August Will Be New Script Frenzy Month!

First off, a quick call out to my nephew whose birthday was last week:

Love ya, sweety!

Alright, back to business. Sorta.

I slacked off this week. I didn't even remember to check-in over at Writers’ Huddle for the summer writing challenge. I've been stalled because I can't seem to figure out where to go next with my story, and so I've been avoiding it all together.

On the plus side, I'm about 2 days ahead of my schedule to finish reading "Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer" on time. I keep teasing Ronoxym that Magnus is just a blonde-haired Boston version of Devon. The more I read the story the more I feel it's true. I find it so amusing that Rick Riordan and Ron essentially came up with the same character. On top of that, it's not like Ron was influenced by Riordan, since Devon's been around for over 3 years before Magnus Chase was printed. At least 2 years before Magnus was introduced to the public.

Speaking of Ron and Devon, Ron's still chugging away at his super Alternate Universe one-shot. Since in this reality Devon is an actual, psychotic Brotherhood member, Ron just writes that he's "Arson"; his Brotherhood code name as well as Street name when he was homeless. It's hard for Ron to even refer to this evil version as Devon, which is interesting. Anyway, he's been writing at least a little bit each night this past week; checking in with me on his progress pretty much daily. Hey, at least ONE of us is writing, right?

I'm excited to read it. He just finished up the first draft last night, but he says he still needs to go back and rework it since he doesn't think he got Trish right in the first half. Still.... EXCITED! You don't know how hard it is for me to continue writing this instead of hopping over to Google Docs to give the story a read through!

Now me? I think yesterday I finally broke my mental block. I gave up trying to figure out the opening scenes. I know more-or-less what I want to happen, but I just can't get the details. So, I allowed myself to just jump to the next scene I DO know the details. It's such a simple thing: allow yourself to NOT work linearly. Yet, it was exactly the sledgehammer I needed to get past my mental block.

I couldn't get very far before doing actual work at - gasp! - work! However, I at least decided to just write up an outline. There won't be a natural stop like in a novel or movie, but if I more-or-less know where I want to go in this "season" - as it were - of the comic then it might be easier for me to fill in the blanks. I know I want to follow the Devon storyline, so I'll write that up first. I'll then go back and put in the character arcs for Chayse, Willow, and Lia. Then probably go back through again to sprinkle in the redone Marvel-Canon characters, as well as Lucas and the concept of the Challengers of Heaven.

I feel like I'll be going back through my James Patterson MasterClass notes for this one. That, and any I make during my next class! For a birthday gift - BTW, Happy Belated to me!!! - my mother bought me another MasterClass for the second year in a row! This time it's screenwriting by Aaron Sorkin; best known as the writer for "The West Wing", "Sports Night", and "A Few Good Men". Such great timing! I start seriously working on a comic script and MasterClass sets up a screenwriting course that started THIS WEEK. Like, I'm one of the first people to ever take this class! So exciting!

A friend of mine is also beta-reading "Glitches" for me and is planning on giving me his notes later today, so that's just as exciting. We already discussed the pitfalls I managed to pick out in my obsessive read-throughs. So, I'm waiting to see what else he could advise me on. I mean, he already gave me one or two really good notes on things I never would have thought of myself due to the subtlety of it.

So, no, I didn't really do anything this past week aside from avoidance and obsessing. However, now I have all the tools I need to get me pumped again. I'm sensing a writing comeback. Okay, so I don't know HOW good of a comeback this SPECIFIC week will be, since Spink's wedding is this weekend, and so my free time is pretty booked. Still, August is looking GOOD.

I'm apparently also very modest....

Devon, Devon Everywhere...

I have been mildly more productive this past week! Still not up to my 21 pages per week I keep aiming for, but there have been some days that I've gotten my daily 3pg quota in, so there's that. I think I finished the week with like 10 or 11 new pages in my script. I'm not sure if the pacing is nearly as good as how I started, but that's why I hate writing fight scenes. I'm just so bad at it. Also trying to balance four different personalities equally is tricky. Still, I chug on.

