Post by Dallas on Dec 6, 2017 10:09:12 GMT -5
With the 2017 quickly coming to an end (I have no idea where the time has gone), I thought I'd do a version of my own "Best & Worst" of this past year.
In my own mind, I thought 2017 was a really great year for the most part. I really tried to increase the drama on One Day at a Time for the 15th anniversary, and I think I did just that. If you think about the start of the year to now, every story has really done a 180 degree change. This is mostly because of how many episodes were released, more than ever before, but also because of how fast the stories moved this year. To be honest, I actually thought about ending ODaaT at the end of 2017 because I thought I did, almost, every classic soap tale this year. It took me a while to get back into writing/planning 2018 because of this reason, but I do promise you, 2018 is a banner year! It took me reading WeLoveSoaps.Net, one of their "Today in Soap Opera History" to get motivated to write a new arch ... and it's pretty epic (more on a upcoming blog for the 2018 preview).
I'm also really pleased that I was able to release two full episodes of Chasing Diamonds. The series is such a departure from ODaaT, that I find myself looking forward to taking my breaks from writing ODaaT to jump into a different world. With next season being CD's final season, I will have to find another outlet for this creative side that I have found.
Personally, it's been a rather difficult last six months for me. It is interesting, when things are going well, I end up writing some very dark, twisted storylines (2018 is coming, and it is ODaaT's darkest year by far), but when things are a little rougher, you aim to writer lighter/ more fun storylines (which will be reflected in 2019's season). I also think difficult times make you appreciate everything that you have in your life that is positive; my creative outlet being one of them. I'm thankful I can write and do this as a hobby, because I genuinely enjoy it.
Here are some of my high's & lows:
Lows:
Cory/Rebecca/Robin/Melissa/Caroline: I sort of touched on this story in a previous thread, but what started as a fun tale quickly turned and became one of my least favorite stories in ODaaT history. The step up of Rebecca seducing a lonely Cory while Robin was away was fun, but the faked pregnancy didn't work as well for me in retrospect because of how many "crazy" parties were involved, aka Melissa & Caroline. It is sort of why the conclusion may have felt rushed, because after the truth came out, I was ready to push Robin & Cory into their new orbits … with Adam & Natasha, respectively. The overall goal of splitting Robin & Cory up worked, but getting there wasn't my overall favorite.
Andy: I wish I had given Andy more to do in general this year. He was rather supporting because once he got help for his drinking, he really didn't have much of his own storyline. He's one of my favorite characters, so it's always upsetting when one is more back burnered.
Kim/Robbie: At the time, I thought the idea of Robbie using Kim to get back at Bob for his role in Leah's death would be a lot of fun and soapy goodness. I think them getting together really succeeded in that because all the storylines were moved forward by their affair, however, it was one of those plot points that was plot driven, not character driven, because Kim was in the middle of a triangle between Bob and Tyler. Just because Bob was away and he gave her a "free pass", shouldn't have meant that she turned to Robbie, it really didn't make sense for her character. Looking back, it wasn't the smartest idea.
Season 3 of Chasing Diamonds: Now, I know putting an entire season as a "low" seems really harsh, but I thought my 2nd season of Chasing Diamonds was absolutely perfection. Start to finish, it just fit really well together and there were many fun twists. I really hard a difficult time living up to that season while writing season 3. I think that there were some very neat twists in the season, but overall, I don't think it lived up to my 2nd season. And that's okay. I think I made up for it in spades with my 4th season!
Highs
The Santa Barbara arch: This arch in August is really one of my all-time favorite storylines I've ever written. I love the Masion Blanche from Days of Our Lives feel that it has with the large winery mansion, the mystery of the woman wondering around and the excitement of the double wedding. The build up to the Friday reveal that Leah was alive was really cool too. This arch will be very difficult to top going forward, to be honest.
Shane/Paige: This arch was another one of my favorites because there was so much more going on than just Paige lying about having sex with Shane; there was Dawn pushing Paige so she could get revenge on Natasha; there was the dildo scene (which I loved because it was really pushing the envelope, IMO) and then there was the trial, which having a character have a break down on the witness stand is so fun on a soap. Of course the after math was fun too because it was the end of Shane/Natasha's marriage and it allowed Cassie to come back.
Frederick: Sometimes the pacing of plots on webseries can be difficult because of how fewer episodes I release compared to a real soap opera, but this entire year was building up to the November sweeps when Frederick was shot by someone. Every episode, week, month that went by, more and more cast members could have had a reason to have Frederick killed. I've tried to do mysteries before, but this one was step up really well, so I loved the set up to the storyline.
Season 4 of Chasing Diamonds: See above comments about season 3 ... I think I made up for the third season with season 4. I had so much fun writing it and can't wait to get back into the 5th season!
