VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 18:29:39 10/19/25 Sun
Author: Mark
Author Host/IP: 63.224.188.86
Subject: Re: (SFFR) Gretchen Goes To The Kentucky Derby (HagenMrk) - A Review (Re-Corrected)
In reply to: Curious 's message, "Re: (SFFR) Gretchen Goes To The Kentucky Derby (HagenMrk) - A Review (Re-Corrected)" on 13:58:48 10/19/25 Sun

Thanks for the review.

The quarter century-running "Gretchen" series has a structure that's a blessing and a curse. Progressing with the calendar in real time with a new story every year or so helps me to be flexible with the storytelling, making things up as I go and adjusting to trends of the day in an alternative reality. The downside is that it's hard to keep the at-large narrative from getting away from me. The expansion pack lineup of characters served a useful role at various stages of the saga but don't necessarily warrant inclusion in every chapter. But since I only do one story every year, it would be odd to disappear these characters for "years" at a time so I feel the need to insert them into most chapters, which can lead to the story feeling overpopulated. It was an easy trap to fell into it and I fell.

I was pleased with the atmosphere of the Kentucky Derby chapter and the specific storylines I worked up for it. I got the idea watching the 2024 Kentucky Derby and seeing the cigar smoke in the background. It was kind of serendipity from there to build up the narrative structure with the previously established character progression with the backdrop of the Derby's one-of-a-kind pageantry. It would have worked well for a movie or TV script where the audience gets to visual the characters, but for the purposes of a written story there were a lot of names for the reader to have to remember. That might have been okay for this specific setting but I need to maintain more character focus for subsequent chapters.

I'm about halfway there with the next chapter's storyboarding. The hope is to have it ready next spring.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Login ] Create Account Not required to post.
Post a public reply to this message | Go post a new public message
 * HTML allowed in marked fields.
Message subject (required):

Name (required):

  E-mail address (optional):

* Type your message here:


Notice: Copies of your message may remain on this and other systems on internet. Please be respectful.

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.