Authoring & Playwriting

Such an apt description! Still trying to figure out which "rabbit" to hang on to!

Hi, Julia Warren. Hope you had a great Christmas. Can you explain what you mean by "What do you do if/when ideas bubble over the edge of the plot?" Thanks.

Bunnies! Oooo, cute. Maybe kittens, or puppies -- funny little puppies next -- I just wuv witty bitty puppies. Yeah, festive season makes meeting posting minimums a real bitch. ;-)

2023 Lunar New Year begins in late January it's The Year of the Rabbit !!

This happens for me with events, I want to keep adding on to make it extraextra but at some point, I kill the darlings and bank the ideas for next time! Love the rabbit analogy!

Stage 32 crew so technically shouldn't reply BUT like Morgan Aitken says, you got everybody right here and waiting so start networking. What stage are you at with your novel and who are you looking for? Lots of experience on here so just ask the question and you will get answers or even collabs!.

Also to add, the creative industries can be super tough (and I've definitely had 'one of those' years,) but this is the place to find others in exactly the same position, which I find kind of reassuring...

Be the person you are in need of. Love (support) with no shoestrings attached and it WILL come back to you.

I would like to help. I am an aspiring screenwriter

Let's imagine I'm a creative writer, unless some unundestandabe poetry in spanish and other love songs that are forguetable have been wroten by myself. Two weeks have passed since I joined Stage32 so I would like to contribute to start working at this huge world of creation.

For me, it's character-driven. Interested to hear your thoughts on The OA. I'll save mine for when you've finished the show!

D.E. White for me, there’s no need to have a plot if you don’t have characters.

I watched the OA a while back and for me it just petered out. It was almost like the story-world expanded beyond its means to sustain, to support it. I think the story just became so self-infatuated that it lost the original seed of inspiration

D.E. White or to put it another way, characters are the flesh and bones of plot…

I prefer plot driven, because I think the human condition is fairly limited. Real people are mostly boring until they're made to respond to out of the ordinary situations. So for me the plot is most important, because it makes character memorable. Like a lot of people treat Breaking Bad as some amazing character show because Walter White was a bad guy. But Walter White wasn't actually a bad guy. He was an American trying to survive in a broken system and doing what it took to survive and thrive in that system. But as has been said many times, if he was a high school teacher in say France, he would have gotten his cancer treated by socialized medicine and continued teaching. It wasn't his personality that made him a drug lord. It was the situation he was forced into.

Morgan Aitken I hear what you're saying and I know it's hard. But I've not quit my job yet I'm enjoying the journey because even when you've written that book, screenplay or whatever and it's done well, the process will begin again with each new project so you might as well enjoy it. I love the people I'm meeting along the way and that's part of the journey. The story itself is part of the journey. There's no benefit in waiting for that "one day, I'll be happy when...." as it will affect the project. Enjoying the journey can be a choice and not based on circumstances.

Well done on your writing journey so far, but I would echo what others have said, for a lit agent for fiction, it must be finished and polished before you pitch. The agents will be spending a lot of time on their existing clients, and will only look at new work if it is as perfect as you can make it.

Morgan Aitken and if you don’t have a day job?

and if you don't have a day job? Ah Geoff Hall ... you caught me with my bahookie hanging out the window on that one. I've never had a job, and I've never really been famous (except for that CC TV footage from the lift that went viral a while back). In fact, I've never worked a day in my life. Job, work, yuck... sounds horrible. I really don't think I'd like that.

But I heard the cliche "Don't quit your day job," in a movie about jazz musicians, and stole it.

I play things by ear, baby!

Morgan Aitken so, if you don't have a day job to give up. Just give up? Or listen to The Postal Service's Album 'Give Up'. I prefer the latter. Hehe!

Cool Debbie Croysdale ! Script to novel, and jumping in and out of characters' heads. Living many lives in a flash of time, or being a director, actors, and stage manager of a play in your own head.

I think the reason I don't visit author sites is for the same reason I don't watch that bonus material on DVD's or 'the making of...' specials. I don't want to spoil the magic. I fall in love with characters... not writers! I love Harry Potter and his ilk... I don't give a shit about JK Rowling. In fact, didn't Rowling's online presence harm poor Harry and his gang of witches and warlocks more than anything could from his magical universe?

I did, to see how the sites look and what's there. Honestly, I think people are delusional. Everyone is a writer nowadays. Everyone has written books. There is just not enough readers. And I doubt they'll be interested in the authors who aren't professionally published.

I spy on loads of authors via websites lol. No, seriously, it's just a tool, and if you are hoping to get booked for speaking/panels they always ask to see your website. Journalists too, and bookshops if you are arranging a signing. A professional, businesslike website helps to create a good impression. I get my designer to update my blog posts with the best and most interesting ones from the last year (only events etc) because it helps with the meta data, and nobody actual cares if I write anything else on the blog, like writing day or whatever. I use my Insta as a a blog and that gets way more traction.

