…as well as the ones who can only manifest in a vision.
If you can dial your mother, feel lucky – and then make that call. If you can visit her; make the call, and then surprise her by showing up.
Anakin once flew all the way from Naboo to Tatooine just to show his mom how much he cared. And people call him a sithwhiny bad guy. If she’s less than a tank of gas away, go for it!
(This feature promotes discussion and interaction: giving an inside look of my creative craziness. Ask about something about the desktop image and I shall answer.)
Wait? Can it be? Less icons this time around. Amazing – I know.
The desktop reflected heading back to Camp Nano and reflecting at my April accomplishment of a screenplay (albeit unfinished). I want to tackle prose this July; even if I may skip around in unfinished territory.
Last month I was dealing with some screenplays: one being the aforementioned script; and another was reading/critiquing a project written by a friend and holds a lot of potential.
Below the sanctioned Camp Nano image was something I ran into: The Six Stage Story Structure by Michael Hauge.
Once I started developing my own style (which I really wish I knew what it was…but I’m sure there’s one hiding in there somewhere), I found little use for the three-act structure of screenplays. I believe in a beginning, middle, and ending. I believe in hiding the blatancy [however necessary] of backstory; the term exposition often eludes me. Characters need should be individuals with unique voices.
I do my best to make things just interesting enough for the person to want to turn the page; click the page down button; hit the jump. Continue reading →
(This feature promotes discussion and interaction: giving an inside look of my creative craziness. Ask about something about the desktop image and I shall answer.)
The more I intend to organize… My desktop is practically covered. Sheesh.
What is the closest thing to actual writing? An image pertaining to a contest I entered regarding an “edgy” YA novel; which is the confounding (to old and out-of-touch me) genre New Adult. I watered-down a loose premise in the back of my mind, and submitted the entry to Figment. Take a look if you wish.
Back to that desktop image… I was still riding high because of reading a certain Indy screenplay…while feeling nostalgic for LucasArts the way I remembered [I’ll try not to make a Gone Jackals reference here – DOH!].
By the way: did you know how difficult it is to find orichalcum on ebay?
The background I chose relates to a fan-made Indiana Jones game (in progress) which looks and functions pretty close to the point-and-click masterpiece Fate of Atlantis. To get a look or try one of the demos from this labor of love (and possibly fedoras), you have two options. Go to Facebook or go to college.
Barnett College, where Dr. Jones started teaching in 1937, is the site with all you need to know about the game. Giving the Facebook page some support may not hurt either…especially if you are good at putting the word to the fanboy streets.
Don’t feel like doing either? Look at a clip here…
If you read this far, you deserve a fanfilm treat. How about a cinematic trailer pertaining to Fate of Atlantis?
(This feature promotes discussion and interaction: giving an inside look of my creative craziness. Ask about something about the desktop image and I shall answer.)
March had a lot of shortcomings and April was a month I’d rather gloss over than delve into. Enough words spoken by the desktop alone, so I felt like keeping words short there. If I’m asked to expound, however…I’ll deliver.
Back to March… I had two writing gigs. One was a full-blown scam with international ties [yes; I should be retelling that ordeal, but I did not have the time to revisit that debacle]. The other was something which went down in flames, but I gave it my best effort…and perhaps gained some writing samples from it; showing my rewriting skills in action.
The “highlight” of April was achieving my Camp Nano goal despite overwhelming odds. With all said and done; I have an unfinished screenplay sitting at 102 pages without an ending. No finish, but it was enough to count as another “win” for Camp Nanowrimo.
Despite being a first draft, I can say it’s one of my best original screenplays thus far – hopefully keeping people guessing until the very end. What good is a princess story if it has a predictable ending? Can something be “happily ever after” and still be a surprise?
Not to go into the details, but the ending is already planned out. Once I connect where I left the story to the “beginning” of the ending events, I’ll be all set. There was a point where I kind of shocked myself with an element of the ending chain of events. Enough so to put down what I was doing and really evaluate it all for a day. It appears long right now, and it shall be trimmed later, but I don’t wish to excise anything until after a full-blown table reading.
Back to the image… I had to add something new, so I went generic by way of Apple. It was one of the defaults; looking the most fitting as a “Lady in Red” motif. I hoped to finally clean my desktop up…but way more important things were in motion. Would it be a wanted achievement to gussy up the mess of icons and folders…or is the chaos more welcome here? Please do comment.
