New Manga

Oh shit, I've just noticed that I talked about the short film thing with Gordon, which as of right now has received little progress from what I had discussed last week; and that I've not mentioned starting a manga with my friend Chris.

Well starting a manga is going a bit far, right now we're working on developing some ideas and character designs. It's the story I conceived for a novel series. My preference, even then, was to use the story in a way that wasn't novel-based, I just hadn't the people-talent to ring it to fruition. I've since then discovered Chris as a viable candidate.

I quickly sketched out my nine major characters with some descriptions to him and he's got back with one so far and that was freakin' brilliant. Brought the character alive for me. I've also, through discussion with him, changed the setting of my story from a traditional medieval RPG-type world to a post-apocalyptic cityscape. This changes the geography of my world a little bit, but I think it would do the story justice and plays rather nicely with some of the thematical issues I wish to tackle.

Right now we're just trying to put together a polished package, and hopefully we can try to market it to some proper manga publishing folk. There's a local Australian magazine, Kiseki, which might be interesting. I even bought their first issue today, just to see whether we'd be a good fit and just to get a general idea of pacing for a chapter.

And I'm kind of at a loss, in the same way I was with Liberi Ex Janus. For me, the chapters that are released every 2 months, i.e. 20-30 pages, it not long enough for any good self-contained idea to take place. At the same time, releasing a graphic novel at once can't happen because my first story arc isn't self-contained enough to warrant a novel. Maybe I'm just a very verbose writer (in that I use dialogue far too much), but 30 pages ... isn't a lot at all. Especially in this Kiseki magazine where each page contains 3 rows max, this limits how much can be said per page.

The problem, I find, with short sharp pages with crisp dialogue is that it just always seems to want to make everything fast-paced. I like to play with light and shade. Slow things down, take a breather and reflect upon things. I feel like when I'm reading one of these things that all the characters are hurtling towards some designed ending, and that's precisely what I want to avoid.

It also means that characterisation through dialogue becomes far more difficult. I suppose this explains the heavy reliance in anime and manga on character traits and catch phrases, to quickly build character. I suppose in some animes music also plays that role, but for the most part, that's it. And that annoys me. I want to write genuine and true dialogue and speaks true to the characters in my mind.

This isn't a problem I'm going to resolve in one blog post, especially when I'm tired after 3 hours of playing Team Fortress 2. Just thought I'd keep you guys updated.

Same collaborators, new project

I hate myself for not feeling the urge to update this anymore. 2 years later and perhaps I've burnt out? Even Gordon last night commented on how infrequently this baby is updated. That list of projects I compiled a while back ... this blog was one of 2 or 3 projects that I'd actually kept up with and now it seems like this too is slipping into the void of hiatus.

Well, not if I can do anything about it!

It occurred to me two nights ago that when Gordon and I first started considering creative collaborations together the first idea we jumped to was working on a manga, and not once did we even consider the remotest possibility that our skills could be put to other areas. And so I got to thinking, a manga is heaps and heaps of work and perhaps neither of us were really ready to take that on just yet ... but are there any other mediums? Then it hit me.

Animated shorts.

That is, short animated films, the kind of 2-3 minute videos that can be funny or dramatic or inspirational. In my mind I'm thinking "Kiwi" type videos, except not 3D, since neither of us are skilled enough in that field. I would write them and I guess direct them, and he could design and animate them. Neither of us are musically inclined, so I'd just have to find a musician to do the music, probably Ned or someone.

I decided that for the first few we wouldn't go lurching into the world of voices, since neither of us have the equipment to do it well. Perhaps one day I can enlist the help of Chris, who's big into the whole voice acting thing and even if he can't help he might be able to find the contacts who could. But first things first, let's see we can produce some quality content and build some kind of small audience at the very least.

With this in mind I went to be ... it must've been 2am at night and I was lying there, half asleep, desperately trying to come up with an idea. And an idea came. The more I thought about it the more of a plot came through, with specific storyboard-like key frames as well as the ending. I knew the metaphorical and allegorical meaning, and the message, if you want to be trite, of the short.

Last night, in a hotel bar no less, Gordon and I talked it through. It liked the idea of collaborating on shorts. We both realised that a manga, right now as a two man operation with no real prospects of it going anywhere, was too vast of an undertaking and commitment. Especially since we're both incredibly lazy people. As such animated shorts are a genius happy-medium. He's on a month long break right now and I will be soon too. What better time for two jobless teens to do this than now?

We're both in this. Right now I'm gonna finish off my exams and he's going to work on an artistic style that I'd be happy with. My goal is to make it look non-flashy and a polished looking product. I want it to look simple and not too laboured, I think the story needs a simple artistic style. Once he finds one that works I'll get to work storyboarding in stick figures, and then Gordon will re-storyboard in a better graphical style and also put his input into the idea. Then once he gets it, I can look for a composer.

