It's 2am, Friday morning, small hours.
Been spending most of this night around my only manuscript in Portuguese. It's called Morto. And it's giving me more trouble editing than I had anticipated.
I think it's because of some of the characters. They're still not clear in my head. And whilst that doesn't happen, I'll have to struggle some more.
The rest will be easier I'm sure.
But I spent 5 or 6 hours today around a scene in a bar.
Ended up writing a short one, just with 4 characters in order to define them a bit better.
Also realizing that this scene will have to be moved around a bit. I'm in the beginning of this story but this scene will probably be better placed closer to the middle of the story. The reader will need to know some of the characters fairly well before we get to it.
The main problem is that there's 8 people talking. The talk shifts back and forth around this dead guy and the inability of some of dealing with it.
And I still don't know the characters well enough to have them interacting so fully.
Yet, at the same time, I feel I need to do this scene in the order it was placed. I know that when I finish this version of it all the characters will be much clearer in my head and this will help me a lot throughout the rest of the book.
This is what I have been doing during the last few days.
This and some comics reviews.
I want to have a second draft of this book ready before the end of the month so that I can try and send it to a publisher in Portugal. They're called Objectiva and are looking for new writers and ideas.
At least I think that the first chapter is already quite good.
But I want to have the whole thing ready before that.
I want to have a clearer picture of this book and its quality before July comes.
Peace.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Friday, 5 June 2009
May Days
May is gone...
And after April's rush it feels like I haven't done anything for a month...
Truth is, I can't even remember what I did. It does seems like I didn't produce a single completed piece of writing.
But I lie.
The only thing I did do throughout this month were a few comics reviews and some poems/lyrics/spoken word for a pet project of mine with my cousin Pietro Casella.
I did scribble down a few more ideas for other projects but nothing more than this. It was work mostly during this month and I have to admit that I kind of got carried away by it (too much to do) putting almost everything else aside.
It had been a while since I had felt that. Getting home and not being able to switch off the mind from what had happened during the day.
Suffice to say that I was quite stressed during most of the time.
And eager for my mini-break in portugal just last week.
I was eager for it because I knew that as soon as I had it, I could step out and come back with a different approach.
Which is what I did.
I read quite a bit while I was away (The Plato Papers by Peter Ackroyd and The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks) and that really helped me get some focus for what I want to do (mainly) this next month and a half.
Which is to revise Land Of Fog and Morto (dead).
Easy, innit?!
Let's just see how it goes and if I can actually write more than a post a month...
peace
And after April's rush it feels like I haven't done anything for a month...
Truth is, I can't even remember what I did. It does seems like I didn't produce a single completed piece of writing.
But I lie.
The only thing I did do throughout this month were a few comics reviews and some poems/lyrics/spoken word for a pet project of mine with my cousin Pietro Casella.
I did scribble down a few more ideas for other projects but nothing more than this. It was work mostly during this month and I have to admit that I kind of got carried away by it (too much to do) putting almost everything else aside.
It had been a while since I had felt that. Getting home and not being able to switch off the mind from what had happened during the day.
Suffice to say that I was quite stressed during most of the time.
And eager for my mini-break in portugal just last week.
I was eager for it because I knew that as soon as I had it, I could step out and come back with a different approach.
Which is what I did.
I read quite a bit while I was away (The Plato Papers by Peter Ackroyd and The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks) and that really helped me get some focus for what I want to do (mainly) this next month and a half.
Which is to revise Land Of Fog and Morto (dead).
Easy, innit?!
Let's just see how it goes and if I can actually write more than a post a month...
peace
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Truth
Yesterday I had a really good evening.
No. I didn't spend it on my own, writing or reading comics.
I spent a good deal of it talking and listening to the good people of the Graphic Novels Reading Group.
The subject? Autobiographical comics.
lately we've been focussing on themes rather than any particular book and I have found that not only this keeps us more aligned with the major theme (comics) but also that the discussions are almost invariably extremely rich in content. After all everybody has the opportunity to voice out their opinions on the themes at hand. And I mean everybody. I don't think that there has been a session where someone has not participated in the debate (unless they didn't want to). And, the way I remember it, everybody, in one way or another, has contributed greatly to my understanding of comics.
I decided to write this post because I really felt that we touched a nerve yesterday. To be perfectly honest, as soon as that chord was struck it actually became very difficult for me to focus on what was happening afterwards for the ideas kept pilling inside my head and wanting to come out.
I remember cycling home with the theme dancing wildly inside and wanting to write some stuff down. Since I didn't really have time, this morning, as I cycled back to work, once again the themes of truth and authenticity in comics (and in writing or creativity in general) again flooded me.
I do not know if I will be able to regain that state but I want to at least try to convey some of the ideas. They might not be entirely original or revolutionary for you (to a certain extent they weren't for me) but, when hey did come, they came with the force and the clarity experienced when one truly comes to terms with whatever aspect of our experiencing.
Most of the discussion yesterday was centred around ideas of what makes an autobiography real, factual, accurate, true or important?
What makes certain stories tick and other not?
