(Note - I am not schziophrenic - Yes you are! Blah blah blah!)
Ever feel you live with your characters?
I remember back in my early days of writing screenplays, I had a tough scene to crack. A love scene, no, scratch that, a sex scene - and for some bizarre reason, I couldn't write it.
I don't know why but for some reason, whatever I wrote just sounded forced and fake. I found a quick and enjoyable way through it.
I took my characters to the pub and got them drunk.
Now understand that I didn't write a drinking scene into the script. More alarmingly, I gathered up my notebooks, went to the pub by myself during the day, arranged three empty chairs around me and then I got drunk, thus inebriating my characters, and you know what? It seemed to work. My characters got hot and heavy and the next day, I found myself blushing at what they had got up to.
I was proud. Until I realised that having the male lead actually fail to close the deal was more in line with the story and thus I had to delete the entire scene, but an important thought had occurred with this exercise.
Is living with your characters a good idea?
For actors, it's called method, when you simply never break character. For us writers, it's slightly more complicated. We are everyone in the story. Effectively, we are God, without the reluctance to get involved.
So how involved SHOULD we get?
The day had loosened my writing insecurities (if you don't drink, ignore this entire post) and made me feel that not only could my characters surprise me but I could sit with them at the same time, be with them and enjoy their company. Believe me, it felt like a guilty pleasure.
Quentin Tarantino said 'I didn't know Mr Blonde had a razor in his boot until he pulled it.'
This sounds crazy, but to me it made some sort of logistical sense.
I love that, when characters are capable of making you go 'whoa, where did that come from?' It excites and hopefully, it has the capacity to excite your readers. I've finished scripts and missed the characters! Actually missed them!
So, is 'living with your characters' a good idea?
I'd like to think so, then again, if you write disturbingly freaky shit, either get involved or call the police...
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Friday, 8 January 2010
Learning to forget the ideas that won't die
Us writers, we talk a lot about how we deal with developing our ideas.
How the idea comes to us, where we went with it, how we tend to feel after the story is completed.
But you know what we never talk about?
The ideas that plague us, the ideas that torment us, the ideas that ultimately may turn out to ruin us.
Why don't we, who deal in self expression, talk openly about the things we DON'T want to write about??!
Since I got serious about my vampires, there have been two ideas that WILL NOT LEAVE ME.
I don't want to write them.
More importantly, I don't think anyone would like to read them.
However, in the interests of 'nailing demons to the page', I think it might be interesting for the first time to pen down the thoughts that I would rather not explore on the page. They may be better off roaming the confines of my brain.
1. A vampire has been captured, tortured, cut within an inch of his immortal life, to reveal a secret that he will not reveal. Every possible disgusting method is utilised and the vamp laughs through most of it, if only to unsettle his captors.
The truth, for us readers who get an intimate glimpse into his mind, is that every torture cuts him to pieces and he, immortal or not, is at the end of his immortal tether, close to breaking, close to revealing a secret that not only threatens the life of a mortal but of all that she holds dear. (yes, I said 'she'.)
Q. Why don't you write it?
A. I hate torture films, stories, etc. It really upsets me. I think the idea that captors are torturing an immortal and unaware of it is unique but I don't think I could pull it off without disgusting my readers.
Q. Where did it come from?
A. No fucking idea, but it upsets me, so lets move on.
2. A vampire who originally wanted to kill an entire family becomes their unwitting saviour as a bunch of other kindred make their aggressive move all too soon.
Q. Why not write this?
A. I can't seem to find a suitable motive for why a vampire would protect humans.
Q. That sounds like a twinkie defence. Why won't you really write it?
A. It would read more like a therapy session for my readers to gain an insight into me than an actual story. It would be fake, false, no matter how genuine I intended it to be. I'm a coward. I don't want to go there.
Q. You may have a whole novella there. Isn't the risk worth it?
A. No.
These two ideas will not leave me. Every time I think about the creature, the useful metaphor of the vampire, these two ideas re-float to the surface. I have avoided them deliberately since the age of fifteen, and with good reason, at least from my standpoint.
I guess the title of this most recent blog is misleading. I don't know how to forget the ideas that won't die....
.....but if someone else knows, please message me.
How the idea comes to us, where we went with it, how we tend to feel after the story is completed.
But you know what we never talk about?
The ideas that plague us, the ideas that torment us, the ideas that ultimately may turn out to ruin us.
Why don't we, who deal in self expression, talk openly about the things we DON'T want to write about??!
