Lists Quotes and One Liners

Lists are what you turn to when your not busy doing something else. As an after thought they're handy as a check list. If you save your lists they can become like a journal of sorts. Because a list tends to be within constant reach other things get put on the list. Quotes, ideas, one-liners and creative reminders litter the page with milk, cereal and toilet paper. I have volumes of lists that I've saved over the years. It's perhaps the most honest diary I've ever written. I've also saved receipts for years and have all of 2005 glued into the pages of pocket bibles. An artistic juxtaposition of extremes. Brutal trust and blind faith.

I consider writing my memoirs often and in various forms set out to do so many times over the years. I haven't stopped to look back and read much of what I've written. There's already at least a couple books that could be derived. The only book I have written I recalled after about a year of self publication and distribution. Just like much of the music I've recorded - I keep it away from people. Turns out the internet wasn't the cure all for artists but instead became a floodgate for thieves and plagiarists. [Side rant! Blogger spell check sucks anus! Google rocks, and it better, it owns the world. All hail Google the god that was mis-spelled. Oh the multiple levels of irony.]

Tell me if you can guess where this quote is from: "Very numerous examples of a like nature might be cited, clearly showing the fact, that only while under the dominion of fear do men fall a prey to superstition; that all the portents ever invested with the reverence of misguided religion are mere phantoms of dejected and fearful minds; and lastly, that prophets have most power among the people, and are most formidable to rulers, precisely at those times when the state is in most peril. I think this is sufficiently plain to all, and will therefore say no more on the subject." It was written in 1656 by Benedict De Spinoza. He was born a year after Galileo's indictment by the Spanish inquisition. You can read Spinoza's work at http://www.yesselman.com/ttpelws1.htm .

It may be true that in order to tell a short story- story tellers tell lies. But I'm not sure this is the only way or the best way. Post 1950 Hollywood archetypes are fading in favor of multi-dimensional characters. Ms. Phillips says that a whole person is a schizophrenic within the story mind. But I wonder if this is true as more people begin to demand complex characters. I understand to a degree the purpose of antagonist and protagonist in the story but I have a hard time submitting to their use. Perhaps this stems from wanting to portray people as they might become rather than what they are. Indeed a large percent of our species are drawn to simplicity and prefer a good excuse over an explanation. But we are still left with the need for an explanation least we suffer our own ignorance. Concurrently we must also survive as a symbiotic organism amongst those that insist upon archetypes. Science save us from your geometrists and essentialists.

In evolution there is a theory called dormancy. It refers to physiological changes in domesticated species and how those changes are restored when the species are set feral. Perhaps our own "artificial selective" processes of homogenizing our perspective and self domestication has created a dormancy that is only now being restored through the exercise of free thought and expression. Attaining our humanity through ferality. The return of our multi-dimensional sensory functions. Our need is not to evolve (which happens regardless) but to restore that which has been dormant.

Things are STILL not what they appear to be. Exposition is our savoir. I need another cup of coffee like I need radiation poisoning. Ahhhh death - the prize for living. Write on.

Relativity of Mental Illness

There's no doubt about it. There is a great deal of mental illness in the arts. Some of my favorite artists are out of their minds. Imbalanced and incomplete. One in five Americans are purported to be mentally ill. Could this be the breeding ground for the worlds art community?

I have a theory that suffering and suppression (internal or external) spawns artistic behavior. It seems when there is little to no suffering there

is little to motivate you into production. Naivety of youth accounts for a great deal of artistic suffering as does the refusal to mature. But greed is what will keep you in the game. Obsessive

need for praise and affirmation of self worth are like oxygen to the "successful".

I've talked about art vs craft in a previous post. It's related to this topic as well. Balance between art and craft is an obvious trait to behold. Knowing this balance

point is vital. You can stray off from it but you can always return to a point of personal control. It is of great concern to the artist that wishes to sustain themselves within their art.

