The long post that has an equally long title!
So I mentioned last time that while updating issue #13 I’d gone and made a few changes like adding scars to Commander Ghorunt. Yeah, Commander Ghorunt, the… head bad guy in this issue…? Yeah?
So okay, here’s the thing. Long time readers might remember back to when issue #13 came out the first time and how the commander not only lacked a scar but also didn’t even have a name!
I did the same mistake way back in issue #1 where I didn’t give the commander a name and that guy was super important! Now (and this is a slight spoiler) when I started planning the book out (and there is a plan!) I knew how many (important) Shoal I needed and how each one of them would look distinctive. And even though I planned out where the story was going I realised that a character needed to be in a certain place at a certain time but was not going to be there as they were somewhere very far away!
A big part of this issue is that I never planned out how many books I was going to publish. At time has gone on I realised I really want to get to that finish line and so I’ve gone and trimmed down a number of ‘filler’ issues. So with a cut down in stories, and therefore time passing, I now had a character in the wrong place!
So what to do? Easy! I use another character! But this then causes the problem of creating another distinctive look (and I’ve already used Emperor and cyborg)! So yes, we’re going to have a few new Shoal designs on the way!
I seriously wish I had done different shades of Shoal like I did with the Burians. If nothing else, why is it that the majority of alien races ALL have the same skin colour – and why did I make the same mistake (although only half a mistake as I got the Burians right!)
As for not naming my characters? Yeah, that’s totally my fault. Especially with Vulgreth back in issue #1! Geez! Some other characters throughout the stories I didn’t think I had to name as you wouldn’t see them again (and what if I really liked the name I created and wanted to use if for someone else later on?) but I realise that ALL CHARACTERS SHOULD GET A NAME! Forgetting that I might need to use them again it’s just polite innit?
Going back to Ghorunt and his scars I originally did a shaded colour scheme that matches his hands and face tentacle things (I have biological reasons) but it just didn’t look right. It was while lying in bed at something stupid like 4am and not being able to sleep that I came up with the grey scar line work. 
I had actually had this idea earlier in my planning but had thought of doing a black outline but it just looked to heavy.
But yeah, really happy with the grey outline scabby markings!
And so going forward, I pledge to name EVERY character I introduce, I now know the right font style for when I say ‘I’ (as discussed in my last post) and I will USE that knowledge, and I really need to super plan things that bit more because from issue #15 onwards which will be all new books I’m not going to do any more do-overs! NO MORE I SAY!!!
More soon! Bear hugs!
PS. I started typing this up last week but then saved it as a draft and didn’t return to it as I totally forgot! It’s been my plan to post every week on here so kinda messed up on that one! Sorry!!!
Man, I hate doing tiny food shops at the store. I usually end up buying extra things to pad it out and make it look ‘normal’ (or buy tins of ravioli for when I want to regress to being a kid again having tinned ravioli on toast. And hey, them tins totally take the focus away from the rest of the shop, right?)
