Script Frenzy: Day 28 (omg, seriously?!) & Etc.

Allow me to remind myself (and you, dear reader), of my own foolishness. From Day 18’s update:

Morale: It was ebbing there for a while, until I realized now I only need to write about 6ish pages per day to reach the requisite 100, which shouldn’t be TOO hard since my final university exam for the year is over with tomorrow. (She said, naively, grossly underestimating the true magnetic pull of other distractions, like video games pursuing some good literature.)

To my credit(?), my optimism was couched by cynical foreshadowing. It turns out that the cynical foreshadowing has come to pass.

I should be ashamed of myself. Catavarie made the most of his time and has won the damn thing! I think it’s the old ‘people with free time get nothing accomplished’ phenomena (is there a better, more succinct name for that?). I believe it was in episode #17 of Dr. Ginger Campbell’s Books and Ideas Podcast where interviewee Mur Lafferty made some remarks on the difficulty of being a writer at home. Self-imposed deadlines are fairly deadly, and the spirit of the fair-game competition, Script Frenzy, apparently wasn’t enough of an external deadline to really, really motivate me.

I’m sure some of my zeal right out of the gate was fueled by the desperate, wild-eyed desire to just be writing anything other than essays and exams. I still like my original concept, but since I didn’t get a skeleton outline down before I began writing, I found it drifting, sometimes in directions I wasn’t pleased with. I’m not free-form enough for stuff like Script Frenzy and Nanowrimo, I think. I’m one of those anal retentive writers who has to basically write the whole damn thing before I sit down to write the whole damn thing.

I’m going to use this public shame at failing Script Frenzy to launchpad into the research stages of the SPP™.

In lieu of a triumphant page-count update, here are some things I have “accomplished” in recent memory:

All caught up in listening to You Look Nice Today.

Discovered BLDBLOG, via a link to their great interview with Daniel Dociu, a designer for Guild Wars.

My dark elf Inquisitor on EQII is now level 21. Or 22? My newly acquired secret vice has begun to grow, like a delicious and gratifying tumor.

And, today is, of course, the day that GTAIV comes out. I’m debating going to the midnight launch at my local EB Games. This is, after all, the first 10 that IGN.com has given a game in ages.

Whether you were being a productive writer, or being a productive loafer, I hope everyone had a grand weekend.

Ken Levine on BioShock’s Narrative Drive

Here are Ken Levine’s remarks on BioShock’s narrative drive.

Now, I haven’t had the pleasure of playing BioShock for myself, thanks to monetary and temporal constraints. (Ah, time. Never enough gaming hours in a day.) However, from what I have seen and heard of the game, think I can understand why it’s being received as a Big Thing, and any discussion of its “narrative drive” piques my interest as a would-be writer.

I wanted to point out that link for others interested in how the video game industry is looking at raw script and the storytelling process.

I’m going to read this as soon as I get myself awake. If I have anything intelligent to say about it, there may be an update here.

Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition

The Lorian Hemingway short story competition was just brought to my attention, and I wanted to share it. New writers are always looking for a break, I know, and this particular competition is apparently one of America’s most prestigious contests. (I plead amnesty for my ignorance owing to being from the Great White North!)

Here’s their guidelines:

Eligibility: All US and international writers “whose fiction has not appeared in a nationally distributed publication with a circulation of 5,000 or more.” Fresh meat only, please!

Entry Fee: Postmarked up to and including May 1st: $12. Postmarked May 2nd+: $17.

Date of Submission: May 15th

Word Count: >3,000 words

Theme Restrictions: none

Prize: $1000 (1st place), $500 (2nd and 3rd places), and honorable mentions.

As you can see, the due date is fast approaching.

