Still writin', some Harry Potter footage, and a guitar game with a real guitar.
I've just spent the entire day putting together some scripts for a client (and yes, I'll say somethin' when I can), and I've got a few proto-novels that are in various states of completion, mostly from ideas I pitched to the comic publisher formerly known as Wildstorm. While working on these, I've run across some very different ways to go about constructing a plot. The 'hard' part I've found is what I'd call the scaffolding: Figuring out who your characters are and what they're like. I hesitate to say 'their motivations,' as that's going to depend on the story you construct. I've often called comic book writing a lot like playing a game of Tetris: If you leave yourself enough gaps here and there that can be filled in later, it seems to the reader that you had it planned out all along. For example, if you take a gruff and burly character who insults everyone all the time and later decide the reason he's like that is because he never got to date his childhood sweetheart, so long as nothing up to that point contradicts that premise, you're golden and can be seen as a genius.
Comic books, or at least their model for writing, can help by setting limits: You only get 22 pages per 'chapter,' and in the case of projects like my current one, there's a hard limit on how many 'chapters' I have to finish this story. Using this for novel writing seems like a good idea, too, as while we could all probably create a "Wheel of Time" series full of detail and descriptions of clothing, sometimes brevity makes everyone happier. Writing in 'books' made up of smaller chunks also lets you bring most of the stuff to a close in case it doesn't sell well or you want to do other things after you're done.
Back to characters for a moment. If you decide to just write on-the-fly (I hear Isaac Asimov was really good at this, but apparently he was quite unique in this respect), it might help if you knew your characters well rather than inventing them as you went along, too. I say this because some of my best work, I think, comes from having a sense of how someone will respond in a given situation. This is what, I think, most writers mean when they say they 'talk' to their characters. I know some people take this literally, and books/movies where the cast of a novelist come to life and start causing mayhem don't help dispel the myth much. Without this, I find, actions either seem random or forced. It's how I know that when faced with danger, Nodwick will try to flee or reason with it, Piffany will scold it, and Artax & Yeagar will stop Nodwick from doing anything and toss him at it. :) Lately, I find it helpful to write up a kind of role-playing game 'stat sheet' for characters, settings, and objects, minus the stats. Actual story construction almost becomes like writing fanfic about a video game, which is kind of a scary thought.
And I do apologize if the last few entries have seemed more about these oddball things I can only quasi-talk about; I promise to at least balance them out with plenty of geekery that's a tad more interesting, like...
Ever get the feeling that you've seen 'that one guy' in a movie over and over? Meet Jesse Heiman, one of those faces that you swear you've seen before, but you can't quite place where. A quick sampling of his work can be seen here. He's yet another addition to that list of people who start to pop up everywhere at times, like Al Leong, Erik Avari, and Keith David (though mostly I run across his voice, like in 'Mass Effect' and animated cartoons). That dream film that stars all of my favorite B through Z list actors has a cast list that just keeps getting longer and longer...
I wondered how long it would be before we got a "Guitar Hero" style game that allowed you to learn how to play a real guitar. Ubisoft's Rocksmith might be that game, though comments on a YouTube promo for the game are less than enthusiastic, claiming the strumming isn't "real playing." Is there anyone out there that can tell if this is legit, or are they just replacing buttons with strings? If it's real, I can perhaps someday justify buying it, since I'd actually be cultivating a skill that had applications away from an XBox controller... or so I'd tell myself.
For those who don't mind some quasi-spoiler footage, there's a new promo montage with some commentary from the actors and others involved with the final film. Since most of you have probably read the books, the only surprises are how the film interprets/edits the tale, pretty much, though there is one unanswered question: Will the remaking of the Harry Potter film series start before or after the 'Ultimate Hogwarts Headmaster Double-Dumbledore Harry Potter Pack' collection on Blu-Ray? :)
Stop the presses: I just found out that Sir Terry Pratchett's 'Night Watch' is being adapted as a TV series! Thus the master stroke of British television dominating the world is complete, I think. Well, until we get a "Good Omens" miniseries as well, but that's really empire-building after all comers have been defeated, really. :)
Three guesses on what I'm going back to doing after updating the ol' blog, and the first two don't count. I'm almost ready to abandon regular word processing and give one of the many script writing software packages out there a try. I hear tell you can not only have them perform tasks to automatically format your script into what passes as 'standard' for that kind of thing, you can also have them review specific character dialog, make changes to attributed lines across the document, and other whizbangery. Next thing you know they'll help you tack on a romantic sub-plot and suggest references to other stories as inside jokes (if anyone out there is actually working on this idea, please stop). I'll pound the keyboard, and the rest of you can attend to your required reading of the day:
- An old panel from a DC Comics educational text has now become canonical Lex Luthor history, which means the cakes aren't lies, but they are part of something terrible.
- A pair of Irish videos for St. Patrick's Day: First, the history of St. Patrick, from an animated series of explanatory talks from school children. The second (and one I identify with every convention season), a 'traditional' song about cheap airfare.
- Here's one more entry into the 'engine of the future' race: Wave Disk engines. There's lots of 'could' and 'might' in this article, but I figured it was worth a look.
- Michael Gough, better known as Alfred Pennyworth from the Burton-era 'Batman' movies, has passed away.
- SyFy has renewed the American version of 'Being Human.'
- From renewed to 'failed pilot,' here's the intro for 'Steel Collar Man', a failed show from the 80's about a robot who jogs a lot. It took me a few minutes to realize the title was a play on the term 'Blue Collar Man.'
- This game, DuBlox, is probably educational, so consider yourself more learned if you can figure out how to move your yellow 'DuBlox' onto the red squares at the end of each level.
- ShackNews has Valve's new 'Portal 2' TV commercial, though it's not as dark as previous ads. I guess ending a broadcast TV commercial with "or I'll make you wish you could die" isn't something general audiences are ready for. :)
- There's another zombie film coming out (meh) from Britain (ah?) called Cockneys vs. Zombies. I wonder if Dick Van Dyke's accent from 'Mary Poppins' will rise from the grave to plague the heroes?
- And if you ever find yourself in a zombie film, here's a handy infographic about what's used most often to quell movie zombies.
- 'Firefly' leaf-on-the-wind Alan Tudyk has been cast as Stephen Douglas in 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.'
- BleedingCool has a page of sketches and photos from Aardman Animation's upcoming feature, Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists. I love model-making stuff, and it's neat to see that you can be a success in life without giving up doodling in spiral-bound notebooks. :)
- In fizzy-drink news, Pepsi will make plastic bottles completely out of plant material soon, and Diet Coke pushed Pepsi cola out of the #2 soft drink spot with Coke still at #1. And by the way, I do drink more fizzy stuff than is probably good for me, but I've noticed something: Diet Pepsi in cans goes flat almost instantly (within about 10-20 minutes), while Diet Pepsi/Pepsi Max in plastic bottles retains its carbonation for over 24 hours. Why?
- Cover Orange: Player's Pack 2 has you yet again puzzling out how to protect your citrus from the evil rain cloud.
- One last game: Prior. Guide a box through a dark world to gain new abilities as well as unravel the bleak purpose of the complex you're exploring.