Month: April 2009

Sorry for the delay…

Maximum Z Uncategorized , ,

I’ve been busy.

After what seemed like an eternity of frustration dealing with a nasty case of writer’s block, I made some significant breakthroughs on BLJ.  I think it helped getting feedback from my writing group.  Their suggestions really made a difference in focusing on certain aspects of the story.  I implemented some of them, which also triggered some new angles I hadn’t considered.  Most of these came at the expense of dropping two characters I enjoyed developing, but as always, their sacrifice is for the greater good.

Right now, I’m working on trying to get the denouement scene together.  I don’t want to rush through it, but I’m quite excited about getting it done.  I suspect I won’t be as anxious/nervous about fine-tuning the whole thing when it’s done.

On another happy note, I got emails from two places I had sent DREAMSHIP to in late January/early February.  One is  a smallish place whose credits I can’t remember for the life of me, but they apologized for the delay and will be getting to it soon.  Don’t ask how long that means.

The other is Benderspink, a very hot/high-profile management company.  Granted, the message from was a generic intern, but it said they’re very interesting in reading it.  But it’s Benderspink, which is still really cool.  Not counting on anything from either, which seems to make the waiting easier to endure.

Before I sent it out this morning, I spent yesterday morning reading through it for any last-minute changes that might be necessary.  Even though I wrote it, I really enjoy reading it.  It’s just a fun story.  I’m hoping to accomplish something similar when I finally get around to MONSTER HUNTER and OMEGA GRRL.  But that’s down the road a bit.

I watched Frank Miller’s THE SPIRIT last week.  God-awful.  The less said, the better.  Fortunately, it was followed up by the somewhat dated but still enjoyable KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL – an old-timey noir.

We were supposed to have friends over Saturday night, but they cancelled at the last minute.  I had proposed to V we rent SPEED RACER, since she seemed so keen on it last year.  She wasn’t interested.  We dug through our DVD library, with me suggesting titles she hasn’t seen, including ROGER RABBIT, STAR WARS and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG.  She wanted MARY POPPINS, which I don’t really need to see again for a long, long time.

As we watched a short cartoon, K suggested STAR WARS.  V consented, but half-heartedly.  Within seconds, she was hooked.  It was quite special watching it with her, especially since it was her first time (probably well into three digits for me).  She had a minimal amount of questions, which was nice.  I hope this is the start of her paying more attention.  Now I’m trying to figure out when she’ll be ready for EMPIRE.

I haven’t watched it in probably 6 months to a year, but it really is amazing what a great job Lucas did with how the story plays out.  I was also reminded of how bad the second Trilogy is compared to the first.

Oddly, I’m still interested in seeing SPEED RACER, even if it IS supposed to be bad.

One down, two to go

Maximum Z Uncategorized

I did some slight revamping of Act One of BLJ.  It’s a little better, but could still use some work.

The big obstacle looming before me now is Act Two.  There is some serious rewriting and plotting and so on and so on that has to be done.  I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up about this.  I’ve done it before.

I didn’t get much done today, but I think if I set aside a few hours tomorrow, it will definitely pay off.  That’s the hope anyway.

They say comedy is hard.  They ain’t kidding.  Which is why I’ll keep hammering away.  Until it works.

What’s this? Development?

Maximum Z Uncategorized

It must be the environment, but I always seem to be more productive when I’m supposed to be working on the air.  It’s not the complete turnaround, but there has been progress.

I’ll see what I can do over the next few days.

WARNING! Writer’s lament ahead!

Maximum Z Uncategorized

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been racking my brain trying to work on the current script.  Only problem is – nothing’s happening.  And I don’t like it.

It seems to go beyond regular writer’s block.  I don’t know what the problem is.  Some may say “You’re thinking about it too much. Just relax and let it happen naturally.”  Tried that.  Nothing did.

I’m sure I’m just working myself up over nothing and it will fall into place like I’d like it to, but I don’t know when that’s going to happen.  And I still don’t like it.

It probably doesn’t help that I read a script called “BALLS OUT” and it’s supposed to be hilarious.  Didn’t seem that way to me.  Perhaps my sense of humor is too different from the rest of the writing community.  Maybe even old-fashioned.  I prefer to write something I think is funny, rather than shock in the name of comedy, which is what a lot of this script seemed to be.

Maybe I need some time to sit down with pen and paper and see what happens.  I’ll try that and hope for the best.  No doubt an upcoming post will reveal the outcome.

Yes, I know it’s been a while…

Maximum Z Uncategorized

But it’s been a bit hectic around here.

-No word on the script from the mgr/prod, but it’s only been two weeks.  These things cannot be rushed.

-In the meantime, I’ve been racking my brain trying to work on the new one. This has not been enjoyable.  It’s like I can’t get out of the previous draft mindset, and I need to.  This will be the focus of thoughts for the next few weeks.

-Work has gotten tougher because my shift has been cut back ANOTHER half-hour.  Ugh.  Drastic changes must take place, and that ball has been nudged.

-Almost finished with books I got at WonderCon last month, including 2 volumes of Essential Spider-Man.  Stan Lee may be a joke of his former self, but he did a fantastic job establishing the character.  I like Ditko’s art, but Romita gives it a certain something that makes it look cool.  Only downside – not in color.

-Started on The Terror, a historical thriller. Not bad, but already getting a little tough to keep the characters straight.  I hope it gets better/easier to do so as it progresses.

-It would appear my darling daughter may be going to the same school next year, which is not what we were hoping for.  On the plus side, she’s getting better at reading and writing.  Now if we could only downplay the superhero stuff…

-I’m going to make a sincere effort to try and update this at least every other day, maybe even every day.  We shall see.