tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61208301923604424242024-03-13T04:04:19.652+00:00AdaddinsaneCracked ScreenwriterAdaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.comBlogger526125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-26541098079574417462014-07-26T17:45:00.003+01:002014-07-26T17:45:36.273+01:00Nice image, shame about the marketingIt is generally agreed that the covers to the three books in my Maliha Anderson series are very nice indeed, and get steadily better. I agree too, I think they're great.
See. You can see the consistency of design, the common elements which communicate that this is a series (not just the silhouette but the cloud shapes), and there's the Art Deco styling which tends to place the period. Apart Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-36438608289361274212014-07-19T12:08:00.000+01:002014-07-19T12:08:20.017+01:00Good news, bad news.
One of my favourite writers on the subject of screenwriting is Bill Martell, he's a dedicated writer of action scripts and is the go-to guy if you want to learn how to make your action sequences worthwhile and memorable.
The following is all gleaned from his daily script tips and the applied to some prose writing I've been doing recently (in fact I've been writing stories almost exclusively Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-90995257627774169832014-05-10T16:08:00.000+01:002014-05-10T16:08:45.886+01:00Selling books like Hendrix playing
In the various communities of writers you often see posts from people saying "I've just self-published my first book how do I promote it?" which, roughly translated, means "how do I make people buy my book?"
The answer to this question is very simple: You don't. The very last thing you want to do is waste energy (or worse, money) trying. Seriously, just don't. And here's why:
You're on stageAdaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-38248074044821493082014-04-30T18:26:00.000+01:002014-04-30T18:26:42.610+01:00A Writer has 3 Heads
Or How to be the Worzel Gummidge* of writing.
I am very vehement and opinionated -- we could put a full stop there but let us continue -- about how writers should feel about their work. I think you should love your work, love it now, love it in a year and enjoy reading it again in ten years.
Yes, you might see how you could have done it better, after all you have ten years more experience Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-75883496087324579132014-02-19T22:50:00.002+00:002014-02-19T22:51:59.631+00:00May you live in interesting times
Normally I'm very British about things but on this occasion I am going to forego the whole British reserve thing and just say:
I am excited.
Seriously I am very excited.
Why? Well, because the whole writing thing is really coming together, finally.
My second novella Blood Sky at Night will be released in about two weeks.
I'll be launching the free sample issue of The Lazarus Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-75576446153644395202013-12-15T14:32:00.002+00:002013-12-15T14:34:26.749+00:00Fighting your way to square one.
I'm sorry I've been away for so long. I have been very busy on all sorts of projects but everything has been in such a state of flux that, on the one hand, I didn't feel I had time to write a blog while on the other I wasn't sure I had anything worth saying.
But things are beginning to come together.
In my last post back in March, I ended by saying we had a new plan and that's what I've Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-54295438011405523572013-03-18T21:44:00.000+00:002013-03-18T21:44:45.370+00:00That is why you failThe explosive success of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign was caused muttering in the depths.
If you want to read someone's opinion about the mutterings, read Chuck Wendig who covers it quite effectively, if crudely. (Chuck has a potty mouth pen so if you're offended by that sort of thing, best not read it.)
But I'm not going to talk about that.
I'm going to discuss Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-44035652952424096772013-03-11T22:48:00.000+00:002013-03-11T22:48:03.850+00:00That Comic Book ThingThis time last year I decided that instead of writing a screenplay during ScriptFrenzy I would write a comic book script. After all I'm good at script writing and I have a very visual imagination, how hard can it be?
Very.
For the first year I failed at ScriptFrenzy. It was a technical win, you have to write 100 pages and I wrote 100 pages. But they were appalling. The story was Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-64368574120392763572013-03-02T10:48:00.000+00:002013-03-02T10:48:26.544+00:00Don't read this, read thatI don't want to repeat myself so read this:
Screaming Pitch
What's on the turntable? John Michel Jarre "Equinoxe"
Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-17048237505709297472013-01-29T15:33:00.002+00:002013-01-30T15:23:34.668+00:00Into spaceHave you see that Lynx Space Academy advert? The one that's clearly targeted at young men?
Well, my daughter wants to go to - and why not?
I know I'm biased but she's pretty awesome:
She's trained in martial arts since she was 5;
In the top 5% in school in all subjects;
When she was 18 she took herself off to New Zealand to do environmental work;
Spent weeks in the Bolivian jungle Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-24162459832913199662012-10-30T20:36:00.000+00:002013-03-18T21:47:31.778+00:00Energise!I did go to the London Screenwriters Festival and it was good. Very good. I almost didn't go, I'm very glad I did.
But that's not what this blog is about.
It's about something screenwriters talk about in relation to scripts but something I have never seen defined: "Script energy".
This came to mind because of John August and Craig Mazin's podcast this week. You can listen here, the Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-7175838483391947412012-10-20T23:37:00.000+01:002012-10-20T23:37:06.632+01:00Blown trumpetsA quick follow-up to the previous post, in case the statement about me writing fairly decent first drafts might have been poo-pooed. One of my first draft scripts received the following comments:
"The greatest contributor to this screenplay’s enjoyabilty is perhaps its well-written dialogue, descriptions, and action sequences."
and from a different reader:
"Almost every page of this Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-27297618071673919852012-10-05T23:08:00.001+01:002012-10-05T23:09:18.773+01:00First draft is the bestYeah right.
As was stated recently by my blogger good buddy Kid in the Front Row: it's great how independent movies can be made nowadays with no interference from the big studios through the use of crowdfunding.
