Year: 2011

I needed that

Maximum Z editing, inspiration, Movie of the Moment, outlines, screenwriting

(One of my absolute favorite clips ever. Impossible to not enjoy.)

For the first time in what feels like weeks, I actually got to do some writer stuff!

A very nice meet-up with the sole remaining member of my old writing group. She liked the first act of DREAMSHIP, then we discussed a stage production she’s working on. Bonus – it involves time travel!  Also got her thinking about how to expand the number of characters and how each could play a role in the overall plot.  I think I like editing and consulting on other people’s stuff almost as much as writing my own.

Then it was typing up what I have so far for the first half of the LUCY outline. I’m still stuck in the latter half of the second act, but figured this was a good way to clear my head and possibly stumble onto a solution.

(I really should have been working on DREAMSHIP pages, but a friend made a great suggestion that I’d like to work in, so I need to make that fix before picking up where I left off.) 

It’s hard to describe, but writing out each scene, expanding it a little, putting in some detail that links it to something that comes later, was incredibly satisfying. Honestly, I got chills putting it on the page. And I’m only up to around page 12.

Part of the thrill comes from the editing.  Scenes I felt were vital turned out to not be, so out they went. Streamlining your story is a wonderful thing.

If I can find about an hour to 90 minutes a day to just focus on writing, I will be such a nicer person to be around.  And that’s really saying something.

-And now, the long-awaited return of Movie of the Moment!  This time – TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011). Still incredibly cheesy, but worlds better than #2.  I’d heard the last hour was pretty good, and I’d agree, but maybe a few too many Amazing Escapes for me.

Nothing unexpected throughout, but the John Malkovich subplot took a weird turn, then completely disappeared about halfway through.

Ear candy

Maximum Z cycling, Filmsack.com, music, Nerdist, NPR, old time radio, podcasts, script doctor eric, The Bugle
From our mouths to your ears

If it’s not raining, I ride my bike to work.  Since it could still be considered the middle of the night when I do (4AM), it’s pretty quiet.  My iPod helps make the ride a little more tolerable.

Probably unlike a lot of people, I don’t do a lot of music. At first it was old radio shows, which I still enjoy, but some of them are starting to lose their luster and I’m slowly adding more podcasts into the mix.

The appeal of the radio shows comes from the quality of the writing, which could be extremely good.  They didn’t call it ‘theatre of the mind’ for nothing.  Even decades later, a lot of the material still works.  You can’t go wrong with a solid episode of Jack Benny or The Shadow.  It’s also fascinating how a show serves as a time capsule, preserving a moment 60 or 70 years in the past.

A few years ago, I attended a panel discussion about old time radio. I must have been the only person there under 55.  The guest of honor was an actor who had been on The Lone Ranger for a few years; his name currently escapes me.  They recreated parts of well-known shows, commercials and jingles and an episode of The Lone Ranger, complete with sound effects.  Probably not the same as watching it back in the day, but still fun.

While there’s no direct modern equivalent, podcasts come pretty close. There are shows covering just about every subject you could think of.  In my case, most of them deal with film (Filmsack), writing (Scriptcast) or a slightly different take on current events (The Bugle and Wait, Wait, Don’t  Tell Me!).  And for overall entertainment value, you can’t go wrong with The Dinner Party or The Nerdist.

The only downside to all this great material is that I can’t listen to it when I want to write. It’s great for bike rides, runs or working in the kitchen, but for work on the outline or pages, that’s when the music kicks in and I thank my lucky stars for the wonderful gloriousness that is Pandora.

What are you listening to these days?

obligatory halloween post!

Maximum Z Halloween, parenting, screenwriting
Bradbury. Halloween. 'Nuff said.

Halloween is probably my favorite holiday, not just because it’s 4 days before my birthday (which is not meant to sound like I’m trolling for presents, but if you’re feeling generous, who am I to stop you?), but because it’s so darned fun. Costumes, candy, the supernatural. What more could you ask for?

There’s a Halloween City store a few blocks from our place. We went there to get part of V’s costume (more details in a minute).

For some reason, these places only seem to have decorations of a darker nature. Nothing like greeting trick-or-treaters with your place covered in props for low-budget horror movies. Where are the happy jack o’lanterns and cartoony witches?  Do I have to find a Hallmark store for a more innocent line of decorations?  Since I have no idea if there are even any IN San Francisco, we went down the hill to Walgreens and got some glow-in-the-dark ghosts for the front window.

