The last post on here:

I've decided to move the Heartstone Odyssey over to word press!

Don't panic! The making of Heartstone Odyssey blog shall continue and this shall still be accessible to read! :D

For the new updates, news and my random explanations of everything Heartstones, come and see us below:


http://heartstoneodyssey.wordpress.com/

Script update

This week has consisted of the usual script writing for me. I've gotten quite a long way into it now so I'm much happier with the progress of it all. It doesn't seem as troublesome as it was beforehand because I know where we're going.

I've also worked out another ending for this comic. I pitched it to Kathryn when we met up and she also loved it. The idea sprang to me, once again after indulging myself into the many chapters of The Writers Journey and got me thinking about ways I could possibly incorporate the theory into Heartstones. But we'll see what happens. One thing I have noticed about this project is that although I know exactly what it is that's going to happen.

After I've written this blog (which was yesterday to those people who are reading this :P) I'm whizzing myself straight back into the script and hopefully getting a lot further into it. I'm about 20-something pages now. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, I suppose it's more like a standard issue of a comic in a shop. But it's a lot of story. The story in V2 especially is very fast paced and moves a lot between different characters.

And that makes it really interesting, frustrating, hard and brilliant all at the same time for me. You get used to one character/storyline and you move on faster than you blink. Then when you stop writing, all I seem to think about is what's going to happen next.

As you'll probably have read, you'll know full well that I've planned ahead. Just not detailed planning (in which I mean where you know what the character is going to say or do!). The way I do it is plot points, so when I get down to writing it I sometimes have to think about how to stage the scene, what to make the characters say, where they should be, or even what time of the day it is.

It's all essential for the artist. If I don't write what the time of day it is, how does the artist know how to colour the sky blue if it's in the day? How would Kathryn know that there has to be snow on the floor and that this story is set in the middle of winter if I don't put it onto the script?

So when it comes down to writing the scenes within this comic. It sometimes stalls me because I have to think about these extra details to put there. Now, don't think I don't enjoy that. Because truth is I love it. But I also think that it's because of this that it stalls me sometimes when writing, because I have to think about how to stage it.

And then the ideas come. My mind gets a picture in it's head (usually of a comic page for this project :P) and I write it down onto the computer, and throw myself further into the story. Then I send it to Kathryn, who reads it and says whether she thinks it's any good or not. So far, she's always said yes. :)

This is how I write. And I will continue to write as much as I can until I have this volume finished. So when I come back and start up this blog again in a few weeks time (because lets face it, we're not going away for that long really are we? :P) I will most likely have quite a few more tales to tell of writing this project!

Until then!
Adiós!
Ps, I had Tapas last night and have Spanish things in my head. :P

Jacks prologue story

This week I've made a lot of progress with the writing. :) I've gotten a lot further and actually worked out a few things within the script. So I'm over the moon about that! And there's not too much else to say other than that really.

Kathryn and I are going out (haven't seen each other in about two-three weeks so it'll be lovely to!) and will probably get writing, drawing and doing even more things when it comes to Heartstones. We're both moving to university in the next two weeks (I KNOW!) so it'd be nice to do that one last time before we go. Although I think that may come next week rather than today, hopefully!

Over the last few weeks you may have noticed me mentioning that I was doing a little prologue story for Jack (and soon it's other characters as well.) Well, I've finally finished it. I don't like it at all, too sentimental if you ask me, but here it is!

*****

The market place thrived at this time of the morning. Maids rushed to and from the stalls on errands while house keepers pottered, looking through the vegetables with deep inspection. Mothers pushed prams and guided they're noisy playful children along the pathways. Stall keepers would be calling out the latest produce and it's best prices. And amongst it all, Henry was standing at the fruit stall. His hands grazing over the mornings fruits.

On an ordinary day he'd have stayed and browsed through the market all day. Yet this morning he felt a small tap on his shoulder. And when he turned he met the dark, deep blue eyes of a constable.

He had the classical handsome look of a man in uniform. The costume he wore daily worked well with this mans blonde hair and handsome “rugged” look. Henry briefly wondered whether his hair was a mess underneath the hat he was wearing.

Messy things was never something that Henry wanted to deal with. Yet Henry felt his mornings happy mood filtering away and a nervous, sickening clench taking hold of his stomach.

“I'm here to take you to the station, Jack has gotten himself into a lot of trouble.”

“Again?”

Henry sighed.

*****

The moment the cell doors creaked opened and Henry walked inside, his nostrils were intoxicated by the smell of alcohol. Until recently, Henry had managed to keep Jack away from the pubs and supposedly bad “influences”. Drinking and drugs was a popular entertainment amongst the rich, and Henry had been relieved when Jack had shown no attempt to go and join the ruthless part of their society.

But then Jack had become withdrawn and silent. He talked, but there was no emotion in his voice, nor anything else reflected on his face. He'd locked himself away for hours in his room.

As a child Jack had always been quiet. At first he'd been shy and again he'd hidden away from anyone. As a teenager he'd been moody and not interested in anything about the quest they were forced to endure. And then one day he'd felt better, he'd appeared with a happy youthful spring to his walk. But this lead to Jack becoming acquainted with some of the more troubled youths and Jack would happily disappear into the pubs and brothels with them.

The floor was cold against him when he sat down. But he didn't care for being cold. He was far too concerned about the boy beside him. Jack was nineteen years old, and in this society considered a full adult.

A streak of light from a hole in the cell illuminated Jacks eyes, and Henry met them. His heart sank when he saw how lost Jack looked. And it was only when Jack leant his head on his shoulder that he realised how young and fragile he was. And in non audible comfort Henry wrapped his arms around him.

Henry knew actions spoke far larger than words ever could.

The End

Thoughts and Stories

It's odd how when I'm not writing Heartstones (or another project for that matter) I find myself thinking about writing it all the time. I've been to London again this week, and I was very busy with my family over the last weekend so I found myself not getting much of the script written over the last week.

But no matter how busy I've been, I always think about it. And when I really get desperate there's usually some kind of scene within my notebook. Which for last week seems like hundreds of them.
I had a good time away and really enjoyed it. But it's nice to be back and be able to write the script again.

At the moment one of the many books that I'm reading at the moment is one called The Writers Journey. It talks about the structures of stories and gives lots of different ideas about the kinds of stories that are told. Very interesting! And during one of the chapters, it talks about how characters change and why it's important to see that.

Of course, this sent me into wondering about whether the characters do actually change during Heartstones. But that was good, because during the midst of my thoughts I wound up printing off a character development sheet and filling the majority (parts of it I'm still thinking about) of it out for Jack.

Then I'll continue on with Eliza, Henry, Alera and Kandower ect.

It helps to know your characters I think.

It wasn't very long ago that Kathryn and I decided that we wanted to do some background stories for Heartstones. It's not only something that we both really want to do, it's something that I think will be quite good for me as a writer. Like I've mentioned before I was “worrying” about character development, but by doing these little stories for me it deepens the characters and makes them much more real in my head. :)

I suspect that the story I've written would give out quite a few spoilers and isn't quite finished yet which is why I'm not really posting it here just yet. I want to go and finish it in a moment though. :)

Until next week!

DWW out!

Debates and character deigns

This week the ongoing script is getting written. I haven't gotten as much done as I'd liked to though which I'm a bit narked about. But as with last week it's getting there, very, very slowly and I do think that it's making better progress than it was a few weeks ago. :)

Kathryn and I went out yesterday for our usual cafe/town ritual and talked all afternoon and night until my Mum picked me up to go home. But we always went back to talking about Heartstones and discussing the storyline and character designs further than we have done.

We've focussed a lot on the storyline before (hence the constant rewrites of V2) but then Kathryn announced that we needed to finalise the character designs. Although we've discussed outfits and the way the characters look many times before when she said that it did occur to me that we didn't have a picture where we could say “that's the final design!” because, as with the story, the designs just kept changing all the time.

Eliza and Jack seem to be the characters that were (and usually are for that matter) talked about the most. And I realised (partly because it never occurred to me) that they're also the ones with the most costume changes through out the comic. I thought it was quite interesting deciding where they'd change their clothes and what exactly they're clothes were through out.

I don't want to say what they are because I may well just spoil it all. I know it's nothing crucial to the storyline or anything but it's always a lot more interesting when you don't anything about a comic I think! So I'll keep my mouth shut on that one.

We also debated about a certain pair within the comic (course I'm not saying who! You can wait an see or guess! :P) and what their relationship is. It's one topic that Kathryn and I right from the very beginning of this comic always seem to debate about. I think we reached a decision about what would happen a long time ago, but we always go back to it because we clearly want something to happen between them.

The question is whether it's right for the story. And after some rather amusing sought out guidance from someone we know, we managed to make a decision on what should happen. But even after that decision was made, we still went back to it. It's like a little default that we resort back to! 0_o

We just have a lot of fun in the process!

And when I think on it. No matter how much stress or aggravation there may be sometimes with this project (and every other project it is we do!) it's always fun. Every time Kathryn and I have sat down together or sent an email with a document or picture attached we have fun.

