Script Frenzy Day 15 part one...

Well, yesterday was a productive day, as much as I wanted it to be I guess.
After finishing chapter 19 I had a little nap, woke up, played some guitar and wrote chapter 20, Tempus Fugit, until about 9pm. Then it was time for bed once again!

In Tempus Fugit time is really running and the pressure levels increase. It needs a bit more of character development but the bones and some of the flesh are already there. There's a really good scene between Caulder and Roanoke where the power game really comes to the surface. A fun piece of verbal swordplay that I really enjoyed writing - and that came about more or less spontaneously. I knew that that scene was important and that a few things needed to be said but what actually happened was better than what I had anticipated!

When I finished it I couldn't wait to get my hands on issue 20! But I was tired and so I thought it best to call it a night...

Which was what I did.

I woke up some 5 hours afterwards with a headache. In my case, writing some 40 odd pages of script combined with not much sleep have the effect of making my head feel a bit funny, electric and tense.
I drank tea and plenty of water and, since it wasn't going away, I spent a good half an hour meditating and catching my mind going all over the place besides observing the rising and falling in the abdomen. At least my back was straight and the headache lightened up a bit.
When I emerged I didn't really feel like writing so much. I didn't feel like doing anything much. Not even going back to sleep.

So I started writing.
Chapter 21 which goes by the name of I Remember Nothing. Taken, obviously from the Joy Division track of the same name. I haven't bothered to read the lyrics but I probably will and add one or two phrases from it in the script if they fit in. In any case, it's the resonance of the title and the more direct meaning of it that I was looking for.

Well, since I wrote this I had to go and read the lyrics, didn't I? Still don't know if I'll use one or two of the phrases but the meaning... my god, it's there alright, closer than I even realised.

I started writing a bit haphazardly at first, not being able to focus properly. But, as soon as I got to the scene between Roanoke and Kronan things really opened up. Once again there was a lot that I knew had to happen in this scene. I just didn't know how... But the glimpses I had started to gain weight and meaning and I just wrote more or less everything that came into my mind's eye. Kronan kind of changed in this scene. I knew he would - that was the point after all. But he was already different in the beginning. All because of his talk with Caulder that kind of revealed some stuff I still didn't know about him. As a consequence, all those ideas I had about him became more real and more present - more likely. I think we might still see him after issue 22 but I'm not sure... actually, I think we might just have a glimpse on the final chapter. so that we can see what has happened to him...

I really think that this issue build up for the climax of the series. I'm still a bit uneasy about being able to pull it off with as much strength as I want to. But even if I don't in this first draft (it's what I keep telling myself...) I'm pretty sure that I will on the second.
Or the third.
Most definitely on the fourth.

After all the second draft will be the reorganizing of this whole heap of scenes and chapters, the refining of some of the text, adding all the page layouts and panel descriptions, getting the characters more clearly. And it will probably take as much time as this first draft to finish.

The third draft will be more looking at a chapter by chapter revision. Making the story flow better - even when it comes to the page and panel descriptions. I won't need to worry so much about the broad view because that will be more or less sorted (even thought there will always be details to add)

The fourth draft will essentially be the re-reading of the third with a critical eye to see if all those things revised actually worked or did anything to the story. It's the double checking so to speak.

This is more or less my modus operandi these days when it comes to writing something. Even with a short story I'll tend to pick it up and drop it a few times in order to gain some perspective over it. The difference is that with a short story it's much easier to go through the four phases in one sitting. With something like this I'll really need time to get it all done...

That's it!
don't know exactly what I'm going to do just now, but maybe it's a good idea to rest for a little while.
And enjoy the sunshine that came out!

Peace

Script Frenzy Day 14

Hi!
Just finished chapter 19.
Again went to bed around 10pm and then woke just after 2am. A bit of a headache but feeling good enough to write chapter 20 before I call it a day.
Everybody's still asleep in the house. They've been keeping weird schedules as well...
It's 10am.
I wish they would wake up so that I could play some guitar. I'm gonna have a break. Have some food. Watch a couple of episodes of anime.
Or read.
Then go shop for some food.
Then write some more.

was quite happy with what happened tonight. I had this important scene that I needed to write and actually think that most of the dialogue there is pretty powerful.
And the same with the end of the story between Williams and his wife.
Also realised that I need to throw in a few more scenes (short ones, thankfully!) in previous chapters to wrap up some loose ends and make Caulder's character more rounded. Hopefully making his confrontation with Roanoke on issue 19 even more meaningful.

