New post:
Scenes That Didn't Happen - An Explanation
"So, I thought some explanations might be in order after I posed that Teaser Image.
About a month ago, I passed the fourth anniversary of the start of FF&S. (The first "production" renders were made in August 2018. I'm not counting the "concept renders" that I did trying to work out the various characters - that would take me back to June 2018.) With the exception of some intervals in which I had serious family issues to deal with, I've been working on it in some fashion (writing, rendering, coding) almost every night. That's a very, very long slog, yet I still find myself getting "the guilts" if I take a night off.
Recently, however, I realized that I was hitting a bit of a wall. I managed to finish up the "b" path, but the "a" path was resisting being pulled out into the sunshine. I decided I needed a break. However, to just drop everything for a month or two didn't feel fair to you people who have been kind enough to subscribe. So, "Scenes That Didn't Happen" (STDH) is kind of the solution to that problem.
During the time I've been developing FF&S, I obviously had to make choices as to how some scenes would evolve, and also which scenes to include in the project and which to exclude. In the case of the latter, some of them were kind of outside the scope of the main story. In the case of the former, I had a particular story I wanted to tell, yet many of you were itching for things to progress in different directions than the ones I chose. (I won't enumerate the requests - you know what you've asked for.)
STDH is kind of my solution to all of the above.
- With STDH, I can write scenes or mini-stories that are in the "FF&S World," but which didn't fit into "FF&S proper" somehow. "How Melissa Met Tom" is an example, in that it tells something that happened before FF&S ever began. JohnCBB (my original partner) and I were trying to fit some of this "back story" in somehow, but never managed to pull it off. (If you go back to the beginning of FF&S, you'll see some of the hints that were dropped right from the start.)
- I can take a scene, or a part of the story line, and say "well, what if it had gone this way instead." (Hint: a way to deliver some of the "people baying at the moon for" content without blowing up the main story line as I've always envisioned it.)
- It's given my brain a bit of a rest from the "a" path, and helped me get over a severe case of "writer's block." Being able to "interact with my characters" without the constraints of the "story line so far" has helped a lot.
So, if you want, consider it "Fan Fiction in the FF&S World," except that it's being produced by the author, rather than fans.
Now, I know that there will be some of you who will be mortally offended that I'm spending any time on anything other than advancing the "a" path at this point. That's OK. There will be others of you who will "meh" some of the scenes that I choose to include, or to re-imagine, in STDH. That's OK too. If there's one thing that I've learned during the past almost-4-years, it's that you can't please everyone. However, what I will say is that I have in no way ignored all of those "oh, please, please have X do Y" comments that have been made here. I can't promise that I'll address all of them, but STDH will be giving me a vehicle (even after FF&S reaches its conclusion) to address some of those wants and wishes. I've already identified at least 8 different "STDH candidates." Some of those are kind of standalone, others are of the "well, if scene #1 went that way instead, then scene #2 might have gone this way." Still others are "just because I thought it would be fun to..." So, the first STDH, when it is released (no, I'm not giving you dates) will hardly be the last.
In the meantime, however, thank you again for your loyalty and your support. And, if you have an idea for a scene that didn't happen, please feel free to PM me."
Rich
