As my friend Sarah recently noted, I am immensely negligent in keeping up with my blog.
That's because (along with a myriad of other reasons) I am writing a lot creatively.
Tonight, I started something that I've been putting off. My re-write of a re-write of a re-write for a TV show idea I've been toying with, I guess you can say, since I was 10 years old.
When I was ten, I didn't know it was a TV show. I thought it was a story. I wrote a few pages of something vastly different from what it has become now. I've written it at least 6 times since then, each time turning out, ok, but not what I wanted.
I had my epiphany my freshman year of college: it wasn't a story. That was the reason it had failed every time I'd tried to write it. It was a TV mini-series.
I've written the first pages of the pilot about 2-3 times now.
I don't want to commit because it's an idea I've nurtured all these years, and I love it more than human mothers love their children (I'd wager). I don't want to ruin my baby so that it grows to be a pot smoking, vapid, popular crowd, fluff script.
The book Essentials of Screenwriting by Richard Walter has helped me tentatively retry writing, now knowing more about script format that I previously have.
A frustrating aspect of writing it is that, in previous drafts, I have lines that I really like but cannot remember. When my stupid laptop died, I lost those drafts, which my kick-culo padre got back for me but are back home.
But now I've written something new, still sticking more or less to the same sequence of events. And I must decide if I like it more.
I'll probably just do what I've done in the past: put it away for three more months.
In other, non-writing related news
DOCTOR WHO CONVENTION THIS WEEKEND!!!
Yes. I am immensely excited. Like...WAY WAY EXCITED that the event I have been waiting for since last semester is almost here.
It seems almost crazy.
Just a year ago I was falling in love with the show, and now I'm about to see the writer, and stars!
And let's not forget (as if I could) the TARDIS set tour!!
I laugh and say, yes, I'm a nerd, when I tell people about how excited I am about it.
But is it even something to be embarrassed about? Think about it, Doctor Who was once somebody's baby. It got put out there nearly 50 years ago, and Literally generations have loved it.
Television (much like novels) provide an escape. They give us stories and characters to love and learn from in a fun, engaging way.
People might mistake shows like Doctor Who or Buffy the Vampire Slayer as silly shows about aliens, time travel, monsters and vampires, but these shows are successful because they're really not about those things. They give us messages about hope and strength and fighting for what's right and giving our enemies chances to be good. And yeah, sometimes they're just about badass, smart, witty dialogue penned at the hands of writing God's like Steven Moffat and Joss Whedon.
Inspirational pep talk aside, I'm saying, this show has something (the Doctor) that may be hard to define (the Doctor) that makes you care about it. So getting to go see the workings of not just a show, but the people and the industry that I'm so fascinated by (and hope to someday work in), is pretty damn awesome. And I am a nerd. And SUPER excited for my Doctor Who Convention weekend.
And all you nerd haters can suck it. =)
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sometimes Inspiration
A few years ago I read a book about writing. In fact, quite enough years have passed (and it was at a time where I was practically inhaling different books on methods of writing) that I have no memory of the name or author of the book, but something I recalled today from that book, was something the author said about how sometimes, seemingly out of nowhere, an idea strikes a writer. He (or she?) called it inspiration, something that just happens to writers (the author then followed up by saying that this is not necessarily a common occurrence in writers and therefore, the best way to produce a flux of ideas was to make a pattern for yourself: writing at the same time daily so your brain knows: now is the time to come up with ideas).
Inspiration does not happen to me often. And even though I semi-regularly sit down to write each night, I often sit there, writing because I know I must, but grimacing at the page, thinking 'Idiot, that line sounded so stupid, you're going to have to go back later and completely revise that entire section.' (Another thing that book--or possibly a different book I read that summer--told me was that you must silence your inner critic to just get everything down on the page, I have as of yet, to learn to silence the critic in my head).
Now, when faced with less than two weeks to write 3 essays (2 of 1,700 words and 1 of 3,000 words) the pressure is on to write, but (in my opinion) the most stressful/difficult form of writing: essay writing.
'But you're an English major!' all my friends protest whenever I groan about it, 'All you people DO is write essays!'
True, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it.
I have a method for essay writing. It comes in stages.
Stage 1: Procrastinate. Television, Doritos, rereading books you know you love,
youtube.com, iwastesomuchtime.com, collegehumor.com. Put off the writing
as long as possible.
Stage 2: Open the word document, adjust the settings to 12 size font (which for some
reason never stays that way. Write name in top right corner. Write a title
if you can come up with one or if professor has provided one. Add page
# to bottom of screen.
Stage 3: Stare blankly at screen. 15-18 min (Itunes playing optional)
Stage 4: More youtube! You deserve a break! 5 min
Stage 5: Begin writing, not your essay, but an angry letter to your professor/TA
about all the reasons you cannot
write this essay and how stressed out you are and all the reasons you are
currently stressed (profanity and emotion encouraged).
Stage 6: As you are writing your angry letter, use specific details about the book
you're supposed to write the essay on about how stupid it is. This will
somehow (about 1/2 to 3/4 of the page down) begin to turn into an idea (ex:
and I don't know how the HELL to write about the oppression of women
expressed through Jane Eyre! The
entrapment of Mrs. Rochester in the attic perfectly exemplifies a physical
entrapment of the female in the nineteenth century, while Jane portrays the
emotional and psychological aspect) This can also lead to a thesis
statement.
Stage 7: Delete the angry letter portion and continue writing off of your idea.
Open your essay like your ENGL 200 professor taught you: with a specific
line showing that you did close reading. Then use an overabundance of
textual support to make it look like you know what the hell you're talking
about.
Stage 8: Finish and proof read. Despair over how horrible it is and the terrible
grade you will receive.
Stage 9: Get A- to A+ on the paper.
