monsters

The dreaded return of a foe most formidable

Maximum Z adventure, Alex Ross, comic books, creativeness, creativity, Elvis, legion of doom, monsters, pulp fiction, screenwriting, script, story, storytelling, writer's block, writing
Who invited these guys?
Who invited these guys?

Ah, writer’s block. So we meet again. It’s been a while.

Can’t say I’m happy to see you.

I was just sitting here, minding my own business, trying to put together the story of my new project (epic pulp adventure monster saga!) when you decided that was your opportunity to make your grand entrance.

Within seconds of your arrival, my creativeness, like Elvis before it, had left the building.

Curse you.

While I struggle with potential ideas and stare at two previous outlines in an effort to construct a third, you stifle my ability to figure out problems, think my way through scenarios and come up with how things should play out.

The ease with which I was able to previously deflect your efforts is no more. You’ve made the process tougher this time, and I do not like it.

The longer you stick around, the more frustrated I get, which makes it harder to develop a strategy that will see me triumphant and you soundly defeated.

What makes your presence even more aggravating is the off-the-charts levels of excitement I have about this project. Once the story is solid enough to my satisfaction, I will become a veritable writing machine and crank out material at a pace you wouldn’t believe.

Taunt me all you want, but I have worked way too hard and put in too much effort to let the likes of you stop me. I may be down, but I am definitely not out.

It may take a little longer than I’d like, or I could find a solution five minutes from now. Either way, I will work my way through this. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again.

And when that moment occurs, I will gladly show you the door and send you on your way, hoping it is a very, very long time until you even consider the idea of returning.

Out, damned trope! Out, I say!*

Maximum Z cliches, creativeness, creativity, feedback, ideas, monsters, movies, originality, outlines, plot, problem-solving, reading, scenes, screenwriting, script, social media, spec, story, tropes, Twitter, villain, writing
Do whatever you can to avoid falling into this perilous situation
Do whatever you can to avoid falling into a similar perilous situation

(*A slight variation on the actual line from MACBETH – Act V, Scene I. We’re all about accuracy around here.)

The more I work on the story of the monster spec, the more I realize how flimsy the villain’s plan is. I know what their objective is, but the biggest roadblock is figuring out HOW they’re going to accomplish it.

Part of the original story included a monster with shape-changing abilities taking the place of a high-ranking figure in world politics. At the time, it seemed good.

But now it just seems tired and stale. It really is something we’ve all seen before, which totally goes against what I’m trying to do. Coming up with a fresh, original story is one thing; telling it in a fresh, original way is another.

How often have you read a script or seen a movie or TV show and thought “Seen this before” or “Saw that coming a mile away”?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of using something that’s been used or done many times before. Cliches. Tropes. Clams. Call ’em what you will.  There’s nothing wrong with them, but it’s lazy writing.

Why would you go through the trouble of working so hard to create something new and exciting, but fill it with material that isn’t?

Read through what you have. Does anything come across as too familiar, or at least expected?

Look at that tired old chestnut as purely temporary, then go back and brainstorm a few alternatives which are totally opposite (or at least really different) but also accomplish the same thing.

Take a look at scripts and movies similar to yours. Can you see how they did it? Maybe it’ll inspire an approach you hadn’t thought of.

Feeling stuck? Ask for help. Twitter’s usually pretty good. You’ll soon discover that writers have the amazing ability to easily come up with ideas when it’s for somebody else’s project.

You’re a creative type, so get creative. You know there has to be a better way out of this. It may take a couple of tries, but you’ll get there.

In the meantime, I’ll be busy figuring out a new way for monsters to take over the world.

Wanted: wonder, fun & excitement

Maximum Z adventure, characters, creativity, Doc Savage, genre, goals, Godzilla, Guardians of the Galaxy, ideas, monsters, mystery, originality, outlines, parenting, plot, pulp fiction, rewrite, screenwriting, script, spec, story, storytelling, structure, The Shadow, trailers, westerns, writing
Seeking this kind of vibe
Seeking this kind of vibe

This was parent-teacher conference week, so my after-school parenting schedule was shaken up a bit. As a result, not as much time to work on the mystery spec rewrite.

So in an attempt to make the most of my limited time, and without my laptop with me, I opted to tinker with the outline for the monster spec.

Like any good writer, I had my ever-present notebook and story notes with me. Seriously.  I keep them in my bag for just such a situation.

