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maxsmeagol
maxsmeagol

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Glances

Two weeks into December, but I still couldn't deliver anything yet.

Don't worry, a short filler coming up in the next few days, while I'm trying to finish the script on Barbados.

What?

It's true. I haven't finished the whole script of Barbados. Sounds really bad, but lets just discuss about it.

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Over these past few years, the story of Leann Cassidy had evolve into something big. It's something that I aspired from the beginning, so witnessing her and everybody around her grew, is very rewarding.

However, there are also increased difficulties on keeping the story arch in line.

From the start, I always wanted something with believable backstory and plots. Occasionally, I threw a meet-and-fuck set once in a while, but in essence, Cassidy Chronicles is a living script. It evolves on each release and the complexity grows over time.

But then again, I - and I'm sure most of you, wanted some balance between all the dramas and the erotics. I completely get it. But honestly, this is the exact spot, where it's getting harder, and harder.

For example, I could just throw regular sets about Leann fucking Jerome in various places. It would be nice - but at the same time, hollow. There's no story about that, except just visuals.

While I believe some of you guys don't mind about it, I'm still not sure if I should take this path more often in the future. How much do you want, especially when we talk about balance? 70 - 30 for the erotics? 60 - 40? 50 - 50?

Do you expect to see someone fucking on each release? Or you are more interested on a make-sense plots and build-up, before it happens? Or any will do, as long as you can see Leann nekkid?

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I've been preparing Barbados sets to be a trilogy. Something huge is going to happen at this place, and I need the precise details balanced with the erotic visuals.

But I'm still having deadlock on some of the plots, and I'm ironing things out to make it working.

You can say the lack of story-boarding experiences is my biggest handicap right now, but I tried to learn on every release. You can still even comparing my old works to the latest, and see how much I've changed the flow on things.

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Above is Anthony and Isabel. They are part of few characters I've worked on the side in the past couple of months, and now ready to roll.

But still, I'm undecided if I should mix them in-between our current sets, create another story apart from the Cassidy Chronicles and inter-connect with it later on, or maybe a new story altogether.

Along with Vaera, and looooong-awaited-but-never-materialized Ava Mason, they'll have to wait the final decision after Barbados finished.

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Lastly, I would like to say thank you, for all of your support to this day. Let me know what you think on the comments.

Glances

Comments

Yep, preparing holiday coupons for this. Will be up in few hours.

Max Smeagol

Hi Max. Merry Xmas. Would you mind sharing your old stuff on patreon?

Gu Bu

Perfectly understood. Thanks! :D

Max Smeagol

I think I've said before, I love the way you focus on the story and the characters, as well as making every shot count. I'm no expert on panel placement of comics, but from my amateur perspective your skill has very much improved. All these things make your comics really stand out from the crowd, so I think you're definitely headed in the right direction. I don't even need a short filler, if it doesn't tie in with anything else. It'll be nice, but I'd be happy to wait for more plot. Unless you just need to write a different story for your own sake; that's fine too, sometimes you need to let those new stories out so you can clear your mind for the previous ones you're stuck on. I don't really keep statistics on how large a percentage ratio of story to sex I find optimal ;) 75-25 sounds good, at a guess, but it's just a hunch. Besides, sometimes the story evolves during the act, so it's hard to draw a precise boundary. I would say, build-up and tension is essential; denoeument is important, too; and I don't care for panels with nothing but poses and no text. I think it's absolutely fine to have a whole set without sex, if the story warrants it and it will build up the tension. It is helpful to know that there's a plan, it's part of the anticipation. For instance, now you've told us that Barbados is a trilogy, I think it would be totally OK not to have any action in part 1 if the story doesn't call for it. Conversely, it would be detrimental if you had to twist the story so as to add in sex scenes where they make no sense. It would be OK in any case, but knowing that it's part of a design makes it not just easier to accept but even better, so it's great to have updates like this :) One small caveat: I don't think this applies to your work in general, but it is possible for writers to end up being too verbose, or for directors to add scenes to a movie that don't really move anything forward; those bits may well be nice on their own, but the whole thing would be better if they'd just been cut. Assuming this doesn't apply - and I have no reason to think that it does - sets that have so much story content that the sex gets pushed to the next one are absolutely fine :) Bear in mind, my opinion may be influenced by a certain recent AAA title, which would've been much better with a good 40% cut, in my view - but this isn't the place for movie reviews :p Lastly, if you're stuck on the plot of Barbados for reasons other than the arrangement of panels on a page, if perhaps you haven't worked out how certain parts of the story will go, then maybe discussing it with someone might help straighten out the plot in your head. I'd rather not have the plot spoiled before I see the final comic, so ideally pick someone else ;) but I sometimes find I can get stuck on a story, perhaps because I'm trying to make a scene happen that I'm emotionally attached to but I haven't worked out why the people involved would get themselves into that pickle, if they had any manner of sense at all :p If we don't hear from you before then, thanks for the update and merry Xmas!

Robert Arctor


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