Current Projects
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Done
With the first draft of previously mentioned screenplay that is.
The plan was to have it finished before I go on vacation and then work on it while on vacation. My vacation doesn’t start for another 10 days and I’m vowing to NOT pick the damn thing up until then. I’ve already made a bunch of notes concerning things that I feel need to be addressed, so I won’t even make more notes. I want to just forget about the thing until I’m relaxed, kicking back, and feel compelled to reach over and pick it up and get to work.
I’ve really been burning the midnight oil with this thing and, frankly, I think this 10 day break is going to be just what my feeble, little brain needs.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Off And Running
Man, I’ve been pounding out this script like nobody’s business. I’ve been thinking about this story in various forms off and on for about three years. I’ve thought about the characters, their actions, mannerisms, interactions with each other. I’ve written several scenes down in no particular order because they’ve kept coming back to me. For the longest time I had intentions of writing this story as a prose piece, but after starting off as an experiment in script form it really began to take shape.
Now it’s off and running almost of its own volition.
Granted, when this first draft is finished it will mostly resemble a glorified story outline, but that’s what rewrites are for. My biggest difficulty now is to not get ahead of myself. I’m already thinking of ways to beef up a couple of subplots, maybe moving a scene, or thinking of scenes I’m going to scrap, scenes I want to add. There’s one particular problem that I can barely wait to get my hands on, but I’ll force myself to wait until I get this first draft finished.
Now, if this damn thing would just let me sleep.
Monday, October 16, 2006
First Person Past Tense
Some time ago I finished a piece that was written in first person past tense. I’ve always disliked first person past, but did it anyway as a sort of experiment. After completing four drafts I was reasonably happy with it. Now, some months later, I dug it out and started going over it again and I instantly came to the conclusion that the first person angle is definitely not working. In fact I’m going over it and thinking, Ugh.
I’m still happy with the story and the general structure, but it comes across as a somewhat biographical, confessional piece which, to me, is just horrid. Sure, it uses some elements that I’m familiar with and takes place in a local that I’m intimately familiar with, but the characters and events are all fictional. Well, that’s not entirely true. There is one part that relies heavily on an actual event, but I don’t have a problem with that. The point is that—except for the aforementioned event—it’s just a pack of lies, not a biographical confessional.
So, I’m going to dismantle the whole damn thing and do it in third person.
Also, this will be a great opportunity to—as alluded to in the previous post—kill a few darlings and tighten the whole thing up.
Wildhorse (The Breaks)
I just finished a fourth draft of The Breaks and it’s about as much as I can do with it until I sit on it for awhile. At this point I’m going to have to let someone else read it and give me input from a vantage point that’s not as close as I am after working on it for so long.
Right now the story comes in at 9,620 words which is far less than the 12,000 plus in the first draft. It’s still not the 7,000 or 8,000 I had hoped for. I know the adage, “kill your darlings,” but after creating a veritable killing field I’m ready to call a truce—for now.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Still Plugging Away
I’ve been so busy as of late with life that it has been difficult to post. Busy or not, I’ve still managed to make time for writing. As noted earlier, I finished a first draft of Little Whiskey and the Dancing Cave and slipped it off to a respected individual for input and advice. Actually, he’s a good friend but I trust him implicitly in such matters.
While giving myself some needed distance from Little Whiskey and the Dancing Cave, I’ve been working on a second draft of a story called The Breaks. The story is currently at 9,964 words, but I’d really like to get it down to the 7,000 or 8,000 range.
Tom took a pull from his brandy and thought of Frank. Frank hated him, he knew, and he also knew it was to be expected. How do you explain that when it comes to certain things, there can be no limits to what lengths one will go for the sake of the larger picture? There can simply be no weakness in such matters. To be weak to any degree meant certain death in a world with no tolerance for ambiguity of will. Tom didn’t expect many to reciprocate this ideology, as was the case with Frank and Will’s mother, who had simply collapsed beneath it after just five years of marriage. He recounted the many times when she would take to long bouts of depression punctuated by venting rage. Often times she had complained to Tom of the “incomprehensible sacrifice” that he expected all to endure for the sake of the Trinity. Over the years she learned to control the rage. She folded it up tight and put it in a dark little place somewhere in her withered heart. She kept it contained and endured the sacrifice. One morning, Tom awoke to find her hanging from the rafters in their bedroom. She dangled from a rope, naked, eyes bulging, purple lips and pale skin. She apparently thought enough about it to make sure she would be facing him when he woke up. He lay in bed for several minutes looking at her and allowed ambivalence to transform into loathing. In a rage, he threw the covers back, leapt from the bed, and grabbed the knife that was in a sheath on a belt hanging from a rack next to his pants. He stood up on the bed, cut the rope, and let her body brutally fall to the floor. His biggest concern at that point was raising two young boys left motherless by a blithering coward.
If a genre must be indicated, I suppose I’d call it a Western, but I don’t really think that the description is altogether appropriate. True, it takes place in the late 1800’s and includes a ranch called the “Trinity”, but what I’ve been trying to do with it is take well established convention and tweak it. It’s interesting to me to take borderline—or outright—cliché and then give it a twist.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Making Progress
I just finished a first draft of Little Whiskey and the Dancing Cave. Originally, I had it in mind to title it, Little Whiskey and the Cave of Life. Still not sure what the title will ultimately be.
About a week ago I had this idea pop into my head that I couldn’t begin to formulate. At least not verbally or in an outline form. In fact it didn’t take shape until after I started putting the words down. I still can’t explain it, but now that the first draft is down it does, amazingly, make sense.
The drums sounded faintly with an ancient, tribal rhythm, and a chorus of what sounded like thousands chanted distant accompaniment. Errol opened his eyes and saw shadows flitting across the light of the moon that filtered into the cave. He sat up and looked at the glyphs and they began to shift, move, and dance. Oh, how they danced.
It’s a short piece—for me—at only about 1500 words.
Each time I write something I seem to learn something and come up with new questions. I wonder how common it is to have a complete notion of a story in mind yet not be able to verbally formulate it or explain what it is about even after you write it. Although I can’t explain it, it does make since when I read it.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Wildhorse
The last few months I’ve been working on a project called, Wildhorse. So far it’s turning into a collection of short stories which are vaguely connected by way of location, and different characters that are loosely connected to each other over a period of four generations.
The stories range anywhere from the 12,000 word range to about 2,000 words.
The first story, which is titled Walking With Rosa, is in a fourth draft and is near completion. You know how it is; you do a draft, let a couple of people read it, get good advice—thanks, Justin—and then you put it away. I’ve put this one away three times now. I will say that I’m comfortable enough to post some excerpts, though.
Other titles that are in various stages of completion are: Wildhorse(third draft), Blue Horizon(second draft), and Little Whiskey And The Cave Of Life(first draft).
Other than posting some excerpts here, I have no idea of what I’ll do with these stories. Right now, I’m concentrating on finishing the damn thing.