Since I got serious about my vampires, there have been two ideas that WILL NOT LEAVE ME.
I don't want to write them.
More importantly, I don't think anyone would like to read them.
However, in the interests of 'nailing demons to the page', I think it might be interesting for the first time to pen down the thoughts that I would rather not explore on the page. They may be better off roaming the confines of my brain.
1. A vampire has been captured, tortured, cut within an inch of his immortal life, to reveal a secret that he will not reveal. Every possible disgusting method is utilised and the vamp laughs through most of it, if only to unsettle his captors.
The truth, for us readers who get an intimate glimpse into his mind, is that every torture cuts him to pieces and he, immortal or not, is at the end of his immortal tether, close to breaking, close to revealing a secret that not only threatens the life of a mortal but of all that she holds dear. (yes, I said 'she'.)
Q. Why don't you write it?
A. I hate torture films, stories, etc. It really upsets me. I think the idea that captors are torturing an immortal and unaware of it is unique but I don't think I could pull it off without disgusting my readers.
Q. Where did it come from?
A. No fucking idea, but it upsets me, so lets move on.
2. A vampire who originally wanted to kill an entire family becomes their unwitting saviour as a bunch of other kindred make their aggressive move all too soon.
Q. Why not write this?
A. I can't seem to find a suitable motive for why a vampire would protect humans.
Q. That sounds like a twinkie defence. Why won't you really write it?
A. It would read more like a therapy session for my readers to gain an insight into me than an actual story. It would be fake, false, no matter how genuine I intended it to be. I'm a coward. I don't want to go there.
Q. You may have a whole novella there. Isn't the risk worth it?
A. No.
These two ideas will not leave me. Every time I think about the creature, the useful metaphor of the vampire, these two ideas re-float to the surface. I have avoided them deliberately since the age of fifteen, and with good reason, at least from my standpoint.
I guess the title of this most recent blog is misleading. I don't know how to forget the ideas that won't die....
.....but if someone else knows, please message me.
Monday, 4 January 2010
Is this WRITE for me?
Just got over Christmas and New Year with a sigh. No matter how good a time you have, it always feels somewhat anticlimatic eh?
Oh, and I got married. You know, 'cause I had a spare few minutes. My wife is wonderful, just simply wonderful (I'll find a flaw if it's the last thing I do!) and very supportive of my writing, which really helps, obviously.
A brand new year brings with it many thoughts and feelings. For me, it brings the finished prologue, the beginning, to my second novel for Vamplit Publishing, a second novel with a far more challenging premise than Swan Song.
If I am honest, the concept alone terrifies the living hell out of me.
My idea is one that can fail on so many levels it boggles the mind. If I pull it off, meh, if nothing else, I will have pleased myself. But will anyone really care as much as I do?
And here's the point of this much belated blog post; how do you ever really know writing is for you? And I don't mind writing for enjoyment, that should always be encouraged. I mean how do you ever really know that people really like/love your work? Would they care at all if you just simply stopped? Guess you could ask...
I recently had my confidence knocked regarding Swan Song and it did rattle me. I've always been the sensitive kind (I've haven't met a creative soul who isn't) and I always take a positive from a negative but it did get me thinking, this most recent of reviews. Am I wasting my time?
How do you ever really know that your writing is worthwhile? I try to keep myself grounded, no idea is ever as good as I think it is, no sentence perfect, no premise irresistible, yet when I do allow myself flights of fancy, writing becomes truly enjoyable. This story will rock them! I think. Wait till they see how this turns out!
But what if I'm nowhere near as good or as competent as I think I am? What if the only person who will read my work in the years to come is me? What if I should pay more attention to my 9 to 5 job?
I don't have the answer, not yet, and it's the first blog of mine to end without advice of some kind, or at least a positive closer.
Maybe because I am not sure if I am the right person to give advice at this early stage.
All I will offer as I promise to work harder than ever on my stories is much more frequent blogs, far more positivity than I have even shown in my earlier posts and a genuine desire to get so selfish that even if it's only me that enjoys my writing, that's more than enough for me to carry on.
And with that...
(heads back to the important word doc with a beer in hand)
Oh, and I got married. You know, 'cause I had a spare few minutes. My wife is wonderful, just simply wonderful (I'll find a flaw if it's the last thing I do!) and very supportive of my writing, which really helps, obviously.
A brand new year brings with it many thoughts and feelings. For me, it brings the finished prologue, the beginning, to my second novel for Vamplit Publishing, a second novel with a far more challenging premise than Swan Song.
