A Means To An End
And so another great series comes to an end. Actually the series came to an end years ago. But now the series of movies that followed the television series has come to an end. I'm talking about Into The Wild Green Yonder, the fourth and final Futurama adventure. Why the Futurama series was cancelled is a question that I'm sure no-one can answer. Maybe it was simply to herald in the four films; three of which were just excellent (yes Beast With A Billion Backs, I'm looking at you). The last film was one of those kinds of endings, where all the way through you can tell it's the last ever Futurama, because they keep doing that wink, wink "this is so ironic because this is the ending" thing right through the film. I should be sick of that kind of thing now but I just can't seem to get enough of it.
Two of the best endings to a TV series that I can recall off the top of my head were Blakes 7 and Angel. Ironically their endings were pretty similar. That's another thing I love. Especially in Angel's case.
This is probably the first time I've used an LJ cut. So if it doesn't work properly I apologise. The thing I loved about the ending of Angel was the way it was a perfect coda for the entire series. For five years the characters have fought the good fight and that's what they do right up until the bitter end. Even the very last line; "Let's go to work." was a great way of summing up Angel as a series. Yes I remember people arguing that there was no closure. "What happened next?" Even though there's a comic series that shows what happened next, I didn't need to know what happened next. The closure was in the scenes that preceeded the finale, as each character came to terms with what they were about to do and then they went and did it.
Whenever I begin writing something that is more than a "one-off" I always know exactly how it's going to end. It's the way I write. I come up with the beginning of the journey for the main character, of characters, and I come up with the ending point. And then I have fun exploring the in between parts. Back in the day, the day being about three years ago at university, I used to plot out every broad stroke from beginning to end. Everything had to be accounted for. And once that I was done I would write what I had written as fiction rather than synopsis. Basically I would write detailed directions from beginning to end and would very rarely make pit stops or take in the sights along the way. Now I have a beginning and an ending in mind when I start. I write out 'premise', 'characters' and 'setting' (and maybe some other important information). And then I create a story that takes me from beginning to end, making the whole thing up as I go. If I've written something interesting down in one of the character bio's I'll take that and see where it leads. Or maybe a throwaway comment I made while writing about an orginisation in the world that I've created will pique my interest and I'll see where that leads.
I'm not saying that the way I write now compared to the way I used to write is better. It's different. And in the case of what I'm writing now it makes the most sense in two ways; first, I have no idea how much mileage I'm going to get out of the comic, and second it's the best way to stick to the premise. Sure there are things I've already gotten mapped out, dramatic high points I know are going to come. But building towards them and seeing what happens in between them suprises me as much as it will suprise any readers.
Characterisation is something I've been working on for years. When I first started writing I kicked off a major project that I'm still trying to find a way of getting out there. A huge, grand science-fiction epic. About twelve people have seen any of it, in any variation. The science-fiction and epicness were fine, the humour and action were great. But the characterisation sucked. My characters were one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. When I was in university I got a first for a screenplay I wrote that was the first twenty-pages of a pilot for a series. I wanted to see if I could satisfy myself by writing an entire series of a television show. So I wrote something that was very close to my heart at the time; I fixed the fact that the Borg in Star Trek: Voyager were complete pussies and were destroyed far too easily. I wrote twenty episodes of a first series for Star Trek: Collective. The only thing that I was dissatisfied with was the characterisation.
But writing the first thirty or so pages of an untitled film screenplay and now this comic I have created some pretty dynamic and interesting characters. They're characters that I'd love to watch or read about in a film or comic. And that passes my benchmark because if I'm not writing something I'd love to see or read then I've failed. Because, while I'm writing, the only person that I want to like the damned thing is me. If I don't like it then no-one else is going to like it.
