This blog tour is where writers
and authors answer questions about their writing process. Last week, my friend
and former classmate Lucas Armstrong wrote one up last week, check him out here,
What I’m working
on:
Hard to nail down specifics,
since I’m always working on two or more projects at a time, but here is a
slice. I’m working gritty crime drama pitch bible, with two female leads and a psychedelic
murder mystery, about a porn star. These two projects are my main focus right
now. On the docket I am also bouncing around a trans-humanist sci-fi story.
Between all that I also work on this review site. Currently I am working on
expanding it from merely reviewing films and TV. I’m trying to write up several
other types of reviews such as; reviewing the drunk hobos that I encounter day
to day at work or maybe reviewing other people roommates for them. It’s all in
the early stages but, soon you might be reading about that time everyone at
work had an HIV scare after we arrested a pirate.
How does my work
differ from others of its genre?
I would like to imagine that all
my work is wonderfully original and differs from everything else in the ocean,
but at the end of the day I don’t think that is what should be my main focus.
When it comes to my fiction work, I prefer to tweak the existing stylistic
flourishes that I enjoy. Kind of like a collage of everything I find exquisite,
except told through my eyes and hands. As for my reviews, well that differs in
how I give ratings. More specifically, I don’t. Scoring a film, game, music or
whatever by boiling it down to a number seems a tad absurd, unless it is
compiled into an aggregate review. By boiling a film down to a series of
numbers or stars seems like a poor way to convey ones feelings about a
particular art form. Furthermore, it tends to steal the readers gaze and
thinking from the content of the review. I prefer to not give a number, instead
having my words explain my feelings.
Why do I write
what I do?
I have always had a fascination with
history and science, although I am terrible at the latter. In particular I love
crime history and war history as well as space operas. As such, I voraciously
consume everything about these subjects as I can; film, news, books, pulpy
novels that you wouldn’t be caught dead reading in public (well I would, I’d
just call it research). As time passed, I found myself wanting to tell these
stories myself. Create my own worlds that abide by my rules. If that sounds a
tad megalomaniacal, it’s because it is. Let me have my fantasy!
As for my reviews, well that comes from my lifelong love of
films and my egotistical desire to explain to people why The Thin Red Line is
ten times the war film that Saving Private Ryan is. Well that and the fact that my friends keep
telling me that I should write up my vitriol filled rants to share with the
internet.
How does your
writing process work?
My process is hampered by a
full-time job so it’s a struggle to actually sit down and write properly at
home for an hour or two as opposed to scribbling notes in a journal. What I
usually do is, take a notebook and jot down ideas or work on an outline while
at work. The notebook phase consists of either jot notes for ideas to develop
later on or full blown outlines.
Once the notebook phase is
complete I move onto either a more structured outline or go straight to first
draft. At this point, most of what was written in my journal is ditched as new
ideas take the place of old ones. When this happens I use the ideas from the
notebook as an anchor, so what I write does not wildly veer off in every direction.
After each draft I then usually take a cooling off period, working on another
piece, before I go back and edit.
When I write reviews the process
is a little bit different. As I watch whatever it is I am reviewing I jot down
all the various points; cons, pros, interesting tidbits etc. Afterwards I try
to immediately to write the first draft of the review, one filled with all
sorts’ typos and grammatical errors. Sadly
this is not always the case, an example being that my Captain America review
won’t be up for a few days, even though I have already seen.
Editing works the same for both
my reviews and my fiction. It is a hate fuelled experience, filled with
swearing, coffee and self-loathing as I lament my inattention to high school
English.
Next week on the blog
tour circuit:
Robyn Lester, an
Ottawa based screenwriter who is busy living the high life. When she’s not writing screenplays, she keeps
herself occupied working retail and foraging for free, sometimes discarded,
food. In addition she writes theatre
reviews for the Charlebois Post and does script coverage for a local production
company. Read her here,
Keely ‘Zoidberg’ and Ashley are not-so-secret nerds and will
latch on to almost anything with hype. But don't worry, they do more than gush
(Note: wehaveartsdegrees.com is not code for tumblr) they also take an in-depth
look at why the hype behind Veronica Mars or Saturday Night Live is warranted
while giving little tidbits of life observations along the way. Read about them
at; We Have Arts Degrees www.wehaveartsdegrees.com
Alyssa and Sarah are two aspiring screenwriters
with a New Years resolution to make 2014 the year of 'women in film' both in
front of and behind the camera. We aim to watch and review 100 women made films
in the coming year. All you really need to know about is is that we love
Beyonce, reality TV, and the Ikea monkey. You can find them at,
No comments:
Post a Comment