If I am honest, the concept alone terrifies the living hell out of me.
My idea is one that can fail on so many levels it boggles the mind. If I pull it off, meh, if nothing else, I will have pleased myself. But will anyone really care as much as I do?
And here's the point of this much belated blog post; how do you ever really know writing is for you? And I don't mind writing for enjoyment, that should always be encouraged. I mean how do you ever really know that people really like/love your work? Would they care at all if you just simply stopped? Guess you could ask...
I recently had my confidence knocked regarding Swan Song and it did rattle me. I've always been the sensitive kind (I've haven't met a creative soul who isn't) and I always take a positive from a negative but it did get me thinking, this most recent of reviews. Am I wasting my time?
How do you ever really know that your writing is worthwhile? I try to keep myself grounded, no idea is ever as good as I think it is, no sentence perfect, no premise irresistible, yet when I do allow myself flights of fancy, writing becomes truly enjoyable. This story will rock them! I think. Wait till they see how this turns out!
But what if I'm nowhere near as good or as competent as I think I am? What if the only person who will read my work in the years to come is me? What if I should pay more attention to my 9 to 5 job?
I don't have the answer, not yet, and it's the first blog of mine to end without advice of some kind, or at least a positive closer.
Maybe because I am not sure if I am the right person to give advice at this early stage.
All I will offer as I promise to work harder than ever on my stories is much more frequent blogs, far more positivity than I have even shown in my earlier posts and a genuine desire to get so selfish that even if it's only me that enjoys my writing, that's more than enough for me to carry on.
And with that...
(heads back to the important word doc with a beer in hand)
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
The Idea Factory
It’s the age old question anyone creative gets asks, where do you get your ideas from?
Stephen King is famous for saying that ideas don’t pop into his head late at night while drinking blood and sitting at a cobwebbed typewriter. Most often, a concept will spring, sometimes fully formed, into his subconscious either driving down a sunny highway or mid conversation at a dinner party.
I’m not so intuitive. My ideas always have a very basic birth; I know what I DON’T want.
When embarking upon a new writing venture, I tend to think ‘Where haven’t I been? What’s interesting to me? What will shock, titillate, amuse?’ Ultimately, it’s material gone before that I find either despising or believing an award winning concept has not been fully realised that prompts me to begin work.
A case of ‘Bah, I can do better than that?’ Perhaps...
As mentioned previously, countless times (maybe I should have it tattooed onto my forehead), ‘Swan Song’ was designed as the ‘antidote’ to ‘Twilight.’ So for me, it’s most definitely a case of knowing what pitfalls to avoid that helps me structure and create something new and, hopefully, unique (I guess looking at it's success, you could hardly call 'Twilight' a pitfall. It certainly was for self respecting vampires!)
The first thing Frances Ford Coppola did before making ‘The Godfather’ (after breaking the novel down scene by scene) was write down the pitfalls, the places where he could screw up. Francis’ father had a good slogan, steal from the best, and what’s good for Coppola’s good enough for me! I have followed the adage of knowing what not to do beforehand as a good mantra for creation since the very beginning.
If I see a film that promises (or should that be threatens? Depends on your taste I guess) violence but doesn’t deliver, I know my next work won’t tease without following through. If I read a book that has all the potential to re-design the wheel but falls somewhat short, I’ll attempt to be far more courageous than I have been previously. If I hear of ONE MORE BLOODY HOLLYWOOD REMAKE....
Ahem, I’ll stop there I think on that one.
I talk to people, find out likes and dislikes, what they want and what they are sick of. It all helps to coming up with something that will hopefully allow people to ‘get their groove on.’
Most importantly, and here I defer to the great Clive Barker, write for yourself first and foremost. If I’m not into what I’m creating, how can I expect anyone else to be? Readers are VERY smart and can spot a fake miles away.
So turn yourself on first...
...just make sure you get some writing done afterwards!
Stephen King is famous for saying that ideas don’t pop into his head late at night while drinking blood and sitting at a cobwebbed typewriter. Most often, a concept will spring, sometimes fully formed, into his subconscious either driving down a sunny highway or mid conversation at a dinner party.
I’m not so intuitive. My ideas always have a very basic birth; I know what I DON’T want.
When embarking upon a new writing venture, I tend to think ‘Where haven’t I been? What’s interesting to me? What will shock, titillate, amuse?’ Ultimately, it’s material gone before that I find either despising or believing an award winning concept has not been fully realised that prompts me to begin work.