Can I sit and pound out words every day? Not yet. But I take solace in understanding that no healthy minded person wants to sit and write for an extended period of time. Hopefully there are better things going on in your life that you don't feel the need to isolate yourself in a room shut out from the world.

So we keep striving toward our goals and hope not to lose momentum or inspiration. But none the less a healthy minded writer needs to incorporate the disciplines of their craft.

One of my favorite quotes: "You got to get in before you get out; and getting out is what it's going to be about." - Chili Peppers. Writing has to become a habit. Preferably a healthy one. In other words, I may have writers block (or lack of writing discipline) but at least I'm not crazy... well?

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

[Images courtesy of the world wide web. No ownership implied.]

The Dogma of A Thousand Words

Intellectually I like the approach of committing to writing 1000 words a day. At the bottom of this blog I've posted a WORD COUNTER. Microsoft Word has one built into it and you can find various versions of word counting programs on-line. Seems like something that should be in all word processing tools but it's not. Part of getting in my thousand words a day include writing for this blog. If I'm not writing a movie script I'm writing for this blog. I have several other blogs but I do not count those as part of my 1000 word quota. They tend to be more technical or instructive in nature whereas this site is more focused on the creative craft of writing. Yes I said creative craft.

I've posted enough rants. They're fun and at times entertaining but our focus is on the craft of writing. Which brings us to another approach on writing - one of my favorites - stream of consciousness. Although my favorite I don't feel it's most productive. It is fun to just blurt out words regardless of content, form or function. But one eventually needs to wield command of ones writing. If we are to communicate a story to others we must exercise the skill so as to produce the desired effect with the least amount of ambiguity.

And since a story is not a single tale but multiple tales, maintaining the points of these tales are

critical in conveying a cognizant story.

Points can be made in many fashions. But they must not be neglected. Part of the craft of writing is getting to the point keeping in mind that it's the journey not the destination that entertains an audience. Even if you want your story to be open for interpretation it must be crafted as such. The difference between art and craft may be that craft is less of a gamble on the end product.

Art is natural to me. So is playing music by ear. But sitting down even when I'm not the least bit artistically

inclined has been a massive challenge but one well worth the effort.

By committing to write every day we get closer and closer to having more command over our muse. We also open up more opportunities for creative writing to take place when we are in the act of writing. Just like playing music I'm most likely to create music when the instrument is in my hand.

There may be those that can do all this in their heads and only write when everything is in place and achieve satisfactory results. I suspect they are very talented or highly unproductive. Since the world is full of lazy artist types I'll stick to working steadily toward attaining greater command of my story telling skills. This represents over half of my 1000 word requirement at 503 words. Write on!

Ps- It just occurs to me that if I'm to write 1000 words a day then I should be reading 3000-10,000 words a day. There goes more of my "free" time!

Historical Perspective on Hand Dryers

I was channel surfing and stopped a few minutes to watch The Glass Menagerie. It was filmed in 1950. The play was written by Tennessee Williams in 1944. In one of the scenes Kirk Douglas washes his hands and dries them with an electronic hand dryer. I was startled to see a gadget being used 60 years ago that is still in use today.

There's not a lot of information on Frenchman Alexandre Godefoy but he did invent the first hair dryer in 1890. Harry McLeckie from Chicago invented the hand dryer in 1948. Again not much

to be found on him either. McLeckie's device looks like a smaller version of Godefoy's contraption. Another point of interest is women back in 1890's used vacuum cleaners to dry their hair. They just switched the hose around like a shopvac and used the exhaust to blow rather than suck.

Of course we all know old Danial Hess of Iowa invented the vacuum cleaner in 1860. However our propensity to suck has no limits and many people after him invented new ways to suck and obtained patents as well. The vacuum pictured is from 1910.

These inventions seem to be spaced by the length of a lifetime. I wonder if one person had to die before another could take the idea and profit from it. Hummm?