And that's all that matters. :)

Isn't it?

Plans

This week I've been ill, the cold that was creeping up on me last week got me down for the entire weekend and I didn't quite recover properly until monday. Then I went out and got a hang over, which mixed with the after effects of a cold do not go very well together. So my plans for writing a lot more of Heartstones went out the window whilst I lived off strepsils this week.

'Course it's just about gone now and I spent quite a lot of time yesterday getting the first scenes right for V2. It's a slow progress this one, but it's getting there and Kathryn seems to think it's a lot better whenever she reads it, so that at least gives me a little bit of confidence.

If there's one thing I've worked out when it comes to making web comics, it's that planning is helpful. It doesn't need to be a plan that's set in stone because you can change it round whenever you get a new idea. But if you write what you want to happen down, I find it fixes the plot in your head a bit more solidly and I think at this moment in time, it's better with the plan, just because I know exactly where everything's going.

Writing should be the easy part now.

Other than all of this, there's not that much else to say I'm afraid.

Until next week!

The Big Experiment of Life

Number 22 Appletree Crescent was a busy household on a Saturday morning. Imogens smaller brother would be in the back garden, playing around with his toy swords or guns as he acted out some kind of science fiction battle scene.

Her mother would be on the landing, running round after the tempermental four year old that did not want to get dressed.

Her father would be in the kitchen, supposedly trying to give his wife a day off from making breakfast. But the ingredients lay un touched on the chopping board and he sat at the table, his phone in hand as he talked to yet another business client.

And Imogen, she'd be in her bedroom, sitting at her computer desk. The laptop was open, it's keyboard calling out to be typed on. Yet Imogen just sat there, staring at the blank word document that was waiting to be filled with words and tell another story.

But Imogens mind was blank when it came to words. She could visualise the scene, hear the characters voices in her head. Yet the moment her fingers tapped against the smooth keyboard, the words didn't work together.

Imogen didn't know how to fix it.

So she emailed her friend, complaining of the frustration she was feeling and hoping that they'd have some suggestion for the writers block she was in.

Yet the response held little of the comfort she craved. So Imogen looked at the notebook she'd planned out the story in. Her eyes scanned the lined paper, reminding herself of the story and situations she knew by heart anyway. She mouth curved in small smile as she lost herself in the thoughts, excitement flew through her. It was going to be dramatic today, and she always loved writing dramatic scenes.

But all this waiting had left Imogen feeling anxious and when she sat herself up in the chair, placed her wrists on the body of the laptop, her stomach clenched tightly.

Nerves were getting the better of her.

Usually she'd try and coax herself out of it by reading a favourite book. But the way the words flowed so naturally when she sought the book out merely depressed her more.

Days passed and the situation didn't get any better.

Imogen found herself sitting in one of the cities many cafes with her friend a few days later. Although she'd cheered up considerably at the sight of her friend, she was still pained over not being able to write.

And Imogen didn't waste any time what so ever in explaining the misery she felt to her friend.

“Maybe you just need to experiment a little.”

Her friends suggestion threw Imogen off guard but she didn't voice it. Instead she watched as her friend unzipped her bag and rummaged around inside it. She pulled out a comic, and flipped to the back.

On the page was a comic script.

“Why don't you try writing a comic? I could draw it for you if you like.”

Imogen hadn't been into comics very much. She'd heard of them, and read a few of the usual Beano or Dandy comic strips over the years. But she wasn't repulsed by them.

So she tried it.

And grew to love it beyond any kind of prose story she'd been attempting to write beforehand.

Of course Imogen found herself looking at the comic she'd been dedicatedly writing in different ways as time went by. She couldn't help but imagine seeing it on book shop shelf.

Sometimes this bugged her. She hated making dreams for things that may not happen for fear of the disappointmentt, and Imogen found herself going through a similar bout of nerves that sheexperiencedd with the writers block.

But she soon got over it.

The excitement of making a comic had took over any doubts she may have had. Of course she had no idea what she was doing, but she was learnt over the years and found herself making the comic a lot better than she'd ever imagined it being to start with.

A considerably long time into the making of the comic (but also certainly no where near the end of it) the friends were on another coffee shop trip. They'd spent many more hours discussing through things that afternoon, and it was then that they concluded the comic was, very much a big experiment for them both.

Perhaps even “The big experiment of life.”

*insert interesting title*

This week has been so busy with parties and trips that poor little Heartstones hasn't had much work on it. Although I have now redone things, and am feeling a lot better about the whole thing. I do sometimes wonder whether I could call this blog “Heartstones weekly complaints” or something because I do wonder if sometimes, all I do is complain!

But of course, it's quite normal to do that. And I do love it all still, if I didn't then I wouldn't be here every week typing out a load of blogs now would I? :P

The story now appears to flow a bit better and I'm much happier with it all, for the moment at least! I don't know why it turned out to be such a difficult part of the project to write, but it was, and I suppose there's not much I can do about apart from fixing it and getting on with the rest.

Onto the next little extra feature for today! :D

The two little paragraphs of a story I don't know if I'll continue or not (we'll see if I get any inspiration for it!) is below. It's meant to be a story about Jack before the events that bring Eliza and him to meet happens. It's not very long (nor very good! And yes I know I've said that a lot this week! I'm still in a rut), and really is just a bit of a random story, but I think when finished it'll help me more with character developments!

Every author should know they're characters sins after all shouldn't they? :P

*****

The pub reverberated with the sounds of mens laughter and late night chatter as they played poker or discussed affairs that were important to them. The old, glass paned door to the little inn at the side of a Victorian street opened and Jack walked in.

His nostrils filled with the smoke that filled the room and he felt his throat tighten immediately. Yet the man that waved to him from behind the bar distracted him and Jack smiled as he walked over to greet him.

“Good evening,” Jack said, shaking the hand of the mans, “I believe The Professor made an appointment...”

“Indeed he did Master Fellows.” the man said coming from behind the bar and gesturning for Jacks coat and top hat. “The work that goes on here is of high secrecy. Whatever it is you are shown tonight you must not tell anyone.”

*****

And that's literally all I've done. :P Not very refined yet is it? WIP!

See you next week!

Picture Dreams

I dream in pictures sometimes. The words and phrases that seem to come to my head in my dreams aren't seen, they're usually heard as panels of action put themselves in front of my eyes. Usually, I forget whatever it is I was dreaming about and I wind up having a distant memory of one of the said panels and pictures that are clearly part of a comic.

It never used to happen. Often my dreams would just be like watching a film and sometimes I was a companion to a Doctor (because that has happened before!) or just sitting down and watching these made up dream like characters on their adventures. They still do of course, but I've recently found myself dreaming things in a comic book format and I really do believe that it's because I've gotten myself writing Heartstones.

Sometimes I wonder whether I've forgotten how to write prose because I'm constantly writing comics or scripts apart from the random scenes that seem to automatically be prose in my notebook. Of course I know I haven't, but there's always going to be that little nagging feeling inside of me, telling me that I'm not doing as well as I should be. But then I think that's more of a matter of self confidence than the actual situation at hand. It was all fine until I suddenly scared myself with the thought that, no matter how much ambition I have or passion that people are forever telling me they see when it comes to writing.

How am I ever going to get anywhere, if that passion doesn't turn the words I write into something that's a piece of good quality work?

Of course, just to down my spirits even further I then saw a piece of writing that I'd done a few years ago (and yes I know I've improved!) and I have to admit it was pretty bad. At the time I was praised for it, which grateful as I was then, it did leave me wondering whether people tell me this just to keep me happy.

Because I'd rather people were completely honest.

How else am I meant to learn? It might be tough, but I've got to be one way or another haven't I? I think... 0_O

And then Heartstones starting playing up. I've spent I don't know how many hours attempting to perfect a few things here and there and I really do worry that it's still not up the standard I want it to be. Not because I'm not capable of making it like that, but because I realized that although I know exactly what's going to happen at the end of the volume, I haven't sat down and planned it throughly enough. Which of course, lead on to a bout of self battering inside my head and wondering about why on earth I hadn't thought of this problem before hand.

It needs more work, because I'm one of these writers who seem to think they're imaginations will tell then what to do. But sometimes, I think it needs more planning so that there's no inconsistencies later on. Plus, I then won't hit any more problems and frustrate myself (which granted was worsened by the fact I was feeling a bit self doubtful) even more.

So my new plan for the next week is to work out everything I need to do with Kathryn (even though I know it's my story!) and sort everything out.

Then I can crack on and write it.

SKYPEY TIMES!

ast night Kathryn and I hopped onto Skype, worked out how to make it so that both of our screens could be seen and I merrily watched (and chatted and giggled like we always do) her putting the finishing touches to the very first page of Heartstone Odyssey. :)

It was a very surreal thing to do. After almost two years of this comic being made, we're finally at a point where things are coming together and Kathryn's beginning to draw it. But I think the page looks great, she's worked really hard on it and well I love it.