I also started a trial for a really old MMO but one that I've been meaning to play since the end of my World of Warcraft days; City of Heroes. How it has taken me three/four years to play a superhero MMO is beyond me. I've had two goes at the tutorial so far as I try to figure out what kind of superhero I want to be. So far I know that it's not the 6" tall, barely dressed Neelana. A Human super agent with no superpowers relying only on her elite training and Merc assault rifle. I also know it's not Lyla 5.0, the failed government cyborg experiment with bio-mechanical skin,robotic arms, super reflexes and a proficiency for martial arts. Number three might just be the one, though I haven't created him/her yet.
Two of the best endings to a TV series that I can recall off the top of my head were Blakes 7 and Angel. Ironically their endings were pretty similar. That's another thing I love. Especially in Angel's case.
This is probably the first time I've used an LJ cut. So if it doesn't work properly I apologise. The thing I loved about the ending of Angel was the way it was a perfect coda for the entire series. For five years the characters have fought the good fight and that's what they do right up until the bitter end. Even the very last line; "Let's go to work." was a great way of summing up Angel as a series. Yes I remember people arguing that there was no closure. "What happened next?" Even though there's a comic series that shows what happened next, I didn't need to know what happened next. The closure was in the scenes that preceeded the finale, as each character came to terms with what they were about to do and then they went and did it.
Whenever I begin writing something that is more than a "one-off" I always know exactly how it's going to end. It's the way I write. I come up with the beginning of the journey for the main character, of characters, and I come up with the ending point. And then I have fun exploring the in between parts. Back in the day, the day being about three years ago at university, I used to plot out every broad stroke from beginning to end. Everything had to be accounted for. And once that I was done I would write what I had written as fiction rather than synopsis. Basically I would write detailed directions from beginning to end and would very rarely make pit stops or take in the sights along the way. Now I have a beginning and an ending in mind when I start. I write out 'premise', 'characters' and 'setting' (and maybe some other important information). And then I create a story that takes me from beginning to end, making the whole thing up as I go. If I've written something interesting down in one of the character bio's I'll take that and see where it leads. Or maybe a throwaway comment I made while writing about an orginisation in the world that I've created will pique my interest and I'll see where that leads.
I'm not saying that the way I write now compared to the way I used to write is better. It's different. And in the case of what I'm writing now it makes the most sense in two ways; first, I have no idea how much mileage I'm going to get out of the comic, and second it's the best way to stick to the premise. Sure there are things I've already gotten mapped out, dramatic high points I know are going to come. But building towards them and seeing what happens in between them suprises me as much as it will suprise any readers.
Characterisation is something I've been working on for years. When I first started writing I kicked off a major project that I'm still trying to find a way of getting out there. A huge, grand science-fiction epic. About twelve people have seen any of it, in any variation. The science-fiction and epicness were fine, the humour and action were great. But the characterisation sucked. My characters were one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. When I was in university I got a first for a screenplay I wrote that was the first twenty-pages of a pilot for a series. I wanted to see if I could satisfy myself by writing an entire series of a television show. So I wrote something that was very close to my heart at the time; I fixed the fact that the Borg in Star Trek: Voyager were complete pussies and were destroyed far too easily. I wrote twenty episodes of a first series for Star Trek: Collective. The only thing that I was dissatisfied with was the characterisation.
But writing the first thirty or so pages of an untitled film screenplay and now this comic I have created some pretty dynamic and interesting characters. They're characters that I'd love to watch or read about in a film or comic. And that passes my benchmark because if I'm not writing something I'd love to see or read then I've failed. Because, while I'm writing, the only person that I want to like the damned thing is me. If I don't like it then no-one else is going to like it.
I also started a trial for a really old MMO but one that I've been meaning to play since the end of my World of Warcraft days; City of Heroes. How it has taken me three/four years to play a superhero MMO is beyond me. I've had two goes at the tutorial so far as I try to figure out what kind of superhero I want to be. So far I know that it's not the 6" tall, barely dressed Neelana. A Human super agent with no superpowers relying only on her elite training and Merc assault rifle. I also know it's not Lyla 5.0, the failed government cyborg experiment with bio-mechanical skin,robotic arms, super reflexes and a proficiency for martial arts. Number three might just be the one, though I haven't created him/her yet.