News and ideas

Sometimes people ask me where I gen my ideas. I'm sure, if you're a
creative person, you have been asked it too. I never really know how
to answer, and I'm not going to try to now.

What I am more interested in talking about is this news story I read
this morning. There's this girl in Virginia who has gone missing after
goin to a Metallica concert on Saturday night. She's a twenty year old
Virginia Tech education major.

I find I am intriuged with this story. I want to know what happened,
and for her to come home safe, but my mind is also spinnig with how to
turn this into a screenplay. Is there a filmmable story here? And if
so, what tack to take? Did this girl get taken? Was she kidnapped and
thrown in a tent in someone's backyard? Did she meet a roadie and fall
in love? Has she been sleeping on a tour bus? Was she abducted by
aliens? Maybe she was sold into slavery and headed to the middle East
to be a concubine for some wealthy sheik... All of these could be
fascinating stories, but which is the right and tactful place to take
this...?

Project rundown part one

Okay, so, the first thing on my creative plate is to write the book to
a musical. This is a collaboration with a man I haven't worked with
before, but I'm excited about the project. Basically, it's a piece
that can be performed in any bar willing to accomodate it, it happens
in real time, is adjudicated by a storyteller/narrator, and has a
choose your own adventure sensability to it, allowing for different
paths to be explored at different moral points. I think it will be a
cast of five or six, aiming for an even gender breakdown. That's about
all I think I can say at present. I'm aiming for a comedy, and I know
the story, but I'll keep that card close to the vest for now.

It's time

Time: 2:50 pm
Location: J subway to Manhattan
Weather: cool, but sunny
Mood: cool, but sunny

So, as my life path begins to coalesce into something, I'm going to
pursue this blog more seriously, so begin expecting new posts on a
regular basis.

This blog will now be focusing on my journey as a writer. What I do on
a day to day basis to pursue my dreams. I'll write about my research
here, any tips I pick up from other writers and all that sort of
material.

So, let me put myself out on the table. I write plays, screenplays and
novels. I did write poetry, but I'm not really interested in pursuing
that any longer. I am adding journalism to my writing bits. I guess
you could call that non-fiction, but where's the fun in that.

I have two computers at present, both macs. I write screenplays and
stageplays with FinalDraft 7, and write my novels with Scrivener. I
usually do a lot of writing by hand in moleskine notebooks, especially
useful on the subway. Currently, I'm trying to get my novel into a
publishable state. I'm writing a new musical to be performed in bars,
writing a screen version of a friend's one man show, and starting on
my second novel. I also write a lot of SEO articles, which are Search
Engine Optimization texts designed to bring more googlers to your
site. It can be pretty mind numbing.

Okay, so, next post will deal with the exact natures of the projects
I'm invovled in.