Although how on earth she uses Photoshop I'll never know. It looked very complicated to me! I do have photoshop, but I wouldn't know how to use it beyond adding a lens flare every now and then.

I don't think you'll be seeing the actual comic until a bit later on in the year because I believe Kathryn wants to literally be a volume ahead with the drawing before we start updating the website with the comic, which to me makes complete sense!

She also mentioned that she'd like to have V2 drawn by the end of the year (I think!). So I'd better get writing hadn't I? Volume Two needs to be finished by the end of the summer (preferably the end of the month, but I don't know how realistic that is!) because I want two volume of it safely under my belt by the time I go to university.

Then I'll only need worry about the remaining two (or one if this story continues to condense itself further!) volumes. Although again, idealistically I'd love to have V3 done by the end of August/early September as well.

Whilst Kathryn was drawing/adding effects on in photoshop I was batting out the next few pages on V2. Currently its only on page 12, but quite a lot has happened I suppose. Of which is for Kathryn and I to know and people who might actually read this to find out.

I'm going to go now and get on with more V2! Ahh I love it.

I do feel quite sorry for my male characters though... (once again, you'll find out!)

On with the write a thon! :D

V2 Writing continues

It was half way through the day before I realized that it was friday, and poor Heartstones wouldn't have had an update from me if I hadn't looked at the clock and realized it was the very day to update!

Holidays eh? You get so lost in the days that you begin to forget what day it is!

Kathryn has begun drawing the comic, I believe she's finished sketching out the first page and well that's all I know (if that's even right! I know she's drawn a church and... well you'll see!) She hasn't told me anything else, nor have I seen anything (because she wants to show me it when it's finished :D) but the drawing has officially started (unless she's gotten fed up with that page and thrown it in the bin and started again, although I don't think that has happened! :P)

I'll tell you more, when Kathryn tells me, or she may just tell you all herself on the website! :D I have no idea, so we'll just have to wait and see!

As far as the writing goes for this comic, I've been working away at it all week. It's made slow progress, partly because I've had to make even more decisions about what was going to happen in the next bit. When it comes to planning, I do know what's going to happen, it's just the words and pictures that I haven't planned out yet so it can take a bit of time to get it right.

But it's all go and I'm highly enjoying it!

I think V2 has about 13 pages, and I've about 37 more to go! :D

It should prove to be an interesting ride! This volume gets quite dramatic, lots of questions are hopefully just about going to get answered (unless this changes because if there's one thing I know about this comic, is that everything changes!) and another dramatic ending for the volume! :D

I can't wait to write it.

I just hope the story lives up to the art!

Rambles on imagination

Everyone has an imagination. How else do you think, as children we came up with all these games and sometimes “wacky” ideas that we played? But, when we get older, that ruthless imagination in my opinion, seems to “mature” as we do.

At christmas I sat down with my brother and sister who are a lot younger than me and still have the ability to use their imaginations for anything and everything as they play. They know I like making up stories and loved it when I asked them to come up with their own and told them I would write it down for them (in fact my sister loved it so much she asked me if she could do it again the very next day! :))

It was an interesting exercise for me, because I learnt that the beauty of children's imaginations is that they really do think of anything and everything, yet the little logical bits in between doesn't matter. My sister for example, came up with ideas that were all very science fiction based (much to my amusement!) and at one point in her story, the main character “christmas teddy” landed on the moon.

Yet he'd been on earth seconds before hand and I remember asking, “But how did he get to the moon?”

She didn't answer because she was too excited by the story she was telling me, and it was here that I realised that myself, as an adult, I do tend to change my stories so that it seems to make more sense.

I wouldn't make someone land on the moon without a spaceship around somewhere. :P

In a way, this “logical” thinking was why we decided to completely change Heartstones. The old script in a way was Kathryn and I getting everything out in a bit excitement at what we could do. And because the story, characters, and world just developed so much as we went through the next six months of writing that when we looked back at it, we realised that that bits of it didn't fit or make sense anymore.

And of course we're going to want it to make sense. How many times have you seen a film and come out of the cinema stating “well the visual effects are great, but what the heck was the storyline about?!” and then it ruin the whole film because you had no idea what it was about?

So why wouldn't we go back and refine it? The 200 + page “excited” version of this story isn't something that I'd want to put up online. Not because it's bad, but because everything changed so much I don't think it'd be very wise to. Of course, at the time we were writing/developing the “excited” version we had no idea that we may one day look at it and decide to completely change it. But it needed to be done, and I really do think that we made the right decision because it's a better storyline and I know I've certainly enjoyed writing it more than I did before, partly because I was excited to get to the dramatic bits that I knew were going to happen.

The editing of the final version of Volume One of Heartstone Odyssey has officially finished, and the changed version is now sitting with Kathryn, awaiting to be drawn out. :)

And that feels great. It adds to the excitement of what happened last week with our grades and the thoughts (and realism! :P) of going to university, and in a way, is everything we've been working towards in the last year and a half.

Last week of college madness

This week has been full of celebrations and pubs for Kathryn and I. We've both officially found out that we both received a triple Distinction and I know I'm over the moon about it and I'm sure Kathryn is too! :D We then went out to the pub last night (which meant I didn't sleep much, woke up at 6 and then later fell asleep on the sofa haha!) and I think it's about safe to say that a certain few of us got just a little bit drunk! :P

Course, not mentioning any names what so ever! (*coughs* Kathryn!).

We both had a brilliant time though! :D And I wouldn't have changed last night at all!

I think our "media years" as we've sometimes referred to college will always be quite special to this project as it's where we spent the majority of the time making it! The header you see above, was drawn in the LRC, the script was practically written (well the first one in my little notebook) whenever I was in a tutor lesson and had nothing to do (or just a general lesson :P).

Ahhh good old college!

I'm knackered, so I'm afraid there's not much else to say this week! I did start a bit more of V2 again after I eventually managed to find it, and stopped sulking! And I've nearly finished editing the V1 script so the drawing can commence! :D

Over all, GREAT WEEEK! :D

50th blog post

50?! SINCE WHEN DID I MANAGE THAT?!

Anyway!

So this week Kathryn is in Ireland which means there hasn't been any development together on this comic. Whether she's done any drawings for Heartstones whilst being over there I have no idea, but I have began to write volume two, at least I did until I realized it didn't save and when I went back to do more was:

"Page One:

Title Page."

I was gutted, literally gutted.

I did cheer myself up by writing a bit of a synopsis for volume two, although I haven't had the heart to go back and write more of the script because (silly as it sounds) I'm mourning the loss of the old one.

Any writer who loses a bit of work finds it very irritating, and me being irritated means I sulk for a day and a half until I get back into writing the bit that was lost, again!

I will write it again when I've finished updating this though. :) Before I lost the said first bit of volume two, it was getting very exciting and I've managed to piece together what happens in the opening moments.

In a way, they're very critical (because of what happens in the end of V1!) and I need to give V2 the beginning it deserves because otherwise I'm not going to be happy with it. It's the same for the ending (the middle is the easy bit!), what happens at the end of V2 needs to live up to what I want it to be, because the characters and story deserve it.

Jack, Robert and Jane story

AN: Kathryn gave me a prompt of "sad violin" or something along those lines a few weeks ago, and this is what came from it. It is part of the universe, but it's nothing that's crucial to the story line (although it does have a bit of a foreshadow in it!) So you can read it on it's own without any of Heartstones being spoiled! :)

If you want to know what Robert and Jane look as (as I haven't actually described them, but then I didn't need to really did I? :P) click here.

*loves little boy Jack*

Enjoy!

*****

The crescendo of the haunting, dramatic and sad violin music reverberating up through the theatres high ceiling, allowing the final notes to carry on a little longer before they disappeared, leaving the audience silent from the impact of the tune.

Robert chuckled to himself as the five year old Jack wriggled impatiently in his knee. Jack had only been silent during the more dramatics moments of the music, but staying silent and still for more than five minutes just didn't work for him. His games were far too important and much more interesting than sitting in a theatre, listening to music that made everyone cry for reasons Jack didn't understand.

“Is that the end Daddy?”

“Almost...now shhh.”

Robert smirked as he heard a small huff of impatience coming from his son and wrapped his arms around him gently. Jack soon had hold of his fingers and began to play a silent game with them as the music started up again. Robert didn't know what the game was, only that Jack needed his fingers to play it. Robert didn't mind though, now Robert had turned into a lively boisterous little boy Robert didn't get a chance to just hold him on his knee closely like this.

He had to let go instead.

By the time the concert had finished Jack had fallen asleep on Roberts knee. The applause that erupted at the end of the show being the liveliest moment within the theatre, yet Jack was so tired from boredom that he'd fallen asleep soon after he'd played with Roberts fingers.

Robert and Jane walked back through the city, happily discussing their thoughts on the concert. Jane had wanted to see this particular violinist since she'd been a teenager. So when Robert found out they were playing in the town they lived in, he'd surprised her with tickets.