In truth, I probably could have hit my daily goal this week, but I've been unofficially distracted by something. See, my husband and I have been going out on walks for anywhere from an hour to three nearly every night after work. It's great exercise, but it keeps me from doing things at home, like cleaning and writing.

Oh, let me get more specific. When I say "my husband and I have been going out on walks" what I mean is that I race after to follow him while he goes on Poke-hunts. Yup. He's a full-fledged trainer with Pokemon Go! As is about 80% of the world, it seems! Works for me, it gets us out of the house and exercising. Something that pretty much hasn't happened since we got married. Plus, we get to socialize - which this butterfly also hasn't really been doing as of late - and I've probably seen more of the town in the past week than I have since I moved here five years ago!

Also, it's fun to have complete strangers call across the road "What team are you on?" and either cheer if Hubby's on the same, or playfully boo if not. We get to meet our neighbors as everyone gathers to discuss which pokemon were found where, and give each other tips. No one is anxious or awkward. You just lean in close and show off your phone as you chat; complete strangers jumping into the conversation to either ask a question or answer one. Such a phenomenon. I love it!

So, even though I myself am not much of a pokemon fan, I'm still loving Pokemon Go and what it's done for both the community and my husband's health. And, in extension, my own health. I just wish Hubby didn't want to "hunt" for three hours at a time! By the time we come home from work, eat, and then hunt, I'm not home to do my own thing until about 10pm. Not much writing done then. So, I'm still on the "write at work" train.

It's good, except for my days off where I try to play catch-up on chores since they've been neglected for these Poke-hunts. It also cuts into my writing time when I actually have customers to wait on so that I can get money at the end of the week! Yay, money! So, it's kind of a given that writing is second or third priority in the time I have to work on it. I need time where it's first priority. I need to restart my writing hour.

So, I'm thinking, go out with Hubby right after dinner and "hunt" with him for an hour, then give him a kiss, send him on his way, make my way back home, and then write in silence until he comes home. Or, at least for an hour, because who the heck knows when Hubby will actually come home! I get my exercise and time with the husband, and then my alone time, while he continues hanging out with friends, exercising, and training to be the very best.

We'll see next week if I manage to pull that off.

As for this week? Well, as I mentioned, I did get nearly a dozen pages written, so that's something. Granted, it's mostly dialogue, and so the pages fly by pretty quickly in scripts, but it's still something to read to my group tonight.

I feel like I really need help with this story, so I'm going to try to be brave enough to actually take the spotlight. Normally I go "eh, I'll read today, but others might need more help, so let them go first." Tonight, though, I might be like "HELP!" to make sure I can actually have time for feedback.

My issues? Well, for one, the info-dump exposition section. I don't know if I should cut it all, cut most of it, leave most of it in, or just go ahead and leave it all in. So, there's that. Then there's the fear that the action scene isn't as intense in the second half as it was in the first. I dunno, I'm better at emotional turmoil than I am real-world issues. Maybe because I find those fairly easy to either deal with or overcome, while emotional issues can last forever if not conquered. At least, that's my personal belief.

Anyway, my third issue is that I'm hedging on "Neo-Wolverine's" name again. I started with Mateo once upon a time, but when I did my character reworks last summer I landed on Dominic. As I'm writing, though, I keep getting this nagging thought to go back to Mateo, so I'm going to workshop that a bit tonight, I think.

I'm also stalled on the actual plot now. I was so focused on building the world that "Glitches" takes place in that I never really figured out how to drive the characters to the main plot points I'm grabbing from X-Future. As of right now my first main catalyst is Devon meeting Pyro - or Iggy in my version - and wondering about his heritage. I feel like I need to build up Devon first. Let the reader see him with the other "Glitch" kids for a bit; get a feel for who he is. Then throw the curve ball at the kid. That way he's a sympathetic character when he's going through his inner conflicts. That way his relationships with Chayse, Lia, and Willow are well established. So, how do I do that? How do I go from point A to point B? What elements of those first few months of X-Future can I grab? Or, what scenes can I create to bridge the gap?

