"Why won't you write a SEQUEL?"
Nov. 17th, 2004 07:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandolinThis post is intended for the eyes of those who read my stories, read my comic, and who demand to know why I haven't posted a sequel/new part/new story. (Those of you who could care less may feel free to skip this one.)
Lately, I've been getting messages from readers who either beg me to write a sequel or who think I could write a sequel or write more but just am not bothering. Now while this is a vast improvement over the abusive reviewers who attacked me for not posting a new part/story/comic and accused me of withholding more to spite them... it still indicates a lack of understanding among my readers. There's still a misconception that putting out a new comic/story/chapter is a simple matter and I'm just not bothering for whatever reason. The lack of updates is not by choice. I can't just sit down and whip up a sequel. Begging me to do so will not help either of us.
So I'm going to set the record straight.
(Note: This was updated on 9/22/05, in deference to yet ANOTHER insane thing I did with my life.)
General reasons there are no new updates:
1. Work. I have a full-time job and spend 40 hours a week in front of a computer - doing work. Doing what I'm paid to do, which does not include "writing stories and drawing comics on government time." So after 8 hours of this, I'm not going to be turning on my home computer as much. (This entire post was written at home; I just e-mailed it to myself.)
2. Graduate school. At the same time, I've just started part-time graduate school, and am only taking one class this semester - and let me tell you, the semester when I'm going to have to take two classes is going to be a NIGHTMARE. One is hard enough. (And since I think I may be taking two classes in Spring 2006, the meltdown is imminent.)
3. Real life. The time left over that work and grad school have not sucked up? That goes to cleaning, cooking, paying bills and trying to get some repairs done on my new house. Not to mention the holidays, which - in spite of my denial - are coming up fast.
4. Lack of inspiration or poor ideas. The only story ideas I've come up with have been cliched, done to death, or Mary Sues of some sort. Sorry, no. (The only good idea that's surfaced may end up being a self-insertion of sorts, but only because the dialogue in my head is intriguing enough to risk it.)
5. Other projects. I currently have an art commission that takes precedence.
6. Fear of constant WIP. I now refuse to start into anything new unless I'm pretty damn sure it's going to come to an end. Even stories that I had outlined from start to finish got away from me completely.
7. I bought a house. And I was stupid enough to buy a house that needs more renovations than I can handle. Anyone who wants to give me a hard time about updating can haul themselves over here and scrape off ALL THE LOOSE FLAKING PAINT in my back room, re-grade the exterior, upgrade the wiring, fix the pressure reduction valve that makes it possible for the heating system to work, mow my lawn, and paint everything. Not willing and able to do that? Then don't demand that I "update now!!!"
...so there's not a lot of energy left to write with. :)
Why specific stories/projects aren't updating:
Bloodlines (New Blood, et al.)
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. College got a little crazy. Right after I finished the second story in the series, I started my second semester, and because of issues that were partly my fault, our old literary magazine editor resigned and I was put in charge. Oy. There was also theater to worry about, and since I was a double major I was taking one of my Senior Seminar classes a year early to get a professor who would at least give me an A if I worked my tail off (as opposed to the prof who graded arbitrarily).
2. The immediate "New Blood" sequel kept driving me nuts. I actually had the general flow of the series mapped out in my head when I started "New Blood," but the sequel kept on fighting me. A lot of it had to do with the fact that the scenes set on Terra Venture didn't work. I initially was going to write a story taking us back to Terra Venture and banking on the idea I introduced in "New Blood" about parallel versions of people in different universes - here, I proposed that had Kendra not been a Slayer, she'd have wound up on Terra Venture's crew. Although the animosity between Kendra and Kai worked, nothing else really did. And the scenes I tried to write for the Christmas story seemed really, really forced. I got so fed up at one point that I just chucked it completely. Omitting the Terra Venture scenes wouldn't work since I was trying to draw a parallel for the end of the story.
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. I now can't really buy into the potential pairings I introduced. Well, just one: Mike and Maya. And since I laid that one on pretty heavily - I meant to use it later on as one of the reasons Mike and Faith were never going to happen - it had to be dealt with in the series. The explanation for it, I decided later, was also kind of dumb and overdone.
2. One of the main characters is way out of character. I wrote "New Blood" before Mike was sent back home, and while I think I got the laid-back aspect of his character down, I completely ignored his overprotective streak. While that would probably rarely come into play with Faith or Buffy, I could see it developing with Xander or Willow, at least. I read the story now, and, well, it doesn't feel right.