Just realised spying is discounted, so call it mild interest...

Yup, spying is discounted: a blue-light special at Walmart. Get it now! (Sorry, sorry, sorry.... too much black Friday for me ;-))

I'm a writer but it's not my profession. If it earnt me enough, it would be. But, alas, it doesn't. So I have to rely on my other career for income.

I haven't made a nickle writing.

Writing is hard work. One of my favorite quotes is from Ernest Hemingway about "writing is easy." He said: There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

It is hard work, indeed, Debbie. One important note,: I'm earning money with writing for 20 years now, but for the most part it is with commercial and business-like tasks. As a ghostwriter, speechwriter, journalist, editor in chief en lecturer. As many others it still is a dream to live from creative writing.

Great post. So agree. But somehow is bleeding is a sweet thing for my opinion.

This year, I was able to write a number of treatments, create a pitch deck for one of them and I'm almost finished with the pilot episode for a kids animated project. I'd love a social media makeover but internally, don't care for the level of toxicity right now that is found in the mainstream ones. I've been on S32 a lot more than on those!

Crikey! Another year? I've gotten nothing but older, gone further through the cracks, deeper into hiding and a lot poorer with book adverts that did embarrassingly nothing. I have, mind you, made a fuck of a lot of money playing the options and futures markets online via a sketchy cellular connection. And made a lot of fish friends snorkelling. S'truth, mates!

Wow, this is awesome, I can help you out in writing each character's backstory and the dialogues. If you're interested, I have sent you an invitation. Let's chat, hope to hear from you soon. Thanks

I've been trying to figure out how a graphic novel is different from a comic book, or a storyboard, for that matter.

Hi Cee Whirx I hope I can be of help to you. And thanks Shellie Schmals for this.

Cee Whirx what is your story about?

Morgan Aitken a graphic novel is a comic book. The first graphic novel ‘Watchmen’ was originally sold as 9 or 10 issues. But since it all told one story then they released it in one book. Thus coining graphic novel. Most that have come out usually follow a film noir story telling element.

I agree, Julia Warren. I like to outline an idea before writing the script, but sometimes I just have to step aside and let my intuition (or story and characters) lead. :)

Congratulations! Can’t wait to see it! That’s a hard decision, and I’m sure a great relief to check off the list.

Fabulous!

Excellent

Morgan Aitken I can share the major concept of the novel. I just can't share the cover or assets from the novel. Originally I was contracted to write an animated series, which I have posted about in the animation lounge many times. It's called Xtreme Saga. Due to budget cuts, the production changed from being a series a full length TV episodes to 5 minute shorts. But the company producing the show had already seen my outline and knew that the story itself was good and deserved to be told in its entirety. So they decided that while they couldn't finance a full animated series as originally planned, they would publish a novel and comic based on the story. So the novel will basically be the story that the animated series was intended to be in book form.

It's a sci-fi adventure story about a teenage girl fighting against an alien invasion by a religious cult. But it's not set on Earth and the character, though humanoid, isn't human. This is actually meant to be the first of 4 books.

You can watch the original pilot episode for the animated series here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Husuc8qHwsU

I am watching the original pilot episode now. Love it!

I like the image of the rose losing its color, "The little prince" reference.

Thanks, Julia Warren! I think about this quote when I write scripts, but I couldn't remember who said it.

It's a handy one, isn't it? I saw his Fortune's Fool at the Old Vic - amazing stuff; loved the set, the lighting and the play with shadows. He was an avid chess player, and chess seems to pop up quite often in his works. Not sure it was always a deliberate metaphor, although I believe it might be so in Fortune's Fool.

I'm terrible at chess, Julia Warren. Haha Craig D Griffiths made a video about plot holes I think ties in with Chekhov's quote (https://www.stage32.com/media/3154588592005718763).

I love seagulls. Hate Checkov, though.

Morgan Aitken it’s a way for marketing. I have my social media viewed everyday (over 100 engagements per day). Signing up with Amazon Affiliate means they get paid from the traffic (clicks). I get paid a certain amount from that traffic (royalty).

Congratulations!

William Schumpert -- re Amazon Affiliate: you put their adverts on your site. If someone clicks on one of the Amazon adverts you get paid. Have I got that right? And if so, how much do you tend to make from Amazon per click?

I ask out of interest. I was running a campaign with Amazon adverts in the UK and it was costing me up to a couple quid per click. Was wondering what the ad-hoster might get from that.

Not too sure. I’m looking into it in the next few days.

Grand, @William. It'll be nice to know just how much Amazon Hoovers up.