At long bloody last

Just wrote the last few words for issue #12 of BBTSSG, as you might want to call it. FI-NA-LLY.

I tell you, this issue has been an absolute bitch to finish. Even though from the looks of things it ‘just’ took me a month or so to write, it felt waaaay longer to me. The whole thing seemed to move along in fits and starts, and I mean literally – some nights I’d sit for two hours and write two paragraphs. First I didn’t feel like the issue had enough, well, eroticism in it. Then, after I figured that out, I realised I had to go back and rewrite something in issue #11 that changed quite a few things in issue #12. Gaaawwwwwdddd! With all that crap in my head it’s a miracle I can come up with new ideas.

Oy. So where does this leave me?

Well first of all, my early plans to keep at least a ‘clear arc’ between whatever I’m currently writing, and whatever I’m currently releasing, are shot to hell.

That’s because right now, there’s no bloody way I can dive into issue #13 and beyond – which starts the next big arc, codenamed ‘Crossover‘. (The way I was previously planning, I’d finish ‘Crossover’ before I’d even release the arc I just finished, which covers issues #9-12.) I can’t do that though. For one thing, I have no idea where ‘Crossover’ is going, precisely. It’s like I can see the target but I need to hit the bullseye. I need to re-plot the whole thing, figure out what the high points are, and hopefully get a handle on how many issues it might end up being. (Because one thing I am going to keep doing is completing arcs before I release them. If – God forbid – I give up on the series entirely, I don’t want to do it in the middle of a half-released arc. I’m not that cruel….)

More importantly, right now, I’m just plain tired of writing this series. Issue #12 took a lot out of me – this arc as a whole, in fact. I still love the characters, love where they’re going, but it’s starting to feel a little same-y. The plot of ‘Crossover’ should freshen things up a bit, but I need a break, to let me recharge the batteries, get enthused for it again… so that it feels fresh when I write it.

So what about that break. Well, I have a couple of other things on the go. I have an old, half-completed story (called ‘Love Hotel‘) which I dusted off recently and might well try and complete; it’s maybe a third, perhaps half-finished, and after some intensive plotting sessions with a fellow author recently I know what I need to do to finish it off. It’s a ’straight’ (ie, no superheroes!), one-off story too… and pretty damn hardcore. So it’d be a real change of pace for me right now.

Second, I do have that Susan Storm mini-series idea… but I’d need to knuckle down and plot that a bit more carefully. I also now know, having finished issue #12, that I’d probably have to write issue #13 before I can get to it. That’s because…

… issue #12 ended up being looooong. For the record, it’s the biggest issue to date; over 12,000 words in total. Partially that’s because I added all that ‘extra sauce‘ to it (Yeah, ’slight twist’, my ass), and partially it’s because there was a lot of plot to get in. And there was actually even more to fit into it in the original synopsis. So that stuff, which is an essential bridge to the Susan Storm mini, will now have to go in issue #13. Which as I write this, I’m starting to think might have to be a standalone issue. Followed by the mini. Oh God, I’m rambling like a maniac.

Alright, one more thing and out. The nice coda to all this is my word count. Issue #12 takes me to over 100,000 words written for the series so far; that’s the size of a decent novel. Pretty cool.

Now click an ad and get outta here. Issue #9 will be out before the week’s over. Promise.

The final arc…?

I think I just got down, in extremely rough, stream-of-consciousness form, the details of what will probably be the very final arc of Spider-Girl. The idea just popped into my head, and before I knew it, I had the whole thing down.

It has the word ‘death’ in the (provisional) title….

Don’t worry, it’s a really long time away – I’d guess, maybe something beyond issue #40 (50 would be a nice round number to finish on, wouldn’t it? I can dream!).

By the way, I’ve always had a post-series future planned, too. So even the ‘end’ wouldn’t be the end. But if I can do it right… boy, it’ll be one hell of a finale.

A sneak preview of some story arcs

I told myself I’d talk about arcs. Not the curved things. Story arcs. In other words, connected stories within a larger piece of serialised fiction.

As you might be able to tell I’m really getting into the serialised fiction thing with Spider-Girl (or, BBtSSG if you want to go acronym crazy). I just love plotting out long-term, crazy stuff, especially for a character like Betty. It started years ago just after I had my “Eureka!” moment – the one that got me out of the dead-end of Issue #2 (see below for more details). With that block gone, suddenly I wanted to figure out where I could go next.

Before too long I’d sketched out ideas for a whole run on Spider-Girl, from Issue #3 to Issue #21 and beyond. So I thought it’d be fun to give you a sneak preview of what’s coming up in the future, as well as talking about what’s happened so far.

Just so you know, I highly doubt that these arcs will remain in place exactly as is – so far I’ve found that if anything, I underestimate how long they’ll take to tell, and that the characters have a way of derailing the plot. Pretty much spoiler free, but if you don’t want to know anything at all, don’t read on.