What were some of your highs & lows from this past year? Sound off below!
Dallas
In my own mind, I thought 2017 was a really great year for the most part. I really tried to increase the drama on One Day at a Time for the 15th anniversary, and I think I did just that. If you think about the start of the year to now, every story has really done a 180 degree change. This is mostly because of how many episodes were released, more than ever before, but also because of how fast the stories moved this year. To be honest, I actually thought about ending ODaaT at the end of 2017 because I thought I did, almost, every classic soap tale this year. It took me a while to get back into writing/planning 2018 because of this reason, but I do promise you, 2018 is a banner year! It took me reading WeLoveSoaps.Net, one of their "Today in Soap Opera History" to get motivated to write a new arch ... and it's pretty epic (more on a upcoming blog for the 2018 preview).
I'm also really pleased that I was able to release two full episodes of Chasing Diamonds. The series is such a departure from ODaaT, that I find myself looking forward to taking my breaks from writing ODaaT to jump into a different world. With next season being CD's final season, I will have to find another outlet for this creative side that I have found.
Personally, it's been a rather difficult last six months for me. It is interesting, when things are going well, I end up writing some very dark, twisted storylines (2018 is coming, and it is ODaaT's darkest year by far), but when things are a little rougher, you aim to writer lighter/ more fun storylines (which will be reflected in 2019's season). I also think difficult times make you appreciate everything that you have in your life that is positive; my creative outlet being one of them. I'm thankful I can write and do this as a hobby, because I genuinely enjoy it.
Here are some of my high's & lows:
Lows:
Cory/Rebecca/Robin/Melissa/Caroline: I sort of touched on this story in a previous thread, but what started as a fun tale quickly turned and became one of my least favorite stories in ODaaT history. The step up of Rebecca seducing a lonely Cory while Robin was away was fun, but the faked pregnancy didn't work as well for me in retrospect because of how many "crazy" parties were involved, aka Melissa & Caroline. It is sort of why the conclusion may have felt rushed, because after the truth came out, I was ready to push Robin & Cory into their new orbits … with Adam & Natasha, respectively. The overall goal of splitting Robin & Cory up worked, but getting there wasn't my overall favorite.
Andy: I wish I had given Andy more to do in general this year. He was rather supporting because once he got help for his drinking, he really didn't have much of his own storyline. He's one of my favorite characters, so it's always upsetting when one is more back burnered.
Kim/Robbie: At the time, I thought the idea of Robbie using Kim to get back at Bob for his role in Leah's death would be a lot of fun and soapy goodness. I think them getting together really succeeded in that because all the storylines were moved forward by their affair, however, it was one of those plot points that was plot driven, not character driven, because Kim was in the middle of a triangle between Bob and Tyler. Just because Bob was away and he gave her a "free pass", shouldn't have meant that she turned to Robbie, it really didn't make sense for her character. Looking back, it wasn't the smartest idea.
Season 3 of Chasing Diamonds: Now, I know putting an entire season as a "low" seems really harsh, but I thought my 2nd season of Chasing Diamonds was absolutely perfection. Start to finish, it just fit really well together and there were many fun twists. I really hard a difficult time living up to that season while writing season 3. I think that there were some very neat twists in the season, but overall, I don't think it lived up to my 2nd season. And that's okay. I think I made up for it in spades with my 4th season!
Highs
The Santa Barbara arch: This arch in August is really one of my all-time favorite storylines I've ever written. I love the Masion Blanche from Days of Our Lives feel that it has with the large winery mansion, the mystery of the woman wondering around and the excitement of the double wedding. The build up to the Friday reveal that Leah was alive was really cool too. This arch will be very difficult to top going forward, to be honest.
Shane/Paige: This arch was another one of my favorites because there was so much more going on than just Paige lying about having sex with Shane; there was Dawn pushing Paige so she could get revenge on Natasha; there was the dildo scene (which I loved because it was really pushing the envelope, IMO) and then there was the trial, which having a character have a break down on the witness stand is so fun on a soap. Of course the after math was fun too because it was the end of Shane/Natasha's marriage and it allowed Cassie to come back.
Frederick: Sometimes the pacing of plots on webseries can be difficult because of how fewer episodes I release compared to a real soap opera, but this entire year was building up to the November sweeps when Frederick was shot by someone. Every episode, week, month that went by, more and more cast members could have had a reason to have Frederick killed. I've tried to do mysteries before, but this one was step up really well, so I loved the set up to the storyline.
Season 4 of Chasing Diamonds: See above comments about season 3 ... I think I made up for the third season with season 4. I had so much fun writing it and can't wait to get back into the 5th season!
What were some of your highs & lows from this past year? Sound off below!
Dallas