Silence in Time - Series 2 Preview (and Rant)

Illustration by @pixielolz, exclusively for Silence in Time.

Silence in Time is a science-fiction thriller series revolving around a master assassin. Please read Series 1 to catch up on the story thus far.

I shall use this post to share my thoughts on the upcoming Series 2. This is my first post in nearly 2 months. If I may say so, I believe I've earned the right to a rant. So, here goes.

What took so long?

Embarrassingly, at the end of The Complete Series 1 post, I committed to start publishing Series 2 in September. Lo and behold, October is nearly at an end. So what's the hold up? It's a number of factors.

• I had solicited feedback on the preferred format for fiction series on Steemit. Today, we have a vibrant fiction community, with many fiction series running on Steemit. When Silence in Time started back in July, there was almost none. I loved @anwenbaumeister's feedback at the time - finish up the entire series, both text and illustrations, and then post each chapter every other day.
• So, I went about with that plan in mind. I knew September would be an impossible target, it would take a few months to get it all in place.
• Then, Curie happened. Curie absorbed all my attention and time - which is my excuse for not making a single post in the last couple of months. I continued working on Silence in Time, albeit at a slower pace.
• Fiction is hard. It can be easy, but to really work out all elements and present them in an efficient manner takes time. It's not the writing - but the imagining and creating the world that could take days and weeks of endless thought. Furthermore, it'd take @pixielolz a month to draw illustrations for the entire series.
• In the middle of all this, a film production house loved the story and optioned Series 1. More on this later. I hired a screenplay writer and spent further time adapting Silence in Time - Series 1 as seen on Steemit into a pilot. I'd love to share the screenplay, but can only do so privately.

Ultimately, it seemed clear that finishing the entire Series would take till 2017. Instead, I'm going to go ahead and do it like Series 1.

The Schedule

Series 2 will be published quite like Series 1 - chapters will come as and when they are ready. At first these chapters will be text-only, with a Complete Series 2 post with illustrations planned for early 2017. I expect Series 2 - Chapter 1 to roll out middle of next week.

Beyond Chapter 1, I cannot promise you a schedule. My personal goal is to publish 4 chapters every month, but that's an optimistic target given my preoccupations, to say the least.

An introduction to Series 2

When I wrote the first chapter in July, I didn't really have any plans or expectations. Indeed, the first few chapters were largely ignored, generating nary a cent. I thought it would be a cool story, and played it by ear. By the time we posted The Complete Series 1 with @pixielolz's wonderful illustrations, Silence in Time had become a cerebral story exploring a diverse array of themes.

Adapting Series 1 to a screenplay was an eye opener, and really made me realize the visceral potential of this story. In response, Series 2 is very different. Series 2 absolutely has been written with cinematic form in mind. There's a lot of fast paced action, contemporary themes, while continuing with a lighter dose of science fiction.

If Series 1 was a sci-fi thriller, Series 2 is poised to be an action thriller with sci-fi elements. At a very basic level, the main plot will revolve around an impending terrorist attack and our protagonist's attempts at defusing the situation. However, the perspective will be very different, of a scrappy start-up vigilante organisation. Thematically, I also intend to question the right of governments to so-called counter-terrorism, while at the same time explore if there's a better alternative at all.

The science fiction elements will take a backseat, but be rest assured, there'll be some enticing teases for future series as Silence in Time's universe heads for the Singularity.

The form will be very stripped down as well. There will be no innovation on the English language, nor any photographs. It'll be sharp, pointed text getting right to the thick of the action. I'm aware this is not the best approach for Steemit, but this is what I strongly believe in.

The Future (and Steem for Video)

What started as an experiment - an exclusive story written for a nascent blockchain platform - has become much more. I'm committed to this series, and beyond Series 2 I'd love to collaborate with authors and illustrators on Steemit.

My dream is to produce Silence in Time as a web series exclusive for Steemit. Each series will cost roughly between $100,000 to $200,000 - an impossible amount given today's market capitalization. But were Steem to rocket past $1 billion, it could be a reality with support from the community. Steem could be an option for filmmakers who want to produce content outside of the usual commercial cinema. Of course, there are two major challenges - mainly 1) the content distribution network for video and 2) the short-term payout system. Film is forever. Films and TV shows often take decades to break even. I eagerly await SteemQ and further efforts to use the Steem platform as a frontend for video and film exhibition.

A Recap of Series 1

W wakes up in a hotel room to find a pistol in her hand, aiming at a man. She is in a state of total retrograde amnesia - she can't remember anything that happened before that point. She tries to find out who she is, but her comprehensive efforts are met with failure. W is a good investigator - but before her amnesia, she was a masterly stealth artist. It's almost as if she did not exist. A ghost, a shadow, a master assassin. With no choice left, she sets out to sequence her DNA. She stealthily infiltrates a research lab with a prototype Rapid DNA Sequencer, and sequences her DNA. Embedded within her DNA is binary code - a sound clip. A rasping voice of an elderly man tells here that she's a synthetic being from a different time and space, sent back to undertake a series of missions. W tracks down a young man, Bong, whom she suspects is the same person as voice of the man in her DNA in our current spacetime. At first, it looks like she's on a mission of inter-dimensional revenge, but ultimately she asks Bong to work with her.

Note: This is a Decline Payout post. However, I'd greatly appreciate your comments, and your votes for exposure.