The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Volume 5, Issue 1 - Wednesday, January 1st, 2020

Howdy, patrons!

You might have noticed that I didn't actually post any "Crushing The Competition" episodes in December; sorry about that. I won't make excuses for why, but I did want to spend the first newsletter of the New Year explaining why and talking about the near-future of the Jackalope Serial Company.

"Crushing The Competition" -- like most of the serials I had planned on posting here -- was meant to be a story that flew by the seat of its pants. Basically, I take a few characters, put them in an interesting world or situation, and write what happens! I liked that idea because it meant less planning; the biggest challenge would be making sure I had a post ready to go once a week. Over time, though, I came to realize how difficult and unsatisfying that was. My main character didn't have a strong personality to carry him through the plot, and while the world-building was pretty neat I don't think there was a sense of stakes or momentum to keep things moving along. After a while, it got more and more difficult to figure out what the hell I was doing. As things sputtered through the fall and winter, I had to take a step back to figure out how I could salvage this situation.

Enter "Save The Cat!". A close writerly friend of mine (DissidentLove, who has a wonderful Patreon here if you're so inclined) mentioned that a "novelist's" version of the outlining scheme had come out, so I picked up a copy to read. Of course I learned an awful lot about how to structure a story according to pre-determined beats, but most interestingly I learned that "Crushing The Competition" had already BEEN following those beats -- at least, rather poorly. Because I didn't have the foundation for the story laid ahead of time, Ralph was moving through those beats without the impact they should have. According to the beat sheet, I was already halfway through "Crushing The Competition", with the Quarterly Mixer timed right for the Midpoint in the plot. 

The question became what to do about the story. Should I continue forward with the back half of the story while doing my best to fix the mistakes I made in the first part? Should I go back and edit the first half of the story with my newfound knowledge, suspend progress on the serial until I've caught up with the editing, and continue once I've finished a revised draft of 25 episodes? Or should I start over again, using the opportunity to punch up the action and make the story tighter? 

I decided on the last option, so "Crushing The Competition" will be starting over again this week. I'm using everything I've learned so far in "Save The Cat Writes a Novel!" to (hopefully) make it a lot more enjoyable. There's a much clearer sense of who Ralph is and what he's working through, and that should make him more charismatic, engaging, and active. Now that Ralph is a bit more firmly anchored, the world-building and action centers more around his story so the details are more relevant and interesting. And best of all, I've modeled the Beat Sheet to the story so I know what I'm writing towards! The major turning points of the story are all figured out, and I've timed them to specific episodes. If the outline holds (and it likely won't), then "Crushing The Competition" is designed to be a 50-episode story. If I keep up my publishing schedule, it'll be complete sometime in December 2020. 

Given my track record I understand how this might come across as a pretty long shot to accomplish. But molding Ralph's exploits to the Beat Sheet has proven to be an exciting enough experience that I'm jazzed to get going again. Characters are fun to write because of their roles within the story, and using Ralph as a 'north star' to guide my perspective opens up a whole world of options for his relationships. It's quite cool! There are a lot of specifics up in the air right now, mostly because I wanted to give myself enough space to discover things as I go. But the "Save The Cat!" framework actually allows me enough structure to feel comfortable with 'discovering' the details. 

The goal for 2020 is to have "Crushing The Competition" done by the end of the year, of course. If nothing else, I want to make sure I have 50 episodes up this year. I'm scheduling the episodes to be released on Friday evening this year, with newsletters coming on Monday. Once I feel a bit more confident with the release schedule, I'd like to use Wednesdays for 'extra' content meant for folks kicking in at higher levels. New episodes of "Crushing The Competition" will be available two weeks after release on Patreon; the extra content will be publicly available one month after release on Patreon.

And just what is that extra content? Later on, I'll be posting episodes of "Boundaries" for all of you lovely people giving at $5 per post or more. For now, I'd like to have regular updates on pre-writing for either "Crushing The Competition" or "Boundaries"; short stories meant to give a lift to certain friends; and perhaps a few surprises. The hope is that the extra stories will come at least twice a month. 

So that's the idea for 2020! As always, I can't thank all of you enough for your continued support and patience while I figure out how to be an actual productive writer. 

-Jakebe