Beautiful People - April

Well, here it is. Finally. Beautiful People. Some of you may have already seen it over at Sam's blog. That's fine, but I figured it's about time I actually posted it here as well. Yes, it's late. Very late. I apologize. I could give you several reasons why, but you've heard it all before so I'll spare you the details. (Just so you don't feel completely left out, my script for Script Frenzy hasn't been finished either. My blog isn't the only thing that's been neglected) 

So, here's 10 questions for the month. If you're new to Beautiful People, it's not hard and you're welcome to jump in whenever you like. Simply choose a character to answer the following questions for. Post them on your blog, and come back here to join the linky. Fun stuff. Easy to do. Great for character analysis (which I've said before, and I'll say again, helps more then one can imagine when it comes to plot holes).

Thanks to Mime for suggesting the first question. The rest of them... well, let's just say it's been a long couple of weeks for Sam and I.

1. What is their favorite type of shoe?
2. Do they journal?
3. What's their favorite animal?
4. What does their average day look like?
5. Night owl, or morning person? (Optional: What time do they normally wake up, and go to bed?)
6. Do they have a sweet tooth?
7. What colors are their bedroom?
8. Can they cook?
9. What is their favorite household chore?
10. Favorite kind of tea?

I'm Yours, and Writerly Musings

First of all, I love this kid. 

This video has 53,468,658 views. 20 of them were probably me. 
I haven't been doing a lot of writing lately, although I should be. My plan is not only to convert my NaNo novel of 2010 into a film script for Script Frenzy, but I would also like to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo this year. Both times. Thus, on top of the rewrites I should be doing to The Way We Think, I should be outlining. Ha. 
By the way, if you go to the Script Frenzy website and use the Plot Machine on the main page, you'll probably laugh. I did. 

While drowning in the Caspian Sea a wedding photographer with Tourette's puts his life on the line to save the ant colony. 

The great thing about writing is that nothing is really impossible. The other great thing, is everything you can put the characters through. You would think drowning in the Caspian Sea was rather life threatening, but just wait till we reach the ant colony. That's where you'll find the real danger. 
I have been working on a bit of a short story. It's based off of a quote Fin and I found on the internet. You can read the entire thing here (it's rather long). It inspired something along these lines. 

He reached the little shop within twenty minutes. A sign on the door warned him to step down as he entered. The first thing he noticed was the air. Not just the smell of an old book, or turning pages, but that thick air that surrounds them and makes them feel that much different. The second thing he noticed was the cat, sitting next to the cash register. Perhaps he'd chosen the place to rest, not only because he could easily keep an eye on those who entered, but also because every other surface on the counter was covered with books. Piles of books. The long haired creature blinked lazily, as if Reed held no interest for him, and yet the soft green eyes remained locked on him. Watching his every move. Reed found an uncertain smile on his face and a few words stuttering from his lips. "I... just wanted to... to look around." He stopped when he realized he was talking to a cat. He wasn't sure if there was any other human in the building. Not only could he hear no evidence of it, but he could also see none. 

I'm sure I'll get to my outlining eventually. The week before Camp NaNo begins perhaps? 

In Which Georgie Wins a Frenzy

When I had a free moment today the first thought that came to my mind was scriptwriting. How many pages I could get in before something else arrested my time. There was only one problem with that.

Sam and I were faced with this graphic yesterday night. I was un-able to write any more pages, because there were no more pages to write. The script has ended at a total of 108 pages. This script that is, because now that we've been bitten by the bug, there is no way it's our last one.

In Which Georgie Discovers The Day of the Week

I used to wonder how on earth someone could not know what day of the week it was.

"Is this Tuesday, or Wednesday?"

I would look at them skeptically and wonder why you would even need to ask that question. Did you completely skip Tuesday? Did you just return from time travel, unsure how much time you spent away? Yesterday was Tuesday. Tomorrow's Thursday. Duh, it's Wednesday.

Then, of course, I always heard people saying the only way they could remember what day it was, was by thinking of the things that were happening that week. Grandma's denture fitting on Monday. Ferdinand's didgeridoo recital on Tuesday. Clementine's initiation into Knit's of the Round Table on Wednesday. On and on.

Things have changed since then though. All week I've been confused as to what day it was. Actually, I even got May and July mixed up. I'm pretty sure the only reason I know what month it is, is due to the fact that I've been writing a screenplay. That's got to mean ScriptFrenzy, and SF takes place in April.