The first arc – The Chameleon Strikes – you’ve already read. This took place in the initial first two issues, featuring the Chameleon. In the original run of Amazing Spider-Man, the Chameleon was a one-issue villain (and didn’t even fill the whole issue!), appearing as he did in ASM #1. Naturally, him being a master of disguise meant he figured somewhat prominently in my early planning for Spider-Girl. In fact, while I can’t remember the details, I think the basic idea of Spider-Girl using the Chameleon’s own disguises was pretty much the genesis for the entire series.

The second arc – The Chameleon’s Fate – features The Fantastic Four, and the end of the Chameleon (or is it?), in issues #3 and #4. It also introduces Susan Storm to Betty’s life.

The FF were part of my great plotting revelation, and helped me get out of my own dead end. As the original idea of Spider-Girl was sort of based around Amazing Spider-Man #1, that’s where the impetus came from; I remembered that the other story in ASM #1 featured the FF, and suddenly realised “Hey, instead of killing the Chameleon… why doesn’t Betty just exile him to somewhere she’ll never see him again??”

As I thought it was a stretch to have Peter invent a dimensional portal, in comes Reed Richards. What’s nice is, the opening of Issue #3 is very similar to ASM #1, but the reason Spider-Girl goes to the FF is very different from Spider-Man’s (he tries to get a job!).

Where things seriously diverge from Spider-Man’s universe is when Susan Storm enters the picture. I never really expected that Susan would come to life the way she did. As I wrote about her, I realised her personality was very similar to Betty’s, only inverted. Where Betty craved to be seen and be a glamourous superheroine, Susan sometimes wished for privacy and a life away from the public eye. That led naturally in the writing to the scenes at the end of Issue #3… something I never expected to happen. But I’m very glad it did….

The third arc is actually now complete, too, but I can’t name without spoiling the villain. It runs for four issues, from #5 to #8, although originally I plotted it to be three. Just to tease you on the plot: it’s the debut of a very well known villain from Spider-Man lore, although with a few new twists. A familiar face from an earlier issue makes a return. Spider-Girl commits a crime. And Susan shows up again.

The fourth arc I can give a codename to… ‘Brother‘! This arc was originally going to see the introduction of The Enforcers. This was what I plotted literally years ago, but to be honest I was never 100 percent happy with it. The Enforcers are kind of lame, the plot didn’t really fall right, and it just didn’t ‘pop’.

However, the way the third arc wrapped up gave me a whole new jumping off point, and some more research into early Spider-Man stories gave me a different villain to play with. Someone much more interesting to write. Therefore, out go The Enforcers, in comes… someone else.

This is up next for me to write – I literally finished plotting it this morning, and I really like how it’s turned out. It very neatly parallels two original Spider-Man stories while adding the ‘unique elements’ you’ve come to expect. It’s plotted to be four issues, but it might end up as three.

The fifth arc we’ll codename ‘Crossover’. Unlike the previous arcs, this one is pretty much standalone and can work at any point. It’s almost like a crossover event for Spider-Girl, and while it starts off coming from the existing plotlines, it then goes a whole different way.

I’m really, really looking forward to this. It doesn’t parallel any existing Spider-Man stories, so it’s a blank canvas, plot-wise. It looks like it should start in Issue #13, and I’m glad it’s happening in ‘Year Two’. By this point the characters are established, we know how the universe works (kind of) and you know what to expect. Which is exactly when I need to throw you guys a complete curveball.

This arc started life as a kinky idea that led to a very specific, very vivid fantasy… one that was so vivid I ending up writing it down as prose, with no setup, no ending – just one scene. The idea was so damn delicious that I just called the file ‘Spider-Girl future’ and left sitting on my hard disk.

In that famed mammoth plotting session mentioned above, the one idea expanded into a much larger story, and then into a massive epic. That initial scene will end up in the first issue of a huge arc that currently should run for nine issues (potentially #13 to #21) but I might find it runs shorter, or longer. I am very excited about writing this – it introduces a whole raft of new, but well-known characters – but I have a strong feeling that what I have plotted will not end up being what I write. We’ll see. That’s the fun part.

The sixth arc is all I have plotted up to right now, although I have plenty of ideas for beyond this – some of those ideas suggested by you folk in the past few days!

This arc should take Betty places she’s never been before, emotionally. Plotting this was when I started to realise I could really do anything I want; I could play with the Marvel Universe in interesting ways, and start echoing classic Spidey stories without repeating them. I even pay homage with the title of the arc… but it’s a huge spoiler, so it has to stay secret for now. No idea how many issues this’ll be, but it’ll probably be shorter after the marathon that’ll be before it.

I realise now, typing all this, that I’m really tempting fate here. After all, I wrote two issues of Spider-Girl seven years ago and then never went further than that (although now I’m smart enough to see a dead-end story when I write one). Still, it’s very possible that the spark will die, the bloom will go off the rose, or other similar metaphors… and that I’ll crash and burn before I ever get to the later stages. I guess part of the reason for writing this post is that someone can refer to it later if I slack off.

If I do make it though… if I do… it’ll be really something for me. I’m only just done with Issue #8, and I’m well past 50,000 words. So at the current going rate for issues I’ll be closing in on 200,000 words when I get to the sixth arc. And that’s one big pile of ‘comics’.

Let’s see how we do, eh?