We chatted a lot about not only the tricks that memory plays but also the tricks that the author must play on the reader in order to convey the story, if not with truth to the fact, at least with truth in relation to the story or to the emotions experienced.
I think we all agreed on one point. If we by any chance discovered that a certain element of the story was incorrect this would affect our whole perception of the whole, by giving rise to suspicion on the author.
Personally, I have found that the thing that connects me the most to a story is its inherent truth. It may not be factual but it has to be experienced in some way.
(Sarah raised the point that perhaps everything that is written IS personal and, therefore, autobiographical)
(but also that it all can simply be viewed as fictional - since the narration of the experience can never be the experience itself - and, therefore, such things as autobiographies or non-fiction books simply do not exist)
This got me to think on what things, what devices make me experience truth whilst reading a (comics) story.
The easy one is emotion. If the emotions are there and they are recognisable, then, as they shift and move through the page, I will be able to follow them and emulate them inside me, thus recreating the story in my own image, so to speak.
Logic was another one that I thought about even though I'm not talking about linear logic here but rather of a logic which is relative to the story itself. A logic that is logical within the context of the story.
These musings then led me to think that, in actual fact the most important thing about truth is the way we relate to it. All of these things are dependent of ourselves and our view of the world. And I think this is why Gene Wolfe puts the emphasis so much on the reader. In a way, the story only happens in the reader's mind. In the author's mind the story is a different one. Because there are more things at play than just the story. Or, at least, than just what is visible about the story.
The author has to consider characters, motivations, plot, beginnings, middles and ends, rhythms, beauty and a ton of other things. The author considers the story itself. And the author considers so that the reader is taken by the story rather than plummeted straight into analysis about it.
(this can be the sole objective, of course, but I think we'll all agree that this is not usually the case)
The author is seeing the story and constructing it in a way (most times at least) to cause certain reactions on the readers. The author is, to a certain extent, programming the readership. So, for the author, there is always more at stake than just the story (again, in most cases).
In my experience I have found that the simpler the artwork the easier it becomes for us to relate to it.
As the amount of visual information on a page reduces we are automatically motioned towards a more general, a vaster experience. This makes it easier to relate to. A child's depiction of a house with wall, door, window and triangular roof can as easily represent a house in the west as a house in the east. A tree is a tree. We recognise it as such but we do not ask which species for we do not have sufficient detail to even consider if such information might be crucial to the story.
We assume that it is not (unconsciously) and move on.
We get on with the story.
During the meeting I tried to say that I feel that truth has nothing to do with fact. That is with something that has been recorded in one way or another, thus proving it real.
To my mind truth has much more to do with a certain essence, with something that defies definition but that clearly exudes from certain works.
I gave the example of J. Michael Straczynski's THE BOOK OF THE LOST (which is to me a continuation of what he did in MIDNIGHT NATION). Here we have a fantasy setup which serves as a platform to beautifully point out all the wounds in human experience. Where we deign not look, Straczybski calmly brings us into focus, the good and the bad coexisting side by side.
On the surface this book is clearly a work of fiction.
But if we really read it, if we really allow it to reach into us and take us where it is supposed to take us, we can also clearly see that this book is a work of non-fiction. It draws from an experience that is deeper than just the physicality of facts. To me, it draws from the essence of what it is to be a human being and that is what makes this book precious, in fact, any piece of writing precious.
And more, because this book comes not to point the obvious faults but to direct us in the right direction.
Straczynski comes not just as an entertainer but as a storyteller. Reminding us why stories have always been told. In fact, why stories begun being told in the first place: because they were important. Because the knowledge, the essence they imparted or insinuated was crucial to one's existence.
But, Straczynski, like all great and truly awake writers, has transcended the simple and widely acknowledged survival of the bodily self to a higher viewpoint.
He is concerned with the survival (which is to say, the discovery) of our true nature.
And this is to me perhaps the main aspect of the truth (at least, it is now as I write this): it reveals our essence. It is the closest we can get to what we are. And, when we get there, the first thing we notice is that words cannot reach us (perhaps that is why there is a book for the lost but none for the found...). The essence is something far greater and, quite simply unreachable by words.
When we tell the truth while telling a story our sole concern should be in pointing the reader in the right direction. And it is that direction that carries the seal of truth. Not the goal itself. For the goal is the readers (the experiencers) property only.
The truth may well be hard to grasp but it is the sole objective. For that reason, facts or imaginings are simply tools to help convey that in the best way possible. I am not concerned with the intrinsic realism of the story but with the reality of where it takes me.
And, for now, this is my truth.
Peace
No. I didn't spend it on my own, writing or reading comics.
I spent a good deal of it talking and listening to the good people of the Graphic Novels Reading Group.
The subject? Autobiographical comics.
lately we've been focussing on themes rather than any particular book and I have found that not only this keeps us more aligned with the major theme (comics) but also that the discussions are almost invariably extremely rich in content. After all everybody has the opportunity to voice out their opinions on the themes at hand. And I mean everybody. I don't think that there has been a session where someone has not participated in the debate (unless they didn't want to). And, the way I remember it, everybody, in one way or another, has contributed greatly to my understanding of comics.
