Showing posts with label ml. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ml. Show all posts

Friday, 5 December 2008

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.

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

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

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

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...

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