Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Fleshing Out And Condensing Story

I started working on the script for Spirit Blade 3 at the end of last week and have been making good progress this week. But it hasn't been easy!

This is my first time writing the third part of a trilogy, and it has challenges that writing the first two didn't. In Spirit Blade, the sky was the limit. I could take the story wherever I wanted! In Spirit Blade: Dark Ritual I had to advance some story elements from Spirit Blade, but I still had a lot of freedom to enter new territory.

In Spirit Blade 3, I'm still moving the story into cool new places that I hope will take things over the top and insanely epic, but I've also got all of the remaining plot threads from Spirit Blade and Dark Ritual to treat and resolve.

Right now, I'm creating separate outlines for each plot thread, such as: Saolos/Sanctafi, Legion, "Falcore's Legacy" and Raan/AIA/Ebony. Once I have the arcs figured out for each plot thread, I'm dropping them into the main story outline to see how they all can best fit.

At the end of the day I have to make sure all threads are covered well, AND that their arrangement in the story still results in good story pacing! So this scripting process easily involves more logistics work than I've ever had to do. Very challenging, but also very exciting as I see things start to work and come together!

-Paeter Frandsen