I decided to write this post because I really felt that we touched a nerve yesterday. To be perfectly honest, as soon as that chord was struck it actually became very difficult for me to focus on what was happening afterwards for the ideas kept pilling inside my head and wanting to come out.
I remember cycling home with the theme dancing wildly inside and wanting to write some stuff down. Since I didn't really have time, this morning, as I cycled back to work, once again the themes of truth and authenticity in comics (and in writing or creativity in general) again flooded me.
I do not know if I will be able to regain that state but I want to at least try to convey some of the ideas. They might not be entirely original or revolutionary for you (to a certain extent they weren't for me) but, when hey did come, they came with the force and the clarity experienced when one truly comes to terms with whatever aspect of our experiencing.
Most of the discussion yesterday was centred around ideas of what makes an autobiography real, factual, accurate, true or important?
What makes certain stories tick and other not?
We chatted a lot about not only the tricks that memory plays but also the tricks that the author must play on the reader in order to convey the story, if not with truth to the fact, at least with truth in relation to the story or to the emotions experienced.
I think we all agreed on one point. If we by any chance discovered that a certain element of the story was incorrect this would affect our whole perception of the whole, by giving rise to suspicion on the author.
Personally, I have found that the thing that connects me the most to a story is its inherent truth. It may not be factual but it has to be experienced in some way.
(Sarah raised the point that perhaps everything that is written IS personal and, therefore, autobiographical)
(but also that it all can simply be viewed as fictional - since the narration of the experience can never be the experience itself - and, therefore, such things as autobiographies or non-fiction books simply do not exist)
This got me to think on what things, what devices make me experience truth whilst reading a (comics) story.
The easy one is emotion. If the emotions are there and they are recognisable, then, as they shift and move through the page, I will be able to follow them and emulate them inside me, thus recreating the story in my own image, so to speak.
Logic was another one that I thought about even though I'm not talking about linear logic here but rather of a logic which is relative to the story itself. A logic that is logical within the context of the story.
These musings then led me to think that, in actual fact the most important thing about truth is the way we relate to it. All of these things are dependent of ourselves and our view of the world. And I think this is why Gene Wolfe puts the emphasis so much on the reader. In a way, the story only happens in the reader's mind. In the author's mind the story is a different one. Because there are more things at play than just the story. Or, at least, than just what is visible about the story.
The author has to consider characters, motivations, plot, beginnings, middles and ends, rhythms, beauty and a ton of other things. The author considers the story itself. And the author considers so that the reader is taken by the story rather than plummeted straight into analysis about it.
(this can be the sole objective, of course, but I think we'll all agree that this is not usually the case)
The author is seeing the story and constructing it in a way (most times at least) to cause certain reactions on the readers. The author is, to a certain extent, programming the readership. So, for the author, there is always more at stake than just the story (again, in most cases).
In my experience I have found that the simpler the artwork the easier it becomes for us to relate to it.
As the amount of visual information on a page reduces we are automatically motioned towards a more general, a vaster experience. This makes it easier to relate to. A child's depiction of a house with wall, door, window and triangular roof can as easily represent a house in the west as a house in the east. A tree is a tree. We recognise it as such but we do not ask which species for we do not have sufficient detail to even consider if such information might be crucial to the story.
We assume that it is not (unconsciously) and move on.
We get on with the story.
During the meeting I tried to say that I feel that truth has nothing to do with fact. That is with something that has been recorded in one way or another, thus proving it real.
To my mind truth has much more to do with a certain essence, with something that defies definition but that clearly exudes from certain works.
I gave the example of J. Michael Straczynski's THE BOOK OF THE LOST (which is to me a continuation of what he did in MIDNIGHT NATION). Here we have a fantasy setup which serves as a platform to beautifully point out all the wounds in human experience. Where we deign not look, Straczybski calmly brings us into focus, the good and the bad coexisting side by side.
On the surface this book is clearly a work of fiction.
But if we really read it, if we really allow it to reach into us and take us where it is supposed to take us, we can also clearly see that this book is a work of non-fiction. It draws from an experience that is deeper than just the physicality of facts. To me, it draws from the essence of what it is to be a human being and that is what makes this book precious, in fact, any piece of writing precious.
And more, because this book comes not to point the obvious faults but to direct us in the right direction.
Straczynski comes not just as an entertainer but as a storyteller. Reminding us why stories have always been told. In fact, why stories begun being told in the first place: because they were important. Because the knowledge, the essence they imparted or insinuated was crucial to one's existence.
But, Straczynski, like all great and truly awake writers, has transcended the simple and widely acknowledged survival of the bodily self to a higher viewpoint.
He is concerned with the survival (which is to say, the discovery) of our true nature.
And this is to me perhaps the main aspect of the truth (at least, it is now as I write this): it reveals our essence. It is the closest we can get to what we are. And, when we get there, the first thing we notice is that words cannot reach us (perhaps that is why there is a book for the lost but none for the found...). The essence is something far greater and, quite simply unreachable by words.
When we tell the truth while telling a story our sole concern should be in pointing the reader in the right direction. And it is that direction that carries the seal of truth. Not the goal itself. For the goal is the readers (the experiencers) property only.