But there's one major problem with that: No quality control.
I have been generous with my funding of projects on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo - I want to do some major crowdfunding Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-29666531851344462802012-09-19T23:58:00.000+01:002012-09-20T07:28:21.945+01:00Research is ace
Sorry it's been so long since the last blog entry. I had a very draggy and stressful summer. Apart from my week's holiday with the family at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which was great.
And it was at that we went to see a one-man show called "Winston on the Run". About (true) events in the life of a young Winston Spencer Churchill during the Second Boer War. Which included one incident that, Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-62195655490340764382012-07-29T22:09:00.000+01:002012-07-29T22:09:43.356+01:00Is that a good idea?
Do you listen to the John August/Craig Mazin podcast? You don't? Oh my, you should. The inside skinny (which is deeper than just "the skinny") on writing things, with particular reference to the Hollywood experience by two people who really know what they're talking about. Go here.
Anyway the interesting question of the week this time around was "Which script should I write next?" to which, Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-21038853827468557942012-07-02T14:16:00.004+01:002012-07-08T11:33:19.038+01:00Abe Lincoln and the AxeI saw Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter this weekend. It scores 6.4 on IMDb which is below what is a typical rating for a "reasonable" movie - and, reading the reviews, it definitely polarises viewpoints.
I liked it. As did my wife, daughter (21) and son (15). And it generated some after-movie conversation which is always a good sign. In fact we measure the success of a movie by how much Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-1031215967982446922012-06-12T22:42:00.000+01:002012-06-12T22:42:42.355+01:00On being a producerI thought I'd share some thoughts on my experiences, thus far, in being a Producer.
What a Producer does is lead. They're the leader. It's true that the word has become devalued by excessive use in the film industry with all sorts of "producers" but ultimately the Producer is the one that makes it happen.
Which is where I was at about 9 months ago with the webseries WINTER. Or rather Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-10325548170460005952012-05-27T14:09:00.001+01:002012-05-28T14:27:15.304+01:00Compete this!I know, that's very poor English.
I have been so busy doing the producer thing, and worrying about producer stuff, that between that and the day job I've had very little time to do anything useful in the writing department.
Which, for a writer, is not a good thing.
However I have come across four competitions recently which I thought "why not" so here they are for your information Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-37575233087589799932012-05-01T13:38:00.003+01:002012-05-01T13:38:42.215+01:00Technical knockoutOh my, it's been over a month. Sorry to have neglected you but I've been busy.
I have completed ScriptFrenzy for the 6th year but only "technically". Which is to say that the Celtx generation of PDF reached 100 pages (WIN!), however in actual comic book pages I got to about 74 (not really a win). But I learned a lot, mostly that writing a graphic novel is really quite hard. Unfortunately the Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-40112554676829213522012-03-27T09:06:00.000+01:002012-03-27T09:06:29.296+01:00The Ice FurnaceHallo peeps.
I've been ultra busy with writing stuff, production stuff, work stuff, family stuff, so I've decided to do something else as well.
It's ScriptFrenzy time again!
This is that awesome time of year when you are provided, free, gratis and for nothing, with a built-in deadline to get your feature script written in just 30 days.
I've done it every year of its existence which Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-34769945042475498532012-02-17T08:25:00.000+00:002012-02-17T08:25:57.353+00:00Celtx foreverHello peeps. It's been a while since my last major onslaught in this here locale.
As you may, or may not, know I write scripts using Celtx. It's a lovely bit of kit, and free. It's been around for years and is looked after by a friendly bunch of Canadians (is that a tautology?) so is totally solid as a product.
But I'm not trying to sell you Celtx. Well, perhaps I am because I can't see whyAdaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-28131838704881025602012-01-24T13:36:00.000+00:002012-01-24T13:36:22.084+00:00BrilliantIt has to be.
Over the past few weeks I've been swapping my writer's hat with my producer's hat for our web series WINTER. And I've talked to people about it, trying to encourage them to join our merry little band of pre-production heroes. (The AD and composer from MONSTERS are on-board and we have two CGI peeps so far.)
And over that time something's started to nag me.
Back in the 1980s Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-77098688498363397052012-01-18T23:06:00.000+00:002012-01-18T23:06:09.371+00:00A word from our sponsor.Over on the Voidships channel the latest blog about WINTER.
(I've been studying about the producer-ing business - look, ma, I'm a hyphenate.)
What's on the turntable? "Money for Nothing" by Dire StraitsAdaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-74436411176727734912012-01-04T07:22:00.000+00:002012-01-04T07:22:12.281+00:00Any portfolio in a stormWhat a title! I'm so funny! I bet you laughed 'til you stopped.
Why do experienced writers always enjoin (today's special word) you to have a portfolio of scripts?
So that when you read about some producer saying I'm looking for a script that's blah blah and blah, you can say "I have a blah blah blah script". Because a blah blah bleargh script will not be good enough.
Happened to me this Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6120830192360442424.post-1690341021615050032012-01-01T00:01:00.000+00:002012-01-01T00:01:01.076+00:00Coming up in 2012(I am not writing this at midnight I've just scheduled it to appear at that time.)
Two years ago I organised some additional shooting for the Monsters trailer. In my past I have run businesses, organised and run exhibitions, been an organiser of massive events. Talking to people and in front of large groups doesn't scare me.
Which is why I finally decided to embrace something that has been Adaddinsanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10577587188266580561noreply@blogger.com0