Jacks head leant against Roberts shoulder as he continued, his arms gently tucked up against Roberts chest. He roused briefly as a the chilly winter wind picked up and blew over their faces, but he'd soon dropped off back to sleep by the time they reached their street. And he was soon snuggled up amongst his toys in his bed when they got home.

Jane could tell that Jack was going to be asleep until morning and so persuaded Robert to put Jack to bed when they got home.

Robert smiled when he came back downstairs. He watched silently as Jane read a newspaper on the sofa, happily sipping at the wine she'd poured herself. He sat down next to her and gently kissed her shoulder instinctively.

“Anything interesting today?”

“Just an article about that illness that has doctors confused. Says there's been another death. But...”

Jane put the newspaper down cuddling into his side.

“You're much more interesting.”

They smiled at each other lovingly.

When Jack awoke early the next morning, he didn't question why his parents had fallen asleep on the sofa the night before.

Instead, he quite happily played with his toys.

First off, I'd just like to say that I loved Kathryns update last week when I was away! And thankyou for all the lovely little compliments you gave me. I know sometimes you worry if you don't do my writing justice, but I'm the opposite and worry about whether my writing does your art justice! :P

This week, Kathryn and I have been FINISHING at college (and that's FE college for those of you outside the UK, we're not at uni yet) and Kathryn I think has officially finished all of her work. So congrats to her! I've still got a little bit to go but I suspect that will be finished on monday/over the weekend.

Then I'm finished too.

It feels very weird I can tell you. Although sometimes I think we get distracted by other things about college, when I thought about it in more detail this is everything we've been working for over the last two years. We've been trying to get a qualification that'll get us into university.

And we've almost, very, very, nearly done that :D

Heartstones was a project that was thought of whilst I was at this college and soon became a topic that Kathryn and I discussed for hours in class as we did our work. If anything, I'll look back on this when it's all finished very fondly and I'm sure the words “college” and “heartstones” will be linked in small ways.

I still remember very fondly the day she asked me to do a comic with her, oh yes it wasn't my idea! :P It was all Kathryn!

We were standing in the LRC (or library in other words but for some reason it's called the Learning Resource Center at our college!) during one of the breaks and she just suddenly said "would you like to do a comic of one of your fanfictions with me?"

Of course I said yes, immediately from what I remember.

A few days later she brought in a wolverine comic that had a script example inside it at the back, as I hadn't really been into reading comics yet alone writing one! I can remember looking at it very carefully during that lesson and grabbing my notebook to have ago at writing the doctor who comic.

That then grew into the first comic project of ours and I was penning Doctor Who comics for weeks, everywhere I went in these little notebooks I carried around with me. Which then finished two months later, but I couldn't let this kind of storytelling go after that and we decided to start our very own, original webcomic. And on Boxing Day 2008 I came up with this comic and now have a website, plus millions of words in the script and a lovely artist (and best friend :D) who draws brilliant pictures very much like the one below!



This is a lovely drawing of Jack and Eliza dancing that Kathryn's done this week. I really love it!

The Writers Journey

Yes I know, two days early! I'm away on friday, so Kathryns updating the website this week (and I can't wait to see what! I'm rather excited! :D I love surprises) and because of that, I'm updating early because I wanted to do a blog and then also she has something else to play with on the day! :P

Those of you in the UK will probably be aware that it's the half term holidays this week. This means I've had so much more time to sit back and read, write and doodle. Because, I've done all three of those! :P I've also had enough time to recuperate from college work which has had me more exhausted. I don't quite understand why I feel more exhaustead than I do when I'm actually working at college, but never mind!

As I stated a moment ago I've been doing a lot of reading this week. And one book I managed to get a copy of was The Writers Journey by Chirstopher Vogler, which of course is all about the similarities in the Hero's Journey theory that's explored through the book by Joseph Campbell "A Hero with a Thousand Faces".

The theory is (and do bear in mind I'm still getting my head round it, so if it's wrong then sorry!) about how myths take on a certain structure within the story telling and and the said structure is followed out through many of the different myths that are read everywhere, and of course this is now incorporated into stories from books, films, comics/any kind of story you can possibly name in this day and age.

This useful little diagram is all about the structure I'm on about and shows the different (not all of the ones as the one in the book but it's a good example anyway) parts of the storyline that the theory is saying is common in many different myths and modern stories. It's also very adament to say that it's NOT rule of storytelling, just that it's a simple structure that's common within a lot of different stories.



In my opinion, this diagram (and the one in the book, because that's not the one in the book but it gets the point over) made complete sense and now whenever I look at stories I can't help but see the structure of it there, whether it's intentional or not!

Which brings me onto Heartstones. I decided to experiment and work out if my own story was following a similar structure, and my findings were that, in a very simple way of saying it:

IT DID!

And annoyingly, I can't say anything more about the storyline because it would ruin everything for people who haven't read the script. :P

But I do find this interesting because I've unconsciously told my story in a similar way to what this theory is talking about, obviously my story isn't going to be exactly the same, as I say it's just a similar story sturcture.

What's going across my head now is thw question of why I've unconciously done that?

Is it the films and books I religously watched as a young child? Or is it me attempting to make something similar to the stories I love now?

I can't answer, I haven't found the answer just yet.

The book also talks about the idea of the hero going on this journey within the stucture I'm talking about. So I've been debating who the actual “hero” in Heartstones would be. It was a long debate inside my head, there were two characters that were the obvious candidates for the role.

Who did I decide?

You'll have to wait and see. :)

THE GENDER BLENDER

Kathryn and I wondered what all the characters would look like, should they be the opposite sex.

\




I love Eliza and Riley (so does Kathryn!) especially. :D

New Header

Annoyingly, I'd written out about three paragraphs then accidentally deleted the whole lot of it! So meh to my mouse!

This week Kathryn and I have both been working hard to get some work in before the weeks holiday we have over here in the UK. The work we did (much to our amusement) turned out to be 22 pages each! We've sometimes realised that we've said things in similar ways, or described film sequences in the same order, but I think having one that's the same length is a new one and is quite hilarious when you think about it!

We are very similar. :D

Anyway, so because we've been busy writing these reports and other little things within college that needed to get finished we haven't had a lot of time to concentrate on editing Heartstones (although do bear in mind that it's just about done now!)

But, when we have managed to get the time we decided that we would attempt to design the new header. I personally am extremely fond on the one we have now, but the new one is ten times better and I can't wait to see it! I think the website needs something else adding to it because neither of us are 100% happy with it, and when this new header is finished it may well be what we'd been searching for.

Either that or we just get a new website. It's something we've been considering anyway!

It took us a long time to come up with an idea for it. We knew we wanted it to be dramatic and exciting, but when it came down to actually thinking about what it may be, it was a lot harder than what was expected. We came up with some other ideas and Kathryn drew them (all of which I love in they're own right) but we hadn't got the right one by that point. And so Kathryn and I finished our last day of this half term of college and left for home with the instrcutions that when the burst of inspiration did happen, we were to tell the other immediately. :D

Merely hours later, that happened!

My mother and I were walking around the massive shopping centre we have here, and as my mum was blathering away to me I got an image in my head. It was so sudden and random that I couldn't quite work out where it came from but it's not unusual for me, I can be sitting on a bus or walking through a door (*coughs* to people to have read the script and are Kathryn, there was no pun intended there!) when ideas hit me.

And of course, Kathryn loved it. :D

And I love it.

It's dramatic, intriguing, emotional and exciting and I can't wait to see it when I meet up with Kathryn next week! I don't know if she's finished drawing it yet but you know, I'm excited anyway.

I just want to see it. :) As I'm sure she's the same when it comes to the dramatic, intriguing, emotional and dramatic scene I've written in my notebook! :D And yes Kathryn, I have done it, I'd just fallen asleep before I could reply to your emails last night.

We'd decided a long time ago that it should be something more than just a random header with the characters. We wanted it to be something that fitted into the story, and this one does just that. Although so does the one we have now, but I don't think it's got the “dramatic” factor that Kathryn and I are craving at this moment in time.

I suggested that we could just use the picture I posted on here a few weeks back. But then we realised it was quite a romantic picture, and that just wouldn't fit at all. Much as I love the picture and squee when we think of romantic happenings that could go into the comic and it's characters, this story isn't about a romance, it's about friendships and journeys and sci fi-fantasy happenings that threaten the world!

Everything that Kathryn and I love to watch and read within the films, books and graphic novels we're addicted to. Of course we're not copying things, yes we get inspired by them but we don't ever copy. I love making up ideas that are mine, not someone elses. And I refuse to attempt copy something either.

And that's what this project is about. It's for both of us to make something that we enjoy (and hopefully you will as well) but at the end of the day we're not looking for massive website views or getting it published. Yes of course we've considered this, but this project is going ahead because we love it. If we didn't love it as much as we do then this would have been abandoned years ago.

And only that.

We're making this our own.

Robert and Jane Wedding Picture

Much of the last week has had me stressing about college work, doing college work, calming down about college work and then getting a little bit more stressed again. It's come to the time of year where everything builds up, and everyone starts getting a little stressed and well panics like mad. So, in the midst of all of this I didn't get very much for Heartstones done so I'm glad I got Heartstones V1 finished last week!

