Posts Tagged ‘writing’

Day 4: All kinds of breaking the 4th wall

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

A bit early in the day, but I just wrote this very shareable chunk and I’m worried that I’ll forget about it later. So here’s the bit for today! And also I AM FINALLY OUT OF THAT STORY WITHIN THE STORY! WOOT!

Current Word Count: 12796

She turned on her playlist and started to type, the music setting the mood of a generally fun romp through the forest and battling the bad guys. Despite the word limit, she wrote the whole story, her fingers moving much faster over the keys than mine are now. Dammit, I’m getting slow. Still, the story came out quickly now that she knew who the characters generally were, and T was there to fill in anything she missed, like the character names and little details that Shea wanted to include. This would be the version that went in her own collection, after all, and she wanted that one to be pretty good. Especially since she was going to have to figure out where in the chronology this one fit.

Two hours later, she was trimming the story down to the five pages she was allowed to submit for class. Because, you know, time doesn’t exist the way it’s supposed to. Let’s make it about 8 at this point and say that she had a laptop to work on it while she was making dinner. Well, even then. Say 9 then. And then she can start looking at the book at 10. Wow, this time thing is getting a little complicated. Maybe she should have just had that one bit of homework for the night. It seems pretty ridiculous otherwise.

My god, why am I thinking about this now?

So, she finishes the story, both versions and prints it off. Well, prints off the school version of it. Story continue now? Yes? Good.

Plans for May

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

April is over and I beat the script! With not much over, granted, but I hit massive creative drain and life problems and whatnot and stopped. But now, I have a whole new month! Less yesterday and today. And I am coming up with plans.

Plan the first: Free Comic Book Day! Which already happened. And I missed the free comic books. Whoops. But I did get another Scott Pilgrim book and a random other book that was only $10 and looks to be fairy tale re-imaginings. It looks nifty and was cheap!

Plan the second: SPE Site. Once I actually figure out how everything is going to function on the site, it should be a breeze. Until then, it’s a damn lot of planning and wireframes and whatnot. Really, all I actually have is the layout and a loose idea of functionality. Still, I want it ready to go for the end of the month.

Plan the third: Writer site. I’m converting my portfolio into a writer site right now and I need to start actually doing a few things with it. I have plans for what I’m going to put on there, but I hope to have a schedule for posting there and to actually be posting regularily by the end of the month.

Plan the fourth: Work. I need a job. A nice stable one that gives me regular hours that interferes with everything else I’m working on. I can accept that for a regular paycheck, though. I kind of miss having those.

Plan the fifth: Drafts. I need to finish all the rough drafts for my stories by the end of the month, hopefully sooner. The sooner I can get them done, the sooner I can make them good and everything can start to fall into place. Or something like that.

Plan the sixth: Videos. I want to get all the long videos until July done this month. Because, you know, crazy things. I just like overloading myself and all that.

Wish me luck!

100 Pages!

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Why yes, it is only the 10th. And yes, I have written 100 pages of my script.

YAY!

Although if you want to get technical, I finished yesterday before dinner. 20 pages yesterday brought me up to 100, including one absolutely INSANE dream sequence, and now the page count is done.

Yes, only the page count. Because I’ve only just started on the story itself. I haven’t even introduced the villian yet and I almost forgot to introduce the conflict. I’m just happy I managed to get Selene in before the word count was up.

Now, that isn’t to say that this is an overly long script. Remember, I’m going that weird visual novel with character following route. I’ve been writing all of the story lines simultaneously, which is kind of a pain in the ass, kind of an awesome blessing at the same time.

Although the rest of this rant is being saved for something that I’m launching in a couple months. So excited to start working on it in May. I really am.

I do need a little definition on how things work in the universe and I need to completely rearrange a few of the scenes so that the useless padding stops being there. It will give me more time and make everything a lot snappier.

Still, I’m taking the rest of the day off to plot and plan for things. And do a little work on that thing I’m working on all of May. Bwaha. Awesomeness is ahead and I am excited.

Now if only I could get paid for some of this.

Transmundane – The Plottening

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

So I’m going to be writing Transmundane for the next month for Script Frenzy. I have done, like, nothing on the project so far, so I need to do a lot of plotting and skip the research now, getting right into the hard part. Plot and characters. Here I go!

