Out of the Ashes...

I'm still here... Poor you!

I’m betting you figured I went AWOL again - didn’t ya? Huh...HUH!?

Okay, I did - for awhile. My choice, so sue me...

Work is going well. The super negative co-worker has been assigned elsewhere for the time being. It’s been absolute heaven, man, even with no one to replace her. The added workload may not allow us to complete everything on time...BUT...it now stays busy from moment one to moment last. Just how I like it. Makes the day seem to pass by quicker. Sadly, another really GREAT co-worker went on maternity leave. So, for the next few months - at least - we have a full time slot open. If the super negative one does NOT return (and she may not), that leaves TWO full time slots open (one permanent). Although I’ve been working full time hours - mainly - I’m technically part time. So they fill those slots, I get reduced hours. To prevent that, I’ll nag the management to flip me to full time status. I deserve it anyway, because I’m just that good.

*snicker*

The tedium at work, busy or not it IS tedious, allows me to think while being productive. I kinda like that, too. Do busy work, think about other things. Such as... the OTHER project Cam asked me to do for him. You know, the script?

I had thought of just cutting my teeth by doing a script from my already written novel but decided against it. There are key parts that can’t be cut for a script that would leave Cam with some rather scary thoughts. Besides, adapting a novel into a vastly shorter script format is EXCEEDINGLY difficult. Just thinking about it produces that knowledge, I don’t have to actually do it to know.

So, I chose to do an original story. Something easy, something a kid might enjoy, but also something I’d love to write. After a couple weeks of serious thinking, banging my head against various hard object to get the juices flowing, and more moments than I care to remember wondering why I even agreed to do this kind of thing for the kid (AGAIN)...I finally came up with it. It’s a storyline that began much like the one for my book did - a tiny nugget of a scene prompted by something in the real world. Every time I’d come up to something in particular here the real world, the scenes would kick in.

Make sense? Probably not. My streams of thought often do confuse people.

Anyway, in this case it was walking through automated doors that trigger this particular scene in my head. As in, wouldn’t it be cool if we could THINK things like that into happening? Not for personal gain, but just because we CAN? Door open...and it opens (without having motion sensors). Can of food, come to me...and it does (without having to do much more than raise a hand to catch it). Cat get out...and it skedaddles (as if one actually yells the words at the poor thing).

Yeah... Then of course, I had a thought. What’s the fun in THAT? Just because one can? DUH! If we could, we would. What else can we do to spruce up that little storyline. Ah, yes. The old “good v evil” twist. Always works, especially with kids. So that would require at least TWO main characters seemingly in opposition to one another. One good, the other evil.

Hmmm... Too simple, even for a kid. They get that all the time. So I came up with another twist that’s sometimes used in written and filmed works. EVIL v evil - only one is obviously a bad seed while the other takes a different route. As in being nice to accomplish the same goal as the bad seed. Takes longer, but it is far more effective in the long run. Pure obvious evil can be identified and eventually defeated, even by weaker foes. However, evil cloaked in the light of goodness the entire time...is almost never properly identified and can never be defeated. Such cloaked evil must simply die on it’s own - even if it’s eventually identified (which happens only after the goals are achieved).

Confused again? Don’t worry - it makes sense to me, and will make far more sense once written down and properly organized into an actual flowing story.

Writing a script is only slightly different than writing a novel, I’m finding. The synopsis is the same, except I only have to write ONE. One short synopsis for a script, one short and one long for a novel. Time saved there. Another difference is the length. The typical book is about 250 - 400 pages long, while a script is roughly half that (less, actually). A book can embellish scenes and dialogue. A script must be to the point and very tight, highly visualized without all the expressive wording. So novels can used bigger words and longer descriptive passages (even lengthy narrative) while scripts are simplified (I think overly so - so I gotta watch that).

Scripts are a quick setup and get it going. No rest, period. To the point, keep it tight, keep the story moving. If there’s a slow part it’d best be important to the story overall. Otherwise - SNIP! Gone!

Formatting for a novel seems easier, but isn’t. Formatting for scripts is easier. Just a few things to remember, and honestly...grammar has nothing to do with it. That’s cool, because I won’t need an editor to tighten the script. I suck at grammar, so I MUST hire professional help for those projects. UGH!

And the last striking difference is that with novels writing a synopsis is the easiest part, takes the shortest time. For scripts, the opposite is true. It takes far longer to come up with a workable synopsis, far easier to actually get things written when the real project begins. I find that very odd...

Anyway, I’m writing the synopsis now. I only have just over two pages, but already I’ve gone through about 9 years in the lives of the two main characters. By the end of the third page, I’ll have generally outlined into their teens or even twenties. Fourth page onward (however many the synopsis needs) will deal with the real meat of the tale. At this point, I have no earthly idea how to do that, but I’ll get it. One step at a time.

I think I’ll have the basic synopsis done within 2 months, and I have allowed myself a full 6 months for the finished first draft. Another 2 or 3 months until I wash my hands of the whole project and just give it to Cam. So 9 months total...from now. Maybe sooner. Once that synopsis is done, my style of visualizing what I write (dang near living it in my head, in fact) will allow the project to move along quickly. It’s possible I’ll be done with it before Thanksgiving.

If you are wondering if I’ll post the finished product here, no I won’t. What would be the point? I’ll probably put it up for download, then post a link here (maybe), but aside from that it won’t be commonly available.

So, it looks like Cam will get his wish - the first part anyway. I will write him a movie script. The second part of his request is still DENIED. I really don’t wanna work that hard... I’ll do it for the experience. Especially since it has such a shallow learning curve. I can;t believe how easy it is to do. Geez...

Anyway, I’m gonna check out again. Maybe you’ll see another entry in a couple o’ weeks - maybe sooner...maybe later. Ah, who knows?