[For some reason all the time values are showing up an hour later than they should when I create a new blog entry (this entry should read 1:47 AM)... a daylight savings problem I guess.]

Lately I’m getting about as much work done as I was 5 years ago when I swore off computer programming forever… way back then I decided I was going to write screenplays instead.

*segue*

When I sat down to try it, I found that I liked the form because it was quite rigid, and it seemed that dialogue was fairly easy for me to write. The big problem came when I discovered that story construction was a lot harder than I had imagined. When you are really bored in your own life it seems that it can be surprisingly hard to make up a good story; perhaps a lack of imagination when "composing" one’s real life carries over into story telling as well.

I spent a good deal of time making a screenplay template for MS Word [available on the download page] so that what I wrote would look more like a real script… something I could shop around to producers etc. Not that I ever got to that stage of course ;) What I ended up actually writing were just a few little odds and ends – some cute, some embarrassing – none of which I would really want to post here.

Now that I’m older and [perhaps] wiser I find that I don’t really want to write movie scripts anymore… I just want to write a novel which I can then sell the movie rights to! My shift in interest from the screenplay form to the novel is probably due to the fact that a novel is such a personal form, which is ultimately what I feel creation requires. To be honest I have had no positive experiences with collaboration… a process which always seems to suck the life out of everyone involved as you try to mash your incompatible ideas/viewpoints together into a whole that is often far less than the sum of its parts.

But then, even more so, there still remains the small matter of story, or lack thereof. Perhaps an effective approach in building a story is to nurture it from a tiny seed of an idea, and with some level of commitment over time it may mature and flourish. Unfortunately I find it very hard not to throw out any idea that is not instantly and obviously great – I want my story fully formed and ready to tell. I also find it very hard to commit to a single idea… something that should be all too apparent from my various unfinished software projects.

Then of course there are those other pesky things required for novel writing: self-discipline, research, talent etc…

Oh well, it’s back to Elevator Action for me I guess.