The truth may well be hard to grasp but it is the sole objective. For that reason, facts or imaginings are simply tools to help convey that in the best way possible. I am not concerned with the intrinsic realism of the story but with the reality of where it takes me.
And, for now, this is my truth.
Peace
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Script Frenzy WrapUp
Hi.
I know it's been a while.
April was a bit of a hectic month, not only because the frenzy was happening but also because I was organizing some events for Lambeth's Readers And Writers Festival.
Happening in May.
Namely one event with Brendan McCarthy (the psychedelic GOD that he is) at Minet Library on the 16th, 2.30pm.
And another with Pat Mills (2000AD, Slaine, Charlie's War and, a personal favourite, Marshall Law, among many others, of course) and Ilya (the editor of The Mammoth Book Of Best New Manga and the one behind the about-to-come-out adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear). This will happen in Streatham Library on the 23rd of May. A Saturday, from 7.30pm onwards.
If you want more info, simply drop me a line at pgalvao@lambeth.gov.uk
(and I'll be able to add you to the Graphic Novels Reading Group mailing list too, if you want)
or go to
http://community.livejournal.com/lambeth_comics
There are quite a few posts about it (so you'll have to scroll down and search for them) and I'll probably be posting a refresher in the next couple of days.
You can also book yourself (and friends!) for any of the events on:
readersandwriters@lambeth.gov.uk
But back to the frenzy...
Well, I did manage to finish it. Wrote just over 100 pages for INTIMACY and about 160 for T.A.F.
And, funnily enough, the whole month went opposite to what I had anticipated.
I started the month really wanting to get my hands on the comedy and a bit afraid of what I was going to do with a massive drama...
Knowing this I tried to spend as much time as possible with INTIMACY and really getting worked up with a lot of internal debate, visualising the scenes over and over again until something made sense, clicked or the two characters simply started ranting at one another.
To tell you the truth, at some point the whole thing felt like it was going to quietly explode and Micah and Danielle (the couple) were simply going to get out of that place never wanting to see each other again.
But I wanted for there to be some light at the end of the tunnel and, since it made sense within the story, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
Actually I think that the light at the end of the tunnel simply reveals a landscape similar to the one left behind (at the beginning of the tunnel...). The difference is that there is a sense of things being broader and more easily dealt with.
To me it's not so much the "happily ever after" but rather the realization that they want to be together, despite the past, ready to face the changes time will bring, one after the other.
Even though the first draft is quite rough - the scenes aren't in order and definitely need to be revised - at least I think I managed to achieve what I feared I could very much fail when I started the script. Being deep and analytical though not overly. Create something that was intense emotionally but that grabbed rather than push away. Allow the characters to breather and their play of tensions both pull them together and apart.
At least I believe that all these elements are there and ready to be worked into something that will appeal and make you wonder. And feel. And identify to some extent.
With TAF the scenario was much different.
When I had the idea I just kept laughing because I just had in a rush a bunch of crazy ideas and I could see them all playing in my head and they were funny, and the idea made sense and I wanted to write them.
But then the blank screen stared back and, after contemplating the same gag for 20 times or more, it starts losing its brilliance. And when you sit down to writing it you begin to wonder if it's actually that funny.
And when you begin to describe it you feel that this description of it isn't really that funny. and that you can't really translate the images in your head (that have all this sound and colour and energy) into the paper.
I found myself not wanting to write any of the scenes that I had wanted so much to write in the beginning.
Solution?
I started writing the story in chronological order.
And I tried not to think if I was being funny or not.
You see, what I realized (and it's always the same lesson, I know...) was that the thing that stood more in the way were my expectations. I had in my head a film that was meant to be gag after gag and totally crazy.
But, when I sat down to write it, I had to do it in an organized manner, in a not so crazy way (even though I did have my moments...).
What I kept reminding myself is that the objective is that the end result to be funny. I cannot expect to get it right the first time around.
So I did my best to stop worrying and got the story down.
Because for me this film was also about the story. And more and more as I kept on writing it. I mean, initially Lester's son was just a kid that sometimes showed up and with whom Lester could do crazy stuff. But then I started realizing the potential of having there someone sharing those experiences but with a totally different perspective. So the film stopped being so centralized on Lester and became more of a duet.
As it stands now it kind of moves halfway through from Lester to Joey. Lester is always the main character and the story is about him and his accident, but Joey becomes increasingly important. And the theme of love we launch in the beginning keeps being transmuted in different ways throughout the story.
It is a feel good film. But even in this there is a difference. Initially it was simply a comedy. A bunch of gags and a crazy guy doing weird stuff and having weird stuff happening to him. But as Lester started interacting and I consequently became more aware of the dynamics and kept some level of realism going in order for some measure of bird's eye view to be experienced by the viewer at the end, I realized that the story had changed, that it now had different needs and that it wanted to cause more than just laughs.
I think it's a better story and a better film for it.
In any case, on the 30th of April I posted my results at about 10pm, cycled back home and, surprisingly, whilst expecting to just get home and switch off by watching a film or something, I started tinkering about with RIGOR MORTIS and came up with a few more ideas and actually spent a couple of hours jamming some stuff onto paper...
But more on that on the next post!