Until I figure that out, adding more non-padded pages to my script is going to be hard. As it is, I'm done with my opening action scene, and need to figure out what comes next. Deciding to go with Dominic or Mateo might help because at least then I know who the heck is talking to the kids in the next scene. I dunno. I'm hoping for some guidance from the group tonight.

Worse comes to worst, I now have a new writing buddy via email correspondence. Ali Luke now plays match-maker for anyone over at Writers’ Huddle who wishes for a writing buddy. It's mostly to hold each other accountable so we don't slack off with writing, but it's also for encouragement and direction. Atlanta and I already seem to be a fairly well-matched pair both in where we are in our writing as well as what sort of genres we enjoy reading/writing. We decided last night that we'll email back and forth three times a week, and so if I still feel like I'm floundering after tonight's meeting I'll have to hit her up next.

She's not my only writing buddy, lately, though. Seems Ronoxym had the writing bug bite him again. Something about a bit of role play I did as Trish on the forums. He's working on an AU X-Future using both of our original concepts of the two characters. Ya know, before Devon and Trish went "Pfft. Yeah. Okay. How about no?"

In other words: Evil Devon with the Brotherhood and his romantic companion Trish. COMPLETE alternates of our current incarnations of those two, but hey, if it's getting him writing again I will wait with bated breath for him to finish and share. I may have also been nagging him about it daily for the past three days or so....

I've been thinking a lot about his writing lately, and he'll most likely not have any time in the near future as Cyhyr gets closer and closer to her due date. So, I'm going to nag and poke because I'm excited to see what he comes up with! I promise I'll avoid steamrolling it like I did with Please, Let Me Explain. Another reason why I'm nudging him back into writing, especially writing Devon. Perhaps it will get him pumped up enough for us to get back on track with PLME, but we'll focus on one thing at a time.

I dunno. I've been in a big "Devon Kick" lately. I've been meeting more and more "Devons" in real life. I've been working with him as a main character in Glitches. Ron has been excited about his Devon/Trish story. And I'm FINALLY starting up Magnus Chase: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan. I know, it's hard to figure out the connection there, but exchange Devon's Brooklyn accent and brunette hair for a Boston accent and blonde hair, and you essentially have Magnus Chase. I asked Ron if he also saw the similarities when he read the book, and it seemed to be a bit of a bashful "yup." I find that amusing since Devon was created presumably years before Magnus, since the forum has been around since 2012.

First "Girl Meets World" and now "Magnus Chase".... great minds think alike?

Anyway, yes, I STILL haven't heard back about Sandy's first book returning to the library for me to borrow, so I needed a plan B. Hubby finished "The Sword of Summer" so now I'm good to go with it. I was originally planning on waiting until September so I can flow straight from that to the sequel that comes out in October, but you work with what you get. Since the book is intended for kids in their early teens, it's a fast read. Each chapter is only about seven pages or so, which also makes it easy to stop whenever. I can charge through about 30pgs per day easily. So I should be able to race through the story before the end of the month.

Whoo! Two books in one month! Roughly 15 days reading each! Go me!

Alright, well, it's a LOT later than my noon update time now - stupid chaotic morning - so I'm off to get some other things done today before my meeting. I'm excited and hope to have some positive updates for next week!

What is Too Much Exposition?

Going kind of short and sweet this go....

As I already mentioned over on Writers’ Huddle, this week has been a sort of two steps forward, one step back sort of situation. We actually had some customer flow this past week; the store brought in a record breaking amount! Whoo! The down side is that I was left with virtually no time to write while at work. The other sad part is that I've re-adapted my writing so that I pretty much write exclusively at work, and then spend out-of-work hours socializing, gaming, and cleaning the apartment.

