Writing Again

I'm working on a new script. Well, it's been in the brainstorming stages, and I've just recently begun actually putting words on the page. It's a story about mystery, intrigue, and suspense - with a little action and adventure thrown in - and all done in the style of the classic 60s spy movies.

As I've been working with Josh, who is co-writing with me, we've come up with multiple ways of picturing the characters. We've found a few quotes that seem to describe our two main characters quite well, and just for fun, I've decided to share them with you:

BEN
"He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which."
-- Douglas Adams

NIKKI
"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles."
-- Audrey Hepburn

Just some insight into the early stages of screenwriting. It's always useful as a writer to have as many angles of looking at something as possible. That way, if you get stuck from one angle, you can try another. Sometimes these angles are images, or quotes, or inspired by real people. Sometimes it's just a mood, or an atmosphere... or a song.

He always runs while others walk,
He acts while other men just talk,
He looks at this world and wants it all,
So he strikes like Thunderball.

He knows the meaning of success,
His needs are more so he gives less,
They call him the winner who takes all,
And he strikes like Thunderball.

Any woman he wants he'll get
He will break any heart without regret.

His days of asking are all gone,
His fight goes on and on and on,
But he thinks that the fight is worth it all,
So he strikes like THUNDERBALL...

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing

Is it raining, is it snowing
Is a hurricane a-blowing

Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?

Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing!
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing!!

I must confess: When I first saw the 1971 version of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" I was frightened out of my mind. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was 8 years old and my mind was prone to attaching reality to the movies I watched, or maybe it was that my sisters were so scared that they left me alone in a dark room to finish it, or maybe it was the extremely brilliant surreal execution of the film thanks to Mel Stuart and Roald Dahl.

Needless to say, when each of those children had something horrific happen to them, and Gene Wilder treated it with such nonchalant flippancy, It scared the socks off me.

...But I recently re-watched it, and I found every single aspect of the film to be delightful and full of life. I can still see why I was terrified as a child, but now the wild ride is much more enjoyable. The colors are bold, the nonsense is delicious, Gene Wilder is simultaneously off his rocker and the sanest man in the room. The songs are fun, and there is a wonderful point to it all that speaks to both kids and adults. And besides, the Snozzberries really DO taste like Snozzberries!

In short, I think this film may have just rocketed into my top favorites of all time in only one viewing. Will I watch it again? You bet.

To quote Willy Wonka quoting Arthur O'Shaughnessy,

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

High Hopes

Just finished writing through another draft of my screenplay (this is the one about vampires and cowboys and the end of the world). This re-write was a pretty hefty overhaul, about 50% of the previous draft had to be re-written.

...And when it comes down to it, the hardest part of writing is not the dialog or the beats - it's the bones, the fundamental puzzle pieces of what actually happens and how it all interlocks with the other pieces of the story, that's the bonkers part of writing. Once those pieces start clicking into place, it feels glorious, and the writing becomes so much easier. Or maybe that's just me.

This may tie into the way I work. I find that I write best when I have the character's voice in my head. I usually have to write a little bit before I really know a character, but once I know them, and once I know all their little quirks and mannerisms, their psychology, it all becomes fun. Like playing action figures or legos as a kid, I just like throwing my creations into different situations and seeing what happens.

Anyhow, it felt good to get all the way through again. It's feeling right, for the most part. Now all that's left is just some quick revisions to a few scenes and overall polishes, and the script will be ready to be read!


The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river

Script Update....

Wow, so it's been about three weeks since I last posted. I didn't mean to take this long of a break, but my week long trip to Virginia sort of threw everything out of balance. So now, I feel like I need to write an update on where things are, so I can feel a little more closure to this script thing.

So as I mentioned in my last post, the first draft was finished on April 26, and even though I wasn't proud of it at that point, I considered it a success that it was done. 90 whole pages. That's more than I have ever written in a single document in my life, I think... So I was pretty happy with that.

So then left for a week, and while I was traveling, I sort of used that as a chance to push the story out of my head and think about stories on a more abstract level, and process again what I wanted to do with this script, and what my goals were. This turned out to be very helpful when I got back home and started writing again, on the second draft. There were a number of additions and deletions of scenes, and basically I was doing major structural changes to the story.

Last night, I finished the second draft. I have finally gotten the overall story to a place where I am pretty happy with it, and that makes me very pleased. The next step will be to go over the entire thing and do the detail work, refine the descriptions, polish the dialog where needed, and basically check for minor problems. Once that stage is done, I will be ready to start having other people read it and give me some good ol' healthy feedback. Which is always difficult to swallow, but generally good for learning how to be a better writer.

Anyways, That's all from my end. Things are pretty positive over here, and I'm excited to have done all this work and to be so near the end. ...Or is it just the beginning???

Script Blitz: April 23 (and Preservation Hall)

3 more pages today. Felt very tired, but somehow it was perfect because the scene was about the characters being tired. Funny how that makes it somehow fun to write...

Bought a new CD last night. It was a greatest hits of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. They play New Orleans jazz like no one else! I am loving every second of it. Here is an example of the awesomeness that abounds. There's just something deep down about this kind of music, that just makes you want to tap your foot and bob your head to it. It's very loose and free and I really don't have adequate words to describe it, so it's best you just follow the above link.