3. My original explanation for all this? Sucked. I'm not going to go into the "how" Mike landed in Sunnydale, but I'll just say there was a lot of fuzzy logic involved and the mechanics don't make sense. I also didn't have enough in the way of excuses to keep the Defender off of Mike's back until a certain point.
4. I tried and failed to write the other side of the crossover. Like I said before, none of the Terra Venture scenes ever clicked for me. Didn't help that Leo got on my nerves occasionally and kept coming off as more whiny than he actually was on the show. And I couldn't skip that part because of a) the parallels and b) trying to explain the situation hinged on looking back to Terra Venture from time to time. There was a brief flash of inspiration when I considered Jenny Calendar to be the alternate-Jossverse character on the station, but that went nowhere fast.
5. As far as one-shot antagonists go, I have yet to top Relish. As much as I mucked around with the legends, I've got to admit that the Bronze's new act in "New Blood" are my favorite set of villains because they were so much fun. I hated having to kill off Malik especially, but I couldn't come up with an excuse for him not to return - and the Mayor would not leave that loose end. The Christmas story avoided that problem - it was a string of things we didn't see in "Amends" - but the parallelism I needed in the Terra Venture scenes fell flat and the story wasn't fleshed out enough.
Special Case
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. This was SUPPOSED to be a one-shot story. When it got too big for its britches, so to speak, I split it off into a mini-series. Big freaking mistake.
2. "Now and Again" was cancelled. Yeah, I know, I know, but shortly after "Special Case" finished posting, my favorite show - the only show that got me actively involved in a fan campaign - was cancelled. Since one of the main reasons it got the axe was political fallout from the CBS/Viacom/Paramount merger, we had no chance of getting it back, and all the effort we put into the campaign that summer drained the hell out of me. First and last fan campaign I will be actively involved in. The only thing I had the energy to write at the time was "Murphy's Law," a story I felt honor-bound to complete in order to provide some sort of conclusion to the series-ending cliffhanger. Hey, I couldn't bring the show back, but at least I could provide some closure.
3. I hate writing diplomacy as much as Jack O'Neill hates sitting through it. The scene where I got stuck was a diplomatic scene that was unfortunately necessary. It just wasn't working, and it was too early in the time frame to cut it short with an attack. (Also, I wanted the attack to happen when SG-1 discovered Jason and Jack was about to blow a gasket.)
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. I can't put myself back in that Season 3 mindset. As I write this, Stargate is in its eighth season. O'Neill's in charge of the SGC, the Tok'ra have proved frustrating allies, the Replicators have advanced and there's a Carter duplicate running around, Daniel's died and come back to life, Skaara's ascended, there's a team in Atlantis... you get the point. I would have to go seriously AU to pull the story off now, and my Season 3 episodes have gone "poof" courtesy of the guys who robbed my apartment. And now with the house, I have had to put off getting cable because a) I refuse to ever deal with Comcast and b) I can't justify the expense between my mortgage and the cost of repairs.
2. Logistically, my original plan is a nightmare. Seriously, I have to split up two different sets of Rangers, SG-1 and Jason and Billy to have certain people in certain places. And for one critical scene, I need an excuse for Daniel to make a break for the Gate - the original idea didn't work. It was a headache trying to figure out then, and it's even worse now. If I get back to it, I may have to rewrite the entire plot from the ground up. Which will require more time than I have right now.
3. I can't take the crossover seriously anymore. Getting "Special Case" to work was a stretch, but it was doable since it was primarily located on Earth and Hatmehit's little domain. But I'm having a lot of trouble putting SG-1 in the context of Aquitar.
4. I'm not as big a Stargate fan as I used to be. Sure, I love the show, but... it doesn't kill me if I miss an episode. And one of my more analytical friends is also a fan, so it's harder for me to BS things when I write anything Stargate; I keep thinking about what she'd say. With a crossover this weird, plausibility has to be stretched, and it's not working for me as well as it used to.
Sharp Edges
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. Hand pain. In March 2002, in the midst of writing this, I started getting hand and shoulder cramps. This necessitated a workstation change, physical therapy, and in general less time at the computer. Typing away was no longer as simple as it used to be, and while my situation has improved since then, I have to be more and more conscientious about my computer habits as a result. So minimizing computer time meant less time spent typing up story chapters.