No down time at work meant no time to write. But here comes the real rub about this whole thing. I DID find time to write. I added close to eleven pages to my "Glitches" comic hybrid-script project. Not the 3-a-day; 21-per-week goal I set for myself, which is apparently super lofty, but still a decent amount of writing.

Then I looked over it.

It was a complete info-dump. I was saying to the reader, "Here. I figured all this out about my world-build, and I must share it with you right now! No, it's not entertaining to read it like this. No, you don't need all this information right now; it can be slowly introduced later via dialogue. No, some of this is actually just info that I need to know, not you. Still, I came up with it, so you get to read it right now before I forget!"

Not. Good.

I've been researching world-build expositions lately, and I'm giving WAAAAAY too much info. I know I should wait until the Writers' Huddle summer writing challenge is over at least before I take the razor to my work. On the other hand, I'm trying to read this WIP at Writers' Group, and I don't want them to focus on things I know I did wrong - the info dump - instead of helping me figure out things I DIDN'T notice I did wrong. So, I caved. I went back and chopped. I'm nowhere near the eleven pages I had at the end of the week. I'm now at a net-gain of about five. Still progress, but not nearly as much as I would have liked.

As for the reading challenge, I still don't have an email from the library telling me Sandy's book is back for me to check out. Which means I'm still struggling to figure out what other category I can squeeze into just a week or so of reading. Between my birthday, my family possibly trying to visit for said birthday, visiting my nephew for his first birthday, Spink's bachelorette party, and Spink's wedding, a week is virtually all the time I have left in July.

As for the book I did borrow from the library two weeks ago, well, it's due back today, and so I tore through the second half of it yesterday!

I was doing good. One chapter a day. Then I hit the CRAZY WEEK OF PEOPLE ACTUALLY SHOWING UP AND BUYING THINGS!!!! I'd be a bit more excited if I was one of the sales associates that got a $10,000 sale or whatever; that's a nice paycheck. I did well this past week, don't get me wrong, but not well enough to stop me from being bummed about my lack of writing and reading time.... Weird that I can say that about my job.....

Anyway, I could barely even break the book open last week, and I thought it silly to renew such a tiny book. So, since the customers were back to lacking yesterday, I ignored writing for a day and just tore through the rest of the book. There's definitely some great insight in it. Part of me wants to write a blog post about it, but another part of me knows that I'd want to share as much info as I can with you guys, and so I'd essentially make reading/buying "The Write Type" by Karen E. Peterson, Ph.D. unnecessary.

I will state that, while you can tell she's a psychologist by trade, her insights are helpful. I found a lot of passages I wanted to pass along to my fellow writer friends. While I don't personally think I'll go out and buy this book for a few re-reads, since apparently I'm more focused and ready to be a writer than I thought, I do recommend it to anyone even THINKING about writing, even if it's for your own enjoyment with no intention of publication. ESPECIALLY those who don't intend on ever publishing their work. Because those writers fancy themselves "hobbyists" and therefore push their writing so far on the back burner that it's actually on the countertop on the other side of the kitchen. This book will help you re-focus how important your writing truly is to you, and how to balance it within your crazy life without disrupting the other Jenga pieces you have piled up.

Me? Well, I like to think I have this whole "writing in the foreground" thing more-or-less figured out; still some kinks, like "what happens when I'm actually busy at work?", to iron out, but otherwise, I'm good. So, I'll be grateful for the few new insights I found in this book, I'll pass on the knowledge I learned to some friends I think really need to hear it, and I'll figure out what novel I'm reading for this month.

I'll also study more world-build exposition in comics, movie openings, and video games to try to narrow down what parts the readers need to know in general, unknown narrator, over-sweeping exposition, and which parts can be slowly brought in throughout the course of the story.

Here's hoping I have something I'm a bit more happy with when I go to group next week....

