Spirit Blade 3 Outlining

Got some outlining done for SB3 while subbing this week. I've got a few more dots to connect, but I've figured out almost all of the plot threads and how they connect with each other. (Whew! Complicated work! This will be some TIGHT scripting, I think!) I've also made all of my decisions about who lives and who... doesn't.

It's hard to construct a Spirit Blade story with so much closure and finality to it because I'd love to keep telling stories about these characters for a long time. But I feel pretty strongly that the best place to leave it is with me, and hopefully all of you, wanting more and dreaming about all the untold stories, rather than getting tired of this world and these characters.

So with both love and regret, I'm finally preparing to tell the final story of this trilogy.

There is much goodness here, or possibly good muchness.

I know Paeter's received tons of feedback already, and I certainly have my own opinions, but I'm curious about what other people think about story points and stuff in Spirit Blade. What do we want to see again, what do we not want to see again?

No more please:
* fart jokes - seriously, Paeter?
* Paeter voicing the Devil - too tough to tell apart, bring back the Priestess
* cannibalism - urk.....

More of this please:
* songs using lyrics from hymns - I about broke to hear "nearer my God to thee" as part of Death Come Quickly
* narrated sound effects - "Guns guns guns!" "Arm cannon!"
* Sheidan assassins - frikkin AWESOME villain!

mindspike wrote:What do we want to see again, what do we not want to see again?

Good idea! Can't make anything CLOSE to a guarantee that this thread will influence my writing, but you never know!

I agree about Paeter voicing the devil.

I do like songs with lyrics from hymns...

And Merik must die

Okay, does Spiritblade 3 at any point contain a scene of about 20 seekers armed with electrified glaives, backs to a wall, making a stand against enemies coming through a portal from the future? Because that's what I had a dream about this weekend. Merikk was at the head of the formation, directing tactics in song, but the attack proved to be a feint, as the enemies knew they couldn't kill Merikk here and now. No, they just wanted to corner him and steal something from him (not clear on what this was), that would enable them to track and kill him in their own time. So Ebony had to chase after the bad guys before the portal closed behind them, because her You.2 enhanced athletics skills made her the only one who could keep up.

Oh, and also, the discs for SB3 were golden yellow, contrasting with the blue and red of the first two parts.

I think I'll be slightly freaked out if any of this is accurate...

I think I'll also refrain from having Mexican for dinner when I'm already short of REM sleep in the future... other dreams included visiting an apartment with two kitchens, half a dozen fireplaces, and no left-hand wall in any of the rooms, and participating in (and sucking at) the real-life equivalent of a platform-jumping game.

LOL
was the platforming game enhanced with 8 bit music?

Rohelf wrote:Okay, does Spiritblade 3 at any point contain a scene of about 20 seekers armed with electrified glaives, backs to a wall, making a stand against enemies coming through a portal from the future?

It does now!

No, no beepy 8-bit music, more's the pity, just me constantly falling to the pavement (painful, but sans injury, not even scrapes), swearing, and recommencing the platform-hopping.

Those electric glaives did look like pretty neat weapons...

[quote="mindspike"]* songs using lyrics from hymns - I about broke to hear "nearer my God to thee" as part of Death Come Quickly
[quote]

I finaly got to listen to Dark Ritual and I have to I think Death Come Quickly is my favorite song of the story.

Paeter
Will Spirit Blade 3 have any end time events in it?

[quote="Rickster"][quote="mindspike"]* songs using lyrics from hymns - I about broke to hear "nearer my God to thee" as part of Death Come Quickly

I finaly got to listen to Dark Ritual and I have to I think Death Come Quickly is my favorite song of the story.

Paeter
Will Spirit Blade 3 have any end time events in it?

Hmm. I'm pretty closed-mouth about SB3 at this point, but this is one I can actually answer. And the answer is a definitive "no". One of the things I decided early on is that this trilogy would be a futuristic story that would have no connection to the end times, since Christian future fiction seems to limit itself to that device far too often.

So it is assumed that the events leading up to and involving the end times take place after the Spirit Blade Trilogy.

Or you could go all Ted Dekker Circle Trilogy on us and say that this is after the End Times, but before, but after...

Ted can write some very confusing stories

Paeter wrote:.......It's hard to construct a Spirit Blade story with so much closure and finality to it........

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Don't do it! Everytime I hear you say your writing the ending on the podcast I yell at you!! (Figured I'd write it this time!) Resist the conformity of doing a trilogy and make it a pentalogy or something cool!!

Come on man, don't kill a good thing! You've left me wanting more and more! Continue it and expand it, don't leave me without anything!

Unless your doing the new thing and gonna go back and to a prequel-trilogy too!!

Or you could go Douglas Adams and just say it's a trilogy in five parts...

CreatorsPixels wrote:

Paeter wrote:.......It's hard to construct a Spirit Blade story with so much closure and finality to it........

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Don't do it! Everytime I hear you say your writing the ending on the podcast I yell at you!! (Figured I'd write it this time!) Resist the conformity of doing a trilogy and make it a pentalogy or something cool!!

Come on man, don't kill a good thing! You've left me wanting more and more! Continue it and expand it, don't leave me without anything!

Unless your doing the new thing and gonna go back and to a prequel-trilogy too!!

LOL! This whole post put a big smile on my face. I'm SO glad you're enjoying the world and characters of Spirit Blade.

Here's what I'll say about the trilogy and the future. The trilogy will be the end of the story of this ensemble of characters. Moving the characters and status quo forward in the significant ways I want to (to avoid repetition) and addressing the plot points I've set up naturally leads it to a conclusion.

I'm also not at all confident I can keep up the pace of writing songs to go with these stories. I still love the "experiment" of using music to tell these stories, but I doubt I'll ever do it to this degree again after this trilogy is done. The songs alone also add at least 6 months to production time.

As for the future, I'm not opposed to returning to this world and any characters that may survive Spirit Blade 3, in either audio drama form or another medium. Ideas have already sprung to mind. But ideas do not equal plans. It just depends on what I'm creatively inspired to do down the road and whether or not I think it will best serve the vision God's given me for this company.

So thanks for the support and don't give up hope! Who knows what the future will bring!

you can also do a prequel something like Spirit Blade: Rise of the Sheida

Rickster wrote:you can also do a prequel something like Spirit Blade: Rise of the Sheida

Both a prequel and a sequel have been ideas that have danced in my head. No real substance of any kind has developed yet. I think first I'll need to complete "Pilgrim's Progress" and also "Absolute Power" before I consider coming back to this world. But we'll see!