Yes. It's a rip off from the Interpol album.
But...
just the title!
Actually, this is my least favourite of the Interpol trilogy (so far...)
But I do love the title.
And, when I was writing the story (the initial title was Death At A Funeral - not very inspired, I know), this title just seemed to fit it all too well...
There's a lot of stuff that I like in this story. I like the way the characters are kind of dual. Even the father has his moment. And even Jeff, the main character, the guy who's supposed to know it all, wavers a bit, perhaps not externally, but internally.
As I was writing it, I was missing the subtleties. I wrote a first draft that was below 3000 words but, as soon as I started working on it it started growing. It's now just under 5000. Which is a nice size. I think it has all that the story needs.
Took me two days to re-write it. Which seems like an awful lot of time. Something like 12 hours to do something that only takes a bit over 2 hours to type...
The next phase is to read it out aloud, with a mic plugged to my computer and then see how it sounds. And I'll probably play some guitar as background as well - if it sounds alright.
I've done it before and, since lately I've been writing and playing guitar alternately, it kind of makes sense to put the two together once more. After all my guitar playing naturally divides itself between a "rock song" format and "soundscapes" so, why not use them?
So Land Of Fog and A View Of The Mountain have been on hold during these last few days. My excuse is that I've been running around quite a lot and I needed smaller things to focus on. So, Our Love To Admire and another smaller story (though it's now just above 8000) have been my two pet projects for this last week or so. As soon as they're ready (and I'm thinking tomorow and sunday to finish them off) I'll return to the two biggies...
Don't know if I'll be able to post a couple of mp3 tracks for Our Love To Admire (I'm not the most technical of persons - as you've probably noticed...) in this here blog but it would be fun!
Peace
Friday 19 December 2008
Saturday 13 December 2008
Through the Fog, up the Mountain
The last few days hve been full of surprises, of various flavours and forms.
On thursday I went to a conference which helped me substantially with one of my projects where I made quite a few interesting contacts and learned some very interesting facts. And where a few ideas became clearer.
On wednesday I had found out that my gran had died in one of the strangest ways ever. While having some soup she choked on it, some of the soup went into her lungs, the firemen and the ambulance fortunately came in time and managed to keep her alive with oxygen, enough to take to hospital but, due to yet another stroke (probably her 6th or 7th major one) she was rendered very weak and, after a few hours, she passed away.
I was sad but perhaps not as much as I'd expected. After all, she'd been bed ridden for quite a few years and it was clear that she was never going to recover and that she was slowly drifting away from life.
So, on friday, early morning, i was on my way to luton, heading to Lisbon and then to Sao Martinho do Porto where the funeral was being held.
I started writing a short story on my way there that I finished on my way back. It mixed some of the elements of the situation and some lessons that sometimes I feel people could use with really learning.
The strangest thing happened while waiting in line to get into the airplane. Someone collapsed while waiting in line and, to date, i do not know if the person made it or not. I mean, there i was, going to my gran's funeral and, suddenly it seems that the subject of death comes "alive" somewhere ahead of me.
I was instantly consumed by the fear and the pain and the powerlessness of the situation. Even thinking about it now still bringsthat intensity somewhat back.
This whole situation helped clarify what I actually feel about death.
Inside me there is still some fear and quite a lot of resistance to the prospect. But, at the same time, there is also a core certainty of the beauty of the moment - if we are given time to contemplate. And this, I know it within my heart, transcends and overwhelms all the fear that I could possibly feel.
I've had some weird experiences in the past and they have all led me to the conclusion that death can be an amazing experience. In fact, that death can be (as Neil Gaiman so brilliantly put it) The Time Of Our Life. When the whole of our system knows that this is it, suddenly all the boundaries that have been in place to "keep us safe", can be discarded and the world's of experience can really be opened up. I firmly believe that in those last few moments we can live more than we ever thought possible. I don't think any experience whatsoever could possibly compare to it.
In any case, there I was, waiting in line, powerless as somebody fought for life. Hearing the despair, surprised at the inefficiency of response services within the airport. It felt as if it was more important to to keep up appearances than actually help the person (for a while people were crying out for a doctor or nurse amidst the passengers and, yet, there was no information on the speakers - or, rather, the speakers continued to blare the usual stuff about flights and delays).
What I felt was that it was the being in that moment, sharing that transition, and especially the fear and concern and pain and support that people were demonstrating with their body language, that really affected me.
I say this because when I was looking to my gran, lying in her coffin, I couldn't feel much. It was clear to me that she wasn't there. That that body wasn't her. That she was gone. It was so clear that I couldn't do anything about it that no attachment was present.
My relation with my family and with my own feelings has always been somewhat complicated. So many contradictions that sometimes I am lost amidst them.
This time I was so absorbed in being there that I didn't really notice the usual "they cry for themselves rather than the dead".
What I observed that really turned me inside out a bit, anger boiling alongside a somewhat cool contemplation of it, was with me listening to the priest saying the mass. This was the first time that I heard most of it. And I felt completely betrayed. I couldn't stop seeing and feling the deception being played.
(I'm not saying that it was, just that that was how it felt to me)
i understand everybody's need to come to terms with that indefatigable event taht no one seems to be able to dodge, but the way the priest was performing that service just felt, ultimately, as an act of subtle cruelty.
The key to all this was the tone of voice. So artificial and rehearsed that I felt at points like choking the guy.
I guess people prefer to listen to what they wish they could believe than in what they actually feel. I guess that, when confronted with death, we all need a supporting parent. But seeing someone taking advantage of that vulnerability was becoming unbearable. Feeling and knowing what I was feeling, both enhanced my ability to control my emotions and to more fully express them inside myself.
This is my issue of course. My inability to accept when people do not talk from their hearts or even from their minds but from something they simply have been told to believe.
So why am i enraged at everybody else's relinquishing of their inner freedom to find their own truth?
Partially beacuse I know that I am afraid of being exactly like them, only in a different way. Instead of having a seemingly solid external system to back me up, I have a, perhaps steam like interior system backing me up.
Also because I quite obviously and egotistically believe that my beliefs are better than other people's.
In sum, because i, like most people, have a warped vision of reality. This being caused by the existence of an ego, to a great extent. If there is an I, if there is something that recognises itself as being separate from the rest, then this I will tend to see itself as most important than the rest purely as a survival mechanism.
Why am I writing this?
I honestly don't know. For many reasons I guess. Probably all the ones you can think about are probably true to one extent or another. It doesn't really matter.
Partially I wanted to give a background for these last few days writing and to record in some way the transformation of my perception.
This probably has to do with a sensation/thought that I had on the 436 going back to lewisham this afternoon. I had the clear impression that after (or before) the funeral of my other gran, almost 3 years ago, that I had had a vision or a dream or something that i was at the funeral of this gran that died a few days ago. It was a deja vu, of course, but this one had a memory attached to it of actually having written down this sensation all this time ago.
Obviously I don't have the faintest idea where I wrote this.
In any case, it was simple. I had the feeling I had dreamt or foresaw the whole situation around having to rush back to portugal for my gran's funeral after having been only a week ago.
i know that deja vu feelings are simply a way of dealing with our pain, with a situation that we feel we cannot resolve. But this one clearly felt different from the usual ones.
Anyway...
On wednesday I reviewed a bit more of LAND OF FOG. I had felt that I was spending so much time lately with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and not so much with this project (that I still want to have a first draft ready before the year ends - actually, before x-mas comes....). Not much and quite slowly. I spent more time playing the guitar (and recording various tracks) than reviewing. Sometimes it's just the way it goes. I didn't feel like I should force myself too much on that day. And so I played thinking of my dead grandparents and let what I felt out in my own way. Turning the emotion into some sort of grandeur. Death should not be small and squandered. It should be celebrated and be able to lift us up even closer to life. Those tracks were a bit a bout that. Starting with simple structures of half a dozen notes, repeating themselves in loops but with some rhythmic variances that gave them fluidity and vertigo. And then, at some point, thinking of The Go-Betweens, i shifted the scale and made them all happier and lighter. In some i returned to the beginning riff, in order i did not. Above all I just wanted to use that liberating energy that i was feeling and captured it somehow so that perhaps one day I can share it and help others reach that state. maybe telling them the story of how those songs came to be and then playing them so that we can all participate in an experience of communion and some degree of truth.
Today I finished typing up the rest of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. There are still some more panels to write up but I think I can do them all in a day. Maybe this coming wednesday. It would be nice if, by the end of this weekend, I could have both first drafts finished. It's quite possible, but I have to be more focussed than I have been in the last week or so.
And this is how things are at the moment.
Hope you are well and happy.
Always.
Peace
On thursday I went to a conference which helped me substantially with one of my projects where I made quite a few interesting contacts and learned some very interesting facts. And where a few ideas became clearer.
On wednesday I had found out that my gran had died in one of the strangest ways ever. While having some soup she choked on it, some of the soup went into her lungs, the firemen and the ambulance fortunately came in time and managed to keep her alive with oxygen, enough to take to hospital but, due to yet another stroke (probably her 6th or 7th major one) she was rendered very weak and, after a few hours, she passed away.
I was sad but perhaps not as much as I'd expected. After all, she'd been bed ridden for quite a few years and it was clear that she was never going to recover and that she was slowly drifting away from life.
So, on friday, early morning, i was on my way to luton, heading to Lisbon and then to Sao Martinho do Porto where the funeral was being held.
I started writing a short story on my way there that I finished on my way back. It mixed some of the elements of the situation and some lessons that sometimes I feel people could use with really learning.
The strangest thing happened while waiting in line to get into the airplane. Someone collapsed while waiting in line and, to date, i do not know if the person made it or not. I mean, there i was, going to my gran's funeral and, suddenly it seems that the subject of death comes "alive" somewhere ahead of me.
I was instantly consumed by the fear and the pain and the powerlessness of the situation. Even thinking about it now still bringsthat intensity somewhat back.
This whole situation helped clarify what I actually feel about death.
Inside me there is still some fear and quite a lot of resistance to the prospect. But, at the same time, there is also a core certainty of the beauty of the moment - if we are given time to contemplate. And this, I know it within my heart, transcends and overwhelms all the fear that I could possibly feel.
I've had some weird experiences in the past and they have all led me to the conclusion that death can be an amazing experience. In fact, that death can be (as Neil Gaiman so brilliantly put it) The Time Of Our Life. When the whole of our system knows that this is it, suddenly all the boundaries that have been in place to "keep us safe", can be discarded and the world's of experience can really be opened up. I firmly believe that in those last few moments we can live more than we ever thought possible. I don't think any experience whatsoever could possibly compare to it.
In any case, there I was, waiting in line, powerless as somebody fought for life. Hearing the despair, surprised at the inefficiency of response services within the airport. It felt as if it was more important to to keep up appearances than actually help the person (for a while people were crying out for a doctor or nurse amidst the passengers and, yet, there was no information on the speakers - or, rather, the speakers continued to blare the usual stuff about flights and delays).
What I felt was that it was the being in that moment, sharing that transition, and especially the fear and concern and pain and support that people were demonstrating with their body language, that really affected me.
I say this because when I was looking to my gran, lying in her coffin, I couldn't feel much. It was clear to me that she wasn't there. That that body wasn't her. That she was gone. It was so clear that I couldn't do anything about it that no attachment was present.
My relation with my family and with my own feelings has always been somewhat complicated. So many contradictions that sometimes I am lost amidst them.
This time I was so absorbed in being there that I didn't really notice the usual "they cry for themselves rather than the dead".
What I observed that really turned me inside out a bit, anger boiling alongside a somewhat cool contemplation of it, was with me listening to the priest saying the mass. This was the first time that I heard most of it. And I felt completely betrayed. I couldn't stop seeing and feling the deception being played.
(I'm not saying that it was, just that that was how it felt to me)
i understand everybody's need to come to terms with that indefatigable event taht no one seems to be able to dodge, but the way the priest was performing that service just felt, ultimately, as an act of subtle cruelty.
The key to all this was the tone of voice. So artificial and rehearsed that I felt at points like choking the guy.
I guess people prefer to listen to what they wish they could believe than in what they actually feel. I guess that, when confronted with death, we all need a supporting parent. But seeing someone taking advantage of that vulnerability was becoming unbearable. Feeling and knowing what I was feeling, both enhanced my ability to control my emotions and to more fully express them inside myself.
This is my issue of course. My inability to accept when people do not talk from their hearts or even from their minds but from something they simply have been told to believe.
So why am i enraged at everybody else's relinquishing of their inner freedom to find their own truth?
Partially beacuse I know that I am afraid of being exactly like them, only in a different way. Instead of having a seemingly solid external system to back me up, I have a, perhaps steam like interior system backing me up.
Also because I quite obviously and egotistically believe that my beliefs are better than other people's.
In sum, because i, like most people, have a warped vision of reality. This being caused by the existence of an ego, to a great extent. If there is an I, if there is something that recognises itself as being separate from the rest, then this I will tend to see itself as most important than the rest purely as a survival mechanism.
Why am I writing this?
I honestly don't know. For many reasons I guess. Probably all the ones you can think about are probably true to one extent or another. It doesn't really matter.
Partially I wanted to give a background for these last few days writing and to record in some way the transformation of my perception.
This probably has to do with a sensation/thought that I had on the 436 going back to lewisham this afternoon. I had the clear impression that after (or before) the funeral of my other gran, almost 3 years ago, that I had had a vision or a dream or something that i was at the funeral of this gran that died a few days ago. It was a deja vu, of course, but this one had a memory attached to it of actually having written down this sensation all this time ago.
Obviously I don't have the faintest idea where I wrote this.
In any case, it was simple. I had the feeling I had dreamt or foresaw the whole situation around having to rush back to portugal for my gran's funeral after having been only a week ago.
i know that deja vu feelings are simply a way of dealing with our pain, with a situation that we feel we cannot resolve. But this one clearly felt different from the usual ones.
Anyway...
On wednesday I reviewed a bit more of LAND OF FOG. I had felt that I was spending so much time lately with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and not so much with this project (that I still want to have a first draft ready before the year ends - actually, before x-mas comes....). Not much and quite slowly. I spent more time playing the guitar (and recording various tracks) than reviewing. Sometimes it's just the way it goes. I didn't feel like I should force myself too much on that day. And so I played thinking of my dead grandparents and let what I felt out in my own way. Turning the emotion into some sort of grandeur. Death should not be small and squandered. It should be celebrated and be able to lift us up even closer to life. Those tracks were a bit a bout that. Starting with simple structures of half a dozen notes, repeating themselves in loops but with some rhythmic variances that gave them fluidity and vertigo. And then, at some point, thinking of The Go-Betweens, i shifted the scale and made them all happier and lighter. In some i returned to the beginning riff, in order i did not. Above all I just wanted to use that liberating energy that i was feeling and captured it somehow so that perhaps one day I can share it and help others reach that state. maybe telling them the story of how those songs came to be and then playing them so that we can all participate in an experience of communion and some degree of truth.
Today I finished typing up the rest of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. There are still some more panels to write up but I think I can do them all in a day. Maybe this coming wednesday. It would be nice if, by the end of this weekend, I could have both first drafts finished. It's quite possible, but I have to be more focussed than I have been in the last week or so.
And this is how things are at the moment.
Hope you are well and happy.
Always.
Peace
Tuesday 9 December 2008
A View Of The Mountain update
December is already rolling away fast and I'm simply trying to keep up!
I guess the more you do, the less time you've got to actually pay any attention to time itself... that's why we feel time is moving fast.
Perhaps time doesn't care if it's moving fast or slow. But we do. And our perception is always relative.
Always?
That's an interesting question and, thinking more about it would quite certainly take me to the fuzzy bordering regions between Buddhism and Hinduism.
(We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not th-)
(sorry... too much LOST viewing the last couple of weeks...)
Simply because the concepts of Buddhism and Hinduism are quite different. One defines the Void as the Absolute. The other, a god like presence that exists beyond this void...
I think it really is a question of words rather than of experience.
But various mystics have pointed out that enlightened beings seem to have access to a reality that isn't relative/observer dependent anymore...
Not food for thought, but more of subject matter to be experienced via spiritual practice.
Anyway...
This week I've been mostly writing...
(and yes, the Fast Show was one of the best british comedy show's ever!)
A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN
and
LAND OF FOG
I have kept to my commitment's...
The plan is to have readable first draft ready for the two scripts.
Don't really know about A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN since this script has been a journey in itself. But I'm confident that this will be the time of wordy deliverance!
I've got about 80-85% of all the panels. I just need to type up a few more pages. I'll probably end up with 200 pages of comics or something...
And that will mean a good revising.
In any case, as soon as all the sequences are ready I'll start assembling them with my famous cut and paste routine with scissors and tape.
It's the only way to do it...
(trust me, I know)
That will take me to a mock structure for the whole thing. Hopefully I'll be able to do the cut and pasting in just a day. Then it will be revising time. Which means reading the whole thing and figuring out what was left out, what isn't working, what is how, who is which, you know, etc...
With LAND OF FOG things seem to be going more slowly but with great determination!
I feel so relaxed about it that I'm not even too bothered editing it...
(the problems of over confidence...)
Actually I lost some good pages that I had revised.
You know, one of those things when the computer just decides to switch itself off...
But I found the file, managed to retrieve it and convert it, even gave it a new label and everything.
AND THEN ERASED IT WHEN I FORMATED MY COMPUTER A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO
This is how my brain works.
Can you see now why I have to write this stuff down?!
Even when I do, I forget!
(but if I didn't... god help us...)
I mean I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how I could save that file, etc, etc, searching for it, etc, etc, and then, after doing it, after doing everything right, I FORGOT TO SEND IT TO A DIFFERENT DRIVE
or simply save it on my pen drive.
BAM!
Lost.
And now, definitely nowhere to be found.
Lesson learned.
(hopefully... please work brain, please! I'm begging me here!)
This probably means, in our Great Cosmic Plan, that that revision wasn't that good.
I'm quite sure of it.
Maybe...
Peace
I guess the more you do, the less time you've got to actually pay any attention to time itself... that's why we feel time is moving fast.
Perhaps time doesn't care if it's moving fast or slow. But we do. And our perception is always relative.
Always?
That's an interesting question and, thinking more about it would quite certainly take me to the fuzzy bordering regions between Buddhism and Hinduism.
