mike sucks at writing

according to the agenda i wrote myself this morning, i’m supposed to be editing a post that i wrote over the weekend right now, but i’m not really feeling it. Instead, i’ve decided to write this little ditty and then get on with my other work.

i hope you all realize that this is not really the last word on this subject, but hopefully the last for a while. i learned way too much and i am still working on the project, but the event itself is over.

The sad fact of the thing is this: i did not finish. i may have said it before but i’m sure everyone got the impression. However, here are some of the things i’ve gained.

i’m 13 pages into a screenplay that i really enjoy (here in about 45 minutes i should be farther.)

i’ve learned a lot more about how i work and the process for that (see previous post.)

i’ve gotten much more used to posting to this blog, for better or worse.

and hopefully, i’ve gained the confidence to get a little farther next time.

thanks for reading. i should have something new to talk about later this week.

It feels more than a little ridiculous to be talking about my “process” of writing since i’m not anyone famous or special, and i’m not doing anything particularly novel. But, it’s a big deal to me.

For a long time now, i’ve been looking for ways to make this Writing thing a habit. Habit in the sense of compulsion. i can’t tell you how many ways i’ve tried to create this habit. i’ve always felt like the habit should include some kind of warmup, but i’ve tried so many different types of warmups and what not that i’ve very literally lost track. Some of them had to do with writing down lyrics to certain songs every time i sit down to write. Others involved special playlists of certain music. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
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Here it is folks, the answer to everything:

Step 1. Turn on Music
Step 2. Get to work

Have a productive day!

sub-titled: “goddamnit, i have got to figure out how to put these things behind a cut” UPDATE: FOUND IT!

i’ve always felt like a pop-cultural vampire. i feel like i only ever catch on to something when someone else tells me about it. Maybe everyone is like this, but that “ability” to discover something new has never really been something that i’ve been good at. As such, my taste in music has always been influenced by those around me. Fortunately, i’ve come into contact with some amazing people over the course of my life, and their influence has infused my life with music in ways that have saved my life more than once.

to say that i had terrible taste in music when i was younger would be a serious understatement. I’m sure that there is still evidence of this somewhere, but i’m just going to say two words to you and leave it at that: “The Jets.” Wait, here are a couple more words: “The Jets Christmas Album.”
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here’s the picture i promised:

and here’s a bonus kittie!

Update: Here is my Script Frenzy update/confession: i have 7 pages written right now. Now, today is April 8th: the standard math for 100 pages in 30 days is 3 and one third pages per day. With that in mind, i should be on page 26 or 27 by the end of the day. This is not going to happen.

All of this being said, normally i would be a giant ball of stress and anger right now, and i would be all but quit, saving the actual act of quitting for tomorrow or maybe monday after an unsuccessful weekend. but that’s not me right now.

i’m not saying that i won’t quit or give up or give in at some point; maybe even sometime soon. But today, that’s not me.

there is a part of me that knows that if i spend a couple of days writing 6 pages instead of the mathematical 3, i could be caught up in four or five days. there is another part of me that just knows it’s not a big deal, either way. it doesn’t make me less of a man; it doesn’t make me less of a person; and it doesn’t even make me less of a writer. and right now, what i do on monday is not really important. what’s important is that i’m here now, sitting in front of the computer. This post is my 15 minute warm up, and then i will write my screenplay. i’m going to try to write 6 pages, but more or less than that is fine also. The important thing right now is that i’m here, i’m writing, and i’m not quitting.

i watched the Penny Arcade TV episode last friday, as i try to do every friday, and they said something that stuck with me. Why this one thing stuck with me when there are thousands of other inspirational quotes and quips from thousands of other respectable people, who knows. But, this one did: “…too stupid to quit.”

i’ve come to the conclusion that the only thing i’ve really been practicing over these years of practicing writing is how to quit. and i’m tired of it. i’ve decided that i want to be “too stupid to quit” too. i even wrote it on a card. Maybe i’ll take a picture later. right now, it’s time for me to write, and write i shall. with my card and my stupid right here with me.

Update to the Update: it is now bedtime and i’m up to 13 and a half pages and going strong. Feeling really good about this, and while i hope it lasts, the way i feel right now is enough to make me want to keep going all on it’s own.

finished my second character outline today. that’s two out of a total of five major characters. i also ordered myself a copy of Save the Cat from amazon, so that should be hitting my door on Saturday. i’m generally very skeptical of screenwriting books, but this one promises to outline the enigmatic “story beat” for me, which is a widely used and talked-about screenwriting technique, but not one that any of my instructors ever used.

i’m surprisingly calm about the whole thing at the moment. i’m not sure if it’s because i’ve truly hit bottom on this concept, in the Fight Club sense, or if it’s because i’m actually confident that i can get this thing done. my money’s on the later.

lastly, i’m a little concerned that i don’t really have a clear antagonist as yet. it would be easy enough to conjure one out of thin air, which might be what i do, but i’m not sure if that’s really the best way to go about it. More on this as it develops.

mostly testing out this twitter posting thing. But, since i’m here, might as well offer an update from the front.

spent about three and a half hours today sitting in a game store on the other side of the city waiting for my son to finish a Yugi Oh tournament. while i was there, i managed to get some info updated in my Things inbox on my phone, as well as get another character sheet started for Venus. This was between listening to the guy who worked at the shop (who turned out to be very nice) and watching some Stargate SG-1.

it’s picture day here at Mike Sucks!

it’s been an up and down week here in the studios. i was having some trouble early in the week, had a bit of a breakthrough and ended up getting a fair amount of writing done, and then had something of a break down yesterday. But, during that productive time i had the idea to post some pictures of what i’m working on right now.

i’m planning on participating in Script Frenzy this year. For those who may not know, Script Frenzy is a month-long script writing “competition”, not at all unlike National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo if you’re nasty.) It begins April 1 and lasts through the end of the month.

Now, Script Frenzy and i have some history. I’ve been trying to motivate myself to participate in this shindig for the past two years and never actually made it out of the gates. One thing that i had gained from those previous outings, however, was one of my favorite story ideas, something i call Venus. Without giving away the farm, it’s a blending of a heist movie and sci-fi. i took hold of the original idea because i figured that if i was going to write an entire script in 30 days, it was going to have to be something that i could pull off with minimal fits and starts. i’m a heist movie enthusiast, as well as a sci-fi fanatic, so these things seemed a natural to combine.

THIS YEAR, however… this year i’m ready. i’ve already made plans to join some other local writers right at the beginning of the month of April, and more important, the part that i’m the most proud of, is that i’ve actually done some prep work. I have a rough outline, i have a character break-down for my protagonist, and i am working with my good buddy and blog partner Q on a design for the spaceship where my characters live.

So these are the pictures i want to show you: pictures of my prep work. i still do a lot of writing with ink and paper, and i think it’s pretty damn funny how these pages end up looking when i’m done with them. so here we go.

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Writing is not hard.

Putting words on pages, one after another, is not hard.

They’re just words; words made of letters. the same 26 letters over and over again.

Letters make words; hundreds of thousands of words.

Words make sentences; millions or more possible sentences: subject-verb, subject-verb-object, etc.

Sentences make paragraphs; billions of paragraphs, maybe an infinite number.

Paragraphs make stories; stories about morning coffee, a favorite unicorn, the 1997 World Series, birth, unemployment, a diamond heist, space colonization.

A million stories per person, per day.

Writing is not hard.