Friday, June 30, 2006

Epilogue Begun

I started the Epilogue a few days ago. After completing the script, I’ve done three pages of renders so far. I estimate the whole thing won’t be more than five pages (maybe six), so I should get the whole thing done fairly soon.

The Epilogue takes place in the Emperor’s study (featured in Chapter 1), and includes Hector and Alexander talking about what has happened. My goal was to put the story into some kind of context and to maybe answer some of the questions readers might have had. Perhaps most of all, I wanted to give the Emperor and Alexander some “alone” time since Hector was the so-called prime mover of the story. I wanted to show them talking so a little bit of their father-son relationship could show through.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Chapter 13 Online!

I published chapter 13 yesterday. As I’ve said, this is the climatic chapter of the story, although I still have the Epilogue to complete before the story is really finished.

I have mixed feelings about this last chapter. On the one hand, it was an emotional experience, especially when I was writing Lady Sophia’s last words. However, I’m not satisfied with it in general. Some of that is my usual low self-esteem or lack of confidence, but I just can’t help but think that it could’ve been better. I don’t think the dialogue is very good (especially in the second half) and, even at 20 pages (which is the longest of the story), I feel that the pacing too rushed. On the other hand, I still have the Epilogue to tie up loose ends.

Today I was also experimenting with lighting for the next story, Magnus Black: Born in the Grave. I would like to use light and shadow more effectively this time to give the story greater atmosphere. I would also like to improve the writing too: perhaps by taking more time and by doing more drafts. In another change, I will be publishing the story page by page (perhaps two or three pages a week) instead of publishing it by chapters. In fact, Magnus Black will not have chapters since it will be far shorter than Alexander the Prince.

Friday, June 16, 2006

A Little Late

I’m going to delay chapter 13 by a few days since it’s running longer than I had expected. I sent an email to the people signed up to my newsletter to let them know the chapter would be late. I’m hoping to get it out by Tuesday of next week.

Last night I completed page 16. Without spoiling anything, I can say that at least two of the main characters will die in this chapter. However, I don’t show any blood (although I certainly could). From the beginning of the story, I decided to keep things PG-13 (ie: no serious swearing, no real nudity, and minimal blood). It’s along the same lines as the Star Wars or Star Trek movies. I should point out that, for the next story I plan to feature on the site, I will at least have more blood and violence. So I’m certainly looking forward to that. ;-)

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Good Progress . . .

Since my previous posting, I wrote a script for much of the remaining pages. I’ve also finished the renders up through page 12. It’s hard to gauge how many pages there will be total, but I think around 16 or so is a pretty safe bet. Since the chapter involves another duel between Alexander and Rupert, some of the pages are just action with no dialogue, which translates into more pages overall. I think, however, I should have time to get everything done by next weekend, which is when I had intended to publish the whole chapter.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Back from My Trip

I returned from my second (and last) trip of the month, so I should be able to focus on the current chapter until it’s complete. Speaking of which, I finished pages 1-8 before I left, so I’m basically halfway done. I also posted the three-page preview, listing the estimated publish date for the whole chapter as June 18th.

The script I wrote earlier had enough material for the first 9 pages of the chapter, so that means I now need to write the rest if possible. As I’ve said before, having a script to go by really helps. I was having a lot of trouble early on with this chapter, but once I printed out the script, I was able to plan the renders better. Instead of doing them in order, I could jump around a bit, which saves setup time and makes things move a lot faster.