Kathryn and I have managed to go and have a lovely afternoon where we both went through the script and edited it. So the moment I've got my work for college finished and to a standard where I'm happy (which will be in the next week hopefully!) I can type up the edits we've done and the drawing of V1 can commence properly! :D

That been said, we do want to show the script to a few people as well so we'll be doing that at some point very soon as well. My mother included... who's just read it within the last minute and who's now said "It's very gripping." Whether it is or not, I don't know, you can decide that for yourself! :P

So my little extra feature this week is Jacks Parents wedding photograph...well drawing. but it's a picture of a wedding photograph that Kathryn drew on a very cold winters day when we were in the library in town. It was very good fun! We were both giggling at Roberts suit and attempting to find the right kind of dress for Jane in some wedding clothes books we found. They're wedding would have taken place in about 1950ish, and also, the little bump you see on Jane is baby Jack. :P

And no! It's not a shot gun wedding!

The characters in this picture just in case you hadn't all guessed, are Robert and Jane Fellows which are Jacks parents.

Volume One is finished!

As the title suggests, I've literally finished the writing on volume one! I've just done it now in the last five minutes. :)

Not a lot has happened in the last week in terms of development, Kathryn and I haven't had enough time to sit down and chat as we've both been busy finishing off work for college. And it's only going to get busier over the next few weeks so I'm very pleased that I've managed to get on with V1 and finish it today.

I can get on with college work properly now without the massive finale floating in my head!

We did however, go to Nottingham last Saturday and we planned out a map of the actual land that Heartstones is set in. We've decided that it's set within a parallel work called Angland (equivelent to England of course!) and those of you who've joined our facebook group will have seen that Kathryn posted the picture of it on there. :)

It was very interesting to discuss the other day and I feel that Heartstones, yet again, came out much more developed than it was before.

but never mind that! I say that all the time! How many times do I get to say that:

I'VE FINISHED THE SECOND DRAFT OF VOLUME ONE AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Onto Volume Two now! :)

Emotional Jack and Eliza picture

Although I have also added this picture to the Heartstone Odyssey website, I wanted to write about this in it's own blog because it's one of my favorite pieces she's done. Interpret whatever it is you think is going on, in whatever way you want. I know Kathryn and I interpreted it (which I don't think was necessarily intentional as I didn't write something for it to be like this) as though something really bad had/is going to happen to Eliza and Jack.

You could possibly also interpret this as a romantic picture and it'd be great to see what other people think to what's going on/what's happened for them to look so sad. if you have a suggestion then get in contact!

Enjoy the picture! It's now my computer Desktop on my mac! :)

This weeks blog update: <<< there.

The End of Volume 1

As the title suggests, the end of V1 is near. I've gotten past my personal aims, hit another dead end but sorted it out fairly quickly and Kathryn and I are now in planning and talk for the finale of the volume. I know how it's going to end, I've always known it. But now it's come to it, Kathryn and I have had to talk about the whole scenario and discuss exactly what is going to happen. Just because it's such an important part of the story and we want and need to get it right.

Because the story, characters and art deserve it to be the best it could possibly be.

The thing about me (and Kathryn for that matter!) is that we both love dramatic, tense things that make you lose your breath for a moment. And if there's one thing I wish to achieve with this ending is that we both do that. And of course you readers will hopefully do the same thing!

At least, that's the intent. :P

So, I really hope that when I sit down and write the ending (which will hopefully be tonight or another few days in the next week because it's not far off at all!) I get the adrenalin rush that I always do when I write scenes like the ending of V1 is going to be.

We had another trip to the cinema, where as usual we find ourselves chattering away in the cafe after the film. And we talked about Heartstones. In fact that's all we've done all week, and because of this, we've wound up developing the world, characters, story and art even more. We've been working on this project for two years, so it's hilarious when we say something else and decide that we hadn't gotten answer for it. So therefore make one up straight away and the whole thing is just so much more developed.

We find it brilliant and strangely amusing all at the same time.

I love it.

When this project was started I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know anything about how to write a graphic novel script, I didn't know that there needed to be a bit more planning involved on more lengthy projects such as this. And I certainly never expected to find this world inside my head that sometimes feels as though it's real.

We know the characters so well now, I can hear them speaking themselves. Sometimes I wonder whether it's this lot in my imagination that are writing this story.

And I suppose in some regards they are!

I'm signing off and probably now going to spam the website with a load of drawings Kathryns now scanned! And yes, it is my upmost pleasure to announce that the artist now has a scanner of her very own!

There's nothing holding us back from doing this comic now!

ON WE GO! :D

Kinds of Writers

There are two kinds of writers. One kind of writer sits down and researches something. They then go onto days, weeks, maybe even years of vigorous planning to make they’re story. And in some ways it’s probably easier because you sit down and know exactly what it is you’re going to write.

Then there’s the other kind of writer who doesn’t plan things because they don’t like it. They just get an idea and write away.

There’s nothing wrong with either of them of course! I always think that whatever suits you are fine and at the end of the day that’s all that matters.

So whilst Kathryn and I were sitting in a restaurant in Soho (with very sore feet and student prices of course!) on Saturday night, we were discussing the kind of writers there were. Kathryn also writes, as I also draw, and we’ve both deciphered that we’re the second kind of writer.

And this is where I’m going to contradict myself.

I like not knowing what I’m going to write, for small things. I like making up scenes and situations and just sitting down and seeing where my hands guide me. Of course, when it comes to bigger stories I’ve discovered for me that there needs to be a little bit of planning in order for things to work.

This is just so that there are less continuity errors, the story makes sense and characters don’t get forgotten about! I’m not ever going to be someone who sits down and plans things out so vigorously I know what the characters are going to say, but I do plan things out so that I know the essential plot points for each volume.

Then I leave the rest to my imagination. And I like that, because when I write action scenes I feel as though my heart is pounding and have adrenalin running through me, even though all I’ve done is sit down in my living room chair and write. If it’s dangerous then I have fear inside me. If there’s something sad, I feel it and get sad or low. If it’s funny I laugh and get looks from whoever else is in the room with me and if it’s romantic I squee for my characters.

That’s why I found myself getting more and more excited with the last scenes I was writing. They’re very thrilling scenes and I can’t wait to open the file in a moment and type out even more of it. Especially now it’s getting towards the end of V1, obviously I won’t say what happens but I know that I’ll come out of the other end of it and feel so excited/tense/thrilled by what had happened.

This is how I’m writing Heartstones, by a little bit of planning (very, very small amount which then probably changes anyway) and a very, very, very, large sum of imagination.

Mermaid Madness

Over the last week I have become slightly more obsessed (again! this has happened before several times since I was the six year old who carried an Ariel doll with me everywhere!) with The Little Mermaid. And when authors of a webcomic/graphic novel become ever so slightly obsessed with the said film, the best friend and artist gets involved and...well... the author states that she simply must draw this:



JACK AS A MERMAID!

And he's not at all happy about it!

I've reached up to page 31 in the script! I'm really pleased with the progress it's made over the easter break because now I'm in a situation where I've almost finished it. :P The aim is to get it so that it's no more than around 50 pages, because last time we wound up with a 300 page graphic novel that really did needed to be cut down and quicker moving.

Just so it didn't get boring!

So yes, we've revamped the story (which is now so much better!), rewritten and when the script is finalised, Kathryn will start drawing it. She's told me how she's planning on drawing it and well I can't wait to see it! This is the time Kathryn and I have been working/planning/looking forward to for the last year and a half.

I really can't wait til I see that first page! Not necessarily up on the internet, don't get the wrong impression and take this as a "The comic is going to start in the next few weeks!" because I also know that it'll take a bit to get through 50 pages with the detail that the comic needs to be! So don't be expecting something very soon! Soonish yes, but not so soon it'll be in the next week!

What I mean to say is, I can't wait to see the script come to life. My scripts are just words, granted you can read them, but it's Kathryn who's going to bring the whole thing to life! And I can't wait to see her do that, because I know she'll excel with it.

Crying Characters

The Easter holidays has gone so quickly! I swear it seems like only a few days ago, yet a lot has happened all at the same time.

It's a very odd thing to happen.

I've found myself looking round a house and area near my university today. I came away loving it and really wanting to go and live there in September. I also bought Comic Heros issue 1 which I thought was a rather good "first" object to purchase in my new town considering the majority of my time learning about writing comics will most likely be spent there!

Anyway! Onto Heartstones! :D

V1 is coming towards a close. I've gotten the majority of it done which is what I fully intended to do during this last two weeks of holiday I've had. And I'm very pleased with the progress I've had for it. I think the comic is likely to be a lot shorter than I though it would be, which is good because it means there's less for Kathryn to draw!

I hope that wasn't an issue before hand!

The character profiles I said I was going to do has been started. I'm writing Jacks, but as the writing of the actual comic has gotten slightly more important than the character profile it's been stalled slightly. All the same, it was interesting to look at the characters in more detail, but I think it may well take a long time after that!

