by Eric » Thu May 09, 2002 3:02 pm
I don’t know where this script came from – if it didn’t have a real screen writer’s name on it, and dated 1989, I’d think it was more recent -– what with an invasion of Afghanistan (by the Russians who were there of course, back then but still. . .) and the baddies being the Civil Terrorism Unit. Actually read the whole thing, although I didn’t plan to. I like visual stuff, so I was imagining a pretty interesting movie. I guess Watchmen weren’t/aren’t a real brand name like Spiderman or Batman – but, I mean if they’ve done stuff like Tank Girl. . .maybe it was too philosophical.
I’ve had some professional advice on writing books since beginning the Byzantine series and, funny thing, most of it seems to amount to – structure it like a movie. I suppose I should find that offensive, since books ought to be free to meander more and so on, but, actually, I like action so I’m pretty willing to go along. I don’t like endless conversations, I like strong settings. I’m sorry but Jane Austen leaves me cold. Elegant houses – no thanks. So there you go. I’m thinking of reading some scripts as tips for pacing especially. I’d love to write a script but, as I understand it, for legal reasons, no one will even look at an unagented one so it’d be a total waste of time, not even like buying a lottery ticket. But I did think of IF because you have a more limited number of scenes, with a fairly limited amount of action or dialogue in each.
One difference though, in IF you’re always riding along with the protagonist, which also tends to be the advice you get for novels these days, so showing things from a kind of disembodied observer, newscamera, viewpoint as often happens in movies is kind of out.
Hmmm, so if you laid out an IF sf game, like a movie, then that could be the detailed outline for a novel.
(Of course, then there are things like how James Cameron was apparently going to have some sort of costume / bondage / fetish / spiderish sex scene between Spider-Man and Mary Jane in his take on the script. That'd probably have affected the weekend's take at the box office, I think, what with making it a rated-R flick.)
Ah, well, I noticed a Cameron script for Spiderman is on the site also.
I ended up picking Watchmen up, along with Kingdom Come, right after I finished ACS. While in development, I became quite aware of how Watchmen was received, and I decided that it was better for me to try to write uninfluenced. I missed out on its original monthly run, so I pretty much had to go the trade paperback route, but I wanted to intentionally not read it before I was done with the game. That happens a lot, though
That is interesting that you put off reading Watchmen. My fiction reading is way way down since I’ve been writing it because I find I’m like a recorder, tend to spew out stuff that sounds like the last thing I read. I did not read any Roman mysteries before we did Onefer. I didn’t want anyone to be able to say I’d been influenced. Then, out of curiosity, I read a Saylor, a Davis and a Roberts, just to see what they were up to and have avoided them since – because, again, not only don’t I want to be influenced I don’t want anyone to wonder if I’d been – most especially myself.
I can safely say that I am rooting for and have become a fan of John. It took me a while to understand just why I was in his corner, but then it hit me -- I have an affection, I think, for protagonists (in novels) who are out there surviving and flourishing in environments where there are more capable and better equipped antagonists out there.
The thing with the John character – he got to be a eunuch, just because we named the character that way in a four page story. He wasn’t even a real character in that story and we never expected to write anything more about him and then we were asked for another story etc so we ended up stuck, by accident, with a eunuch. And a lot of people are put off by that. But I, personally, felt stuck with having a high official like a Lord Chamberlain – not my kind of guy. So the only way I’m comfortable writing about someone in that powerful position is to have them kind of crippled, at a disadvantage. Otherwise, why root for a Lord Chamberlain?
Actually this came from an abortive comic book script I monkeyed with years ago. I was thinking about what would a superhero be like in ancient times? So I had this early Byzantine guy who found a ring which could summon the old Pagan Gods – but it was rather dangerous because, as everyone knows they could as often be real bastards as helpful.
Anyway, now I’m all fired up to write science fiction movie scripts. I note the writer thinks you can get away with just saying "tachyon" and that'll justify disrupting the time space continuum, which is good for an idea I have.
