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Almost one month has gone by since I committed myself to putting in two writing sessions a week into my schedule. For the first few weeks I was alternating my two sessions a week between writing Mission: Dawn (Tuesday evening session) and That Warrior Spirit (Saturday morning session). I've been working on Chapter 4 for both books.
This week I rebalanced my focus. I estimated that I was four sessions away from finishing Chapter 4 of That Warrior Spirit. At my previous pace that would have taken me four weeks to finish it. Rebalancing meant I decided to focus solely on That Warrior Spirit. That would cut down my time to finish Chapter 4 from four weeks to two weeks. I decided to be even more aggressive than that and target to complete Chapter 4 this week. That meant having four sessions all in one week.
I scheduled in all four writing sessions and put them into my Palm Pilot. As is often the case, life intruded and started messing with my self-imposed schedule. Well life did a pretty darn good job of intruding. Nevertheless, I danced with life and still managed to squeeze in my writing when I could. The result is that I am now one scene away from finishing Chapter 4.
There is still one day left in the week so I still have a shot at meeting my target.
Showing posts with label Creative Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creative Writing. Show all posts
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Discovering the writing process
I've completed the first three chapters of the novel I started writing last year, That Warrior Spirit. I am way behind the schedule I set for myself last year but I am determined to get back on track. The idea for this book came to me about a year ago; I spent July and August of last year creating the characters and the outline, and started writing it, probably around September.
In my outline I set it to be eight chapters, so after a year I am almost halfway done.
This weekend I started pre-writing for Chapter 4. This is a new word that I discovered and I've adopted it to describe what I've discovered to be one of the steps in my writing process. I have found that even with a comprehensive outline I am still sometimes challenged to sit down and write a scene. It takes me a while to get into the zone, to connect with the characters and connect with the scene. The step of pre-writing is a step in which I write from stream of consciousness. I keep the language very informal. I just sit down, start asking the characters what they do and write down whatever comes up. Almost always during the pre-writing process I land in the zone, where the ideas, the emotions, and the words just start to flow. Very often all I need to do next to write the scene is to change the language of a pre-write; change it from present tense language into past tense language.
I used to call this step a writing blitz but I saw the term pre-writing in a book about writing and decided to adopt it. The step of pre-writing is similar to the exercise I used to do, writing morning pages, when I was going through The Artist's Way.
In my outline I set it to be eight chapters, so after a year I am almost halfway done.
This weekend I started pre-writing for Chapter 4. This is a new word that I discovered and I've adopted it to describe what I've discovered to be one of the steps in my writing process. I have found that even with a comprehensive outline I am still sometimes challenged to sit down and write a scene. It takes me a while to get into the zone, to connect with the characters and connect with the scene. The step of pre-writing is a step in which I write from stream of consciousness. I keep the language very informal. I just sit down, start asking the characters what they do and write down whatever comes up. Almost always during the pre-writing process I land in the zone, where the ideas, the emotions, and the words just start to flow. Very often all I need to do next to write the scene is to change the language of a pre-write; change it from present tense language into past tense language.
I used to call this step a writing blitz but I saw the term pre-writing in a book about writing and decided to adopt it. The step of pre-writing is similar to the exercise I used to do, writing morning pages, when I was going through The Artist's Way.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Recalibrating time line
I am behind on my time line for my book in progress (see Steve Teller called me a bastard). When I planned my writing schedule in the summer, I had planned on making November be my big push month. November is the month in which NaNoWriMo takes place - National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a creative writing project in which participants aim to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. I've never participated in a NaNoWriMo but I've thought about it. In fact, I thought I could use my current novel as an experiment to see how I'd fare in a NaNoWriMo.
Well, if this past November is any indication, I would not fare very well. My original plan was to complete my book plan by end of September, let it incubate in October, then blast out the text in November - my target was 60,000 words.
I actually completed my book plan in August, so I thought, why wait until November? The target of 60,000 words in a month sounded very ambitious and so I decided to start writing in September and plan to finish my first draft in November. I thought I would use September and October as warm ups and do my most writing in November.