Kathryn and I went out again this week and we debated and dicused the idea of who would cry and who wouldn't cry in the comic. We both came to the conclusion that the most cry-able characters in this comic would be: (1 being the most likely!)

1. Eliza - not because she's a girl! I've decided that she's just someone who would allow her emotions out.

2. Henry - again I think he's just a man who would allow his emotions out. There's nothing wrong with men crying so why not allow him to if he ever needed it?

3. Jack - the thing you need to know about Jack is that he mopes. If he's in a mood, then you can guarantee that there's going to be a lot of moping on his behalf! Not only is this very amusing to me as a writer, it fits who he is.

So would he cry if something extremely devastating happened ?(no that's not a spoiler! we were talking extremely hypothetically)

We decided that he would, but only after he cracked. And he'd most likely be in a very quiet and deserted place!

4. Riley - he's a mysterious character so it's hard to judge. But he's very similar to Jack in that he doesn't let his emotions out very much. If something's up, then he's in a very bad mood. He doesn't mope, he just gets extremely grumpy.

So I really don't think you'll be seeing this guy crying very often!

To be honest I don't think you'd see any of them crying that often, if at all. Well with the exception of Eliza, she does seem to cry a little bit. But not in a "mopey, annoying teenager" way. If any of the characters in this comic were to cry, then it would be for a good reason. I don't want to write it in for the sake of squeeing! I suppose our discussion developed the characters even more, and just shows how much we know about them and who they are/what we want them to be! To anyone listening it must sound as though they're real people!

Kathryn also did some more character designs whilst we were talking about when the characters would cry. We both noticed that her style had changed and well, they look fantastic!

I can't wait to see this comic up in it's full form!

It's going to be brilliant. :D

Character Profiles, Squees and Dragons

Kathryn and I saw How To Train Your Dragon again on wednesday. And because I'm slightly obsessed with dragons and stories about dragons at this moment in time. This little story emerged and wouldn't let me write Heartstones until I'd finished it.

So if you're interested in seeing something else of my work then look at Radiers!

From the way I'm going, and if I get a move on within the next week. I reckon volume one could be finished and ready for Kathryn to draw extremely soon. I asked her the other day about how she was going to draw it and I think (unless things change!) that the moment I've finalised v1 she'll get on and draw it.

I can't wait to see it!

If you read my previous blog you'd probably know that Kathryn and I did a "squee" picture and scene together. On Wednesday we showed the works to each other and I think that the picture is now definitely one of my favourite ones she's done. Plus her style has just improved so much, I don't understand how she manages it to draw things to quickly let alone improve within a week of us seeing each other!

So yes, well done to Kathryn for doing a fantastic job on the squee picture. I would put it up here but lack of the said picture being here with me at my house is hindering me from scanning it. :P

Kathryn also forwarded me an article last night in which I found the following character profile. So I decided that I'd attempt to try this character profile out and see what happens!

The article I found it on stated that it took the person writing it hours to complete, so I suspect this may take quite a while! And I do want to take my time with it. :) I did do some character profiles before last year, but (and it also states this on the other blog which I thoroughly agree with!) I don't think I knew the characters as well I do now then, so it was quite a long drawn out process and I couldn't answer them very well sometimes! So maybe this will be a lot easier to fill out this time around! :D

Here's hoping anyway!

So the moment that's done (and so long as it doesn't give a load of spoilers away!) then I may well post it on here as a special feature. :D It's about time you lot got to know the characters a little more!

If there's a particular character you've seen on the website that you'd like to know more about, then do get in touch and leave a comment! :) I will quite happily do a requested more detailed character profile. :)

See you all next week! :)

Squee Pictures

As it's the holidays I've suddenly decided that I would add another blog. There may be a few more this week for all I know! The first reason for this rather random update is to state that:

1. Kathryn has drawn a squee picture that I haven't seen yet of Jack and Eliza. I've seen the picture it's based off (or was going to be based off because according to her it changed) and now I've written a squee scene.

The thing about this squee scene is that it actually could fit somewhere in the comic, so not only am I getting rather excited to see this new picture. I'm also getting excited at what could possibly happen in the story of Heartstones in the latter volumes. :D

Oh yes, I'm all for writing drama!

2. I've gotten even more Heartstones written! I've managed to sit down and write and then when I tried this morning the flow didn't come back. If there's one thing really infuriating about writing (or me writing anyway) it's that I have to be in the right mood for the particular story to be written. That being said, I have also just planned out the next chapter.

And I can't wait! It's gotten more developed just by doing this little plan of mine in the notebook I carry everywhere. I can't wait to show Kathryn on wednesday either, I think she'll be really excited by the revelations I've come up with.

I've played around with this story for so long that it's got the point where it's just all fitting together. Granted it changes all the time, but the ending is sorted, the plot lines are sorted.

It's getting there, finally!

See you on Friday (or before if I have a sudden revelation about writing!)

The Sea Monster/Octopus scene

To view the blog post that went along with this script click here

This isan extract from the original scipt for volume three and...well... you'll see. :P


Page 12
12.1 Eliza looking at Jack. (AN: They’re on a boat crossing over the middle of an elvan lake for those of you who are reading this on the blog!)
ELIZA:
He just...

12.2 Eliza biting her lip, looking
away.
ELIZA:
It wasn’t anything important.

12.3 Jack looking at her, rowing
the boat.
JACK:
You sure about that?

12.4 Eliza putting her hand in the
water playfully. Not looking
up at Jack.
ELIZA:
Yes.

12.5 From the point of view of
something under the water.
The boat at the top of the
water/Eliza’s finger in it.
RILEY:
I wouldn’t do that. Something
might have ya finger off.

12.6 Eliza looking at him. ELIZA:
But we’re just in a lake?

Page 13

13.1 Riley handing her some food. RILEY:
Things are different here.

13.2 Eliza looking down at the
food.
ELIZA:
I’d guessed.

13.3 A sea monster, with giant legs like an octopus,
popping it’s antennas out
of the water, watching the
Boat.

13.4 The sea monster behind Riley,
looming up over the boat.

13.5 Jack looking at it wide eyed. JACK:
Get down!
Panel Description Dialog

Page 14

14.1 The sea monster whipping
Riley’s face. (Blood going
everywhere. (?))

14.2 Riley looking over his
shoulder. The sea monster
going under the water again.
RILEY:
See this is exactly why you don’t
put ya finger in there!

14.3 Eliza looking at Rileys cheek.
Riley putting a cloth on it.
ELIZA:
Are you alright?
RILEY:
I’ll live.

14.4 Jack looking in the water. JACK:
It’s disappeared.

14.5 Eliza standing in the boat,
looking down on the water.
ELIZA:
Yes. But I don’t think it’s gone
far.

Page 15

15.1 The water starting to bubble
next to the boat.

15.2 Riley throwing a sword to
Eliza.
RILEY:
Good time to practice don’t ya
think?

15.3 Eliza holding the sword. Riley
getting his gun out.
ELIZA:
What about Jack?

15.4 Riley picking a bag up. RILEY:
Oh don’t ya worry about that.

15.5 Riley walking to the other
side of the boat, giving Jack
a wooden spoon.
RILEY:
This will help him.

15.6 Jack looking at the spoon,
annoyed?

Page 16

16.1 Jack, Eliza, and Riley huddled
together in the middle of the
boat.
ELIZA:
Are you sure it’s coming back?

16.2 Riley looking at the water. RILEY
Most definetly.

16.3 Eliza looking in the water.
Jack holding onto her arm
gently. Riley looking down
the other side.
ELIZA:
Well it’s taking it’s time!

16.4 The sea monster lumbering up.
Eliza looking in the wrong
direction.
ELIZA:
You’d have thought it would
have...

16.5 A tentacle swiping over the
boat, hitting Jack and Riley.
Eliza falling into the boat.

Page 17

17.1 Eliza getting up from the
floor of the boat.

17.2 Eliza leaning over the side
of the boat, looking for the
others.
ELIZA:
Jack?! Riley?!

17.3 Eliza standing in the boat,
panicked. The boat completely
empty apart from her and the
sword.
ELIZA:
Where are you?!

