Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Scriptwriting

This post was actually written a few months ago but i never posted it. The script in question is now no longer being worked on, but this is an effort to get this blog going again.

Working on a new script - first script in years. I'm really excited about it.

A friend contacted me asking would I help write her write a script based on the story she's been thinking about for years. The basic plot is that a man loses his job and thus becomes very depressed and becomes infatuated with a street performer, losing interest in wife. There is a murder and an interesting psychological/paranormal twist but I won't reveal it.

This is the first time I've ever been asked to flesh out someone else's idea and I found it liberating. She sent me a rough outline for the story, some sparse but definite details about the setting, characters, story arc. What I loved was being asked to just expand and open up the story and I think I did a fairly good job, for first thoughts.

It was incredibly liberating to work on someone else's story. I haven't written anything of my own in a very long time but suddenly working on another person's idea gave me the ability to just suggest everything for the story. It was a great brainstorming session. Rarely do I have sessions like that for my own story. I usually start writing and try to work everything out along the way. Really, what I should be doing, I realized, is fleshing out the idea before even starting - not necessarily make an outline, but expand on the characters lives, setting, any possible story points, just so I could understand the world more.

I feel like I need to do more research for my writing also.

This is becoming too much like a normal blog post, just wanted to say that I'll be writing soon.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Long Winter

It's been a long winter filled with long work hours, amongst other things, and very little writing in between. Hopefully this post will spark a resurgence in creativity.

I've begun collecting ideas for a book of short stories. Right now there are just titles with vague concepts. See below.

Walking with the Living, Sleeping with the Dead - just heard someone say this in the office and found the phrase fascinating. I don't know if it has any real meaning but I'm sure it can be put to use. This could used for an obvious vampire story, or something a bit more philosophical, maybe a story of a family dealing with the recent death of someone close.

Saving Fish from Drowning - this came from a ted talk (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/amy_tan_on_creativity.html) by Amy Tan and she mentioned this phrase as a part of a Burmese folk tale. She already used it as a title for one of her books but I think it could still be used as a short story, if not as the title than as a central theme.

Cadillacs and Rose Milk - been starting and stopping on this story. The title phrase came to me one day and I just thought it sounded beautiful and romantic. The story I started writing is not as beautiful or romantic; it became a prequel, of sorts, to another unfinished story but I didn't like where it was headed so I stopped. I keep trying to revitalize it but I'm thinking I'll have to start over. I don't mind the idea of a prequel but I just didn't appreciate where the current story was going.