Between you and me, a LOT is up in the air when it comes to these two characters. Long term I could see them going to many interesting places within my story world...but I also could see one of them dying even within this first story arc.
I'll never tell what I decide to do....
If this comic book ever gets published and totally takes off, never let it be said that I knew exactly what I was doing and where the series was going haha.
I have an idea for four major story arcs in this world, some characters I know I need alive at certain points, others...well this is a Lovecraftian world, we shouldn't be expecting a plethora of happy endings here!
Writing in this style (of not being entirely sure what's going to happen until I get there) has been interesting and exciting for me. In the past, the stories that I've mapped out meticulously have failed. I guess they collapsed under the weight of all my planning.
"Ithaqa", and my short story "Assembled" are my two forays into a more spontaneous style of writing, and they're the best things I've written to date. Not that this style doesn't have its drawbacks!
I'm very prone to continuity errors since I'm not following a granular master plan. Tonally I also run the risk of being all over the place because without a perfect blueprint, my mood on any given day could drastically alter the events of the story. It's also dangerous for me to take a break from writing, because the more time that has passed, the more likely I am to forget about little side clues/scenes I wanted to sprinkle in. In order to combat this I attempt to re-read large portions of my work before I sit back down to write again, and I take copious amounts of notes. Any time I decide to stop writing for the day I usually write down the next 2-3 scenes I have in mind on a notepad.
It's also so important that I have an editor, she reminds me when I've dropped interesting plot threads, or written scenes that serve no purpose haha. She also asks me fantastic questions, questions that lead me to better plot points than I would have ever discovered all by myself. In fact, the coolest part about the climax of this story arc came when Lisa asked me:
"So why is it important that Mookie is here for all of this? Why did we follow him into the story and not somebody else?"
I won't spoil what I decided, but it lead me down a path that I think makes the story so much stronger than it was originally. That's one of the positives towards this style of writing. I don't bring my ego to the editing room, since I don't really know what's going on. This isn't my perfectly crafted magnus opus, it's a story I love telling, and plenty of people can help me tell it better.
It's also nice when your stories take on a life of their own and surprise you :)
If you're new to this comic I strongly recommend you check out our instagram page, as I'm currently uploading pages from issue 1 there every day (this is issue 2).
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ithaqacomic/
Theresa Chiechi's (The Artist ) website is here: http://www.theresachiechi.com/
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