Since I’ve wrote about the Skateagy Comic in general and the Prologue, now it’s time for Chapter One, Becoming Thirteen. If you want to read the behind the scenes on other parts of the Skateagy Comic, follow of the buttons above.
Chapter one was an easier chapter to write because the events and thoughts in this chapter have had many drafts in comic and story form (although the antagonist was harder to do).
Chapter one starts with the main character, Ashling turning 13. It briefly shows her being asked what she wants to do with her life, expectations that her dad has for her, and a little bit of Ashling’s family history (which is heroes.). It mentions how she thinks differently from what her dad says. She doesn’t know exactly what she wants to do with her life yet. She is interested in being a skateboarder and wonders if her choice will be accepted (especially when her dad questions her).
Then it introduces the mysterious antagonist/bad guy, Diffident who appears in Ashling’s mind. Diffident means “modest or shy because of lack of self confidence” Diffident echoes Ashling’s low self confidence when she wonders what she will be allowed/accepted to do in her life. Choosing the antagonist/bad guy for the comic was one of the hardest things (one of the few hard things for chapter one) to choose because I knew I wanted the battles to be in the mind (at least have them start out there). I knew I needed a name for the antagonist, but finding the appropriate name was hard because the antagonist isn’t someone right in front of Ashling in the real world. So, I decided to really define my main character more and searched for words that could match the low self confidence in her. Eventually my research led me to the word diffident and I thought it fit perfectly. (it is a little hard to write about the antagonist because I don’t want to give away the future of the comic, antagonist or main character).
After Diffident appears, chapter one shows Ashling getting her first skateboard and being excited to skateboard. Then the first dream page shows her dreaming about skateboarding and having fun with her friends. This is the first page where her friends show up and it is the end of chapter one.
Originally I had thought about continuing chapter one further and having some of the events in chapter two to be in chapter one, but I decided that in order to show Diffident more it would be better to have chapter one stop with the dream. Also, I wanted the dream to be important for several reasons. A big reason was to have a contrast to Diffident and how Ashling dreams about what she wants to do. That Diffident hadn’t instantly took over Ashling’s mind, but that it was only a temporary defeat. That Ashling has dreams to help her with Diffident. I thought that having the dream as the last page of the chapter would help make the dream seem important.
I wanted to start a lot of these events/character attributes/thoughts in chapter one so that I could continue to build the character(s) in their journey they will end up taking. Some of these events/character attributes also are based on another project that I will be announcing soon (and I’ll be explaining more on the background of the project and the difference between it and the Skateagy Comic).
If you haven’t read the Skateagy Comic yet (or if you want to read the prologue and the first two chapters again), head over to the comic page.