Hope you are all well!
Peace.
I know it's been a while.
April was a bit of a hectic month, not only because the frenzy was happening but also because I was organizing some events for Lambeth's Readers And Writers Festival.
Happening in May.
Namely one event with Brendan McCarthy (the psychedelic GOD that he is) at Minet Library on the 16th, 2.30pm.
And another with Pat Mills (2000AD, Slaine, Charlie's War and, a personal favourite, Marshall Law, among many others, of course) and Ilya (the editor of The Mammoth Book Of Best New Manga and the one behind the about-to-come-out adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear). This will happen in Streatham Library on the 23rd of May. A Saturday, from 7.30pm onwards.
If you want more info, simply drop me a line at pgalvao@lambeth.gov.uk
(and I'll be able to add you to the Graphic Novels Reading Group mailing list too, if you want)
or go to
http://community.livejournal.com/lambeth_comics
There are quite a few posts about it (so you'll have to scroll down and search for them) and I'll probably be posting a refresher in the next couple of days.
You can also book yourself (and friends!) for any of the events on:
readersandwriters@lambeth.gov.uk
But back to the frenzy...
Well, I did manage to finish it. Wrote just over 100 pages for INTIMACY and about 160 for T.A.F.
And, funnily enough, the whole month went opposite to what I had anticipated.
I started the month really wanting to get my hands on the comedy and a bit afraid of what I was going to do with a massive drama...
Knowing this I tried to spend as much time as possible with INTIMACY and really getting worked up with a lot of internal debate, visualising the scenes over and over again until something made sense, clicked or the two characters simply started ranting at one another.
To tell you the truth, at some point the whole thing felt like it was going to quietly explode and Micah and Danielle (the couple) were simply going to get out of that place never wanting to see each other again.
But I wanted for there to be some light at the end of the tunnel and, since it made sense within the story, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
Actually I think that the light at the end of the tunnel simply reveals a landscape similar to the one left behind (at the beginning of the tunnel...). The difference is that there is a sense of things being broader and more easily dealt with.
To me it's not so much the "happily ever after" but rather the realization that they want to be together, despite the past, ready to face the changes time will bring, one after the other.
Even though the first draft is quite rough - the scenes aren't in order and definitely need to be revised - at least I think I managed to achieve what I feared I could very much fail when I started the script. Being deep and analytical though not overly. Create something that was intense emotionally but that grabbed rather than push away. Allow the characters to breather and their play of tensions both pull them together and apart.
At least I believe that all these elements are there and ready to be worked into something that will appeal and make you wonder. And feel. And identify to some extent.
With TAF the scenario was much different.
When I had the idea I just kept laughing because I just had in a rush a bunch of crazy ideas and I could see them all playing in my head and they were funny, and the idea made sense and I wanted to write them.
But then the blank screen stared back and, after contemplating the same gag for 20 times or more, it starts losing its brilliance. And when you sit down to writing it you begin to wonder if it's actually that funny.
And when you begin to describe it you feel that this description of it isn't really that funny. and that you can't really translate the images in your head (that have all this sound and colour and energy) into the paper.
I found myself not wanting to write any of the scenes that I had wanted so much to write in the beginning.
Solution?
I started writing the story in chronological order.
And I tried not to think if I was being funny or not.
You see, what I realized (and it's always the same lesson, I know...) was that the thing that stood more in the way were my expectations. I had in my head a film that was meant to be gag after gag and totally crazy.
But, when I sat down to write it, I had to do it in an organized manner, in a not so crazy way (even though I did have my moments...).
What I kept reminding myself is that the objective is that the end result to be funny. I cannot expect to get it right the first time around.
So I did my best to stop worrying and got the story down.
Because for me this film was also about the story. And more and more as I kept on writing it. I mean, initially Lester's son was just a kid that sometimes showed up and with whom Lester could do crazy stuff. But then I started realizing the potential of having there someone sharing those experiences but with a totally different perspective. So the film stopped being so centralized on Lester and became more of a duet.
As it stands now it kind of moves halfway through from Lester to Joey. Lester is always the main character and the story is about him and his accident, but Joey becomes increasingly important. And the theme of love we launch in the beginning keeps being transmuted in different ways throughout the story.
It is a feel good film. But even in this there is a difference. Initially it was simply a comedy. A bunch of gags and a crazy guy doing weird stuff and having weird stuff happening to him. But as Lester started interacting and I consequently became more aware of the dynamics and kept some level of realism going in order for some measure of bird's eye view to be experienced by the viewer at the end, I realized that the story had changed, that it now had different needs and that it wanted to cause more than just laughs.
I think it's a better story and a better film for it.
In any case, on the 30th of April I posted my results at about 10pm, cycled back home and, surprisingly, whilst expecting to just get home and switch off by watching a film or something, I started tinkering about with RIGOR MORTIS and came up with a few more ideas and actually spent a couple of hours jamming some stuff onto paper...
But more on that on the next post!
Hope you are all well!
Peace.
Friday, 17 April 2009
TAF Update
After all that storming through this script I find myself more or less in the same position two days past.
Why?
Not enough time my friends!