2. Season 2 of Witchblade. Okay, I'm going to get slapped, but the first-season finale of "Witchblade" made me want to beat my head against the wall. Pulling a "reset button" solution to rewind the ENTIRE SEASON? The only way that ending would have worked for me was if there wasn't going to be a season two... but reintroducing all these characters bored me to tears. And the end of season two made me twitch. It kind of dampened my interest in the series.
3. The outline got away from me. I had the basic plot points of this one outlined going into it; although it started out as "what if Sara met Spike?" I hammered out the basic plotline before I started writing in earnest. Bryan Cornish, the OC I created to help Dawn out, was originally going to die midway through the story, making things personal. But in the middle of editing, I realized there were a couple problems with that. First, since Bryan was a friend of Gabe's, it would cheapen another friend's death down the line. Second, the way things were falling into place, if Bryan were killed, the good guys would probably never find the Erios Codex. Third... well, he was too damn interesting to kill. I liked him. My readers liked him. And in the end, I realized he'd be more useful if he survived the attack.
4. A necessary character just stopped talking to me. The other necessary OC, Rhiannon Price, was created for two purposes: distracting Jake and filling the role of Travers' business partner to allow Jake and Sara to get somewhere on the case. But while I was writing, she just stopped talking. I couldn't get enough of a handle on her character, which was maddening - she had to interest Jake, and she had to be a believable character to fill the role of Travers' business partner. She couldn't get away with being window dressing. I must have tried to write her first encounter with Jake a dozen times.
5. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. In January of 2004, I was struggling to get part 19 done. I'd finally finished and edited part 18, but didn't want to post it til I got a finished draft of 19 done (since part 18 ended on the cliffhanger from hell). I was up for three hours straight writing and rewriting, revisiting prior parts, revising the outline, and just trying to make the damn chase scene work. I got fed up and went to bed.
- The next morning, I awoke to find this anonymous review for the story. One that, while well-spoken, suggested that I had just brushed off the story and it wasn't updated because I hadn't bothered to work on it. After spending so much time the night before driving myself up the wall over a part, that implication PISSED ME OFF.
- I lost it. I ranted on my ff.net profile, pulled the story, ranted on LJ, and (for the moment) decided to wash my hands of the story. I could not take the grief. I had no way of defending myself to the reviewer, who was too cowardly to even use a dummy e-mail account, so the frustration had to go elsewhere.
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. Yeah, I'm still a little bitter. As much as I hate to admit it, that reviewer's attitude still grates at me when I think back on it, and I keep seeing it echoed in other screaming ranting reviewers who think that verbal abuse will result in more parts of their favorite story right now. It doesn't make me eager to test the waters again.
2. If it goes up again, the villains must be changed. Primarily, the "Boss" must be rewritten. His character, while interesting at the start, didn't really seem the type to know about or need the Key - even with one of Glory's old minions in his clutches. And Shorty, Leon and Echo remind me way too much of Relish (well, okay, Leon and Echo are too much like Molly and Mal for my comfort). Having Ethan Rayne as one of his top minions was a good thing, but the rest of the antagonists need to be overhauled. I'd also need to re-evaluate Irons' involvement - since this was a Season One story, I think he'd have more of an active hand than he originally did.
3. Hell, I need to overhaul and streamline the entire damn plot. While I think in a lot of ways this was one of my best crossovers, the plot is too bloated and drawn out. I need to simplify it and trim it down, while keeping the good stuff (Bryan, the Pit, Wilson, half the scenes with Sara and Spike) without getting gratuitous. Geez, how many parts did it take Giles to figure out that prophecy? Ten?
4. I need to decide how AU it could be. See, it could go either way. I still want to set it post-season five for Buffy and mid-season 1 for Witchblade... I don't know if I want it to go slightly AU or not. That's kind of up in the air, and it needs to be worked out before posting the story.
5. I'm not posting a thing until I am close to having a finished draft. I have learned my lesson there. Thing is, even if I get the time to overhaul and streamline and revise... this is going to be a long story. Which will take a while to draft. So I can't promise anything. (But I'm kind of annoyed that another BtVS/Witchblade crossover on ff.net is being treated like, "Wow! No one ever did this before!" *sigh* Hope that one at least gets finished.)
The Key and the Sword
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. See Immediate Reason #4 why "Sharp Edges" was pulled. That incident made me decide that pulling my WIPs would save me a lot of grief.
