eddyfate

Originally published at The Whitechapel Project (for MP3s and polls, click this link). You can comment here or there.

Author’s Commentary

This was a weird episode to write in a couple of ways. The first half was really simple, because it was essentially the exposition I expected to get to in episode five, more or less. When that ran out, I also got to address a point that got cut from the last episode — that Six needs a shower.

Once he was in the shower, though, I wasn’t sure what to do with him. I started with him reviewing the information and putting it all together (something I’ve done a lot in previous episodes), but I realized about halfway through that this has got to be wearing on him. I scrapped my original paragraph and starting writing it more emotionally, and I learned a lot about Six. I went back and added in the bit about Six seeing himself in the mirror, and the whole thing ended up being a really nice set-piece in which we all learn more about Six. (The fact that it was episode six I actually didn’t notice until the final draft — also a cool touch.)

The other weird part was trying to keep the whole episode from being an info-dump. I added a lot more action to the exchange between Mister Rich and Six, and tried to humanize Mister Rich a bit more, but I admit I wasn’t sure how well I pulled that off.

One of the harder parts of writing fiction this way is to keep the small details right. The first time, I completely forgot that it was winter, so I added the snow references in to keep reminding myself that, hey, it’s fucking winter in Ohio, moron. I also noticed after I published this that Six hasn’t slept yet, and it’s probably pretty late into the night. Likely he nodded off in the shower.

The episode recording went about the same as last time — I thought I had a faster way to edit, but it turns out I was wrong. Well, there was the fact that I had to completely record the episode over again because Audacity crashed and took my recording with it. Irritating. I think I want to try a different configuration of the microphone to get a different audio quality to my reading, but we’ll see.

Voting and Discussion

I didn’t have as much chance to promote and ride herd on the voting and discussion this time, but it was pretty clear that folks want to stick with Mister Rich for a while yet (although there’s very different opinions on how the Six/Mister Rich relationship will evolve over time). Interestingly, while I think some readers noted the possible utility of working with the police, not one person voted for that option. Ah well. Fuck the police.

Also, the best comment ever was posted last episode.

Back to episode six