Today the mission is to at least type up some of the stuff.
I know, it's a pain, especially when you're transferring word text to celtx because the formatting goes all wrong... but, if I don't do it that will mean that until sunday afternoon I won't have added anything to my celtx file... if I do this means that I'll probably be able to at least add what I've typed since the re-formatting doesn't take as long as the typing itself. Double work but best done...
In any case, yesterday, already in bed, already past one, already feeling tired, I did actually manage to write 4 short short stories for a Zine that some friends of mine are compiling.
The stories are all a bit surreal and inspired by Gene Wolfe.
I can't really tell you what they're about.
(well, I could... but that would spoil the effect somehow...)
After the Zine is done (I still don't know if they'll feature there or not) I'll post them here for your delight.
(hopefully!)
Wishing you well.
peace.
Why?
Not enough time my friends!
Today the mission is to at least type up some of the stuff.
I know, it's a pain, especially when you're transferring word text to celtx because the formatting goes all wrong... but, if I don't do it that will mean that until sunday afternoon I won't have added anything to my celtx file... if I do this means that I'll probably be able to at least add what I've typed since the re-formatting doesn't take as long as the typing itself. Double work but best done...
In any case, yesterday, already in bed, already past one, already feeling tired, I did actually manage to write 4 short short stories for a Zine that some friends of mine are compiling.
The stories are all a bit surreal and inspired by Gene Wolfe.
I can't really tell you what they're about.
(well, I could... but that would spoil the effect somehow...)
After the Zine is done (I still don't know if they'll feature there or not) I'll post them here for your delight.
(hopefully!)
Wishing you well.
peace.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Intimacy/TAF Update
Well, this one is more or less wrapped up.
I was home Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and managed to more or less finish off this script.
It was a tortuous one, I tell you. I wanted to create a kind of Bergman feel to it. Really dense in psychological arguing but also with some hope, with some light at the end of the tunnel.
To be quite honest, half way through I didn't really know how it was going to turn out because there was just so much bile going on that I was feeling that these characters never wanted to see each other again.
But I hope that they touched rock bottom.
That's what I wanted to show.
That sometimes you need to say all the wrong things, share all the truths you've kept hidden - however ridiculous and childish they may seem - in order to come back.
I think Micah and Danielle do this in the film. I think they are honest to one another to an extent they never really managed to before. Perhaps even to themselves.
Maybe there are things left unsaid that are still relevant but, if there are, there are still further drafts and polishing up for them to surface. In any case, there's just so much that you can say with words and perhaps that's something that comes clear in the script. We cannot always fully satisfy each others need for a total explanation of things.
There were a few moments that writing seemed to be going downhill, almost out of control. I could see them clearly in my head and hear the dialogue. Almost as if it were a part of me. Something I had seen at some stage in my life. A recollection feel and at the same time the knowing that this is the first time I'm seeing these things.
I was quite surprised with this script because I knew quite clearly the starting point and the end point. It was the middle, two people locked up in a house for weeks, trying to sort their lives out, that was going to be the though thing. No (hu)Man's Land...
There were several aspects to solving this.
First I knew I wanted a Ingmar Bergman feel to the whole thing. I wanted it to be deep and troublesome. I wanted to be rational but also emotional. I wanted the script to be able to point out problems clearly but also provide answers. On a direct way but also on a more subtle level.
I even considered watching a couple of Bergman's films but since I wanted his black and white period, his early days, and I didn't have any around me, I kind of put it aside.
The second thing was a talk I had with a friend. We had just seen THE FOUNTAIN and we started chatting about it.
She didn't think much of the film. I loved it.
But she raised a very important point. The characters - Isabel and Tomas - in the film aren't really explored. Their love, which is the central thing, isn't really explored. Darren Aronofsky is more concerned in telling us the plot than in talking about the characters personal history. For instance, if he had showed us a bit more of the Izzy/Thomas - in present day - relationship we would've felt a lot more for Thomas' loss, thus making the whole bigger than life journey trying to defeat death for the love of his life so much more powerful.
To me this aspect didn't affect me so much because I had read the comic and, in the comic, the rules of storytelling absorption are somewhat different. For instance, Kent Williams sketchy drawings actually pull the characters closer to you. The fact that you can't see much about their faces and you only a perception of mood more than anything else, makes you instinctively fill in the blanks. The writing works better in the comic as well.
(And there were a few lines in the film that I didn't really buy to be honest...)
But that got me thinking about characters really seriously.
I kept telling her that I didn't know what to write next.
And then I started talking about Micah and suddenly he became more fully alive. I told her the back history of that story (which I'm not going to share here, sorry) and what were the elements that I wanted to integrate and why.
By the time I finished (I must've talked for at least half an hour) I had already a few scenes to write for the next day.
And that's what I did.
I started writing them longhand because it felt more natural. And lo and behold: the pages started to pile up.
And this was the third thing that I picked up. That I really like to write scripts the best in long hand. I know it's a pain typing it all back and, in a way, a waste of time. But the fact is that I write more if I do it in this way. And I'm already revising the text when typing it back. Sometimes efficiency is not just using a computer. Efficiency is knowing how you work best and hone yourself in the process.
