Narrative Disorder… in Japan!!

I have discovered that NOT TURNING ON THE COMPUTER CONNECTED TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD AT ALL during the day helps me to write!! Huge discovery I know lol but there it is.
Of course this doesn’t mean the computer doesn’t go on to check mail and then play Warcraft - all hail Burning Crusade! - after Superman gets home but part of the ‘keeping the marriage working” thing is the “do not write while he is home” cause, lets face it, I’m NOT HERE when I’m writing LOL.

Chapter One of Shadowkeeper is as done as it’s going to be before I move on to Chapter Two and I’m pretty happy with it. The beginning and the end will change before the draft is finished but the beginning in that way that beginnings are never quite finished till the whole thing is finished and the end because the whole chapter thing is not natural for me and I suspect the first scene of what is currently Chapter Two may need to be the last of Chapter One - OR actually the beginning LOL. Swapping openings and conclusions was something I discovered at Uni - invariably (to the point that it became a formula for me) I found that I had a natural tendency to outline what I was going to say at the top in a little too much detail for an introduction and then precis my points wonderfully succinctly at the end (mostly because, having written then damn thing, I was then clearer on what my points were) so my leave-it-to-the-last-minute strategy became: write it from top to bottom; swap top with bottom; race for bus to the Ming Wing The only essays I got less than a Distinction on were the ones where I panicked and lost my self trust and didn’t do this.

Anyway Chapter Two is underway and I very well may not be back till it is done. Unless I block…

Ah… 2007 feels better already - some challenges already but optimism all the way… So, 2nd jan and second post since restart - not bad at all. After reading the last post Superman (I married into the Justice League don’cha know) was all support and cheering but asked “What are you going to write, then?” Hehe I missed that, huh? Well the plan for this year is thus: Novelise The Shadowkeeper and at least outline the next in the series (which will deal with Brigid holding on to her belief in and ability to travel to the Shadow-lands and helping others with their own journeys therein.)
Why novelise? Well… various producers, agents, editors in Hollywood suggested “having a book published is a great way to attract attention for script” The tone in which these words are spoken always suggests that this would be a simple matter - much simpler than getting a movie greenlit. Now having had some experience in the publishing industry my reaction to this casual line was and still is - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! These people clearly have no idea that it is just as hard to get published as it is to get produced - sure a film costs a lot more to make than publishing a novel - but it’s still just as difficult to be read, get an agent blah blah… What’s more, not every story should be a novel, nor should every story be a film or a comic or whatever… some stories are only appropriate for certain media. HOWEVER Shadowkeeper could translate well as both novel and illustrated story book - both of which I would like to do and as an illustrated book can be based on a novel but mostly because a novel is something I can produce without requiring an artist, the novel is where I will begin (there’s a big kids theatre spectacular in it as well, I believe, but that can wait :) ) I have had a couple of false starts at the novelisation but I now admit to myself that I was really trying to find a way to just reformat then edit the screenplay into the novel in exactly the way I lament people think you can just reformat a novel into a screenplay - not because I disrespect the medium in any way but, frankly I was over the story - I’d had enough. Now, with a little distance and a realisation that there are more stories to tell of this world, I’m ready to dive into it again.
Et voila - I have committed myself! LOL