Tone

Tone is killing me.

I can't find the bloody tone of Season 2. I pendulum between light, snappy, and snarky and dark, morose, and reflective. I feel like the truest tone for the events depicted would be darker and more reflective. But the more fun, the more entertaining would be lighter and snappier.

Is there a tone somewhere in the middle of these that would allow for a little fun in these dark times?

If there is, I can't find it. I'm re-writing episodes on a nearly daily basis and the tone of the episode changes drastically depending on how I feel that day. I need to settle on something and just go with it.

New Characters Galore

As I'm sitting here writing (and re-writing) season 2, I realized it would be a lot of fun to announce what characters we'll be casting in the new season. And what better time and place to announce said characters than our Season 1 Wrap Party this Saturday night?

So I compiled a quick list of all the major characters that we'll be needing to cast and . . . oy . . . I count six. Six major players. As a comparison, I'd say last season had four major players: Derek, Annabelle, Robin, and Frank (five, really, as we should count General Rhodes). And these six aren't replacing those five. They're being added to them.

I'm not at all joking when I say Season 2 is going to be at least twice as big as Season 1. I just hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

Chew, chew, swallow. Breathe.

me & my chalkboard

Some time between purchasing our house and moving into it, my wife (hencforth referred to as "Kelly") surprised me by turning one of the walls of my office into a chalkboard. She did it out of the kindness of her heart. She looked at me, said, "I have an idea," and the next day I had a chalkboard. She had to sand the wall smooth and before covering it with chalkboard paint, but in the end, I had a wall I could write on and not get in trouble for (something I've wanted since the age of 2).

I use the chalkboard to sort out ideas. If I have something that I'm not sure about, I write it on the wall. Sometimes giving an idea a tangible presence is all that it takes to prove its worth; some ideas boldly stand out against the dark wall, others just whimper there, waiting to be erased.

I use the chalkboard to keep my timelines straight. Season 1 of Remnants, for example, takes place over the course of about 8 days. It's nice to be able to see that. It's nice to be able to step back and look at the timeline of events. Being able to see that helps me keep the story rooted in reality -- how fast should this story take place? How much time is needed to get from Point A to Point B? Can I rearrange the events a little bit and fill in the some of the gaps to give the overall story a better flow?

I use the chalkboard to keep score. Back in 2009, I had 28 skits and plays to write for the General Conference. As I completed each one, I made a mark. Watching the wall fill up with marks kept me focused. Walking into my office and seeing that I had completed only 6 skits reminded me I had 22 more to write -- so I better sit down, strap in, and get typin'.

I use the chalkboard to leap over writer's block. Sometimes then adjectives fail me, all it takes to jump-start my brain is a quick doodle on the chalkboard. Most doodles involve a spiky-haired boy with his tongue sticking out. Sometimes I trace my hand and use different colored chalks to turn my fingers into feathers and my thumb into the head and face of a turkey -- you know, the kind of doodles you did in kindergarten. My art skills haven't progressed much past that.

Right now the chalkboard is blank.

I'm in between projects, so I don't have anything to fill the wall with. Nothing needs to be recorded. Nothing needs to marked, kept, erased, or cataloged in chalk. No writer's blocks need to be hurdled with a pole vault doodle.

But I'm ready. Justin North came over last night and we discussed Season 2 of Remnants -- what it could be, what it needed to be, and what we wanted it to be. And ideas are creeping forward. Out of the ether, God is calling them. They're making themselves known. They're demanding attention and demanding to be written down.

It's time to fill the chalkboard.

The Hero's Journey

I've only seen the rough edits of two episodes and already I've begun outlining Season 2 -- okay, that's an understatement. Last night, I completed the outline for Season 2. It's subject to change and it will most certainly be fleshed out, but it's there, on cyber paper, ready to go.

It's such an interesting thing plotting out a second series of adventures for characters you've already played with. Season 1 is by no means a complete story, yet I spent so much time crafting Season 1 that it feels like I've already told Derek and Annie's story and it's time for me to find new characters to explore and new stories to tell. So now I get to sit down, reassess the characters, the journey they went on, and get to plot out the next part of their journey.

I've always known the big picture. I know what's going on and ultimately how it will end. It's the small details that I get to play with now. I get to decide how long the story will be. I get to decide how long it'll take people to figure things out. I get to decide what giant leaps or what baby steps the character development takes. One great example of this is Evan Johnson's character Derek Fisher.

One of the themes of the show that I want to explore a little more heavily is the concept of a hero. What is it to be heroic? What does that mean in today's society? I would like to deconstruct and then reconstruct The Hero. The Hero Project has been challenging the traditional trappings of The Hero and it's something I'm completely on board with. By the end of Season 2, I want to be able to present Derek Fisher as my example of what a hero is. Speaking in comic book terms, Season 1 and 2 of Remnants is Derek Fisher's origin story. The climax of Season 2 is Derek deciding what kind of hero he's going to be. Any and all subsequent seasons will be exploring that decision, dealing with the fallout, and testing his theory.

I can only hope that it'll start a conversation that has absolutely no end in sight. I love me some long-winded conversations.