Writer's Journal

Before you ask, yes, there will be a season 4.  The rough outline in my head has been unchanged but for minor details for a while, now.  It’s only the particulars I iron out and muddle up a little bit as time goes on.

That being said, sometimes you make a mistake and it gives you something new and interesting to work with.  I now have ammunition for my anagorisis that I didn’t think I’d have for a week or two more, at most.

While plotting things out is of utmost importance, in my opinion, sometimes your mistakes and little deviations reveal another layer to the story that you can get some good mileage out of, provided you recognize them.  Sometimes they fall flat, and sometimes they give you something good to work with.

We’ll see how it turns out.

After a short (probably 3-4 week) interlude, I’ll return with the final season of Cicatriz.

Things get strange

Cicatriz Episode 3×06

So, this is prompted mostly by Shell’s comments on Cicatriz 3×05.

In short, I need to let you all know that Cicatriz goes up with barely any revision or editing.  As soon as I complete the chapter (which usually happens early Friday) I put it up here.  This is hardly ideal, though the story’s coherence is assured by the outline, which I follow scrupulously.  Nonetheless, there are obvious flaws.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is my other project, Behemoth, which is sot of like Cicatriz’s sociopathic older brother, which I built off of a simple outline, and which I’ve been editing off and on for a while (I’m on the last revision/editation, though.  It’ll be ready soon.)   This difference could easily have been flipped, I could have made it Cicatriz and Behemoth instead of Behemoth and Cicatriz.  I chose to do it this way.

Now, obviously, if you’re writing something and you don’t care too much about deadlines, then editing should be a major concern.  As should revision.  Especially if you intend to pursue publication.  Revise and Edit.

Between these two processes and outlining, very little of the actual process of “writing” as people think of it, occurs.  It’s much less creating on the page or screen, and more about laying groundwork for it, then shaping the final product after you get the Everything out there.

A good analogy would be constructing a building.  First, you’ve got to dig a giant hole and lay a foundation–Outlining.  Once you’ve got the foundation, you put up the structure, the electrical work and plumbing and whatnot–Writing.  Then, once you’ve got that all done, you’ve got to make sure everything’s in its right place and that everything works–Revising.  Finally, you make sure that the damn thing looks good, which would be putting up the facade, installing floors, putting up the walls–Editing.

Now, this is obviously a quick and dirty analogy, because oftentimes, you can edit while you write and revise.  But, if you’re just starting out, it sometimes helps to consider them each as a distinct stage.

I’ve developed a new technique to write Cicatriz, and I think it might be one that I reuse in the future. The whole thing is directly related to the conceit that Cicatriz is set up like a television series, divided into “seasons.”

As a result of this, I’ve plotted out each season individually, without starting on the next one until the current one is finished. This allows me to treat each one as a novella, while still keeping it all organized into a coherent whole.

It’s also a nice balance between the “completely plotted out” outline-derived novel, and the “improvised” nothing-planned out way of writing. Both have their benefits and pitfalls.

The first is easier for a beginner to use, easier to get started with, but because there’s no real process of discovering the story for yourself, the writer might lose interest, should they not move fast enough. Of course, you already have a starting point and an ending point, as well as a laundry list of things to happen between point A and point Z.

The second requires a great deal of raw creativity, as well as a great deal of revising after-the-fact to shape it into a coherent whole. While it has its benefits, I’ve never really used it for anything I ended up feeling comfortable showing anyone. It can work, but I’ve never been able to get it to.

As such, it’s my opinion that you need enough plotted out at the beginning to make the whole thing possible. That was the real problem with White Knight, for me—I wrote an outline, started writing it because of the deadline, and eventually passed the outline in my writing, which is why the first three chapters read better than those that followed them.

On the other hand, the characters of White Knight felt a bit more real to me than the ones in Cicatriz. It’s a bit of a problem, honestly; though, in all fairness, I am using this as an opportunity to hone my skills, just as I say in the sidebar.

More exposition.  Of a sort.

Cicatriz Episode 3×04

My typesetter for Behemoth (S.T. Johns) once commented on the prevalence of the whole netherworld thing in my writing. Now, after months and months of writing, that trope has appeared in Cicatriz. To be fair, it’s the first time I’ve used it in the sense of it actually being hell.

This brings me to a certain topic: pet concepts.

You know what I’m talking about, ideas that reoccur in the writing of one particular person. Things that they always seem to go back to.

You know, like naming a cat in Haruki Murakami’s writing.

Or the odd typesetting in an Alfred Bester novel.

Or Immortality in Roger Zelazny.

Or the itinerant worker in John Steinbeck.

Or the white adventurer in Ernest Hemmingway.

You get the idea.

For me, it’s the otherworld. The dark mirror of the real world. It shows up in mythology, but I like to think it’s becoming a signature of mine.

Arrogant, I know.

So, here’s the thing: these aren’t bad. Having a standby symbol, something to which you can return over and over and still remains meaningful, isn’t a problem. You shouldn’t use it in the exact same way, each time, or even describe it the same way, but if the concept remains the same and the clothing it’s dressed in is changed, then there’s no problem. Present the idea how it comes to you, use it how it wants to be used.

And since I’ve been copping to influences, lately, the sequence where Wade is facing off against the shades of those he’s wronged borrows a bit from J. Michael Straczynski’s comic Midnight Nation, which I thought was brilliant until it turned explicitly Judeo-Christian, though even then it’s still excellent.

For your reading pleasure(?)

Cicatriz Episode 3×03

Well, here’s the new one.  A little short, and a little late, but I like to think that certain things begin to become clearer–or at least more compelling–in this episode.

Cicatriz Episode 3×02

Also, Jave was correct in the comment on the backmatter for the last bit.  The quote does come from Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger.  The reason for that should be made clear in this chapter.

Cicatriz Episode 3×01

Now with attempted suicide and awkward sexual tension.

Continuing with my conceit that Cicatriz is laid out on the television series, here are the first two seasons, collected together.

Season 1:

Cicatriz 1×01

Cicatriz 1×02

Cicatriz 1×03

Cicatriz 1×04

Cicatriz 1×05

Cicatriz 1×06

Season 2

Cicatriz 2×01

Cicatriz 2×02

Cicatriz 2×03

Cicatriz 2×04

Cicatriz 2×05

Cicatriz 2×06