(We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not th-)
(sorry... too much LOST viewing the last couple of weeks...)
Simply because the concepts of Buddhism and Hinduism are quite different. One defines the Void as the Absolute. The other, a god like presence that exists beyond this void...
I think it really is a question of words rather than of experience.
But various mystics have pointed out that enlightened beings seem to have access to a reality that isn't relative/observer dependent anymore...
Not food for thought, but more of subject matter to be experienced via spiritual practice.
Anyway...
This week I've been mostly writing...
(and yes, the Fast Show was one of the best british comedy show's ever!)
A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN
and
LAND OF FOG
I have kept to my commitment's...
The plan is to have readable first draft ready for the two scripts.
Don't really know about A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN since this script has been a journey in itself. But I'm confident that this will be the time of wordy deliverance!
I've got about 80-85% of all the panels. I just need to type up a few more pages. I'll probably end up with 200 pages of comics or something...
And that will mean a good revising.
In any case, as soon as all the sequences are ready I'll start assembling them with my famous cut and paste routine with scissors and tape.
It's the only way to do it...
(trust me, I know)
That will take me to a mock structure for the whole thing. Hopefully I'll be able to do the cut and pasting in just a day. Then it will be revising time. Which means reading the whole thing and figuring out what was left out, what isn't working, what is how, who is which, you know, etc...
With LAND OF FOG things seem to be going more slowly but with great determination!
I feel so relaxed about it that I'm not even too bothered editing it...
(the problems of over confidence...)
Actually I lost some good pages that I had revised.
You know, one of those things when the computer just decides to switch itself off...
But I found the file, managed to retrieve it and convert it, even gave it a new label and everything.
AND THEN ERASED IT WHEN I FORMATED MY COMPUTER A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO
This is how my brain works.
Can you see now why I have to write this stuff down?!
Even when I do, I forget!
(but if I didn't... god help us...)
I mean I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how I could save that file, etc, etc, searching for it, etc, etc, and then, after doing it, after doing everything right, I FORGOT TO SEND IT TO A DIFFERENT DRIVE
or simply save it on my pen drive.
BAM!
Lost.
And now, definitely nowhere to be found.
Lesson learned.
(hopefully... please work brain, please! I'm begging me here!)
This probably means, in our Great Cosmic Plan, that that revision wasn't that good.
I'm quite sure of it.
Maybe...
Peace
Friday 5 December 2008
THE PLAN (excerpt)
Since November was a month spent writing a lot but not that many comics, I decided to post here another script excerpt.
This is a script that I did a while ago. It's about teenagers and drugs and making your dreams come true.
It's also about getting what you want and finding out that, no matter how close you are to someone, you can never really know what will happen inside their heads.
Hope you like it.
Peace.
THE PLAN
(17 script pg. for 24 comics pg.)
SCRIPT
COVER
Mid shot as Amy holds Jack from behind. They are naked. Jack makes a face, showing his tongue sticking out, clearly having fun and Amy’s head moves towards his mouth, about to touch his right ear. She’s smiling too. A happy couple as they lie in bed. White background.
NOTES
All texts in italics are thought captions.
CHARACTERS
AMY
A blond early twenties girl, shoulder length hair. A piercing on her nose and on the opposite brow.
JACK
A mid twenties guy. Black hair drizzled over his eyes. Clean shaved.
TONY
Late twenties. Well dressed. Posh looking. Clean cut.
MALCOM
Black guy, early twenties, intellectual looking, determined looking.
LARISSA
A provocative young black girl. Overly dressed, all sparkly with jewellery.
RICK
Blond guy, late teens. Small moustache and stoned out of his face. Barely keeping his eyes open.
ROBERTA
A Brazilian girl. Late twenties. Top and shorts to show her trim body.
PAGE 1
This is Amy walking through a huge party. A private residence so big that it has its own dance floor and bar. Amy walks through the crowd. Amy’s POV all through this first page.
Close up. The face of a guy stoned out of his face, dancing, barely noticing us.
AMY
Tonight’s the night.
Or so they say.
Close up. A girl dancing, her long blond hair hiding her face as she looks down.
AMY
So the story goes.
Though, who or where I’ve never understood.
Close up. A guy with shades looks up. A poseur.
AMY
People like me, I guess. Places like this.
And most that aren’t.
Panoramic. The dancing crowd in front of Amy. To her right lies the bar. A ver compacted crowd.
AMY
Until now, from wreck to wreckage, I’ve built my days as best as I could.
Close up. Behind Amy. Waist high shot. As she moves through the crowd it slightly parts for her, creating a kind of tunnel.
AMY
Guess it’s time to give the night another shot.
Kill it dead.
PAGE 2
Same shot only at eye level now. Amy’s a beautiful blond girl in her mid twenties. People don’t notice her, dancing, smoking weed or drinking. She wades through them now. On her right, Tony, holds a glass of red wine while talking to an overly produced girl. Tony looks posh but hosts a very dismissive stance. Laid back.
AMY
I’ve been hearing these stories, you know, that y-
TONY!
Close up. Tony openly smiles seeing Amy.
Medium shot. Tony and Amy embrace. He spills a bit of wine without noticing.
Medium shot. As Tony talks excitedly with Amy the other girl looks annoyed. She’s being totally ignored.
TONY
Hi girl!
Welcome to the fun!
This is gonna be a wild one I tell ya!
Close up on Amy. A knowledgeable grin on her face, provocative.
AMY
Aren’t they always?!
Medium shot. Amy grabs Tony’s glass. The girl behind Tony turns her back to them.
PAGE 3
Close up on Amy as she sips. The other girl moves away from them. Tony just gazes at Amy in the background. Infatuated by her.
Medium shot. In between Amy and Tony. Tony is more pensive now.
AMY
Jack around?
TONY
He’ll show up later. Says he’s gonna bring something special…
Close up. Tony puts a challenging stance on his gaze towards Amy.
TONY
But only for the worthy.
AMY
Don’t worry.
Close up. Amy whispers in Tony’s ear.
AMY
We can always kill him if he refuses.
Close up. Tony smiles as he whispers back at Amy’s ear.
TONY
You're not under some kind of psychopathic control are you?
PAGE 4
Pull back. Amy moves away from Tony, smiling. Neck up.
AMY
Ditched those guys long ago.
Full shot. Amy holds one of Tony’s arms with her hands in a friendly way. We’re behind her.
AMY
Having a family is hard enough.
Catch ya later.
Medium shot. Amy looks back as she once again wades into the crowd, continuing in the previous direction. We’re next to Tony’s wine glass.
AMY
Be sure to tell Jack I wanna see him.
Amy’s back POV. Tony waves back awkwardly with the hand holding the weed.
PAGE 5
Down shot. The crowd dances. Amy lost amidst them, still piercing through.
SOUNDTRACK
“Hell bent on self destruction… Our torture is the key…”
Pull in on Amy.
AMY
I mean, all this, right, it must mean something.
Pull in more.
AMY
I’ve considered it for a long time and here are the brilliant conclusions I’ve come up with.
Pull in some more.
AMY
These parties, filled with people and sound, with consciousness altering substances merely point in two directions.
Just above her head.
Close up on the roots of her hair.
AMY
The misery where we’ve come from-
PAGE 6
Full shot. As if looking through a tunnel, we see a huge network of neural synapses underneath, glowing.
AMY
-into the hope inside.
Long shot. We float amidst the infinite depths of the brain. A neuron stands out up and to our left, like a fortress, its connections fading into the distance.
AMY
The breaking of the boundaries
and experience what we’ve been lacking all our lives.
This is a script that I did a while ago. It's about teenagers and drugs and making your dreams come true.
It's also about getting what you want and finding out that, no matter how close you are to someone, you can never really know what will happen inside their heads.
Hope you like it.
Peace.
THE PLAN
(17 script pg. for 24 comics pg.)
SCRIPT
COVER
Mid shot as Amy holds Jack from behind. They are naked. Jack makes a face, showing his tongue sticking out, clearly having fun and Amy’s head moves towards his mouth, about to touch his right ear. She’s smiling too. A happy couple as they lie in bed. White background.
NOTES
All texts in italics are thought captions.
CHARACTERS
AMY
A blond early twenties girl, shoulder length hair. A piercing on her nose and on the opposite brow.
JACK
A mid twenties guy. Black hair drizzled over his eyes. Clean shaved.
TONY
Late twenties. Well dressed. Posh looking. Clean cut.
MALCOM
Black guy, early twenties, intellectual looking, determined looking.
LARISSA
A provocative young black girl. Overly dressed, all sparkly with jewellery.
RICK
Blond guy, late teens. Small moustache and stoned out of his face. Barely keeping his eyes open.
ROBERTA
A Brazilian girl. Late twenties. Top and shorts to show her trim body.
PAGE 1
This is Amy walking through a huge party. A private residence so big that it has its own dance floor and bar. Amy walks through the crowd. Amy’s POV all through this first page.
Close up. The face of a guy stoned out of his face, dancing, barely noticing us.
AMY
Tonight’s the night.
Or so they say.
Close up. A girl dancing, her long blond hair hiding her face as she looks down.
AMY
So the story goes.
Though, who or where I’ve never understood.
Close up. A guy with shades looks up. A poseur.
AMY
People like me, I guess. Places like this.
And most that aren’t.
Panoramic. The dancing crowd in front of Amy. To her right lies the bar. A ver compacted crowd.
AMY
Until now, from wreck to wreckage, I’ve built my days as best as I could.
Close up. Behind Amy. Waist high shot. As she moves through the crowd it slightly parts for her, creating a kind of tunnel.
AMY
Guess it’s time to give the night another shot.
Kill it dead.
PAGE 2
Same shot only at eye level now. Amy’s a beautiful blond girl in her mid twenties. People don’t notice her, dancing, smoking weed or drinking. She wades through them now. On her right, Tony, holds a glass of red wine while talking to an overly produced girl. Tony looks posh but hosts a very dismissive stance. Laid back.
AMY
I’ve been hearing these stories, you know, that y-
TONY!
Close up. Tony openly smiles seeing Amy.
Medium shot. Tony and Amy embrace. He spills a bit of wine without noticing.
Medium shot. As Tony talks excitedly with Amy the other girl looks annoyed. She’s being totally ignored.
TONY
Hi girl!
Welcome to the fun!
This is gonna be a wild one I tell ya!
Close up on Amy. A knowledgeable grin on her face, provocative.
AMY
Aren’t they always?!
Medium shot. Amy grabs Tony’s glass. The girl behind Tony turns her back to them.
PAGE 3
Close up on Amy as she sips. The other girl moves away from them. Tony just gazes at Amy in the background. Infatuated by her.
Medium shot. In between Amy and Tony. Tony is more pensive now.
AMY
Jack around?
TONY
He’ll show up later. Says he’s gonna bring something special…
Close up. Tony puts a challenging stance on his gaze towards Amy.
TONY
But only for the worthy.
AMY
Don’t worry.
Close up. Amy whispers in Tony’s ear.
AMY
We can always kill him if he refuses.
Close up. Tony smiles as he whispers back at Amy’s ear.
TONY
You're not under some kind of psychopathic control are you?
PAGE 4
Pull back. Amy moves away from Tony, smiling. Neck up.
AMY
Ditched those guys long ago.
Full shot. Amy holds one of Tony’s arms with her hands in a friendly way. We’re behind her.
AMY
Having a family is hard enough.
Catch ya later.
Medium shot. Amy looks back as she once again wades into the crowd, continuing in the previous direction. We’re next to Tony’s wine glass.
AMY
Be sure to tell Jack I wanna see him.
Amy’s back POV. Tony waves back awkwardly with the hand holding the weed.
PAGE 5
Down shot. The crowd dances. Amy lost amidst them, still piercing through.
SOUNDTRACK
“Hell bent on self destruction… Our torture is the key…”
Pull in on Amy.
AMY
I mean, all this, right, it must mean something.
Pull in more.
AMY
I’ve considered it for a long time and here are the brilliant conclusions I’ve come up with.
Pull in some more.
AMY
These parties, filled with people and sound, with consciousness altering substances merely point in two directions.
Just above her head.
Close up on the roots of her hair.
AMY
The misery where we’ve come from-
PAGE 6
Full shot. As if looking through a tunnel, we see a huge network of neural synapses underneath, glowing.
AMY
-into the hope inside.
Long shot. We float amidst the infinite depths of the brain. A neuron stands out up and to our left, like a fortress, its connections fading into the distance.
AMY
The breaking of the boundaries
and experience what we’ve been lacking all our lives.
Portuguese Trips
Spent the last 8 days or so in portugal. And, until sunday the 30th of november, I was almost completely absorbed with nanowrimo and ML.
I finished a mostly unreadable first draft over 151 000 words long.
I feel that I am now ready to start writing the book proper but it will have to wait. I need a rest from ML!
I've had a couple of ideas since then, namely one for a short theatre play under the current alias of TRAIN OF THOUGHT.
And a few ideas for a trilogy of films for Marvel starring one of their characters. I started writing the synopsis for the stories (it was only one film in the beginning, but then I got a bit carried away...) still on the airplane and then, whilst riding the 436 to Lewisham, as I wrote some more, it started to become clear where the first film could end and the second one begin.
And, while having some food, round about 1am, already home, already in bed, already glad that I could switch on my computer and use that well known keyboard for as long as I'd like, I added a few more ideas, some more lines, planned very roughly the first two films and finally a third came in. Kind of rounding everything up.
Which is how I like it to be really.
So this is December. The month where christmas happens, either you believe in santa claus or not.
The month where some people buy presents, others expect to receive them and still others, like me, only buy if they really feel like it.
(I prefer to give presents whenever I feel like it, not because of any specific date - call me a present intuitive...)
And, in this month of consumerism and family (and food and tv and many other things) I'm planning on spending most of my time revising LAND OF FOG in order to have a readable draft before the year finishes.
And continue working on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And probably write some more on a few scripts and odds and ends that my mind will take me to.
Be well,
Peace.
I finished a mostly unreadable first draft over 151 000 words long.
I feel that I am now ready to start writing the book proper but it will have to wait. I need a rest from ML!
I've had a couple of ideas since then, namely one for a short theatre play under the current alias of TRAIN OF THOUGHT.
And a few ideas for a trilogy of films for Marvel starring one of their characters. I started writing the synopsis for the stories (it was only one film in the beginning, but then I got a bit carried away...) still on the airplane and then, whilst riding the 436 to Lewisham, as I wrote some more, it started to become clear where the first film could end and the second one begin.
And, while having some food, round about 1am, already home, already in bed, already glad that I could switch on my computer and use that well known keyboard for as long as I'd like, I added a few more ideas, some more lines, planned very roughly the first two films and finally a third came in. Kind of rounding everything up.
Which is how I like it to be really.
So this is December. The month where christmas happens, either you believe in santa claus or not.
The month where some people buy presents, others expect to receive them and still others, like me, only buy if they really feel like it.
(I prefer to give presents whenever I feel like it, not because of any specific date - call me a present intuitive...)
And, in this month of consumerism and family (and food and tv and many other things) I'm planning on spending most of my time revising LAND OF FOG in order to have a readable draft before the year finishes.
And continue working on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And probably write some more on a few scripts and odds and ends that my mind will take me to.
Be well,
Peace.
Tuesday 25 November 2008
Luxembourg Writs
Spent this last weekend in Luxembourg with my good friend Miguel and his lovely family. It snowed quite heavily on saturday (so I had a white morning bus rid on my way to frankfurt-hahn airport on sunday morning) and I went to a concert on friday night (fujya & miyagi, from brighton!)
But the remainder of the time I simply stayed home. Either playing guitar or enjoying some of Miguel's wonderful cooking, watching the kids being kids and taking us all to their level without any problem.
And writing.
I'd wanted to be able to write quite a bit while I was in Luxembourg so I'd still make this year's objective in nanowrimo.
And I did. Perhaps not as much as I'd like, but still a good word count. Not very inspired word count at that. I really feel that my room in Brockley is where the good things happen the most.
Having said that I did tread on some of the rougher waters whilst in Luxembourg. Not that many ideas and, above all, no real want to write.
But I did and ML grew a few thousand words more.
It always amazes me. When I update my file and check its size that it jumps 40 or 50 Kb at each turn. Sometimes even hundreds. The file is almost one megabyte big!
I don't think I will be able to finish the book just like I wanted. But I think I'll have all the pieces I needed to start doing the thing most crucial to the book. ML's story. The one that comes through the eyes and words of 4 different people. With me adding some more confusion on top of that.
But I have also been updating my A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN file. It's going slowly, but it's going. I'm just adding a couple of scenes at a time. And as soon as every single one is done then I will start weacing them all together. Chopping and adding. It's one of my favourite bits because you already feel that the story is there, ready to jump out into the world. I guess it's my favourite bit of editing, even though it can be pretty frustating in the begining if you don't have a structure already in mind...
(which I sort of have in this case... though I don't really know what's gonna happen when I start assembling it...)
And I'm missing LAND OF FOG. As soon as the nanowrimo ends and I finish writing all the bits still left out, I'll start working on this again and see if I can have a first draft ready before x-mas. It's doable but, you never know what may come knocking next at your door...
I keep talking about it and thinking about it every so often, compiling the odd idea, the odd little tidbit that can go into one of those connecting bits between scenes that I still haven't written or that it will need to be re-written. I'm keeping the story alive.
I keep telling it in my mind,
I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just giving you a breather, so you better come out strong next time we meet because I won't let go until you're here beside me...
Peace
But the remainder of the time I simply stayed home. Either playing guitar or enjoying some of Miguel's wonderful cooking, watching the kids being kids and taking us all to their level without any problem.
And writing.
I'd wanted to be able to write quite a bit while I was in Luxembourg so I'd still make this year's objective in nanowrimo.
And I did. Perhaps not as much as I'd like, but still a good word count. Not very inspired word count at that. I really feel that my room in Brockley is where the good things happen the most.
Having said that I did tread on some of the rougher waters whilst in Luxembourg. Not that many ideas and, above all, no real want to write.
But I did and ML grew a few thousand words more.
It always amazes me. When I update my file and check its size that it jumps 40 or 50 Kb at each turn. Sometimes even hundreds. The file is almost one megabyte big!