That's it!
Off to breakfast!
(part two... part one was at 4 am...)

peace!

Script Frenzy Day 13

Howdy howdy!
Don't know what you've been up to but I sure do know what I have!
After promptly getting rid of anything remotely close to a steady sleeping schedule I have managed to keep on a steady diet of a chapter a day for my comics script.

Yesterday I went to bed at 11pm and promptly woke up at 2am. After a couple of hours of fiddling about I eventually started typing script 18.
Which I finished at 10 something am...

Scripts are a funny thing. I always think that, because of the formatting I've written loads (after 6 hours quite solidly on it...) but the 19 pages that I added didn't seem to amount to the quantity I felt I'd written...

In any case the story is progressing. I think tonight I'll do the same as yesterday. Go to bed early and wake up whenever my mind and body prompt me...

Chapter 19 is called Dreams Of Destruction and starts accelerating towards the big finale, still a few issues ahead.
The big things in this issue are the confrontation between Roanoke and the Bureau top dog as well as Roanoke's insight towards the strange crimes being committed...

And, to be quite honest, I'm also curious about some of the stuff that's supposed to happen in this issue... I guess I'll find out in a few hours...

peace!

Script Frenzy Day 09

Yes, well, I know I haven't written anything about the 8 days gone but... this is better than nothing!

This year I decided to write a whole comics series some 300 to 400 pages in length. I already had some 60 pages of script when I started so I don't feel that I'm cheating that much... I'm on page 200 and something right now and it feels more or less half way there.

It's called THE BLIND (previously known as RIGOR MORTIS, which is a title that I might go back to... I'm still not entirely sure on either of them...)
It chronicles the investigation over one Aldous Roanoke, a eccentric young man that is going around Unistat (borrowed from RAW, a version of the USA) visiting imprisoned serial killers and the like.

I'm half way through Issue 14.
They're supposed to have 24 pages each (though I'm writing in a meticulous enough way to page and label everything properly. I'm just focussing on getting all the dialogue done and some brief scene descriptions with the odd panel or page idea laid out)
In a total of 24 issues.
And I think I'm more or less on track.
I think I'll probably have a few scenes that I'll have to leave out but that's not a problem because I can then insert them on the revision phase - probably by chucking out those that are redundant or that don't work well anymore. But that's a phase I'm yet to reach and it will be some time before I get there.
Even though I want to have this ready by the end of the month, I want to leave it to settle for a while before I pick it up again. Exception might be to rework the first chapter and send it to a couple of people to see what they think.
maybe...

the good thing is that the story' pace has naturally increased and the tension and the drama are building up. Yesterday (actually today, at 7am... I still hadn't gone to bed...) I had an important piece of plot fall into place and this story is feeling more and more right the closer I get to the end. I love this feeling. The feeling that your idea has taken a life of its own and that now you've stepped from the role of narrator to the role of spectator. For me it's the best part of writing, is to simply see and experience what's happening, rather than directly and tiresomely building it.
That's the beginning. When you're building the momentum and defining the rules. Either intuitively or with story-logic at work.
This is the downhill phase, so to speak. In the sense that you just need to let yourself go and the story go and watch the landscape just flash by you at an incredible but clear speed.

Guess what I'm gonna do right now?!

That's it!
See you in the funny pages!

peace

MORTO ÁRVORE BESTA draft04

It's been ages since I've written anything in this place...
But these last couple of months have been crazy. Not with work - I've never had so much free time in my life before! - but with writing.
It feels that the more free time I have the more writing I get done. And the more writing I do, the more lost into it I get...
Days just fly by...
In any case, since my last post I did another revision of the whole thing - while one of my flatmates was reading it actually - but I still haven't typed it up. I still have 300 A4 pages with some scribbles, quite a few deleted words, some stuff to cut and a new page to add.
I don't think I've saved that much space but I think it will make the reading flow a lot better. Plus, I realised one of the chapters wasn't properly tied and I nudged it back in the right direction...
But, since I'm writing something else for ScriptFrenzy... I don't know when I'll have the time to type everything up!
Hope you are well!
peace!

MORTO ÁRVORE BESTA

Is finished...

It's now 0.43am, Saturday barely started and my book is finally finished.

Well, as finished as these things get...

But it's 119 chapters strong, 302 pages long (A4), totalling 136145 words.

And enough stats!

Next phase is to actually read the whole thing again and see if this crazy structure I've given it makes any sense.
Probably chop a chapter or two along the way...