17.4 Cu on Eliza’s face hearing a
noise in the background from
the sea monster.

17.5 The sea monsters tentacles
coming around the boat.

Page 18

18.1 Eliza looking at the Tentacle
nervously, it’s sitting
dangerously close to her.

18.2 Eliza biting her lip.

18.3 Eliza bringing the sword she
was holding up into the air.

18.4 Eliza whizzing the sword down
onto the tentacle wrapped
around the boat.

18.5 Eliza getting splattered with
blood, the octopus falling
back into the water.

18.6 Eliza standing in the middle
of the boat, that was now
partially broken boat.
Everything still, tense and
misty.

Page 19

19.1 Eliza looking round,
everything still silent.
ELIZA:
Jack?! Riley?!

19.2 A splash of water hitting
Eliza in the cheek.

19.3 Riley on the edge of the boat,
Eliza jumping.

19.4 Eliza running over to him. ELIZA:
Riley?! Are you alright?

19.5 Eliza’s eyes widening
slightly.

19.6 A tentacle wrapped around
Rileys arm.

Page 20

20.1 Riley gripping onto the boat
with one arm.
RILEY:
Help!

20.2 Eliza running over to him. ELIZA:
I’ll cut it’s tentacle off again!

20.3 Riley looking up at her. RILEY:
You can’t! My arms there!

20.4 Eliza trying to pull him back
onto the boat.
ELIZA:
Alright I’ll pull you up then!
Where’s Jack?

20.5 Riley getting dragged back
into the water.

20.6 Eliza holding onto his hand,
trying to keep him up.

Page 21

21.1 Riley getting pulled under.

21.2 Eliza reaching out to get him. ELIZA:
No!

21.3 Eliza leaning over the boat to
look for him.
ELIZA:
Riley?!

21.4 Another tentacle coming out
of the water at the end of the
boat.

21.5 Eliza looking over her
shoulder hearing it.

21.6 The tentacle smashing the boat
to pieces.

Page 22

22.1 The lake, completely still.
The boat now smashed up and
floating in the middle of the
lake. (Large bubbles coming
up from where the sea monster
had gone down?) Eliza, Jack
and Riley no where to be seen.
Everything quiet.

22.2 Riley and Eliza swimming up
out of the water.

22.3 Eliza coughing, Riley
beginning to pull her to the
shore.

22.4 Riley helping her out of the
water.

22.5 Eliza pulling him out.

22.6 Riley coughing slightly,
looking up at her.
RILEY:
I had a great tentacle around my
arm and you asked about whether
I’d seen Mr Handsome?!

Page 23

23.1 Eliza annoyed looking at him. ELIZA:
That’s not funny!

23.2 Eliza looking at the water
anxiously.
ELIZA:
Where is he?

23.3 Jack coming up out of the
water, next to where they were
standing.

23.4 Eliza reaching down to him
immediately.
ELIZA:
Jack!

23.5 Eliza helping him out. ELIZA:
Where the hell did you go?!

23.6 Eliza holding onto Jacks
shoulders gently, looking up
at Riley.
ELIZA:
We need to make camp. Now.

Dragons!

How to Train Your Dragon is probably one of the best animated films I've seen in a very long time. And I even prefer it to AVATAR! Now thta's saying something because I wound up seeing that four times and loving it even more each time (despite the storyline. 0_O)

Anyway, as a result of this rather Dragon filled week that Kathryn and I have been living. It got me thinking, and remembering a time when there was a sea monster (sorry I know it's not a dragon!) living at the bottom of the lake whilst Jack, Riley and Eliza attempted to cross it.

This scene was in the original volume three and unless I change my mind, it won't be in the actual script, or if it is, then it'll be very different to the one you see here (eg we may well actually have a dragon rather than an octopus thing!) Either way, it doesn't give too much away (I hope!) and it's just a fun filled (rather wet and funny!) scene. :P I know this is certainly one of Kathryn and I's favourite parts from the old Heartstones and I want to show it to the world...well... people who read this blog anyway, whoever you may be! :P

View The script here:

If you look at the script you see that (well I see that, you lot haven't seen the other script unless your Kathryn or Rob!) it's a less descriptive that the way it is now. I write things in a lot more detail these days, although I do find writing descriptions quite hard sometimes I think it's quite nice to see that I have improved. :)

It's also the easter holidays over here in the UK, which means I have two weeks off for anything I'd like to do. And I fully intend to use this two weeks devoting myself to the Heartstones script and if possible getting volume one finished or almost finished.

I have a plot point I definitely want to get to and a bit later on in the day, I'm going to start. :D Will let you know how that one goes next week!

Hats and Cloaks

Sorry for the day late update folks! Yesterday was so busy that I didn't manage to get it done in the time slot I wanted to and so had to push it back to today! :)

The last week has found me making films for college projects. Kathryn and I (plus some friends) spent the entire of last Saturday in the rain attempting to film for my Final Major Project at college. I haven't directed anything like that before so it was quite interesting to see what it's like! 

Stressful. lol 

Anyway, this means that the time I've usually spent on at least trying to write Heartstones had done right the way down so I don't think this weeks writing progress has gotten quite as far as it could of done. Never the less, I did manage to get a little bit down and I think it's one of the best bits I've written for it so far. 

Kathryn stated that the characters were just so much more developed now we've started all over again and she's right. They really are. I don't stop and look at the page anymore wondering what the character "should" say next, I just know. And that's because we've gone through all this development the last year a half. 

We also mused over what Jacks opening outfit should be and Kathryn drew him with a top hat and cloak. :) It grew on me and now I really love the first design of him, course, I suspect the top hat may well get lost somewhere along the way once they encounter these....




And then of course I decided that Jack should also have gloves and he's wound up looking ever the victorian gentlemen that were in fashion at the time and everything that he should be. :) But once he encounters the Shadows (see above) then I suspect the hat and gloves may well get forgotten about...

So yes, once again, we've had a lot of designs (again! :) It's very fun!) and a little bit of writing (which again was very fun!).

Speaking of which, I'm going to do a bit more now. :) I'm nearly 20 pages in and it's time for Henry to be introuduced! Why do I think this is going to be rather funny?

Arty Stuff

This week, I've been busy with college mainly. We didn't spend another tutor lesson trying to choose a font for the header. Instead this week (although granted this wasn't in tutor!) we used a break to try and design the new header. I love the header we've got, but Kathryn doesn't feel satisfied with it and her drawing style has changed so much since we did that little header. So we're changing it and designing another one when we next go out hopefully.

I think the next few weeks are going to be a bit weird, we're finishing college (our second year!) in the next few months and work and projects will be coming to a close. Soon enough we'll be saying goodbye to people we've gotten close to and I think it's going to be quite an emotional time for the both of us.

I'm sure we'll pull through though. :)

Another thing that's drawing to a close is the writing on Heartstones. I've properly planned everything out now. I know the plot points, I know what's going to happen in each volume so it's just a matter of sitting down and writing it. I know it seems like I've still got a lot to do, but when you've really only got about six months left of the writing process left (because I want to have it finished by September!)and have spend the last year a bit getting to this stage, it's not very long at all.

And then once the writing is finished and the scripts are finalised it's Kathryns turn. She'll do the art for it and take it over. :) I'll soon be running to my emails every week to see what the art work is going to be for the newest page!

I can't wait to see that. It's one thing creating a world, creating a story and characters and spending the majority of your free time (or not so free time :P) thinking and planning it. But from an authors point of view, because I am an author with this thing I suppose!, there's something about seeing the pieces of your world and story being brought to life by these drawings that I love. I know Kathryn will do well with it, even if she doesn't believe it herself.

I just hope the story does her art justice.

Header Designs

The weekly Heartstone activities this week consisted of Kathryn and I sitting at my computer on photoshop for a good hour and a half and debating over which fonts we didn't and did like for the Header.

Kathryn, apprantly thinks the cheekbone on one of the characters is too big, to which I replied: "Well it looks fine to me!"

It was rather funny, especially afterwards when our teacher then told us (because we were in the middle of class ;P) that we sounded just like him and his friend. I suppose we must have been quite loud now I think about it, there was only four people in the room that afternoon because everyone else had another class they needed to be at.

There were many different fonts that we went through. But then photoshop does have a lot of them! And by the end of it, we still couldn't decide which font we liked the best. But once we'd narrowed it down, we realised that:

1. The original font that we both liked didn't go with the header.

2. One of the fonts (which we both happened to like the best) just happened to be the same one that another webcomic used. A very popular webcomic for that matter, so we decided against it.

3. The same font that was used for another webcomic is the same one as the font used for Final Fantasy... which we then saw on a bus as we walked out of college! It was very amusing.

4. None of the colours we tried, would work. The goldy yellow merged itself into the background, the blue was too light, the darker blue was too dark, the black didn't look right and by the time we'd gotten through that it was time to leave.

I think Kathryn wants to redesign the header. Maybe then we'll think of a colour scheme, until then though I'm happy to stick with the one we've got.

I rather like it despite Jack having a supposedly too big cheek.

Us creative s, never satisfied eh? Which reminds me, I need to go and change a bit of dialogue in Heartstones.

That's something I'm not satisfied with!

Header up

I'm very pleased to say that I've managed to get the header up, it's driving me mad that the font is grey and can barely be seen though!

My IT skills haven't quite gotten that far just yet, it's rather annoying.

But then I suppose that's all a big learning curve. Teaching myself to write a graphic novel is a big learning curve (and I'm probably doing a lot of it wrong!) but along side that there's artists to consider (well Kathryn to consider, and once again she's taught me a lot about Art! I find myself now looking at people and thinking "ohhh they have 10 whatever between they're eyes!") And then there's the website, which if anyone has been following this from the start will know the three week struggle to get the header up on the actual website.

