A Piece of Crap

I was watching the Syfy channel this week and thought the film was "a piece of crap".

I changed over to another channel and was watching some horror film and thought it was "a piece of crap."

I have actually been told that some of my writing is too good and I need to "dumb it down".

So this week, I am working on a "piece of crap".

It will probably be a blockbuster.

I'm Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Houston, we have a problem.

Nothing as dramatic as the O2 panel exploding off the outer skin en route to the moon.

Nothing as devastating as Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve.

Proportionally, just as devastating.

My writing laptop took 25 minutes to boot up today and another 7 minutes to open a browser window.

I'm gonna need a bigger boat.

Or a new laptop.

Science Fiction, Memoirs and Relationships

Three weeks into the new year and what have I learned form the Writers Lament?

I've learned that I have not protected my writing time enough.

Until such time that i can rest on my laurels (and royalties) I have to continue to write.  Sometimes it's not for the money, today is was for the message for my children.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

I was a father to two.

I still am, but my daughters don't know it. I continue to write about what has gone on, and what their father has lived through in their absence.  One day, when I am gone, they will read about really happened.

Until then I continue to write.

Science fiction. Memories. Relationships.

Three subjects I am apparently, not very good at.

Techincal Difficulties

There are a number of organizations for whom I write for.

There are a number of organizations for whom I entrust my writing to.

And there are two organizations where I am currently witting as a development point. For the past few months, I have been crafting science fiction, developing a first person story telling trait which has been, historically, a harsher genre to write in.

Now I am perplexed by a technical issue that has prevented me from uploading the story for the past three weeks, despite the story gaining viewer traction.

A Gateway error is preventing me from accessing the server in which the story resides.

The story is still being written, it's not in the public forum.

I need to write a resolution to a technical difficulty.

Speculative Fiction

In the writing world, numerous success stories can be found of fans who have turned their writing into contemporary masterpieces. Author E.L. James like the Twilight series so much, they wrote the 50 Shades series. Last week I was reminiscing about a project that begin some twelve years ago that did not evolve, and I began reading about the "fan fiction" which drives a number of successful spin off series.

Star Wars and Star Trek are two of the most popular, allowing evening the novice writer to be able to compile a story based upon the loose collection of characters, in a world which has been established - but not yet fortified on it's boundaries.

Website FanFiction.Net chronicles a lot of speculative writing, and the pitfalls as well.  Writers who have created characters, fleshed them out and developed stories, don't want to see their hard work copied, even plagiarized. But apparently they are comfortable with endless computer games based on their premises - have you ever counted how many Star Wars games there are?

About twelve years ago while with the computer game company, I attended the preview of a game that enthralled me so much, I wrote about it at a number of game sites. Fast forward, I have now started writing my own speculative fiction, using some of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) characters as background for my own story.

Speculative fiction is back in vogue.

The Writing Power of the Dark Side

Laying in bed on Thanksgiving Eve this week, I came to the realization that not much writing has been accomplished in the past year.

The major project - not yet completed.

The prequel - title and idea only.

It would appear that I write better from the Dark Side, when there is disharmony in the galaxy.

Apparently, I have not yet understood the Writing Power of the Dark Side. 

The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Opening night.

The George Lucas Effect has taken over.

The George Lucas Effect

  A strange thing happened after the original Star Wars trilogoy (New Hope, Empire and Jedi) were released. The protagonist may have been Luke Skywalker (and company) but it was Darth Vader's story. It was all about the Dark Lord's demise. George Lucas always had a vision for his project, from which he could not be swayed.  I wonder if he set out to write the trilogy as such, or whether it was the format of film that created it that way.

  About a month ago I wrote of the Monster That Haunts Me, the rewrite required of the major project.  The rewrite is about the ending, which requires a different composition of the minor characters in the early chapters. The protagonist remains the same, but to justify the ending, the supporting staff require names, and in one scene, foreshadowing.

  An unexpected element of the rewrite is that is has resulted in a different query for publishers. The same format of the project is still being used, however, it is now shown in greater perspective by the final scene, which does not have the protagonist. The final scene turns the project, back on itself.

  George Lucas originally named the Star Wars protagonist Luke Starkiller. Like Lucas, I must now go back and give names, identities, and credit, to those, whom are otherwise undeserved, but without which, there would be no major project. I have, unknowingly, replicated the George Lucas Effect.

  Would it not be prophetic if the major project blossomed like the George Lucas effect on science fiction.