Script Frenzy: Day 18

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter
Today I learned: Giving your supporting characters (I almost just called them NPCs, ha!) funky names is a way to ensure you’ll give them a moment of sparkling goodness on the ’screen,’ rather than a drab functionality. For instance, today Sam & Uriel was infused with these winners: WHITE HAIRED GIRL, CRAB-EATER TWO, and TIGHTEST PANTS BOY. There are, admittedly, a few ‘GIRL’s and ‘GUY’s in there, and I think at least one ‘MAN’ by now (what’s the difference between a GUY and a MAN?), but I know better now.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 2
Pages: 28
Morale: It was ebbing there for a while, until I realized now I only need to write about 6ish pages per day to reach the requisite 100, which shouldn’t be TOO hard since my final university exam for the year is over with tomorrow. (She said, naively, grossly underestimating the true magnetic pull of other distractions, like video games pursuing some good literature.)

Midnight Oil – Dumped Unexpectedly On My Head

In my little Webnote box on Netvibes (my startup page, and the best thing to happen to me since Firefox), I have a memo about a possible topic for blog content. It says this:

*Writing surroundings, writing times; thought I was an evening, solitary writer. I seem to be more of a morning public writer.

Yet here I am at roughly 1:30AM, alone in my room, designing the herald of Dajobas. (As per the Sinister Adventures challenge, which I mentioned in an earlier post.) And no, that’s not a euphemism for something else.

I’ve been concentrating effort on trying to be a writer for long enough to know that just when you think you’ve established a ground rule for yourself, it will be broken – but even this surprised me. I also usually tell myself I don’t like writing with unfamiliar tools, be it a pen I’m unfamiliar with, a pencil I don’t like, or (FSM forbid), a computer I dislike. Yet here I am on my new PC, Dantalion, with unfamiliar keyboard and software galore. The pros and cons of a Mac vs a PC from a writing POV will likely be the topic of another post, but for now suffice it to say that I was considering my iBook to be my prime writer’s companion.

Being struck with totally unexpected inspiration made me pause and think. How many times have I – and perhaps other writers out there – forged concepts of ideal writing habits which really don’t exist? Have we perhaps blocked out moments of inspiration because of rigorous habit? Or, is habit all that finally gets novels written?

It’s hard to tell what set me off tonight, though I think it might have been my closer look at the NSI playWRITE competition’s guidelines (which I also linked to earlier). I was going on the assumption that you had to have a full module to pitch, but it looks more like you’re pitching yourself, and your talents. Perhaps naively, this worries me less!

Or perhaps it was the beer. A San Franciscan Anchor Steam, for the curious.

With full verve and vigor, onwards I charge!

Today’s writing accomplishment (so far): 1500-odd words on an essay. Oh boy!

Back to Dajobas’ herald.

[Music] The Strike of a Blade – Hitoshi Sakimoto – Final Fantasy XII OST

Script Frenzy: Day 14(ish)

I wrote three pages yesterday, but got too busy to update. Since it looks like I have schoolwork cut out for me today, I think it’s safe to share my progress now.

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter
Today I learned: Going back to the “root” of a project (in my case, the Cragislist post which inspired me to begin with) is a good way to re-infuse yourself with enthusiasm. Also, I haven’t been taking advantage of the community support Script Frenzy offers, which is silly. The forums are an unknown ground to me. But I did check out a post on minor characters, written by Daniel Heath. He asks the important question: “Should you give every minor character a bionic leg and a crack habit?” See his article here.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1*
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1*
Pages: 21
Morale: Decent. I feel like I’m coasting. Waiting for this week to be over so I’m finally free from school, to write without that guilty feeling that comes from neglecting another, more important, project.

*I’m frankly surprised neither of these numbers are higher. I might have to start skewing the data if I don’t want to be seen as a prude – and everyone knows prudes don’t make for good writers.

Script Frenzy: Day 12

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter
Today I learned: Scrivener has two awesome features: a word frequency charter, and a ‘project targets’ feature. I can write faster than I think I can, when I need to. I need to keep better track of plot hooks even when writing on the fly; I’m sure I’ve set myself up for some interesting conclusions, but I’m worried by the time the end draws near I won’t remember them. Scriptwriting is a good way to improve fiction – by focusing on dialogue and action, the “backbone” of a story, I know I’ll make better, neater use of the extra stuff prose allows, when I go back to that format for my next project.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Pages: 18 (when I need 18 more)
Morale: Still good. A little distracted by tantalizing, other things (note: getting a new PC in the midst of a writerly competition is not a good idea), but confident I can still pull it off, by putting in immense effort at the last second, like I always do.