Ha! November actually turned out to be my least productive writing month. Part of the reason was that I lost my job at the end of October and used a lot of my emotional energy in November setting up the transition into my new lifestyle, instead of writing.
My current word count is over 21,000 so I am just over one third towards my target. I've completed my first draft on Chapter 1, have written most of Chapter 2, and have started writing scenes for Chapters 3 and 4. I'm recalibrating my time line. My new target is to complete to end of Chapter 4 by the end of this month. The end of this year! At that point I will have completed half of my book, according to my book plan (I am planning to write eight chapters in total).
Well, if this past November is any indication, I would not fare very well. My original plan was to complete my book plan by end of September, let it incubate in October, then blast out the text in November - my target was 60,000 words.
I actually completed my book plan in August, so I thought, why wait until November? The target of 60,000 words in a month sounded very ambitious and so I decided to start writing in September and plan to finish my first draft in November. I thought I would use September and October as warm ups and do my most writing in November.
Ha! November actually turned out to be my least productive writing month. Part of the reason was that I lost my job at the end of October and used a lot of my emotional energy in November setting up the transition into my new lifestyle, instead of writing.
My current word count is over 21,000 so I am just over one third towards my target. I've completed my first draft on Chapter 1, have written most of Chapter 2, and have started writing scenes for Chapters 3 and 4. I'm recalibrating my time line. My new target is to complete to end of Chapter 4 by the end of this month. The end of this year! At that point I will have completed half of my book, according to my book plan (I am planning to write eight chapters in total).
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Steve Teller called me a bastard
I think it's cool that Steve Teller called me a bastard.
Who is Steve Teller? you might be wondering.
He is one of the characters in the book I am working on. (See Feet back on home ground). I am developing a scene in which four characters are doing an exercise called This is what I want you to know about me. This is an exercise in which the participants open up and reveal themselves to each other.
In order to write this scene, I have to know what each character is going to reveal about himself - since they're all fictitious characters I have to invent or discover who they are.
A tool I use to do this is the Interview. I ask the character questions and I write down their responses. And sometimes their responses are surprising and colorful.
During his interview, Steve Teller answered one of my questions using a euphemism. So I paraphrased him using direct, blunt language. To which he replied, "You bastard". I must have struck a chord!
Why I think it's cool that he called me a bastard, is that his character is coming to life. He's starting to interact with me, the writer. I like the exchange so much that I'm going to keep that dialog in the story.
You'll have to read the book to find out what I said to him that prompted him to call me a bastard.
Who is Steve Teller? you might be wondering.
He is one of the characters in the book I am working on. (See Feet back on home ground). I am developing a scene in which four characters are doing an exercise called This is what I want you to know about me. This is an exercise in which the participants open up and reveal themselves to each other.
In order to write this scene, I have to know what each character is going to reveal about himself - since they're all fictitious characters I have to invent or discover who they are.
A tool I use to do this is the Interview. I ask the character questions and I write down their responses. And sometimes their responses are surprising and colorful.
During his interview, Steve Teller answered one of my questions using a euphemism. So I paraphrased him using direct, blunt language. To which he replied, "You bastard". I must have struck a chord!
Why I think it's cool that he called me a bastard, is that his character is coming to life. He's starting to interact with me, the writer. I like the exchange so much that I'm going to keep that dialog in the story.
You'll have to read the book to find out what I said to him that prompted him to call me a bastard.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Feet back on home ground, mind is miles above
I've been back home from Seattle for over a week now. My feet are back on home ground now, but my mind is miles above.
One thing I took away with me from my 21CL experience this year was a detailed plan to complete a first draft of a book by the end of November. That sounds like an aggressive schedule, considering that I've been working on Mission: Dawn for some four years now. I've learned some things about organizing myself to write a book during those years, and I think my schedule is doable.
This book is not Mission: Dawn, but I think that by following my plan I will gain the experience to finish Mission: Dawn.