My plan was to clean up the desktop somewhat to start my next writing project with a cleaner slate, but things spread and sprawled instead.
[If you think that looks messy, just peek inside one of my steno books. It’s where I actually lay the groundwork for my writing endeavors — when I’m not pantsing it.]
The desktop image is about as obvious as it gets. I could not find a good fan-made Camp image, so I reverted to the official Camp Nanowrimo logo.
I decided on writing a new screenplay from scratch. In December I dashed off a short piece for Figment to make my goals for the year. It serendipitously taught me this could be turned into a decent longer story. A script seemed more viable than a novel at the time, so that’s where I stand. It’s a far cry from my original inspiration for it: which means it’s even more an original idea with every page.
The running joke is this shall be my “princess” script. A story which would fall into a hard G or light PG by way of a rating system; with a female protagonist [shocker? Not.] wedged between pleasing her father in her own way rather than what he expects a daughter of a kingdom to conduct herself. Thrilling, eh? [I know it doesn’t sound that way. All part of my plan.] If you really want to hear the pitch, contact me. 🙂
Ambition is the name of my my game. I’d rather fail spectacularly rather than as a purplish blur of a ditto machine’s byproduct. Call me crazy.
If you see something on my desktop you’d like to ask about, add a comment. I’ll be happy to give the best answer I can.
Much is at play with this image; behind and on top of the desktop.
The obvious is what a cluttered mess things are. Less than a month away from Script FrenzyCamp Nanowrimo‘s April session; which I decided to write a screenplay rather than a novel [which is a legitimate choice in Camp Nano this year]. There is also one or two shorts which won’t see the light of day. Poor concepts. Good thing I keep my ego in check came to my senses.
Business concerning a couple writing buddies are displayed on my digital plate, but I also picked up an “outside” project. I was hired for another script doctor job. For those who don’t check my freelance profiles, I used to be a screenwriter before making an effort at prose.
Being a script doctor is pretty much like being a ghostwriter. Tasks can be simple; such as formatting a script correctly, or lowering a page count. Heavier lifting could be rewriting dialogue or changing the story completely. This is a short film, but I’m treating it just as seriously as anything else I put efforts into.
If anyone reading this is looking for someone to do any editing, polishing, or whatnot…I’m for sale hire. [Contact me or comment if interested.]
As the image is concerned – the obvious answer is Star Wars art. It was said to be for an emulation program. The game Star Wars Galaxies went defunct when The Old Republic MMO got readied for launch. Such a thing hasn’t stopped many people from assembling teams and launching versions of the game all their own. So long as someone legitimately owns a copy of the game discs, it is legal to participate.
This game is entitled SWGemu. Not only was a former guildmate part of the team at one time, it’s the version I have been leaning most towards. The image is supposed to represent a new introduction cinematic (or cut scene) for this game’s iteration. It is certainly ambitious.
I couldn’t accurately track down the artist, but I’ll add it as soon as I’m positive. I have a feeling I know who did it…but I did not wish to inaccurately credit. I’ll get to the bottom of it.
For a taste of what the game is like, here’s a bonus video. If I had more time in a day (or a genie allowed me to never sleep yet never feel tired), now you know where I’d be.
The plan was to make a tease sort of post; but things didn’t go off as I hoped. In fact, much of this concept didn’t go off as expected…but I hope it will be a recurring segment.
Since I spend a lot of time talking about (or actually playing) my PSP, I thought this year I’d use my modified handheld to not only showcase some of the silly games I play, but also prove there is plenty of reason not to jump to the “PSV” quite yet (even though the PSVita will have a theoretic life of at least two more years, but I digress…).
With emulators and homebrew, all sorts of things can still be accomplished on a PSP Slim [2k of 3k] such as mine: despite Plagueis the Wise and Palp the Craggy corroborating my firmware being “unnatural” in a word.
Originally I hoped to have a slideshow each month, but flash doesn’t work here. Then I hoped to do a gallery here, but things weren’t working as I hoped. Then I planned to make two galleries: one showing my screenshots for that month, and another linking to each game (for deeper investigation) – but ImageShack doesn’t let one image exist in two albums.
Since I wanted a theoretical clean sweep, I decided to try to organize the iBook’s desktop and downloads folder – but before I did it, I decided to take a pic for a quick digital time capsule. See?
