Elizabeth by her first name rather than her title. I just hafta bamboozle the readers with pop and weirdness long enough to keep 'em reading, so's I can sneak some humanity in there at a later date.
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Tenzil Kem
07:41 Tue Jul 15th, 2008
Yen, it really is magic isn't it, seeing your vision come to life. Like you, I am sure, I can hardly wait for the launch! I try to ground all of my characters in reality, no matter how fantastic their powers, personality or situation. Every one of them. I don't always succeed, but I always try. I consider it essential to story telling in all forms, comics no less than any other. Like you put it so well, ''Otherwise, why else would we care''? Indeed.