This book is about four men who transform their lives when they become involved in a men's organization. I am creating a fictional organization for the book, but am modeling it after the real world Mens Division that I belong to. I have plenty of real life experience to draw on for creating this story - unlike my science fiction novel, for which I work a lot more in order to "discover the story".
The first milestone in my schedule is to write Character Biographies, Character Interviews, and Character Arcs, by August 3. That's just a few days away - I already have most of my Character Bio's done, but I'll have to get motoring to get everything else done by the 3rd.
One thing I took away with me from my 21CL experience this year was a detailed plan to complete a first draft of a book by the end of November. That sounds like an aggressive schedule, considering that I've been working on Mission: Dawn for some four years now. I've learned some things about organizing myself to write a book during those years, and I think my schedule is doable.
This book is not Mission: Dawn, but I think that by following my plan I will gain the experience to finish Mission: Dawn.
This book is about four men who transform their lives when they become involved in a men's organization. I am creating a fictional organization for the book, but am modeling it after the real world Mens Division that I belong to. I have plenty of real life experience to draw on for creating this story - unlike my science fiction novel, for which I work a lot more in order to "discover the story".
The first milestone in my schedule is to write Character Biographies, Character Interviews, and Character Arcs, by August 3. That's just a few days away - I already have most of my Character Bio's done, but I'll have to get motoring to get everything else done by the 3rd.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Dirk - working out the plot
There is a particular story that takes place in the Dirk Halfspeed universe that I've wanted to write for a long time. I originally tinkered around with this story idea, thinking to write it as the next episode in the original serial. I have written several scenes for it but never quite finished it.
The last episode of the original serial had the trio of Dirk, Joe, and Seran deal with their sudden jaunt into Negative Time by deciding to hibernate their way back to their present time. My writing partner wrote this particular episode as a way of returning the characters back to the familiar setting. Although my partner wrote the story well, over time I have found myself disappointed with this ending to the serial. I felt disappointed because we had an opportunity to take the serial into a whole new direction, and instead we undid every possible change of direction; we hit the reset button.
I started to imagine what would have happened if the characters had actually tampered with the past. What if one of the characters somehow remembered an alternate sequence of events - perhaps a sequence of events that never happened, because Time prevents paradox from occurring. Yet one character, Joe, has vivid memories of an alternate existence, one in which he had fathered a child with one of his women. Then he discovers that in the normal universe, this woman has died while giving birth. Now he wants to go back in time again and prevent her and his child from dying. Only he can't, because nature works to prevent paradox. Now, tell me if that doesn't raise the emotional stakes some!
I like this story idea; I like the possibilities of what it allows me to do with the characters. I've abandoned the idea of writing it as a continuation episode for the original serial, but I am still interested in using it for a reimagined series.
At the beginning of the new story, Dirk is floating in space with no knowledge of who he is, no memory of how he got there. Somehow, I have got to get him from here to meeting Joe and Seran. The Beginning is the part of the story that tells of how the trio meet each other, and why they end up going back in time. The Middle is about their experiences while in the past, and about their return to the present. The End is about Joe's frustrated attempts to go back in time again and save his son. The Climax is when Dirk realizes the truth - that time "takes care of itself" and prevents paradox from occurring. Thus Dirk decides to stop supporting Joe's efforts in order to prevent Joe from self-destructing. Dirk may even have to sabotage Joe's final, desperate attempt - and damages his relationship in the process.
Whew - I've got a lot of work ahead of me here.
The last episode of the original serial had the trio of Dirk, Joe, and Seran deal with their sudden jaunt into Negative Time by deciding to hibernate their way back to their present time. My writing partner wrote this particular episode as a way of returning the characters back to the familiar setting. Although my partner wrote the story well, over time I have found myself disappointed with this ending to the serial. I felt disappointed because we had an opportunity to take the serial into a whole new direction, and instead we undid every possible change of direction; we hit the reset button.