I'm not sure if the hand dryer in the movie was a "plant" or a "product endorsement". It was only 2 years old at the time the film was made so it must have caught peoples attention as a new fangled device. When we watch it today the hand dryer doesn't register in the same manner.

There are a good deal of things that must not register when we watch old movies. Things that were new and exciting 50 years ago are taken for granted now. It might answer to why old films have a limited audience. They don't get the same excitement level of being exposed to new THINGS.

The conventions of the story haven't changed too much either. Granted the MTV generation has all but killed holding a camera shot for more than 2 seconds. But human drama hasn't changed face over the past 100 years of so.

Observation: The more things change the more they stay the same. Slow progressive evolution. Spiral advancement through time and space. Man am I hungry.

Creative Time Wasting

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Doubt is a Four Letter Word

The web is great in many ways. If you want to learn how to do something and you know how to search for it you can learn... for free! But the problem is how do you know which path to take. Story first or structure first? Force writing or wait for the muse?

I've been both encouraged and discouraged from writing. The main doubt is: Do I have the discipline and/or desire to sit down for long periods of time and write every day? To be honest I can answer to desire. No I do not desire to sit around every day and write. Sure when the muse hits it's easy to sit all day and write. But when she's out of town forget it.

So now we come to discipline. If we are to look at my track record, again we come to a resounding "no". But I am capable of discipline although I've always been in denial of the ability. I prefer passion but passion is a shallow cup when unfilled. Discipline it is. Goals to be set and met. Plan your work and work it girl.

Lucky for me I have to teach martial arts at least a few times a week which prevents me from getting too sedentary. And writing prevents me from over training. If you're reading between the lines you may be able to discern that I am challenged by balance.

So it is now later in life that I start to look toward discipline as a new way of doing things. Passion be damned - get 'er done! Doubt is a four letter word... if you don't count the silent "b"... what I'm trying to say here is that "Doubt is a dirty word!"

To help make my muse jealous I purchased a screen writing program called Dramatica. It's not a "simple" program to use at first but once you master the extensive terminology and can answer the predetermined questions coherently, you can use it to produce a story from start to finish. I would call this more of a story analysis program but again, once you understand the program it's use becomes more apparent... supposedly. I'm still trying to master it and I've only tried it twice. The program is a mere 200 bucks... doh!!! However Melanie Ann Phillips (co-creator of Dramatica) created a simpler inexpensive program called Storywearer which can be found on the website. I don't own it nor have I tried it but it seems like a good straight forward creative approach compared to Dramatica. Melanie is graciously accessible and offers an extensive host of on-line writing tools.

Oh so now you're a Writer...

Yup this is some crazy sh#t alright. I've tried to avoid it like the dentist but the brutal truth is that without a script you're playing the lottery. I need to learn and become good if not great at writing... screen writing... scriptwriting to start. After many attempts at producing videos without a script, the script has become the evident weak or missing link.

There are a whole array of writing arts. Novels, short stories, screen plays and even production scripts all have their own conventions. So I'm going to attempt to stick with one. However I read that it's good to have multiple projects going at once to help with writers block. I may resort to such methods.

I am working on a script "Title Unreleased" for a full featured movie. So far it's an offbeat romantic comedy but it ain't pigeon holed until you write "the end".

My goal is to write 10 screenplays before writing the script that I will endeavor to direct and produce on my own. If I'm lucky I'll get someone to buy and/or produce one of my preliminary scripts but I'm not banking on it. The mission is to write a good handful of "bad" scripts before committing to writing and producing one that I will put my heart and soul into.

So this blog will be where I live during my "writing hours" when I'm not writing my screenplays. In this way I can maintain the act of writing. I do hope that other writers and artists will visit this site to seek or offer advice, encouragement or criticisms.

BTW... I'm using Movie Magic Screen Writer to write my scripts. It's a very simple yet powerful program and it's an "industry standard". Only 200 bucks... doh!