Slowly Introducing the World to "Glitches"

Sorry about being a day late this week, but Independence Day on Monday sort of threw me off. Plus, unfortunately, a co-worker's house burnt down last week, and so yesterday I took her shift so she could deal with the insurance rep as they do a walkthrough to evaluate the damage. I wasn't home again until after 8pm yesterday. I should have done my blog post Monday to make up for it, but, yeah, holiday.

This just means that I could talk about writing group right after I had it, instead of my usual week late remarks on the subject.

Due to me unexpectedly working yesterday, I was a bit late, and so I missed DFL reading her opening chapter of her first book. I did come in during the discussion of it, though. As per usual, for her, Carson, Red, and Sandy, discussion and insight was fairly extensive after each read their stories. They'd spend between five and ten minutes reading, and then we'd spend another fifteen minutes or so discussing and giving advice and/or encouragement. Even our "new" member from two weeks ago who had the tribal-named characters had a nice in depth discussion of her work when she was done.

Again, as per usual, I snuck in my reading just before the library closed, but there was no real discussion afterwards. True, it was partially my fault because there was only about ten minutes left of our group when I started reading, but I was done with around five minutes to spare. I got a lot of "wow" and "right into the action, huh?" and a playful "I really do love slow-paced stories" but no real direction. With about three minutes before the library closed, and everyone easily evacuating in a little more than one minute, I was hoping for a quick little "how about...?" or something. I guess I'll have to wait until next group, and I'll try to get my story started a bit sooner so I can maybe get some discussion going. The next section is where I'm really looking for advice anyway, but I wanted them to know that the start of the comic isn't as boring at the next part may seem.

For those confused, I decided to read my script of "Glitches" that I started for Script Frenzy a few years back. It's a bit confusing to read a proper comic script aloud, so, as I mentioned last week, I had converted the proper script into more of a weird Script-Prose format for reading purposes. I'll convert it back into a proper format again once the bugs are worked out and it's ready to be taken more seriously; i.e. - I find an artist and buy webspace for it.

The story, as a way to draw in first-time readers from wandering off to a different comic, starts mid-action, otherwise known as In Medias Res. Chayse, Lia, Willow, and Devon are being chased through deserted, rundown, urban streets. The pursuers attack, causing Devon to be the first to demonstrate his powers as he creates a wall of flame to protect himself and the other teens. That's where both the action and my reading yesterday ended. It is a fairly intense scene, especially when people don't realize at first that the kids have mutant powers.

I feel like the next section, while considered a "brief" recap of the evolution of the world to that of the Glitches, might get a bit bogged down and boring. As Keaton put it: info dump. I had offered the group two readings. The first be the actual script that I read, the other was the part that I needed help with: the history of the world to make sure it make sense. Keaton was the only one to offer a vote: no info dump; read the actual story.

I want to have the "how the world of Today turned into the world of Glitches" intro be done sort of similarly to that of the movie "Repo! The Genetic Opera." The movie is rightly included in the "splatterpunk" genre because it's very bloody, but if you can handle blood and guts, it is a GREAT watch with insanely catchy songs.

Anyway, the movie starts with about two minutes of comic-like panels reading off the backstory. It's a bit less complicated for Repo! than it is for Glitches, though. The Repo! backstory is that there's an epidemic of organ failures causing millions to die. The company Gene Co rises as a savior of the people with the artificial organs it produces, coupled with a finance plan so everyone can afford the new organs for survival. Gene Co even creates a new line of painkillers to help with the surgery, but the painkillers become addicting, as does the fact that cosmetic surgery is now effectively affordable and pain-free. Society as a whole treats cosmetic surgery like clothing; easily updated and replaced in order to stay fashionable. That's when Gene Co gets the US congress to legalize organ repossession for anyone who falls behind on their payments. Thus starts the movie with the introduction of the main character: the Repo Man, who is a legal assassin who will repossess Gene Co's organs while you're still alive and using them.