2. Too much silliness, not enough plot. Oh, the story had some great moments - most of Dawn and Adam's interaction, the "Go Fish" scene, the attempted kidnapping - but overall, even for a just-for-the-hell-of-it crossover, the plot sucked.
3. Worst. Fight scenes. Ever. Man, I hate writing fight scenes, and you could tell in this story. Ugh.
4. The stupid crossover secret trap. I wrote myself into a corner with this. I wasn't sure who should find out what and when, Dawn found out too easily, and it came off as pretty stupid.
5. Problems with characterization. There was a little bit of Buffy-Sue in this story; she was a little too good at fighting/picking up on things at certain points. I should have put her and Teela at the same level, and Teela was just a little too bitchy in places.
6. Still dealing with hand pain. Yeah, I was still having issues when this story was posting.
7. Reviewer confirmed my suspicions. I got an excellent review from another author that touched on all the problems I was having with the story. It was a confirmation of what I suspected was wrong, and since it wasn't just me I knew I'd have to revise a lot of things.
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. Needs more revisions than I can count. Like "Full Fathom Five" (the "Special Case" sequel), this one would need a TOTAL overhaul before I'd consider posting it again. The Compass would have to be explained, the scope of the story would probably have to be minimized (hell, I could have it consist of Dawn and Adam figuring out how to get to the Palace and end it after Buffy and Giles showed up!) and a lot of silly things would have to be deleted. (I could probably get away with the "Go fish" scene, though.)
2. Not enough exposure to the series involved. My BtVS collection was stolen back in February, and I haven't had the chance (or the money) to buy it all back. And while I still have my tapes of the He-Man remake (hey, it was revisiting my childhood), I haven't had the urge or the time to revisit them.
3. This story was started largely to break my writer's block and to amuse a friend of mine. It's therefore not as high on the priority list. I didn't take it as seriously as I did other stories on this list, so yeah, it's not as big a deal to me as other stories. Sorry.
Nothing to See Here
Reasons it's been on hiatus since there's nothing immediate:
1. It's that whole Real Life thing. Seriously. Been very busy and haven't had time to sit down and draw even a half-assed strip. The apartment robbery naturally derailed me just as I was starting to pick up steam again - then this summer was insane, and then grad school, and work's picked up again... you get the idea.
2. I'm better at drawing from life than I am from imagination. I think it's a whole right-brain/left-brain thing and has to do with the way your brain stores symbols. I do great at drawing from life, but trying to do comics from my head is really hard for me. The proportions are almost always off, the movement's too stiff, my arms and hands still suck, and certain characters are way too skinny. Sometimes I think my comic drawing has gotten worse over time, especially when I look back at sketches from two years ago. It's weird.
3. To that end, it takes FOREVER to draw a new comic. Seriously. It shouldn't take me half the time it does to draw a single panel to my satisfaction.
4. It takes even longer to Photoshop the comic. Multiply the drawing time by 4 and that's how long it takes to get the comic into panels and with dialogue and backgrounds in to my liking. Oy. And I'm usually still not happy with it.
5. Art commissions take priority. 'Nuff said.
6. The good one-shot ideas I've been getting are hard to draw. I will get to Holly and the squirrel Mafia when I can draw a mob of squirrels to my satisfaction.
7. The good story arc ideas I've been getting are not fleshed out enough. After the "Holly moves in" debacle, I'm not going to start in on another arc unless it's fully scripted ahead of time and my creativity demons can't change their minds mid-stride about what's behind door number one...
8. Too much time needed to work on the house, not enough to sit and draw. Bought a house three months ago, and while the office is mostly put together, I haven't gotten things organized enough to have a clear art desk again. Not to mention the loose paint scraping, et cetera.
*thud* So. You see why messages begging me to update are kind of fruitless?
Edit: To the kind and supportive reviewers who understand the situation and have left me some awesome reviews - this is not directed at you. Your support is the REASON most of these projects stayed on the backburner as long as they did and why I still intend to follow up someday. I just felt that I owed all of my readers, from the clueless screamers to the understanding and supportive readers, an explanation of what's happened to current projects and that I have NOT just decided not to continue them on a whim. :)
Lately, I've been getting messages from readers who either beg me to write a sequel or who think I could write a sequel or write more but just am not bothering. Now while this is a vast improvement over the abusive reviewers who attacked me for not posting a new part/story/comic and accused me of withholding more to spite them... it still indicates a lack of understanding among my readers. There's still a misconception that putting out a new comic/story/chapter is a simple matter and I'm just not bothering for whatever reason. The lack of updates is not by choice. I can't just sit down and whip up a sequel. Begging me to do so will not help either of us.