I don't think I will be able to finish the book just like I wanted. But I think I'll have all the pieces I needed to start doing the thing most crucial to the book. ML's story. The one that comes through the eyes and words of 4 different people. With me adding some more confusion on top of that.
But I have also been updating my A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN file. It's going slowly, but it's going. I'm just adding a couple of scenes at a time. And as soon as every single one is done then I will start weacing them all together. Chopping and adding. It's one of my favourite bits because you already feel that the story is there, ready to jump out into the world. I guess it's my favourite bit of editing, even though it can be pretty frustating in the begining if you don't have a structure already in mind...
(which I sort of have in this case... though I don't really know what's gonna happen when I start assembling it...)
And I'm missing LAND OF FOG. As soon as the nanowrimo ends and I finish writing all the bits still left out, I'll start working on this again and see if I can have a first draft ready before x-mas. It's doable but, you never know what may come knocking next at your door...
I keep talking about it and thinking about it every so often, compiling the odd idea, the odd little tidbit that can go into one of those connecting bits between scenes that I still haven't written or that it will need to be re-written. I'm keeping the story alive.
I keep telling it in my mind,
I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just giving you a breather, so you better come out strong next time we meet because I won't let go until you're here beside me...
Peace
Wednesday 19 November 2008
More Sequential Writs
I've been so busy with NaNoWriMo and the ML project that I really haven't done much in terms of comics scritps.
Land Of Fog is advancing slowly through its first revising stage and I'm doing the odd bits in A View Of The Mountain. Until the 30th of november nothing much will be happening in the other fronts.
My hope is that this rhythm of writing just over 4 000 words per day will be sustained afterwards (a bit difficult when revising comes in...) and I can head back into comics and scripts that are still flying about in my head.
I've had a few more ideas in the meantime but nothing has really been explored much.
Now is simply not the time!
Now it's time to let creativity run loose and be totally unafraid of being completely inconsequent and foolish!
Peace
Land Of Fog is advancing slowly through its first revising stage and I'm doing the odd bits in A View Of The Mountain. Until the 30th of november nothing much will be happening in the other fronts.
My hope is that this rhythm of writing just over 4 000 words per day will be sustained afterwards (a bit difficult when revising comes in...) and I can head back into comics and scripts that are still flying about in my head.
I've had a few more ideas in the meantime but nothing has really been explored much.
Now is simply not the time!
Now it's time to let creativity run loose and be totally unafraid of being completely inconsequent and foolish!
Peace
Tuesday 4 November 2008
CARESSES (excerpt)
Because this month I did not have time to finish something big (too many big things at the same time!!) I 've decided to post here one of the scripts I completed this year. It's called CARESSES and it's the story of a lost soul that heads on to meet another, perhaps in worse shape than she is.
Hope you like it!
peace
CARESSES
(12 script pg. for 24 comics pg.)
COMICS SCRIPT
COVER
Almost full shot of George and Jessica. Back to back. Jessica facing right side of page. They both look stern. We move from light into darkness from top to bottom and, around the waist line and beneath, the two figures seem to fuse. Their expressions are very similar, as if both were searching for the same thing.
NOTES
All texts in italics are thought captions.
CHARACTERS
JESSICA
A white girl, early twenties, long blond hair. Melancholy eyes. Average height.
GEORGE
A tall, broad, black guy, late twenties. Rough looking. Bouncer type only not flashy at all. Shy look.
JESSICA’S MUM & DAD
A white couple.
PAGE 1
Jessica walks through a dark and empty street.
She turns a corner.
Continues on the sidewalk lined with closed shops.
Down shot. A car flashes by.
Then, over her shoulder, we see someone crossing the street to the other side, far away from her.
JESSICA
The streets are empty.
I prefer them that way.
PAGE 2
Close up on Jessica’s hand inserting key in lock.
The door begins to open. Jessica’s POV.
Jessica enters as her parents argue over the dinner table, right across the entrance hall. We’re still in the same spot as we were on the previous panel.
Jessica closes the door. Again we don’t budge our viewpoint.
The door is closed. Same viewpoint.
Large bottom panel. Panoramic. Door POV. Her parents argue without even seeing her climbing the stairs to our left, almost out of shot.
JESSICA
I’ve stopped saying hello.
PAGE 3
Jessica lies in her bed, staring at the ceiling. On one of the walls we can see part of a band poster with a heart being broken apart by three metal chains. It reads LOVE LOST. Down shot.
JESSICA
Here I can feel empty all the time.
It’s all I want.
There’s no pain when you’re absent of yourself.
I taught myself that. Aren’t I smart?
PAGE 4
Jessica sits in an amphitheatre. Panoramic. The teacher writes on the black board, her back turned to the students.
JESSICA
Just my grades don’t prove it. And what is left to prove anyway?
Above Jessica’s shoulder. She’s writing. Amidst the notes, a drawing of a heart being broken apart by 3 equidistant chains.
JESSICA
I’ve got all the proof I need.
Same perspective. A test is flicked in front of her.
JESSICA
Right here.
Jessica looks up. Students are distributing tests along the rows. She’s in a different class now.
JESSICA
I can’t be asked to do better than anyone else.
Jessica ticks a box on the test absentmindedly.
JESSICA
I remember what I have and all is forgotten.
PAGE 5
Jessica passes by a large group of students eagerly looking their grades on the wall outside. Panoramic. Side shot. She looks straight ahead.
Jessica’s POV. A small car is parked just outside the college entrance. Her parents inside. Jessica’s fading.
Jessica moves towards us at an angle. She’s faded some more, a ghost like figure. Other students coming and going.
Jessica’s POV. She enters the car, her parents look straight ahead.
JESSICA
I crawl inside.
Full shot. The car joins the traffic.
Same perspective. The car further away.
Same perspective. The car is lost amidst the traffic.
JESSICA
And I disappear in plain sight.
Hope you like it!
peace
CARESSES
(12 script pg. for 24 comics pg.)
COMICS SCRIPT
COVER
Almost full shot of George and Jessica. Back to back. Jessica facing right side of page. They both look stern. We move from light into darkness from top to bottom and, around the waist line and beneath, the two figures seem to fuse. Their expressions are very similar, as if both were searching for the same thing.
NOTES
All texts in italics are thought captions.
CHARACTERS
JESSICA
A white girl, early twenties, long blond hair. Melancholy eyes. Average height.
GEORGE
A tall, broad, black guy, late twenties. Rough looking. Bouncer type only not flashy at all. Shy look.
JESSICA’S MUM & DAD
A white couple.
PAGE 1
Jessica walks through a dark and empty street.
She turns a corner.
Continues on the sidewalk lined with closed shops.
Down shot. A car flashes by.
Then, over her shoulder, we see someone crossing the street to the other side, far away from her.
JESSICA
The streets are empty.
I prefer them that way.
PAGE 2
Close up on Jessica’s hand inserting key in lock.
The door begins to open. Jessica’s POV.
Jessica enters as her parents argue over the dinner table, right across the entrance hall. We’re still in the same spot as we were on the previous panel.
Jessica closes the door. Again we don’t budge our viewpoint.
The door is closed. Same viewpoint.
Large bottom panel. Panoramic. Door POV. Her parents argue without even seeing her climbing the stairs to our left, almost out of shot.
JESSICA
I’ve stopped saying hello.
PAGE 3
Jessica lies in her bed, staring at the ceiling. On one of the walls we can see part of a band poster with a heart being broken apart by three metal chains. It reads LOVE LOST. Down shot.
JESSICA
Here I can feel empty all the time.
It’s all I want.
There’s no pain when you’re absent of yourself.
I taught myself that. Aren’t I smart?
PAGE 4
Jessica sits in an amphitheatre. Panoramic. The teacher writes on the black board, her back turned to the students.
JESSICA
Just my grades don’t prove it. And what is left to prove anyway?
Above Jessica’s shoulder. She’s writing. Amidst the notes, a drawing of a heart being broken apart by 3 equidistant chains.
JESSICA
I’ve got all the proof I need.
Same perspective. A test is flicked in front of her.
JESSICA
Right here.
Jessica looks up. Students are distributing tests along the rows. She’s in a different class now.
JESSICA
I can’t be asked to do better than anyone else.
Jessica ticks a box on the test absentmindedly.
JESSICA
I remember what I have and all is forgotten.
PAGE 5
Jessica passes by a large group of students eagerly looking their grades on the wall outside. Panoramic. Side shot. She looks straight ahead.
Jessica’s POV. A small car is parked just outside the college entrance. Her parents inside. Jessica’s fading.
Jessica moves towards us at an angle. She’s faded some more, a ghost like figure. Other students coming and going.
Jessica’s POV. She enters the car, her parents look straight ahead.
JESSICA
I crawl inside.
Full shot. The car joins the traffic.
Same perspective. The car further away.
Same perspective. The car is lost amidst the traffic.
JESSICA
And I disappear in plain sight.
Comics Script - The World As We Know It
I've just realised that's been way over a week since I last posted here.
What the heck happens to time? I mean, where does it go? Does somebody keep it inside their pockets or something? Is there a place filled with so much time no one can actually get there?!
(these could actually be some ideas for a short story...)
In any case, on saturday the 25th I kept my plan and continued writing LAND OF FOG. This has actually been my major project in the intervening days.
On the sunday I kept revising and added some new scenes. Don't really recall which (perhaps I should start making a note of that as well) but I do know that I focussed a lot on the characters of Anubia, Rikar, Terry and Tchan. Some weird stories came through and I think Old Ed's role in the whole shennanigan is now stronger than ever. I've been planting seeds so to speak...
I also started writing a synopsis for another comics series idea that i had and that I think will be quite easy to get some funding to do. But i'll keep it a mystery. For now...
Also wrote a bit more on AYOOLA. Still need quite a bit more of text but at least what's coming through is already somewhat solid. This story will have momentum either I like it or not!
The 27th was about getting a bit more structure into LAND OF FOG (still don't know how I'm going to work this one out, but I may just keep it in chronological order - i think it will work this way and I'm a bit afraid that if I jumble the structure further it will become more difficult to get into without really adding any more to the story... don't know... I'll have to see it as soon as it is all revised). Also did some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
on tuesday i merely revised a bit more of LAND OF FOG. Revising is really the toughest thing for me to do. But also, towards its end, the most rewarding. Feeling that something is completed or steadily approaching its completion is really good!
On wednesday I had a couple of ideas for scripts. One is called THE DOWSER and is the story of a guy searching for the ideal place to live. It's a short story that i initially wanted to do almost completely silent. Now I think I'll have to think hard in order to keep it as silent as possible...
DEAD ZONE is actually not an idea of mine but of one of my flatmates. Still, he wants me to write it... i don't know if i have time to delve into someone else's dystopia but I suggested a few ideas in order to make it more cohesive. It kind of made sense us to be talking about it after a long chat about Brian Wood's DMZ.
The other idea was THE PIANO TEACHER which is basically a love story between two people 25 years of difference. This has been a theme that I've wanted to touch upon for many years, especially since I read Sam Keith's ZERO GIRL. Which turns out to be quite autobiographical, only in reverse. ZERO GIRL tells the story of a high school girl that falls in love with her teacher. He in turn falls for her but nothing happens apart from the weirdness and solitude she experiences in her head. But it has a happy ending. In any case, the most moving part of the whole book was actually Sam's account of how he met his wife when he was 15 and she 30. How they waited until he was 18 and started living together. Up until then, more than 10 years after. The whole book is a tribute to her, her patience, guidance and love and a genuine testimony that love knows no barriers. It's a somewhat controversial theme, i know but I, for one, am happy that someone has decided to talk about the good things about it, not just the bad ones...
Thursday i was home and so LAND OF FOG became the centre of the day. I also wrote some more on a huge story arc for the INCREDIBLE HULK that I've had in my head for years. To me this is the definitive take on the HULK. I still am to read a HULK story that completely satisfies me and this is definitely the thing that comes the closest to it. There will be plenty of destruction but the majority will be internal...
From friday the 31st to the 2nd of november i was away on a roleplaying game in essex. Due to the intensity of said CTHULHU horror fantasy mystery i did not write anything (apart from the synopsis for a short crime noir story) until sunday evening. I was still more or less in character, tired and spaced out and couldn't write as much as I wanted. Still, since NANOWRIMO is on, i started with MORTIMER LANSKY and started writing the intro and some guidelines to the book and the reader.
But because i was feeling some longing for LAND OF FOG there i went to check up on things and add a few tidbits more...
Monday I had more excuses but wrote some more on MORTIMER LANSKY and revised a bit more on LAND OF FOG.
Also on sunday and monday i revised a few graphic novels. Namely Paul Karasik's and David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of Paul Auster's CITY OF GLASS and Frank Miller's and Geof Darrow's iconic HARD BOILED. These are soon to be posted on the livejournal webpage.
I'm considering if i should start posting them here but i'm not so keen on repeating stuff... we'll see...
Today I'm eager to get home and type some of the crazy ideas i've been having so far for MORTIMER LANSKY and get some more revising done on LAND OF FOG. It would be nice if i could finish the first draft of the prior and complete the latter before this month ends. Especially because I'm going to portugal on the 27th. And to Luxembourg on the 20th...
We all want to keep ahead of the curve anyway...
Peace
What the heck happens to time? I mean, where does it go? Does somebody keep it inside their pockets or something? Is there a place filled with so much time no one can actually get there?!
(these could actually be some ideas for a short story...)
In any case, on saturday the 25th I kept my plan and continued writing LAND OF FOG. This has actually been my major project in the intervening days.
On the sunday I kept revising and added some new scenes. Don't really recall which (perhaps I should start making a note of that as well) but I do know that I focussed a lot on the characters of Anubia, Rikar, Terry and Tchan. Some weird stories came through and I think Old Ed's role in the whole shennanigan is now stronger than ever. I've been planting seeds so to speak...
I also started writing a synopsis for another comics series idea that i had and that I think will be quite easy to get some funding to do. But i'll keep it a mystery. For now...
Also wrote a bit more on AYOOLA. Still need quite a bit more of text but at least what's coming through is already somewhat solid. This story will have momentum either I like it or not!
The 27th was about getting a bit more structure into LAND OF FOG (still don't know how I'm going to work this one out, but I may just keep it in chronological order - i think it will work this way and I'm a bit afraid that if I jumble the structure further it will become more difficult to get into without really adding any more to the story... don't know... I'll have to see it as soon as it is all revised). Also did some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
on tuesday i merely revised a bit more of LAND OF FOG. Revising is really the toughest thing for me to do. But also, towards its end, the most rewarding. Feeling that something is completed or steadily approaching its completion is really good!
On wednesday I had a couple of ideas for scripts. One is called THE DOWSER and is the story of a guy searching for the ideal place to live. It's a short story that i initially wanted to do almost completely silent. Now I think I'll have to think hard in order to keep it as silent as possible...
DEAD ZONE is actually not an idea of mine but of one of my flatmates. Still, he wants me to write it... i don't know if i have time to delve into someone else's dystopia but I suggested a few ideas in order to make it more cohesive. It kind of made sense us to be talking about it after a long chat about Brian Wood's DMZ.
The other idea was THE PIANO TEACHER which is basically a love story between two people 25 years of difference. This has been a theme that I've wanted to touch upon for many years, especially since I read Sam Keith's ZERO GIRL. Which turns out to be quite autobiographical, only in reverse. ZERO GIRL tells the story of a high school girl that falls in love with her teacher. He in turn falls for her but nothing happens apart from the weirdness and solitude she experiences in her head. But it has a happy ending. In any case, the most moving part of the whole book was actually Sam's account of how he met his wife when he was 15 and she 30. How they waited until he was 18 and started living together. Up until then, more than 10 years after. The whole book is a tribute to her, her patience, guidance and love and a genuine testimony that love knows no barriers. It's a somewhat controversial theme, i know but I, for one, am happy that someone has decided to talk about the good things about it, not just the bad ones...
Thursday i was home and so LAND OF FOG became the centre of the day. I also wrote some more on a huge story arc for the INCREDIBLE HULK that I've had in my head for years. To me this is the definitive take on the HULK. I still am to read a HULK story that completely satisfies me and this is definitely the thing that comes the closest to it. There will be plenty of destruction but the majority will be internal...
From friday the 31st to the 2nd of november i was away on a roleplaying game in essex. Due to the intensity of said CTHULHU horror fantasy mystery i did not write anything (apart from the synopsis for a short crime noir story) until sunday evening. I was still more or less in character, tired and spaced out and couldn't write as much as I wanted. Still, since NANOWRIMO is on, i started with MORTIMER LANSKY and started writing the intro and some guidelines to the book and the reader.
But because i was feeling some longing for LAND OF FOG there i went to check up on things and add a few tidbits more...
Monday I had more excuses but wrote some more on MORTIMER LANSKY and revised a bit more on LAND OF FOG.
Also on sunday and monday i revised a few graphic novels. Namely Paul Karasik's and David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of Paul Auster's CITY OF GLASS and Frank Miller's and Geof Darrow's iconic HARD BOILED. These are soon to be posted on the livejournal webpage.
I'm considering if i should start posting them here but i'm not so keen on repeating stuff... we'll see...
Today I'm eager to get home and type some of the crazy ideas i've been having so far for MORTIMER LANSKY and get some more revising done on LAND OF FOG. It would be nice if i could finish the first draft of the prior and complete the latter before this month ends. Especially because I'm going to portugal on the 27th. And to Luxembourg on the 20th...
We all want to keep ahead of the curve anyway...
Peace
Saturday 25 October 2008
Land Of Fog & Other Fuzzy Stories
A lot has happened since the 17th but it has mostly to do with words.
(hey! that's why we're here, right??)
On the 17th I didn't do much more than simply type up some of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
The following day, saturday, again it was the story of the Monk and the King but also some more on something that I've been working for a while now but that still hasn't reached these pages. More on that later. Probably in a whole new post.
(i want you to read goddammit!)
sunday I worked so no(t much) writing for the wicked. I printed a fresh copy of THE SHIFT with the few alterations I'd done so far. And also my summary of the stuff I've been doing for the last couple of years so that i can actually let people know what's up my creek. I'll probably post it here at some point - I still haven't revised it and updated it, that's why...
