Here’s a scene that I ended up 90% rewriting, between a very small Mirka, years ago, and her Mom. I like this scene, but what I replaced it with fits better into the larger story.
These are what I call my “stick figure layouts,” where I don’t do any actual drawing, but I figure out the final script and the layout.
(Images under the fold).
Love this! Thanks for sharing it with your Mirka loving public!
That is SUCH a sweet scene. It prompts the following reflections.
1. Finished products are overrated. I already know who Mirka is, and have a reasonable feel that her (biological) mother fills the stock loving/cuddly mom role. (If anything, this segment suggests that the mom is a bit more rambunctious than I would have guessed from her brief prior appearances.) The characters seem well-wrought and presented through via this sketch drawings — no finished inking or coloring required. So why go through all that bother?
Mirka wouldn’t. You know she wouldn’t.
2. How utterly warm and loveable!
3. And how anxiety-inducing. Much like Harry Potter, I don’t expect that the plot prompts Mirka to delve into her past simply to provide a moment of warmth to the reader. I rather expect this kind of reflection to be prompted by the need to confront something painful. In the first book, Mirka has a flashback to reflect on how she had promised to take care of her brother — even as, in the present, Mirka was abandoning/rejecting her brother in pursuit of her ambition to win a sword. Needless to say, this reflection was not exactly an occasion of warmth and levity.
I have similar ominous feelings now. What anguish is Amp inflicting on our heroine? By what contrivance is he proposing to turn this happy reflection into an emotional dagger stabbing at dear Mirka’s heart?
WHAT KIND OF MONSTER WOULD DO SUCH A THING TO A LITTLE GIRL WHO NEVER HURT ANYONE EXCEPT BULLIES AND A MEAN PIG AND PERHAPS HER LITTLE BROTHER (AND ANYONE WHO EVER HAD A LITTLE BROTHER WOULD BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT)???!?
4. Finally, how awesome will this new book be, if Amp regards this little vignette as something to put on the scrap pile?
What nobody.really said. Though also:
5. I’m glad to know that I’m glad to know that mine isn’t the only family in which children are threatened with being eaten ALL UP.
And also what Eva said.
Um, didn’t there used to be an edit function here, where I could have gotten rid of the part where I repeat repeat repeat myself?