So I'm going to set the record straight.
(Note: This was updated on 9/22/05, in deference to yet ANOTHER insane thing I did with my life.)
General reasons there are no new updates:
1. Work. I have a full-time job and spend 40 hours a week in front of a computer - doing work. Doing what I'm paid to do, which does not include "writing stories and drawing comics on government time." So after 8 hours of this, I'm not going to be turning on my home computer as much. (This entire post was written at home; I just e-mailed it to myself.)
2. Graduate school. At the same time, I've just started part-time graduate school, and am only taking one class this semester - and let me tell you, the semester when I'm going to have to take two classes is going to be a NIGHTMARE. One is hard enough. (And since I think I may be taking two classes in Spring 2006, the meltdown is imminent.)
3. Real life. The time left over that work and grad school have not sucked up? That goes to cleaning, cooking, paying bills and trying to get some repairs done on my new house. Not to mention the holidays, which - in spite of my denial - are coming up fast.
4. Lack of inspiration or poor ideas. The only story ideas I've come up with have been cliched, done to death, or Mary Sues of some sort. Sorry, no. (The only good idea that's surfaced may end up being a self-insertion of sorts, but only because the dialogue in my head is intriguing enough to risk it.)
5. Other projects. I currently have an art commission that takes precedence.
6. Fear of constant WIP. I now refuse to start into anything new unless I'm pretty damn sure it's going to come to an end. Even stories that I had outlined from start to finish got away from me completely.
7. I bought a house. And I was stupid enough to buy a house that needs more renovations than I can handle. Anyone who wants to give me a hard time about updating can haul themselves over here and scrape off ALL THE LOOSE FLAKING PAINT in my back room, re-grade the exterior, upgrade the wiring, fix the pressure reduction valve that makes it possible for the heating system to work, mow my lawn, and paint everything. Not willing and able to do that? Then don't demand that I "update now!!!"
...so there's not a lot of energy left to write with. :)
Why specific stories/projects aren't updating:
Bloodlines (New Blood, et al.)
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. College got a little crazy. Right after I finished the second story in the series, I started my second semester, and because of issues that were partly my fault, our old literary magazine editor resigned and I was put in charge. Oy. There was also theater to worry about, and since I was a double major I was taking one of my Senior Seminar classes a year early to get a professor who would at least give me an A if I worked my tail off (as opposed to the prof who graded arbitrarily).
2. The immediate "New Blood" sequel kept driving me nuts. I actually had the general flow of the series mapped out in my head when I started "New Blood," but the sequel kept on fighting me. A lot of it had to do with the fact that the scenes set on Terra Venture didn't work. I initially was going to write a story taking us back to Terra Venture and banking on the idea I introduced in "New Blood" about parallel versions of people in different universes - here, I proposed that had Kendra not been a Slayer, she'd have wound up on Terra Venture's crew. Although the animosity between Kendra and Kai worked, nothing else really did. And the scenes I tried to write for the Christmas story seemed really, really forced. I got so fed up at one point that I just chucked it completely. Omitting the Terra Venture scenes wouldn't work since I was trying to draw a parallel for the end of the story.
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. I now can't really buy into the potential pairings I introduced. Well, just one: Mike and Maya. And since I laid that one on pretty heavily - I meant to use it later on as one of the reasons Mike and Faith were never going to happen - it had to be dealt with in the series. The explanation for it, I decided later, was also kind of dumb and overdone.
2. One of the main characters is way out of character. I wrote "New Blood" before Mike was sent back home, and while I think I got the laid-back aspect of his character down, I completely ignored his overprotective streak. While that would probably rarely come into play with Faith or Buffy, I could see it developing with Xander or Willow, at least. I read the story now, and, well, it doesn't feel right.
3. My original explanation for all this? Sucked. I'm not going to go into the "how" Mike landed in Sunnydale, but I'll just say there was a lot of fuzzy logic involved and the mechanics don't make sense. I also didn't have enough in the way of excuses to keep the Defender off of Mike's back until a certain point.
