Writer at Large

The script remains steadily on course. The muse has been generally cooperative, granting just enough to keep pace with my daily word count.

The scenes are being written mostly in sequential order. Earlier in the week, as so often happens as I’m working on a story, the final scenes came to me. This is probably not a bad thing, as it keeps me somewhat directed toward a specific dramatic goal rather than wandering all over trying to find an appropriate and satisfying ending.

Slightly more than a week to go . . .

Steady as she goes . . .

I’m two pages behind of the halfway 50-page mark, but I’m not overly concerned about it because I know what the the next 2-4 pages are.

The script is progressing steadily. I’m actually surprised that the story concept looks like it will sustain itself for the entire 100 pages. I guess it really will be a “Special 2-Hour Episode” after all.

This project has been an interesting in that it has felt much more like a well-paced marathon than the usual series of sprints that I usually experience. The story is growing steadily, characters enter and leave as needed, and it is progressing toward its end.

I’m reaching the end, though, of the mental list of scenes I had developed going into this project. Next week could be rough. We’ll see . . .

So, I went for the idea that could potentially turn into something salable.  The concept is not as fully developed as the other idea, but when has such a challenge ever stopped me? ;-)

I’m not feeling the love from my muse.  We’re on speaking terms, but she doesn’t seem particularly engaged this year.

My word count progress is acceptable, but not at last year’s levels.  Nor am I feeling the thrill of creation to its usual degree.  I don’t think it’s a symptom of boredom, but more likely the results of turmoil in real life events.  Unfortunately, I’ve yet to figure out how to apply them (even in a metaphorical way) to this story.

That’s all for now. Back at it . . .

Yes . . .

It’s that time a year again and I begin to wonder, as I probably should have before, whether Script Frenzy isn’t some kind of cruel and sadistic practical joke pulled on compulsive writers for the month of April. Not that I’m into conspiracy theory, mind you, but it’s something to think about . . .

Anyway . . .

I’m at a bit of a loss this year. I have two possible ideas, but neither of them feels sustainable for 100 pages: one is a television script for a series of (possibly saleable) stories that I’ve been working on for a few years; the other essentially qualifies as fan fiction, as there is almost no chance that it will be saleable. The second one feels like more fun, and I have a better idea where I want to the story go. For the first, I have the basic concept of the story, but very little else.

So . . .

I have only a few hours to decide (or hope that the muse provides me with an entirely full-blown concept and story, a la Athena borne from Zeus). I’m tempted to tackle both and see which one works out the best in the end.

Stay tuned . . .

To be honest, I am completely out of patience with people who complain when they must pay for something that they believe, for whatever reason, that ought to receive for free. The contexts of this are many, but it has surfaced again and I figured it was finally time to say something about it.

If content creators—whoever they are, whether they provide blogs, videos, books, music, video games, or programming code—wish to provide access to their creations for free, that is entirely up to them. There are some interesting and reasonable arguments for doing this, but it is quite another for consumers of this content to expect and demand it. Do they expect to provide whatever services they perform for a living at no cost?

Boys and girls, it would be great if all games and content were free, but this is not yet the twenty-fourth century. People have mortgages or rent to pay and groceries to buy. The companies that provide the games you play have employees to pay and servers to keep running. None of these are free services.

Artists of any type are no different. Certainly, I can offer my fiction on the web at no significant cost. Any praise you might reap upon me, while much appreciated, does not keep my electricity on. Expecting all artists and organizations to provide you content for free simply because some do (and did you note how much of that "free" content is supported by bundles and bundles of often-intrusive advertising?

I really, really want someone to explain to me why I should provide them with access to my creations for free. I won't lead the witness here, although I have many more questions I'd like the ask. I just would like to understand.

I find myself at one of those crossroads again.

This is not one of the great age-related milestones. Nor is it even all that large in scale in terms of Big Life Decisions. But it does reflect what I’ve discovered has been a recurring theme in my life.

Pretty much everyone is familiar with these lines from Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

It’s so often easier, particularly in these confused and perilous economic times, to make the “safe” choice. You know the one: the one that ensures that the mortgage keeps getting paid. (I do wonder these days—a lot—just how “safe” that choice really is.)

Yes, it can be argued that it’s possible to do both, pay the bills and feed the muse. But there is the reality that there are only so many waking hours in the day, hours that get eaten up by working, commuting, choring, and so on.

What brings this all on you might ask?

I just finished completing an online course in Flash animation. It’s something I also wanted to learn, but never took the time because it really wasn’t all that pertinent to my job and there were always other things to be done. (If you’re at all curious, here is one of my class projects. It was the one I had the most fun with!)

Having done that, I am seriously considering enrolling in the Advanced course. Then, that annoying little voice spoke up and reminded me that I really should complete my PMI enrollment and take the PMP exam so I can be a certified Project Management Professional. <cue appropriate impressive-sounding bass tones here> (Yes, that is probably every bit as boring as it sounds, but could be potentially useful in any future job search.) I could so both, but that’s a whole lot of work on top of a full-time job.

The point of this was not to whine or otherwise bemoan taking on a potentially heavy workload. I know that there are plenty of others who have done—and are doing—far more just to survive. It was just that even giving voice to that possible decision re-raised the long-standing issue for me.

Which will I choose? I don’t know yet. Maybe one. Maybe both. Maybe neither.

Total words: 53,306 (official NaNoWriMo count)
Average words per day: 1,777

It looked like it was going to end with a word count of 50,566, but then the muse would not shut up yesterday (3,194 words).

Yes, I “won”. The story itself is far from finished. At the 53,000-word mark, I think it’s probably about one-third completed.

This year was a bit less difficult than 2006, but seemed nowhere near the flowing ease of the 2007. (It’s interesting how memory fades. I went back and re-read those reports from 2007 and saw that I was struggling there too, but persistence won out.)

My next task is to put the scenes in the proper order so that later drafts will make a bit more sense. I also want to write up more complete notes on each of the main characters—particularly those who did not exist when I first started the story.

It’s been an interesting writing adventure this year.