Some “Director’s Commentary”
Posted May 18th, 2007 by Howard TaylerToday, May 19th, marks the end of Book VI, Schlock Mercenary: The Sharp End of the Stick. As is often the case, the story came about as a result of a really cool idea which I discarded almost as soon as I started writing. Chalain and Vorn may remember talking about it over Thai food last summer. Poor Vorn… he thought he was getting spoilers. He was hearing me ramble about a story I never got around to telling.
Ah, the telling… I tried something very new for me, and it was quite difficult. In medias res is a narrative style in which we begin “in the middle” (that’s what those latin words mean), and as the story progresses, it is told alternating between front-to-middle and middle-to-finale.
A good writer can use in medias res to take a linear story that has two shallow climactic curves and turn it into two stories running in parallel whose climactic curves coincide. The result is a bigger, more exciting climax. I’m not sure whether or not I did it correctly, but as I re-read I think it feels right.
Right or not, it’s done, and I had a great time. I learned a lot about writing, and you learned a lot about the fictional universe that has infected my brain. I also drew far more naked people than I ever intended to, and you didn’t get to see any of their naughty bits. I’d say something here about how crotchety I’m getting in my old age, but the proper context escapes me. I’m sure you guys will compensate by booby-trapping the comment area with puns. Just don’t trigger the spam-trap, because I can never stay abreast of what piles up in there.
(I suppose I could check it more regularly. You know… nipple the problem in the butt…)
Enough of that. Sunday, May 20th, is the first day of the next book. As I wrote this blog entry I was going to promise not to drop you in the middle of the adventure this time, but then I realized that you don’t yet know how Xinchub got to be King, so unless I start with a flashback (which I’m not going to do) you kind of already ARE in the middle.
Oh well. You’re smart people. You’ll figure out what’s going on soon enough…
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May 18th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
As it progressed, I loved the style…
When it started, I wanted to pelt you with nerf balls.
But it turned out to be comedy in the raw.
I had worse ones (a form of tip-toeing), but I decided to not temp the fates…
So book 6 is over… So you’re only 4 published books behind…
Speaking of, is there an ETA on the next book of Schlocky-goodness?
May 18th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Re: ETA… not yet. The carpal tunnel has set me waaay back on bonus story work. Right now the whole project is on hold while I determine when I’ll be able to finish the necessary extras.
May 18th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
THANK YOU for not showing Nauty Bits. I read too many comic books and I hate the fake looking women in the most sexualized poses that are not physically possible.
Elf rarely if ever gets my ire for being oversexualized. Thank you. She is my favorite character.
Even though Doctor Bunnigus is oversexualized, I still think it is done well and in funny taste. :)
One contented female reader.
Hint: I would like to see more female troops in regular action. I know you have more than two women mercs, they just don’t get a lot of screen time. I do love that not all your female mercs are human.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
One form of naughtiness you missed was just celebrated earlier this week in PVP, and I think the punchline summarizes how you’ve managed to imply the appropriate amount for the story, while maintaining at least a PG rating:
http://www.pvponline.com/article/3317/mon-may-14
Looking forward to Book 6!
May 18th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Worst bit is I kept expecting it.
Vorn
May 19th, 2007 at 12:26 am
On first read, it was a bit confusing, but the Narrator’s “Yes, this is still a flashback” quips helped. Though I did have a hankering for some procrastinating late March: I went back and re-read the entire archive (yes, from the beginning. No, not from the ‘reccomended start point’. Yes, I’m serious =) ). So I had the advantage of reading the start (middle?) twice, and all in one go, at that.
All that said– I miss Pronto. {sniff} He was awsome. His tombstone should be rigged to emit an ominous ticking sound whenever someone approaches. He’d have wanted it that way. =)
May 19th, 2007 at 2:30 am
Unfortunately, your Latin is terrible: It’s not “en media res”, it’s “in medias res” — “in the middle of things”. It comes from the Ars Poetica — “The Art of Poetry” — by Horace.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:53 am
Every one know that it is Americans god-given right to butcher other launguages……..near dead ones have no special protection.
May 19th, 2007 at 5:47 am
I’m still confused. Why couldn’t Pronto have been nanny-bagged and regenerated? Just about everybody else has been. Some of them were dead longer than Pronto.
May 19th, 2007 at 7:47 am
John: I don’t see how it’s “unfortunate.” I’ve got pedants like you around to correct me. I’ve fixed it.
May 19th, 2007 at 8:08 am
kenwhurst: To my knowledge (and I write this stuff) nobody has gone without a nanny-bag for as long as Pronto did. In every case those things have been on hand and bagging the important bits within a couple of minutes of death.
Elf’s decapitation in the now-overwritten timeline may look like an exception, but within a minute of her head being removed from her shoulders it was in Petey’s care. Kevyn’s injuries in Book IV (shot by a tank) and Book VI (shot by a warship) were both followed up by a nanny-bag within five minutes, tops.
