Well, that was some long weekend. I was hoping to take advantage of that little window to work hard on my thesis project, and I’m happy to announce that I did. Though, the word ‘hard’ would be up for debate. A lot of interesting developments have occurred. For one thing, the ending to my story has now changed. I have completely revised the final “act”, and shortened its length tremendously. I came to the realization that the ending I had in mind would require an entire new act to reach, which was actually my original plan; creating a 4-act story as an attempt to break the norm of 3-act story structure. It looks like I’m back to following the traditional route though. One of the major reasoning behind it, and an obvious one, was the time limitation. I should probably use the term ‘limitation’ loosely here, as I am the one who limits the time at hand. Perhaps I could’ve had the time needed if I managed it better, but then again, as one of the themes within the story, it was perhaps “not meant to be”. The character arcs are still intact. They still reach the points I had intended, it’s the road getting there that has changed. The biggest sacrifice in the story was unfortunately the villains. They’re sadly no longer fleshed out, instead they serve as symbols that represents the worst side of each main character. The story is now ends at Chapter 32. Depending on how I continue to revise it, I may have to add one or two more chapters to it. Including the three additional interlude chapters, the total amount will probably end up around 36 or 37 chapters. Can I push it to 40? If it serves the story, then why not? We’ll see.
In terms of its presentation, the Flipbook idea is unfortunately out of the window. Every single “free” application that I’ve managed to find is simply a trial version that requires me to register, otherwise (an annoying) watermark is placed on the file. It may not necessarily be a big deal for the final submission, but for some reason, it still bothers me. It seems like the digital distribution field has become extremely competitive among companies and they all try to take a piece of the pie, so to speak. The entire process feels like making a deal with a real publisher in real life. Once to register and use their application, then the distribution “rights” belongs to them. I don’t feel like I’m just there yet. I’ll be looking into another method that I had thought of, that is the digital comic book reader (CBR). It’s a much easier application to work with. The downside is the limitation of customization. I do not know if it is possible to view GIF files on them, but if it is, then it’d be a perfect way to present the story in a digital form. Not that I’m planing on creating animations, no time for that obviously, but as a means to create subtle effects on pages to enhance the viewing experience. That is something that I need to do research on more.
Speaking of research… No, I have not done much for the Lit Review. I was completely focused on writing the story. I really think it paid off as I believe that I should be done with it by the end of this upcoming weekend. Then I can dedicate myself to writing the Lit Review, and putting everything together for the final submission the following week. Yes, we’ve only got two full weeks before it’s due. Am I feeling anxiety? Not anymore, I’m happy to say. I now have a clear-cut road map to follow to reach “the end”: This week’s objective is finishing up the rest of my story; the next week is going to be reserved for final Lit Review; and the final week is going to involve putting everything into a neat “package” to hand it off. I also do not expect any surprising obstacles… hopefully. Should I cross my fingers just in case? Then again, it could jinx my luck, so… never mind. I’ll probably be writing one final blog post to reflect on how this particular process has been like, but until then… I wish the best of luck to my peers.