I started to imagine what would have happened if the characters had actually tampered with the past. What if one of the characters somehow remembered an alternate sequence of events - perhaps a sequence of events that never happened, because Time prevents paradox from occurring. Yet one character, Joe, has vivid memories of an alternate existence, one in which he had fathered a child with one of his women. Then he discovers that in the normal universe, this woman has died while giving birth. Now he wants to go back in time again and prevent her and his child from dying. Only he can't, because nature works to prevent paradox. Now, tell me if that doesn't raise the emotional stakes some!
I like this story idea; I like the possibilities of what it allows me to do with the characters. I've abandoned the idea of writing it as a continuation episode for the original serial, but I am still interested in using it for a reimagined series.
At the beginning of the new story, Dirk is floating in space with no knowledge of who he is, no memory of how he got there. Somehow, I have got to get him from here to meeting Joe and Seran. The Beginning is the part of the story that tells of how the trio meet each other, and why they end up going back in time. The Middle is about their experiences while in the past, and about their return to the present. The End is about Joe's frustrated attempts to go back in time again and save his son. The Climax is when Dirk realizes the truth - that time "takes care of itself" and prevents paradox from occurring. Thus Dirk decides to stop supporting Joe's efforts in order to prevent Joe from self-destructing. Dirk may even have to sabotage Joe's final, desperate attempt - and damages his relationship in the process.
Whew - I've got a lot of work ahead of me here.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Short story - My Other Car is a Ford
From WritersDigest.com: While driving to pick up lunch, you accidentally bump into the car in front of you—a light fender bender—that pops open the other car’s trunk. When you get out to assess the damage, you notice that the driver of the other car is none other than your favorite actor. More important, you notice a dead body in the trunk. Who is the actor and what elaborate excuse does he give you to explain the dead body in his trunk? (500 words or fewer).
It was a rainy day - no, really; and like every time we have bad weather, the traffic was horrendous. There's no avoiding it - I was going to be late for work again. My stomach growled. I had skipped breakfast so I could get to the office early, but the traffic was going to wreck that plan. Skipped breakfast, and didn't make my lunch. This is looking like the beginning of a bad day.
Since I was going to be late anyway, I decided to get off the highway, pick up some grub to appease my stomach.
The line up at the drive-through was moving slowly also. My mind must have wandered off because next thing I know, I heard a loud crash and the whole car jolted. I first thought the guy behind me had rear-ended me, but then realized it was I who had rear-ended the guy in front of me. Oh, crap.
I got out of my car to check out the damage and the driver of the car I hit got out as well. A few curses come to mind, a few curses to throw at him, but I hold my tongue. I have learned, many times over, the wisdom of not hurling the first words that come to me in a situation like this. The consequences have never made up for the momentary satisfaction that it brings.
It was bad. The bumpers were - well, to say bumped is an understatement. They should be called smashers, or collapsers, or something like that. The lid of my victim's trunk had popped open with the impact, and a bad smell came from within. Like the smell of rotting meat. A couple thousand dollars worth of damage. Oh crap, oh crap.
"Okay, look, the damage is not too bad, there's no need to get the police or the insurance companies involved," said the other driver.
His voice sounded familiar. Hey wait a minute - this is Harrison Ford! Like, no way, man!
His eyes darted to the lid of his trunk quickly then darted back to me. He looked, excuse the pun, frantic. "Yeah," he said. He sounded like he was trying to think of something to say. "Look, son…" He pushed down on the lid of his trunk. "I need to get this meat to the banquet hall before it thaws out." He took out his wallet, fumbled with it, and handed me, get this – a one thousand dollar bill. "This should cover the damage to your car, right? Just take this, I'll pretend none of this has happened."
I was flabbergasted as I reached out and took the bill. The situation seemed so unreal. Then it hit me, what was going on here. I handed the bill back to him.
"Would you autograph this for me, Mr. Ford?"
It was a rainy day - no, really; and like every time we have bad weather, the traffic was horrendous. There's no avoiding it - I was going to be late for work again. My stomach growled. I had skipped breakfast so I could get to the office early, but the traffic was going to wreck that plan. Skipped breakfast, and didn't make my lunch. This is looking like the beginning of a bad day.
