After ep 1 notes, Direction, scheduling and overview (word count 1361)
If you got a idea from the episode 1 notes I did plan to set up ahead. I might not have every storyline but I do have the posting schedule and practises thought up. when you plan the story that you can see lasting over a lengthy period you do need to not be off guard. that is why I even have a plan for if my writing style leads to lengthy chapters. something I have seen happened to many writers who write over 2 years that their chapter length changes over time. That is not to say that something is never going to catch me off guard but I am is going to monitor the very common stuff that happens. I have a character count the character count does not include the author note just the story. this is to make it easier to know if you have time for it at any particular moment. this note is not the best organized I put it together fast.
I am sure you saw the little paragraph that was poem like a lot soap operas have done over the years even many that stopped had done it at some point. The most famous one that still exist is Days of Our Lives but The one I have in my head including the announcer is the one for another world in the early 1960s.
The time period that this story starts maybe 2003/2002, 2005 latest. (I know the main show starts in the 1990s but I think it is believable to have it in the 2000s) (in terms of the final computer episode, Schools usually have old systems for their main server computer.) and Even when they get new ones they sometimes to keep the server computer old. i use this year also because it is before the iPhone release but after regular computers existed in day to day life. (and on a different note before Pluto was excluded from planet hood.) I think maybe 2002 or 2003, as it will give me 6 seasons to not have to worry about smart phones. (and at least give me time to get all the pieces together as that deserves a peace of a season and I want to get through things before then.)
I am going to cut the season at a years worth or at 500k words. (as I do not want a 1mil fic to scare people off) each season will have their own story entry.
each season after it ends will get a 1k to 10k recap so people can catch up if they so choose without reading a lengthy thing. (The longer one will likely just be for the first season) to explains somewhat what happened.
I hope everyone will enjoy this bus soap opera. but since soap opera is slightly a diverse genre (or at the very least difference between generations even in the same show.) I decided to go talk a bit after the first chapter since I wanted people to get a taste of it first.
I decided to do 3 episodes a week. This is to also not to overload people but still have a slight daily feel. I post on Monday Wednesday and Friday. (now Monday and Friday 2 a week, quality control for editing)
As I mentioned in the last one I have w (Number) (A abbreviation of week) on the side of the episode. that is to referred to what week they are from. It is just the way I sort them in my notes and it helps with the timeline as it reminds me how long each of these events or for the viewer and it might help some new viewers to know as I assume some people are going to find this later in the run.
after each week with of chapters I do a 'next weeks segment' this is based off of a young in the restless model (as of 2023) in which they do three scenes showing a few words each after the Friday episode. The biggest thing I worry with this was if I should put the characters names but the problem with that is kind of ruins the flow of a bam bam bam style segment so I only do that if something is decently unobvious that would make it necessary. (One of the flaws of adapting a TV staple onto paper.) I do not remember how other shows do it because I mostly just watch occasionally young in the restless and so days of our lives out of curiosity 2 weeks before it left the air.
everything does not follow the pace of the real world but does follow a timeline and I am going to try to keep everything somewhat mirroring the passage of time. I might not be able to do it week for week but I will try to do it year by year.
I write this story in terms of scenes each episode would be the equivalent of one scene. like I said it is done in a soap opera format meaning we switch between the scenes.
I thought of this soap opera idea for the characters before even research because I realize there are a lot characters which fit a lot of those stereotypical Soap Opera stuff. The two cousins are almost like twins. 2 families rivalry which is the basis of many soap operas. I knew from the beginning I have to be careful with storage of these chapters just because of the sheer volume making sure I do not publish chapters that have been published already and making sure there are enough chapters that we do not get too many hiatuses.
.. The rest of this goes into my views of characters and the homage I gave. it is more nitty-gritty so this part is obviously skippable. ..
the 2 cousins Arnold and Janet had a in canon relationship similar to the idea used in Love of Life. (in that one it was two sisters) never saw the show read the TV trough page and liked the idea since I knew I was going to do something with these two cousins anyway since their Family relationship is so soap opera even in Canon.
I am still working out the kinks on how plot driven versus side stories and emotional stuff that or the hallmarks of a soap opera. and how I am going to do and how slow I should go in pacing. hopefully over time I figured that out better.
The title went through a lot of drafts. In my notes for the most point they are just labelled "Bus Soap" in my notes along with the folder they are in but I was not planning on ever publishing with that title. my top five were Young and The Busless (The first the first I thought of.), As The Bus Turns (reference to the logo) , A Frizzled World (which was a standing title on week 1 draft and opening prefix.) , A Search On Magic , What To Do With Magic , A Disagreeable Generation , One Bus To Ride and quite a few other puns of other soap operas and other ways to phrase the word generation and world. 2 other stand out ones were Magical Masquerade (which the main reason it was not used was it was literally the last one thought of.) and Walkerville's Hope. if there is a spin off (likely with the other students that do not fit into the plot.) Walkerville's Hope will likely be the title. why did I not use any of the other titles. The reason is because I felt the title The Magical Generations got a feel that we are going to deal with two different generations at least in the beginning. The parents / teacher generation and the grade school kids generation as everything falls in and out of the place again and again all around the magic in the story. A Frizzled World sounds great on the imaginary announcement tape and As The Bus Turns along with What To Do With Magic will probably always be a secondary one. in the end there can only be one and The Magical Generations is the one.