Characters and Plots:

I made physical representations of the characters. It’s not quite how I imagine them, but there’s at least something to work off of considering I only came up with their named when I was saving them.

Brooke
The first girl and works mostly as a framing device. She is utterly typical high school girl. She doesn’t stand out, blending into the crowd and daydreaming about being more than she is. The story is going to open with her dreaming and we will meet the rest of the cast through her eyes, then follow her around for a bit while she tries to figure out why there are recurring people in her dreams and daydreams.

Plot: Brooke will start out with a dream. She will wake up, go to school, encounter best friend on the way to school and they will talk about how the friend has a boyfriend and Brooke only has a crush. Said crush will invite her to a party and Brooke will spend the day daydreaming, but see those people from that morning’s dream again.

That night, she will actually talk to said dream folk and start to come into the world and learn more, but be pretty much just a visitor there. She will encounter Gunnar and learn more, and Aries and Fumi will run across her and Selene will show up, not realizing she’s “one of those” and there will be more exposition.

On the reality side, Brooke will be getting ready for said party and end up having to drive for the night. This won’t be a big deal, except the climax will happen and she will get pulled into the dreams while she is driving. And then there is climax and at the end, she can’t get back to reality and her date.

Sage
One of the first people that Brooke encounters and one of the leaders of the separate factions of people who are inside the collective subconscious. He had a falling out with Gunnar a while ago and they have a little history together. He also maintains more of a teaching role, showing the new guys around and letting them decide for themselves, though is unhappy when they choose not to follow him.

Plot: Sage is going to start off by showing Brooke the basics and teaching her what she needs to know to survive, mentioning none of the parts about changing people by changing their inside scapes.

When he lets her go off to discover stuff all on her own, he meets up with Paige, Fumi and Aries for a bit of an update about what’s been going on. They report a growing number of people in the other side, that growing number being about seven, and how they aren’t actually doing much yet, instead working to organize their efforts and maybe get one more. They have some plan in effect to actually get more recruits to help change the world for the better. They don’t know what else to do beyond this, though.

The story from there with Sage revolves mostly around him trying to find out what’s happening with them and running into Gunnar to exposit about their pasts well. He accidentally lets slip about Brooke and Gunnar goes off, Sage not sure if he should go fix it or let her make up her own mind. He lets her go, instead worrying about planning for the climax.

Paige
A girl of many accents, Paige is generally a happy, peppy person to be around. She is quite independent, happier to go out and do things on her own so that she can handle them her own way, but also quite outgoing and social. She also has some history, though does not like to talk about it, frequently moving the topic to other matters or simply leaving if she doesn’t like where it’s going.

Plot: Paige hangs around with Sage for quite a bit at the beginning and is the one sent out to go collect Fumi and Aries when Brooke goes. After the meeting, she goes off to do a little spy work, watching Gunnar and eventually confronting him. They used to be allies and he knows all about that past she’s running from, giving her enough reason to up and leave before the painful memories bring her back to her own scape.

She runs and ends up with Aries, who is in the process of clean up. They exchange notes and Paige goes to see Brooke, who she knows is around there somewhere. They chat a little and she goes off to do more things I haven’t thought of until the climax comes around.

Gunnar
The so called antagonist who will try to sway Brooke to his side with promises that she’s going to be able to make a better world if she goes ahead and helps people. He’s actually a very nice guy, charismatic and honestly believes that what he’s doing is for the best.

Plot: He starts off with Paige encountering him. From there, he does mostly exposition and ends up paying a visit to his old friend, Sage. After that bit of exposition, he goes out to plant a few seeds in Brooke and checks in on her now and then.

The third time of doing so, though, he is stopped by Selene, who is more mocking than anything else. She disapproves and he doesn’t care, instead assured that Brooke will come to him in the end.

He moves instead to his plan. There are a lot of minds in the world that need changing and they don’t have the manpower for it. They need to bring more people in for things to happen. AMBIGUOUS EVIL PLOT. TO BE PROPERLY DEVELOPED LATER.

Selene
Quiet, but confident, Selene prefers to watch, wait and let things come to her rather than going out and making things happen. She is unaligned in the whole matter, instead enjoying her freedom and doing as she likes without worrying about what side she should or should not be a part of.