Since I was going to be late anyway, I decided to get off the highway, pick up some grub to appease my stomach.
The line up at the drive-through was moving slowly also. My mind must have wandered off because next thing I know, I heard a loud crash and the whole car jolted. I first thought the guy behind me had rear-ended me, but then realized it was I who had rear-ended the guy in front of me. Oh, crap.
I got out of my car to check out the damage and the driver of the car I hit got out as well. A few curses come to mind, a few curses to throw at him, but I hold my tongue. I have learned, many times over, the wisdom of not hurling the first words that come to me in a situation like this. The consequences have never made up for the momentary satisfaction that it brings.
It was bad. The bumpers were - well, to say bumped is an understatement. They should be called smashers, or collapsers, or something like that. The lid of my victim's trunk had popped open with the impact, and a bad smell came from within. Like the smell of rotting meat. A couple thousand dollars worth of damage. Oh crap, oh crap.
"Okay, look, the damage is not too bad, there's no need to get the police or the insurance companies involved," said the other driver.
His voice sounded familiar. Hey wait a minute - this is Harrison Ford! Like, no way, man!
His eyes darted to the lid of his trunk quickly then darted back to me. He looked, excuse the pun, frantic. "Yeah," he said. He sounded like he was trying to think of something to say. "Look, son…" He pushed down on the lid of his trunk. "I need to get this meat to the banquet hall before it thaws out." He took out his wallet, fumbled with it, and handed me, get this – a one thousand dollar bill. "This should cover the damage to your car, right? Just take this, I'll pretend none of this has happened."
I was flabbergasted as I reached out and took the bill. The situation seemed so unreal. Then it hit me, what was going on here. I handed the bill back to him.
"Would you autograph this for me, Mr. Ford?"
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Dirk Halfspeed Reimagined - Part 4
Joe may be the only one of the trio that has the same name in the reimagined series. Joe King. What is he doing on Nexus station? What has drawn him here? At this stage of his life, Joe is a member of the team that is developing the Sirius prototype - an advanced personality program. He is on Nexus Station as part of his team for some kind of project celebration. He is also here to see a speaker, Professor Leo Rinaldo, who is on the station to give a speech about something that interests Joe. Joe will meet with Rinaldo privately after the presentation and will learn something about Rinaldo's theories about time
Joe has been on the station once before, about two years ago. He was dating a woman then, named Eleisha, and they had a terrific date on the station. Being on the station again reminds Joe of this past fling. Joe reminisces and has several flashbacks about the time he had spent with Eleisha.
Joe has been on the station once before, about two years ago. He was dating a woman then, named Eleisha, and they had a terrific date on the station. Being on the station again reminds Joe of this past fling. Joe reminisces and has several flashbacks about the time he had spent with Eleisha.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Dirk Halfspeed Reimagined - Part 3
The reimagined version of Seran, her last name is similar to Dippity, but it's a name that would actually be found in a contemporary phone book.
Seran is young, she is married, and she has been frustrated and unhappy in her marriage. She has come to Nexus station because she has left her husband Noel and has come to start a new life for herself.
She checks into her room (Nexus Station has a hotel). She is distraught, she is upset. Now that she has left her husband she doesn't know what to do with herself. She flips through the channels on the TV in her room (which is actually called a "television", or "TV" in this universe). She finds nothing that interests her. She flips through a romantic drama, a comedy, a sports broadcast, and a porn movie. Disgusted and upset, she flips off the TV, and cries for a while.
After she has had a chance to get her tears out of her system, she decides to pull herself together and get out of her room. Go for a walk. Go explore the station. She passes a few clothing shops and browses.
At one of the shops she stops to admire a dress that has a black and white checker pattern. Perhaps she tries it on, perhaps she even buys it. The pattern on the dress is a visual symbol that will be repeated throughout the story - the theme of chess. Dirk "Knightly", Joe "King" - these are a few examples of the chess symbolism popping up.
