I’ve been watching a lot of a show called Fire Fly. The shows has made me relearn something I already knew.

It’s the characters of the show, and how they are so deliciously built episode to episode. No character no matter how small is left behind. These are interesting people with interesting stories.  You can see this in other television shows, but in Fire Fly they make you love every single character, and there are few shows out there that do this so flawlessly. At least of the ones I have seen.

I’m not one for T.V. I don’t really watch much of it, I hate commercials and I really hate the “I’ve gotta watch my…” mentality. T.V. is in a weird phase though. Most major networks don’t want to admit it, but the internet is changing T.V. dramatically. It’s not just something you HAVE to watch anymore. Take Fire Fly for example, it’s on Netflix, along with a whole smattering of other shows. Add Hulu, and bit torrent (OH NO’S!), and T.V. becomes something you don’t have to be chained to anymore.  Why watch anything on T.V.?

So what’s your point?

Well back to Fire Fly and it’s characters. There are some stories I have outlined and worked out where I have fallen in love with some of the characters. Their stories flow out of me, and it’s not so much about the over arching plot anymore as much as it is about the characters. That in a sense is what makes a good T.V. show. When you have good character it doesn’t matter what they are doing, or why sometimes. You just want to see them do it! A character could be sitting in his closet talking about the organization of his clothes and you would be glued.

My eye is slowly moving towards this medium.

I say this mainly because I feel like film is dying. Not in revenue, in that respect film is doing just fine. I feel though a lot of the creativity in film has been robbed or buried for the time being. I don’t think it is due to lack of content, there are original scripts being written and purchased out there, just not getting made. Hollywood is to busy looking for the “sure bet.” Millions are invested into a movie, if it flops it stings. T.V. shows though they usually cost less over all, film a season if it sticks they make more, if not they pull it, either way though they have gotten their revenue from the advertising companies. When a T.V. show flops it’s not as huge an impact. This brings me to my final point, the only real creativity right now is in T.V. That may be me just being naive but that is what I see from the outside looking in, and with all the different cable channels picking up great shows left and right, not to mentioned the added revenue of T.V. DVD sales, and you have a pretty wide playing field.

I’m gonna have to really think about this….

The next script that I am working on is SO close to being done I can taste it. I am at page 80 some odd. It has taken me so long to get here! The days I have to write are few and far between, and I have not been spending them as well as I could. I can tell you where this one is going once I am done too: right on the shelf. I don’t want to look at this script again for a few months at least. This is a revision of one of my first scripts so I am getting tired of the idea. While I love the characters and the over all concept, the structure is as weak as a house of cards. This script trips and falls on itself so many times its amusing. So I hope to finish this week. I am giving myself a dead line. Something I try to do more of but often don’t.

I am especially excited to finish and try out a new outlining software I found! I know some writers tend not to use outlining but I learned the hard way that I can’t live without it. The software is called scrivener, and from the videos on the website it looks like it is just what I need to focus my ideas into one central area. As it is now I have a few places for ideas, well more than a few…the cork board, stickies on my mac, notes on my phone, all over the place. Stuff gets lost, forgotten, it sucks. With this program I hope to have everything in one place and focus my outlining time to be used more efficiently.

Other than that I am excited about working on a few stories I am cooking up. Stay tuned! I will hopefully have samples in the coming months!

Sorry for the Hiatus. I have been super busy with my new project(s) YES that’s plural. I have been working diligantly to enter into a new “competition” by the end of this month; NBC/Universal’s writers on the verge program. This is the first time I will be writing for television and I am kind of nervous. Television plays the same game as film, but plays by different rules.

So the competition has writers turn in spec scripts for shows that are currently on the air. You write an episode that would seamlessly fit right into the season for which you are writing. In this case I am writing for season 2 of Fringe. Fringe is an odd little show, it’s right up my ally in terms of genre, and is quirky enough to keep my mildly entertained. The one good thing for me however, is that the show is EXTREMELY formulaic. You can almost predict exactly what is going to happen each episode, as far as what characters will do, or where the plot is going. I guess that’s why they like to keep the audience going with their little secrets, so we miss the fact that every episode is virtually the same. Well, that and J.J. Abrams’ little love affair with mystery’s that don’t play out…don’t get me wrong he is no M.Night (as far as bad secrets go), and I have no real angst against the guys work, even though I couldn’t sit through clover field…I want my 8 bucks back now.

Any way, I will be entering this one head on and will post some excerpts from the script here as soon as it is done.

And as for the other project I mentioned two posts ago…don’t even ask, we are at a tiff.

It’s an odd journey this thing I started doing some year ago now. It’s been exciting, engaging, frustrating, and down right infuriating. Let’s face it; writing is a tough thing to do. I don’t think anyone can understand the inner struggle, the conflict between ones conscious and their subconscious better than a writer. But I do go on.

I am still shocked by the start of something new. Like a tidal wave ideas smash into my brain, crushing down on me, flowing from me, it can be a little bewildering. Through it all however I must stay anchored, not get lost in a cacophony of swirling meaningless images and characters, and realize I am doing this for one reason, tons of money…no wait, the story.

It is easy to get lost in your head, easy to sit and think about cool scenes, snappy lines of dialogue, but when you get to FADE IN: (the first line of any script) and you really get into the meat of it, stare the beast in the face as it is, you find you get lost yet again. All of the sudden those scenes you thought were so great are driving the story off a cliff; you have forgotten why you are doing this.

So something has to happen that I dread as a writer. You have to have to have to PLAN. Draw it out, give it bones, what have you. This for me is torture. As I do it, however I keep one thing in my mind, I keep one constant, that the pain of writing without a plan far outweighs the pain of planning in and of itself.

So I have come to a place where all writers find themselves, where you turn to your work, take a step back and say: “This is crap.” It is in that fleeting moment I dust myself off, and go back to square one. Well, not always, sometimes things can be hashed out. Sometimes, you can hammer through a rewrite to the end, and that is what you want to do all the time. You don’t want to admit to yourself that the thing you have created is a steaming pile of shit. Just like a steaming pile of shit, however, the crap is needed. It may be foul now, but like fertilizer it can be used to create something useful. (How’s THAT for poetic!..?) That, dear reader is where I am today.

I have my crap, and now I have to make it useful, and it’s going to be tough; but part of being a writer is pushing yourself where you don’t want to go, outside of that comfort zone and into new territory. So! With my head held high and a large pot of coffee brewing (oh coffee..) I start a new story as yet untitled. Although I would love to call it:

A MAN AND HIS AXE

More on that later.