[Music] Grace – Apocalyptica (When Worlds Collide)

Sinister Adventures Challenges

Sinister Adventures, the new company launched by Nicholas Logue (incidentally one of my favorite adventure authors ever since the Viktor Saint-Demain trilogy written for the Eberron Campaign Setting), has a challenges page for aspiring designer/writers. I’m not sure how frequent the challenges will be, but there are two great ones up right now.

The two up right now are a monster and a treasure design challenge, with final entry dates of April 20th and May 1st, respectively. Simple, elegant, exciting and prizes to be won – perhaps it’s up your alley?

Unproductive Productivity

I was productive today, I swear. Unfortunately, the arenas in which I was productive weren’t the important areas.

Isn’t that always the case? It’s why I like to have a few projects going at once, though – chances are, if I’m procrastinating about dealing with one, another one will see a surge of attention.

I brainstormed some adventure ideas to submit to Dungeon when the 4th edition of D&D comes out (since they’re closed to 3.5 Ed. submissions now), I outlined some details of the module I might submit to playWRITE (if I can figure out some module design tools like the Aurora Toolset on time!), and picked away at an essay for a class I’m in – ‘Death & the Afterlife in England’, incidentally. I’m in over my head on two of the above projects, owing to lack of experience. Optimism and pep are my fuel at this stage, before realization and cynicism kicks in!

I resisted the urge to fiddle with GarageBand to make the opening/closing music for the SPP™.

I listened to a few podcasts. I caught up on a lot of blogs.

Unfortunately, no script frenzy pages got written today, and my brain was far from the project itself. I have a feeling this is going to come down to an intense, caffeine-fueled surge of activity near the end of the month.

Script Frenzy: 12/27 pages I should have at this point
D&A Final Essay: 917/3,000 words (due Friday!)

[Music] Black Dirt – Sea Wolf (Leaves In The River)

NSI’s playWRITE competition

I haven’t dropped out of Script Frenzy, don’t worry – I’ve just been busy. Ah, exams.

But! A little birdy told me about an exciting opportunity for aspiring Canadian game designers. The deadline is April 28th, so get in there fast if you’re going to participate. The long and the short of it is that the National Screen Institute (with Zeroes 2 Heroes and Telefilm Canada) is offering an opportunity to get your foot in the door of the gaming industry. The prize for selected applicants involves a week-long bootcamp in Vancouver, and the possibility of an internship with a game studio later on.

From their FAQ .pdf:

“The fundamental principle of NSI playWRITE is to create customized professional and project development opportunities for each applicant and their script ideas.”

You can check out their site for a more thorough explanation.

Script Frenzy: Day 4

Day 3 was an undeserved rest day. Why did I take it? Because it’s the end of the semester, of course! I’m back on track with day four, just by the skin of my teeth. I’m no longer ahead of the per-day required page count, but just on it. With a day of Eberron (D&D) ahead of me tomorrow, and a Sunday full of studying for exams on Monday and Tuesday, I’m starting to get a little worried. But I think the script’s in a good place, a place where it’ll be easy for me to pick up again and run with it.

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy-drama
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter (with a dash of Ally McBeal, or perhaps Scrubs)
Today I learned: Any extreme emotion – glee or frustration and disappointment (both of which I got a dose of today) is dangerous to the creative urges. Coffee counteracts the braindead sleepiness beer provokes. Stifling the urge to use ample camera directions is about as useful as trying to hold in your pee
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Pages: 12
Morale: Still good. Happy to get Uriel introduced. I’ve started to give more camera directions, which is good for my page count. Before starting, I recalled reading somewhere that some directors like camera directions, and some really don’t, and I think that caused me to hesitate at first. Now I realize that if they’re necessary, they’re necessary – no use worrying about the opinions of some yet-unnamed director. The script’s inconsistent in terms of tone and level of direction, but I repeat the mantra “It’s a first draft” and carry on contentedly.

