(I titled this a "redux" because, for some reason when I went to post it the other day along with the others, it went up but upon some views, I was informed that it didn't have the full essay. So, here we go again!)
The new challenge I faced was something that writers from nearly every field of entertainment find themselves dealing with: getting people to try something out despite it having a (seemingly) distinct appearance of genre.
I often use my sister as a barometer for ideas I have. To me, most of what I conjure up in mind sounds like it would be good and a thing others could find interest in. But we can't go through life always making decisions off our own "echo chambers" so, getting her to look at the idea for this series was something I knew would make it better.
She read the short chapters I had done in prose style, having some interesting critical points about it. She had read only the parts that sort of happened before Jules met Priscilla though, and it wasn't until I filled her in on what was to happen THERE, that I saw her interest really pique.
So, interestingly enough, I took that as a sign for how I would make the book appeal more.
I'd firmly establish and keep central the fact that "Thanks Jules" is, in a way, a love story.
Now, I can picture a bunch of people groaning at that. Seems like more and more books, films, and shows, are hinged on a relationship between two (or in some cases three) people. I don't want to seem like I'm "bandwagoning" on that. I hate being super trendy ESPECIALLY in entertainment. However, it was the themes I mentioned in the last two essays that brought me to those story elements. I could have made the book all sci-fi and by-passed the "feeling" that I'm trying to tap into the zeitgeist of the moment but, the things I wanted to explore would get lost in a "concept of the month" sort of set-up. And I didn't want to create a thing that rose and fell on that approach.
Taking all that into account, I had created a series of dilemmas. I couldn't escape the cringe that sci-fi gets from certain people and I also could not escape the wincing pain I knew the term "love story" would gain from a public flooded by so many. What was a guy to do?
Okay, so, a few paragraphs back I mentioned that the love story and the sci-fi coming together was based on opinions and crafty thought to entice readers. That certainly was in the mix...BUT, let me clarify. I liked both elements and they came up and seemed to mesh together nicely in my mind. Yet, I want people to read what I'm doing here and, even if I were to just run with what I liked, it didn't mean anyone else would be of like mind.
Thankfully, my cluster of conflicting thoughts met a very nice word of encouragement...in the form of an interview by Joe Casey on comicbookresources.com. He was being interviewed on some series he'd recently done and on what was coming up next and had this great response about how he chose projects, basically saying that it was important for him to like and be interested in the story for himself first. It stuck out to me like a beacon.
My process thus far had been calculating how I could take the story I was interested in and shape it into what would appeal to people. But Joe's take was, if you're passionate about your story, do it and let things go where they may.
Inspired by that and growing more excited by the developing of the story, I decided that IF I needed to give it a description, existential romantic sci-fi sounded cool. With that handled, I delved into the love story.
I didn't want it to read like or seem to read like, things I'd seen before with recent love stories. This caused me to "detox" from stories with such elements at play. I came at it and established 3 simple rules:
1.) Avoid love triangles (or quadrangles).
2.) Make it fun. Love is too often played for the BAD drama.
3.) No matter what fantastical things happen on the F.E.N.C.E. side of the story, always have there be a way it effects, echoes, or informs, the story of Jules and Pris.
And these would be the tools that would establish my writing a pitch/blurb for the series as well as undertaking the most dreaded thing a writer has to face:
"Page 1, panel 1."
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