And on music, Gordon and I both agreed that we don't just want the music to be a background soundtrack. It has to be an integral character and moving force of the story. It has to be memorable and something people can form an emotional attachment to such that each time they hear the music they relive those emotions. I listen to the Kiwi! music from time to time and I'm always just as inspired.

At the same time we wanted to avoid just making a music video. At least for this one. It does occur to me that making animated music videos could also be neat - anyone know what the rules on Youtube and stuff are about music videos? If all else fails I can look at some DFTBA artists, since I know that one can use their music in videos so long as it's credited to them as such. I need to double check that.

Either way, exciting times. I like being back in the saddle for creating things. It's been about 2 years since this blog started up. And even then I wanted to work on projects. 2 years ago I pictured that I'd've completed something by now :P

Here's hoping 2 years from now I'll have finished something. :)

Things I would like to do

Two things I've been noodling around in my head over the past two days.

1. I want to take a couple of my friends and set up a challenge. Basically, beginning from some date until some other day, we each must create a business and earn money from it. I have no idea what the intricacies of the challenge would be, whether the winner will be determined by how much money is made ... are we talking gross or net? And it had to be an idea that neither one of us will have done anything towards yet, so we will all be on equal ground, meaning I can't use the t-shirt business idea (which I think is too broad of an idea anyway).

Potential candidates for this? Gobi, Connor, AJ, Kolby, Gordon ... They're the creative types who I think would get a kick out of this. May discuss the idea with a few of them next week and see what they say. I know Gobi said back in 2008 that he had a goal to make a set goal of money by some date, I was kinda inspired by that. But I was also inspired by The Spiral Project in that that took what could've been an arduous task and turned it into a game between friends.

Other rule would be fairly obvious ones, such as not being able to use each other for help. Maybe we can talk through ideas, but no actual helping, ie, no obligations to help so we can focus our efforts. We'd be allowed to use contacts and other friends however we please, as they would just be another resource in the game. I'd love to say I could supply each participant with a wad of cash to help them start up, but I really don't think that's gonna happen :P Although something to consider is maybe having each person start saving now and then by the time we begin we all have like $1000 or $2000 in the bank to use. *shrug*

2. I want to take the type, probably during a break, and spend it working 9-5. And by working I mean writing. Yes, I know disciplined writing sucks the fun right out of it, but the point of this is to transpose the fun into the idea of trying to work this way, not in the writing process itself or the written work itself.

It'd be kind of like a NaNoWriMo, but instead of aiming for any specific word limit, one is limited merely to the hours of the day that one has to write. With like one or two breaks for lunch, the hours will be spend actually sitting there working.

I reckon, so long as I can continually write something I'm satisfied with, I can push out 2-3 weeks before I get fed up with the routine and throw in the towel, at which point I've have enough of a book that I should be able to finish it and have some incentive to do so. I remember watching a video from John Green years back where he and 3 other authors locked themselves in an apartment and all worked together with their writing, leaning on each other for advice and reading out excerpts. If I had the friends who would write with that dedication AND the time I would definitely ask them to join it, but this definitely seems like an individual endeavour.

I guess part of this would be not writing completely and total quality. The focus would be to get what I can down and focus on the editing once it's all done. If I can get my mind over that hurdle then I'm certainly on my way to making this plan a reality.

What's motivating me with this is a yearning to do some writing outside of the Spiral Project. And since that's the only collaborative writing project that's worked it, it seems like collaboration, at least with the handful of people I've surrounded myself with, does not seem as feasible as I would've hoped when I began all this 2 years ago, and so I will have to resort myself to masturbatory writing.

Too busy, too busy.

Am I the only one that feels the void each time I go on a blogging hiatus? This entire week has been rather busy for me, I'm sure you will understand, and so I've put the blog on the back burner for now. I may keep it in irregular update mode now. The constantly blogging style doesn't seem to suit me anymore, perhaps it's because I've increased the font size and now my long posts just seem epically long, or perhaps I've experienced a change as a person. Who knows, that's unexplored territory right now.

At the same time, I want my blog to hold enough of a record of my days, or more importantly, my cognitions about my days, that in future I can look back and have some semblance of an idea of wtf happened. It's interesting, when I look back at the 3-4 month hiatus I took from the whole Incident, I don't remember those details as clearly. Perhaps the act of blogging and forcibly engaging with my thoughts and my day I am thinking about it more. In the same way that reading a textbook is about as useful as licking a fridge for sustenance. One has to, or at least I do, actively participate and interact with the material to learn it. It's how I study for all my exams.

Which is the perfect segue into Why My Week Was So Busy.