I ate three doughnuts today, and I regret nothing.

[Music] Kenny vs. Spenny on TV – it’s the “who’s the better stripper?” episode

How do you keep your place?

I worked at a public library for a little while, back in the day. I worked there long enough to find some interesting items masquerading as bookmarks: a dried wasp corpse, a tissue that looked used, an opened condom packet (one of the lubey kinds), and a paper toy with an elastic-band mechanism which sent it flapping its wings at me when I opened the hardcover.

I’m inclined to believe most of those were deliberate boobie-traps.

(Then there’s the legends of Things Patrons Forgot: Bags, small children, their own names, and an artificial leg. True story.)

Keaggy.com has documented some interesting and unorthodx bookmarks of their own. It’s sure to tickle the bibliophile and the voyeur alike (or that hideous beast known as the bibliophilic voyeur), so in lieu of an informative update from yours truly, do take a look.

Script Frenzy: Day 2 (& hints of the SPP™)

Sunny weather. The glorious release from post-secondary responsibilities (until the tidal wave of exams hits on Monday, at least.) I am so ready to wash my hands of this semester and embrace the self-directed learning and slacking that the summer offers. There is, of course, the looming necessity of finding a job that meets three criteria: a) does not crush my soul b) provides me with the funds I will need for various irresponsible purchases c) allows me enough free time and energy to get a Secret Podiobook Project™ written. In the spirit of enjoying the moment, I’m overlooking that stressful job-hunting process for now.

If I don’t get the SPP™ at least completed in a text draft this summer, I don’t want it to be because a job drained me and stole away my time – I want it to be because I was a lazy ass. (If I’m going to be angry, I’d rather be just angry at myself rather than angry and helpless in the face of things bigger than I am.)

Ideally though, I’ll get the thing recorded and out there. Since I don’t know what I’m doing, though, that may be a bit much to expect. We’ll see.

As I was trying to say (before the unavoidable segue into blabbing about my life), the weather and today’s schedule were fairly conducive to writing. So was the Anchor Steam I drank, though it made me sleepy and unmotivated afterwards, when I might have otherwise written even more. Further experiments to reveal the beer – writing output relationship will have to be done.

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy-drama
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter… yeah.
Today I learned: Writing outside is nice, except for cool breezes, insects, and being unable to see your screen because of glare. Montages are irresistible. Voice-overs are irresistible. I am more wont to toss in predictable, two-dimensional supporting characters than I would have thought. I am as wont to write off drinking a beer brewed in San Francisco (where the script is set) as “research” as I would have thought.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1 Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 0
Pages: 9
Morale: Good. Ahead of necessary daily page count, the plot still seems salvageable, even if it’s already not what I imagined.

[Music] Damn Those Turks! (Turks’ Theme) – Voices of the Lifestream

Script Frenzy: Day 1

Any plotting I would have liked to get done last night was ruined by a headache. A lack of food and four shots of espresso will do that to a delicate flower like me. I self-medicated with an extra strenth Motrin and some ingested meats (pork, to be specific), and took to bed early.

I woke up feeling like a million bucks. That little nuisance called school stood between me and tackling Script Frenzy’s first day, but I didn’t let it get me down. I only need to average 3 pages a day to make this thing work. From here, anything is possible.

Here’s the first installment in the maelstrom:

Working Title: Living With Uriel
Genre: Comedy-drama
Today I learned: The word “limnology,” that my main character’s major is marine biology, how to format a screenplay.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 0
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 0
Pages: 4

The project is already turning out different than I anticipated. It’s more comedic, much more Juno than the semi-serious mainstream drama I conceived it as. That’s all right – the good thing about throwing yourself into a project very shortly after conceiving it is that you don’t have your preconceived notions set in stone, and you’re not emotionally attached to it yet. I’m willing to go with the flow. The risk, of course, is that I’ll end up with gibberish. But that’s okay. Surely I can allow myself but one toss-out script in life.

For the curious, my Script Frenzy username is Marzo.

[Music] The movie “Bugsy” (1991) on TV