4. I tried and failed to write the other side of the crossover. Like I said before, none of the Terra Venture scenes ever clicked for me. Didn't help that Leo got on my nerves occasionally and kept coming off as more whiny than he actually was on the show. And I couldn't skip that part because of a) the parallels and b) trying to explain the situation hinged on looking back to Terra Venture from time to time. There was a brief flash of inspiration when I considered Jenny Calendar to be the alternate-Jossverse character on the station, but that went nowhere fast.
5. As far as one-shot antagonists go, I have yet to top Relish. As much as I mucked around with the legends, I've got to admit that the Bronze's new act in "New Blood" are my favorite set of villains because they were so much fun. I hated having to kill off Malik especially, but I couldn't come up with an excuse for him not to return - and the Mayor would not leave that loose end. The Christmas story avoided that problem - it was a string of things we didn't see in "Amends" - but the parallelism I needed in the Terra Venture scenes fell flat and the story wasn't fleshed out enough.
Special Case
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. This was SUPPOSED to be a one-shot story. When it got too big for its britches, so to speak, I split it off into a mini-series. Big freaking mistake.
2. "Now and Again" was cancelled. Yeah, I know, I know, but shortly after "Special Case" finished posting, my favorite show - the only show that got me actively involved in a fan campaign - was cancelled. Since one of the main reasons it got the axe was political fallout from the CBS/Viacom/Paramount merger, we had no chance of getting it back, and all the effort we put into the campaign that summer drained the hell out of me. First and last fan campaign I will be actively involved in. The only thing I had the energy to write at the time was "Murphy's Law," a story I felt honor-bound to complete in order to provide some sort of conclusion to the series-ending cliffhanger. Hey, I couldn't bring the show back, but at least I could provide some closure.
3. I hate writing diplomacy as much as Jack O'Neill hates sitting through it. The scene where I got stuck was a diplomatic scene that was unfortunately necessary. It just wasn't working, and it was too early in the time frame to cut it short with an attack. (Also, I wanted the attack to happen when SG-1 discovered Jason and Jack was about to blow a gasket.)
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. I can't put myself back in that Season 3 mindset. As I write this, Stargate is in its eighth season. O'Neill's in charge of the SGC, the Tok'ra have proved frustrating allies, the Replicators have advanced and there's a Carter duplicate running around, Daniel's died and come back to life, Skaara's ascended, there's a team in Atlantis... you get the point. I would have to go seriously AU to pull the story off now, and my Season 3 episodes have gone "poof" courtesy of the guys who robbed my apartment. And now with the house, I have had to put off getting cable because a) I refuse to ever deal with Comcast and b) I can't justify the expense between my mortgage and the cost of repairs.
2. Logistically, my original plan is a nightmare. Seriously, I have to split up two different sets of Rangers, SG-1 and Jason and Billy to have certain people in certain places. And for one critical scene, I need an excuse for Daniel to make a break for the Gate - the original idea didn't work. It was a headache trying to figure out then, and it's even worse now. If I get back to it, I may have to rewrite the entire plot from the ground up. Which will require more time than I have right now.
3. I can't take the crossover seriously anymore. Getting "Special Case" to work was a stretch, but it was doable since it was primarily located on Earth and Hatmehit's little domain. But I'm having a lot of trouble putting SG-1 in the context of Aquitar.
4. I'm not as big a Stargate fan as I used to be. Sure, I love the show, but... it doesn't kill me if I miss an episode. And one of my more analytical friends is also a fan, so it's harder for me to BS things when I write anything Stargate; I keep thinking about what she'd say. With a crossover this weird, plausibility has to be stretched, and it's not working for me as well as it used to.
Sharp Edges
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. Hand pain. In March 2002, in the midst of writing this, I started getting hand and shoulder cramps. This necessitated a workstation change, physical therapy, and in general less time at the computer. Typing away was no longer as simple as it used to be, and while my situation has improved since then, I have to be more and more conscientious about my computer habits as a result. So minimizing computer time meant less time spent typing up story chapters.
2. Season 2 of Witchblade. Okay, I'm going to get slapped, but the first-season finale of "Witchblade" made me want to beat my head against the wall. Pulling a "reset button" solution to rewind the ENTIRE SEASON? The only way that ending would have worked for me was if there wasn't going to be a season two... but reintroducing all these characters bored me to tears. And the end of season two made me twitch. It kind of dampened my interest in the series.
