I've been making steps into writing more over the past few days, I felt terrible at some points but carried on. Got flooded with different ideas, that could easily become similar. I will have to grow them slowly and focus on the scale that the works will be told. I have a habit when I make notes to make loads of them which start with 'perhaps', these are followed by more 'perhaps' until I have an epic on a grand scale. This means I'll have to remind myself that I'm English, and scale it down a bit.
Earlier today I started reading a blog called Project Waldo, I came across it because a beautiful looking comic called 'Nonplayer' out next month is being released (by Image, I think). The cool thing is that the auteur of the comic decided to blog his process of creating the book, I never buy singles comics but this will have to be the exception to the rule. The blog opens with the first two blogs about self doubt, more or less. That made me feel better about my worries, they seem to be equally shared between creative minds (Yeah, this sounds egotistical) and although he is successful in the sense that he has sold the project and I am just sitting in my room, no work produced. Ever. I think I can do this, I find it hard to be honest, but I truly believe I can achieve my goal.
So, I've been doing some writing by grabbing all my notebooks that I've used since first year and going through them for sketches and stand-up material. There were a few nuggets of gold, but my god, do not let me do stand-up comedy. Seriously, it isn't even funny bad. I've now got a notebook specifically for sketches and some stand-up that I guess my characters can do, terribly, especially for my sitcom that I am itching to write, but only after I have concluded work on the drama pilot. I know I can write funny, just can't say it, I'd love to be able to do what comedians like Bill Hicks, Eddie Izzard, Ross Noble, Stewart Lee and Jack Dee can do, but I guess I am a pseudo-intellectual, well I considered myself kind of smart (my friends would piss themselves at the idea that I am even that), I'm just not smart enough. Just the case of know your limits. I am considering writing all the sketches and filming them at Uni and uploading them on youtube or sending them off to a sketch show. The problem is, there are not many sketch shows that are good anymore, this area is in a coma, plus my ideas are alienating, they do have messages. Catchphrases can fuck off.
I've moved forward on my drama pilot script that is for Uni. I'm happy to be writing something again, it is so much fun for me, but I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't. I've so far jotted down eight pages, making it twenty five pages. One problem that frequently occurs when I am writing a first draft is that the page count is not enough. I mean I am on page twenty five and a couple more scenes and I have finished the first draft. I am never sure if this is how other people write scripts or I have found a way to do this the hard way. Treatments really don't have any place in my writing, if I have to write prose-y descriptions, I get bored. These people should be yelling and making snide remarks, actors can figure out the rest of it. I realise that this is not the best approach as treatments are the preferred approach to pitching a script, I'll work on it. A common occurrence in my scripts is character with bit parts get more of a personality than I'd expect and they're only there for a minute, that is a minute for the entire character. That and characters that have been planned out change completely, one of my characters has a difficult relationship with the protagonist because of their history working together, but when you end up with references of Alice the Goon and The Wire, you know they don't have the stink-eye for one another, they are still good friends who just drifted apart. I can emphasise with this aspect, my subconscious knew better than I did and I like it. That is the magic of scriptwriting for me, sometimes it just writes itself.
I've returned to the second draft of my screenplay which is my dissertation for Uni, I've got two months to write it and as soon as I typed the start of this paragraph, fear just seeped in, man. I can do it; I just did three pages, which works, maybe not as an opening but it will stay there until I've finished the first draft of the second draft. I threw on the original opening of the movie straight after it, it is rewritten but fundamentally nothing has changed. The dialogue is better, not great. I am just grasping the characters. The original draft could never be made, you have no idea how bad it is. What surprises me was how much of a smug little bastard I was when I finished it, when in actual fact I took short cuts and didn't plot or structure it (yeah, structure isn't my strong point either). I have consolidated it into one manageable three pages of plot points to refer to. Which is refreshing. I expect the new draft to come in at one hundred pages, then I'll edit and go scene by scene working over it and making it tick, do a read through with my mates and then start a third draft. At the end of this paragraph, I am excited. This is like some kind of story arc.
Outside of writing, I've started fine tuning my life. Cutting down on telly, I've been watching some really bad shows. Using the Uni library as a blockbusters, quit running after seven or eight years (a recurring injury from last summer, I thought enough is enough. My body needs time to recover.) I am planning on returning to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after many months off, because I suck and being able to only go to one class a week made me feel bad, people who had the ability to get to the other classes (which are in another city) were beating the shit out of me and I kept having to start all over again and that is too much like when I studied Kung Fu for four years in my teens. Thankfully there is a gym about thirty minutes walk from my house that has one or two classes a day for five quid more than the four classes I could have done per month at the other clubs. As a result of this, I'm going to have to start figuring out how much I spend a month and cut down on luxuries if I don't get a job straight after Uni, because I am staying here until my tenancy ends, which is last day of Junes midday (it sounds like checking out of a hotel).
I'm trying to think what I want to do after Uni, get a job at somewhere like at a pub, but I'll take anything. Learn how to play an instrument (watching Treme wants be to pick up the Trombone). Continue doing BJJ, but it will be much more expensive back home. I want to see if there is a theatre 'scene' as well (I have no idea, if there is), if not, I'll try to start something up. I'll make the mountain come to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment