Monday 29 October 2007

Writing like a demon

So, setting this deadline was probably good for my productivity, but with less than a week to go, my brain is starting to overflow with panic.

RSF is, right now, 58 pages long. And I'm aiming for 100. By Sunday.

Do we think I will make it?

Well, probably not if I keep logging into places like this and procrastinating!

Oh, and by the way, just to clear it up, Brawny will not be returning to Poole until late on Saturday, as I have to work Saturday afternoon

Which is a pain, but oh well

Friday 26 October 2007

Characters who run away with themselves

For the first time, I have encountered one of the things that famous writers talk about all the time.

My characters have developed lives of their own.

Problem with this is, it has now affected how I resolve one of the plotlines, pulling one of my three romantic plotlines towards a more "Hollywood" ending than I had originally planned.

I finally understand why films all have certain endings, the hero wins, he gets the girl, happily ever after type things.... it's hard to write characters that you care about and not see them happy.

So I know have a screenplay that is evolving as I write, in a more drastic way than I am used to... and I'm not sure what to do about it.

Still, it's only a first draft, so maybe these things will resolve themselves.

I think the best way forward is to write the characters as they appear, and see how it goes....

Anyone got any opinions?

For that matter, anyone read this?

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Comics

It's not fair. I'm a fast reader. The trouble with that is I get through novels and things that normal people take days to read in hours.

Prime Example - I read the 7th Harry Potter Book in 2 1/2 Hours on a coach.

That's bad enough, but what's really annoying is I love comics / graphic novels. But when I read them it's always over so quickly.

Just doesn't seem fair to me.

I had a whole bunch of other stuff I was gonna rant about, but I've forgotten it now!!

Monday 22 October 2007

Bit of a catch up

So, I know I haven't blogged for a while, and a big part of that is that I don't want to become a 26 (nearly 27, don't forget peoples, Brawny Birthday on 5th November) year old whiner who complains about his life, and that's the mood I've been in lately. So I decided not to bother blogging at all. Happily I am back, and have been thinking on a more serious topic than normal.

World Finance.

Now, I know I'm no expert, and believe me, what little research I have done into this is unhelpful and not substantiated, but I'm confused about the concept of the Bank that lends countries Money.

How the hell does that work?

From my very small amounts of reading, the majority, if not all, of countries have a national debt - i.e. money that they owe to someone.

My question is, to who?

Is it the World Bank, which according to what I have read, gives out loans to developing countries?

If so, where does that money come from?

Bottom line, if the World Bank (or whichever company / country / conglomerate) demanded it's money back from all the countries, who would pay it and where would it go?

I don't know why I've been thinking about this, I just have....

"So how is the rest of your life?" I hear you ask...

It's fine thanks. RSF is still being written. Slowly, but being written.

Other than that, not much going on.

Catch ya soon

Thursday 11 October 2007

Long Day at Work...

So I missed blogging yesterday. To be fair, I have a great excuse. I got wrapped up in playing Super Paper Mario on my Wii :)

And it brought up the thing I always think of with games... how hard do you want it to be?

I mean that seriously, you don't want a game to be too easy, cos you feel ripped off, but you don't want it to be so hard you get stuck, frustrated, and never try and finish it. So what is the ideal game difficulty?

I don't know, does anyone?

Anyway, moving on to... well nothing really. My brain is fairly well dead since I've been at work since 8am and I got home at 9pm. Stupid Year 7 Parents Curriculum evening!

*Tries to think of something interesting to write*

.... do be doo bee dooo.....

Here's a list of my random favourite things at the moment:

Super Paper Mario - Woohoo! It's Mario! And he's really thin!
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - Seriously, watch this. Its great. I've watched the whole series at least 4 times.
Dilbert - He's funny
MSN - For talking to my peeps.... and being a black woman :P (Kai will understand)
Reel Big Fish "Monkeys for nothing and the Chimps for Free" album - It's greeeeat!! (Although it isn't frosties!)
Toasties - Bread, Cheese, Ham, Onion, what else do you need? :)

Hows that! :P

Blog tomorrow may be more interesting, if something interesting happens. If Not, I may not Blog. We shall see :)

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Shakily we enter Day 2 of blogging...

Haha! To all of those who thought I wouldn't write another blog, I am here and you are wrong!!

I understand that I am greatly overestimating my readership by using the word all.... but still, I am determined to keep writing and not "start out promisingly and then tail off" as it has been suggested that I will do.

So what's new with me today?

Not much really, been working hard at work all day, just got in, determined to do some RSF tonight, try and break the back of a couple of new scenes in order to get it moving towards my deadline. Also need to do laundry, cook dinner and generally tidy up a bit.

Woo!! Gonna see Kirsty, Naomi, Georgia et all at the weekend!!

Big Hi to anyone who is visiting having linked from my Facebook .. and an even bigger hi to any strangers reading! (Which will be a grand total of zero I would imagine!)

Oh, there's a cut on my hand.

Do you ever find that you have cut yourself without noticing? I seem to do it all the time. I know I'm a technician and therefore am liable to cut myself a lot, but it always seems wierd that by the time I have noticed I've bled and then the blood has dried. Maybe I just don't like looking at my hand much.

Anyway... what are my thoughts for today?

I need to write a scene for M and D

Kirsty, bizarre is not spelt Bezarr (but I luv ya anyway)

I really need to get my undercut done.

Monday 8 October 2007

Entering the world of Blogging

I don't know if I will actually be able to keep up with writing stuff every day, but as another way of wasting time online, Blogging seems kind of fun to me :)

I have kept an online diary before, but usually tracking the process of a particular event or project (such as the wonderful diary at www.norwichandsaggers.com) but I thought I'd give this a whirl :)

So - to anyone who is still reading by this point, Hello!!

Does anyone else ever find that you can have a really good idea for something, and yet you find new and interesting ways to put off purusing that idea?

At the moment I have started writing a screenplay, currently being referred to as "RSF". Why RSF? I hear you ask (well, maybe I hear you ask that, or maybe I'm just hearing the voices in my head. No, not now. No I do not want a cookie. Ooooh... actually... no! Must focus!), well I'm not going to get into the whys and wherefores of it now, because if I tell you everything in this blog, why would you come back?

So yeah, I'm in the process of writing RSF which is going... OK. For those of you who are aware, I have already written and directed one film, the wonderful Norwich and Saggers: Smarter Than The Average Bear, and this is a lot harder to write than that was, mostly because it has real, three-dimensional characters rather than the two-dimensional stereotypes that populated the majority of my last script.

(By the way, I am not criticising the fact that I had stereotypes - it was intentional)

The trouble I am finding, is that with RSF being less surreal and having dramatic elements in it, it's much harder to tell if a script is working. With Norwich and Saggers, I could aim to have a joke every few lines, and once I had that proportion of jokes in, I would feel confident with the page. With this, it's like expanding in a whole new and serious direction, and I'm completely unsure as to how it's going to work. But never mind :)

Seriously though, back to my point about putting things off, (which I managed to put off in the previous paragraph... I am (one of) the worlds best procrastinators!) I have the plot in my head and on the computer, and I have 23 pages of actual screenplay written, but I still find it excessively hard to focus on writing when I come home from work, preferring instead to fartarse around on the internet, watching videos, reading and generally doddling about than write. And the wierd thing is, when I get into it, I LIKE writing! The feeling when you get the dialogue just right is amazing.

So I now have a new deadline.

November 4th, one day before my 27th Birthday, I intend to have finished the rough draft of RSF. For those who don't know what I mean by a rough draft, it's the copy I will take to the pub with a pen, and sit there crossing out large sections of, moaning "This is Crap, this is crap, oh dear God I can't write." ... Hey, at least I have a plan!

Now, judging by the Brawny method of interaction with internet based media, this blog will either be updated daily, or not for weeks.

Anyone wanna make a guess?

Oh, and as a P.S., go and read Rai's blog, cos he's the reason I'm blogging here: http://guessthepassword.blogspot.com

And as a P.P.S., go visit my youtube stuff :) including the complete film of Norwich and Saggers
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Brawny2004&p=r

(The film is also avaliable on 2 Disc Special Edition DVD for the bargain price of £6 (+P&P)! Tell your friends! Tell your colleagues! Tell people you don't really care for but who have £6 lying around!!! Go to www.norwichandsaggers.com for more information!)