Keeping Track of Screnzy

This is republished from my main blog, 'A Whole Different Kettle of Fish'.

Well, Script Frenzy begins tomorrow and I'm not going to have time to say this during the event, so I'm saying it now.

From here on in, I'm in The Zone. This means that pretty much everything I do over the next month or so shall be Screnzy related in some way or other. Seeing as Screnzy's going to take over my life for thirty days (assuming I don't simply burn out and die), I'll talk a lot about what I'm up to and all that good stuff. Alternatively, I'll chuck it over to my other, sideline blog, 'Journal of an Insane Author'. (Note: That's this blog.) However, in each post remotely to do with Screnzy, you shall see this thing below.

 

This is a widget. If it's not working for you, then to heck with your computer.

This little gadget's purpose in life is to show you my stats. It'll tell you how many pages I've written so far. At the end of Screnzy, it'll stick and be stuck forever. (That was a clumsy sentence, but oh well.) It shall act as a marker. I'm sad to say that it's quite likely that this blog shall be overrun with these widgets before the month is out. So now you know what they are.

If you want to look at my stats without the easiness of the described widgets, you can find me on the Script Frenzy site at: http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/user/896055

Have fun with that.

And now, I have some last minute planning to do...

Convincing Characters

Characters are fickle creatures. They like to take you on long journeys, telling you they'll be great. Eventually, they simply flounce into oncoming traffic, though, and that's the end of it.

Finding the perfect character for the job is actually one of the most difficult things to do. It's all very well to plop a carefully shaped human being into a situation, but it's quite another thing trying to make them do what you want them to. The more like a real person you make a character, the more traits the idea takes on - if they're rebellious little so-and-sos, then you can expect them to rebel against what you want them to do.

Take, for the sake of argument, a grumpy goat. Goats are unusually stubborn at the best of times, and they eat all your clothes while they're at it. The only way to force a goat to go anywhere is to either drag it along by a rope, or pick it up and carry it to wherever it is you want it to be. This tends to be a bit of a problem, because if the place you want it to be is, say, insecure, the goat will simply gravitate back towards its original position. Such are characters: If they don't want to be somewhere, you can't force them to be there, otherwise they'll eat through the walls to get out. In short, you have to go with what the characters want.

Unfortunately, this tends to be a bit of a problem. If you put a stubborn character in a situation where what they choose is a turning point for the whole thing, then if they go for what you don't expect, then you may have a difficulty at hand.

I'm aware that I may be confusing some of you. Allow me to explain myself. When I say 'choosein relation to a character, I don't mean to say that the author actually allows the character in question to choose - more that an author should be able to locate the path of least resistance, or what a character's personality would want to do, and just go with it.

The great thing about a path of least resistance is: It has very little resistance attatched. That's why it's so called. In writing terms, it's simply easier to write the character into the story if they follow the path they want to. Events come to mind much easier, as do situations in which the person/thing may be put. That's why going with what the character wants is so important.

The alternative to all this is, when your character gets annoyingly stubborn and doesn't want to go where you wish them to go, you simply kill them. It's surprisingly good fun to kill off characters, and therapeutic too.

This post is winding down a bit now, so I'll round it off by saying: Characters, beware! If you don't bend to my will, then you'll die. Muhahahaha...

Two Weeks to Screnzy...

There's around two weeks to go until Script Frenzy begins, and I'm slightly more unsure as to what's happening with my script than I was yesterday. Unfortunately for me, that happens to be rather confused indeed.

By this point in time, I actually have an idea as to what's going to happen in the TV series that I'm attempting to write. That's certainly more than what I had at the start of this month. Allow me to outline my plan, or give you a brief synopsis. Whichever occurs to me first.

OK, synopsis it is, then.

The Gates of Tomorrow
In the middle of Tower Bridge, a net of crackling blue energy opens in broad daylight during the rush hour. In the chaos, the government send in a squad of elite troops. When one crosses the threshold of the portal, a fascinating discovery is made: The portal leads exactly twenty four hours into the future, and vice versa.

The Gate, once deemed safe, is seen as an excellent advance for the nation: Suddenly, thousands are flocking to London to go sightseeing tomorrow. But there are consequences of every action, and London's about to feel the full force of them.

As personal day-to-day time travel becomes an everyday occurrence, problems arise. What happens when you get a serial killer who hasn't tried to kill anyone yet? What happens to people who die today, but are still alive? How can the newspapers keep making money if everyone knows tomorrow's front-line news? Everyone is impacted by the potentially paradoxical outcomes of every action they make, and not everyone thinks the rules of time apply to them.

Enter the Gatekeepers, a special breed of military personnel and expert researchers devoted to keeping the Gate strictly under control. Yet they face problems every day - yesterday, today and tomorrow at the same time, sometimes - and all must vbe overcome. Because, as one person is very fond of saying, paradoxes cannot be allowed. In fact, they can't happen. Because the Gatekeepers are there to stop them.