Yes, it's a long process, but like I said, it normally works out for me.
Except now, I am in England, and my whole system is out of whack.
Things are different here. For the first time, I am in an upper level course (here it's actually considered to be senior year courses!). They have a completely different citation method (called MHRA which is completely stupid and confusing in regards to footnotes vs bibliography vs in text citations) and I actually have absolutely no expectation of getting a good grade. I have worked hard the past 3 semesters to get straight A's, while I'm here, however, I'm here for the experience. If I leave with C's, I'll be satisfied. Because I've already gotten out of this adventure more than I could have hoped for.
Like yesterday, for example.
Yesterday I went with Don't Be a Tourist to Warwick and Stratford Upon Avon.
We spent around 3 hours in Warwick Castle and it was (I think I can safely say) one of the most beautiful place I have yet been to in my life.
To anybody else, it might seem cool, ok, but nothing fantastic. The reason I enjoyed myself so much was that it inspired me. I mean HELLO it was a literal castle that people once lived in! I was walking through living quarters that Duchesses had stayed in and walking up ramparts and towers and there were peacocks in the gardens and I got to see a catapult shoot a flaming boulder across a field! I saw a vulture, an eagle, a knight, wax figures, and went on the ghost tour.
The trip gave me so many ideas for creative writing and I took so many pictures, my tiny memory card couldn't hold them all, and I had to delete some so that there was space left for Shakespeare's grave.
And here's some of Shakespeare
His grave:
His grammar school:
His Bust by his grave (the only true likeness ever recorded of him, approved by his wife)
I may also add now, that this entire blog post was my attempt at procrastination on writing my essays. However, I do already have one page done of one essay and have a pretty strong thesis (I hope?) for another. So...yeah.
Inspiration does not happen to me often. And even though I semi-regularly sit down to write each night, I often sit there, writing because I know I must, but grimacing at the page, thinking 'Idiot, that line sounded so stupid, you're going to have to go back later and completely revise that entire section.' (Another thing that book--or possibly a different book I read that summer--told me was that you must silence your inner critic to just get everything down on the page, I have as of yet, to learn to silence the critic in my head).
Now, when faced with less than two weeks to write 3 essays (2 of 1,700 words and 1 of 3,000 words) the pressure is on to write, but (in my opinion) the most stressful/difficult form of writing: essay writing.
'But you're an English major!' all my friends protest whenever I groan about it, 'All you people DO is write essays!'
True, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it.
I have a method for essay writing. It comes in stages.
Stage 1: Procrastinate. Television, Doritos, rereading books you know you love,
youtube.com, iwastesomuchtime.com, collegehumor.com. Put off the writing
as long as possible.
Stage 2: Open the word document, adjust the settings to 12 size font (which for some
reason never stays that way. Write name in top right corner. Write a title
if you can come up with one or if professor has provided one. Add page
# to bottom of screen.
Stage 3: Stare blankly at screen. 15-18 min (Itunes playing optional)
Stage 4: More youtube! You deserve a break! 5 min
Stage 5: Begin writing, not your essay, but an angry letter to your professor/TA
about all the reasons you cannot
write this essay and how stressed out you are and all the reasons you are
currently stressed (profanity and emotion encouraged).
Stage 6: As you are writing your angry letter, use specific details about the book
you're supposed to write the essay on about how stupid it is. This will
somehow (about 1/2 to 3/4 of the page down) begin to turn into an idea (ex:
and I don't know how the HELL to write about the oppression of women
expressed through Jane Eyre! The
entrapment of Mrs. Rochester in the attic perfectly exemplifies a physical
entrapment of the female in the nineteenth century, while Jane portrays the
emotional and psychological aspect) This can also lead to a thesis
statement.
Stage 7: Delete the angry letter portion and continue writing off of your idea.
Open your essay like your ENGL 200 professor taught you: with a specific
line showing that you did close reading. Then use an overabundance of
textual support to make it look like you know what the hell you're talking
about.
Stage 8: Finish and proof read. Despair over how horrible it is and the terrible
grade you will receive.
Stage 9: Get A- to A+ on the paper.
Yes, it's a long process, but like I said, it normally works out for me.
Except now, I am in England, and my whole system is out of whack.
Things are different here. For the first time, I am in an upper level course (here it's actually considered to be senior year courses!). They have a completely different citation method (called MHRA which is completely stupid and confusing in regards to footnotes vs bibliography vs in text citations) and I actually have absolutely no expectation of getting a good grade. I have worked hard the past 3 semesters to get straight A's, while I'm here, however, I'm here for the experience. If I leave with C's, I'll be satisfied. Because I've already gotten out of this adventure more than I could have hoped for.
Like yesterday, for example.
Yesterday I went with Don't Be a Tourist to Warwick and Stratford Upon Avon.
We spent around 3 hours in Warwick Castle and it was (I think I can safely say) one of the most beautiful place I have yet been to in my life.
To anybody else, it might seem cool, ok, but nothing fantastic. The reason I enjoyed myself so much was that it inspired me. I mean HELLO it was a literal castle that people once lived in! I was walking through living quarters that Duchesses had stayed in and walking up ramparts and towers and there were peacocks in the gardens and I got to see a catapult shoot a flaming boulder across a field! I saw a vulture, an eagle, a knight, wax figures, and went on the ghost tour.
The trip gave me so many ideas for creative writing and I took so many pictures, my tiny memory card couldn't hold them all, and I had to delete some so that there was space left for Shakespeare's grave.
And here's some of Shakespeare
His grave:
His grammar school:
His Bust by his grave (the only true likeness ever recorded of him, approved by his wife)
I may also add now, that this entire blog post was my attempt at procrastination on writing my essays. However, I do already have one page done of one essay and have a pretty strong thesis (I hope?) for another. So...yeah.
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