Yeah – I still need to change that wallpaper from December…though it’s so sad when Life Day ends. Know what I mean?
Ask what you want about what you see. I don’t think I have anything to hide. Do I? What could be a better conversation starter than letting someone openly spy on your computer screen?
The dorm room is packed and cleaned; which brings my foray into literary ambition to a close…at least for this year. I didn’t plan to give up after a single year of making resolutions. The big question is how I fared.
Before I cap things off, here’s a look at the cryptic “score sheet” I scrawled out to help become my roadmap. [click to enlarge]
How cryptic was it? I tried to decode it on at least three occasions. The sheet of notebook paper made a lot of sense at the time, but I made alterations as the months rolled by…a bit because the unexpected cropped up, but mostly to make things more challenging for myself.
It’s been a year and two days since you saw a Dead Hot Workshop performance. It’s been a year and a day since you spent all night getting the baby’s room up to your level of perfection – and it’s been a year since I found out a December phone call would be our last conversation.
A day still hasn’t gone by without something popping into my mind. A song; a Howard moment; a syndicated Simpsons episode I didn’t see yet.
Most commonly it’s one of those throwaway lines we’d use towards one another; like a stenographer’s shorthand. Something most wouldn’t pay attention to, but spoke a paragraph of feelings or emotion towards one frivolous thing or another. “Who told you that!” “Oh no, nippy.” “MM-hmmm…” “Hello hello.” “See? Wha’d I tell you!” “Ho-MER…!” “Let me see bonehead…”
What’s a worse travesty – me not talking to you again or me not knowing your favorite Dead Hot album? Who am I kidding – it was that garage cassette tape you never got enough of…and didn’t get enough of making me listen to. Not like I objected. I was just as proud as you were when we saw your favorite band “go national” so to speak. I still have a copy of that Best Buy ad safely tucked away in a box somewhere.
Music was a thing of ours. With all we had in common, nothing was better than listening to CDs in your Toyota – or whatever music format on my stereo. Hunting down tracks; hearing new cuts on the radio. Acoustic rarities. Our shared interest in local and obscure music; including bands we went to high school with. I still wonder how your radio picked up those heyday performances of Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin as we froze while camping out in the woods near the crater for that dirtbike race.
I hoped to post a jukebox of tunes, but these will more than do: representing the Tempe sound and spirit of Long Wongs. As Brent would say, “This is a love song… Well, they’re all love songs, aren’t they?”
Amazing. You still had a way to help guide with a couple of these choices.
When the tree’s being held in esteem by wide receiver Brandon Marshall (#15, Bears) of course. With a Charlie Brown Christmas tree resting on the podium, here’s some of what he said:
“Right now, metaphorically, our season looks like this tree right now where we’re standing. Barren. Ugly. But there’s still hope. As a kid, it doesn’t matter how your Christmas tree looks. You’re still waiting for Christmas Day. You still have hopes and dreams that Santa’s going to bring you those things you ask for. It’s always a possibility.”
“Where we stand today, our goal is to win the NFC championship, beat the Green Bay Packers, win the Super Bowl. All of that still can be under this Christmas tree. Whenever you’re down, you’ve got to try to create some type of balance, so this is a perfect little thing for me to keep me going.”
Now that’s one of the top five Christmas stories out there.
If awesome speeches were a category in my fantasy league, someone would have 50 points before anyone took the field this week!
The image is taller than what I usually show, but I’ll try to make it a shorter post to compensate.
Still writing this strange November. Much has been different for me compared to a year or two back. I’m sticking with my story from last year, and [so far] staying on-par with my personal goals so far.
I usually do some things to get ready for the Nano season. This year I hesitated; whatever that reason was. My updates here and my sponsor page have been sketchy at best. Today I updated my Figment page (sorry for not mentioning updates there for at least a month). There also hasn’t been an explanation for why I am writing what I am this month.
So what’s with the pic? I did an earlier post showing the main character’s “last known whereabouts” when I was writing. If you where she was as it happened, that could only complicate things for her. The image is an indication of where she’s been.
What’s happening now? Well… According to all, she is ending her journey. Kadie, the man from the establishment, and also- That reminds me, maybe I’ve been letting her get a bigger lead than intended. Here is the “establishment” in question:
That chapter did go much longer than intended, but that’s what the magic of a second draft is all about. It’s all about quantity over quality though: in the month of November.
Oh, Mesnard! 