In any case, I have also found that if I'm writing a short story or ideas for a script I prefer to use the computer... If it's just text, typing on a keyboard seems to be the preferred medium...
Sometimes not even I understand myself...
So, on Monday and Tuesday I more or less wrote the remaining 40 or 50 pages of the script. I wrapped it all up and typed the final words on Wednesday morning and finished with 106 pages of script.
Done.
Well... not quite. I still need to do at least a scene or two more. I need a scene with their kids. A scene that will show the audience how their life together was before they got there. In order to make it all more believable. I need a scene that will establish their ongoing conflict, but also their love of their kids, the pressure that this creates on their kids, their decision that they need to sort themselves out.
And quite possibly another scene - even if it's a couple of shots with voice over - of their early days together. The happy days that now seem gone without a trace.
Hopefully inspiration will come before the month is over and I'll write these two scenes, add them to the script, organise it a bit and leave it at that before I revise it at some point.
And that's all I have to say about INTIMACY.
Now about TAF...
Yesterday I got home late, watched a couple of episodes of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (I'm hooked on it you know...) and proceeded to read and map out what I had done so far with TAF.
Not much it seems. Even though I already had about 40 pages of script... this one is going to be a lot longer than INTIMACY.
But it doesn't really matter. Since this is a comedy, it's better that I have more scenes than needed so that I can then choose the best ones and compress it all a bit.
My initial plan was easy. Show this crazy physical ed teacher's week. We start on the Sunday and we end on the Saturday so that we establish his routine very well.
Then on the Saturday "the event" occurs...
And everything changes and that's when the comedy side of it really kicks in.
I was on Tuesday and already on page 30...
So yesterday I started long handing it and, early this morning - I think with 12 more long hand pages - I got to Friday night. So, I'm hoping that by page 50 I'll be on the "Saturday event"...
After this it should be fairly simple because I already have a whole heap of scenes that I want to do. And these will be a one minute or two minute gags. Again, I want to have quite a number of them so that I can choose from them afterwards.
What I'm going to do today is type up the longhand pages and add them to the rest of the script. Then I'm going to write on a list all the other gag scenes. And a couple more that I've thought off in the meantime.
Then I'm going to organize them in chronological order (kind of...)
and start writing them, longhand.
Hopefully it will all work out in the end.
And soon!
Peace!
I was home Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and managed to more or less finish off this script.
It was a tortuous one, I tell you. I wanted to create a kind of Bergman feel to it. Really dense in psychological arguing but also with some hope, with some light at the end of the tunnel.
To be quite honest, half way through I didn't really know how it was going to turn out because there was just so much bile going on that I was feeling that these characters never wanted to see each other again.
But I hope that they touched rock bottom.
That's what I wanted to show.
That sometimes you need to say all the wrong things, share all the truths you've kept hidden - however ridiculous and childish they may seem - in order to come back.
I think Micah and Danielle do this in the film. I think they are honest to one another to an extent they never really managed to before. Perhaps even to themselves.
Maybe there are things left unsaid that are still relevant but, if there are, there are still further drafts and polishing up for them to surface. In any case, there's just so much that you can say with words and perhaps that's something that comes clear in the script. We cannot always fully satisfy each others need for a total explanation of things.
There were a few moments that writing seemed to be going downhill, almost out of control. I could see them clearly in my head and hear the dialogue. Almost as if it were a part of me. Something I had seen at some stage in my life. A recollection feel and at the same time the knowing that this is the first time I'm seeing these things.
I was quite surprised with this script because I knew quite clearly the starting point and the end point. It was the middle, two people locked up in a house for weeks, trying to sort their lives out, that was going to be the though thing. No (hu)Man's Land...
There were several aspects to solving this.
First I knew I wanted a Ingmar Bergman feel to the whole thing. I wanted it to be deep and troublesome. I wanted to be rational but also emotional. I wanted the script to be able to point out problems clearly but also provide answers. On a direct way but also on a more subtle level.
I even considered watching a couple of Bergman's films but since I wanted his black and white period, his early days, and I didn't have any around me, I kind of put it aside.
The second thing was a talk I had with a friend. We had just seen THE FOUNTAIN and we started chatting about it.
She didn't think much of the film. I loved it.
But she raised a very important point. The characters - Isabel and Tomas - in the film aren't really explored. Their love, which is the central thing, isn't really explored. Darren Aronofsky is more concerned in telling us the plot than in talking about the characters personal history. For instance, if he had showed us a bit more of the Izzy/Thomas - in present day - relationship we would've felt a lot more for Thomas' loss, thus making the whole bigger than life journey trying to defeat death for the love of his life so much more powerful.
To me this aspect didn't affect me so much because I had read the comic and, in the comic, the rules of storytelling absorption are somewhat different. For instance, Kent Williams sketchy drawings actually pull the characters closer to you. The fact that you can't see much about their faces and you only a perception of mood more than anything else, makes you instinctively fill in the blanks. The writing works better in the comic as well.
(And there were a few lines in the film that I didn't really buy to be honest...)
But that got me thinking about characters really seriously.
I kept telling her that I didn't know what to write next.