Speaking of ScriptFrenzy, Sam and I have reached 84 pages. Since we've run out of plot, things have kind of been rambling along. Interesting tid-bits we weren't expecting popping up here and there. We have no idea where this whole thing is going, but we do know we only have 16 pages left of the challenge. We also know The Romantic Plot Trasher will not be winning any Academy awards.

Anyway, here I am. Only knowing what day tomorrow is because I get to go in and find out about that wonderful thing where dentists rip the big kid teeth that are supposed to give you wisdom from your head. Duh, tomorrow's Thursday. Oh... wait.

Lessons to be Learned Within 57 Pages

FADE IN

Two weeks ago tomorrow, my Sam and I started writing our very first script. Ever.

We decided to try for 50 pages by the end of this month. Today we reached 57 pages. In just those pages we've already learned a great deal.

1. We're in love with screenwriting.

2. It doesn't take as long to write one page, as it does to write 750 words.

3. One man can accidentally be turned into two, but still be one person. (Don't ask)

4. It's very easy to have a lack of connection between co-authors.

5. Nine year old boys can pop out of nowhere and completely steal your heart.

6. It is possible to keep on top of editing/novel writing while doing Script Frenzy.

7. Flashbacks can be either awesome, or a pain.

8. We now know what terms like "slugline," "V.O.," "O.S.," "Int.," and "Ext" mean.

Without actually confirming it with each other, we're shooting for 100 pages by the 30th. The only problem is, we've run out of the resources we were going off of. We had started to write our script, basing it off of a story we were writing together. We've reached the end of what we had written in novel form.

Somehow, I don't think we'll have to much of a problem coming up with the rest of the plot. After all, that's one thing that doesn't change from novel to script. In the end, they both just tell a story.

FADE OUT

Writing Updates

Although I posted the other day saying Sam and I were going to tackle Script Frenzy, we still weren't 100% positive if we would. We knew for sure this evening. The answer was yes. We were going to.

One small thing has changed, however. With both of us being insanely busy this month, we decided to go with the Young Writer's Program. Our goal is 50 pages by April 30. To start with at least. It could very easily grow depending on how well this goes.

Once again, you can keep up with our progress on our joint profile: pippinandsam. I'll also be updating here from time to time.

As for the rest of my writing... more to the point, as for The Way We Think (NaNoWriMo novel of 2010) things are going rather slowly. My goal to finish second draft is still set for June 1, but I think it's going to be a lot harder from here on out. I've reached the point where my plot wasn't thought out quiet as well and things were just kind of meshed together in order to get me those 50,000 words. I'm not really sure how I'm going to strengthen these weak areas, and the thought is daunting me. Put simply, I've got writers block, or editors block if you like.

I've reached 50,414 words in this draft though, and I'm not going to let a little thing like writer's block hold me back. I'm hoping a little brainstorming, a lot of sugar, and an over-active imagination will be able to figure something out in the near future. If not... I'm not sure what I'll do.

Because I've Never Got Enough on my Plate

You know that feeling you get when you realize you've done something crazy? I'm surprised I'm not used to it yet.

My Sam and I have been talking about writing a script together for almost two years now. We wanted to write a screenplay about pirates. Why? Because we love pirates. Two years later, and we've not only managed to keep from writing a single word of the script, we hardly have a plot. Those years have come and gone and every once in awhile we would tell each other, "we really need to think about our pirate script and come up with a plot."

So, when Script Frenzy came around this year, we did the sensible thing. We decided not to use that script and to simply go with a novel we're in the process of writing together. Jokingly referred to as The Romantic Plot Trasher, or RPT. Okay, we always refer to it as The Romantic Plot Trasher. It has no other name. We called it this because one night I said I felt like writing something with a little romance (I have my moments), so did she. We didn't want to worry about plot. Put the two together and what do you get? Well, if you were the both of us, it would come out The Romantic Plot Trasher.

However, me, being the mostly rather un-romantic writer I am, the romance didn't last long. In fact, by the end of the first scene we discovered it was completely dead. Car crashes just come out of nowhere sometimes.

I'm not sure how long we've been working on this together, but we're only reached a few thousand words. The long and short of it is, we've got a loose idea of where the story is going, but it's a plot trasher. We have no idea what we're doing. Neither of us has ever ventured into the screenwriting world. We just wanna have some fun.

If you want to follow us, or are doing Script Frenzy yourself, my username is GeorgiePenn.