The background to Glitches is a bit more complicated: explanation of evolution and how human evolution jumpstarted again after millennia of more-or-less stagnant growth, how evolution progressed so far as to create "powers" in just 100 years from modern times, the concept of the Glitch categories, the police task force created to hunt down Glitches, why the evolved humans are called Glitches in the first place, why Emily set up the boarding school/orphanage in the first place, why Dom created the arcade training facility; there's so much. I know I should probably trickle this stuff in, but what can be told to the audience through natural discussion, and what needs to be told to the audience in straight up exposition? If the students all grew up in this time they should know about the rash of abandoned teens, what the Glitch categories are, and who the Glitch Protection Squad is. They should know about the government abductions and experimentation of Glitches. How does any of this come up in conversation without it feeling like it's me trying to relay important historical facts over to the reader? Should it all be in an exposition-filled intro like Repo!? Or should I short-hand it more than I currently have, and cut out things like the creations of the GPS or GCS? Just stop at how Glitches got their title.

This is where I need help, so hopefully I can get some insight either from group in a couple weeks, or from Writers’ Huddle in the nearer future.

Speaking of, Sunday was the close of week one of the summer challenge over at the Huddle. My 3 script pages a day challenge is proving to be a bit more ambitious than I originally thought. Last week I got to 3pages total added onto the script. Most of the week was spent typing up the complicated history of the Glitch world-build, so do I get credit for that? I figured, since the part I'm working on now in the script is the exposition of the world history, perhaps I should figure that out first so I can just type. Problem is that a lot of things happened sort of simultaneously, and so I'm having difficulties figuring out which bits to explain first; which way transitions into each other easiest? Still, I have just over 2pgs of world-build history figured out and posted up on the Huddle for critique, and 3pgs of script added to my over-all project. The first five pages or so of the script also seemed intense and enjoyable to my writing group, so there's also that.

Alright, so that's how I'm doing with the writing challenge, but what about my reading one? Well, good and bad here too. I had wanted to read Sandy's book for this month, but the only copy available from the local library is currently on inter-library loan. I have a notification request for when it's in again, but who knows when that will be? So, I don't have a fiction novel to read this month. On the flipside, while I was waiting nearly an hour to use the lone card-catalog computer in the library, I managed to find a shelf filled with writing how-to self-help books. I picked one up and have been more-or-less working on it a chapter a day.

The book is called "The Write Type" by Dr. Karen E. Peterson. She's a psychologist who helps writers - presumably along with other clients; not exclusively writers - overcome their blocks. She then wrote books to help those who aren't her clients as well. While some soul-searching exercises would definitely be easier for me if I were Peterson's patient, because I need as much hand-holding guidance as possible, most of the exercises have surprised me a bit with the results. Her main thing is to ask her readers questions about their writing. The reader is supposed to impulsively respond with their dominant hand first. No thinking, just whatever comes to mind in order to better know what the subconscious wants. Then, to make sure no side of the brain is left out in these decisions, the reader is supposed to switch to their non-dominant hand and answer the same questions. Again, no thinking, just whatever comes to mind first is the subconscious responding instinctively. While a lot of my answers came out exactly how I assumed they would, regardless of which hand I'm using, there have been some that threw me. Amazing how you can trick your mind - or it you - into thinking you KNOW what you truly believe.

I planned on bringing some of the exercises with me to group last night, but between getting there late and barely having time to read my own stuff, I decided to wait until we have an awkwardly slow meeting with time to fill. It may be a while if we keep getting a larger and larger crowd now that it's summer and nice out again.

If Sandy's book isn't in the library by the time I have to return "The Write Type" next Tuesday, I'll have to find some other book to read for July to make sure I hit my quota. In the meantime, I'm back to working on my script, and plowing through more chaptered exercises in "The Write Type." I should also be back to my normal posting schedule next week.