A case of ‘Bah, I can do better than that?’ Perhaps...
As mentioned previously, countless times (maybe I should have it tattooed onto my forehead), ‘Swan Song’ was designed as the ‘antidote’ to ‘Twilight.’ So for me, it’s most definitely a case of knowing what pitfalls to avoid that helps me structure and create something new and, hopefully, unique (I guess looking at it's success, you could hardly call 'Twilight' a pitfall. It certainly was for self respecting vampires!)
The first thing Frances Ford Coppola did before making ‘The Godfather’ (after breaking the novel down scene by scene) was write down the pitfalls, the places where he could screw up. Francis’ father had a good slogan, steal from the best, and what’s good for Coppola’s good enough for me! I have followed the adage of knowing what not to do beforehand as a good mantra for creation since the very beginning.
If I see a film that promises (or should that be threatens? Depends on your taste I guess) violence but doesn’t deliver, I know my next work won’t tease without following through. If I read a book that has all the potential to re-design the wheel but falls somewhat short, I’ll attempt to be far more courageous than I have been previously. If I hear of ONE MORE BLOODY HOLLYWOOD REMAKE....
Ahem, I’ll stop there I think on that one.
I talk to people, find out likes and dislikes, what they want and what they are sick of. It all helps to coming up with something that will hopefully allow people to ‘get their groove on.’
Most importantly, and here I defer to the great Clive Barker, write for yourself first and foremost. If I’m not into what I’m creating, how can I expect anyone else to be? Readers are VERY smart and can spot a fake miles away.
So turn yourself on first...
...just make sure you get some writing done afterwards!
Thursday, 8 October 2009
What comes next for the Mc Crory vampires?
The second novel, or novella if you may.
Technically, my follow up to 'Swan Song' will be my third novella but my second in the 'vein' of the vampires.
I've wrote numerous short stories over the years involving our kindred friends, from patients bleeding from their eyes and gaining sustenance from it to targets laughing as hitman pump round after round into them, yet this is kind of serious, at least for me. I want the follow up to 'Swan Song' to be able to stand proudly side by side with it. In what direction to write is another monster altogether.
The vampire is so popular right now it's kinda scary and there's quite simply one person responsible for the sudden trend, Stephanie Meyer.
Whether you like 'Twilight' or not (I think it's fine as long as you don't view it as a 'vampire' story, it's a high school supernatural teen crush fable, nothing more, NOT a real vampire story, not as far as I am concerned), it's impact on the media has been staggering and as a vampire devotee from the age of fifteen (I'm now thirty), I'm torn as to how comfortable I am with the resurgence in interest in vampires. Ultimately, depending on how you look at it, my debut novella has either surfaced at precisely either the best or the very worst time.
There is serious interest in bloodsuckers, a good thing, kids of all ages are curious in them, possibly a very good thing, every single tv show now seems to feature them, a very bad thing, the vampire is so familiar now he/she has lost all threat, the very worst thing. (Ms Meyer, I am looking at you).
I am proud of my love of the vampire, almost foolishly so, yet now, I'm almost (almost) embarrassed to admit my debut novella revolves around them, so sure I am to receive the response 'Oh, you as well eh? I loved 'Twilight!' How about you?'
Allow me to simplify; 'Swan Song' was wrote deliberately as an antidote to 'Twilight.' It was to be everything I wished 'Twilight' to be and more. Well, now that I have nailed my demons to the page, where now? What happens next for the nosferatu dwelling within the walls of my brain? What will my second vampire novella be like?
Theme? Darker than 'Swan Song' (is that possible?) Story? Self contained in a two part character study like it's predecessor? Violence? More or less? Humour? To be included at all? Shock factor? To up play or down play? And on and on.....
I have a few ideas gestating, one that really amuses me, one I know that will sicken the reader (if I want to go there at all), one that will take all of my presumed talent to retain control of.
What I will say, as I drunkenly type this rant tonight, my second novella will be, if nothing else, passionate. Without passion, you have nothing. At least nothing worth caring about.
I care.
My vampires will care.
Whether they want to or not.
Technically, my follow up to 'Swan Song' will be my third novella but my second in the 'vein' of the vampires.
I've wrote numerous short stories over the years involving our kindred friends, from patients bleeding from their eyes and gaining sustenance from it to targets laughing as hitman pump round after round into them, yet this is kind of serious, at least for me. I want the follow up to 'Swan Song' to be able to stand proudly side by side with it. In what direction to write is another monster altogether.