Plot: Brooke is the first person to encounter Selene. She doesn’t much like that she’s already chosen sides and that they’ve recruited her out of the womb, so to speak. She tells Brooke that there’s always another option and then goes off to have her fun.

She’s mostly bumming around, expositing about some of the cool stuff you can see and do in this particular situation, having mini adventures and playing along in dreams like she told Brooke to do.

Eventually she runs into Gunnar, who is on his way to see Brooke. She stops him and they obviously have a little history as she’s entirely too friendly and a touch malicious when she does talk to him. Still, not her problem and she takes off once he leaves the girl alone.

Still, she is curious about what’s going on and finds Fumi, who, as it turns out, was her brother when they were awake. He fills her in and she gives him a couple tips about what she knows about the situation too.

From there, she considers actually getting involved, watching and getting too close to the whole thing until she is caught in the midst of it all at the climax.

Aries
Happy, outgoing, but distinctly odd, Aries seems to be on the run from something as much as Paige is. He is quirky and curious, more interested in poking around and figuring something out than actually doing anything very proactive. He’s often seen trying to get Fumi to crack and actually say something.

Plot: After the meeting, he follows Fumi around and annoys the crap out of him until he eventually loses him. At this point, he goes back to his usual pattern, finding recently reconstructed scapes and putting them back to the way they were before the effects start being acted upon.

Paige eventually comes by and they talk a bit, both alluding to bits and pieces of their past. Once Paige is gone, he goes back to trying to track down Fumi, instead heading back to a place so he can get ready for the fight he knows is ahead and spying on the people who are doing things.

When he does find Fumi, he ends up hiding because of Selene and finds out about him. Not sure what to make of it, and his own previous experiences with Selene which are alluded to back with Paige, he leaves to go blow up some things. And then there will be climax after that.

Fumi
Another odd kid, he keeps to himself mostly when Aries isn’t trying to get him to talk. When he does talk, it’s usually something pretty important and otherwise he ends up leading the way to trouble and works with Sage to organize matters.

Plot: After he finally loses Aries, he ends up going to an information centre which is his own scape. He, apparently, has cameras that watch everyone else that is on their plane and ends up spying for a while, stepping into them and getting a good idea of the people who they are looking at gathering instead of watching over the actual offending people invading the places. He also occasionally sends Aries a tip on where to clean up next.

He reports to Sage what he’s learned so that he’s got something to work with and offers some ideas on what exactly the plan is.

When he returns back, he finds Selene already there and they talk about the past and what’s going on. Fumi fills her in and generally tells her everything, warning her to stay out of it. He is not pleased to see her in the climax.

Notes about the universe and whatnot:

  • Time is completely non-existant while in universe. No need to make time lines add up because any given area is time-wise moving faster or slower than the other ones.
  • Freud and Jung need not apply. This is going to be a set of several universes where everything will mean something different to different people, so it’s not really going to make sense to use Freud, though elements of Jung will get to stay. But is everyone mentally the same? Who knows. Dream dictionary can screw itself, though.
  • The evil plan involves pulling people into the place permanently. People with similar ideals so they will join and together they will all be able to change the minds of enough people so that they can make the world a better place.
  • Need to figure out names for the awake people. Brooke’s strand is going to involve a lot of back and forth between reality and not. Also, forgot to mention at some point she’s going to change something for the better and it’s going to end badly, so she’s not going to do it anymore.  Maybe give friend’s boyfriend more confidence sort of thing.
  • Fumi is the only scape we see besides a glimpse at Brooke’s.
  • The scapes are a temporary name. I need a better one. Also, think of them like Outbacks from The Maxx.

And that’s what I got so far. Script Frenzy is going to be very interesting this year.

If you want to help, give me more dreams. I can always use a few more dreams and daydreams. Otherwise, I’m going on autopilot for the next month, with everything pre-written and pre-made so I can write. Wish me luck!

Voting Closed!

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Thanks to everyone who participated in helping me pick my project for Script Frenzy this year! I’m going to be doing Transmundane, the bastardized visual novel.

A word on the project before I get going, though. Despite it being a visual novel, I am going to be horribly butchering the medium. Instead of the choose your own adventure style that the medium is generally made for, I’m going to try to use it to let people switch between the characters as the stories go on. It’s also going to be not at all a game, but a novel with pictures.

