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But then Jack had become withdrawn and silent.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
Friday 27 August 2010
Saturday 21 August 2010
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!
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!
Thursday 12 August 2010
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?
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?
Friday 6 August 2010
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!
'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!
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