27 October 2009

A beginning, middle and an end

Hi all, Tom here.

I wanted to take a minute to fill you in on my philosophy on storytelling, and how this will shape Earth's Fall.

I don't believe in ongoing sagas and the never ending story. There's nothing wrong with this style of story telling, and if a writer and/or illustrator is happy doing the same thing for the rest of their life, so be it. I can not do this.

To that end, in the case of Earth's Fall at least, the storyline is already set.

It will be presented in three books. I have no idea how long each book will take to create, but it will be limited and subject to a specific story arch. In fact, on my computer right now is a document which contains the entire storyline spelled out in detail. This is my guide for what will be a multi-year story telling process.

This type of story has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, in a very sort span of years the crew who are putting this thing together will be out of work again. Of course that does free us up to follow other interests as well, this is a strength of the process.

I also look forward to never wondering "what comes next?" I have often been critical of The X-Files, probably because I loved the show so intensely for so long. But I also felt like the writers were kind of just making it up as they went along. That lack of direction, and pressure to go on forever, led to some awful TV, especially at the end of the series.

My hope is that when Earth's Fall wraps up the public will wish for more, not less, of the story.

An example I always look towards for good storytelling is Tolkien's Lord of the Ring series. He had the original trilogy, and then a bunch of appendices and prequels, which is great fun. But the specific story he set out to tell ended at a specific time and in a specific fashion. I have to imagine when Tolkien started writing, he knew exactly where all the characters would end up.

So if I have a point with this blog entry, it is to say: enjoy Earth's Fall for what it is, but get it quick, cause it wont last forever!

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