I also finished up typing up all the alterations in A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and printed the whole thing off. Since then I've been working on the other file, doing the same thing. Coming up with panels for the various sequences, then typing them up. As soon as the two files are ready - in the sense of all the dialogue having panels to go and a rough breakdown in pages/sections - I'll begin that actually quite fun task of copy pasting with scissors and tape. I'll have the three files printed (probably over 200 pages of material), hopefully a decluttered bed and plenty of time.
And I'll start matching bits of script together and create a first version of the full story in two parts. I'll probably need just a whole day to do all that tape&scissors copy pasting and then another to actually do the same thing on the computer. Structures take time. This is something I'm learning every time I do them. The other thing is don't try to do it in one go. Do as much as you can, but if you repeatedly get stuck in the same place (where the heck are these scenes going to go??) the best thing is to wait and do it another day.
On monday the 20th I revised the short comics script for Teatro Do Frio, started a new scritp called AYOOLA, added some more scenes to LAND OF FOG, wrote the synopsis for a roleplaying game character (called Sebastian Lumiere - don't you just love the name??) and worked on another of my special scripts...
(of which Ayoola is also one, by the way...)
And ended up missing the graphic novels reading group meeting having been so engrossed with the writing...
Tuesday I typed a few more pages for the WEIR-D MACHINE, more on AYOOLA, A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and LAND OF FOG.
Wednesday was also spent with AYOOLA and LAND OF FOG.
Thursday just a bit on LAND OF FOG and some more panels on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And yesterday, friday, it was just LAND OF FOG the whole day.
You might ask why have i spent so much time with LAND OF FOG lately. And it is a good question. But the answer is simple. I want to finish as much as possible before nanowrimo starts. And I realised that I could actually finish LAND OF FOG but not really A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
I'm just over 30 000 words on LAND OF FOG and more or less already have all the crucial scenes. There's 2 or 3 more than I want to add but these are relatively small ones. Then the next step will be to print off the whole thing ('cause today I want to see if I can edit, proof read and correct, if not all, at least most of it) and create a structure for it.
LAND OF FOG tells the story of a traveller that arrives to a strange town and all the scenes far under two general categories. Scenes of him meeting the place and the people. And scenes where weird stories are told or eerie stuff happens to him.
Now one of the ideas I had was to have one of these strands working chronologically forwards and the other backwards. So, let's say, we would start with him leaving the town (and work backwards until we find out what happened on that first day) but using the weird stuff as the basis of the narrative, working thus forward in time since there is a crescendo of intensity in the way the scenes are chronologically placed.
The other idea is simply to have it all working forward in time but having the weird stuff happening before we know how he got there in the first place.
I'm starting to think that this is probably a better solution for it allows us to open up with a strong scene that will hopefully capture the readers attention from then onwards. Besides I think the idea of having the event and then only after seeing someone's expectations as he or she is about to enter it can work. In any case, as soon as I have all the bits and pieces ready it will be easy to come up with a chronological version of the story and then create at least one of these two. Another afternoon of copy pasting with scissors and tape. Which, I'm hoping, will be soon enough. So probably either next wednesday/thursday afternoon. Which are going to be my next days off before we hit nanowrimo head on.
Which means I'll have to have everything written down by tuesday. Which means it would probably be best if I could wrap this thing by today and tomorrow and spend some time on monday/tuesday reviewing the whole thing.
Sounds like a plan, don't it?
That's usually how plans start. They start to sound and, soon enough, they're the ones shouting at you...
Today I'm gonna revise the so called LAND OF FOG short story. If I have time I'll add the new panels to A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and finish typing up WEIR-D MACHINE (only a couple more pages to go - though there is still plenty to tell with this one... this is one that's gonna stick around for a while I think...)
Well, that's it for now!
Peace
(hey! that's why we're here, right??)
On the 17th I didn't do much more than simply type up some of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
The following day, saturday, again it was the story of the Monk and the King but also some more on something that I've been working for a while now but that still hasn't reached these pages. More on that later. Probably in a whole new post.
(i want you to read goddammit!)
sunday I worked so no(t much) writing for the wicked. I printed a fresh copy of THE SHIFT with the few alterations I'd done so far. And also my summary of the stuff I've been doing for the last couple of years so that i can actually let people know what's up my creek. I'll probably post it here at some point - I still haven't revised it and updated it, that's why...
I also finished up typing up all the alterations in A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and printed the whole thing off. Since then I've been working on the other file, doing the same thing. Coming up with panels for the various sequences, then typing them up. As soon as the two files are ready - in the sense of all the dialogue having panels to go and a rough breakdown in pages/sections - I'll begin that actually quite fun task of copy pasting with scissors and tape. I'll have the three files printed (probably over 200 pages of material), hopefully a decluttered bed and plenty of time.
And I'll start matching bits of script together and create a first version of the full story in two parts. I'll probably need just a whole day to do all that tape&scissors copy pasting and then another to actually do the same thing on the computer. Structures take time. This is something I'm learning every time I do them. The other thing is don't try to do it in one go. Do as much as you can, but if you repeatedly get stuck in the same place (where the heck are these scenes going to go??) the best thing is to wait and do it another day.
On monday the 20th I revised the short comics script for Teatro Do Frio, started a new scritp called AYOOLA, added some more scenes to LAND OF FOG, wrote the synopsis for a roleplaying game character (called Sebastian Lumiere - don't you just love the name??) and worked on another of my special scripts...
(of which Ayoola is also one, by the way...)
And ended up missing the graphic novels reading group meeting having been so engrossed with the writing...
Tuesday I typed a few more pages for the WEIR-D MACHINE, more on AYOOLA, A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and LAND OF FOG.
Wednesday was also spent with AYOOLA and LAND OF FOG.
Thursday just a bit on LAND OF FOG and some more panels on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And yesterday, friday, it was just LAND OF FOG the whole day.
You might ask why have i spent so much time with LAND OF FOG lately. And it is a good question. But the answer is simple. I want to finish as much as possible before nanowrimo starts. And I realised that I could actually finish LAND OF FOG but not really A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
I'm just over 30 000 words on LAND OF FOG and more or less already have all the crucial scenes. There's 2 or 3 more than I want to add but these are relatively small ones. Then the next step will be to print off the whole thing ('cause today I want to see if I can edit, proof read and correct, if not all, at least most of it) and create a structure for it.
LAND OF FOG tells the story of a traveller that arrives to a strange town and all the scenes far under two general categories. Scenes of him meeting the place and the people. And scenes where weird stories are told or eerie stuff happens to him.
Now one of the ideas I had was to have one of these strands working chronologically forwards and the other backwards. So, let's say, we would start with him leaving the town (and work backwards until we find out what happened on that first day) but using the weird stuff as the basis of the narrative, working thus forward in time since there is a crescendo of intensity in the way the scenes are chronologically placed.
The other idea is simply to have it all working forward in time but having the weird stuff happening before we know how he got there in the first place.
I'm starting to think that this is probably a better solution for it allows us to open up with a strong scene that will hopefully capture the readers attention from then onwards. Besides I think the idea of having the event and then only after seeing someone's expectations as he or she is about to enter it can work. In any case, as soon as I have all the bits and pieces ready it will be easy to come up with a chronological version of the story and then create at least one of these two. Another afternoon of copy pasting with scissors and tape. Which, I'm hoping, will be soon enough. So probably either next wednesday/thursday afternoon. Which are going to be my next days off before we hit nanowrimo head on.
Which means I'll have to have everything written down by tuesday. Which means it would probably be best if I could wrap this thing by today and tomorrow and spend some time on monday/tuesday reviewing the whole thing.
Sounds like a plan, don't it?
That's usually how plans start. They start to sound and, soon enough, they're the ones shouting at you...
Today I'm gonna revise the so called LAND OF FOG short story. If I have time I'll add the new panels to A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and finish typing up WEIR-D MACHINE (only a couple more pages to go - though there is still plenty to tell with this one... this is one that's gonna stick around for a while I think...)
Well, that's it for now!
Peace
Friday 17 October 2008
Comics Script - Developments
How have things been? Quite good actually, even if on wednesday night I couldn't sleep. All the way until 6 am thursday morning.
At least I wrote a bit...
As you know, on tuesday I managed to type up some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN but I also managed to write some more ideas for the ML project. Wrote some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN (if you get it going, you might as well stick with it...) and wrote a couple of scenes for THE IMMORTALISTS.
Wednesday I stayed home for most of the day so I could really immerse (I love this word) myself in panel writing. There were a couple of page layouts ideas that I really enjoyed. Sometimes when you force yourself to do things, creativity comes about in unexpected ways...
I also wrote some more ideas on an old story I had a few years ago. Can't even remember the title... I'll have to open dozens of old files and try to find it... sometime...
Then yesterday I didn't really do much. Long day at work and my head felt like an inflated balloon. Big but without much inside it. Just typed a few panels and wrote a couple more things on ML.
And earlier this morning I finally revised the few added bits to THE SHIFT. I'll type them up tomorrow and get a fresh copy of the script to keep in the house. Then it will be ready to send out to all those curious people out there...
Peace
(man, these things do take time...)
Oh! And I also found that updated version of IN THE WILD! It was really a relief! having to do it all again was starting to feel like a waste of time... and I probably wouldn't do it any time soon either...
At least I wrote a bit...
As you know, on tuesday I managed to type up some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN but I also managed to write some more ideas for the ML project. Wrote some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN (if you get it going, you might as well stick with it...) and wrote a couple of scenes for THE IMMORTALISTS.
Wednesday I stayed home for most of the day so I could really immerse (I love this word) myself in panel writing. There were a couple of page layouts ideas that I really enjoyed. Sometimes when you force yourself to do things, creativity comes about in unexpected ways...
I also wrote some more ideas on an old story I had a few years ago. Can't even remember the title... I'll have to open dozens of old files and try to find it... sometime...
Then yesterday I didn't really do much. Long day at work and my head felt like an inflated balloon. Big but without much inside it. Just typed a few panels and wrote a couple more things on ML.
And earlier this morning I finally revised the few added bits to THE SHIFT. I'll type them up tomorrow and get a fresh copy of the script to keep in the house. Then it will be ready to send out to all those curious people out there...
Peace
(man, these things do take time...)
Oh! And I also found that updated version of IN THE WILD! It was really a relief! having to do it all again was starting to feel like a waste of time... and I probably wouldn't do it any time soon either...
Tuesday 14 October 2008
Comics Script - Words, Lost and Found
I have a pen drive.
It's a good idea.
So people tell me.
But every so often it gets a bit mad and the things i save on one place don't actually show up on the next. That's what happened with my fully revised version of IN THE WILD. It's been a week (mostly off from work - yay!) and I still haven't printed the thing... I don't even know where the more up to date version is anymore...
At some point last tuesday I did get home and wrote a bit more on LAND OF FOG. I think I have most of it now. But I still need to revise it and tighten it up more and, probably add a few scenes. It's still patchy...
On wednesday I was back at A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN, finishing reading the de-development theory paper. And, amazingly enough, I didn't add any more scenes to the thing...
Also revised PARALLEL LIVES.
(I was at home so I had some free time)
On thursday I typed up some more on the WEIR-D MACHINE (stronger content than I recalled...), printed out LAND OF FOG (that I still haven't read) and failed to print the alterations in IN THE WILD...
Friday I had the day off but spent it going around London. First did a session with a friend, then went back to the house, got some food, went into central london to the myanmar embassy to get the paperwork for my tourist visa. Then off to Foyle's at Charing Cross to get some books for my little cousins, back home, some more food and off to Paul's for another roleplaying Cthulhu session.
(great as always!)
By the time I got home I know I still wrote a bit
I just don't remember on what...
Probably that ML thing.
I simply know that one of these nights I stayed up late writing titles of books and short stories by this writer. And I ended up writing a stream of poems (about 8 or 10).
As it turns out on saturday I wrote some more. And also on sunday and yesterday.
Actually yesterday I decided that what I'm probably going to do for my NaNoWriMo project is to edit ML'S unauthorised biography. In this way i get to use up all the titles I want and have a project where I get to be as weird and inconsequent as I wish.
On sunday I started writing panel descriptions for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and that was precisely what I did yesterday. For about 8 or 10 hours. I don't know. I lost count. More than 150 panels. That's all I can say. I was running out of angles, I'm telling you... but the story is definitely coming together. I realised I probably need a couple more scenes to better set the stage for the story. The Prince is becoming increasingly important and I think I came up with a couple of interesting page layouts, camera movements and scene transitions. Also did a sketch for the castle's central body. I had the image in my head but then drawing it it became clear that there were a few problems.
So I worked them out.
On sunday it was also my little cousin Mia's birthday so I spent the afternoon with her, Sophia and Lydia and their parents, David and Lisa. And Lisa's mum!
We went to the London Eye, then got on a boat to Greenwich, then went to Greenwhich market, had some pizza and back home. Simple and fun!
(and the girls loved the books I got them. lots of Jacqueline Wilson, one Garth Nix, one Salman Rushdie, one Benjamin Zephaniah and, most notably, Neil Gaiman's latest - The Graveyard Book. Which, at Foyle's, I simply couldn't put down. Didn't know if it was the right choice for Lydia or not but... I guess it was, 'cause she started reading it right there in Pizza Express!)
Also had a few more ideas for the ML biography (which, at this point I'm planning on calling Mortimer Lansky: Many Lives, Multiple Deaths - or a version of this)
Today I'm planning on typing all those panels up. Quick and simple.
Just don't know what I'll do when I get home... probably some more panels... might as well get it over with as soon as possible! It would be great if I could have A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN semi-finished before NaNoWriMo starts...
Peace
It's a good idea.
So people tell me.
But every so often it gets a bit mad and the things i save on one place don't actually show up on the next. That's what happened with my fully revised version of IN THE WILD. It's been a week (mostly off from work - yay!) and I still haven't printed the thing... I don't even know where the more up to date version is anymore...
At some point last tuesday I did get home and wrote a bit more on LAND OF FOG. I think I have most of it now. But I still need to revise it and tighten it up more and, probably add a few scenes. It's still patchy...
On wednesday I was back at A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN, finishing reading the de-development theory paper. And, amazingly enough, I didn't add any more scenes to the thing...
Also revised PARALLEL LIVES.
(I was at home so I had some free time)
On thursday I typed up some more on the WEIR-D MACHINE (stronger content than I recalled...), printed out LAND OF FOG (that I still haven't read) and failed to print the alterations in IN THE WILD...
Friday I had the day off but spent it going around London. First did a session with a friend, then went back to the house, got some food, went into central london to the myanmar embassy to get the paperwork for my tourist visa. Then off to Foyle's at Charing Cross to get some books for my little cousins, back home, some more food and off to Paul's for another roleplaying Cthulhu session.
(great as always!)
By the time I got home I know I still wrote a bit
I just don't remember on what...
Probably that ML thing.
I simply know that one of these nights I stayed up late writing titles of books and short stories by this writer. And I ended up writing a stream of poems (about 8 or 10).
As it turns out on saturday I wrote some more. And also on sunday and yesterday.
Actually yesterday I decided that what I'm probably going to do for my NaNoWriMo project is to edit ML'S unauthorised biography. In this way i get to use up all the titles I want and have a project where I get to be as weird and inconsequent as I wish.
On sunday I started writing panel descriptions for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and that was precisely what I did yesterday. For about 8 or 10 hours. I don't know. I lost count. More than 150 panels. That's all I can say. I was running out of angles, I'm telling you... but the story is definitely coming together. I realised I probably need a couple more scenes to better set the stage for the story. The Prince is becoming increasingly important and I think I came up with a couple of interesting page layouts, camera movements and scene transitions. Also did a sketch for the castle's central body. I had the image in my head but then drawing it it became clear that there were a few problems.
So I worked them out.
On sunday it was also my little cousin Mia's birthday so I spent the afternoon with her, Sophia and Lydia and their parents, David and Lisa. And Lisa's mum!
We went to the London Eye, then got on a boat to Greenwich, then went to Greenwhich market, had some pizza and back home. Simple and fun!
(and the girls loved the books I got them. lots of Jacqueline Wilson, one Garth Nix, one Salman Rushdie, one Benjamin Zephaniah and, most notably, Neil Gaiman's latest - The Graveyard Book. Which, at Foyle's, I simply couldn't put down. Didn't know if it was the right choice for Lydia or not but... I guess it was, 'cause she started reading it right there in Pizza Express!)
Also had a few more ideas for the ML biography (which, at this point I'm planning on calling Mortimer Lansky: Many Lives, Multiple Deaths - or a version of this)
Today I'm planning on typing all those panels up. Quick and simple.
Just don't know what I'll do when I get home... probably some more panels... might as well get it over with as soon as possible! It would be great if I could have A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN semi-finished before NaNoWriMo starts...
Peace
Tuesday 7 October 2008
Comics Scripting - Foggy Patchwork
If friday was a busy day, the ones that followed weren't any slower. Sometimes staying indoors is the best way to get busy. Especially if there's a lot of stuff you want to write about.
(who needs the house cleaned anyway?)
After work (and work finished at 11.30pm on that day...) I still wrote a bit on the RETALHOS project.
Saturday I also came to work but upon arriving home I wrote quite a few things. An idea for a horror film (I know, weird innit?), a bit more on a distorted superhero series that I won't tell you the title (just too good to be shared), some more on THE IMMORTALISTS, a quick return to the book about my trip to Burma almost 4 years ago, THE ORGANIC INSIGHT ENGINE (yeah, it is a good title, but I'm willing to share this one...), some more on another weird SF comics series called THE FUTUROLOGISTS and LAND OF FOG.
My whole idea for this weekend - the plan - was to focus on the RETALHOS project. Sunday was going to be spent working on the ideas I had for the 8 page long comic. And then I would mail it on monday.
But when I woke up on sunday I REALLY felt like writing LAND OF FOG. So, I thought, why not? Still plenty of time.
And then I wrote more than 8,000 words. And this went on until 1 am.
(so RETALHOS had to jump to monday...)
I finished a chapter and wrote most of another. And I'm quite happy the way both of them turned out. The scenes, even though quite freaky, seem solid enough. I enjoyed the way the characters defined themselves, came together and then drifted away too.
Monday was graphic novels reading group night and we discussed (albeit briefly) Gilbert Hernandez HEARTBREAK SOUP.
