So What Now?

I said some time ago that I’m on the fence about my projects. I went through a whole thing about renaming them and while I want to stand by that, I keep wondering what that means for my story development. I have a habit of restarting projects and I need to break it. Let’s talk it out.

I'm not going to go into the whole thing about this but I want to be transparent about why the name changes in the first place. The way these four stories are linked up, and their importance in the ultimate story I'm telling situates them in different eras. There are settings and styles I want to play with for a given story and these all fall into that. easily these four stories are linked up

With their settings I placed each onto a continuous timeline starting with an antecedent era, all the way through a future era. There are four given eras, and each title occurs within one. Their names are meant to reflect that given era as a theme of the story. Further, each title is unique with no two stories starting with the same letter of the alphabet. I'm fact, I divided the alphabet into groups across the same timeline and chose a letter from each group to be the first letter of each title. This was done to make sure each story was completely unique from another even if there was a through line trying them all together.

I think my naming restrictions were more successful for some titles than others. For example, Highdark is now what was once Hedge Kingdom. It was clearly so perfect as to fall nearly into its era and letter group; I actually could have kept its original name (as I did the original script I wrote) and been on my way. So why did I change it? That is the question I'm asking myself.

Black Crown is interesting because I wanted a story that had the word “Black” in the name. So what happened to Blackbirds? It's not in the antecedent era of the timeline, so it needs a different name, whereas Black Mercury was. So why change Black Mercury to Black Crown? Another very reasonable question.

Blackbirds underwent a pretty controversial change for me. I didn't want to change its name at all (and still don’t), but if I was going to obey my naming rule, it had to be. So where did Nightingales come from? As a modern-era story, I wanted it to touch on the history of the characters and deal more with the idea of lineage and ancestry. The title itself is about that, in a way that will make more sense as you get to know the characters. However, that doesn't mean this is the strongest title I have. I've been floating another that makes more sense to the characters throughout their world’s timeline and establishes their place better and stronger. It may change again. Also, Nightingales, even being significant to these characters and their world, feels like such a common name for a fantasy story. It doesn't quite hit the way I want it to. It also doesn't address other elements in the story I need it to.

Finally, what was once Dragoon became War Saints. This is probably the one title change I actually like all around! It's in the right era section and still speaks to the themes of the story and their characterizations in a way that makes me feel good about their story. It's strong, albeit heavy-handed, but that was the intention. Even its story rewrite feels more interesting.

Okay, so with all that, I can see a second name change coming. Highdark may revert back to Hedge Kingdom, and Nightingales may move on to become something else. Black Crown may actually remain the way it is because of its internal themes, but War Saints is perfect. But now, what happens in each story?

I started talking about restarting stories, and that turned into anxiety around naming them, but the names are a pretty big part of the stories being told. With a rename also came a redraft of their stories. For this part, I outlined each title as a 30-chapter graphic novel and split all that up into five-chapter arcs. Each arc has a driving theme that contributes to the whole, and each issue of that arc picks up a thing happening in that arc as its plot. Each book is broken down into six scenes of four pages each, and each scene is just a small part of that bigger plot. Outlining like this was a much more efficient way of plotting out the titles that kept me engaged and allowed me to look at the bigger picture of their connections to each other.

Originally, each title was a self-contained train of thought script. In my original conception for each, I didn't know what would happen next, and while that was exciting, it also meant I couldn't shape the stories properly. I may want to do that for some short, standalone one-shot, but for these four, I needed some guard rails in the same way they were named.

So, with my outlines laid out, I set about the work of contextualizing and reconnecting what I had already written and my starting point for each story within the planned first arc and letting that drive the overall plot. Those things happened and were in my original plan, and I wanted to know them, even if they looked different.

Except for Black Mercury. That story was going nowhere fast because it had no foundation. I think that may have been where I started the outline process entirely and when I started questioning everything I already had. Even when I started, the only story that had anything approaching a plot was Blackbirds, and that's because I let my brain play with that one the longest. Even then, my thoughts were more about how many issues I wanted to allot to its full tale, and that was when I was thinking in terms of issue releases.

I made it clear a few weeks ago on social media that the story for Highdark was perfect the way it was and won't get redone. It really was doing what I wanted it to do and didn't need to be touched. But then came the thought, “Well if it's perfect, why not just repost the pages that were already done and move from there?” As I warmed to the idea, I looked at the others, again.

By now, it should be clear that all four stories are so connected that what I do to one has to be done to another, or there should be very strong justifications for why not (such as their names). Sure, I can repost the art for Highdark, which was once Hedge Kingdom that may be Hedge Kingdom again. I can do the same for Nightingales, which was once Blackbirds, which may be something new by the time of publishing. That first issue was complete anyway, and I was well into the second issue this year when I felt I had to change my process. But did I have the same confidence in Black Crown that was once Black Mercury? Or Wat Saints that was once Dragoon?

I redrafted what I could to give myself a fresh start. I wanted to make use of my outlines and reimagine the worlds I created. So I looked at what I had, redesigned their stories, and now I'm looking at my page drafts in Clip, thinking about their new layouts and the new art I'll make. But again, what about Highdark? Will that be new art for an old story? Should it be? If not, why not redraft it as well? And if Highdark is going to get that treatment, then Nightingales should, too! Its whole first issue is done.

No, I want a new life for Nightingales, especially with its title changing again. Also, the story has a stronger direction, and new art is needed. This means that Highdark, which may be Hedge Kingdom again, should also get a new story and new art. Everything is. Right?

And that's where I am and why it's taking so long for me to share any new art. I think I need to just make a forward-moving decision for the sake of these stories, regardless of how or when they'll be published. Make a decision and be satisfied! Especially because I have an actual graphic novel project in the works that has been halted because of these four.

Anyway, thanks for letting me talk through this.