So yes, not only am I investing a lot of my time on writing a graphic novel, I'm also learning a lot about codes and htmls and websites!

thank goodness I passed that IT exam! It's almost as if all these little codes was helping me.

Maybe.

Jack and Riley's pillow... problem.

AN: This was written as a small fun scene within my notebook on a bus after college. It really does bring out the nature of Jack and Rileys relationship... I wouldn't say they were the best of friends!

Page one:

Panel 1: Long/wide shot. Jack and Riley fast asleep on the floor of a tent. They’re sharing a pillow and blanket, Jack looking as if he was taking up the majority of the pillow.

Panel 2: Close up (on Riley). He’s staring at Jack with one eye open.

Panel 3: Mid shot. Riley sitting up, watching Jack who’s now wrapping his arms round the majority of the pillow and is snoring away.

Panel 4: Close/Mid shot. Riley pulling the pillow back towards himself.

Panel 5: Riley holding onto one side of the pillow, trying to pull it more towards him. Jack (still asleep) is holding onto the other gripping it hard.

RILEY THOUGHT BUBBLE: I WISH HE WASN’T SUCH A HEAVY SLEEPER!

Panel 6: Close up on Jacks eye open wide.

SFX: SHRIINKKKK

Page Two:

Splashpage: Riley, now standing up holding a fencing sword out towards Jack. Jack, sitting up, looking rather eye wide/dishevelled/shocked/bemused.

TO BE CONTINUED.

(AN: MWHAHAHAHA! :P)

More Costume Designs

This week, we chose Eliza's first outfit and designed it more. Well Kathryn designed it, I was going slightly hyper at the time and looking at a film I helped out on last weekend.... I think.

That may have been Monday, I can't even remember.

Anyway! So Eliza now has a very modern outfit and it suits her! :D She also has a costume change for as the story goes on, and as Kathryn and I both refused to put her in a dress we decided on a look that would still be Victorian, yet it's still Eliza all over too. I may have shown a picture of that last week, but it's been a busy week since last friday so there may be a slight continuity error here! :P

Can you tell I'm a bit tired?

So that's what this week has consisted off. :) Costume designing! And there may even be more when I see Kathryn later on today, all depends on a few things I suppose. :)

Another thing we did, which was a half joke/half serious thing was give Jack stubble. In the storyline they travel quite a lot and I suddenly realised that Jack was going through months of travelling without having any kind of stubble. Riley already has a bit of stubble so he's completely different, so to give the story a little bit more of a realistic touch I've decided that we're giving him stubble.

I've just got to work out where exactly he might get it! I think it may have to be after they lose a bag or something. I'm just guessing the audience will presume he's not got anymore razors when he starts getting a bit more stubble. :P

I have a feeling this may be another thing Kathryn and I have a good debate about. Where exactly he'd get the stubble! 0_o Being a girl is really not handy when it comes to knowing how long it takes beards to grow... it'd be very handy if I lived with a man! So friends who are boys are getting the beard questions... loll.... well they already have. :P

I'm about to go off and do more of the script in a moment and then send it off to Kathryn. I'm looking forward to seeing what she says about it and whether she has any alterations for it. :P

It's her job to watch out for continuity errors this time around! :P

Cloaked Jack and Eliza:

Well... this is a new outfit design for Jack and Eliza I suppose!

I wondered about whether I should give Jack a hood and scarf and we both decide that Eliza's outfit should change half way through the comic. This picture was done a few weeks back, and I love it! I just love Jacks hood, it's very effective! :D

Plus Kathryns design for Eliza is brilliant, it's still victorian yet not in the obvious corset over the top dresses way! :D *loves it*

She may well be wearing something like this in the comic at some point hopefully!

It's also half of a little comic that Kathryn did (from a short story I wrote) but, the problem is, if I were to type it up for all to see the story (not the picture fortunately!) would reveal a massive spoiler. And I really wouldn't want to ruin it all before it even started!

picture here! :D

Prospects of imagination

This week I've gotten to page nine of the new volume one script! I did want to get more done, but half term proved to be a lot more packed out than I originally imagined. In fact everythings got so much busier, I almost completely forgot to update!

Very unlike me I tell you!

So what's been going on?

Well... like I said, I finished nine pages of v1 script. I'm on track (even if I wanted to spend more time writing!) so that's all good. The only thing I'm having a problem with at this moment in time is choosing the look and feel of the first part of the story.

Those of you who read the script last week will know that there's something to do with a door. And I need to decide whether we're going for a "dark and gloomy" look or whether we're going for something slightly different.

The first 11 or so pages are so crucial for the storyline that I need to get it right. Either I go for full blown scar, dark and gloomy or I go for something and slowly build the tension up.

One things for certain, this comic certainly isn't something light hearted. The way it's going to end for example is pretty horrific actually. But you'll all have to wait and see for that! And yes, that includes people who have already read the script! :P

Oh, except Kathryn. :P She knows what's happening but then she's the artist so she needs to know the basics of it!

Kathryn also stated that she thinks Jack needs a new haircut, but we're both too reluctant to resdesign him!

I love that guy!

Even if he is a prospect of my imagination... (I liked that phrase so much I decided to call it just that!)

We also discussed the actual design of one of the main supernatural beings in the comic (:P Yes I'm not naming anything! It'll spoil it!) because we both came to realise that:

a. they'd changed since the beginning.
b. we hadn't actually come up with a "proper" design on paper because we loved the character designing/ world building so much.
c. They're the most difficult thing to describe in the history of story telling.

I don't know how on earth I'd describe them to someone... I imagine saying something along the lines of:

"Well... they're these supernatural beings that...hang on, they're not exactly beings... OH BUGGER! Right...well you'll need to read the script to get any kind of grasp on what they do.. it's so hard to explain."

Script preview:

I decided the other day that it was about time people started seeing a little bit more of the story. It's a slight worry of mine that we're putting up all of this content for people who don't have any idea what on earth the story is or the characters are.

And because, as I stated last week, the script is now getting rewritten. I'm posting a little bit of the first few pages of the script for all to see. Now, one thing you have got to realise here is that the script is old, and the new script is different.

So, here's the first few pages of the old prologue for all to see. *ducks under something and doesn't come out for a long time.* I'm slightly nervous...

Pages 3-6 of the Prologue: Volume One:

Page 3

3.1 Trees, surrounding a small
church in the countryside.

Caption: Ashes to ashes, dust to
dust...

3.2 Jack, as a seven year old boy
holding his mothers hand at
the funeral. Jack holding the
ring on a necklace wrapped
round his neck tightly.

Caption: There comes a time, when
every one must leave home.

3.3 Jack and his mother Jane,
walking down a graveyard path.
Jack looking ever so slightly
older/taller (he’s now nine
years old.)

JANE:
You’re father loved you very much
Jack.

3.4 A bright light coming into
view, a small door forming in
the middle.

3.5 Jack covering his eyes from
the light.

3.6 Jack looking at the door,
running towards it.

3.7 Jane, reaching out for Jack
as he runs for the door.
Terrified she was going to
lose him.

JANE:
Jack no!!!!


Page 4

4.1 Victorian city, storming with
black mystical like creatures:
The Shadows. Like a ghost
forming on the ground as a
big black shadow chasing after
someone.
Caption: The Shadows. They come
every time.

4.2 The shadows terrifying people
in the middle of the street.
Caption: Terrorising people...

4.3 A man laying dead in the
street.
Caption: Taking their lives.

4.4 The door, formed in the middle
of a wall on a house.
Caption: It’s a mysterious world.
Everyone’s knows that.

4.5 Mrs Hattigan, taking Jack by
the hand gently.
MRS HATTIGAN:
Come along Jack. We’ve been
waiting for you.
JACK:
Where’s Mummy gone?

4.6 Mrs Hattigan introducing Jack
to Henry in the middle of a
kitchen somewhere.

Caption: They come every ten
years.

Page 5

5.1 Eliza standing in the middle
of some kind of field,
Supernatural beings on one
side, and shadows, coming from
the other.
Caption: There’s going to be a
war.

5.2 Close up on Eliza’s face,
in the midst of the
supernatural/shadow beings.

5.3 Jack walking amongst the
supernatural beings, looking
slightly worried.
Caption: He doesn’t know that I
made a promise.

5.4 A light above Eliza, Jack in
the fore gorund seeing her.
Caption: The end is drawing near.
JACK:
Eliza, wait!!

5.5 Eliza, looking round, smiling
slightly at Jack. The light
from above illuminated off her
face.
Caption: They talk of underworlds,
and of gods watching over us day
by day. When the world goes black
from your eyes...

5.6 Jack running over to her. Caption: what will happen?
Panel Description Dialog

Page 6

6.1 Jack grabbing old of Eliza’s
arm, white light surrounding
them.
Caption: When everything ends?

AN: Whoever it was that said there's a lot of "Jack did this" and "Jack did that" was so right! I think it's safe to say I've developed quite a lot since I wrote this :P I can't wait to go to uni and learn more about Graphic Novels...well and writing in general. :)