(which I still haven't read 'cause all the copies went to the readers...)
(that's why I'm not saying anything else about it right now)
On monday I managed to whip up the first draft for the RETALHOS comic. And send it out. Missing all the weird portuguese accentuation but hey... it is a first draft. And at least I'm totally cohesive on it: not a single word has any of the need accentuation.
(which means when I review the thing I'm gonna spend a couple of hours right-clicking on words and correcting them...)
When I got home I still wrote a bit more on LAND OF FOG (I really want to finish it some time soon - and I'm really enjoying the story - that's the advantage of being the writer: you get to readt it and be surprised by it before anyone else!)
Today I spent some time typing stuff I had on THE WEIRD MACHINE and, as it almost always happens, adding a few ideas to the patchwork.
Did the same with IN THE WILD. Typed everything up and am now in the process of connecting the bits of dialogue with the panels. And it's looking good. The feel of deep conection to the Earth is coming across. And I know I'll fine tuned it a bit as I go along, since it is the main drive of the story.
Anyway, can't wait to get home and...
yup
true
write some more on LAND OF FOG...
Sometimes stories just take you away.
With no return date to be found.
I've got to finish this one quickly 'cause NaNoWriMo is almost upon us all!
Peace
(who needs the house cleaned anyway?)
After work (and work finished at 11.30pm on that day...) I still wrote a bit on the RETALHOS project.
Saturday I also came to work but upon arriving home I wrote quite a few things. An idea for a horror film (I know, weird innit?), a bit more on a distorted superhero series that I won't tell you the title (just too good to be shared), some more on THE IMMORTALISTS, a quick return to the book about my trip to Burma almost 4 years ago, THE ORGANIC INSIGHT ENGINE (yeah, it is a good title, but I'm willing to share this one...), some more on another weird SF comics series called THE FUTUROLOGISTS and LAND OF FOG.
My whole idea for this weekend - the plan - was to focus on the RETALHOS project. Sunday was going to be spent working on the ideas I had for the 8 page long comic. And then I would mail it on monday.
But when I woke up on sunday I REALLY felt like writing LAND OF FOG. So, I thought, why not? Still plenty of time.
And then I wrote more than 8,000 words. And this went on until 1 am.
(so RETALHOS had to jump to monday...)
I finished a chapter and wrote most of another. And I'm quite happy the way both of them turned out. The scenes, even though quite freaky, seem solid enough. I enjoyed the way the characters defined themselves, came together and then drifted away too.
Monday was graphic novels reading group night and we discussed (albeit briefly) Gilbert Hernandez HEARTBREAK SOUP.
(which I still haven't read 'cause all the copies went to the readers...)
(that's why I'm not saying anything else about it right now)
On monday I managed to whip up the first draft for the RETALHOS comic. And send it out. Missing all the weird portuguese accentuation but hey... it is a first draft. And at least I'm totally cohesive on it: not a single word has any of the need accentuation.
(which means when I review the thing I'm gonna spend a couple of hours right-clicking on words and correcting them...)
When I got home I still wrote a bit more on LAND OF FOG (I really want to finish it some time soon - and I'm really enjoying the story - that's the advantage of being the writer: you get to readt it and be surprised by it before anyone else!)
Today I spent some time typing stuff I had on THE WEIRD MACHINE and, as it almost always happens, adding a few ideas to the patchwork.
Did the same with IN THE WILD. Typed everything up and am now in the process of connecting the bits of dialogue with the panels. And it's looking good. The feel of deep conection to the Earth is coming across. And I know I'll fine tuned it a bit as I go along, since it is the main drive of the story.
Anyway, can't wait to get home and...
yup
true
write some more on LAND OF FOG...
Sometimes stories just take you away.
With no return date to be found.
I've got to finish this one quickly 'cause NaNoWriMo is almost upon us all!
Peace
Friday 3 October 2008
THE SHIFT (excerpt)
COMICS SCRIPT
( 90 script pg. for 104 comics pg.)
SYNOPSIS
This is a script based on an idea that Luís Gurriana gave me. Like in BODY COUNT, the idea here is to use the background between the panels, the gutters, as the unconscious whilst the panels themselves will be the conscious.
What will happen towards the end is that there will be a shift. The main character’s conscious mind will split to the gutter and the panels will become the unconscious.
The idea here is to represent the fall from grace, the process that leads from sanity to insanity, something that, from the viewpoint of the outside world is terrible but, from the perspective of the individual, might actually be a good solution - and the only way of staying alive and coping with a demolishing reality.
This is a girl that saw her family be blow to bits in an American attack during the Gulf War (1991). In January 1991 she’s living with her parents on the outskirts of Baghdad when a missile destroys the house and her family. She’s trapped with their remains (inside the wreckage of their house) for days. Hungry and thirsty and with all that horror surrounding her, she’s traumatized for life. Having no family or possessions or any sort of support she starts fending for herself in any way possible.
Now (2003/2004), as a young woman, she works in a clothes factory in Fallujah (some 40 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq), sowing clothes for the Americans. She dies on the onset of Operation Phantom Fury in November 2004.
The pressure from work and the growing knowledge of the inescapability of her situation cause a mental collapse and she goes insane. Yet, inside her mind things finally seem peaceful. Now that her unconscious has taken over everything, she can finally rest. Now that the ghosts of the past have come out to play there’s nothing else to fear. This is when she discovers that she is no longer afraid to die. That in actual fact she desired it for most of her life. Her conscious mind has split from the rest of her, from her body. Her life is a film and she’s no longer particularly worried about endings and outcomes.
Shahidah’s Unconscious is divided in two: as a child and as an adult. Both to be handwritten and italicised. The conscious is not handwritten and not italicised. Hopefully this will give the reader a clearler perception of what we’re aiming for. I have kept Shahidah’s Child Unconscious italicised for greater clarity while reading the script.
FINDING
PAGE 01
February 1991. Exterior Baghdad outskirts. Baghdad is under attack by the Americans. There’s wrecked buildings everywhere, smoke billowing and explosions in the distance.
Afternoon. Full shot. Harith, a man in robes, comes towards us, walking briskly away from a nearby group of people: Nadhir, Kadar, Suhaim, Amir, Mirah, Alima, Farooq and three small children (1, 3 and 6). The group continues moving towards a stationed battered jeep next to a house heavily damaged by the attack. Mirah, also turned to us, cries for Harith.
NADHIR
Leave him. Stubborn old mules always manage to catch up.
MIRAH
Harith!
Harith’s POV. As he looks down. Harith’s shadow over the debris as he walks. There’s smoking bits of masonry and broken walls.
Harith’s POV. Looking straight ahead. The collapsed entrance/porch outside Shahidah’s house. Harith’s shadow over the debris as he moves further some more. There’s no way anyone could get into that house anymore. Harith aims at the end of the broken wall to his left.
Harith’s POV. Harith’s shadow over the debris. Harith looks straight ahead, having turned 90 degrees left after the wall. We see the huge wreckage of Shahidah’s house. Harith urinates and checks the surroundings. We are seeing even more blown up, smoking houses than before. The centre of Baghdad is somewhere ahead of us.
Full shot. Next to Harith. He’s crouching to defecate. There’s a puddle of urine scurrying away from sight. His face strains a bit. He looks away to left of panel, trying to see if anyone’s coming this way.
SHAHIDAH
(faded, out of shot, bottom right side of panel)
Help
PAGE 02
Mid shot. Side shot. Harith on his knees in panic, trousers half pulled up, looks around towards the rubble all over the place.
HARITH
Hello?! Hello?!
Close up. Besides Harith. He leans into the wreckage, trying to listen. One hand grabbing an edge of fallen masonry for support, bits of mortar coming off. Harith’s expression is even tenser now. He’s about to get up.
SHAHIDAH
(out of shot)
Help.
Mid shot. Behind Harith. Harith turns his head around the wall, gesticulating in the groups direction, screaming for help. They’re huddled around the jeep. Nadhir is the one closest to us, a bit away from the group, staking out behind some rubble. The hood of the battered jeep is popped open and Amir and Kadar are bent over it.
HARITH
NADHIR! QUICK! Everyone!
Full shot. Down shot. Closer to Harith. Harith digs frantically through the debris dead centre in the wreckage. Behind him Nadhir runs towards Harith, leaving his spot behind.
SHAHIDAH
(out of shot)
Help. Please.
HARITH
We’re coming! We’re coming!
HARITH
Nadhir!
HARITH
Hurry!
HARITH
Nadhir!
FACTORY
PAGE 03
March 2003. Establishing shot. Inside the clothes factory as the women work. Afternoon. It rains in half a dozen places through holes in the ceiling. No one seems to be paying attention to it.
Long shot. We can see a few of the women getting wet as the rain falls. Shahidah is one of them. She works sowing Made In USA labels to the inner lining of women’s underwear. The water is nonetheless prevented from hitting the production line via boards and bits of plastic hanging in various places. Shahidah sits by a table that she shares with Karam. On either side of the table there are 2 buckets. One for the underwear still needing labels to be sown, the other for the completed pieces.
Pull in on Shahidah’s face as sunlight hits her dripping cheeks. She looks up.
Pull back behind her to show her gazing upwards as sunlight filters through the holes in the ceiling.
Go back to the establishing shot. Now, instead of rain we have sunlight pouring in. Giving us a feeling of hope. Shahidah has returned back to work
PAGE 04
Close up on Shahidah’s hands as she drops a completed piece on the left bucket.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
They never leave me.
The images.
They fill my dreams. My ever waking moment.
I see them.
Inside my mind. Inside my body.
All I feel is death. No longer thinking “why am I alive?”
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
This must be an illusion.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Though there’s no escape.
Close up on a woman working next to Shahidah. Side shot. As the woman leans over her sowing.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Mum, your face.
Close up on a guard looking suspiciously at Shahidah while she works. Behind the guard and to his side. Overlooking the whole clothes assembly line.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Dad, your face.
Up shot, close to Shahidah. Distorting her and those around her as the rain falls. She removes a piece of underwear from her right side bucket.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
My brother.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
My sister.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Everybody.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Everything collapses.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
From nowhere I am taken.
February 1991. Same up shot but now inside the wreckage of her parents house. There are no bodies in sight, but there is plenty of destruction.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
I can see it all from the outside, inside, there and here, there is no difference. All time is an illusion that I try to make real to the cost of sanity. Of life. To no avail. I’m no longer here. No longer here. No longer here. I’ve never been. Never been alone.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Everything is still here. Every stone. Every corner of my mind. Spent that time there. All that time inside. The light, coming from above, never really touching my skin.
( 90 script pg. for 104 comics pg.)
SYNOPSIS
This is a script based on an idea that Luís Gurriana gave me. Like in BODY COUNT, the idea here is to use the background between the panels, the gutters, as the unconscious whilst the panels themselves will be the conscious.
What will happen towards the end is that there will be a shift. The main character’s conscious mind will split to the gutter and the panels will become the unconscious.
The idea here is to represent the fall from grace, the process that leads from sanity to insanity, something that, from the viewpoint of the outside world is terrible but, from the perspective of the individual, might actually be a good solution - and the only way of staying alive and coping with a demolishing reality.
This is a girl that saw her family be blow to bits in an American attack during the Gulf War (1991). In January 1991 she’s living with her parents on the outskirts of Baghdad when a missile destroys the house and her family. She’s trapped with their remains (inside the wreckage of their house) for days. Hungry and thirsty and with all that horror surrounding her, she’s traumatized for life. Having no family or possessions or any sort of support she starts fending for herself in any way possible.
Now (2003/2004), as a young woman, she works in a clothes factory in Fallujah (some 40 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq), sowing clothes for the Americans. She dies on the onset of Operation Phantom Fury in November 2004.
The pressure from work and the growing knowledge of the inescapability of her situation cause a mental collapse and she goes insane. Yet, inside her mind things finally seem peaceful. Now that her unconscious has taken over everything, she can finally rest. Now that the ghosts of the past have come out to play there’s nothing else to fear. This is when she discovers that she is no longer afraid to die. That in actual fact she desired it for most of her life. Her conscious mind has split from the rest of her, from her body. Her life is a film and she’s no longer particularly worried about endings and outcomes.
Shahidah’s Unconscious is divided in two: as a child and as an adult. Both to be handwritten and italicised. The conscious is not handwritten and not italicised. Hopefully this will give the reader a clearler perception of what we’re aiming for. I have kept Shahidah’s Child Unconscious italicised for greater clarity while reading the script.
FINDING
PAGE 01
February 1991. Exterior Baghdad outskirts. Baghdad is under attack by the Americans. There’s wrecked buildings everywhere, smoke billowing and explosions in the distance.
Afternoon. Full shot. Harith, a man in robes, comes towards us, walking briskly away from a nearby group of people: Nadhir, Kadar, Suhaim, Amir, Mirah, Alima, Farooq and three small children (1, 3 and 6). The group continues moving towards a stationed battered jeep next to a house heavily damaged by the attack. Mirah, also turned to us, cries for Harith.
NADHIR
Leave him. Stubborn old mules always manage to catch up.
MIRAH
Harith!
Harith’s POV. As he looks down. Harith’s shadow over the debris as he walks. There’s smoking bits of masonry and broken walls.
Harith’s POV. Looking straight ahead. The collapsed entrance/porch outside Shahidah’s house. Harith’s shadow over the debris as he moves further some more. There’s no way anyone could get into that house anymore. Harith aims at the end of the broken wall to his left.
Harith’s POV. Harith’s shadow over the debris. Harith looks straight ahead, having turned 90 degrees left after the wall. We see the huge wreckage of Shahidah’s house. Harith urinates and checks the surroundings. We are seeing even more blown up, smoking houses than before. The centre of Baghdad is somewhere ahead of us.
Full shot. Next to Harith. He’s crouching to defecate. There’s a puddle of urine scurrying away from sight. His face strains a bit. He looks away to left of panel, trying to see if anyone’s coming this way.
SHAHIDAH
(faded, out of shot, bottom right side of panel)
Help
PAGE 02
Mid shot. Side shot. Harith on his knees in panic, trousers half pulled up, looks around towards the rubble all over the place.
HARITH
Hello?! Hello?!
Close up. Besides Harith. He leans into the wreckage, trying to listen. One hand grabbing an edge of fallen masonry for support, bits of mortar coming off. Harith’s expression is even tenser now. He’s about to get up.
SHAHIDAH
(out of shot)
Help.
Mid shot. Behind Harith. Harith turns his head around the wall, gesticulating in the groups direction, screaming for help. They’re huddled around the jeep. Nadhir is the one closest to us, a bit away from the group, staking out behind some rubble. The hood of the battered jeep is popped open and Amir and Kadar are bent over it.
HARITH
NADHIR! QUICK! Everyone!
Full shot. Down shot. Closer to Harith. Harith digs frantically through the debris dead centre in the wreckage. Behind him Nadhir runs towards Harith, leaving his spot behind.
SHAHIDAH
(out of shot)
Help. Please.
HARITH
We’re coming! We’re coming!
HARITH
Nadhir!
HARITH
Hurry!
HARITH
Nadhir!
FACTORY
PAGE 03
March 2003. Establishing shot. Inside the clothes factory as the women work. Afternoon. It rains in half a dozen places through holes in the ceiling. No one seems to be paying attention to it.
Long shot. We can see a few of the women getting wet as the rain falls. Shahidah is one of them. She works sowing Made In USA labels to the inner lining of women’s underwear. The water is nonetheless prevented from hitting the production line via boards and bits of plastic hanging in various places. Shahidah sits by a table that she shares with Karam. On either side of the table there are 2 buckets. One for the underwear still needing labels to be sown, the other for the completed pieces.
Pull in on Shahidah’s face as sunlight hits her dripping cheeks. She looks up.
Pull back behind her to show her gazing upwards as sunlight filters through the holes in the ceiling.
Go back to the establishing shot. Now, instead of rain we have sunlight pouring in. Giving us a feeling of hope. Shahidah has returned back to work
PAGE 04
Close up on Shahidah’s hands as she drops a completed piece on the left bucket.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
They never leave me.
The images.
They fill my dreams. My ever waking moment.
I see them.
Inside my mind. Inside my body.
All I feel is death. No longer thinking “why am I alive?”
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
This must be an illusion.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Though there’s no escape.
Close up on a woman working next to Shahidah. Side shot. As the woman leans over her sowing.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Mum, your face.
Close up on a guard looking suspiciously at Shahidah while she works. Behind the guard and to his side. Overlooking the whole clothes assembly line.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Dad, your face.
Up shot, close to Shahidah. Distorting her and those around her as the rain falls. She removes a piece of underwear from her right side bucket.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
My brother.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
My sister.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Everybody.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Everything collapses.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
From nowhere I am taken.
February 1991. Same up shot but now inside the wreckage of her parents house. There are no bodies in sight, but there is plenty of destruction.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
I can see it all from the outside, inside, there and here, there is no difference. All time is an illusion that I try to make real to the cost of sanity. Of life. To no avail. I’m no longer here. No longer here. No longer here. I’ve never been. Never been alone.
CAPTION SHAHIDAH UNCONSCIOUS
Everything is still here. Every stone. Every corner of my mind. Spent that time there. All that time inside. The light, coming from above, never really touching my skin.
Comics Script - Shifting Scenes
Well, what has happened in the last week or so?
looking to my little diary I can see that most of the time has been spent around THE SHIFT (and it sure feels like it). Typing some of the scenes that were handwritten, dabbling quite a bit with it's structure and, especially, revising the whole thing.
I always find it fascinating how things come into being. Even if I've been there since the onset. Perhaps, especially if I've been there since the onset.
In a way there's a part of me that never believes that it can be done. Another that knows that it can. And somewhere in there there's another bit of me that simply does it. The thing I always have to keep reminding myself is that I just need to keep adding stuff. The Joycean technique. Don't bother erasing. Just add more. Put it into perspective. if you play enough with something it will become meaningful. It will. Trust me on this. And, mainly, trust the story. That's probably the biggest lesson I've learned so far.
The story is always right.
Writers often aren't.
We want to make things pretty or nice, or sad and horrible, but the story truly has a life of its own. And it wants to be heard as clearly as possible. The characters want to be listened to. Not told what to say.
