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About: One Day at a Time
is a text based webserial that is much like a soap opera. It takes place
in the fictional town of Twin Peaks, which is located in a mountain region
of the USA. Below are a few regular questions that I get asked. If you
have any others, feel free to drop me a line!
Q: How did ODAAT begin?
One Day At A Time began in 1995. My brother Patrick and I always
grew up watching daytime drama's. I have been watching The Young and
the Restless for as long as I can remember. Growing up, we also watched
Days of Our Lives regularly. From time to time, we viewed Another
World, Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, One
Life to Live, Passions and Sunset Beach. We were heavily
influenced by this community. Patrick had his own series called Green
Meadows. I wanted in on the action. We sort of acted it out ourselves.
I soon found it was hard to remember everything I had done, so I started
writing storylines. I wrote in the Soap Opera Digest synopsis format.
I started writing ODAAT in 1995. The storylines that you are reading now,
is what I wrote ... just tweaked a little bit.
Q: You started publishing ODAAT
in 2002 online. Why are there so few episodes after 10 years?
I took a 5 year break. I never stopped caring or wanting to do ODAAT.
A comeback was planned numerous times. Life gets in the way sometimes.
You know? I was young, I just came out of the closet. I was in school,
I was working full time. I just didn't have the time to really put into
producing a quality serial. I am glad that I did take the time off. I
think my series is better than ever before.
Q: Why do you have famous people
as your 'cast'?
For image purposes only. Many people are visual people, I am very visual
myself. The images that I use are the best way for me to tell you what
my characters should look like. It is important to remember a couple of
things: the people in the photo are no way attached to my serial, and
they are really only for visual purposes! Just because I have 'Natasha'
being represented by Jessica Simpson does not mean that Natasha acts or
thinks like Jessica Simpson. It is who I think Natasha looks like, that
is all. This is a major reason I go outside of the daytime community for
my images. Many series stick strictly to daytime actors. I will not confine
myself or my series to that small, short set of people. My series is beyond
that; I like to break down barriers.
Q: What is your inspiration?
I get inspiration from many things. Mostly, I think I just have a calling
for drama. Growing up watching daytime, it is very easy to get many ideas
in your head for a number of different dramatic storylines. You watch
and you see where a show goes with their storylines ... but all the while
you think of something that they could have done to make the storyline
better. I incorporate that into my storylines. I must say, initially Days
was a big influence for me. I think you can see it in my early episodes
with some crazier plotlines (Vinny and Natasha dying, but coming back
to life; Victoria's personalities; Robin have two half sisters ... to
name a few). Now, I really want ODAAT to be more classic soap opera, more
relationship based. I guess that steams from Y&R. I would rather
tell stories that are slowly crafted tales.
Q: How long will ODAAT go on
for?
There is no end date. In my writings that began in 1995, I wrote for 7
years. So I have 7 years worth of writing (keep in mind ... when I was
writing in the SOD format each piece of paper was a week's worth of soap
opera ... currently one piece of paper is one episode for me. So I guess
7 and 52 weeks is how many episodes I have.) But when I stopped writing,
it could have continued. It will end when I am ready for it to end.
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