Compelled News

Storyteller Angst

I spent hours last night and this morning telling the story of Compelled to my family. It was the first time I had told the story since I had written the script, so although many of the kids were familiar with the basic concept, this was the first time they had heard the story in full detail. Telling the story to an interested audience was very, very fun for me. But, at the same time, I kept forgetting exactly where all the little conversations went, and I kept having to back up and fill in important bits that I missed, and I never remember all the really good lines, and, and…

So I feel a bit wistful about how I didn’t really do it justice, and can’t help wishing that someday that story will get told the way it’s supposed to be told… as a graphic novel with really awesome artwork. Or maybe a movie. It would make a really good movie.

Rough Draft completed

I have finished a rough draft script of Compelled. At 35649 words it is by far the longest graphic novel script I have written. I maybe should count it as a trilogy of graphic novels. But if I do, the second book has a serious bad case of middle-book syndrome. I would also have to come up with three more titles.

I think I’m going to say it’s just one looong graphic novel for now. 🙂

I’ve been working on a comic script.

It’s the story I was calling “Mark of the Beast” but my husband said that was a terrible title because it would make people think “apocalypse” and “satanism”, and my story isn’t about either of those things. It’s an alternate history fantasy with action and romance and magic and musketeers and an uber-powerful main character who looks like Annubis.

(And my husband said, “So why does he like this girl, anyway?” and I explain that he doesn’t get along with people because almost everyone is afraid of him, and he can smell that, and has really bad associations with the smell of fear. But she isn’t afraid of him, and that is what first intrigues him– and my husband interupts to say “So he likes her because she smells nice?” AAAUUGGGH! I’m writing a story with a super-powered guy who likes a girl because she smells nice. Someone shoot me now!)

Anyway, I’ve sort of switched the working title to “Compelled”, but I didn’t tell my database that, so it isn’t showing up in my wordcounts. (I haven’t been recording the wordcounts for it regularly anyway.) But I’ve been writing it very quickly (for me, anyway) and I’ve done nearly 20K words in about two weeks. Just at the moment, however, I’m stuck trying to figure out the next scene, (my internal pace-setter is insisting that it needs another action scene NOW!) so today I set it aside to work on Scent of Spring.

I thought I was done with story revisions for Scent of Spring, and I was just putting a current draft version together before starting in or art tweaks, but it seems that some of my revisions are… well, lets just say that their seams are showing. I didn’t notice while working on it in pieces, but now that I’m trying to put everything together I can tell that some of the joins don’t fit together quite right. One of those I just can’t smooth over without new art, but I’ve got this second one that I think I might be able to get away with the existing art, if I can just come up with the right words to go with it. Only I haven’t yet.

So, now I’m stuck on that too.

Hopefully I’ll be unstuck on one or the other by tomorrow.

Author's Note on Opera Magique

This is almost a historical fantasy world, except that it's history diverges from that of our own shortly after the black death hits Europe. Suddenly magic and magicians became much more common, and the wars and political maneuverings of the period were influenced by this new factor.

Playing with history, trying to decide what would change, and how, is rather fun -- but I really invented this world because there was a story that was set in it, that I dreamed up and that wouldn't go away. And as soon as I started working on the principals of the magic, and the changes in history, more story ideas showed up.

Keywords: Alternate History, Fantasy, Opera Magique,

Hexblurb for Compelled
 
Forced to obey:
Free to feel

 
 
Copyright © Michelle Bottorff

Email mbottorff at lshelby period com