A Bit of it All

I've got to say, I'm seriously digging this "staying home and writing" kick I'm on. Yes, part of it is forced by unemployment. But I've got to say, if I can make a living of this, I could grow to love the writing, reading, cleaning, and lounging around all day. I'm getting ten or more pages written a day and were I to keep that pace up, I could easily write one novel and many short stories per year. Possibly two novels.

My parents aren't putting that much pressure on me to move out. When I moved back nine months ago, I thought I'd be out by now. I think they thought I'd be out by now too. If anything, my dad is trying to convince me not to move out. He's talked about how I can't afford it with our economy in its slump and while gas prices are high. He and my mom haven't been pushing the "full time and insurance" angle since I've lost my job. If anything, they've been fairly supportive in my wanting to go back to school and to finish that up and my wanting that to be a priority over work. Basically, as long as I'm paying on my bills and serious about going to school, they've haven't seemed to really care about what kind of job I've got.

Also, they've been seeing me working on my writing. They've talked to me about my writing. I think they're noticing that I'm taking it a lot more seriously than I ever have. Maybe I'm reading too much into things, but I think the writing might have to do with why they aren't pushing me to get another full time job. They seem to be more supportive of my author endeavors moreso than anything else I've done. Maybe it's because my mom has writing ambitions of her own and has been writing devotionals for Christian websites and attending writing conferences. I really can't say. But I do know the pressure hasn't been on like it has been in the past and they haven't tried running my life like they have in the past. It's kind of nice.

To tell you the truth, I like writing more than a lot of things. Sure, I enjoy making movies, but that becomes frustrating for me when it moves beyond a hobby and into trying to do something "real." I like the writing process. Some of the time, if it's something I'm passionate about (like, "Notahki"), the shooting is fun. And I do enjoy the editing process. But when it's something "real" and there are a million balls up in the air (costumes, special effects, actor and crew management, location control, etc.), it becomes not something I'm doing for fun, but a lot of pressure. With every single thing on a movie that I'm responsible for, it's like a chain I'm attached to. If I had a crew and other people as passionate about their individual tasks as I am on the whole thing, it'd be different. But I don't. On something like "Notahki" I've always had Dan, but with other things, like "Covers of Darkness," all the responsibility is mine. And I just don't have the drive for all of that.

That's not to say I won't be finishing "Covers of Darkness." I still intend to later this summer. It just means, any other projects that I choose to shoot, I need to better assess the chains that will be tying me to it. I'd love to shoot more "Notahki" or a couple of other videos in that vein. I've got an idea for something that could be shot during the winter. It's a series of short videos that could be done in a goofing around manner, not unlike how we shot "Notahki." I'm thinking of doing that. We'll see if I'm still interested when the time comes.

But in the meantime, I've got the novel. And multitudes of ideas after it. I've been looking at author websites and reading their blogs and getting insight into their own processes. Some of them write multiple books at once. Some say write three books in a row, all of them a first in a series, and if you can sell them all and get 'em published, finish the series that sells the best. Some are a write one, finish, write another type. I think that last type is me. I don't know that I've got the attention span to write multiple books at once. But, I do like the idea of only writing the first book in the series and doing three of those before writing any sequels. It's no secret that "Hero's Quest" was meant to be the first book in a series and I'd always planned on jumping right into Book Two when I finished.

I'm not so sure about that anymore.

What I'll write next if not Book Two, I don't know. It's not going to be "The Saturday Everyone Lost," that's for sure. I don't think I've got enough experience under my belt to make that one work yet. I'm considering one of two other series that have been rolling around in my head: either a space opera, kind of like Lord of the Rings crossed with Star Wars, or there's a vampire/fantasy series set in ancient Rome that I've always thought about. I'm thinking those two, plus "Hero's Quest," will be my first three "first in different series" books. The order of writing will just be what I've got to decide.

After "Hero's Quest" that is.

That's up to 261 pages now, by the way. Granted, I only wrote eight pages today, but I did some other writer's work. I did research on novel formatting and went through and properly formated HQ. I haven't put the page numbers on each page or the author header yet, but the title page is in place and the breaks between scenes are now proper. As are the chapter headings. With scripts, I've been kind of a stickler for writing in the proper format and I'm trying to get that way with my novel. I want my work to be as readable and salable to a potential publisher as possible. The more I can know about proper format the better. It kind of reminds me of back in '99 and '00 when I knew that I was going to start writing longer works - be they scripts or novels. I began studying story structure and made myself very familiar with the workings of a three-act structure. Shoot, if I really wanted to, I could write in a style similar to the Greeks with their five-act structure (eat your heart out, Freytag). But the point is, I've always tried to do the research to know what I'm doing before I do it. I want to be the best I can be and I'm not going to do something and just assume I'm doing it right. I'll research, digest, and try my best to use the information in my own work. So, I do things like research structure, format, and the craft.

Anyhoo, I feel like I might be rambling at this point, so I'm going to go. I'm getting tired and my focus is suddenly split between writing this and an episode from the fourth season of Babylon 5. Out.