May 19th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Re: Re: ETA Unknown,
Hey, take your time… I know we all worry about your drawin’ arm, and hey, it it takes a couple of extra months for the book, then it takes a couple of extra months…
Just know that your delays only prevent me from buying a new book…
*holds his credit card like a weapon*
Make the fist move, punk… ;) Hiiiiii-yah!
May 19th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I think you did well telling the story as you did Howard. Jumping around did leave me feeling as if I was missing things and I kept thinking things weren’t being explained. I had to re read the story arc from the beginning a few times and now that it’s over some of the ends still feel lose.
Out of curiosity will we be seeing another recruitment drive soon? The company’s numbers have dwindled considerable since the last one and Tagon has a bigger ship then he’s had for quite a bit. And Petey usually pays well enough……. when not forcing you to do his bidding.
May 20th, 2007 at 12:57 am
We may not know HOW Xinchub got to be King, but if we’ve been paying attention we do know already that he did, so it’s less of a shock than going straight from “pirate-hunting” to “stinky buttflaps”…
May 20th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Really Howard, get over the carpal tunnel already. It is getting old. And there’s an earthborn that I’m not painting for you.
As for the time elapse and Pronto’s death, I think it depends a little on how fast you read…
May 20th, 2007 at 2:50 am
Please….. although it was a great story (mind, I’m glad Kevyn’s a normal boosted human again) and told well enough to confuse yet enthrall…..
did you REALLY have it planned for Kevyn’s “BRAINS!” exit from the grave at Halloween? That is what anyone would call expert timing…..it was a little bit frightening….
And yes, congrats on the naughtyless nudity. We expected nothing less.
Also on a serious note .. mind your wrist .. much remains untold that we must know and if it takes longer to arrive, late is better than never.
May 20th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Arcaton: Yes, I DID plan that punchline for that day. It’s not as hard as it looks. Decide on the punchline, decide on the date, then work backwards with the setup. I do that almost every Halloween. It’s probably the most difficult bit of tight-scripting I do, but it’s not really all that hard.
odinsgrandson: I assembled my 2nd Fell Caller and my first Totem Hunter last night, and the hand held up okay. I think I’m getting better…
(Are you coming to the BBQ tonight? 4pm, my place…)
May 20th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Howard, about that carpal tunnel, you might find a light at the end with acupuncture.
Friend of mine had a pretty severe case of c.t. until he stopped in at the local acupuncture training facility on a whim (we live in SoCal, so those kinds of places are more common than you’d think). They fixed him right up. And because it’s a training facility, it didn’t cost him a dime. Very mercenary-ish of him, don’tcha think? So far as I know, he hasn’t had a problem with c.t. since then. He gets these twitches now, but no c.t….. ;-)
Anyway, might be worth looking into.
May 20th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Speaking as what appears to be your only resident pervert, let me say I dislike “naughtyless nudity”. For starters, I think human anatomy is nothing to be ashamed of. I trust you would do it tastefully. Then again, I know this is a family comic, and many parents would be upset if you exposed their kids to (gasp) what people look like without clothing, so I understand why you do the way you do. I’d just prefer that it were otherwise. As it is, I love some of the ways you come up with of masking the naughty bits.
May 20th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
As a completed work, it reads well. I found reading it piecemeal with the flashbacks to be frustrating to the point of annoyance.
But I did keep reading. I’m either a junkie or a Pavlovian habit follower.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
I just went back and re-read Hand to Mouth (heh, sounds like volume 3 of a six-volume encyclopedia). I noticed that this view of Yoming is from the same angle as this one. Is that like all those pictures of Earth showing North and South America, while the majority of the world’s land (also home to the majority of the world’s population) is shown more rarely?
May 21st, 2007 at 6:57 am
At the start, I was going “…huh?”
But after all this time, I trust Howard to bring things together along the way, and I was right to.
May 21st, 2007 at 7:43 am
Sam: Two things –
1) Yes, it’s the same view. Drawing a new set of coastlines would have been easier than lifting the old ones out of the flattened TIFF, but I wanted it to be recognizable.
2) Since most of those pictures of Earth were taken by US gov’t spacecraft during the Cold War, I believe it was politic to show the taxpayers something familiar (”I can see my house from here!”) while not showing off too overtly for the rest of the world (”I can shoot your house from here!”)
May 21st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Hey Howard,
Thanks for the “in medias res” name. I’m working on a novel that uses a similar approach, but I didn’t realise that there was actually a *name* for it… Pity I thought my approach to writing a novel was “novel” (groannnn). Well, actually my book is going to be even a little more disjointed than the two-timeline thing, more along the lines of Iain Banks work (which, if you haven’t read, should be almost *required* reading, especially “Use of Weapons”).
Regards,
Chris.
May 21st, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Chris: Use of Weapons is a great example of in medias res taken to the extreme. As I recall, there are still just the two major threads (beginning of “current” adventure, beginning of “backstory” adventure), but they’re broken up by interludes of an epilogue adventure.
I’m a big fan of Banks’ work.