And then I started talking about Micah and suddenly he became more fully alive. I told her the back history of that story (which I'm not going to share here, sorry) and what were the elements that I wanted to integrate and why.
By the time I finished (I must've talked for at least half an hour) I had already a few scenes to write for the next day.
And that's what I did.
I started writing them longhand because it felt more natural. And lo and behold: the pages started to pile up.
And this was the third thing that I picked up. That I really like to write scripts the best in long hand. I know it's a pain typing it all back and, in a way, a waste of time. But the fact is that I write more if I do it in this way. And I'm already revising the text when typing it back. Sometimes efficiency is not just using a computer. Efficiency is knowing how you work best and hone yourself in the process.
In any case, I have also found that if I'm writing a short story or ideas for a script I prefer to use the computer... If it's just text, typing on a keyboard seems to be the preferred medium...
Sometimes not even I understand myself...
So, on Monday and Tuesday I more or less wrote the remaining 40 or 50 pages of the script. I wrapped it all up and typed the final words on Wednesday morning and finished with 106 pages of script.
Done.
Well... not quite. I still need to do at least a scene or two more. I need a scene with their kids. A scene that will show the audience how their life together was before they got there. In order to make it all more believable. I need a scene that will establish their ongoing conflict, but also their love of their kids, the pressure that this creates on their kids, their decision that they need to sort themselves out.
And quite possibly another scene - even if it's a couple of shots with voice over - of their early days together. The happy days that now seem gone without a trace.
Hopefully inspiration will come before the month is over and I'll write these two scenes, add them to the script, organise it a bit and leave it at that before I revise it at some point.
And that's all I have to say about INTIMACY.
Now about TAF...
Yesterday I got home late, watched a couple of episodes of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (I'm hooked on it you know...) and proceeded to read and map out what I had done so far with TAF.
Not much it seems. Even though I already had about 40 pages of script... this one is going to be a lot longer than INTIMACY.
But it doesn't really matter. Since this is a comedy, it's better that I have more scenes than needed so that I can then choose the best ones and compress it all a bit.
My initial plan was easy. Show this crazy physical ed teacher's week. We start on the Sunday and we end on the Saturday so that we establish his routine very well.
Then on the Saturday "the event" occurs...
And everything changes and that's when the comedy side of it really kicks in.
I was on Tuesday and already on page 30...
So yesterday I started long handing it and, early this morning - I think with 12 more long hand pages - I got to Friday night. So, I'm hoping that by page 50 I'll be on the "Saturday event"...
After this it should be fairly simple because I already have a whole heap of scenes that I want to do. And these will be a one minute or two minute gags. Again, I want to have quite a number of them so that I can choose from them afterwards.
What I'm going to do today is type up the longhand pages and add them to the rest of the script. Then I'm going to write on a list all the other gag scenes. And a couple more that I've thought off in the meantime.
Then I'm going to organize them in chronological order (kind of...)
and start writing them, longhand.
Hopefully it will all work out in the end.
And soon!
Peace!
Friday, 3 April 2009
Frenzy!
The Frenzy has started!
And yet the world seems to go about unchanged...
Strange?
Not really. I mean we're talking about the ScriptFrenzy here, where over 10,000 people world wide take their swing at writing scripts...
We remain ignored for the most part - but alive and kicking!
I have two projects this month.
One is a comedy.
The other a drama.
One is for teens with some cheekiness.
The other is for adults with some explicit scenes.
One is live action.
The other an anime.
One is called T.A.F. (or NON-STOP, I still haven't decided...)
And the other is called INTIMACY.
One I know exactly how it's going to end.
The other I don't have a clue.
For both I already have a few scenes in mind.
And I love both of the ideas.
What can go wrong?!!
I've written 20 pages to INTIMACY but only 9 for TAF.
My aim this month is to juggle three things. These two babies and the comics epic that's been around these posts for months now...
I feel like that old man in Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea. Catching the fish of a lifetime and struggling against everything to conquer it. Even bringing it to shore for the whole world to see kind of loses some of its meaning.
I just want to have it ready.
That's it.
Simple.
(upwards and onwards...)
peace.
And yet the world seems to go about unchanged...
Strange?
Not really. I mean we're talking about the ScriptFrenzy here, where over 10,000 people world wide take their swing at writing scripts...
We remain ignored for the most part - but alive and kicking!
I have two projects this month.
One is a comedy.
The other a drama.
One is for teens with some cheekiness.
The other is for adults with some explicit scenes.
One is live action.
The other an anime.
One is called T.A.F. (or NON-STOP, I still haven't decided...)
And the other is called INTIMACY.
One I know exactly how it's going to end.
The other I don't have a clue.
For both I already have a few scenes in mind.
And I love both of the ideas.
What can go wrong?!!
I've written 20 pages to INTIMACY but only 9 for TAF.
My aim this month is to juggle three things. These two babies and the comics epic that's been around these posts for months now...
I feel like that old man in Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea. Catching the fish of a lifetime and struggling against everything to conquer it. Even bringing it to shore for the whole world to see kind of loses some of its meaning.
I just want to have it ready.
That's it.
Simple.
(upwards and onwards...)
peace.
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