Kat #2 - Author's Notes
[Author's Notes] Okay, it's been a while since I've written. Yes, I feel guilty. No, that hasn't stopped me from procastinating. Learned a life lesson. If you dangle a game about super-heroes in front of someone who has always wanted to be a super-hero, do not expect that person to be able to say no. I've been hooked on City of Heroes lately, an online MMORPG. First one I've ever forayed into. And oh man, the graphics are sweet. Right now, my goal is to fly... me, who can't even get on the third step of a ladder without heart palpitations. Man, living in today's world really is fantastic. I'll have more to say about this in Distorted Dreams, but now, I really should get to writing at leaast one paragraph before my girl and I start a new game of Civilization III. oh yeah, Christmas is horrible for writers. All these new games - and we all know anything will suffice as a rationale to not write.
Goddamnit. I was going to start writing and it hit me, how blank I am. I've literally sat here for 5 minutes trying to figure out where the next chapter starts. See, I was going to start a few weeks later, but then realized I should fill in some of those weeks, at least the routine, then realized I had NO idea what Kat's routine is. So, I was going to start six months down the road and realized I had NO idea what Kat would've been doing those six months. Why is that important you ask? Well, I don't remember which actor this was, but it was on Bravo's The Actor's Studio - a fantastic source of inspiration for story-telling by the way - and an actor said one of the things he/she does for preparation is to remember what the character was doing just before the character shows up. By this, the actor meant that though it's really invaluable to remember that the character is a misogynist who dresses in women's clothes, it's equally important to remember the character just finished eating oatmeal and hasn't wiped his face yet.
That is why I try and remember that though I might be setting the next chapter far away in time, I still have to do the hard work of realizing what that character did or didn't do during that time. For instance, if my character has been training hard (like Kat probably has been) then her now current state should reflect that. If she's been focusing on footwork as the previous chapter she should now be able to be more sure-footed. In fact, these are things I'd focus on in the next rewrite, progression of character.
See, my biggest problem with Kat is that she's such a fully realized adult in my mind, because she meets up with Tristan pretty much as a fully evolved adult, I've no concept of how she is at this age. Here, she's probably around 10-12. Rorga is fashioned after Sparta and obviously, that kind of environment is difficult for someone like her. The other thing about her is she's really taciturn, and obviously from my previous chapters about Tristan, my strength lies in showing through dialogue (which is the reason why people tell me I should write screenplays or plays. But I do love the flow of words, which is why I tend to write in prose form even for comics.
Yes, I'm obviously delaying here as I ponder the life that is Kat's prior to the meeting with Tristan. However, this tells me what I've suspected all along. Kat is a two-dimensional character. *sighs* Perhaps all the cool characters are two-dimensional. Perhaps I'm just blowing smoke up my own ass. (no perhaps about that!) Kat is a high concept right now. How to flesh her out then? What incident can make her real to me and my readers? I've got to come up with a name for that creature too. That creature, by the way, came out of nowhere. It just showed up and said put me in, you need a tie-in with the fantasy part of the epic. So I did and now I'm stuck with it, a nameless green thing, sitting there in the middle of my story laughing at me, daring me to do something innovative with it.
Current thoughts/questions are: 1) Is the creature good or bad or neither? 2) THE DAMN NAME! 3) How is it magical besides it's appearance 4) how is it tied into the fantasy side? 5) Is it related to ... Tak or... hmm Klystra... hmm What about Klystra's familiar? or did the Queen send it? Or should I leave this question unanswered? I mean I should answer it but I should let the readers know this yet.
I am so stuck it's unbelievable. I should somehow bring Tak or.... HEY!!!!! I think I just figured out who this creature is, what it's doing, why it's in Rorga, how Kat ends up meeting Tristan ..... I have to work this out. Okay, thanks for listening (reading) and all I have to do right now, now that I've figured out a big piece of the puzzle, is figure out how to get the story to that point.
Goddamnit. I was going to start writing and it hit me, how blank I am. I've literally sat here for 5 minutes trying to figure out where the next chapter starts. See, I was going to start a few weeks later, but then realized I should fill in some of those weeks, at least the routine, then realized I had NO idea what Kat's routine is. So, I was going to start six months down the road and realized I had NO idea what Kat would've been doing those six months. Why is that important you ask? Well, I don't remember which actor this was, but it was on Bravo's The Actor's Studio - a fantastic source of inspiration for story-telling by the way - and an actor said one of the things he/she does for preparation is to remember what the character was doing just before the character shows up. By this, the actor meant that though it's really invaluable to remember that the character is a misogynist who dresses in women's clothes, it's equally important to remember the character just finished eating oatmeal and hasn't wiped his face yet.
That is why I try and remember that though I might be setting the next chapter far away in time, I still have to do the hard work of realizing what that character did or didn't do during that time. For instance, if my character has been training hard (like Kat probably has been) then her now current state should reflect that. If she's been focusing on footwork as the previous chapter she should now be able to be more sure-footed. In fact, these are things I'd focus on in the next rewrite, progression of character.
See, my biggest problem with Kat is that she's such a fully realized adult in my mind, because she meets up with Tristan pretty much as a fully evolved adult, I've no concept of how she is at this age. Here, she's probably around 10-12. Rorga is fashioned after Sparta and obviously, that kind of environment is difficult for someone like her. The other thing about her is she's really taciturn, and obviously from my previous chapters about Tristan, my strength lies in showing through dialogue (which is the reason why people tell me I should write screenplays or plays. But I do love the flow of words, which is why I tend to write in prose form even for comics.
Yes, I'm obviously delaying here as I ponder the life that is Kat's prior to the meeting with Tristan. However, this tells me what I've suspected all along. Kat is a two-dimensional character. *sighs* Perhaps all the cool characters are two-dimensional. Perhaps I'm just blowing smoke up my own ass. (no perhaps about that!) Kat is a high concept right now. How to flesh her out then? What incident can make her real to me and my readers? I've got to come up with a name for that creature too. That creature, by the way, came out of nowhere. It just showed up and said put me in, you need a tie-in with the fantasy part of the epic. So I did and now I'm stuck with it, a nameless green thing, sitting there in the middle of my story laughing at me, daring me to do something innovative with it.
Current thoughts/questions are: 1) Is the creature good or bad or neither? 2) THE DAMN NAME! 3) How is it magical besides it's appearance 4) how is it tied into the fantasy side? 5) Is it related to ... Tak or... hmm Klystra... hmm What about Klystra's familiar? or did the Queen send it? Or should I leave this question unanswered? I mean I should answer it but I should let the readers know this yet.
I am so stuck it's unbelievable. I should somehow bring Tak or.... HEY!!!!! I think I just figured out who this creature is, what it's doing, why it's in Rorga, how Kat ends up meeting Tristan ..... I have to work this out. Okay, thanks for listening (reading) and all I have to do right now, now that I've figured out a big piece of the puzzle, is figure out how to get the story to that point.
posted by resigned idealist @ 1/17/2005 05:57:00 PM
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