An Update from the Road
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 03:01:36 PM
Hey all,
Drew here, writing mostly on my own behalf. I am currently traveling in Europe - the vampires and knights part more than the noir part, but it's lovely all the same. Fortunately, this gives me plenty of time to edit on trains and in hotels, which works out nicely, as most of the onus is now on me. The line editor has returned all the stuff I've sent, and now I've got to get another patch ready for her in short order. I'm going to be sticking with the main setting section; the rules section remains a work in progress and, because getting the language in that section is critical, there has been and will be significant back and forth with John Doe to make sure everything is just right. By this time next month, I hope to have the entire setting section in the hands of the line editors. Once that's back, we'll do a group edit for continuity, then put a bow on it and send it to layout. After that, it's on to the rules and voiceover sections, both of which are significantly smaller than the setting chapters.
That's all for now, I've got a train to catch.
- Drew for the HB Team
Quick Update
almost 6 years ago
– Sun, Jul 15, 2018 at 03:30:34 PM
Catching Our Breath
Since our last update, most of the team's attention has been on getting the edited sections we have polished and stitched together, in hopes of locking down some of the text. It also gives everyone a chance to catch their breath and assess what we've got and where we need to focus.
We're planning to release two sections (about 10k words) sometime this week; John Doe needs the opportunity to approve any text that goes out, so there's a slight delay between when we think it's ready and when it goes out to the world.
Police and Thieves
The two sections are thematically linked: They detail Heaven Harbor's criminal underground and the criminal justice system, including the police. Of course, in Heaven Harbor, the line between the cops and the robbers can get a bit fuzzy, and justice takes many forms. We think you'll like it; keep a lookout for the sections shortly.
-The Hardboiled Team
Update: Steady As She Goes
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Jun 28, 2018 at 08:28:04 PM
From the Hardboiled Team
I know things have been a bit quiet, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy - quite the opposite. Behind the scenes, work continued at a decent pace, though we've seen some slow-downs due to a few continuity reconciliations within the translation. We're hoping to see some faster progress on the back end of the main setting chapter, as these sections are more self-contained. Edits have been coming in quickly this week and we're hoping to release a nice package of text by the end of the weekend, with a focus on Heaven Harbor's underworld and criminal fringe.
Speaking for myself a moment...
Up until now, I've been pretty lax about updates; this hasn't been on account of laziness as much as constantly feeling that we're just around the corner from hitting something worth reporting. The biggest portion of the book, the main setting chapter, doesn't have neatly grouped clusters of sections; it goes neighborhood by neighborhood with occasional sections devoted to broad concepts like Crime, Sports, or Music. As a result, there are 21 small milestones that don't really feel significant individually but can't be easily bundled for a celebratory update. If we finish 9, maybe we'll update at 11; if we're done with 11, we're so close to 14...
All of this is a longwinded way of saying "my bad." I've allowed my desire for a big, cathartic, all-caps-and-exclamation-points updates to get in the way of keeping you all in the loop. Going forward, I'll be more vigilant.
A Look Behind the Curtain
Someone recently asked me, in a very polite and genuinely interested way, why Hellywood was taking so long, especially considering how fast I can generate my own work, so I thought I’d provide her and all the other backers a look at the unique challenges on this project.
Voices Lost in Translation
Noir requires a highly idiomatic language and slang which doesn’t cross languages seamlessly, even for the best of translators. While the problem applies to the entire work, it is especially acute in the largest (63k+ words) section of the book, which is written in the first person and narrated by Terry Doyle, a hardboiled private investigator. Each and every sentence in the translation requires multiple passes.
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1. I read a translated sentence for content and purpose, noting both the facts and sentiments it’s intended to convey.
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2. I parse out idioms and typical speech patterns, which may not have survived translation. Simple ideas like prefacing a statement with the equivalent of “between you and me” occasionally require complex grammatical structures when run through the ringer of translation. Sticking with that example, if the author opens a statement with “between you and me,” he could be emphasizing the disclosure of an important secret or setting up a snappy wise-crack.
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3. Once the sentence is idiomatically and grammatically correct, I then perform my own type of translation: it has sound like something Terry would say. The classic, hardboiled Noir detective has a cadence, tone, and timber we all recognize when we hear it, even if we can't be sure why, and nailing that feel is critical to the success of the book and game.
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4. I then take a final pass. Did I get to all the facts? If not, can I shift the facts I missed to another sentence? Is the feel right? If not, why not? Does the sentence fit with the rest of the paragraph? Does the paragraph fit with the rest of the section? And so on, until the whole section is off to the line editor.
Verisimilitude (“Truthiness”)
This edition of Hellywood is a book about an American city written by a French author for a French audience translated into English and edited by an American for an American audience. That alone is a bit dizzying. If the French author made a slight mistake in American law enforcement procedure or a tiny anachronism, the French audience might never even notice, but that same mistake might jar the American audience's sense of immersion.
It’s a virtual certainty: if I leave a reference to “In God We Trust” appearing on a dollar bill in 1949, someone will shoot me an email reminding me while the phrase appears on all coins since 1938, it didn’t appear on paper money until 1957. Our readers are smart and we respect that. Similarly, while the French edition could simply reference the “federal fiscal administration” in a certain passage, an American reader may well want to know if that refers to the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, or another agency.
Ignore the Folks Behind the Curtain
I don't want any of this to sound defensive or self-congratulatory; yes, it's hard work but it's also something we love. We want the end product to be something all of you love as well, which is why I, and the rest of the Hardboiled Team, put in the amount of effort we do. If we're very, very lucky, when you get your hands on this book, we'll disappear; all of it - all the edits and layout choices, all the late nights and coffee - will fade into the background, and all you'll hear is the voice of Terry Doyle on a foggy night in Heaven Harbor.
What we do, and what you do when you play, is a kind of magic, which is why we're working so carefully to get the spell just right.
