Space Camp Outline Progress (💪 ACCOUNTABILITY 💪) (Patreon)

Ha-HAH! 

Remember two weeks ago I was all "oh nooooo, I haven't started working on my book outline yet, bloo bloo bloo" and then I was like "Two weeks from now, Friday, Dec. 2, I will post my outline here, to you. It may be super rough, it may not be in good enough shape to show my agent, but, by god, I'll put together something and I'm gunna be accountable to you."?

Literally yesterday I actually opened up the document for the first time and actually started chipping away at it, like a goddamn hero. 

Mind you, I wasn't starting from scratch. In an effort to help get me over my self-imposed wall, a month or so ago Matt had sat down and written up his own outline for me to use as a jumping-off point. So really I was... fiddling with a pre-written outline. BUT IT WAS STILL WORK. Creative work. An honest day's work.

Ok, so the issue is that Space Camp, as it currently exists, just... starts at the crisis point. It's just all "I'm going to check in with my psych about my meds! OH NO, she told me to go to IOP! WAH!!!" Who are these people? Why should we, The Readers, care? I don't establish who the characters are or what the context is or, or, or anything to set up the beginning of this story. 

Which is where The Outline comes in.

Rather than writing and drawing up a whole fresh chapter to fill in that gap, my agent* advised me to address this in The Outline. Then, when a potential publisher is reading through it and the rough pages I've already completed, they'll get a better idea of what the future finished product will look like. Like when George Lucas was making the first Star Wars and for the fight scenes (that he hadn't made yet) he'd just splice in existing footage of planes fighting from WWII movies. It plugs the gaps, tells the reader what's going to go in these spots, and continues on to the rest of the story that already does exist. 

*Lucy Bellwood introduced me to the practice of referring to one's agent as if the title is their forename, like a spy. Agent [Name]. I am represented by Agent Monika and one of these days I'm going to slip up and call her that to her face and I'm sure she will take it in stride because she is a consummate professional. 

ALL THAT TO SAY:

Here is the new opening to Space Camp, which begins immediately before the I'll Be Home For Dinner chapter.

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A New Home

• The story starts with a joyous moment.
• Erika and her husband put the key through the door to their new home. Young and excited, they run through all the empty rooms, rolled on the floors, laughed, and put up a framed picture they’d brought over.
• As the chapter ends, we’re given a view of their new garden. Perfect landscaped, filled with potential.
• This chapter sets up an important story device; the garden, and gives us an entryway into seeing Erika's life before her moment of crisis.

“I can’t believe it. This is all ours. We bought a whole freakin’ house through our comics!”
“I know, right? We’re doing good work and it’s paying off. Hey, I love you.”
“I love you, too.”

The Routine

• Erika shows us a day in her life. We watch a cartoonist go about her job.
• She takes her meds, makes breakfast, bikes to her studio, chats with her studiomates, works on comics, works on her computer [love signs popping up through screen], goes to a dance class after work, bikes home where she’s warmly greeted by Matt, finishing scene of the two together with their cat, all happy.

The Routine X2

• Repeat of previous scene’s day, but now Erika is exhausted and fraying around the edges, a stark contrast to the previous chapter's Erika. She’s still able to mask things in the right company. We see her try to joke and be fun with peers despite the wear and tear she obviously feels. Her computer screen is popping out mostly hearts, with a couple more negative emojis (frowny faces, a couple angry faces). The garden has been growing without tending, it’s looking bushy and unkempt. Heavier black inks are introduced subtly in the art, to show a dark heaviness seeping in around the edges.

The Routine X3

• Repeat of previous day’s scene, but heavy black inks dominate the page. Erika looks dead-eyed with deep bags under her eyes, posture stooped as she goes through the motions of her routine like a zombie. Her computer screen pops out a couple small hearts, the rest of the emoji symbols are negative (angry faces, skulls). The garden is completely overgrown, it looks like an abandoned plot. Black inks are used heavily and the characters around Erika are depicted without faces or color. The artwork feels menacing and oppressive.

I’ll Be Home For Dinner

• The day starts like the previous ones, but deviates when Erika has a friendly conversation with Matt about how she’s going to see her psychiatrist today because she doesn’t feel like her meds are keeping her depression at bay. Matt is encouraging.
• From the Dr.’s building, Erika calls Matt, asking him to pick her up. He can tell something is wrong but she doesn’t want to talk about it yet. After they get home she confesses she needs to get hospital-level mental health care and sobs.
• The chapter ends from the view of the overgrown, wild garden as sobbing is heard from inside the house.

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"Wonderful, Erika!" I can hear you thinking. "So... where is the rest? You've got a whole middle and final act to get into fighting shape for The Outline. Post it here so I can read it."

Oh. Well. ....That's as far as I got. 

But you know what? It's more progress than I've made in the last two months and I genuinely would not have even done that much if it weren't for you guys being my accountability point. I thank you today and I'm sure Agent Monika will thank you when I send her my completed The Outline someday in the future.