[/quote]
I don’t know where this script came from – if it didn’t have a real screen writer’s name on it, and dated 1989, I’d think it was more recent -– what with an invasion of Afghanistan (by the Russians who were there of course, back then but still. . .) and the baddies being the Civil Terrorism Unit. Actually read the whole thing, although I didn’t plan to. I like visual stuff, so I was imagining a pretty interesting movie. I guess Watchmen weren’t/aren’t a real brand name like Spiderman or Batman – but, I mean if they’ve done stuff like Tank Girl. . .maybe it was too philosophical.
I’ve had some professional advice on writing books since beginning the Byzantine series and, funny thing, most of it seems to amount to – structure it like a movie. I suppose I should find that offensive, since books ought to be free to meander more and so on, but, actually, I like action so I’m pretty willing to go along. I don’t like endless conversations, I like strong settings. I’m sorry but Jane Austen leaves me cold. Elegant houses – no thanks. So there you go. I’m thinking of reading some scripts as tips for pacing especially. I’d love to write a script but, as I understand it, for legal reasons, no one will even look at an unagented one so it’d be a total waste of time, not even like buying a lottery ticket. But I did think of IF because you have a more limited number of scenes, with a fairly limited amount of action or dialogue in each.
One difference though, in IF you’re always riding along with the protagonist, which also tends to be the advice you get for novels these days, so showing things from a kind of disembodied observer, newscamera, viewpoint as often happens in movies is kind of out.
Hmmm, so if you laid out an IF sf game, like a movie, then that could be the detailed outline for a novel.
[quote](Of course, then there are things like how James Cameron was apparently going to have some sort of costume / bondage / fetish / spiderish sex scene between Spider-Man and Mary Jane in his take on the script. That'd probably have affected the weekend's take at the box office, I think, what with making it a rated-R flick.)
[/quote]
Ah, well, I noticed a Cameron script for Spiderman is on the site also.
[quote]I ended up picking Watchmen up, along with Kingdom Come, right after I finished ACS. While in development, I became quite aware of how Watchmen was received, and I decided that it was better for me to try to write uninfluenced. I missed out on its original monthly run, so I pretty much had to go the trade paperback route, but I wanted to intentionally not read it before I was done with the game. That happens a lot, though [/quote]
That is interesting that you put off reading Watchmen. My fiction reading is way way down since I’ve been writing it because I find I’m like a recorder, tend to spew out stuff that sounds like the last thing I read. I did not read any Roman mysteries before we did Onefer. I didn’t want anyone to be able to say I’d been influenced. Then, out of curiosity, I read a Saylor, a Davis and a Roberts, just to see what they were up to and have avoided them since – because, again, not only don’t I want to be influenced I don’t want anyone to wonder if I’d been – most especially myself.
[quote]I can safely say that I am rooting for and have become a fan of John. It took me a while to understand just why I was in his corner, but then it hit me -- I have an affection, I think, for protagonists (in novels) who are out there surviving and flourishing in environments where there are more capable and better equipped antagonists out there. [/quote]
The thing with the John character – he got to be a eunuch, just because we named the character that way in a four page story. He wasn’t even a real character in that story and we never expected to write anything more about him and then we were asked for another story etc so we ended up stuck, by accident, with a eunuch. And a lot of people are put off by that. But I, personally, felt stuck with having a high official like a Lord Chamberlain – not my kind of guy. So the only way I’m comfortable writing about someone in that powerful position is to have them kind of crippled, at a disadvantage. Otherwise, why root for a Lord Chamberlain?
Actually this came from an abortive comic book script I monkeyed with years ago. I was thinking about what would a superhero be like in ancient times? So I had this early Byzantine guy who found a ring which could summon the old Pagan Gods – but it was rather dangerous because, as everyone knows they could as often be real bastards as helpful.
Anyway, now I’m all fired up to write science fiction movie scripts. I note the writer thinks you can get away with just saying "tachyon" and that'll justify disrupting the time space continuum, which is good for an idea I have.
[/quote]