3. The outline got away from me. I had the basic plot points of this one outlined going into it; although it started out as "what if Sara met Spike?" I hammered out the basic plotline before I started writing in earnest. Bryan Cornish, the OC I created to help Dawn out, was originally going to die midway through the story, making things personal. But in the middle of editing, I realized there were a couple problems with that. First, since Bryan was a friend of Gabe's, it would cheapen another friend's death down the line. Second, the way things were falling into place, if Bryan were killed, the good guys would probably never find the Erios Codex. Third... well, he was too damn interesting to kill. I liked him. My readers liked him. And in the end, I realized he'd be more useful if he survived the attack.
4. A necessary character just stopped talking to me. The other necessary OC, Rhiannon Price, was created for two purposes: distracting Jake and filling the role of Travers' business partner to allow Jake and Sara to get somewhere on the case. But while I was writing, she just stopped talking. I couldn't get enough of a handle on her character, which was maddening - she had to interest Jake, and she had to be a believable character to fill the role of Travers' business partner. She couldn't get away with being window dressing. I must have tried to write her first encounter with Jake a dozen times.
5. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. In January of 2004, I was struggling to get part 19 done. I'd finally finished and edited part 18, but didn't want to post it til I got a finished draft of 19 done (since part 18 ended on the cliffhanger from hell). I was up for three hours straight writing and rewriting, revisiting prior parts, revising the outline, and just trying to make the damn chase scene work. I got fed up and went to bed.
- The next morning, I awoke to find this anonymous review for the story. One that, while well-spoken, suggested that I had just brushed off the story and it wasn't updated because I hadn't bothered to work on it. After spending so much time the night before driving myself up the wall over a part, that implication PISSED ME OFF.
- I lost it. I ranted on my ff.net profile, pulled the story, ranted on LJ, and (for the moment) decided to wash my hands of the story. I could not take the grief. I had no way of defending myself to the reviewer, who was too cowardly to even use a dummy e-mail account, so the frustration had to go elsewhere.
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. Yeah, I'm still a little bitter. As much as I hate to admit it, that reviewer's attitude still grates at me when I think back on it, and I keep seeing it echoed in other screaming ranting reviewers who think that verbal abuse will result in more parts of their favorite story right now. It doesn't make me eager to test the waters again.
2. If it goes up again, the villains must be changed. Primarily, the "Boss" must be rewritten. His character, while interesting at the start, didn't really seem the type to know about or need the Key - even with one of Glory's old minions in his clutches. And Shorty, Leon and Echo remind me way too much of Relish (well, okay, Leon and Echo are too much like Molly and Mal for my comfort). Having Ethan Rayne as one of his top minions was a good thing, but the rest of the antagonists need to be overhauled. I'd also need to re-evaluate Irons' involvement - since this was a Season One story, I think he'd have more of an active hand than he originally did.
3. Hell, I need to overhaul and streamline the entire damn plot. While I think in a lot of ways this was one of my best crossovers, the plot is too bloated and drawn out. I need to simplify it and trim it down, while keeping the good stuff (Bryan, the Pit, Wilson, half the scenes with Sara and Spike) without getting gratuitous. Geez, how many parts did it take Giles to figure out that prophecy? Ten?
4. I need to decide how AU it could be. See, it could go either way. I still want to set it post-season five for Buffy and mid-season 1 for Witchblade... I don't know if I want it to go slightly AU or not. That's kind of up in the air, and it needs to be worked out before posting the story.
5. I'm not posting a thing until I am close to having a finished draft. I have learned my lesson there. Thing is, even if I get the time to overhaul and streamline and revise... this is going to be a long story. Which will take a while to draft. So I can't promise anything. (But I'm kind of annoyed that another BtVS/Witchblade crossover on ff.net is being treated like, "Wow! No one ever did this before!" *sigh* Hope that one at least gets finished.)
The Key and the Sword
Immediate reasons for stopping:
1. See Immediate Reason #4 why "Sharp Edges" was pulled. That incident made me decide that pulling my WIPs would save me a lot of grief.
2. Too much silliness, not enough plot. Oh, the story had some great moments - most of Dawn and Adam's interaction, the "Go Fish" scene, the attempted kidnapping - but overall, even for a just-for-the-hell-of-it crossover, the plot sucked.