Yes, I know that makes it a horrible use of the medium. I acknowledge that right now. In the future, I’m going to be doing something with it as it’s intended, but for now, it should be a pretty fun adventure.

If you’ll excuse me, I have to go start figuring out the characters, plot and a million different trippy settings for the various subconscious landscapes.

Script Frenzy’s Coming

Friday, March 5th, 2010

So, Script Frenzy is coming up very soon. I’m thinking I’m doing it again this year and creating another side project to my other side projects. And, as always happens whenever I have a writing month coming up, I am conflicted about what I’m going to write. This time around, it’s two stories and two completely different mediums to write for. Well, three.

Yeah, I need a hand again. But this time, I can link to the pages instead that I’ve already written up, since they’re going to be projects that I already have on the roster. So, here are the options:

Atlantis Project
Years ago several children had run into the gate and all but one disappeared. Since then, the children had grown up and caused problems for them in the shadows. When two of them, the more notorious twins, came to offer their help tracking down the others, they were dubious about their motives. Still, this was the best option they had.

Onyx, the only child from that day they had managed to catch, was put in charge of a team assembled specifically so that they could keep the twins in check and together they try to find the other children from that day, grown up now and twisted as the underworld of Atlantis.

Twilight
When they moved to the city, it was mostly so Bree could pursue her dreams to become a doctor and not have to pay extra for dorms. Unfortunately, after one day she realizes that her dreams can never be. Her dreams shattered, she is lost and doesn’t know what to do next.

She stumbles into being a hero quite by accident. With Auntie Cici training her, she delves deep into what the world of heroes is like and what that entails. Meanwhile, she gets a job and tries to decide what she’s going to do with the rest of her life now that her dream is gone.

Transmundane
Brooke has always thought her dreams felt a little too real. When a group of people come to visit her in her dreams repeatedly, she finally realizes that her subconscious is a little different and she starts to discover the realms of the collective subconscious and the people who dwell there.

Here, she has the power to enter different people’s subconscious and affect them, as do the others who walk among them, but the people are split into two factions: Those who think they should change the subconscious of people to help them and those who believe it’s best that people work out their own problems.

Both factions want Brooke to join them and Brooke doesn’t know what she’s going to do. Luckily, she can leave whenever she wants.

Which one should I write?

Shut Up Brain!

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Ugh. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes things go right. Sometimes things become a little clearer and it’s a combination of the two. So what is bringing about this particular rant-slash-whatever else it could be? What else? My book!

As I have mentioned, I’m working on Syndicate and writing/editing lots for it. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that maybe I should add in the Tales for the Backstreets stuff at the end, just to tie things in together and give a little exposition about the universe. I thought about it more and thought, hey, it really is a pretty nifty idea. Let’s do it!

The problem came then. I realized that the Tales stuff all had a particular aspect or theme to it, which is wonderful. I needed to switch stories in and out, but that was fine. I scrapped two stories and added two different ones to the line up and moved those stories into another book where they would better tie in.

And then I looked at the lineup and had a horrible thought. These stories don’t work well as a first book. The stories I had dealt with a very particular and special aspect of the universe which would make for a nice second or third book to show how things are different here, but it missed a lot of context.

The third book in the series, however, was all of that context I needed t open up the series. And only a story and a half written. As much as I don’t really want to go ahead and put the work I’ve done so far on the back burner, a ser4ies called “Syndicate” should really open up with a book about the bloody Syndicate and not one particular aspect of the universe.

And so I spend today writing the drabble (word misused) versions the stories so that I can spend the next week writing first drafts. That and working on that script for Terradin.

Alienating?

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Okay, so among everything else I’m doing these days and the projects I’m writing, I’m trying to figure out one of my stories. In this story, I’m working out a whole alien civilization right down to creating a whole other species of people. And so, I have run into a slight conundrum.

Reproduction.

Granted, it’s not really going to come up in the strictly technical sense of which parts go where to do what. I’ve already figured out most of that anyway. It occurred to me, though, that I never decided whether or not I wanted to have androgynous aliens with no gender or to have them actually have the classic male and female genders.

Granted, they are meant to interact with humans and most of their physiology is pretty humanoid. One of those like-us-but-really-not sort of situations.

