Digital Magic - Commentary 2

Things I regret - writing a romance from the first person point of view.  Welcome to the commentary for Digital Magic Chapter 2.

Chapter 1 established Jackie as a home body, someone more content to stay in than go clubbing.  I also established that her BFF Trish was her opposite in that department.  Naturally, one of them had to win, and for the sake of plot, it was Trish.  Hard to meet the designated romantic interest without going out.

Or is it?  I'm still setting up a few plot points in a somewhat clumsy style.  The video game does come into play, I promise.  It's kind of implied by the title.  Lance179 is already getting a lot of screen time for being an online gamer.  Jackie just hasn't met him in person.  At this point, I had a few ideas going on in my head on where the story was going to go.  It helps to have a direction to go in.  No ending in mind, but I had the core elements started.

To make things easier on me, I'm using Ottawa as Jackie's hometown.  That was one less thing to research.  I've done the same with later works, including LTV Paranormalists, though that has the added bonus of adding weirdness to the city.  Ottawa needs more weird.  However, Shattered doesn't exist.  I placed it in the Byward Market in a location where a restaurant is, so I know the surroundings.  If I can visualize what's happening, I can write it.  Digital Magic is how I learned that trick.  The other locations mentioned do exist, even after twelve years.

Steve is the first potential romantic interest in the flesh.  He and Jackie hit it off, at least for a random encounter.  I have no idea if Steve's approach would work.  What I was trying to do is have him seem like the ideal man, one who can listen to a woman and put her at ease.  One who doesn't push himself on Jackie.  I'm not sure, even now, how he comes across, though.  Feel free to leave a comment below about him.

I mentioned at the start that I regret writing /Digital Magic in the first person.  The big reason is that I am now restricted to Jackie's view point.  I can't show what everyone else is doing and I don't want to info dump by having characters monologue.  It's not a problem here at Chapter 2, when I'm still setting up the threads.  Later, though, I probably could have used an outside view.  Live and learn.

The video game elements gave me a new idea while I was writing this one, an idea that still involved Jackie but also her Jacinda character.  The game takes character emoting to an unusual level.  Extra details that would probably be patched in a few months after release these days.  Jacinda is almost alive at points, showing emotion.  There were points where I found myself wanting to write her story instead.  Again, live and learn.

Tomorrow, sober second thoughts, in Digital Magic Chapter 3.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, fixing The Raven.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, fixing The Crawling Hand.