As writers we constantly think about things such as story, character development, arc, style, grammar and endless variations and extras. Bud underpinning all that has to be your basic every day stuff. From your writing fog you look up and say, what’s that?
What that is is how you pursue your writing work, how you write, how you treat yourself when you write.
Let’s step away from the actual writing, business of writing, mechanics of writing for today.
Writers are an imaginative lot and I’m here to caution you about Narcissus. You’ve heard of him – In Greek mythology. He was a hunter renowned for his striking handsomeness. Son of a river god and a nymph, he had more pride than was wise and disdained those who loved him (don’t know if he was totally wrong if they loved him ONLY for his beauty, but that’s a whole other story). That was, until Nemisis, a goddess herself, took note of his behavior, disapproved big time, and lured Narcissus to a pool. There he gazed upon his own refection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely a reflection of himself (okay, that’s a little bit kinky). Unable to abandon the beauty of his own reflection Narcissus drowned/died (whichever way you want to go with the myth) and was no more. And that gave us the term narcissism –for a fixation with oneself.
Mistakes.
We all make ‘em and we’re all kind of weird about making them.
There isn’t a writers (or a person) in the world who doesn’t make mistakes at times. It’s who we are.
“I don’t think screenplay writing is the same as writing — I mean, I think it’s blueprinting.” -Robert Altman
“A screenplay is really an instruction manual, and it can be interpreted in any number of ways. The casting, the choice of location, the costumes and make-up, the actors’ reading of a line or emphasis of a word, the choice of lens and the pace of the cutting – these are all part of the translation.” -David Nicholls
Great quotes on screenwriting and some agreement. Blueprint, instruction manual, that’s what many view the screenplay as. And it strikes a familiar chord with me. While screenwriting is, indeed, writing, it’s also blueprinting. The story is taking shape in your head, the characters coming alive and at the same time what you put down on paper must be an engaging blueprint that many others will follow. It must be clear and it must be gripping.
Okay, it’s that time of year – starting to think about what you can get your friends who write or who just spend a lot of time at a desk? I’m not going to beat around the bush with lots of filler and ‘words’ here, I’m going to use this blog to give you some ideas. I usually do this about once a year as we head into the holidays, and I cover some stuff that’s moderately expensive all the way down to free, so here goes.
Got some cash you can part with? TheVaridesk is fantastic. It’s adjustable so the user can stand or sit easily, and its simple and quick to adjust, a pair of handles on the side and raise or lower. I got one about a year ago and love it. Spend a lot more time standing and everything I hear points to that being the more healthy approach; a division between sitting and standing.
A new printer maybe? Just got the HPOfficeJet 8600 all in one myself. A Great machine for the money.