The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Volume 3, Issue 14 - Wednesday, July 18th, 2018

Howdy, patrons!

Thanks to all of you for voting during the 2018 Pilot Season! I'd be curious to know what you guys thought of the rollout and how I can make it better and/or more exciting for next year. I think I'll hold off until August/September for 2019 and let ideas marinate and mature. Many of the concepts I had this year were ones I had been sitting on for a little while, but hadn't really developed. So the pilots were more experimental -- which is fine, because this is mostly serialized porn, right? 

I have to admit I was surprised that people responded to "Aftershocks" so strongly; "Crushing The Competition" just barely edged it out! "Dungeon Monsters" also got a lot of love, so I'll noodle around with both of them to see what I can do with the concepts. Who knows, maybe a retooled version of these will pop up next year! I'm a little bummed that "Big Sky" got 0 votes, but I think I get it -- it was the weakest of the pilots overall (especially since I never mentioned Bernard's species) and I know there's a stronger way to put across the premise. That'll need a little while to percolate until I'm ready to try it out again.

"Crushing The Competition" is the concept that one, though, so it'll be the weekly serial for the rest of 2018 and a good chunk of 2019! I'm really happy to continue working on this one; I've been itching to really dig into this idea for ages, and I think it'll be a fun world to build and populate with characters who are complex and (hopefully) interesting in distinctive ways. I have a solid outline for the first dozen or so chapters and a few ideas on where to go with it next, but everything's loose enough that there's plenty of room for surprises.

I'm trying not to worry about how everything works too much; mostly I want to make sure characters are well-drawn and pop from the page, because everything in a story comes down to the people who fill it and how they relate to one another. I think as long as I keep my focus on the people and their motivation, actions, and reactions, the rest should take care of itself. It's a tendency of mine to sweat the world mechanics or how the plot will move forward, and way too often I end up burning myself out with worry and stifling the characters because I need them to behave in a very specific manner for plot purposes.

So, anyway, with Ralph I want to make him this relatable dude who feels like he works hard and keeps his head down, but lacks some inexplicable X factor that keeps him from getting ahead. And while he's definitely resentful about it, he's not going to just check out because he cares too much about doing a good job. He's not the smartest, or the fastest, or the most charismatic -- he's the rest of us who just want recognition for at least showing up and doing the work. 

It's fun throwing someone like that -- someone I highly relate to -- into the deep end of the pool to watch them flail around. I think each of us has hidden depths and aptitudes that will surprise us if we're ever pushed to a point of sink-or-swim. Maybe that's one of the brilliant aspects of "Breaking Bad", and why so many people were ultimately always on Walt's side. We know that each of us contains this sleeping dragon that's waiting for just the right thing to wake it up.

I'm really interested to see what happens to Ralph and what people think of how he handles things. I'm also really excited to show this world that's been slowly shaping up in the back of my brain for a while. It'll be really cool to discover all of this together!

This week's episode might be a *bit* late; as usual I'm running behind and there are a few really pressing things that I need to put to bed. But it'll be up as soon as it can!

Until next time, partners!

-Jakebe