So that's what I've been trying to do: learn how to listen to stories before I go out and tell them. THE SHIFT was a bit like that. In actual fact, most of the stories that I have been writing of late, have had that characteristic. There's a couple of ideas to them but I really never know where they're going to get to that place. Sometimes they seem too daft to ever become something worthwhile reading. And then I get surprised. Because they do. So, the moral is, learn to trust your stories. Let them do the telling. Not you. It's less work if you're not in the way.
With THE SHIFT I was having a few problems with the structure and some of the scenes. When it's something visual that I'm having trouble in writing I just try to visualize myself in the scene and merely describe what I'm seeing the way I'm seeing. If it's not right, then the second or third time I'm reviewing the script, a better visual device will come through and I'll alter whatever's necessary.
If it's a character that I'm having trouble with, again a kind of visualization is needed. But it's more like going into an internal listening mode just for that character. I try to shut all other input and merely listen. Eventually they start chatting. Characters can also be shy in the beginning. Don't forget that. But, as time passes, and they get to know you, communication will become much easier.
If it's the plot, then the case is a bit different. Here I have multiple techniques. This is perhaps because this is still the most challenging part for me. But also one of the most rewarding. Sometimes I try to sit and merely watch the whole story (or, at least, bits of it) play in my wide screen brain. Not always does this work. So I sometimes try the rational approach. What is the story about? What does it need to become more palpable? What is it lacking in terms of scenes, structure, etc to give it more cohesion? Or the emotional approach. How does the story feel so far? Am I engaged with it? In what sense and why? What do I think or feel about it when I'm reading? What fills me or drains me when going through the script?
With THE SHIFT it was a bit of all of this but never any clear answers. And you know why? Because I was lacking some scenes. That was why. But I didn't know it then. But feeling that structure wasn't working as well as I wanted, as I knew it could feel, I was somehow doubting the story, doubting what I was helping create.
At some point I decided to make a list with all the different scenes. Then I made another list organising everything chronologically. Then I made another list with the opening and ending scenes and started working my way towards the centre of the story. Then I made another list in which I divided the whole thing in three acts, three major zones of influence (to know, from Shahidah's rescue up to her first meeting with American soldiers, Shahidah's life in the factory up to her death and Shahidah's experiences whilst trapped underneath the remains of her house), ordering them in chronological order. I started realising that I had some problems with time frames and locations. So I then had to do some research and more clearly organize the story. But, by doing this, I started thinking that I needed to add a couple more scenes. To round up the story more.
I was on 100 comics pages by then.
And then, when I was reading a bit more on Fallujah and Baghdad I wrote something like "If I were to expand this story a little bit more I would add this scene and that scene and..." And suddenly the "eventual scenes" were so visual and clear that about the second or third time I thought about them I knew they had to be in the story. So I wrote them down. I added them. And Lo and Behold! The whole structure actually benefited from them. The script actually feels rounded and (to me at least) meaningful.
The big test obviously, is other people reading it and enjoy it and feel affected in a positive way by it, obviously...
Sunday was this day. I worked on the structure and revise it for most of the day. This is what happens when I stay home and actually manage to focus. I move between my computer and my bed and add stuff and revise all a bit at the same time. I've realised that it's very rare that I can stay focussed on one thing for too long, so I simply try to shift between various themes within the same story. So, I shift between revising the script and revising the stucture and typing up alterations or new scenes. This way I don't get tired of things as quickly.
And if I do get tired I simply pick up my guitar, plug it in and play for half an hour or so. I completely change the inner setting. From words to sounds. The great thing is that the thing you train the most when playing is hearing. You have to listen to what's coming out so, in a way, it's also closely related to writing. What I have found is that the two processes enhance one another. I play better when I'm writing and I write better if I play.
It's all meditation, really...
In any case, sunday was also very full of ideas. I wrote a couple of new things for THE IMMORTALISTS and ALIENATION, had an idea for a BIOGRAPHY and for another series (don't ask me what it's about 'cause I can't remember...) called BLACK MARK.
Monday was a day that I thought was going spent entirely indoors, had to go and deal with lots of paperwork instead (and buy a new pair of cycling gloves - fundamental goods in winter!), felt it wasn't going to be that great for the writing and, in actual fact turned out pretty well. THE SHIFT kept me company and wrote some more for ALIENATION.
Tuesday I went to work but still kept working on THE SHIFT.
(I was going to finish it goddammit!)
Wednesday - home at last! - PC heaven!
Guess which script I worked on?! You're correct! I spent like 10 hours solid on that day on it. Wednesday and sunday were the crucial days to really tip this boat up.
Then yesterday I finally managed to add the last couple of scenes, redo the structure and feel that the thing is finished.
In actual fact, only after I posted yesterday and got home, did I realise that I had forgotten to erase some stuff of the script. There were some bits of monologue that I felt weren't working so well and I decided to redo the scenes. I remembered to type them down but then forgot to edit the old ones...
Guess I'll have to do it today.
And print out the whole thing again.
Actually yesterday, when I was tearing the two older versions of this script, I felt for the first time that getting rid of all that paper wasn't fun anymore. I remember the first few times that I started tearing the pages into bits - to give room for the completed draft - it felt good. There was some accomplishment in that. Now, after 30 seconds of doing it I was thinking for the first time in my life that buying a paper shredder was a good idea...
Anyway. Amidst it all I still wrote (can't remember the day 'cause I forgot to write it down on my diary... actually, I remembered that I had written an email about it... wednesday the 30th of september) a draft for the TEATRO DO FRIO story. It's about a girl that goes on a coach to spend her holidays with her grandparents. The story is quite funny and charming and I'm planning on keeping all that and add a bit of fantasy to it. A kind of fable feel to it. I think it can work quite. Only 8 comics pages. Which I still have to know if it can be done. 'Cause I think they were expecting me to write an illustrated short story... only 6 pages long...
We'll see...
Peace.
looking to my little diary I can see that most of the time has been spent around THE SHIFT (and it sure feels like it). Typing some of the scenes that were handwritten, dabbling quite a bit with it's structure and, especially, revising the whole thing.
I always find it fascinating how things come into being. Even if I've been there since the onset. Perhaps, especially if I've been there since the onset.
In a way there's a part of me that never believes that it can be done. Another that knows that it can. And somewhere in there there's another bit of me that simply does it. The thing I always have to keep reminding myself is that I just need to keep adding stuff. The Joycean technique. Don't bother erasing. Just add more. Put it into perspective. if you play enough with something it will become meaningful. It will. Trust me on this. And, mainly, trust the story. That's probably the biggest lesson I've learned so far.
The story is always right.
Writers often aren't.
We want to make things pretty or nice, or sad and horrible, but the story truly has a life of its own. And it wants to be heard as clearly as possible. The characters want to be listened to. Not told what to say.
So that's what I've been trying to do: learn how to listen to stories before I go out and tell them. THE SHIFT was a bit like that. In actual fact, most of the stories that I have been writing of late, have had that characteristic. There's a couple of ideas to them but I really never know where they're going to get to that place. Sometimes they seem too daft to ever become something worthwhile reading. And then I get surprised. Because they do. So, the moral is, learn to trust your stories. Let them do the telling. Not you. It's less work if you're not in the way.
With THE SHIFT I was having a few problems with the structure and some of the scenes. When it's something visual that I'm having trouble in writing I just try to visualize myself in the scene and merely describe what I'm seeing the way I'm seeing. If it's not right, then the second or third time I'm reviewing the script, a better visual device will come through and I'll alter whatever's necessary.
If it's a character that I'm having trouble with, again a kind of visualization is needed. But it's more like going into an internal listening mode just for that character. I try to shut all other input and merely listen. Eventually they start chatting. Characters can also be shy in the beginning. Don't forget that. But, as time passes, and they get to know you, communication will become much easier.
If it's the plot, then the case is a bit different. Here I have multiple techniques. This is perhaps because this is still the most challenging part for me. But also one of the most rewarding. Sometimes I try to sit and merely watch the whole story (or, at least, bits of it) play in my wide screen brain. Not always does this work. So I sometimes try the rational approach. What is the story about? What does it need to become more palpable? What is it lacking in terms of scenes, structure, etc to give it more cohesion? Or the emotional approach. How does the story feel so far? Am I engaged with it? In what sense and why? What do I think or feel about it when I'm reading? What fills me or drains me when going through the script?
With THE SHIFT it was a bit of all of this but never any clear answers. And you know why? Because I was lacking some scenes. That was why. But I didn't know it then. But feeling that structure wasn't working as well as I wanted, as I knew it could feel, I was somehow doubting the story, doubting what I was helping create.
At some point I decided to make a list with all the different scenes. Then I made another list organising everything chronologically. Then I made another list with the opening and ending scenes and started working my way towards the centre of the story. Then I made another list in which I divided the whole thing in three acts, three major zones of influence (to know, from Shahidah's rescue up to her first meeting with American soldiers, Shahidah's life in the factory up to her death and Shahidah's experiences whilst trapped underneath the remains of her house), ordering them in chronological order. I started realising that I had some problems with time frames and locations. So I then had to do some research and more clearly organize the story. But, by doing this, I started thinking that I needed to add a couple more scenes. To round up the story more.
I was on 100 comics pages by then.
And then, when I was reading a bit more on Fallujah and Baghdad I wrote something like "If I were to expand this story a little bit more I would add this scene and that scene and..." And suddenly the "eventual scenes" were so visual and clear that about the second or third time I thought about them I knew they had to be in the story. So I wrote them down. I added them. And Lo and Behold! The whole structure actually benefited from them. The script actually feels rounded and (to me at least) meaningful.
The big test obviously, is other people reading it and enjoy it and feel affected in a positive way by it, obviously...
Sunday was this day. I worked on the structure and revise it for most of the day. This is what happens when I stay home and actually manage to focus. I move between my computer and my bed and add stuff and revise all a bit at the same time. I've realised that it's very rare that I can stay focussed on one thing for too long, so I simply try to shift between various themes within the same story. So, I shift between revising the script and revising the stucture and typing up alterations or new scenes. This way I don't get tired of things as quickly.
And if I do get tired I simply pick up my guitar, plug it in and play for half an hour or so. I completely change the inner setting. From words to sounds. The great thing is that the thing you train the most when playing is hearing. You have to listen to what's coming out so, in a way, it's also closely related to writing. What I have found is that the two processes enhance one another. I play better when I'm writing and I write better if I play.
It's all meditation, really...
In any case, sunday was also very full of ideas. I wrote a couple of new things for THE IMMORTALISTS and ALIENATION, had an idea for a BIOGRAPHY and for another series (don't ask me what it's about 'cause I can't remember...) called BLACK MARK.
Monday was a day that I thought was going spent entirely indoors, had to go and deal with lots of paperwork instead (and buy a new pair of cycling gloves - fundamental goods in winter!), felt it wasn't going to be that great for the writing and, in actual fact turned out pretty well. THE SHIFT kept me company and wrote some more for ALIENATION.
Tuesday I went to work but still kept working on THE SHIFT.
(I was going to finish it goddammit!)
Wednesday - home at last! - PC heaven!
Guess which script I worked on?! You're correct! I spent like 10 hours solid on that day on it. Wednesday and sunday were the crucial days to really tip this boat up.
Then yesterday I finally managed to add the last couple of scenes, redo the structure and feel that the thing is finished.
In actual fact, only after I posted yesterday and got home, did I realise that I had forgotten to erase some stuff of the script. There were some bits of monologue that I felt weren't working so well and I decided to redo the scenes. I remembered to type them down but then forgot to edit the old ones...
Guess I'll have to do it today.
And print out the whole thing again.
Actually yesterday, when I was tearing the two older versions of this script, I felt for the first time that getting rid of all that paper wasn't fun anymore. I remember the first few times that I started tearing the pages into bits - to give room for the completed draft - it felt good. There was some accomplishment in that. Now, after 30 seconds of doing it I was thinking for the first time in my life that buying a paper shredder was a good idea...
Anyway. Amidst it all I still wrote (can't remember the day 'cause I forgot to write it down on my diary... actually, I remembered that I had written an email about it... wednesday the 30th of september) a draft for the TEATRO DO FRIO story. It's about a girl that goes on a coach to spend her holidays with her grandparents. The story is quite funny and charming and I'm planning on keeping all that and add a bit of fantasy to it. A kind of fable feel to it. I think it can work quite. Only 8 comics pages. Which I still have to know if it can be done. 'Cause I think they were expecting me to write an illustrated short story... only 6 pages long...
We'll see...
Peace.
Thursday 2 October 2008
Comics Scripting - THE SHIFT
This is just a quick one to say that I've finally finished THE SHIFT!
(yaaayyy!!)
It's a couple of days behind schedule (I wanted to have it ready before September ended...) but at least it's done! 104 pages strong!
Tomorrow I'll post an excerpt from it and also some news on what I've been doing during the last week... there are a couple of interesting things...
Peace
(yaaayyy!!)
It's a couple of days behind schedule (I wanted to have it ready before September ended...) but at least it's done! 104 pages strong!
Tomorrow I'll post an excerpt from it and also some news on what I've been doing during the last week... there are a couple of interesting things...
Peace
Thursday 25 September 2008
Comics Scripting
Well, it's been a while since I've last wrote a few lines in this here semi-diary of uncanny writings...
On the 13th I went home and added a acouple more scenes to THE SHIFT. That thing is really going to get to 100 pages, I tell ya...
The following day (a sunday spent mostly outdoors...) I started revising the whole thing and wrote a bit more on THE IMMORTALISTS (I keep getting weird scenes and characters...) and a bit more on THE REMNANTS OF LOST DAYS (a long short-story...)
On the Monday I quickly revised the theatre play DOUBLE SIDED and sent it out to that competition. There was also a lovely event at streatham library that I helped host and organise (as part of the Graphic Novels Reading Group) with Helen McCarthy, Alex Fitch and Paul Gravett. It was a delicious talk on Osamu Tezuka and the wonders of Manga.
I also wrote a synopsis and bits of a short script called MOTHER'S MILK.
Because tuesday is just that kind of day, here came another short script (synopsis and a few scenes) called THE DEEPEST WHISPER. Together with MOTHER'S MILK these two are now part of a kind of sub-series within MONO. The main theme of these stories is love and just how deep it can go.
Also did some more reviewing on THE SHIFT.
Wednesday was "classics" day because not only did I do some more reviewing on THE SHIFT but I also wrote a synopsis and a few scenes for a BATMAN story. I won't tell you the title but I can tell you that it's more about Bruce Wayne and a weird psychologist than throwing punches into criminals faces...
On the thursday I went to Portugal for a short holiday. I actually managed to finish reviewing the whole of THE SHIFT and I realised that I need to review the whole structure of the thing. At least I have a plan for it. I'm gonna separate the whole structure into the various acts. Then organise them chronologically. Then redo the changes that didn't really work for me. Hopefully it will be closer to a final structure after all this is done!
On Monday the 22nd, on my way to Sao Martinho do Porto, to my parents house, I had an idea for a short story called LAND OF FOG. This came to mind simply because, as I arrived inside the coach, I observed that a thick whitish fog covered the whole bay area and the town around, even though everywhere else in the region it was sunny and bright. Talk about micro-climate, huh? So that's the story. A guy arriving to a sunny town only to find that the fog therein has some very interesting properties...
On tuesday I finished revising THE SHIFT and had a meeting with my good friend at TEATRO DO FRIO (Theatre Of The Cold), a theatre company based in Porto.
We had some dinner at Agito in Bairro Alto and talked about our lives, meditation, theatre, the play I had sent him - DOUBLE SIDED (which everybody in the company read! wow! that was REALLY unexpected!!) - and the project I've been invited to participate - RETALHOS (Patchwork).
Basically they've been performing for people throughout the country, presenting some short performances around the object SUITCASE. Then, after the show, they sit down with the audience and gather some of their stories of living abroad and so forth. The whole thing is taped so that a documentary is created. Then 10 of these stories, all with the object SUITCASE, will be selected and sent to 10 writers in order for them to write creatively on them. These will then be illustrated and published later on in the year. TEATRO DO FRIO itself will work on these 10 stories and create a performative piece with them that will then be presented to the public.
The thing that I really like about this project is the very simple and yet quite profound idea of turning popular culture into high art - and then returning this high art back into the people. Not only popular culture is being acknowledged by its worth, as a foundation for a sort of cultural sublimation but, in fact, a powerful bridge is being established between two usually opposing ends in culture. TEATRO DO FRIO is demonstrating that everybody can share human experiences and that boundaries can be actuvely used to break cultural and social gaps. It is as important for the intellectual to realise the depth and meaning of a "simpler life" as it is for those with "less education" to become acquainted with contemporary performative pieces. A contemporary working of a real cultural experience might just do the tricks and open up new, unexpected and highly important avenues. After all, as people use to say, we're all on the same boat. It's about time we got to know each other.
So, I'm really happy that I'm one of the lucky participants! October will be dedicated to produce a comics script/short story based on one of the gathered tales. November will be the month for the artist to draw it and december its publication alongside all the others.
I'll try and keep you updated on my progress...
Yesterday was a crazy day. I spent most of the morning with RICARDO CABRAL talking about this project and A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN, his amazing artwork, his upcoming book (you can see some of the stuff in THE ISRAEL SKETCHBOOK) and other things. Here are his two blogs.
http://theisraelsketchbook.blogspot.com/
http://ricardopereiracabral.blogspot.com/
He also wants to do something for a competition that brings THE OBSERVER, RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING and COMICA FESTIVAL together.
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/graphicnovels/competition.htm
He's gonna draw something for me.
And then I'll write something for it.
And I won't know anything until the artwork's done...
I've already had a few ideas for this of course.
(what makes a theme so important after all??)
Maybe create a story perpendicular to the artwork. That is, only a panel or two actually touch upon the theme of the story.
Create a story that dips in and out of the artwork but, for the most part, doesn't have much to do with the visual tale.
Create a story which is conflicts with what's being shown. Like two dissimilar versions of the same thing.
Create a story that actually relates to what is being shown...
And do this in a kind of poetic form.
Don't think about it until you see the artwork, so stop worrying about it and finish all the other stuff instead. Better yet, start reading those stories and select the one you'll be working on...
(I have to keep telling myself these things or else I don't know what my head will start to think and do next...)