She pops into a book store for a while. Then she decides she wants company, wants to be in a social setting. There are two bars that she knows of because she has already passed them by. One is a real meat market kind of place - men and women provocatively clad, and strange looking aliens too. The other bar is conservative, it is populated by businessmen, and a few women; they are conservatively dressed. She pops into that one to have a drink.
Seran is young, she is married, and she has been frustrated and unhappy in her marriage. She has come to Nexus station because she has left her husband Noel and has come to start a new life for herself.
She checks into her room (Nexus Station has a hotel). She is distraught, she is upset. Now that she has left her husband she doesn't know what to do with herself. She flips through the channels on the TV in her room (which is actually called a "television", or "TV" in this universe). She finds nothing that interests her. She flips through a romantic drama, a comedy, a sports broadcast, and a porn movie. Disgusted and upset, she flips off the TV, and cries for a while.
After she has had a chance to get her tears out of her system, she decides to pull herself together and get out of her room. Go for a walk. Go explore the station. She passes a few clothing shops and browses.
At one of the shops she stops to admire a dress that has a black and white checker pattern. Perhaps she tries it on, perhaps she even buys it. The pattern on the dress is a visual symbol that will be repeated throughout the story - the theme of chess. Dirk "Knightly", Joe "King" - these are a few examples of the chess symbolism popping up.
She pops into a book store for a while. Then she decides she wants company, wants to be in a social setting. There are two bars that she knows of because she has already passed them by. One is a real meat market kind of place - men and women provocatively clad, and strange looking aliens too. The other bar is conservative, it is populated by businessmen, and a few women; they are conservatively dressed. She pops into that one to have a drink.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Dirk Halfspeed Reimagined - Part 2
Let's say Dirk's real name is Dirk Knightley (or some variation of this spelling). Let's say Dirk does not find out what is his last name, only his first name, and let's say his real name is not revealed to the readers either, at least not for the first few episodes. So the opening scene he's floating in space unconscious, a la The Bourne Identity. He comes to, he discovers his first name is Dirk and he discovers he knows nothing else about himself.
He discovers he has lots of oxygen remaining, maybe four hours, so he is not in immediate danger of suffocating - but he's in space, who knows how far he is from anything. He tests his thrusters and plays around with them. He can "swim" in space, but what direction would he go in?
Perhaps he is able to determine by reading the stars that he is "near" the Nexus station. "Near" means six to eight hours away at thruster speed. More than the amount of time for which his oxygen will last. His thruster only has enough power for maybe two hours. Maybe only half an hour.
He flips himself around to face various directions but there is nothing to see in any direction. But wait, one of the stars is getting brighter. Or is it? It seems to be getting bigger. Dirk realizes there is a ship heading right for him. It is heading right towards him, like a speeding locomotive train.
He dives straight "down", relative to the axis of the ship's travel. He hears a huge rumble, then remembers sound doesn't travel in space. The sound is his own heartbeat, his own breathing, his own blood pumping through his veins; his sense of hearing has been heightened by fear. He looks up and sees the ship passing overhead, maybe four to twelve feet above him. A close call. The ship is moving quickly but he recognizes that the ship is decelerating. He concludes that the ship must be enroute to Nexus Station and is decelerating in preparation for docking. What is several hours away for him is merely minutes away for this ship.
Perhaps Dirk attaches himself to the ship (How? It is moving very fast. Wouldn't his arms be ripped off if he tried to "grab" it?) Perhaps he is close enough to be pulled along by its wake (some kind of magnetic wake that his suit responds to). In any case, he gets an unexpected boost of speed that allows him to "swim" to Nexus station before his oxygen runs out.
He discovers he has lots of oxygen remaining, maybe four hours, so he is not in immediate danger of suffocating - but he's in space, who knows how far he is from anything. He tests his thrusters and plays around with them. He can "swim" in space, but what direction would he go in?
