I’ve been working tonight on (1) battling the bug I’ve been fighting for more than a week, and (2) expanding the short story I had mentioned in previous posts, sort of a prequel to “The Empty City” about one of the supporting characters and how he ended up where he is. The story, “Salazar: Section 51 Origins,” is turning into quite the work, if I do say so myself.

In one evening, I’ve expanded the first chapter into three chapters that, together, are already longer than the rest of that story. It’s definitely a much different animal, too: the sci-fi that’s going to be a cornerstone of the Section 51 series doesn’t actually come in till the end, and it has a much darker tone. I was actually feeling a bit depressed when I finished the first chapter, which ends in tragedy.

What’s interesting is the work I’m dipping into. A while ago, for fun, I wrote a few screenplays for a non-sci-fi dramatic television series that I never expected to publish or produce. I fell in love with two of the characters in that work, coming up with pretty elaborate backgrounds for them, nearly ignoring the rest of the characters. (I might end up adapting that series for more prose fiction, but I still have yet another book project that’s been in my mind since I was 12.)

Anyway, now that the cat’s kind of out of the bag with Section 51, when I’m done writing it, I’m debating releasing “Salazar” as an e-book before I publish “The Empty City.” It’s probably not going to be long enough to be printed on its own, but I would probably still include it at the end of TEC as a sort of extra feature. There’s one event that’ll be in both stories, not to mention the shared character, so it should fit together nicely.

Stay tuned. There’s a possibility I’ll post an excerpt right here.

Comments (0) Nov 08 2009

I finished a second draft of the book a week ago, adding a couple of characters and a subplot, and now I’m working on the third draft. By third draft, I mean that I’m taking each chapter and rewriting it.

So why rewrite, you ask? Tone, mostly. This week, I wrote a short story I’d like to include at the end of the book, and I’m really quite happy with it. But it made me realize I was putting in too many jokes into the main novel, which I figured were too much of a distraction from the main story, which is rather dramatic.

I also realized that the ending seemed a bit abrupt, so I’m sprinkling in a few references to what was going to be a big secret. Plus, part of my business model – sequels – would be hard to implement if I kept that a secret.

In that vein, I’ve renamed the book “Section 51: The Empty City.” The original name, “Emptiness,” was just kind of lame, and Section 51 was the name of the series I’ve had since the beginning. (Since before the beginning, in fact.) I’ve owned www.section51hq.com for a month or so for this. (The more obvious domain, without the “HQ”, is owned by a cybersquatter. Grr.)

But what is Section 51, you ask? You’ll just have to wait for the answer.

In other news, I’ve been working on a new ad for the series. I’ve redone the main character using the excellent Michael 4 character from DAZ3D.com, so the ad I have would need to be reworked a bit anyway. Plus, I’ve moved the setting from a fictional city (which I had needed to use when the project was an animated series) to Albuquerque (a much more believable locale for the story), so the buildings are inaccurate. And, since I’m planning to publish in early 2010, the “SUMMER 2011″ graphic was inaccurate anyway. The ad isn’t ready quite yet – I still need to add in music and tweak the animation – but when it is, I’ll have it on the front page of this site.

And I have a few ideas for some viral advertising that came straight out of rewriting Chapter 3. (I kind of fantasize that this is going to be one of the coolest marketing campaigns ever for a self-published book.)

Comments (0) Nov 07 2009

This afternoon, I reached another milestone on “Emptiness:” I finished the first draft of the novel manuscript.

As I’ve said before, I’ve changed the format of the project from animated Web series to novel, since I’m doing this on my own and animation is a challenge. Since then, I bought a new computer (a quad-core Mac Pro), cutting render time by well over half. For example, on a very high-resolution image I created for the cover of the novel, my new computer took about 5 minutes when my old one would have taken probably half an hour or longer.

But, anyway, I’m facing a few challenges on the publishing front:

• The first draft is only 10,000 words. It’s 60 pages in letter-size, and I hesitate to do the math for novel-sized pages. And, at least according to a website I found on Google, a novella should be at least 20,000 words, with 50,000 for a full novel. Granted, I’m planning to self-publish, so I don’t have to please a publisher, but it’s still a bit disconcerting to think how skinny the book will be.
• I really, really want this to be successful, and that means probably about $700 in fees and costs and two or three months before I can hit “Publish.” ($400 to have a neutral review written, $75 to have it listed in the Library of Congress and make it eligible to put in libraries, $35 to file with the U.S. Copyright Office, and the remainder for marketing.)

The review is the biggest part of the cost and wait – 8 weeks and $400. The LCCN is relatively cheap and only takes two weeks, and I don’t have to wait for the Copyright Office to publish. (As long as they get the file before I publish, they’re happy.) If the review is favorable, I could include it on the back cover and in all the marketing. (I could do so too if it’s unfavorable, but that seems like a bad idea.)

That doesn’t include having it professionally proofread. I have a few family members who have agreed to give it a once-over. They’re smart and they’ll be thorough, I’m sure, but I wonder if it would still be a good idea to find a professional proofreader, or even a literary editor to critique and help me tweak the story.

Anyway, I’ll be working on some marketing materials in the upcoming weeks, and redoing the front page of this site. I may even put together a new promo video.

Comments (4) Oct 25 2009

I’m disappointing myself with this news, but I think it’s for the best. I’m putting production of the “Emptiness” animated series on an indefinite hold, and instead, I think I’ll rewrite it in a different format.

I was very excited about making a direct-to-Web animated series out of the story I came up with, but I realized coming home from work today several things:

1. I have no real budget. I’m footing the bill for the series myself, and, although my bills have just loosened up a bit, I can’t really envision myself having enough money to do the series right, especially hiring voice actors.
2. My animation skills are very limited. I’ve been playing around with the animation software I have, but it’s very tough to animate almost anything without resorting to expensive tools. And with no real budget, I have no expensive tools.
3. I don’t think I have the patience. Even though the animation is fun to do (just very challenging), it would take me a week to do just one scene, since I still have my day job. On top of that, with no real budget, I only have my desktop computer to do the rendering, and it takes a very long time.

That brings me to a crossroads. I really want to continue with this story, and I want to do something innovative with the format. A video game is probably out of the question for now, mostly because my programming skills are limited and the story, as it is, doesn’t lend itself to interactivity. (Plus with no budget, I wouldn’t be able to get my hands on good programming tools. I know there are a lot of open source game development systems out there, but I’d run into the same time and patience problems.)

So I think I’ve settled on rewriting “Emptiness” as a traditional novel, perhaps with multimedia elements. I may also do a “platinum edition” (certainly not called that) with some 3-D artwork, almost like a picture book for adults. And there’s no reason I couldn’t later turn around and do it as an animated series.

I’m sorry if anyone out there is disappointed by this change, and thanks for your support.

Comments (0) Oct 13 2009

After battling some more writer’s block over the past couple of weeks, I’ve finally been able to wrap up the story and get the first drafts done of the scripts. I’m planning to take a couple of weeks off from writing so I can look at the scripts with fresh eyes, but in the meantime, it’s time to get to the business of preparing to animate this puppy.

I’ve made some pretty good progress on getting two of the supporting characters done, and I’ve redone the protagonist – twice – since I made the first trailer. The first two versions were pretty ugly, and the new one has promise – except for the fact the only hairstyle I have for him right now makes him TotallyLookLike Perez Hilton:

Time for another go-around. (Part of the reason is actually because I’m switching 3-D software. Poser has been acting funny on my Mac, and DAZ|Studio works well. Plus, it has a free version. (I’ll probably upgrade before long, but the free version works pretty darn well.)

Comments (1) Oct 04 2009