The vampire is so popular right now it's kinda scary and there's quite simply one person responsible for the sudden trend, Stephanie Meyer.
Whether you like 'Twilight' or not (I think it's fine as long as you don't view it as a 'vampire' story, it's a high school supernatural teen crush fable, nothing more, NOT a real vampire story, not as far as I am concerned), it's impact on the media has been staggering and as a vampire devotee from the age of fifteen (I'm now thirty), I'm torn as to how comfortable I am with the resurgence in interest in vampires. Ultimately, depending on how you look at it, my debut novella has either surfaced at precisely either the best or the very worst time.
There is serious interest in bloodsuckers, a good thing, kids of all ages are curious in them, possibly a very good thing, every single tv show now seems to feature them, a very bad thing, the vampire is so familiar now he/she has lost all threat, the very worst thing. (Ms Meyer, I am looking at you).
I am proud of my love of the vampire, almost foolishly so, yet now, I'm almost (almost) embarrassed to admit my debut novella revolves around them, so sure I am to receive the response 'Oh, you as well eh? I loved 'Twilight!' How about you?'
Allow me to simplify; 'Swan Song' was wrote deliberately as an antidote to 'Twilight.' It was to be everything I wished 'Twilight' to be and more. Well, now that I have nailed my demons to the page, where now? What happens next for the nosferatu dwelling within the walls of my brain? What will my second vampire novella be like?
Theme? Darker than 'Swan Song' (is that possible?) Story? Self contained in a two part character study like it's predecessor? Violence? More or less? Humour? To be included at all? Shock factor? To up play or down play? And on and on.....
I have a few ideas gestating, one that really amuses me, one I know that will sicken the reader (if I want to go there at all), one that will take all of my presumed talent to retain control of.
What I will say, as I drunkenly type this rant tonight, my second novella will be, if nothing else, passionate. Without passion, you have nothing. At least nothing worth caring about.
I care.
My vampires will care.
Whether they want to or not.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
The Beginning
Blogs.
Extremely pretentious.
I've always thought of them as a waste of time, especially for writers. If you have the time to blog, you should have the time to be actually writing something of substance. Sometimes needs must. This is what I have always been bad at, self promotion.
So why a Jevron Mc Crory Blog?
My first novella just got published.
Not my first story you understand. Just something hopefully worth publishing, maybe the first worthy addition to my 'official' canon. So I felt a blog was mandatory.
The novella is called 'Swan Song' and I'm rather proud of it.
It depenses with a lot of bull shit in that it's simple, brutal and hopefully effective. More than that, I feel it's desperately needed in an age where the vampire has been reduced to a high school crush that's only slightly more dangerous than the average misunderstood jock.
I like 'Swan Song' because it's unflinching, and it's MY idea of a REAL vampire story.
Over the course of this blog, I will try my best to give something unique of other blogs, not my thoughts on who's winning 'Strictly Come Dancing' or my latest movie review (you can check Amazon for that), but more the planning and my thoughts on how my stories come into being. Hopefully, there may be amusement in comparison of my original notes to the final product. This blog may actually essentially turn out to be a drawing pad for my intentions for future work.
I'd like that.
Take onboard 'Swan Song', I'd like that also.
I know Katrina would.
Extremely pretentious.
I've always thought of them as a waste of time, especially for writers. If you have the time to blog, you should have the time to be actually writing something of substance. Sometimes needs must. This is what I have always been bad at, self promotion.
So why a Jevron Mc Crory Blog?
My first novella just got published.
Not my first story you understand. Just something hopefully worth publishing, maybe the first worthy addition to my 'official' canon. So I felt a blog was mandatory.
The novella is called 'Swan Song' and I'm rather proud of it.
It depenses with a lot of bull shit in that it's simple, brutal and hopefully effective. More than that, I feel it's desperately needed in an age where the vampire has been reduced to a high school crush that's only slightly more dangerous than the average misunderstood jock.
I like 'Swan Song' because it's unflinching, and it's MY idea of a REAL vampire story.
Over the course of this blog, I will try my best to give something unique of other blogs, not my thoughts on who's winning 'Strictly Come Dancing' or my latest movie review (you can check Amazon for that), but more the planning and my thoughts on how my stories come into being. Hopefully, there may be amusement in comparison of my original notes to the final product. This blog may actually essentially turn out to be a drawing pad for my intentions for future work.
I'd like that.
Take onboard 'Swan Song', I'd like that also.
I know Katrina would.
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