tonycliff
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Pirates. (DD4, Chapter One, Pages 5-9)
🕑 Added 2021-08-06 19:53:49 +0000 UTCIn which our heroine reveals a very optimistic view of England.
(That "Pirates" page is the kind of thing that would be considered indulgent by the part of me that has been instructed toward storytelling rigour, but I think that part of me is wrong, and this page is right.)
Edit: lemme clarify. Writing education and advice emphasizes structural choices, character choices, motivations and themes and ideas… but I’ve never heard enough talk about the value of tone or spirit or even just having fun. “Having fun” was one of those goals I set for myself at the start of the year. I thought it would be valuable to the book. This page is a success in that regard, I think. I’m going to keep looking for places to push things in this direction, toward this tone and spirit.
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As a reminder: I'm in the process of colouring this chapter, which is about 45 pages long. I'm posting the coloured pages more-or-less as I go, with a buffer, because I worry (currently six pages). Simultaneously, I'm "writing" the next chapter. Once all the pages of Chapter One are posted, there'll be a gap until you're seeing finished pages for Chapter Two, as I lay out and illustrate that chapter. Rinse, repeat, chapter-by-chapter, until the book is done!
Thank you for the kind words on the first few pages, from last week!
Comments
Tony Cliff
Oh, yeah, this is clearly a case where the repetition *creates* the effect.
Tony Cliff
I've always tried to make each book stand on its own, but yes: a goal for this book has, from the very start, to be a good introduction. Specifically, though I have ingested volumes of Napoleonic War fiction and internalized the social code of the time, I never made that clear in the books. Middle-grade readers (who MIGHT have spent less time reading history) don't have that context, but that context makes DD as a character a little extra special. So it's time to fix that.
Lex
A great introduction to Delilah…I wonder, is your approach with Book Four also intended as a new “jumping on” point for new readers to the series? Whether intentional or not, it works!
Brian Harold Taylor
Really hooked by these pages. I love the use of first-person narrative prose in this, and man, those colors are amazing. Okay, well EVERYTHING is amazing, but that's what jumped out at me this time around. Your stuff is one of the few sources of inspiration that keeps me going back to comics - both for reading and creating. Good work, man!
Damien Prystay
Pirates, tho.
kaitou
Funny you should say this as I'm reading a book on self-editing and just finished the chapter entitled "Once is usually enough." At least in prose, your editor would poke you about the repetition, but in this case I think it works. (Rules are meant to be broken if you know when they should be.)
I, for one, love the "pirates" page.
Mike Maihack
Pirates!
