Well, I just finished another part of Project SG a couple of minutes ago. The ending got a little sticky there, but I think that was me this morning, not the ending. If that makes sense. You'll be glad to know, it involves masking....
The best moments in writing are really when you reach beyond yourself and tap into the elemental process that makes writing happen. Some people have called it magic, and I actually believe that's close to the truth. It's very personal, but it's also very real... it's what makes writing worthwhile. I got to one of those moments this morning, unexpectedly. Sometimes you have to just keep going even when you think what you're writing is terrible, because sometimes 'it' just happens, and you'll find you're writing better than you thought you could.
Enough of the philosophy though. Another part - or Issue - is done, and I think I'm overdue to talk about this bad boy. Or girl.
As I've said those of you with long memories* may recall I originally released two 'issues' of The New Adventures of Spider-Girl. Issue #2 ended up on a huge cliffhanger which I realised when I was writing, I really had no 'out' for, but like an idiot I wrote it anyway.
I think sometime after that I may have said in some forum or other that I was stuck on where to take the story, and Steve Zink - whose work, and particularly his level of output, I really admire - took the story and ran with it, producing an 'unofficial' Issue #3 which fairly neatly resolved things.
While it was great to see someone do something with my aborted plotline, and fairly flattering as well, Steve's story choices weren't the same as I would have made. That didn't make them any less valid, they just weren't my choices, and I always wondered where I'd have taken the plot next... if only I could write my way out of that cliffhanger.
It literally took me a few years to resolve, but then one day it hit me. With one simple idea linked to an original Spider-Man issue ("Didn't Spidey visit the FF in like, issue #1 of Amazing Spider-Man?") not only did I have the cliffhanger resolved, I had a resolution that gave me a massive springboard for future plots. On a long plane ride somewhere (as I vaguely recall) I started plotting Spider-Girl's future, and before too long I had the cliffhanger resolution and something like 20 issues worth of material, packed full of delicious identity-changing, disguise and masking focused goodness.
I even started writing the fabled (to me) Issue #3 right there on the plane - on a Palm IIIx no less - but then it all fizzled out again. Probably because I landed somewhere.
Which brings us pretty much back up to date. Next time - because a shower, shit and a shave beckons me before work - I'll talk a bit more about how I got stuck in another bloody 'plothole' at the end of my Issue #3, and how I finally got out of that. In the meantime, feel free to read my original two Issues and Steve Zink's 'alternate' Issue #3 right over here.
Enjoy. There's more where that came from.
* Don't blame yourself if you're thinking "I don't even remember and I feel like I've been reading this stuff for ages..." I'm not even sure myself but it looks like Issue #1 and #2 were written sometime in 2000. You know, back when we all lived in the future.
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