I was asked to participate in a Blog Hop writing exercise by the amazingly talented Margaret Fedder. I was supposed to write something last week but I totally dropped the ball. Here is her entry. See how well-written that is? Yeah, don't expect that from me.
What was this simple assignment I failed to complete in time, let alone pass on to another blogger? Answering four questions. Here they are...
1. What am I working on? Heh. That is a loaded question. If letting ideas percolate in the back of my brain counts as working, then I am extremely busy with multiple projects right now. If, you know, sitting down and writing is considered "working"...yeah, not so much of that lately.
I wrote a novel for NaNoWriMo back in November. I even took a first pass at rewriting it. Now, I am totally stalled out. This is tied to various things like my depression, the amount of time I am spending making other people's dreams come true and my crippling addiction to Facebook games. I don't know about you other writers out there but there is a time when you mentally check in on a project and realize you are totally over it. That has not happened with my novel, I am still grasping the end of the thread tethering it to my interest (belabor metaphors much?). So, I still consider that an active work in progress.
Likewise, I have two screenplay ideas I am moderately excited about that I want to complete. They are still tethered to my mental to-do list also.
Having attended a comic book convention this past weekend, I have rekindled my interest in a 20 issue comic project I wanted to launch a few years ago called The Damocles Fugue. I am thinking of trying another kickstarter with different goals and parameters. I have to dust the cobwebs off the story in my mind but I think I have it completely outlined...somewhere.
So, yeah, not actually writing anything but thinking about writing a lot. Plus, working on a live comedy show and a podcast project in the future.
2. How does my work differ from others in the genre? Hoo boy. How to answer this one?
My novel is different in that it probably incorporates my love of film conventions moreso than most other writers. The genre is a horror novel and, having grown up influenced by musical magpies like U2 and cinematic scavengers like Tarantino, I have to say I enjoy a good pastiche. There are chapters that read like Southern Fried comedy and some that read like a Film Noir mystery...maybe readers will hate the tonal shifts but I believe I have a strong enough authorial voice to make it work. Also, like everything I have ever written, there is a tragic love story at the heart of it.
As for the screenplays, one is a rapid fire comedy in the His Girl Friday/Aaron Sorkin vein...nothing revolutionary. I just wanted to see if I could write something funny. The other screenplay is a ghost story about depression...it has the potential to be totally pretentious crap or something that connects with sad people. I won't know until I actually write it.
As for the comic book, I am again seeing where I am cobbling together heist movies, science fiction, Marvel comics from the 90s and Breaking Bad to create something I hope is exciting and new.
I don't feel confident enough yet to say I am redefining genres or creating something wholly unique but I am hoping to add to the overall quality of pre-existing genre conventions.
3. Why do I write what I do?
When I do write, it through an irresistible urge to spill electronic ink across a blank screen. It is a comforting and cathartic activity I use to release a lot of the psychic pressures in my head. I tend to dwell on things and examine them from 100 different angles and try to parse out the hidden meanings in human interactions. Writing helps me organize these thoughts while, hopefully, entertaining people. I am not above grasping for low hanging fruit if it results in a satisfying experience for me as a writer. I am not committed to some sort of lofty ideal of elevating the human spirit through literature. I just want to write things I would enjoy reading.
Also, my romantic life is just a shambles and writing helps me make sense of that fact.
4. How does your writing process work?
Like most people, I think inspiration hits at weird times. I usually have some way to write ideas down (I always carry at least a pen if not paper). Lots of times, the ideas go nowhere. However, if I can marry two separate ideas I have, I can usually create some traction in my brain to want to move forward with an idea. I don't start writing every single thing that pops into my head. I usually chew on it for a while to see if it still has flavor, so to speak. If an idea can hang out in my head for a week and still excite me, it is usually worth working on.
The actual process is as chaotic as I am. I have no writing desk or chair. I write on my laptop, usually in bed. I play music on my Itunes but at a volume so low as to not distract me with lyrics. This is why Classical music or instrumental groups like Ratatat work best for me when I am writing. I can, on average, write for about an hour or two before getting burned out.
Rewriting is where I have no discipline whatsoever. NaNoWriMo worked for me because I just had to keep plowing ahead and couldn't look back. Getting bogged down in rewriting is the number one thing that kills a story for me. The faster I can get the whole thing out, the more likely I am to finish it altogether.
So, yeah, there are my answers. Not sure if any insight was gained. I tortured some metaphors and that was fun. I have no one to pass this Blog Hop along to so, if the topic was a frog leaping from blog lily pad to blog lily pad, consider this the froggy splashdown.
I do want to thank Margaret for thinking of me and asking me to be involved.