Anyways, I just thought I should mention that because I have been fascinated with New Orleans jazz ever since I heard of it some years ago. I hope you like it too!

Ciao!

Script Blitz: April 22 (and Doctor Who)

I got home tonight and sat down and wrote 4 and a half pages. And then I experienced some of the best television I have ever seen.

Let me explain. No. There is too much. Let me sum up. I have recently started watching a British show called Doctor Who. And I just finished watching Series 2, which completely blew me away with how awesome it was. I know a few of you readers will be like, "Oh, I know all about Doctor Who!" but some of you are completely in the dark about what it is exactly. So here goes.

Doctor Who is a cult sci-fi show in Britain that boasts to be the longest running (started in 1963) sci-fi show ever created, and is something of a phenomenon over there. It had been on hiatus for a little over a decade, until in 2005 they revamped it, made it more fast-paced and energetic, and overall a much better show.

The premise is that 'The Doctor' is an alien Time Lord that watches over the space-time continuum and rushes in to save the day where ever there may be trouble.
Rose is a regular everyday human girl that gets swept up in the adventure.

The Doctor travels around in the TARDIS, which looks like a police box from the 60s...
But whenever the Doctor gives up his life to save the universe, he comes back in a different form. he looks completely different, but he's the same crazy Doctor!
Every season, they build up to some sort of crazy climax, and it is always awesome.
Yeah. So that's it. I love this show. I love it to death. It's adventurous, funny, scary, and emotional, all in epic ways. It's now vying for top spot in my favorite shows of all time list. And I can't wait to watch more...

Script Blitz: April 21

3 more pages. Another day, and three more pages. I can see the end in sight now.

Struggled today with how to write the scene I was on, because I had outlined it to be a rather dark scene, but I didn't want to take the characters to quite that dark a place (yet), so I was trying to figure out a good way of accomplishing what I wanted to in a different way. So I brought a different character in, and made the whole thing a conflict with a rather amusing interplay between them, and it accomplished exactly what I needed it to.

I am still trying to figure out the ending of this story. I mean I know how it ends, but I don't know yet quite how I'm going to get there. Basically there needs to be an ambush. And before I write more tomorrow, I need to research some ambushes so that I can think through how to construct this one. Can anyone think of good ambushes to reference from favorite movies (or books)? I welcome all suggestions.

Ciao,

Script Blitz: April 20

Still in the middle of a pre-summer heat wave, it got up to 100 degrees yesterday.... it's supposed to cool down tomorrow, so here's hoping, anyways....

Wrote 4 pages today, and supposedly that means I only have 16 pages left to write. But looking at my outline, I think it's going to take more than that to finish up this story. But that's okay, 90 pages was just an arbitrary goal. I'm going to have to do a lot of serious editing anyways, so all that really matters is completing the story in a way that works as best as I can make it. Then I'll sort the rest out later.

I'm mainly just hoping that I'll be able to finish the story before I go on my trip. Seems likely that I will.

Anyhow, that's it for today. Ciao!

Script Blitz: April 19 (and Summer heat)

6 pages today. Felt good to get a big chunk done again, and I totaled up the page count again, and I'm at just over 70 pages. Woohoo! That means there are only 20 or so more pages to write, and the first draft will be done. And since it's the 20th, that technically means I only have to write 2 pages a day to finish my original goal of completing 90 pages in a month. But this does not mean I am going to slack off. I'm going to keep pushing through and finish as quickly as possible, so that I can start editing.

My boss is sending me to Virginia to shoot some footage of Colonial Williamsburg on the 30th, which in itself is cool, but it will also mean I will be able to take a break from writing and when I come back a week later, I will hopefully be able to come back to do some much needed heavy-duty re-writes with some good perspective. Sometimes giving yourself a week away from your work is the only way to see it objectively. I have no misconceptions about this draft being amazing, so it shouldn't be difficult.

Anyhow, other than all that, today was a scorcher. First day in the year to get above 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) and boy was it hot. My roommates and I jumped in the pool to cool off, and since it is still April, we found the pool to be (rather ironically) extremely cold. But it felt great after all the swealtering heat.

So the weekend was a success. I have 70 odd pages written, and 10 days to go before flying to the east coast. I think I'm just about ready for another adventure!

Ciao!

Script Blitz: April 18 (and Nute Gunray)

Today Josh and I drove up to Burbank to meet with Brian. Had a story meeting which went quite productively, and then came back down to celebrate Anthony's birthday. Happy Birthday, Anthony! I got him a Nute Gunray action figure from Star Wars episode 1 that is sure to become his favorite. After I gave it to him, we both started quoting the slimy, noseless Neimoidian by saying things like "At last... we are getting RE-sults." and "Well, no, but, uh... seal off the bridge!" What a great character for an action figure...

Then I solidified yesterday as a good day when I showed Dark City to Linus Renee and Amanda. I really love that movie. I also happen to have a soapbox about that director's (Alex Proyas) latest film, Knowing, which came out in theaters some time ago. Most people didn't go see it because of some reason or another, but as it turns out, it was a really awesome film. I recommend it to everyone.

But after all that was over, I nestled down at my computer and wrote 2.5 more pages in my script. Still not quite up to snuff on the whole 3 page a day goal, but I'll try to write more tomorrow.