Writers Block

WE’RE BAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKK!!

Sorry for the extended hiatus…we had some issues with timeline development which delayed releasing our next couple of stories. But the next episode is up, and expect it to be delivered fully in the next week.

It’s called Evolution, and deals with some interesting new ‘acquaintances’ for our team.

Honestly, the concept for the creatures encountered in this story was one I always sort of questioned when watching SGA, considering the evolution of the Wraith and what we knew about the Iratus bugs. What we touch on in Evolution is sort of asking that question full out, and even going further–what might such a development engender for later on down the line?

As always, we’ve tried to stick to canon here, with a few of our own touches. I hope you enjoy–we’ve got some really exciting developing stories following this one, leading up to the explosive mid-season two parter. I am honestly excited about all of them.

After all the drama and angst of the last few episodes, we felt a comic break was needed. As a result, we bring you To Build A Fire, an episode outside the main arc that still moves us along towards a few new scenarios for our team.

If you went to school in the US, you probably read the Jack London short story “To Build A Fire”. I blatantly stole parts of it for this episode, especially for the Rodney/Teyla scenes, and expanded on the idea of how important staying warm is in the other parts. John gets a bit too toasty, as you will see. The humor is broad and the setting is a bit contrived, but I’m hoping you can sit back, relax and allow yourself to picture our heroes dealing with a blizzard and each other.

The upcoming episodes will take us back to the Athosians and will bring entirely new challenges for Teyla and her friends, plus deepening relationships and a look at what might have been that might interest more than one shipper group. Stay tuned.

Part 1 of Trust is up. I have to say–and perhaps it was because it came right on the heels of RTP, Part I–that this story gave me fits at times.

Those of you who know our aim know that we’re trying to stay true to the show as best we can, but sometimes that’s difficult. Sometimes canon contradicts us, or we contradict canon.  Though we’re trying, 101 episodes is sort of a bear to remember for details, especially smaller ones, though we have great Betas.  And though we try to stay with our show build model, I found that in Trust I had to go bigger and bolder in the final two Chapters to explain everything without shortcutting.  At the end of the day, we are entertaining you with a written story and I thought most people would prefer that to a Woolsey-Sheppard-in-Woolsey’s-office synopsis of the events in Chapter 5.

In Trust, it wasn’t just story details that ran me ragged–it was how the idea of ‘trust’ works into everything as it stands, and making sure that meant something.  Sure, we’re just telling fanfic here, but at the same time, as writers I think we wanted to make sure we were giving some depth and meaning to what we were doing, making things more gray and less black-and-white.

Here, the group is back in Pegasus, but not all is right with the world. Things are shaky. Bonds are being tested.  And as we develop, we are trying to do so within the confines of who our main characters are, but we want to evolve them a little, too, where it makes sense.  Everything they feel we wanted to be able to back up with support from how they were generally in the show and logically develop from there.  There was a comment one of my Beta-ers made about a particular character’s emotions that made me laugh, mostly because it was true.  Though she was able to make an argument for what I’d written as I’d written it, her primary opinion was probably truer, because that’s what most objective readers would think, so I altered some of the story accordingly.

Motivation was another area where I struggled a bit.  I wanted to treat our characters with respect and give them real reasons for their actions, real objections to situations and real feelings.  Within their established personalities, but also avoiding the ‘wallpaper’ traps and one-dimensional treatment.  What would Jennifer, based on her show canon, think about this ‘new’ situation?  Can she think differently?  How would Teyla react to what Todd says about her people?  Do we have proof her emotions could perhaps stretch beyond what we generally saw?  It required some serious thought and at times, taking a leap of faith that might run a little differently from the show.

One area that was fun were our own original touches to the story.  Teyla’s dream sequence was fun to write, and though we’ve never really seen Todd do that (at least not from what I can remember) we know dreamwalking is possible, based on what Michael did to Teyla using Kanaan in Season 4.  So why not here?  It adds such a fun element of drama and suspense and the imagery of such a world–cold, gray, foggy–makes for an imposing and symbolic image of what kind of trust is involved in such ‘negotiations’.  As we get into what will be known as the ‘standalones’–stories that are self-contained, with their own action and a great deal more originality in terms of location, enemies and situations–we’ll get to really have fun with this part.  I am looking forward to the first of these, “To Build a Fire”, which is our next story up.  Just the early plot sounds like it’s gonna be FUN.

