Supplementary Materials

It's no secret I'm writing a graphic novel script.

One thing I plan on doing with it, is at the end of every 200-page act or so, I'd include 20-30 pages of stories that are going on in the world. Origin stories (and with lots of characters, I have plenty of them), gags, amusing scenes that don't quite fit in the actual flow of the story, stuff like that.

But the main reason I want to write them, is sooner or later, that context becomes slightly relevant. For example, in one backstory, two characters are introduced, and are saved, and go on with their lives. Fast forward to the very last arc ever, and they show up as under cover agents, more or less, to help out the good guys.

With the backstory, it becomes a "oh that makes sense, since the back story people and the bad guys were both X."

Without it, it becomes an asspull.

And I expect that assuming I am lucky enough to ever get published, 70% of readers will probably not be interested in any sort of "supplementary" materials.

So, what are your thoughts on them?

This is a gen. discussion as well as me venting my personal worries, which I would not mind some input on.

Supplementary material is great stuff. You can build all kinds of extraneous world building, set up expanded universes, hell give the technology/world/plot/relationships/etc fans extra wanking material.

Omakes are one good way to do this. I personally have at least one Omake planned per book.

This isn't the first time a thread on supplementary materials has come up, although I compliment you on not referring to them as omakes as the last one did. Copied from then:

To some degree, I enjoy writing the supplementary material more then the actual story. However, I would recommend against having major plot points be dependent on information from the supplementary materials.

edited 24th Dec '11 6:25:55 PM by nrjxll

Meh. I'll probably do this. I'd have to write something special, though. My notes are scattered and generally unfinished. I just have everything in my head, because I have strange memorization habits like that...

I was like that until I sat down and noted it all down over the course of a week or so. Best to have it noted for emergencies.

In any event, I generally read supplementary stuff if it comes with the actual main material. That said, 30 pages for every 200 sounds a bit long. Manga gets tossed into the same pile as other Graphic Novels in North America when advertised, correct? I have Omnibus #1 of Negima Magister Negi Magi sitting in front of me right now, which contains the content of the first 3 volumes. This series has more supplementary material than most Graphic Novels I've read include. It has 29 pages of supplementary material in this paticular omnibus. I repeat, 29 for 3 volumes put together. That makes about 10 per volume, and each volume is only ~192 pages even after adding the supplementary stuff. Scaling it up for the length of your work, 30 is likely overboard and would be subject to tl;dr.

edited 24th Dec '11 6:51:19 PM by burnpsy

Well, I haven't written it yet, so it's just an estimate, but they are supposed to be mini stories. Not necessarily wall o' texts or anything. Ever read those Heroes stories they put online? Kinda like that.

The 30 pages I was referring to from Negima are half-filled with walls of text, so perhaps 30 pages of non-Wall of Text content would be fine, then.

You'd be amazed at how much of my own work I just remember. Granted, it's highly compartimentalized, and typically I only remember the bits and pieces being asked of me immediately. I tend to take longer and falter more when asked just for general information, without specific prompt.

Also, I've recently proven that I do in fact forget... after almost two years of not doing jackshit with a piece.

Sounds like me.

In any event, there should be no problem with the supplementary stuff, but you should definitely call attention to it so people know there's important stuff there.

edited 24th Dec '11 7:13:11 PM by burnpsy

If/when (being optimistic) I get published, I plan on turning my website into a hive of supplemental stuff. Worldbuilding, extra stories, the works. Because that's how I roll.

I just want to warn you that if they're really going to be that important, this should not be "backstory," a "side story," or any other form of story other than part of the main story. Side stories are best for finishing the tales of characters who will never again be important to the main story.

It's important to focus on your ability to tell a story first.

Feo: Yeah, I'd be more worried about it if it was part of the actual story, but they show up in a more epilogue story. A bonus arc if you will. That's why it doesn't bother me. Plus, in story it is treated as a reveal, so that's another plus. Luckily I was able to keep most of the information out of the main story, or be able to be revealed in actual story.

Black: ...thank you for the generic writing advice that has nothing to do with this topic at hand?

I have a writing thread dude. I am working PLENTY on telling a story.

edited 25th Dec '11 5:46:18 PM by MrAHR

This really needs to be strongly seconded. I enjoy writing supplementary material quite a lot, but it should never be anything but supplementary - you should never need to read it to understand the main story.

I plan to include the supplementary materials in the main product whenever possible. For example, in a fantasy series I'm writing I realized that I needed to show how the war started, so the second book opens with a schism between the gods that leads to Carnos recruiting and then corrupting Morbaruk and turning Baron Devincenzi into his "son". It's an obvious bit of Backstory that you can skip over without missing much (aside from the Start of Darkness for all three of the main villains, of course), but it's in the main book.

I also plan to release an extensive, encyclopedic guide to my 'verse in order to avert the common problems caused by Canon Welding and give fans something to wank over.

As for my less serious work? I generated a trope page for my main Literotica story specifically so it could have a character sheet, because people were complaining it was difficult to keep track of all the characters and I wanted to make it a little easier for them without killing a bunch of people off earlier than I had planned.

A Numbered Existence and Monsters are both essentially supplementary materials to In The Service, and there are a number of references in the works to each other, but none is required to understand the others. (I think. Nobody's corrected me on this yet.)

In a sense, they're really separate storylines that I cut out of the draft work to make everything comprehensible.