So, those who do check out this blog, tell me. Should I have genderless aliens or is it too alienating (Yes, pun, shut up) and should I put in the genders to make them a little more familiar?

Happy New Years!

Friday, January 1st, 2010

It’s a new year and, since I’ve already talked about last year,  it’s time to talk about the plans for the next year. No resolutions this time around, just plans of various sorts. I did all right last time, but meh. Onward!

Put out a Syndicate book
It’s planned, half written, and one’s even being properly edited now. PaperBox Books is interested, so I’m hoping they’ll like all the stories. I still need to write 3 stories for the book I’m working on and then edit everything, but it’s super exciting. Must work super hard!

Get out something for Final Snow (And rename)
VIcki and I are both so busy, but I’d like to have the first episode done by the end of the year. Or, you know, at least the trailer. Have some stuff we can sit on and put out something. Still, I have to find voice actors and hopefully track down someone to do sound and make the soundtrack. Also, I need to rename and I need to do more edits and writing and cutting the script into episodes. Should be interesting.

Finish Sybil of Destiny (And rename)
It’s had an edit done. It really needs another one, though, and once that’s done, I’m keeping it around so that I can possibly get it published. Its not in Wipe continuity, so maybe it has a shot. Well, not strictly in Wipe continuity, anyway.

Start on Dreamscape
I wrote Dreamscape a while ago and now I’m thinking it’s about time to get around to finally rewriting it. It really does need a total rewrite. I think I know how I’m going to rework the story now, so it’s about time to take it, a chapter at a time, and start fixing it into something I can actually edit.

Keep up the videos
The videos are really fun. I want to keep them up, maybe even do a full year’s worth of them. Maybe even do longer ones more often. Heck, maybe even get a real camera (Just using a Canon Powershot from a couple years ago) and do something with actual production value. Heh, no, real production values are not happening.

I’m sure there’s more. There’s other things I want to do, but not that I’ve necessarily planned on. Plot out Twilight (Not the crappy sparkling vampire series) and Atlantis Project, for instance. And there’s a webcomic I’ve been asked to write. With any luck, it will be a productive and creative year. Should be fun.

Those are my plans. What’re the rest of you doing for the year?

End of Year Wrap Up

Monday, December 21st, 2009

I am royally sucking at getting things done right now and I choose to blame it on Christmas and New Years stress. Granted, I finished my shopping last week and haven’t even gotten a work shift in a while to add any stress or work, for some reason I’m completely exhausted and can’t get myself to get any of the multitudes of projects I should be doing done.

But an update of sorts first. It’s close to the end of the year and I don’t think I’m going to get much else done this year, so might as well do the wrap up now so that I can recover from the year and be fresh for the new year. Yes, I know it’s early and there’s still Christmas and New Years left, but dammit, I’m tired.

So let’s start this little recap with the resolutions from the beginning of the year. There were only seven and in the end only one remains standing. After sending out 23 manuscripts, all of them have as of yet failed to actually be published as of yet. However, there is hope, which I will get to in a bit.

What have I done in the past year? I’ve graduated from university with my Bachelors. I’ve found that I can keep learning about my indented area of interest without going to school and I don’t really care that much about the masters as I do about understanding storytelling in all it’s many weird forms.

I’ve worked two jobs consistently. I’ve met several people in the industry who give me hope that it’s not completely hopeless to find a good job that I will enjoy if I keep at it.

I’ve tried very hard to get published and, despite failing, been persistent and haven’t given up hope. I’ve written several new stories to add to my repertoire. I’ve completed Raven Project’s first draft, which I have been trying to do since my first year of University. I’ve written another novel which looks to be the start of a series, which I would very much like to pursue and does not tie into Wipe.

I’ve revamped my site and gotten up the start of a project tracker. I’ve also started on a comic video review series and I’m having quite a bit of fun with that.

I’ve also met PaperBox Books, who is interested in publishing me so long as I can learn to take a full edit. In dealing with them, I’ve learned that my ego needs to toughen the heck up because I really should be done with that edit by now.

I’ll talk about the new year and my hopes for that in the actual new year, but in the mean time I’m going to get hot chocolate and I’m going to ride the rest of the year out as best I can. Also, comic reviews next week. Because there’s still a week of comics left in the year.

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