Well, work on our SGA:Rising series continues. We are working hard to bring you the best series that we can.

We do have a publication schedule and will try to keep on track, but on occasion that real world life thing gets in the way (oh, fie on thee Real Life!) and we’ll be delayed here and there.

“Trust” is coming along nicely, though one thing I’ve discovered is that continuity between original stories is just as important as it is with series continuity and we’re trying to be dedicated to both. This means rereading our already published stories, taking notes, all the while trying to remember 5 seasons of canon!

At the moment I’m hoping to get “Trust” to the beta readers shortly, but until then, here’s a preview of one of the un-beta’ed scenes:

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By now, you have probably read the first installment of Return to Pegasus. If you have, you know the direction in which we are planning to take our virtual season 6 of Stargate: Atlantis. We have spent countless hours brainstorming and discussing every aspect of canon in the hopes that we can make our series as true to what was shown on screen as possible. We think we have succeeded admirably and hope you do too.

What will the future bring for our heroes? Will we get to know new faces? Will old friends drop back into the lives of our team? All of the above? The coming weeks and months will reveal our master plan but suffice it to say, our episodes will not take off in any wild new directions that will startle or annoy loyal fans of the franchise.

A discussion thread in the fanfic section at Gateworld is coming soon where you can make comments and ask questions. The writers will be dropping in regularly to talk with you. You can also follow us on Twitter for daily updates. And check back on June 14th for Return to Pegasus Pt. 2.

The first chapter of SGA: Rising’s first episode, Return to Pegasus, Part I, is a go! We’re proud to be able to bring you our rendition of a virtual Season 6, as we would have liked to see it. We’ve tried to put them together as any SGA fan would want to see them written and conceived, writing as close to canon as possible while still opening the world of SGA up for new possibilities.

Since we’re a go, I suppose I can offer you a little more of a tease than previous, including one of the SGA character’s we’ve brought back for this first episode–one that made sense, and has something of an interesting role to play. Please enjoy!

“So who is this representative from Homeworld Command?” John asked casually, staring at the activating gate as he walked towards it. “And why is she coming by gate again? I thought they couldn’t use the other one while we’re here.”

“They can’t. She’s been off-world speaking with the leaders of the Jaffa.” Woolsey paused at the steps, emotionless face turned towards the lights dancing around the ring.

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In case you didn’t get the announcement on Twitter, SGARising is set to publish our first episode, Return to Pegasus, on May 31. That’s right. We have finally crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s and are ready to go. Check back here on that day and tell us what you think.

Sorry for the long time between blogs–we’ve been wanting to post but not drag out the teassssssssssinnnnnnnnnng, if you know what I mean.

But today I have an honest status update–in writing the first episode of our SGA Rising Virtual Season 6, I can tell you that an almost completed draft of Episode I, Return to Pegasus Part I, now numbers 90 pages in Microsoft Word–that’s almost a novel, yes? And it’s only HALF of what we’ll be giving you in terms of how the crew gets back to Pegasus, or, as Teyla calls it, home.

Even as a writer, with direction from our group, this story has surprised me. I’ve seen more interaction from characters I never thought would speak and silence from those who seem more prone to speaking. And some interesting behavior all around. Heck, even Sam Carter shows up–and I hadn’t expected much in the way of crossover here.

Once the draft is completed, it’ll be handed over to our beta readers for two purposes–grammar, and, more importantly, continuity. We want to make sure that everything lines up from how you remember it in “Enemy at the Gate” and, if you were an SGU fan, with the Universe series.

More info to come…but just to let you know, it IS coming. Episode 2 is about 75% complete, and episodes three through seven are being worked on now.

Personally, I’m excited about episodes 9-11, but that’s a while coming down the pike. But it’s something to work for and that’s what we’re trying to do here–give us all something to look forward to in terms of continuing, in a fannish way, our favorite show.