The first act is really coming together, with most of the focus now on working out the details of the gaps between the plot points of Act Two. And as happened before, I’m having a blast.

At its heart, this story is a pure pulp adventure, which is exactly the mood I’m going for. Grab you from page one and not let go as it gains momentum from there on, building and building until finally culminating in a jaw-droppingly amazing, can’t-believe-I-just-saw-that finale.

Simply put, my objective is to create a simple-yet-solid story with three-dimensional characters, using the spectacle aspect as support that keeps things interesting.

Similar to how it was with the western, I’m a huge fan of the genre and know what I as a member of the audience would want to see. I’m not looking to reinvent the wheel here; just tell a fun story. Hopefully my appreciation and knowledge of this kind of material will come through on the page.

What it really boils down to is the more I can make this a smart and exciting thrill ride, the better.

As I work out the story details, I’m keeping this in mind: If there was a free-of-plot-details trailer for this, you’d be overwhelmingly compelled to want to see it.  (Sort of what they’ve done for GODZILLA and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.)

The story behind the story

Maximum Z antagonist, backstory, Black List, characters, conflict, guidelines, loglines, monsters, outlines, plot, protagonist, rewrite, screenwriting, script, setup, Star Wars, story, storytelling, structure, writing
Figure out how it works before you start, or things could get messy
Step 1: Figure out how it all works

A slightly altered holiday work schedule has resulted in more hours on the air, which is always nice, but less time cranking out pages, which isn’t.

So I make the most of the handful of minutes between reports with the always-reliable working on an outline. This time – the monster script.

Despite knowing the general playing-out of the story, there was something that wasn’t clicking. Most of the items on my mental checklist had been checked off.

Most. Not all.  What was missing?

It took the constant back-and-forth between the opening sequences of the two previous outlines to make me realize what it was: I’d never fully established what happened before the story started.

Not knowing how everything came about was preventing me from moving forward. I had to create this world before I could write about it.

Think of the opening crawl in STAR WARS (“It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, etc. etc…”). It establishes what we need to know. Without it, we’d be too busy trying to figure things out.

Using that as an example, I worked out my own version of the opening crawl. It won’t be in the actual script, but it’s a pretty solid foundation for setting things up – a better realization of how this world works, what the antagonist wants and how that can be accomplished, the challenges the protagonist faces, just to name a few.

The work on this is far from being over, but developing this really helped. Some important blanks have been filled in and I’ve got a firmer grasp of how the story works.

Time now to start the latest version of the outline and see how it goes.

-Regarding the recent release of this year’s Black List. There appear to be a handful that sound pretty good, but the rest don’t really do much for me.

No doubt they’re all extremely well-written (why else would they be on the list?), but a majority don’t have that “Read me!” vibe. It probably doesn’t help that the writers are not the ones providing the loglines. I suspect that would make quite a difference.

Out of the fog – literally

Maximum Z creativity, cycling, ideas, inspiration, monsters, San Francisco, scenes, screenwriting, script, spec, story, writing
Definitely the kind of weather you'd find this guy in
Conditions like this I call “Sam Spade kind of weather”

Call it a benefit of being a creative type.

Even though I may be working on one project, there’s always the strong possibility that ideas connected with another can still pop up. Happens to all of us.

When they do, I do my best to take advantage of it.

Just such a thing happened yesterday morning. As is my usual routine, I was riding my bike to work. (Didja know I leave the house at 4AM? True.) Suffice to say, it was dark.

And foggy. This is San Francisco, where fog is a serious issue. Visibility was limited to fifteen, maybe twenty yards.

So there I am, pedaling along, and I can’t help but notice how delightfully creepy and sinister it all is. Barely-lit slick streets blanketed with dense fog, the hearty blast of the foghorn sounding over by the Golden Gate.  Something in my brain switches on.

“This is the perfect setting,” I think to myself, “for the opening of the monster script.”

The fog hung around for about another two miles, giving me lots of time to come up with a mental list of what could happen during that sequence. After I got to work, I wrote some of them down. If only the rest of this was as easy.

Even though this is just a small part of the story, and the actual work on the script may not happen for a couple of months, it was pleasantly unexpected.

We can’t force inspiration, so when you suddenly come up with an idea, let alone one that works, no matter how big or small it is, grab hold with both hands and do not let go.

The details might change, or you might not even use it, but it’s still a small step towards being done that helps make the whole process a little more bearable.