Today my plan is simply to type the alterations I've done to THE SHIFT. If I can finish them (which I doubt... it's already 1pm and I've been trying to finish this post since early morning...) I'll print out the whole thing, go home, add the new scenes and redo the structure.
If I can do it, then tomorrow THE SHIFT should be ready to surface in these here bloglands...
Peace
On the 13th I went home and added a acouple more scenes to THE SHIFT. That thing is really going to get to 100 pages, I tell ya...
The following day (a sunday spent mostly outdoors...) I started revising the whole thing and wrote a bit more on THE IMMORTALISTS (I keep getting weird scenes and characters...) and a bit more on THE REMNANTS OF LOST DAYS (a long short-story...)
On the Monday I quickly revised the theatre play DOUBLE SIDED and sent it out to that competition. There was also a lovely event at streatham library that I helped host and organise (as part of the Graphic Novels Reading Group) with Helen McCarthy, Alex Fitch and Paul Gravett. It was a delicious talk on Osamu Tezuka and the wonders of Manga.
I also wrote a synopsis and bits of a short script called MOTHER'S MILK.
Because tuesday is just that kind of day, here came another short script (synopsis and a few scenes) called THE DEEPEST WHISPER. Together with MOTHER'S MILK these two are now part of a kind of sub-series within MONO. The main theme of these stories is love and just how deep it can go.
Also did some more reviewing on THE SHIFT.
Wednesday was "classics" day because not only did I do some more reviewing on THE SHIFT but I also wrote a synopsis and a few scenes for a BATMAN story. I won't tell you the title but I can tell you that it's more about Bruce Wayne and a weird psychologist than throwing punches into criminals faces...
On the thursday I went to Portugal for a short holiday. I actually managed to finish reviewing the whole of THE SHIFT and I realised that I need to review the whole structure of the thing. At least I have a plan for it. I'm gonna separate the whole structure into the various acts. Then organise them chronologically. Then redo the changes that didn't really work for me. Hopefully it will be closer to a final structure after all this is done!
On Monday the 22nd, on my way to Sao Martinho do Porto, to my parents house, I had an idea for a short story called LAND OF FOG. This came to mind simply because, as I arrived inside the coach, I observed that a thick whitish fog covered the whole bay area and the town around, even though everywhere else in the region it was sunny and bright. Talk about micro-climate, huh? So that's the story. A guy arriving to a sunny town only to find that the fog therein has some very interesting properties...
On tuesday I finished revising THE SHIFT and had a meeting with my good friend at TEATRO DO FRIO (Theatre Of The Cold), a theatre company based in Porto.
We had some dinner at Agito in Bairro Alto and talked about our lives, meditation, theatre, the play I had sent him - DOUBLE SIDED (which everybody in the company read! wow! that was REALLY unexpected!!) - and the project I've been invited to participate - RETALHOS (Patchwork).
Basically they've been performing for people throughout the country, presenting some short performances around the object SUITCASE. Then, after the show, they sit down with the audience and gather some of their stories of living abroad and so forth. The whole thing is taped so that a documentary is created. Then 10 of these stories, all with the object SUITCASE, will be selected and sent to 10 writers in order for them to write creatively on them. These will then be illustrated and published later on in the year. TEATRO DO FRIO itself will work on these 10 stories and create a performative piece with them that will then be presented to the public.
The thing that I really like about this project is the very simple and yet quite profound idea of turning popular culture into high art - and then returning this high art back into the people. Not only popular culture is being acknowledged by its worth, as a foundation for a sort of cultural sublimation but, in fact, a powerful bridge is being established between two usually opposing ends in culture. TEATRO DO FRIO is demonstrating that everybody can share human experiences and that boundaries can be actuvely used to break cultural and social gaps. It is as important for the intellectual to realise the depth and meaning of a "simpler life" as it is for those with "less education" to become acquainted with contemporary performative pieces. A contemporary working of a real cultural experience might just do the tricks and open up new, unexpected and highly important avenues. After all, as people use to say, we're all on the same boat. It's about time we got to know each other.
So, I'm really happy that I'm one of the lucky participants! October will be dedicated to produce a comics script/short story based on one of the gathered tales. November will be the month for the artist to draw it and december its publication alongside all the others.
I'll try and keep you updated on my progress...
Yesterday was a crazy day. I spent most of the morning with RICARDO CABRAL talking about this project and A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN, his amazing artwork, his upcoming book (you can see some of the stuff in THE ISRAEL SKETCHBOOK) and other things. Here are his two blogs.
http://theisraelsketchbook.blogspot.com/
http://ricardopereiracabral.blogspot.com/
He also wants to do something for a competition that brings THE OBSERVER, RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHING and COMICA FESTIVAL together.
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/graphicnovels/competition.htm
He's gonna draw something for me.
And then I'll write something for it.
And I won't know anything until the artwork's done...
I've already had a few ideas for this of course.
(what makes a theme so important after all??)
Maybe create a story perpendicular to the artwork. That is, only a panel or two actually touch upon the theme of the story.
Create a story that dips in and out of the artwork but, for the most part, doesn't have much to do with the visual tale.
Create a story which is conflicts with what's being shown. Like two dissimilar versions of the same thing.
Create a story that actually relates to what is being shown...
And do this in a kind of poetic form.
Don't think about it until you see the artwork, so stop worrying about it and finish all the other stuff instead. Better yet, start reading those stories and select the one you'll be working on...
(I have to keep telling myself these things or else I don't know what my head will start to think and do next...)
Today my plan is simply to type the alterations I've done to THE SHIFT. If I can finish them (which I doubt... it's already 1pm and I've been trying to finish this post since early morning...) I'll print out the whole thing, go home, add the new scenes and redo the structure.
If I can do it, then tomorrow THE SHIFT should be ready to surface in these here bloglands...
Peace
Saturday 13 September 2008
Comics Script
This has been a busy week. A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN keeps growing. All the scenes I had handwritten are now on my big file of notes and ideas for the comic. Next phase is to try and get some order out of them, eventually add some to the first chapter, some to the second and see if it makes some sense to actually write a third one. If it does, I'm thinking it will be more of an illustrated story than anything else. Or a weird kind of comic. The third volume would be more like an essay on the downfall of empires than anything else. A lesson on politics and sociology so to speak.
We'll see...
Wrote a short comic called IN THE WILD and it's about a Native American Indian returning to his tribe after a very long hunt. I have it on paper but still need to put it on electronic format and organise/review the whole thing.
Also wrote a bit more on THE IMMORTALISTS. This time another series of ideas for a greek character and some weird Greek mythology. The thing with this series is that it seems to be more about a thousand different characters than plot... But there's a story there. I guess I just have a whole heap of threads to weave...
Also reviewed the whole of my short theatre play called DOUBLE SIDED (in portuguese, A DUAS VOZES). I'm still not entirely happy with the structure of the text and pacing of the story but (if it does get selected) because it will be just the platform for a whole heap of experimentation, I'm not really worried. Just hope they like it and find it intense enough to work on it.
Also wrote the intro and beginning of the first chapter for a crime book called IN FORESTS DEEP. It's about a very peculiar detective trying to capture a serial killer no one believes exists. But he knows his stuff. In actual fact, thsi detective knows more than he realises...
(I was thinking about what to write for the upcoming NaNoWriMo and some scenes started to surface for this book. But, as soon as I started to write them I began feeling really heavy and low on energy. Crime really isn't one of my favourite themes and writing about it, just drags me down a bit. Still, I think the idea for the book is quite good and the writing is quite easy. Crime tends to be very stereotypical and you don't need to worry about have people with a really bad temper in there... but I like the detective. He's laid back and is as much on the job as considering his next holiday. He's a bit stuck between two worlds. What he really would like to do - anything but being a detective - and what he's good at. You see, his problema is that he doesn't like being a detective but he knows he's a good one. And that he can save lives that no one else can. And that's what counts for him.)
Also wrote something to post here but it not only got very big but also too personal. I don't mind sharing my inner ramblings but, when they're about people I love (even if it's to say nice things) I become much more conscientious and self aware. So, for the time being, it's in limbo. I'm reviewing it and, hopefully in a couple of days, I'll send it out to some of whom it talks about and see what's the reply.
Also did some more research and added some bits that were missing to THE SHIFT. Characters list and description, a map of Iraq, some info on the bombings of Fallujah (2004) and Baghad (1991). Little things but that suddenly made the story feel even more believable. I had certain scenes in my head but did not know if they could match the occurrences in the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq (and subsequent skirmishes). But it turns out that they do! Quite well in fact!
Today and tomorrow I'm hoping on do some more finishing touches on THE SHIFT, send out DOUBLE SIDED and... whatever I feel like it!
Peace.
We'll see...
Wrote a short comic called IN THE WILD and it's about a Native American Indian returning to his tribe after a very long hunt. I have it on paper but still need to put it on electronic format and organise/review the whole thing.
Also wrote a bit more on THE IMMORTALISTS. This time another series of ideas for a greek character and some weird Greek mythology. The thing with this series is that it seems to be more about a thousand different characters than plot... But there's a story there. I guess I just have a whole heap of threads to weave...
Also reviewed the whole of my short theatre play called DOUBLE SIDED (in portuguese, A DUAS VOZES). I'm still not entirely happy with the structure of the text and pacing of the story but (if it does get selected) because it will be just the platform for a whole heap of experimentation, I'm not really worried. Just hope they like it and find it intense enough to work on it.
Also wrote the intro and beginning of the first chapter for a crime book called IN FORESTS DEEP. It's about a very peculiar detective trying to capture a serial killer no one believes exists. But he knows his stuff. In actual fact, thsi detective knows more than he realises...
(I was thinking about what to write for the upcoming NaNoWriMo and some scenes started to surface for this book. But, as soon as I started to write them I began feeling really heavy and low on energy. Crime really isn't one of my favourite themes and writing about it, just drags me down a bit. Still, I think the idea for the book is quite good and the writing is quite easy. Crime tends to be very stereotypical and you don't need to worry about have people with a really bad temper in there... but I like the detective. He's laid back and is as much on the job as considering his next holiday. He's a bit stuck between two worlds. What he really would like to do - anything but being a detective - and what he's good at. You see, his problema is that he doesn't like being a detective but he knows he's a good one. And that he can save lives that no one else can. And that's what counts for him.)
Also wrote something to post here but it not only got very big but also too personal. I don't mind sharing my inner ramblings but, when they're about people I love (even if it's to say nice things) I become much more conscientious and self aware. So, for the time being, it's in limbo. I'm reviewing it and, hopefully in a couple of days, I'll send it out to some of whom it talks about and see what's the reply.
Also did some more research and added some bits that were missing to THE SHIFT. Characters list and description, a map of Iraq, some info on the bombings of Fallujah (2004) and Baghad (1991). Little things but that suddenly made the story feel even more believable. I had certain scenes in my head but did not know if they could match the occurrences in the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq (and subsequent skirmishes). But it turns out that they do! Quite well in fact!
Today and tomorrow I'm hoping on do some more finishing touches on THE SHIFT, send out DOUBLE SIDED and... whatever I feel like it!
Peace.
Tuesday 9 September 2008
Sequential Scripts, Weekend Writs
Spent the weekend writing some more stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. Quite a lot of stuff actually. I've been reading through a paper on de-development (the collapse of empires on the western world) and including some of the ideas into the script. The idea is to create not only a solida basis for the story's society but also a platform for potential solutions that will come forth as part of the Monk's teachings to the King.
I'm still not finished with it but I know that probably most of what I've written will never end up in a script. But just creating a more recognisable society, a more defined framework within which to move the characters is already important enough. At least for this story. And, in any case, I can always use up some of the key ideas in other stories. There are a few that touch on those points anyway.
I also wrote captions and dialogue for a full (?) issue of The WEIRD MACHINE. And some odd bits. Mainly ideas, directions. Stuff that I could only write synopsis but not really come alive just there and then. I've learned that some stuff needs to be in the back burner for a while. And when it's ready, you'll hear it ring...
Also wrote the opening sequence and a few other bits for an idea that I had a little while ago. A comic about music and what it brings up inside. But I don't really want to talk about this because it's not only quite a personal thing but also something that I will only share when it's completed or secured in some way. All I can say is that I think this could be an amazing project and I'm quite sure it would be successful. Really enjoyed the writing as it was coming out, flowing so easily through the character and into the screen (this one I was typing it directly - which is something I don't do that often - I prefer to write on paper (comics wise) and then already do a semblance of a revision as I write it down on my pc at home), I felt the momentum going, which, to me, is one of the most important things tp be felt whilst writing. It's the momentum that keeps the writing going even when there's no "inspiration" or will power. The momentum sustains the story.
Read a bit of Joana Bertholo's new book: DIALOGOS PARA O FIM DO MUNDO which I'm (slowly...) helping her revise. It's a powerful book and filled with lots of brain candy and provocative ideas. To my mind it's as demanding as it is rewarding. Her writing has a beautiful way of capturing the subtleties of the portuguese language and of revealing our inner connundrums and intricacies. It tells the tale of an Ukranian family, the Kozak, on their quest for that mysterious country, Brazil, to where Father Kozak disappeared once upon a time, leaving behind a promise of a better life, an escape from poverty. In a way it's a book about the many things riddling our existence. A book about existence itself. A book about many books...
Yesterday, while cycling home, had an idea for a short comic and proceeded to actually write the whole thing as soon as I got home. It took me about 2 and a half hours to write 12 pages of comic! I was really surprised! Obviously the ideas changed a bit since their inception but I never assumed it was going to take that long! It's called PARALLEL LIVES.
In any case it's more of an exercise than anything else. It's the story of two guys, one with a mobile phone and another with a flashlight whose worlds end up clashing. It's a short thriller. In any case the idea was to have the points of view alternating between one and the other through the comic. I think I managed to pull it off. The ending was the most difficult, after the characters separate once again. It has no captions or dialogue and there's only a couple of panels where some text shows up. Hopefully the story still comes across crystal clear and creates a reaction.
Today I'm reviewing a theatre play (DOUBLE SIDED) I wrote in Portuguese for a competition (I have to send it by the 15th this month). Just rephrasing a few things. Realised that I'm still not that happy about the whole thing. It has some really good moments (it's good to find out that some of the stuff you had in mind actually did the trick for you at some point down the line...) but I still don't see it as being cohesive. Then again, if I get selected I'll have plenty of oportunities to work on the structure and I'm sure the actors will have more suggestions than I'll possibly be able to handle...
Also finished reading KING by Ho Che Anderson, an amazing comics biography of the life and times of Martin Luther King. Visually it's quite daring and the script really is intense. Ho Che Anderson manages to shift gracefully from in depth political debate to human drama. And, more often than not, seamlessly entwines both. Like my good friend's book, it may not be an easy read, but the plentiful rewards are there for the taking...
I'm still not finished with it but I know that probably most of what I've written will never end up in a script. But just creating a more recognisable society, a more defined framework within which to move the characters is already important enough. At least for this story. And, in any case, I can always use up some of the key ideas in other stories. There are a few that touch on those points anyway.
I also wrote captions and dialogue for a full (?) issue of The WEIRD MACHINE. And some odd bits. Mainly ideas, directions. Stuff that I could only write synopsis but not really come alive just there and then. I've learned that some stuff needs to be in the back burner for a while. And when it's ready, you'll hear it ring...
Also wrote the opening sequence and a few other bits for an idea that I had a little while ago. A comic about music and what it brings up inside. But I don't really want to talk about this because it's not only quite a personal thing but also something that I will only share when it's completed or secured in some way. All I can say is that I think this could be an amazing project and I'm quite sure it would be successful. Really enjoyed the writing as it was coming out, flowing so easily through the character and into the screen (this one I was typing it directly - which is something I don't do that often - I prefer to write on paper (comics wise) and then already do a semblance of a revision as I write it down on my pc at home), I felt the momentum going, which, to me, is one of the most important things tp be felt whilst writing. It's the momentum that keeps the writing going even when there's no "inspiration" or will power. The momentum sustains the story.
Read a bit of Joana Bertholo's new book: DIALOGOS PARA O FIM DO MUNDO which I'm (slowly...) helping her revise. It's a powerful book and filled with lots of brain candy and provocative ideas. To my mind it's as demanding as it is rewarding. Her writing has a beautiful way of capturing the subtleties of the portuguese language and of revealing our inner connundrums and intricacies. It tells the tale of an Ukranian family, the Kozak, on their quest for that mysterious country, Brazil, to where Father Kozak disappeared once upon a time, leaving behind a promise of a better life, an escape from poverty. In a way it's a book about the many things riddling our existence. A book about existence itself. A book about many books...
Yesterday, while cycling home, had an idea for a short comic and proceeded to actually write the whole thing as soon as I got home. It took me about 2 and a half hours to write 12 pages of comic! I was really surprised! Obviously the ideas changed a bit since their inception but I never assumed it was going to take that long! It's called PARALLEL LIVES.
In any case it's more of an exercise than anything else. It's the story of two guys, one with a mobile phone and another with a flashlight whose worlds end up clashing. It's a short thriller. In any case the idea was to have the points of view alternating between one and the other through the comic. I think I managed to pull it off. The ending was the most difficult, after the characters separate once again. It has no captions or dialogue and there's only a couple of panels where some text shows up. Hopefully the story still comes across crystal clear and creates a reaction.
Today I'm reviewing a theatre play (DOUBLE SIDED) I wrote in Portuguese for a competition (I have to send it by the 15th this month). Just rephrasing a few things. Realised that I'm still not that happy about the whole thing. It has some really good moments (it's good to find out that some of the stuff you had in mind actually did the trick for you at some point down the line...) but I still don't see it as being cohesive. Then again, if I get selected I'll have plenty of oportunities to work on the structure and I'm sure the actors will have more suggestions than I'll possibly be able to handle...
Also finished reading KING by Ho Che Anderson, an amazing comics biography of the life and times of Martin Luther King. Visually it's quite daring and the script really is intense. Ho Che Anderson manages to shift gracefully from in depth political debate to human drama. And, more often than not, seamlessly entwines both. Like my good friend's book, it may not be an easy read, but the plentiful rewards are there for the taking...
Friday 5 September 2008
The Shift, close to completion
First draft that is.
It's 94 pages long and that added scene kind of felt like the icing on top of the cake. I've added a few bits of writing that I didn't know before where to place and I'm going to print the whole thing in a bit.
