I
think this one will actually need to go in two parts, because it ended up going
so differently from how I envisioned it. Of course, I have blogged about
writing a lot, so this may just be recapping things I have already said.
On
one level, I was correct. I said that it could take me up to two years to get
caught up on writing, and it looks like it will. That meant catching up on all
the blog topics and revising existing screenplays and writing two new ones. I
knew that I would need to be more detailed in my writing, but maybe I wasn’t
sure what that would mean. Then, when that was done, I could move on to
experimenting with photography and video and making shorts and all of the
things that would lead to me being able to shoot an independent film in 2022.
Well,
I don’t know that I can say that I am caught up in blog posts, as I keep
digging myself in deeper. Many of the posts that I have not gotten to yet are
tasks, and they are mostly tasks that I either have not completed yet, or I am
not ready to talk about yet. One of those tasks is reading the manuals for my
camera and video camera, so there is some correlation.
However,
one of the tasks that I did complete was doing something with The Bear in the
Net. I didn’t do what I thought I would do with it, but I did something, and
hey, it has 26 hits now, and while I don’t know what all of them mean, I at
least know for sure that a 17 year old in Singapore and her 11 year old sister
loved it, meaning that I had a broader age base than I thought, and also some
international reach.
I
have reviewed all of the previously written screenplays, without having edited
them yet, and I have a good start on a new one, though it is going kind of
slowly. Still, I believe there is something good there, and the fact that it is
more complicated to write, getting all of the emotions right, well, it’s good
to stretch some. Not everything can flow like the comic book did.
Of
course, the comic book is where things went remarkably off-track, but it has
also been the gift that keeps on giving. First of all, it got me into good
writing habits, because there was so much to write and to cover.
Because
I knew it would never be filmed, and I believed it would never be drawn, I
worked harder to make it interesting to read, where there were descriptions and
where moods were established, because there isn’t ever going to be an actor
interpreting the words, or a director instructing on the emphasis. Because of
that, I believe I can write better scripts now.
Realizing
that it was not enough for me to write, but that I needed to share it somehow,
added another layer. It got me investigating different ways of sharing it, and
learning more about technology, and now I am working with sequential
storytelling in a new way, because it was just too long. So that led into
dividing it into chapters, and deciding where good breaks were, and frankly,
more rewriting, which has made it a little bit longer. And again, this is
something where I now have some readers. Well, I think I do. I have no reviews
or anything, but the different installments views ranging from 45 to 103.
Regardless
of the other things I am working on, every week involves revising the upcoming
chapter, and posting it, and then linking to it on Twitter, Facebook, and
Tumblr. I’m not sure that’s where I’m getting any of the hits, but it’s
important to me to get brave about sharing my writing. People may judge it and
judge me, and more often they may be completely uninterested, so posting those
three links as if I am sharing something of value feels silly and
uncomfortable, and yet I feel like it is training for when I am going to need
to be aggressively promoting.
(Also,
I have learned a lot about fan fiction, and how people use it, and there are
some fascinating things to it, but I feel like writing about that and decoding
it would be hurtful to the kids who need it. Maybe I will someday get to talk
to someone who is freaked out by it, and explain why freaking out is not
necessary.)
Also,
and I haven’t even gotten into the drawing yet, but as I start visualizing the
frames in my mind, I believe it will give me a better sense of the camera for
when that time comes. For a drawing update, it’s like I have too much going on
now to work on it, but I see a really slow approach happening. For example, if
I just do basic sketches from existing comic books now, and then increase my
drawing, and start tentative sketches of my own characters in April, after all
of the chapters have been posted and I am no longer revising that, and just
start really experimenting with color in the fall, ending the year with a
much-better illustrated posting of The Bear in the Net, and don’t actually draw
a single panel until January 2014, that can be okay.
I
don’t mind taking my time getting it right. I care about the materials, and I
care about quality. Whether my tendency towards self-criticism and
perfectionism will be insurmountable is anyone’s guess, but I also did post a
crudely drawn story and lived to tell it and even found some people who loved
it, and I advertise easily marginalized fan fiction across three social
networking/media sites, and I am living to tell about it. I guess I am building
up some sort of reserves.
That being said, I always feel like I need more time,
and that is very frustrating. I want more time to write. I am impatient about
getting to when I am making videos of different kinds. I want to move on. The
job is the big taker of time, and is the part of my life that I most want gone.
For that to happen, I need to making money as a writer. That is the challenge.
That will be part 2.
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