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The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette
8 years ago
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Support the Jackalope Serial Company on Patreon! Volume 3, Issue 2 -- Tuesday, January 9th, 2018
Howdy, patrons!
There's a ton of excitement here at the Den and Burrow as My Husband (The Dragon) and I prepare for 2018's first major convention -- Further Confusion! It's taking place right in our backyard, so we'll be at the San Jose Convention Center hosting panels, hanging out, and having fun! I sincerely hope to see at least some of you there! (Seriously; let me know in the comments if you're planning to attend!)
At the day job, I had a "use it or lose it" situation with one of my time-off pools, so I decided to take off all this week. It's been a really chill few days, that's for sure -- I've had a lot of time to get some writing in, clean up a little bit, and get some much needed rest and relaxation. The dream is to actually get ahead of writing for once; that hasn't quite happened yet, but I have a good feeling that I can make it happen.
Part 3 of Boundaries will be posted on Wednesday, January 10th so folks who are just getting to FC will have a chance to peek in on the crew of the Starcarver before they leave; I know I said that I would be dropping two parts a week this month, but writing and editing haven't happened as fast as I'd hoped. Especially if I'm going to write ahead in order to make sure I'm releasing an episode a week, I'm going to need to throttle back on the release schedule so I don't break myself. My apologies for ALREADY breaking a promise this year -- I'll do my best to make it up to you!
These days I've become increasingly fascinated by storytellers who can nail a character in a really short amount of time; you see this most often on TV shows, where the ticking clock demands you handle exposition really efficiently. There are a lot of OTHER problems about the show, but 24 was masterful at setting up characters with just a few lines of dialogue -- within a minute of their appearance on-screen, you generally knew who they were, what their relationship to Jack Bauer (the main character) was, and what they wanted in the short-term. Other shows (and stories) can nail a character introduction with a really great entrance or image; one thing that really struck me was the very first shot in Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies", where a man is looking at himself in a mirror. The camera pans back to reveal more of the room while the sounds of the city he's in fill the air. Eventually, you realize he's painting a self-portrait, taking what he sees of himself and translating that into art. It's...so profound, and given what we learn about this character later on the exercise ties directly into the themes and action of the film as a whole.
Given that Boundaries is intended as more of an ensemble story (we'll see more of this as time goes on), I've been really excited about the opportunity to get better at that aspect of storytelling -- having the reader instantly connect, or at least understand, with a character quickly. It's early days yet, so I'll have to learn how to calibrate what information is given when, but it's definitely a tool I'll want to have in my box.
Over at The Writing Desk blog (https://www.jakebe.com), I posted a retrospective on 2017; a look ahead at my goals for 2018; talked about the panels I'll be hosting at FC this year; and started up Fiction Friday this year with Veniamin Kovalenko, Werebear Detective! Head on over there if you'd like to take a look at any of those posts. This week, I'll be diving into politics a bit more and continuing Venia's ursine-noir story. :)
That's it for today, friends! I'll see you tomorrow for part 3 of Boundaries, and this weekend for a wonderful convention!
If you'd like to support gay serialized macro/micro fiction, please consider joining my Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/jakebeserials
Howdy, patrons!
There's a ton of excitement here at the Den and Burrow as My Husband (The Dragon) and I prepare for 2018's first major convention -- Further Confusion! It's taking place right in our backyard, so we'll be at the San Jose Convention Center hosting panels, hanging out, and having fun! I sincerely hope to see at least some of you there! (Seriously; let me know in the comments if you're planning to attend!)
At the day job, I had a "use it or lose it" situation with one of my time-off pools, so I decided to take off all this week. It's been a really chill few days, that's for sure -- I've had a lot of time to get some writing in, clean up a little bit, and get some much needed rest and relaxation. The dream is to actually get ahead of writing for once; that hasn't quite happened yet, but I have a good feeling that I can make it happen.
Part 3 of Boundaries will be posted on Wednesday, January 10th so folks who are just getting to FC will have a chance to peek in on the crew of the Starcarver before they leave; I know I said that I would be dropping two parts a week this month, but writing and editing haven't happened as fast as I'd hoped. Especially if I'm going to write ahead in order to make sure I'm releasing an episode a week, I'm going to need to throttle back on the release schedule so I don't break myself. My apologies for ALREADY breaking a promise this year -- I'll do my best to make it up to you!
These days I've become increasingly fascinated by storytellers who can nail a character in a really short amount of time; you see this most often on TV shows, where the ticking clock demands you handle exposition really efficiently. There are a lot of OTHER problems about the show, but 24 was masterful at setting up characters with just a few lines of dialogue -- within a minute of their appearance on-screen, you generally knew who they were, what their relationship to Jack Bauer (the main character) was, and what they wanted in the short-term. Other shows (and stories) can nail a character introduction with a really great entrance or image; one thing that really struck me was the very first shot in Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies", where a man is looking at himself in a mirror. The camera pans back to reveal more of the room while the sounds of the city he's in fill the air. Eventually, you realize he's painting a self-portrait, taking what he sees of himself and translating that into art. It's...so profound, and given what we learn about this character later on the exercise ties directly into the themes and action of the film as a whole.
Given that Boundaries is intended as more of an ensemble story (we'll see more of this as time goes on), I've been really excited about the opportunity to get better at that aspect of storytelling -- having the reader instantly connect, or at least understand, with a character quickly. It's early days yet, so I'll have to learn how to calibrate what information is given when, but it's definitely a tool I'll want to have in my box.
Over at The Writing Desk blog (https://www.jakebe.com), I posted a retrospective on 2017; a look ahead at my goals for 2018; talked about the panels I'll be hosting at FC this year; and started up Fiction Friday this year with Veniamin Kovalenko, Werebear Detective! Head on over there if you'd like to take a look at any of those posts. This week, I'll be diving into politics a bit more and continuing Venia's ursine-noir story. :)
That's it for today, friends! I'll see you tomorrow for part 3 of Boundaries, and this weekend for a wonderful convention!
If you'd like to support gay serialized macro/micro fiction, please consider joining my Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/jakebeserials
