Well, I did it. After a long break – like, more than a decade – I finally decided to return to POLLINATION – THE SERIES and finish it once and for all! This week, I wrote the first new material for it and was surprised at how quickly I was able to return to that world.
I had/ have two large works before me – two and a half, actually, but I think one dovetails into another: 1) I want to expand PHOLUS REBORN into a complete novel – I know the plot and the concepts I want to work on and 2) I wanted to finish POLLINATION – THE SERIES, where I DON’T know the plot, other than in broad strokes, and needs a lot of work. (The “1/2” is writing the GOSPEL ACCORDING TO EROS, but that might become part of PHOLUS)
The truth is, I was making up POLLINATION – THE SERIES as I went along. I imagined it as a TV-version of a famous movie (not unlike PLANET OF THE APES), where the same rules applied but this was its own reality. Open-ended, as it were. And I got some good stories out of it, don’t get me wrong. But it was getting to the point where it was too big to not have a plot and I didn’t have one.
And I was tired of writing it – it had a half year or more on the first ten chapters – and I needed a break. So I stepped away.
Now I’m coming back to it (mumbledy-mumble) years later and I decided the way to approach was be true to its roots. So I’m making it up as I go and already the characters have informed me of stuff they need to do. It’s actually been kind of fun.
So I’m opening up the discussion. What do you want to see? What do you think you SHOULD see? Have you read it? If you haven’t, maybe you shouldn’t, because the first thing I did was take a week and rewrite what exists already…
I think that wherever you take the series is likely to be great. I think my favorite part was probably Chapter 7, where you showed the party at the Leondaris’ house from the perspective of high school biology teacher Mitch. Some scenes showing the plants taking over the high school (with the help of Mitch and Coach Lidster) could be cool, as well as scenes showing their progress through the town.
In the following chapter, you very briefly describe two cops being transformed, but that’s definitely something you could expand upon–those cops transforming the local police force. Anyway, there are so many different possibilities, and I’m really excited to see more stories set in this amazing universe–still one of the hottest stories I’ve ever read!
I look at all I’ve previously written as “BOOK ONE” – and as this new writing begins, it is “BOOK TWO”, or the second section of the story. I’m also abandoning the chapter format and converting instead to numbered parts (each time the narrative changes focus, it’s a new number). My definition of chapter means there needs to be a beginning, middle, and end and this story with its many (MANY) subplots doesn’t fit itself into standard format.
There – that’s the technical stuff.
At the end of BOOK ONE, the characters had a shared dream of the Great One calling them together. So this BOOK TWO is focusing on that coming together. (Feels a little like King’s THE STAND, yes?)
The first of the new material is visiting characters as they wake from this dream and their reactions to it. But this is generally the direction I’m heading in.
I just hope that the characters still get a chance to spread their seed while they’re on their way to meet the great one. I know they might feel repetitive to write, but you’re SO good at writing scenes where new men get ensnared by the plants.
I introduce a new cast member almost immediately in the New Stuff, and you will be very happy to know the Botany teacher has been up to some experimentation, creating what I’m calling The Variants.
Have no fear – I know what this story is built on.
I’ll confess what I mostly remember from this series is the fantastic comic adaptation O’Melissokomos made all those years ago. Unfortunately the copies hosted on his site have been hit by ugly photobucket watermarks, though thankfully it’s also still hosted on Choose Your Own Change (but you probably need a free account to view them there).
I might try and read through the series again to remind myself where it all ended up going.
In addition to O’Melissokomos’ beautiful comic book, my buddy GymJunkieMuscl has made a very loose CGI adaptation starting HERE. (This is on the MGForum, so you might need to join. I don’t know.)
Please don’t! I’m debating taking it down from the site – but that I’d like to preserve its stats. I’ve been doing a lot of rewriting in BOOK ONE and would prefer you reread it when I re-release it all.
It’s lovely. He mixes concepts from the original story as well as the Series, but I really like the look of the Great One – with the yellow eyes and the green tint.
Hahahaha! That’s why I hate the modern usage of the word. When I grew up, if someone wrote, “He literally has the nose of a pig!” my writing teacher would ask, “How did he get a pig’s nose on his face? That’s more interesting than your story…”
