What is Tiberanic?
It's unbelievable what a "mistake"can do. You won't believe it but the whole thing about Tiberanic started at 2003 when I started making a Titanic model with materials that everyone has in his home, such as hard paper and duct tape because I was (I'm still actually) in love with James Cameron's movie that everyone knows..
After a couple of days of "hard work" (basically just gluing stuff together but let's keep it a secret) I realized that my model apart from having four funnels (four toilet paper tubes that is) had nothing to do with Titanic, I had to do something..
Although it was a mistake, I liked it and in my head I imagined myself on it with the people I knew back then, like going on board and having adventures, so I named it Tiberanic. Kept it as my very own ship.
Although it was a mistake, I liked it and in my head I imagined myself on it with the people I knew back then, like going on board and having adventures, so I named it Tiberanic. Kept it as my very own ship.
English Private School And Mrs.Popi.
Back then I was still taking English lessons and I started to write Tiberanic to get better with my writing,
and to increase my average English marks of course :)
and to increase my average English marks of course :)
As you can see Mrs.Popi was reading each line carefully, more carefully
than I was writing the book actually, she was able to find all my spelling errors.. even little ones that I wasn't even aware of. I was writing an episode every week and both my writing and spelling skills were getting better and better. Writing did help me a lot with my vocabulary and my imagination. |
Mrs Popi quickly showed more interest so I happily continued writing episodes. The thing with the real people as characters was my idea, I was actually imagining these episodes by including people that I knew, or have met personally in my life. People who left a mark on me.
I had no intentions to make Tiberanic a real project, neither a real novel to write. But with the English private school I started to like it, after all it was my very own creation! My imagination got more vivid with time, making the writing time a breeze. I wasn't writing to get published, I was writing for fun!
I had no intentions to make Tiberanic a real project, neither a real novel to write. But with the English private school I started to like it, after all it was my very own creation! My imagination got more vivid with time, making the writing time a breeze. I wasn't writing to get published, I was writing for fun!
These episodes were 10 pages each, and at the last page there was a drawing with a moment from the episode too! But these episodes weren't good, the book was bad. There were many spelling and grammar errors, lots of unnecessary moments that were making no sense and many of them were gay for no reason. But I was young so.. I learn from my mistakes. |
The writing was going well but the truth is that outside my English private school Tiberanic was unknown, and I wasn't really doing much to get my book known. The fact that I was young was enough to understand why I was doing all these spelling errors, and why I wasn't trying to do anything with it. Still.., without help or parents in the writing or publishing business i was writing, and it was fun!
Summer was coming and I had my last English examinations coming, unfortunately.. If I pass, I'll get my English degree. Meaning the end of my English private lessons as I was at the LOWER class level, and the end of my inspiration, my English teacher.
Since she was great in teaching, this happened.
After I got my English degree and finished with my English private school, my excitement faded out because it wasn't the same to write Tiberanic without Mrs.Popi to read. I loved her and she was one really great teacher.. and a much better person :')
Summer was coming and I had my last English examinations coming, unfortunately.. If I pass, I'll get my English degree. Meaning the end of my English private lessons as I was at the LOWER class level, and the end of my inspiration, my English teacher.
Since she was great in teaching, this happened.
After I got my English degree and finished with my English private school, my excitement faded out because it wasn't the same to write Tiberanic without Mrs.Popi to read. I loved her and she was one really great teacher.. and a much better person :')
Tiberanic's Story, And Alpha version
As I mentioned earlier, at the ending of each episode there was a drawing of a moment from that episode. Without any plans or pencil, I was drawing with my pen, free handed.
Tiberanic's Alpha Version is the prototype which I was writing when I was young.
It was 95 pages or 10 episodes, and comparing it to the nowadays final version which is more than 250 pages until episode 6, the difference is clear. You can read the entire alpha version here for free.
The Alpha Version is really different from the final version that I'm currently writing and cannot be
compared with it, even the beta version is miles ahead. Still, the alpha version is the prototype and I believe that it's worth a read.
To understand the difference better, here is a comparison of the same wallpaper that I drawn then, and GeOrGe
(an old friend of mine) edited it in Photoshop later, actually created a realistic ship.