Just happy that this big project has reached some sort of conclusion. Now I want to start to look into competitions and sourcing out a few publishers... Send out a few copies to some friends and see what they think...

But, one thing I can tell you now: my next project is going to be completely different from this one. I want an adventure story, probably SF, something that will be easy to map out...
(I've got just the thing...)

Anyway just to say hello.
I'm back!

Hope you are well!
peace.

Stars of Battle

I don't even know why I'm writing this. To get a weight out of my chest probably. it's almost 2am and I feel tired. Drained even. I've spent the day (and the last few days) revising my first book which is probably the most challenging thing I've written so far.
And I've just finished watching the last three episodes of Battlestar Galactica, the reimagining of, I should say.
There isn't much to tell since it only make sense if you've spent all those hours falling in love with those people on the screen. Never underestimate the power of film, that's the big lesson that once again I've been reminded.
To tell you the truth, it really felt like a part of me died with the last few moments of that series. Even though I know I can revisit it, it doesn't feel that way. It feels as if that cycle is truly gone and lost forever. It's sad but also awakening. It's a big step away from the moment to moment insight meditation, but it carries a similar punch only one given with a slightly different kind of gloves. Much heavier, much slower, likely to stick around for a while longer.
I could tell you a lot on how brilliant I think the plot and the characters were for all this series but I'll spare you the rant.
What really is important is that, through images and sound, a deep feeling of love and compassion arose for what, ultimately, merely happened in my brain. I was being programmed, voluntarily induced to experience the full breadth of human emotions. And by sticking with the ride, by closing the cycle (and I think it particularly important that Laura Roslin is the last person to die on the series and she dies because her lungs fail her), there is something worth being gained. I guess when those lives close ours must come automatically under scrutiny. There's a void now. Perhaps to be filled with a new series. Perhaps not. Perhaps that void can just be there to make itself known. That space used for us to breath into ourselves.
I don't know.
I'm trying to commit words to describe something that I never will. So intimate, so personal, and yet something I know I will share with most humans at some point in our lives.
It's not the words. It's what they hint at.
I guess a lot of people were disappointed with the religious overtones. Especially towards the end. And I can see that and accept that. But, to be perfectly frank, that's missing the point. To me it's not really about religion. Not really. Or, rather, if it is, it's in a very different way that we tend to think about it. I think it's more about what religion does than what religion is. But, in doing so, perhaps hints at what religion would like to be.
This series is woven with such incredible force and yet so much delicacy. That final death was something that filled me so completely. Together with Kara's last scene. Those were the two most important scenes in these final episodes. Perhaps even of the whole series. Because of the simplicity. Because of the beauty. Because of the subliminal depth that they carry.
Kara was the second chance coming to an end without ever coming into full bloom in the love that finally had every possibility laid in front of it. Terribly sad and moving but, as with most of this series, incredibly poignant and appropriate.
And Laura... Laura had always been this strange creature who we'd all like to love but never really could. But she is the epitome (along the old man...) of the true leader. So much so that only with the closeness of death does she allow herself to fully come into being and allow herself to feel. Her death is well staged. We've been hearing about it since day one in the series. She dies throughout the whole scale. And we are dying with her. Perhaps in different ways, but getting closer to that moment as well.
And we all know it. Deep inside of us we do.
And, instead of a big dramatic end, we have simply the very essence of life, air, being slowly taken away from her. Her lungs not being able to cope anymore.
So beautiful and so powerful. I truly have no words to describe it. Because it's bringing us, each and every one of us to the closest thing we will most likely one day know: how it is to run out of air.
It's something I realised very deeply in this last retreat (and undoubtedly why I resonated so profoundly with this scene) how, in most death scenarios, we will run out of air and we will know it and, more than try to fight it, we'll have to learn how to ride it.
That this scene, the way it's made, with all it's back history, with all the big themes lying about, is placed precisely there, in this way, cannot be a coincidence. Which tells me that the people behind this series (and I'm thinking Ronald D. Moore more than anyone) are truly special.

I'm sure many people, more cultured and educated than myself will look at this series and see a great many shortcomings, perhaps even dangerous things, undercurrent political viewpoints, etc.
I cannot glimpse any of that so much and, what I can it really doesn't contribute very much for any belief change or strengthening.
I just feel that this series was made with great love and is an act of love and a tribute to life itself. Its about us, but it's about so much more than just us.

Anyway. Thanks for listening.

Galactica Actual out.

peace