A Week in Writing #161

Sometimes I don't know where to start writing these posts. One week seems a lot like another and having some sort of witty opening has as much to do with inspiration as anything else. As with most weeks, the writing can be divided into three areas: Powers Squared, Trophy Unlocked, and Familiar Stranger. Unlike last week, some progress was made on all three.

The work on Powers Squared seems to come in waves. Our artist sent layouts and pencils for four pages this week, which is sort of an unofficial record. Every time we receive pages, it means that Paul and I have to find the time to sit down together and look at them. Typically, the process starts with layouts, which means we compare the pages against the script to see if the action matches what we expected. We then send our comments back to the artist, asking if he has any questions or comments.

When we get pencils, we look at the actual drawings to see if they match what we're looking for in more detail. Again another round of comments back to the artist. This week, we got two bites at the apple, with a second set of pencils based on our comments. The hope is that by the time we get inks, everything is ready to go to the colorist. It may sound easy, but it is time-consuming and time is at a premium.

Over last weekend and early in the week, I completed the review of Logan (2017), for Trophy Unlocked's Saturday Morning Review. That one was our 798th review. Also over the weekend, we published a Review Hub for Sly Cooper to celebrate the anniversary of that video game franchise launch. All six video games in the series are reviewed and not by me. I don't have the time to play video games. Again, time is at a premium for me.

Over the weekend, I started a review for X-Men (2000), a film we watched on Friday night. On Sunday, today, we went to see Kingman: The Golden Circle, so I reviewed it for the blog. That marks our 799th review, one away from our 800th, which will be published next Saturday morning. Again, even though I didn't write that review, I would hope everyone will be sure to check it out. I think it marks quite an accomplishment.

So, finally, on to Familiar Stranger, my oft-mentioned Private Detective mystery novel. I've been working on it for what seems like forever and of all the writing, it seems to get the shortest shrift. I was able to spend most of an evening getting back to it. I even found a long sequence that I had previously written for the end of the story, so I was able to add that knowing that it will need to be included in this extra long rewrite. At its current length, about 85,000 words, it’s still a little short, but I’m still over 100 pages from the ending, so we’ll see.

Hopefully, next week will be like this one and I'll be able to report back on further progress on all three fronts.