Perhaps he is able to determine by reading the stars that he is "near" the Nexus station. "Near" means six to eight hours away at thruster speed. More than the amount of time for which his oxygen will last. His thruster only has enough power for maybe two hours. Maybe only half an hour.
He flips himself around to face various directions but there is nothing to see in any direction. But wait, one of the stars is getting brighter. Or is it? It seems to be getting bigger. Dirk realizes there is a ship heading right for him. It is heading right towards him, like a speeding locomotive train.
He dives straight "down", relative to the axis of the ship's travel. He hears a huge rumble, then remembers sound doesn't travel in space. The sound is his own heartbeat, his own breathing, his own blood pumping through his veins; his sense of hearing has been heightened by fear. He looks up and sees the ship passing overhead, maybe four to twelve feet above him. A close call. The ship is moving quickly but he recognizes that the ship is decelerating. He concludes that the ship must be enroute to Nexus Station and is decelerating in preparation for docking. What is several hours away for him is merely minutes away for this ship.
Perhaps Dirk attaches himself to the ship (How? It is moving very fast. Wouldn't his arms be ripped off if he tried to "grab" it?) Perhaps he is close enough to be pulled along by its wake (some kind of magnetic wake that his suit responds to). In any case, he gets an unexpected boost of speed that allows him to "swim" to Nexus station before his oxygen runs out.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Dirk Halfspeed Reimagined - Part 1
In the eighties, I used to cowrite an adventure serial called The Tales of Dirk Halfspeed. We wrote it in a slapstick, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy style. I and my writing partner wrote about thirty eight or so episodes.
That's a couple of decades ago and I still periodically have thoughts of writing the next episode, or rebooting the whole serial and start something fresh that is based on those characters. It would be an opportunity to clean up all the inconsistencies we'd written ourselves into, as well as an opportunity for the story itself to mature into something more character oriented and dramatic.
So I've had some ideas and I've jotted down some notes, some thoughts on what a reimagined series could look like.
Dirk comes to consciousness, finding himself floating in space. He is in a space suit with no memory of who he is or how he got into this predicament. He finds a label on his suit and learns that his name is Dirk Halfspeed. Perhaps in a plot twist we learn that this was not really his name but that there is some other significance to this name he finds, but he mistakenly believes it is his name. He adopts it as his identity. This perhaps causes him trouble later, as the name is really a code word or perhaps refers to an organization or something, and is associated with a group of people that are up to no good.
How does Dirk survive? How does he find Sirius? How does he hook up with Seran and Joe, and who are these people in the reimagined series? How does the Negative Time link to this?
Somehow he gets to a space station. This station is like a nexus, because Seran and Joe are both independantly drawn there, and that is where the trio meet each other for the first time (unless I decide that Joe really is Dirk's brother, an idea I tried to work into the original series).
More thoughts and explorations to follow.
That's a couple of decades ago and I still periodically have thoughts of writing the next episode, or rebooting the whole serial and start something fresh that is based on those characters. It would be an opportunity to clean up all the inconsistencies we'd written ourselves into, as well as an opportunity for the story itself to mature into something more character oriented and dramatic.
So I've had some ideas and I've jotted down some notes, some thoughts on what a reimagined series could look like.
Dirk comes to consciousness, finding himself floating in space. He is in a space suit with no memory of who he is or how he got into this predicament. He finds a label on his suit and learns that his name is Dirk Halfspeed. Perhaps in a plot twist we learn that this was not really his name but that there is some other significance to this name he finds, but he mistakenly believes it is his name. He adopts it as his identity. This perhaps causes him trouble later, as the name is really a code word or perhaps refers to an organization or something, and is associated with a group of people that are up to no good.
How does Dirk survive? How does he find Sirius? How does he hook up with Seran and Joe, and who are these people in the reimagined series? How does the Negative Time link to this?
Somehow he gets to a space station. This station is like a nexus, because Seran and Joe are both independantly drawn there, and that is where the trio meet each other for the first time (unless I decide that Joe really is Dirk's brother, an idea I tried to work into the original series).
More thoughts and explorations to follow.
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