3. Worst. Fight scenes. Ever. Man, I hate writing fight scenes, and you could tell in this story. Ugh.
4. The stupid crossover secret trap. I wrote myself into a corner with this. I wasn't sure who should find out what and when, Dawn found out too easily, and it came off as pretty stupid.
5. Problems with characterization. There was a little bit of Buffy-Sue in this story; she was a little too good at fighting/picking up on things at certain points. I should have put her and Teela at the same level, and Teela was just a little too bitchy in places.
6. Still dealing with hand pain. Yeah, I was still having issues when this story was posting.
7. Reviewer confirmed my suspicions. I got an excellent review from another author that touched on all the problems I was having with the story. It was a confirmation of what I suspected was wrong, and since it wasn't just me I knew I'd have to revise a lot of things.
Why it hasn't been continued today:
1. Needs more revisions than I can count. Like "Full Fathom Five" (the "Special Case" sequel), this one would need a TOTAL overhaul before I'd consider posting it again. The Compass would have to be explained, the scope of the story would probably have to be minimized (hell, I could have it consist of Dawn and Adam figuring out how to get to the Palace and end it after Buffy and Giles showed up!) and a lot of silly things would have to be deleted. (I could probably get away with the "Go fish" scene, though.)
2. Not enough exposure to the series involved. My BtVS collection was stolen back in February, and I haven't had the chance (or the money) to buy it all back. And while I still have my tapes of the He-Man remake (hey, it was revisiting my childhood), I haven't had the urge or the time to revisit them.
3. This story was started largely to break my writer's block and to amuse a friend of mine. It's therefore not as high on the priority list. I didn't take it as seriously as I did other stories on this list, so yeah, it's not as big a deal to me as other stories. Sorry.
Nothing to See Here
Reasons it's been on hiatus since there's nothing immediate:
1. It's that whole Real Life thing. Seriously. Been very busy and haven't had time to sit down and draw even a half-assed strip. The apartment robbery naturally derailed me just as I was starting to pick up steam again - then this summer was insane, and then grad school, and work's picked up again... you get the idea.
2. I'm better at drawing from life than I am from imagination. I think it's a whole right-brain/left-brain thing and has to do with the way your brain stores symbols. I do great at drawing from life, but trying to do comics from my head is really hard for me. The proportions are almost always off, the movement's too stiff, my arms and hands still suck, and certain characters are way too skinny. Sometimes I think my comic drawing has gotten worse over time, especially when I look back at sketches from two years ago. It's weird.
3. To that end, it takes FOREVER to draw a new comic. Seriously. It shouldn't take me half the time it does to draw a single panel to my satisfaction.
4. It takes even longer to Photoshop the comic. Multiply the drawing time by 4 and that's how long it takes to get the comic into panels and with dialogue and backgrounds in to my liking. Oy. And I'm usually still not happy with it.
5. Art commissions take priority. 'Nuff said.
6. The good one-shot ideas I've been getting are hard to draw. I will get to Holly and the squirrel Mafia when I can draw a mob of squirrels to my satisfaction.
7. The good story arc ideas I've been getting are not fleshed out enough. After the "Holly moves in" debacle, I'm not going to start in on another arc unless it's fully scripted ahead of time and my creativity demons can't change their minds mid-stride about what's behind door number one...
8. Too much time needed to work on the house, not enough to sit and draw. Bought a house three months ago, and while the office is mostly put together, I haven't gotten things organized enough to have a clear art desk again. Not to mention the loose paint scraping, et cetera.
*thud* So. You see why messages begging me to update are kind of fruitless?
Edit: To the kind and supportive reviewers who understand the situation and have left me some awesome reviews - this is not directed at you. Your support is the REASON most of these projects stayed on the backburner as long as they did and why I still intend to follow up someday. I just felt that I owed all of my readers, from the clueless screamers to the understanding and supportive readers, an explanation of what's happened to current projects and that I have NOT just decided not to continue them on a whim. :)
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Date: 2004-11-17 12:56 pm (UTC)That being said, I have noticed my creativity demons are far more prolific when we're well-rested, happy, and relatively stress-free. And while talk is cheap...try not to pay attention to pissy reviewers, or to shrug off their comments, because the more they stress you out, the less creative you'll be...
And yeah, comics seem to take so very long to draw! I grow more and more awed by comic artists and manga-ka the more I see of their work, and realize the schedules they have to keep for it....yikes.
Anyways, good luck breaking the block!