Another chapter closed.

Today, I finished writing Population: 1, a blog-based writing project I've been working on for the past year and a half. It has been a very interesting journey and I can say that I'm proud of the end result.

Population: 1 started off as a strange  and brief short film that I made on Easter weekend of 2011. I was feeling a bit bored and stir-crazy, so I wrote, filmed, and edited it over the course of a day.



The music I used is from the soundtrack of the game Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. I wanted to evoke the same kind of loneliness I felt when I played through that game. After the video was complete, though, I felt the need to turn it into something else. So, Population: 1 was born. I consider it the spiritual successor to Hub City Survival, being that it's set in a lonely, sad world, and it's written in a first-person journal format. Plus, Tracey and Dahlia seem to have quite a bit in common.

I designed the story to be interactive, having readers vote on what direction Dahlia could take. Some options may have resulted in a different ending for Dahlia, or perhaps a different outlook for her to take. As Dahlia learns of things, the readers do, and as such, some of the chosen options may have resulted in the readers knowing more, or less, than they do now. For this purpose, I made an in-character and an out-of-character blog.

 

The story featured a number of design implements. I drew the map of Cullingville, for instance, as it is a fictional town. I also developed the backstory of this bizarre town and have not shared it with anyone as of yet. Finally, the Five Petals group was an important part that needed to be fully fleshed out, and I made up family trees and timelines. It was a rather intensive piece of work for something that ended up being so short, but that's part of the reason I'm so pleased with it.

Now with this story complete, it's time for me to start another project. I haven't quite decided what it will be, but I'm certain it will be a novel. I have it narrowed down to three different ideas.

I'm also going to be working on a storyboard for a web comic, on a somewhat off-and-on level. The webcomic is something I plan on writing, but not illustrating. I would be interested in collaborating on someone with the comic, and I'm sure I'll post up sketches a bit later on when I'm further in the process.

I also still have Thread in the back of my mind and really want to do something with it. I have a series of three games in my head, but no way to really get them out. This is another project I'd love to collaborate with someone on!

Thanks to my readers for sharing yet another of my writing journeys with me. I hope to start my next project, whatever it may be, within the next week or so.

Population: 1

Some good news today. I sat down and completely finished the planning for Population: 1, meaning that the story and general skeleton are complete and what remains is to begin writing it!

If you'll recall, almost a year ago I published a post containing video and a blurb about it. I wasn't sure what to do with it at first, and later decided it should be my next web-based writing project a la Hub City Survival. Ever since I decided to make it a writing project, I've undergone a very extensive planning process to ensure it is everything it can be. The planning took a little longer than anticipated, but it is done and it is ready to start being written.

What this means to you, the reader, is that you will soon be able to start participating in and influencing the story. Now, I've given myself a deadline for the first post so you all know what to look for. The in-character blog will be updated on Monday, February 20. So, to recap, here are a couple of links for you:

- Population: 1's in-character blog, where the story unfolds.
- Population: 1's out of character blog, where you will participate in and influence the story.

Here, too, is the trailer that I originally made for the project, back before it was a trailer and when it was just a random short film.



This will be the last I post about Population: 1 in this blog until the story is complete, as all updates will be story-related from here forward. Check on both blogs on Monday, Feb. 20, and be prepared to enter a strange town where no one can be found.

I'll leave you with a couple of teaser photos. Below are photos from my project notes. I have 28 pages worth, most of which is plot summary but a lot of which is history and geography-related as well.

Seeya on Monday!
K.

Next project

I'm starting work now on my next project, which will be the spiritual successor to Hub City Survival. There will be no zombies in this one, however there will be a great mystery to unravel, and it will take place again in Canada, this time in the fictional town of Cullingville. I, again, plan on releasing this chapter-by-chapter online, probably through my deviantArt account.

This one, however, I plan to be a little different.

If you recall, a few posts back I embedded a brief short film/trailer I shot back in April. If you don't recall, here it is:



I've decided to use this as a trailer for the project, and my plan for it is to become an online, episodic writing project, akin to what Hub City Survival was, only with a twist: I want people to be involved! Ideally, this story will be semi-interactive, giving the readers a chance to involve themselves in it. My ideal would be to have people give clues by comments in deviantArt to serve as letters or hints, and also to help decide what the main character, Dahlia, is to do through polls.

I hope to get started on the project soon, but I'd like some opinions first! Feel free to go and join the discussion on my deviantArt page or to start a separate discussion here!

Writing Clusterbomb

Inspiration comes in many different forms, and the end result can be anything from a haiku to a novel. Sometimes, however, my inspiration will sort of dance sideways and produce something completely different.

This has happened not once, but thrice lately. I've started writing a song. I'm working on a quirky blog about video games, called Spoiler Alert!, which is exactly as the title says: full of spoilers. It also rife with cursing and snark, which I'm new to writing. If you're interested, here is the link to Spoiler Alert!

The third and possibly strangest of my non-conventional writing endeavors is most likely a short film a made one afternoon. I wrote, shot, and edited the whole thing over the course of a day on Easter weekend. Rather, today. It is heavily inspired by the game Fragile Dreams, which I consequently just wrote about in Spoiler Alert!.



The question now is what to do with this! Should I turn it into a miniature web series? Should I make a movie? Should it be my next web-writing series, a la Hub City Survival? I know I want to do something with it, but I don't know what!

Ever had something take you in a completely different direction than you expected? Tell me about it in the comments!

Walking to work

For some reason, I'm always able to pull inspiration from my surroundings at the most inopportune of times. One of those more frequent times tends to be when I'm on my way to work. One of the nice things about this is that I can jot down some of my ideas as I walk with my iPod touch.

Here are a few haiku that I have written on the way to work:

I.
A moment of calm
Before these hours of chaos
Overwhelming me.

II.
Grey cat disappears
Phantom smoke in the bushes
But there is no fire.

III.
Earthworms on pavement
Writhing around wet cement
City of the dead.

A companion to the first haiku is the following poem, which I wrote the other day.

Further moments of calm before chaos
Birdsong my soundtrack
Scent of fresh-fallen rain
The unknown summoning me on an adventure
Though I protest--
Although an adventure is precisely what I crave,
I have previous engagements.

Despite a warning from an oncomer, I write.
Sometimes, inspiration doesn't care if I get a little wet
And neither do I.

What I'm saying is that I want to run off for the day and find something else to do. Like a child I want to chase the wayward wind, leap into a forest or comb the beach for treasure. But, alas.

I know it's not the most intricate of poems but it's merely a work in progress that I may turn into something more at a later time. Poems will do that. They start with a spark, they catch something and flicker, and the next thing you know they have engulfed your page. Some of them just tend to take a little longer than others!

If you'd like, share some of your unfinished works, or works in progress. I'd love to read them!