Looking Forward

First, what to anticipate from Chapter Two. Then, a promise. Finally, a little bit of blue-sky dreaming.

CHAPTER TWO!

“Hey Tony,” you say, “why are you so excited for Chapter Two? Explain yourself!”

Dear Reader, I will be happy to do so.

HEY, THESE ARE ALL "SPOILERS!" (If that’s something you care about.)

• FORMAL EXPERIMENTS. Not, like, black-tie lab work, but varied approaches to story sequences. For example, I want a musical sequence. Why? Well, I grew up watching animated movies (wipe that look of surprise off your face), and DD has, since day one, had a little bit of Princess Movie DNA in its background, so you know what? Let’s commit. Let’s put a “Want Song” in there.
• Similarly: Alexandra/DD will make a friend in town. So let’s portray that friendship in pages that look like they’ve been ripped from Frog and Toad. I’ve been reading Frog and Toad to my tiny child for the past year (even though he’s still too young to understand what’s going on). Let’s borrow that format to suggest the growing friendship. It MIGHT be meaningless to someone who’s never seen the referenced material, or perhaps the obvious “children’s book” look to it will suggest the pure youthful connection formed between the two characters. Or, maybe since Alexandra is supposed to be a teen, this idea will miss the mark. Let’s find out.
• ALEXANDRA MAKES A FRIEND. I wasn’t expecting to introduce some of Archipoli’s children into the story—they weren’t in the outline at the start—but I like their presence, and I’m looking forward to Alexandra making friends with a girl in town. When Alexandra fights with her mother, Alexandra’s town friend becomes a source of comfort… only perhaps it turns out that the town friend shares the views of Alexandra’s mother. What will happen? Will Alexandra feel betrayed by her new friend?
• AWFUL VIGNELLI. Speaking of character introductions, I have to introduce the town’s Provveditore in this chapter. He’s tentatively named “Vignelli.” He is the supposed town patriarch, the chief representative of the remote colonial power that rules the island. In the history of this time period, the Ionian islands were ruled by the Venetians, but I’m not sure whether I’ll fictionalize that or not. Anyway, I’m kicking around the idea of having him speak in aggressively anachronistic language. Like a finance bro, maybe. I don’t know if it will be funny or not. If it is funny, it stays. Originally, I was going to have Alexandra go ga-ga for him, but that feels like a false note, the handsome-prince-turns-evil-switcheroo has been well-covered, and I think I have a better way to use what Vignelli offers. Plus, it feels truer to me if Alexandra instantly identifies Vignelli as a thoughtless creep, and is still surprised when he turns out to be even worse. Thematically stronger, too.
• THE CHALLENGE OF TYING THIS ALL TOGETHER. Will all these weird ideas fit together? Can I make them work together? Does it suit the tone of the work if it is a little bit all-over-the-place? One of my favourite bits about DD1 was the small digression toward the fisherman who hopes he’ll be crushed by DD’s falling sky-boat, even though in retrospect that inclusion was a bit out-of-left-field. What sort of new opportunities can I create for myself, for that same sort of element? How? I aim to find out.
• BY THE IVORY CROWN OF THE SPACE GOOSE. This one is mostly a favour for a good friend. Speaking of digressions, in DD’s world, the foremost western religion is based upon a creation myth that figures an enormous celestial swan as the architect of the universe. Her thousand-year honk set the spheres in motion. I might try to find a place to send Alexandra to a place of worship. Since one of the themes of the book is “where do I belong, and who do I trust to guide me there,” this might not be a reach.
• PRETTY DRAWINGS, USED WELL. With the first few panels of Chapter One of DD4, I enjoyed giving myself a little more “elbow room” with the visuals. They’re not necessarily moving the story forward, but they’re thematically appropriate and help envelop us in the world and tone of the story. I want to make more of that, please.

Plus, I have to make Alexandra get into an argument with her mother, I get to draw a handsome horse, Alexandra’s father disappoints her, Alexandra will make some keen character choices, and we get to go see caves and tombs and different corners of Archipoli!

PACE OF PRODUCTION

I hate to temper all that excitement, but I am frustratingly committed to a spirit of full disclosure with you, Dear Readers and Patrons.

Work on Chapter One has been slow. I mean “slow” even by my own sensible, healthy ideas of how long this sort of thing should take.

Reader: the pace will not increase any time soon.

A greater percentage of my time in the coming months will be occupied by the task of taking care of our toddler child. My partner is an ICU nurse, so when you imagine conversations between us about “who should be working full-time now that we have a child in our lives?” perhaps it will be obvious, the conclusions we arrive at. Especially now, in COVID-times. 

I can imagine a future in which I my output is so insignificant that the only honest thing to do would be to suspend this Patreon campaign. But I can also see ways in which I am able to successfully take care of Our Little Ding-Dong while maintaining the established pace of work around here. Time will tell. But: I do not see things getting faster.

As ever, if patronage starts to become a bad value to you, and you choose to withdraw, please know you have my fullest understanding. I also know there will be patrons who say, “oh, shut up, stop being such an anxious old worrier, continue at your own pace,” which is a generous sentiment for which I am grateful.

However things go, I am committed to this project. However long it takes, it will be completed. 

DREAMS

Here are a few tangential projects and endeavours which I hope I can explore in Delilah Dirk's fictional world, someday, but which I cannot promise to you, Dear Reader. They are little sailing dinghies I keep in my boat shed, waiting for the wind conditions to be just right. The greatest immediate challenge, of course, is that any of these would take time away from DD4, which is Priority Number One. But! If I can make them work, somehow, here are some boats I'd like to push out on the water.

• VIDEO READINGS. Back when I used to do school and library visits, I had a nice slideshow of an excerpt from DD1 that I would use to accompany readings. The trick here is writing “prose” to go along with the dialogue-less panels (so, instead of letting the audience stare silently at a picture of Delilah kicking down a door, we narrate, “suddenly, our Heroine smashes through the wooden door, into the sunlight;” it’s way better). I’d like to replicate this experience of the books in video format. It would be a fun, cinematic way to experience the story, and would be inclusive to persons of limited eyesight or with limited reading skill. Fun opportunities include: could I get cool people to perform voices? DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Moderate.
• GUEST COMICS. I once illustrated a comic written by Ryan North for Dave Kellett’s Drive webcomic. Dave has done this a bunch of times. It’s basically what it says on the tin: guest artists and writers make stories set in the world of his webcomic. I would love to be able to do the same thing for DD. A key element here is that Dave paid really well, and if I were to do the same thing, I would want to do it the same way. As a bonus, it would not greatly distract from work on DD4. Fun opportunities include: this should be obvious—who knows what flavours and ideas different authors would bring to the table? DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Expensive.
• AN INTERACTIVE/IMPROVISATIONAL PROSE STORY. This feels like a fun way to take advantage of the interactivity of this Patreon platform. I start a story, then either by polling or by asking for responses, say, “which direction does this story go next?” You tell me. By writing a story in prose, without illustrating it, we could keep things moving in a responsive, interesting way, and it would not completely take over from DD4 work. I like writing, and it would be fun to see what sort of challenging directions you, Dear Reader, could steer the story in. Fun opportunities include: I am excited/terrified of the idea of starting a story without knowing where it will end up. Would it be satisfying to read? This feels like a worthwhile challenge. DIFFICULTY LEVEL: time-consuming.

Those are my favourite aspirations for where this project and this Patreon campaign might go in the future.

What do you think? Is there a side-endeavour or project idea you can imagine for the world of DD? Big or small, I’d love to hear it.

As always, thank you all for your continued support and your generous encouragement. I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am.

TC