It was 95 pages or 10 episodes, and comparing it to the nowadays final version which is more than 250 pages until episode 6, the difference is clear. You can read the entire alpha version here for free.
The Alpha Version is really different from the final version that I'm currently writing and cannot be
compared with it, even the beta version is miles ahead. Still, the alpha version is the prototype and I believe that it's worth a read.
To understand the difference better, here is a comparison of the same wallpaper that I drawn then, and GeOrGe
(an old friend of mine) edited it in Photoshop later, actually created a realistic ship.
As you can see the difference is huge, GeOrGe is very good at Photoshop especially when it comes to cars, ships, airplanes etc. basically technology and gadgets in general. I was mainly working on the characters back then and I have to admit that for me.. to achieve that result in the first picture above was practically impossible, at least in 2012.
My Photoshop skills become much better with time though, just look at how awesome Tiberanic now is, it's impossible to believe that she's an entirely fictional ship created from just a basic hand drawing. I'm very proud of myself for what I've done with the model, only Photoshop experts would had achieve that!
My Photoshop skills become much better with time though, just look at how awesome Tiberanic now is, it's impossible to believe that she's an entirely fictional ship created from just a basic hand drawing. I'm very proud of myself for what I've done with the model, only Photoshop experts would had achieve that!
. . .
Now the story in the later versions is truly original, it has a combination of themes and characters.
Just like in real life! You won't get the feeling that I'm focusing on one character as I'm trying to focus on most characters on board, as much as possible.
The characters are unique and have different personalities in the book, there will be misunderstandings, confusions and complexity between them in many scenes.
The book's main themes are humor and comedy.. there are many funny moments that the characters are finding themselves in, and almost always fit. The action and epic moments start from the sixth episode. For example the moment when Denis is hunting someone in Lagos's rooftops (the Portuguese port that Tiberanic full stops before continuing to USA). He finds himself trapped in an abandoned building, after being knocked out by someone in the darkness. Afterwards when he regained his senses he realized that he was chained and all alone in an old, dark room with a window that had rusty bars on it, realizing he was kidnapped.
Or the moment when our Nick Marmarinos actually turns in to a hero to save his old friend from being killed in Lagos for a really stupid reason, risking his own life. (these are moments from the 8th episode of the later versions - Separated Souls).
These are epic moments that are really hard to come alive on paper, it takes a lot of skill but I'm trying to explain the scenes in detail, moment after moment to imagine it as it really happens in front of your eyes in the final version.
Unfortunately there are no such things as deep detail or epic moments in the alpha version as I was too young to actually
come up with great novel ideas like these.
Now the story in the later versions is truly original, it has a combination of themes and characters.
Just like in real life! You won't get the feeling that I'm focusing on one character as I'm trying to focus on most characters on board, as much as possible.
The characters are unique and have different personalities in the book, there will be misunderstandings, confusions and complexity between them in many scenes.
The book's main themes are humor and comedy.. there are many funny moments that the characters are finding themselves in, and almost always fit. The action and epic moments start from the sixth episode. For example the moment when Denis is hunting someone in Lagos's rooftops (the Portuguese port that Tiberanic full stops before continuing to USA). He finds himself trapped in an abandoned building, after being knocked out by someone in the darkness. Afterwards when he regained his senses he realized that he was chained and all alone in an old, dark room with a window that had rusty bars on it, realizing he was kidnapped.
Or the moment when our Nick Marmarinos actually turns in to a hero to save his old friend from being killed in Lagos for a really stupid reason, risking his own life. (these are moments from the 8th episode of the later versions - Separated Souls).
These are epic moments that are really hard to come alive on paper, it takes a lot of skill but I'm trying to explain the scenes in detail, moment after moment to imagine it as it really happens in front of your eyes in the final version.
Unfortunately there are no such things as deep detail or epic moments in the alpha version as I was too young to actually
come up with great novel ideas like these.
When I finished with my English private school, I kept the book in my bedroom in a safe place for the moment that I would get back to it, because I knew that someday I would finish it. I knew that I would get back to it one day.. and that day came in 2012, with myself being 23 years old, bursting with new cool writing ideas.. it wasn't hard for me to get back to writing!