Getting back to V’s costume, after years of Batman and Jedi Knights, this year K suggested a French waiter.  She loved it. This stems from V constantly repeating the narrator on Spongebob (“Seex ow-ehs lay-tair…”). We got a vest, which came with two tie options. A stick-on mustache from Halloween City lasted one afternoon, and was easily replaced with mascara. Her hair slicked back with cheap product. Still working on the towel over the arm. But after all is said and done, she’s ready.

Also different this year is that K and V will be going to a friend’s house for trick-or-treating while I stay home to give out candy.  We don’t get a lot of kids, but we’re part of the neighborhood association list of designated houses, and I’ll be taking advantage of the downtime to work on either script or outline.  Still debating what movie to watch – maybe THE FRIGHTENERS. Haven’t watched that in a long time. Gotta be careful not to dip into the candy bowl too much. K bought Peanut Butter Cups – one of my few weaknesses.

What are your plans?

Adventure covered in feathers

Maximum Z adventure, comic books, Disney, history, reading, Scrooge McDuck, story
Rich on so many levels

Apart from seven longboxes of comics taking up a lot of space in the closet, I have about 2-3 bookshelves of assorted material that could be classified under trade paperbacks and graphic novels.

I’m kind of choosy when it comes to what I read.  First and foremost, it has to be well-written.  If it ain’t, then I’m not interested, no matter how pretty the art is.  Boring material is boring material.

George R. R. Martin, author of GAME OF THRONES, has said that comics contributed heavily to his love of reading. I’m working on passing that love to my daughter as well.

While V has been tearing through the Harry Potter books for school, a few weeks ago she asked if she could read one of my comics.  We pulled out a few she might be interested in:

–POLLY AND THE PIRATES by Ted Naifeh. I got this at APE a few years ago, complete with autograph

–SUPERGIRL: COSMIC ADVENTURES IN THE 8TH GRADE by Landry Walker. A tpb of a miniseries from a few years ago.  Fun take on the character.

But she seemed especially interested in THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK and the supplemental COMPANION, both written and drawn by Don Rosa.

I’m not a huge Disney person; Pixar’s stuff is more to my liking.  But I like adventure stories. And I like historical fiction.  These books have both.  And keeping with the Disney theme, most of the material is G-rated, with a hint of innuendo thrown in here and there.

We follow important chapters in Scrooge’s life, starting with his youth in Scotland and the ensuing adventures around the world.  Each story incorporates real-life history and tidbits from Disney duck-universe creator Carl Barks’ decades of work.  I didn’t have a problem with Rosa utilizing as much as he could of the latter, but knowing where a minor story detail came from didn’t have much of an influence on my enjoyment of the story.

V started off reading them herself, but I think she enjoyed it more when we would read them together, which basically meant me reading all the dialogue aloud, incorporating appropriate accents where necessary.  I suspect K enjoyed it as well.  It was fun, but harder than you think.  Amazingly, all my Scottish lines made me sound like the chief engineer on the Starship Enterprise.

I’m just glad V is warming up to the idea of reading for pleasure, and not seeing it as a homework-related chore.

Oh yes, that’s much better

Maximum Z radio, screenwriting, writer's block
In recovery mode!

I can’t explain it.

Once again, I do the midday traffic shift and break through my writer’s block.  If I could write in there every day, there’d be no stopping me.  But I’ll take what I can get.  I’m scheduled to do it again Monday, so who knows what will come of it?

I’ve been stuck in the section just past the overall midpoint in terms of making my protagonist (which in this case would be Lucy herself) drive the action. While I liked what I had before, she was too passive and re-active, so I’ve been trying to figure out how to really make her the engine that drives the story.

Positive news – I took one scene from before, which in retrospect was pretty dull,  and turned it into a thrilling chase sequence that incorporates a minor character I thought I wouldn’t be able to use, ends with Lucy’s circumstances changed AND moves the plot and characters forward.

I love when this kind of thing happens.

Next up – Indians!  Or are they?  This IS a Western, y’know.

My work schedule gets a little more back to normal this week after Monday, so I’m really hoping to make some long-delayed progress on DREAMSHIP.  I’ll get this thing done yet.