Our guest for this session is Michael DePalma, who is
currently spending his spare time working on
-When did you become an "EarthBound" fan?
I've been a fan since
I was 11. I remember reading a review of "EarthBound" in Game
Players magazine, which gave it a 67%. I was looking to get into RPGs at
the time, but was turned off by the whole "medieval fantasy" thing that every RPG out there consisted of. "EarthBound,"
though, looked different. An RPG set in modern times? I was thinking, "Man, I'd really like to play this." Six months later, I took a trip to Blockbuster, and
to my surprise, "EB" was being rented
out. I decided to go for it. The rest isn't history, but you could still guess
what happened from there.
-Tell us about the creation of EarthBound: The Perpetual
Adventures.
Anybody who loves Perpetual
should be bowing down to Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. They are the creators
of the WB Series "Smallville." I'm a
big fan of that show, but I always found that there were some things about it
that could be better. In my opinion, there is no better motivation for a writer
than the feeling that he could build on greatness.
At the time, I was writing a lot of original fiction, but I
had gotten my start from "EB" fanfiction and I was looking to make a
return to it -- I just needed the right idea, and "Smallville" gave me an
idea to do a series about life after the adventure. But I didn't want to do it
like some of the fanfics I had seen, about Giygas or Pokey immediately
returning to make life a living hell. Instead, I decided that the challenge
would be to turn back those who weren't turned back when Giygas was defeated.
And I also wanted to put equal emphasis on who these people were. The question I wanted on everyone's mind was
not "What comes
next?" but rather "What's
[character] gonna do now?" or "What does he/she have to say about that?" You get that
same kind of enthrallment when you watch people like John McClaine (the Die
Hard movies) or Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum from the aforementioned "Smallville") or Vic
Mackey (Michael Chiklis from "The Shield") work, and I
wanted my audience to feel that for my characters. Have I succeeded? Not sure,
but people seem to like it, and that means something to me.
-You've thrown in a lot of adult language. What's up with that
****?
Adult language? Adult
****in' language? Man, **** that noise, I don't give a **** about whatever the
**** YOU ****in' consider adult ****in' language, you **** *** ****less dumb
**** ** *****
******************************--KIDDING,
kidding. Sorry, I couldn't resist having some fun with that. :)
OK, for real, now. There's a lot
of cursing in the dialogue because that's part of their characterization. Think
about it -- the only main characters who really curse in this story are Ness
and Michelle. Jeff curses too, but not as much because he's a more educated
person, and doesn't feel much need for profanity. Paula is Christian, so she
tries not to curse, but as you can see in Episode 3, it's easy to make her mad
in the mornings. As for Poo, he has too much respect to use such language.
As for the cursing in the
narration, to me, it seems to bring the story closer to the audience and helps
a little with the humor. I try to avoid it as much as possible, though.
-Do you prefer focusing on character more than plot?
I prefer to balance
the two. When you see action movies like The Rock or Die Hard,
they're very intense, leaving you on the edge of your seat. A lot of this is
because you really like the heroes in those movies -- you believe them as human
beings, and you kind of want them to pull through in the end. That's what I
usually shoot for in my action/adventure stories.
it's
like exercise -- the more you do,
the
easier it gets.”
-Let's talk about Michelle. Is she there as an
obstacle for Ness and Paula's relationship, or more?
She started out that
way, but I didn't want people to go "Man,
why is Ness interested in her?" I wanted there to be
a genuine bond between Ness and Michelle, and I wanted people to believe that
they made a good couple. When I wrote the rooftop scene in Episode 4, I found
that they made a wonderful couple, and they weren't going to be broken up
without somebody looking like a jerk.
So at the moment, I don't know what's going to happen with the
Ness/Michelle/Paula triangle. Maybe Ness and Michelle will stay together, maybe
they won't. Maybe Paula will try to break them up, maybe she won't. Whatever
happens, though, it should be fun to read about.
-What's the bond between Lauren and Ness? Is she really
interested in him?
Lauren is interested in Ness like
a kid is interested in "Grand Theft Auto." She has no real appreciation for who Ness is -- to her, Ness is just
something that's fun to mess with. I knew girls like that in high school, hot
girls that would use the promise of sex to torture other guys. I'm sure a lot
of people knew girls like that. Lauren Pierce is inspired by those girls.
-And what about those editors who help you out. Do you not like
proofreading?
Actually, I'm pretty crazed about
what spelling and grammar I know. Even during the first draft, which one should
expect to be imperfect, if I come across an error, I'll correct it right away.
Saying that I have editors is just a classy way of saying "I have a couple of
friends who I run my first drafts by." Both are very good writers. What
they do, more than simple proofreading, is point out scenes and jokes that they
feel don't work. There are times I don't listen, but I usually do -- they're
very in tune with my style.
-You seemed to be absent from the community between Legends
and Perpetual. Where were you?
I started work on a
sequel to Legends called Eight Heroes, and I went through two
chapters when I realized that I was starting to get bored with "EB" fanfiction. I wanted
to do some original work, so that's what I did. I never went back to Eight
Heroes and I don't intend to at the moment.
-What can you tell us about the creation of EarthBound
Legends?
I wrote that story three years
ago, and I didn't really remember it until you brought it up on your page. I
just remember that I had this idea about Giygas and
Giegue being two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and that Legends
would be about the third one attacking. Of course, I was cocky enough to
believe that the Horsemen, when they came, would operate independently, so I
never bothered to do my research on that one.
::shrug:: In retrospect, I
should've tried to find another relationship between Giegue, Giygas, and Godon.
Anyway, anything that's funny
about the story is probably unintentional. When I was writing it, though, I had
some heavy influence from blockbuster action movies. I didn't really care much
about character with that story, nor was I concerned about such silly concepts as "things making
sense." I was just looking for a vehicle to stage plot-based drama and some
action scenes on. Back then, I took it seriously, and I considered it my best
work. Why else would I start work on a sequel?
-What have been your favorite moments
from both stories?
I actually have one
moment from Legends that I'm proud of. The actual fighting during the
final face-off with Godon on the core...the only thing that needs fixing about
it is the paragraph formatting.
As for Perpetual...pick
one! A couple of people mentioned Jeff
dancing in his underwear at the party in Episode 4. That was pretty good, but I
LOVED writing Paula's morning crankiness scene in Episode 3. Also in Episode 3
was Michelle facing off with Michael Hannigan in a roleplay fight. I was
smiling as I wrote that. The officer nearly wetting his pants in Episode 1,
Ness and Chester's first confrontation in Episode 5, the aforementioned rooftop
scene in Episode 4, Paula kissing Ness in Episode 4 without realizing
it...there are so many moments I can look at and be proud of in Perpetual,
it's really hard to choose just one.
-Favorite fanfics?
Any Day Now is fantastic. So is "No One's Going To Smile Today." [of The
Candle: Stories of Confession] ::big
smile, obnoxious wink, two thumbs up::
I'm also big on ImagineGal's Cycle, Giampi's E. Revolution,
and Amy-Chan's EarthBound, No More! is looking very, VERY promising.
-Advice for newcomers?
Don't stop writing. I
was writing fanfics even before Legends, and they were terrible. What
you gotta remember is that it's like exercise -- the more you do, the easier it
gets. The easier it gets, the better the end result.