I wanted to give it some time to breath but I think I won't resist playing about with the structure and fine tune the continuity a bit more.
Maybe on monday I'll have the first few pages of that script posted in here.
There's still stuff to do with this script but the hard stuff has been taken care off. For now at least.
Feeling quite good about this script actually. I mean, I've always been excited and challenged by it, but a few days ago I was having the feeling that this wasn't going to be such an intense script as I'd thought. Such as Lost Lines is.
But maybe I'm wrong...
It's 94 pages long and that added scene kind of felt like the icing on top of the cake. I've added a few bits of writing that I didn't know before where to place and I'm going to print the whole thing in a bit.
I wanted to give it some time to breath but I think I won't resist playing about with the structure and fine tune the continuity a bit more.
Maybe on monday I'll have the first few pages of that script posted in here.
There's still stuff to do with this script but the hard stuff has been taken care off. For now at least.
Feeling quite good about this script actually. I mean, I've always been excited and challenged by it, but a few days ago I was having the feeling that this wasn't going to be such an intense script as I'd thought. Such as Lost Lines is.
But maybe I'm wrong...
WeirD Machine
Just had an idea for a comic.
(that's what happens when you skip breakfast, have breakfast after lunch and find yourself making cheese sandwiches in the middle of the afternoon with no one to blame)
(they've all gone home by now. It's friday, remember?!)
It's called the WEIRD MACHINE. And it starts with the line:
"The guy who invented the WeirD Machine got invited to a lot of strange parties."
And it's about a guy who invents a very peculiar machine. But perhaps more about the eerie people he gets to meet...
(strange times, weird worlds, eerie explorations...)
(that's what happens when you skip breakfast, have breakfast after lunch and find yourself making cheese sandwiches in the middle of the afternoon with no one to blame)
(they've all gone home by now. It's friday, remember?!)
It's called the WEIRD MACHINE. And it starts with the line:
"The guy who invented the WeirD Machine got invited to a lot of strange parties."
And it's about a guy who invents a very peculiar machine. But perhaps more about the eerie people he gets to meet...
(strange times, weird worlds, eerie explorations...)
Sequential Brains, Parallel Minds
For a few days now I've been finding myself cycling about, showering, eating, even writing and talking on the phone or with other people, even talking to other people and thinking about this idea of how comics and brains (and minds) are closely related.
The basic premise (as it has been for a long while, since a good two month meditation retreat managed to surface - among many things) is that comics work as a kind of an aphorism to the way the brain and the mind operate.
Recently I saw a video clip on TedTalks that really had an impact on me. A good friend sent it to me and I'm now placing it here so that, if you want, you can check it out as well;
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
So, if we broadly say that the left hemisphere of the brain is more responsible for memory, action, decision making, prevision, the filtering of hypotheses, and that the right hemisphere is more connected to the "nowness", the being in the moment, the acute perception of what's happening, right now, the feeling, the intuition, we end up seeing the human brain as being two different processors working synergetically. On one hand we have a parallel computer. It's all about what's arriving now, what's flowing inside itself and coming in through our astouding sensory system. On the other hand we have a serial computer who, by relying on memory of past experiences is projecting consequences and possible courses of action in response to what's present.
So one half of our brain is worried about sequences. The other is just accessing what's there. So one is always looking for completion (doomed to never really reach it for change is always occurring) and the other is always complete (for all there is is simply all that's there). And if we look deep enough inside ourselves, we can see hints for this. Usual feelings of dissatisfaction easily mixing with the seemingly contradictory knowings of our shortcomings and hopes.
But what has all this to do with comics?
Well, on a first instance, comics are about words and images. Sequential art, remember? (thanks Will Eisner)
Now, with words we more or less take is a steak. Even if want to swallow it whole, we still need to chew and swallow it bit by bit. But images are somehow easier to enter. They take less time to be absorbed. In a fraction of a second we can read the image that contains the panels that will take us a few seconds to absorb.
Now this may seem a little bit strange because, in fact we intuitively know (or feel?...) that the image has more content than the words... more on this later.
So, in a way, what I'm trying to say is that images are more akin to the right brain and words to the left. It's like feelings and thoughts. You know how you feel instantly. But to say it in words might take a lifetime. Especially because the nuances of what we feel have seldom been described to us and are rarely used to getting on with life. One could almost say that the left brain is geared to get on with things and the right to appreciate whatever it is we're experiencing.
(in fact the right brain is where the experience is located - which kind of hints to me that the right brain kind of has priority over the left...)
Let's imagine that we're reading a comic.
We open the page and BOOOOM!! We have beautiful imagery flooding our right hemisphere. We still don't know what the heck is the comic about on that first page and our right brain is already immersed in the visuals of the page, the tactile sensations, the sounds around us and, of course, the left brain catching up to this fresh new torrent of information.
The left brain catches up. We move from the left upper corner of the page to the right, progressively making our way down the page, noticing captions and speech baloons, sound effects and other visuals that will help us recreate more fully the expected sensory experience for this page. The left brain is quickly catching up. It's seeing the words right now and making billiions of connections faster than we could possibly track. And yet we feel it all simply by recognising the words. At each word, at each set of words, the whole spectrum of our memory is scrutinised, trying to ascertain exactly what is the relevance of that word to ourselves and, within context. But in order to ascertain the context more precisely the left brain needs to connect with the right. It needs to return to the nowness, where all the raw information is contained and make new connections, select different aspects and filter them differently. Our eyes jump from panels to captions, speech balloons to images, we move through the gutters between panels, recreating the passing of time and a change of moment, we jump back and forth between words and images. The brain buzzes with activity. We find ourselves enjoying a good comic!
But what does this mean?
For me it means that through the process of reading comics, of going backwards and forth with words and images, naturally reinforces the communication between the two hemispheres. By placing two similar opposing experiences: one that is very much instantaneous and another which is establishing connections and filtering through a maze of probabilities.
It seems obvious that by engaging regularly on such an exercise (an exercise that is not merely of following a general sequence - like most literature or of relaxing into a state of being, of being guided through a set of predetermined experiences - like film) the way our brain interacts with itself becomes more fluid. Not only our ability to create patterns increases (to extract meaning from a particular experience) but we also become highly involved with the experience itself. The raw power of images.
So why the title?
The title hints at this idea that our brains are increasingly used to be sequential machines. We receive a particular set, an input, and we are asked for a solution, an output. But that is not the sole nature of our minds. Our minds are also fully functioning, fully rooted experiential machines. Contemplation is one of our given rights. In fact it is crucial for a sucessful survival. With accurate input of information, we cannot hope to sustain an efficient living state.
My feel is that comics somehow provide an easy and powerful insight into the nature of our being. Both metaphorically, both in terms of ideas and concepts wanting to be shared, but also, and perhaps most importantly by their very nature. A nature born of our own nature and perhaps closest to it than we might dare imagine.
---
From here on it would be interesting to analyse the differences between North American, European and Asian comics. Also the historical evolution of comics and language. And just what the heck is the role consciousness plays amidst all of this. After all consciousness is surely more than just the brain or the mind? Right? (or Left?!...)
The basic premise (as it has been for a long while, since a good two month meditation retreat managed to surface - among many things) is that comics work as a kind of an aphorism to the way the brain and the mind operate.
Recently I saw a video clip on TedTalks that really had an impact on me. A good friend sent it to me and I'm now placing it here so that, if you want, you can check it out as well;
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
So, if we broadly say that the left hemisphere of the brain is more responsible for memory, action, decision making, prevision, the filtering of hypotheses, and that the right hemisphere is more connected to the "nowness", the being in the moment, the acute perception of what's happening, right now, the feeling, the intuition, we end up seeing the human brain as being two different processors working synergetically. On one hand we have a parallel computer. It's all about what's arriving now, what's flowing inside itself and coming in through our astouding sensory system. On the other hand we have a serial computer who, by relying on memory of past experiences is projecting consequences and possible courses of action in response to what's present.
So one half of our brain is worried about sequences. The other is just accessing what's there. So one is always looking for completion (doomed to never really reach it for change is always occurring) and the other is always complete (for all there is is simply all that's there). And if we look deep enough inside ourselves, we can see hints for this. Usual feelings of dissatisfaction easily mixing with the seemingly contradictory knowings of our shortcomings and hopes.
But what has all this to do with comics?
Well, on a first instance, comics are about words and images. Sequential art, remember? (thanks Will Eisner)
Now, with words we more or less take is a steak. Even if want to swallow it whole, we still need to chew and swallow it bit by bit. But images are somehow easier to enter. They take less time to be absorbed. In a fraction of a second we can read the image that contains the panels that will take us a few seconds to absorb.
Now this may seem a little bit strange because, in fact we intuitively know (or feel?...) that the image has more content than the words... more on this later.
So, in a way, what I'm trying to say is that images are more akin to the right brain and words to the left. It's like feelings and thoughts. You know how you feel instantly. But to say it in words might take a lifetime. Especially because the nuances of what we feel have seldom been described to us and are rarely used to getting on with life. One could almost say that the left brain is geared to get on with things and the right to appreciate whatever it is we're experiencing.
(in fact the right brain is where the experience is located - which kind of hints to me that the right brain kind of has priority over the left...)
Let's imagine that we're reading a comic.
We open the page and BOOOOM!! We have beautiful imagery flooding our right hemisphere. We still don't know what the heck is the comic about on that first page and our right brain is already immersed in the visuals of the page, the tactile sensations, the sounds around us and, of course, the left brain catching up to this fresh new torrent of information.
The left brain catches up. We move from the left upper corner of the page to the right, progressively making our way down the page, noticing captions and speech baloons, sound effects and other visuals that will help us recreate more fully the expected sensory experience for this page. The left brain is quickly catching up. It's seeing the words right now and making billiions of connections faster than we could possibly track. And yet we feel it all simply by recognising the words. At each word, at each set of words, the whole spectrum of our memory is scrutinised, trying to ascertain exactly what is the relevance of that word to ourselves and, within context. But in order to ascertain the context more precisely the left brain needs to connect with the right. It needs to return to the nowness, where all the raw information is contained and make new connections, select different aspects and filter them differently. Our eyes jump from panels to captions, speech balloons to images, we move through the gutters between panels, recreating the passing of time and a change of moment, we jump back and forth between words and images. The brain buzzes with activity. We find ourselves enjoying a good comic!
But what does this mean?
For me it means that through the process of reading comics, of going backwards and forth with words and images, naturally reinforces the communication between the two hemispheres. By placing two similar opposing experiences: one that is very much instantaneous and another which is establishing connections and filtering through a maze of probabilities.
It seems obvious that by engaging regularly on such an exercise (an exercise that is not merely of following a general sequence - like most literature or of relaxing into a state of being, of being guided through a set of predetermined experiences - like film) the way our brain interacts with itself becomes more fluid. Not only our ability to create patterns increases (to extract meaning from a particular experience) but we also become highly involved with the experience itself. The raw power of images.
So why the title?
The title hints at this idea that our brains are increasingly used to be sequential machines. We receive a particular set, an input, and we are asked for a solution, an output. But that is not the sole nature of our minds. Our minds are also fully functioning, fully rooted experiential machines. Contemplation is one of our given rights. In fact it is crucial for a sucessful survival. With accurate input of information, we cannot hope to sustain an efficient living state.
My feel is that comics somehow provide an easy and powerful insight into the nature of our being. Both metaphorically, both in terms of ideas and concepts wanting to be shared, but also, and perhaps most importantly by their very nature. A nature born of our own nature and perhaps closest to it than we might dare imagine.
---
From here on it would be interesting to analyse the differences between North American, European and Asian comics. Also the historical evolution of comics and language. And just what the heck is the role consciousness plays amidst all of this. After all consciousness is surely more than just the brain or the mind? Right? (or Left?!...)
Scriptic Mind
Well yesterday was one of those days.
(still don't know exactly what that means, but I'm sure I'll get around to it at some point)
Case in point. I did less than I was expecting but more that I felt I was going to, half way through the day.
Earlier this morning I finished all the changes on THE SHIFT and I'm now writing the last scene of the script. Something that will take last for at least 3 or 4 pages of the comic.
This is quickly becoming the longest comics script (one shot) that I've written.
The scene I'm writing now is when Shahidah (the main character, a little girl - here aged 9 - whose name means Witness) for the first time sees what happened to her family after the explosion that shook the house...
It's not a pretty scene but, in a way, i want to make the tragedy beautiful visually. The text at least is poetic enough even though necessarily dark.
I hope that, as people run through this (one of the) last scene, that they'll be able to look back at the whole story and put it into perspective, realising that so many of the other scenes were not only preparing us in a way for this one, but how this situation reveals Shahidah's destiny. A destiny that is very much clear inside herself during these moments of raw perception. This is why the last image in the book works as the closing of a circle. She is now ready to return to the place she once left. And to be whole again.
Peace.
(still don't know exactly what that means, but I'm sure I'll get around to it at some point)
Case in point. I did less than I was expecting but more that I felt I was going to, half way through the day.
Earlier this morning I finished all the changes on THE SHIFT and I'm now writing the last scene of the script. Something that will take last for at least 3 or 4 pages of the comic.
This is quickly becoming the longest comics script (one shot) that I've written.
The scene I'm writing now is when Shahidah (the main character, a little girl - here aged 9 - whose name means Witness) for the first time sees what happened to her family after the explosion that shook the house...
It's not a pretty scene but, in a way, i want to make the tragedy beautiful visually. The text at least is poetic enough even though necessarily dark.
I hope that, as people run through this (one of the) last scene, that they'll be able to look back at the whole story and put it into perspective, realising that so many of the other scenes were not only preparing us in a way for this one, but how this situation reveals Shahidah's destiny. A destiny that is very much clear inside herself during these moments of raw perception. This is why the last image in the book works as the closing of a circle. She is now ready to return to the place she once left. And to be whole again.
Peace.
Thursday 4 September 2008
Uncanny Affairs
Back at work. But glad that yesterday I managed to stick with the writing.
Sometimes being at home by yourself with seemingly all the time in the world in your hands (something that never seems to last...) just makes you dodge the writing a bit and muck about, doing nothing in particular.
In any case, yesterday felt like one of those days where the writing momentum increased. And I say this because it wasn't easy to keep myself focussed. I'd spend half an hour writing some panels for THE SHIFT and then play the bass for another half hour. Then write for almost an hour and then have a break for some food, or more bass. Then back to the writing...
But I managed to resist the temptations of watching a couple of dvd's! And I know that after a couple more of these one day writing sessions I'll be geared enough to be able to focus more and extract more from each incursion. Kind of like aiming at quantity so that you can actually reach the quality. At least that's how I feel with writing. The more I do it, the easier and better it seems to get.
Still, I think I probably wrote for about 8 hours and that accounted for the complete review of THE SHIFT (which is roughly 90 comics pages long) and 80 new panels to the story - I had a lot of text that still hadn't been given visuals.
Spent a lot of time trying to figure out the anacronisms in the story but ended up deciding that I was simply worrying too much with my natural tendencies to make everything tidy and neat.
(which is actually a bit like how I dreamed my brain would one day be - a dream that I've been failing miserably... but also happily)
The first part of the story occurs during the american bombings of Iraq during the Gulf War and then moves on to the American invasion of Iraq, post 9/11.
(we move from end 1990, beginning 1991 to 2003/2004)
Today I'm typing everything I did yesterday back into the script. I usually do the corrections on a print out and then, after all the fiddling around, going backwards and forwards, I type it back on electronic format, print the whole mess once again and start over. Eventually something readable will come out.
(if I pray long enough...)
That's my mission for today. Write it all up and print in the end. I also realised that I'm not that happy about the structure either. Seems too slow and it doesn't flow well. But I think that as soon as I have a newer draft with all these added bit and that extra scene that I've been meaning to add for ages now - and that I keep forgetting to - things will come more into place. Especially because I'll have to fit it somewhere. And because I'll have images to go with all the text - which makes it a lot easier to organise...
I also want to write something about comics and brains... but I can't remember the title I had for it... and titles are very important...
was it SEQUENTIAL BRAINS???
peace.
Sometimes being at home by yourself with seemingly all the time in the world in your hands (something that never seems to last...) just makes you dodge the writing a bit and muck about, doing nothing in particular.
In any case, yesterday felt like one of those days where the writing momentum increased. And I say this because it wasn't easy to keep myself focussed. I'd spend half an hour writing some panels for THE SHIFT and then play the bass for another half hour. Then write for almost an hour and then have a break for some food, or more bass. Then back to the writing...
But I managed to resist the temptations of watching a couple of dvd's! And I know that after a couple more of these one day writing sessions I'll be geared enough to be able to focus more and extract more from each incursion. Kind of like aiming at quantity so that you can actually reach the quality. At least that's how I feel with writing. The more I do it, the easier and better it seems to get.
Still, I think I probably wrote for about 8 hours and that accounted for the complete review of THE SHIFT (which is roughly 90 comics pages long) and 80 new panels to the story - I had a lot of text that still hadn't been given visuals.
Spent a lot of time trying to figure out the anacronisms in the story but ended up deciding that I was simply worrying too much with my natural tendencies to make everything tidy and neat.
(which is actually a bit like how I dreamed my brain would one day be - a dream that I've been failing miserably... but also happily)
The first part of the story occurs during the american bombings of Iraq during the Gulf War and then moves on to the American invasion of Iraq, post 9/11.
(we move from end 1990, beginning 1991 to 2003/2004)
Today I'm typing everything I did yesterday back into the script. I usually do the corrections on a print out and then, after all the fiddling around, going backwards and forwards, I type it back on electronic format, print the whole mess once again and start over. Eventually something readable will come out.
(if I pray long enough...)
That's my mission for today. Write it all up and print in the end. I also realised that I'm not that happy about the structure either. Seems too slow and it doesn't flow well. But I think that as soon as I have a newer draft with all these added bit and that extra scene that I've been meaning to add for ages now - and that I keep forgetting to - things will come more into place. Especially because I'll have to fit it somewhere. And because I'll have images to go with all the text - which makes it a lot easier to organise...
I also want to write something about comics and brains... but I can't remember the title I had for it... and titles are very important...
was it SEQUENTIAL BRAINS???
peace.
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