Over the course of the series, they shall face some very real threats - terrorists trying out a triple-exploding bomb, serial killers to come and even people who know when they're going to die - but there is a greater foe out there, hiding behind the blue veil... He who opened the Gate is coming, and he's got a higher agenda.

Well, that's a brief synopsis. Maybe a little longer than brief, but alright. So that's the basic premise of my Screnzy for 2012, not that I've done Screnzy ever before, but oh well.

I'll definitely be posting about Screnzy in the coming month, so watch out for that.

Until next time, I bid you adieu.

Big-Headed of Him?

This is an incredibly short piece of fiction that I literally wrote today. I was bored at lunch and had eaten maybe a little too much cheese. The result? A really random, very short first draft of flash fiction.

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Pete strummed the final chord of the song that he had been working on for months. For a moment he just stood there, letting the atmosphere disperse. With a nervous look on his face, he looked up to see the other four band members looking at him.

When Pete had learned that the band had lost its lead guitarist and was hoping for a new one, he had jumped at the chance. The group was a well-known one, and its schedule was completely booked: It was running multiple gigs and was even performing as the last act at the prom next month. As such, Pete had the jitters. Was he a good enough guitarist? Did he fit in with the others? And most importantly, did they think he could replace their friend?

Dan, the lead singer, opened his mouth and began talking.

"Pete, we really appreciate your attempt, but the facts stand for themselves. You're not a good enough guitarist, you don't fit in and you simply can't replace our good friend Steve. You have potential, but you aren't right for us. Go home."

Pete's brow furrowed in frustration; then his face turned bright red. Before Dan's eyes, Pete's face went as red as a beetroot and - "No," said Dan, "This can't be happening," - his head began to inflate. As Pete's head grew, his face turned redder and redder until Dan was sure that he couldn't look redder if he had had a tin of scarlet paint poured on him.

"AAARGGH!" cried Pete in anguish. He hated it when this happened. It was uncomfortable, plus he thought it made him look silly.

When Pete's head was approximately the same size and shape as the space-hopper that sat in the corner of the room, the swelling stopped. The band gaped in awe at the incredible spectacle before them. The drummer pinched himself. The bass guitarist looked into the glass he was holding. What the heck had been in that orange juice?

After a moment's amazed silence, Dan spoke up.

"Actually, Pete, this may work in our favour. Does this happen whenever you get extremely irritated?"

Pete nodded sheepishly. Needless to say, with a head the width of an elephant, this was a sight for sore eyes.

"Well, you see, we happen to get some trouble from hecklers..."

As Pete deflated, he broke into a smile. Maybe he wasn't all that skilled at guitar playing, but he had talents in other areas. And now, that had paid off. He was part of a band.

Unnoticed by Pete, his chest had begun to expand. With alarming speed, his torso became a big red balloon.

"Uh-oh," said Dan. "How's he going to get out the door?"

March 2012 Update

If you're a reader of my main blog, 'A Whole Different Kettle of Fish', then you'll know that each month I write updates to inform those of you who are actually interested as to what's been happening. Usually this is only read by those who've gone on a long holiday, or simply have some time to spare. I guess that's what this blog's here for (he said, with obvious doubt and evident sarcasm in his voice). So, anyway...

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As of the end of today, the Journal has been going for 14 days (two weeks). It's a young thing yet, but I'm sure that it'll flourish in the rain-leached soil that is Blogger. Despite a sure lack of sunlight, this plant will spread its wings and fly off. "Plants with wings?" you cry. "He must be mad." I ask you to remember what the title of this blog is. Plus, it's a special plant.

So, I should probably say what's been going on in the two weeks I've been active. Well, first of all, I've made myself at home by redecorating and importing some furniture, i.e. some gadgets for the sides. I quite like my current setup, but please feel free to contact me with a query or suggestion at any time via the given email address. In case you haven't spotted it yet, it's pisces.kettle@yahoo.com. Enjoy speaking to me.

I've also managed to avoid feeding you any actual work in the form of poems (yeuch, poetry) short stories or excerpts from novels. That shall change, however one must take into account the imminent event that it is Script Frenzy, for which I still don't have a concrete idea or location. But I'm working on it. I swear to thee that I be working upon it most intently. I shall not deviate from my path. (Oh look. A squirrel!)

So what are my aims for the coming month? Well, firstly I'll actually give you a story or excerpt or something. I'll also continue to talk of my Screnzy plans. Expect Screnzy to take over my life in April. If I don't post here, it's because I'm frantically scripting a TV series. At least that's what I hope to be doing.

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So now you know what's happening here, and have a brief, shaky idea of what will be happening soon. And now... March stretches out before me! I must make haste and do... something. I don't know what yet, but writing sounds like a good place to start.

Planning for the coming month,
   An Insane Creature