Public Release Approaches and Frightening Holes

Chapter Four is all done! If you’ve been reading along as I’ve been posting, I hope you’ve enjoyed it. If you have been waiting until they’re all posted — or if you’re waiting for a print version — I hope you haven’t been bothered by all these spoilery updates appearing in your inbox.

In this week’s update:

• Should I change how I release these pages publicly?

• Writing and thumbnailing progress: things get scary so we make a big turning point.

PUBLIC RELEASE PLANS

For the past three chapters, I’ve posted the pages to DelilahDirk.com in four-page chunks, like some webcomics do and like I did when I originally posted DD1 online.

Now I am wondering: is this actually a good approach?

It’s an approach that makes sense for most webcomics, since they’re posted as their author completes them. This is also how I post pages to Patreon, for the same reason: I post ‘em as I finish colouring them (with a buffer of several pages, to be honest). Plus, I like being able to ask you about things like, “does this voiceover presentation work?” like I did two weeks ago (thank you, by the way, to everyone who offered feedback). That works better when we’re only looking at four pages at a time.

But should I post the pages publicly in the same way?

I’m beginning to think not. First and most importantly: the book is intended to be read all at once, continuously. I try to include interesting beats every four to six pages, but still I think the book is best read as an uninterrupted experience. If I posted Chapter Four in one or two batches instead of four pages at a time, it would be more like picking up a floppy comic and less like a webcomic or newspaper strip. That feels like a better fit for this story. When I imagine myself as an impartial reader, I much prefer the idea of looking forward to 30-50 new pages to read at once, as opposed to checking in every week for a four-page dip. Maybe that’s just me.

Second, I hate updating social media and all the posts and stuff. I have so much work to do making the comic and all of this feels like such a chore. I know, I know, when it comes to a profession in the arts, you got to take the bad with the good, but… I don’t know. Plus, there’s the possibility that doing the four-pages-a-week approach is actually worse for attracting readers, since it’s so at-odds with the nature of the book.

If you have opinions one way or another, I’d love to hear them. I suspect the majority of you share my personal stance: “shut up and just let me know when it’s a book!” But you have surprised me before, so I’m open to any possibility.

WRITING AND THUMBNAILING PROGRESS

Chapter Five is all written! And thumbnailed! Great! And I thought, “while I’m at it, let’s look forward and explore Chapter Six a little bit.” This seemed like good due-diligence because I want the book as a whole to feel as one, connected and complete. That’s my job, as far as I can tell. Yet I worried that stray paths might have appeared, and might meander too far for me to rejoin them with the others. For example, there’s Alexandra’s birthday present that remains unopened, and I did not expect Katerina and the Midshipman to pair up. Now I need to make sure those paths lead somewhere.

I know what goes into Chapter Five. I know what I want for Chapter Six (mostly). And I know how I want the book to end — I have a concrete destination in mind. I even have some of it written out.

But a big scary hole opens up after Chapter Six. I have always had a few ideas — set pieces and interactions that I definitely want to see — but except for a few of those mountains poking their peaks above the mist, that territory has been uncharted.

So I decided to do some charting. I would do exploratory writing for the entire back third of the book.

Why is this worth mentioning? If you’ve been reading these posts for any length of time, you might recall that one of my goals with this project is to keep it lively and fresh for myself, in the belief that this would make it lively and fresh for you as a reader, and would also make this whole process more challenging and engaging for me. To do that, I embraced a degree of spontaneity.

Alexandra’s birthday gift in Chapter Three was not planned. I added it in not knowing what exactly I would do with it except that, hopefully, it would be a tantalizing mystery that would pay off in a satisfying way.

Some spontaneous elements have already paid off. In Chapter Three, Katerina gave Alexandra her purse. This was also not planned, and meant I’d introduced a prop into the story that I’d have to do something with. When I decided to include it, it felt like a way to allow Katerina to metaphorically accompany Alexandra through her trials; I figured maybe later it would save Alexandra’s life somehow, or she could swing across a gap with it, or lasso a villain. Something like that. Instead, an entirely unexpected use for it appeared in Chapter Five. While I was writing, I just figured, “what if…?” It’s not a dramatic life-saving beat or anything, but I really like it. I was glad, then, that I hadn’t prescribed some other specific use for the purse. It felt like spontaneity was working in my favour.

Ideally, like a well-designed theme park, all the story’s divergent paths criss-cross and give glimpses from one to another and meet in unexpected ways. So while I acknowledge the value of a semi-improvised approach, faced with all the elements swirling around in the story, and the prospect of leaving it all to chance, I might have felt a little fear.

It was time to start planning, chart the territory after Chapter Six, and start bringing these paths together. It was time to figure out what all those satisfying payoffs will look like.

I even broke down and drew myself a rough map of Archipoli. Yes, now, two-thirds of the way through this story. I had been avoiding this, because I worried that being too anal-retentive about this sort of thing would get in the way. Joke’s on me, though. As soon as I drew it up, two solid story possibilities emerged that I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.

[ Above: a very rough map of Archipoli, half built from knowing where elements need to be, based on where they already are, and locating things where they might be most useful if I can get away with it. A fun juggling act.]

I’m happy to say that things have been going that way. Lots of fun surprises have been emerging. The toughest challenges have been lining up the logistics of all the story beats in a believable fashion, and choosing the best option from the story possibilities that are emerging. I now have three or four good ways to pay off Alexandra’s wrapped birthday present, and they’re all fun.

I’m going to continue charting the remaining story until I feel like Chapter Six can put all the players in the right places, and until I feel like I can start Chapter Seven on a strong footing. That’s the scariest spot for me right now: the start of Chapter Seven. Making that part interesting and engaging feels the most difficult. I think if I can make that passage good, the rest of the paths will naturally intertwine and we will have a thrilling story on our hands.

COMING UP

Once I reach a good spot with the back third of the story, I’ll review my thumbs for Chapter Five, and then it’s time to start pencilling! Expect to see pencils soon.

Before that, though, I am going to deliver on the DD3 retrospective posts I promised. Look for those next week or the week after.

July has been a rough month for finding time to work. E.g., I’m writing this on my only work day during this particular week. Our kiddo’s out of preschool for the summer and my partner has been swamped at work, simultaneously short-staffed while she prepped to interview for an advanced position in her unit (she got the job, though; huzzah!).

August should be better. We’re planning to have someone look after Kiddo a couple days a week, which should free me up for work (as well as taking care of some outstanding home-improvement tasks). As an aside, I found this person by asking our local librarians if they knew any smart, conscientious youths who would be up for it. The smart, conscientious youth we met seems great. I mention this only in case you need further evidence that librarians are wonderful people and an excellent resource all-around.

Okay, I’m off to keep writing. Thank you for continuing to support the work of charting out this misty landscape. You — both collectively and individually — mean the world to me.

Until next week,

I remain,

a well-designed theme park,

TC