Had two major exams this week, one on Wednesday and one to Thursday. I had a few nights to study for the first one and I only studied Wednesday night for the Thursday one, after watching MasterChef for 90 minutes, leaving me with only a coupla hours. My mother would probably lament reading this, but I can confidently say I completely aced my second exam, despite the relative lack-of-study. As for my other exam, I didn't ace it, but I did well enough, I think. Could I have studied more for it? No. The exam was are more thorough and searching that it should have been, so theoretically most people should've suffered through it as well, in which case my mark, comparatively ought to go up.

(I've noticed that I have a tendency to either have exams that I just do great at, or I have exams that are far too hard than they should've been. In either case, the amount of study I do is justified. Perhaps if you're not me you might think there was a relationship. Since I'm not not me and am rather astutely me, I maintain that is a pleasant coincidence)

Beyond that I also had to collect data for the research project I'm doing. We, as a group, basically decided to rent out a room in the library, and then go around the place approaching people and asking for their assistance. I have never been rejected so hardcore in my life. I mean it's occurred to me what little public speaking I do these days, and the little theatre I do and therefore a lack of improvisation, but honestly, whatever confidence I had retained was shattered in the face of nihilistic rejection by just about everyone. In two hours, me and my partner managed a niggardly 12 people to fill in our survey.

On the upside, it was an interesting insight into how others lie. I mean, we all do it. When people approach us in the street, we all come up with some excuse that kinda is rather lame, despite that small part of us that always congratulates itself thinking it to have been a genius at ad libing that completely original excuse. Having been on the other end of these badgerers, I know how decidedly stupid almost all excuses are.

This next week will probably involve a buttload more data collection. Will update you with details of how I go with that.

Sunday, i.e., ANZAC day, was spent mostly with Chris, who came up to watch "Kick-Ass" the movie with me. I am probably going to do a more indepth review in future, but if not, here it is: It is just pure, raw, unadulterated awesome. "Kick-Ass" is ... kick-ass. And I don't just mean it being hilarious in all the right ways, but it also had the right heart and ethos and spirit and everything. It was unashamedly awesome. There are really good, y'know, stupidly hilarious awesome movies, "The Hangover" comes to mind. But for films like that I feel no urge for ownership, by which I mean I don't feel the need to say "I wish I had written that" or "I will write something like that someday". All my favourite things in life MUST have this quality. And "Kick-Ass" has oodles of it. It is only my list of favourite films of all time, along with "Up", and ... I'm not sure what other films go there, I've never given it much thought, but those two sit there comfortable.

Chris and I chessed for a bit. And quite frankly, I really need to pick up my game. I can't remember the last time I beat Chris. Perhaps is the same condition that afflicts me in making me crappy at mahjong. My analytic, strategic skills have dissipated into the cosmic breeze. We Pokemon carded, and for the most part that was fun. But Chris just has too good of a deck right now that none of mine stand a chance. It's time for me to build a new one. I suspect a haymaker type deck will be the one to take him down.

I FINALLY got my copy of John Green's "An Abundance of Katherines" and his and David Levinthal's "Will Grayson, Will Grayson". I've read the latter. It is a really, really good book. Once of the few that has ever made me tear up at the end. Not blubbering crying or anything like that. Just a tear. The ending worked, that's all I have to say about it. More indepth review later.

But I will say that that book held a lot of significance for me. Purely because the structure of the book is very similar to Kolby and my Spiral project. John and David wrote it by alternating chapters and perspectives of their characters. They didn't really discuss the plot before hand, though I suspect there was some light discussion, unlike the total wall of silence erected between Kolby and myself. I couldn't help but draw comparisons.

For the most part, I think our half of a novel is probably long in terms of word length than their entire book. But this is to be expected, as stylistically Kolby and I are going for a detailed account. If anything, we write almost like a comic book in writing form, where we move through pictures. Or at  least a TV series written in word.

The other major difference is that there's is young adult fiction ... had to get more specific than that, whilst ours is ... the best word to describe it would be mystery. So the feel is very different. But if we manage to give our characters the same pathos and telos and catharsis and just general emotional arc I will be very happy. LOST has probably had one of the biggest influences on us, and TPTB have always said that the characters come before the mythology, and ours, I hope, falls into that.

I have also done some writing. There's a short story competition here at ANU. I've decided to enter this year, specifically with a few months to go to give me some time. Two nights ago I wrote the first segment of my short story. I'm going with the idea I came up with the night I decided to enter this competition, but expanded it. The next morning I thought up a rough story arc for my characters. It's going to run along the lines of a post-modern/philosophical/absurdist fiction. I think it treads the fine line between the good and bad kinds of pretentiousness. Once I finish I'll have my test readers provide me with feedback. There are a lot of ideas going into this one, and intentionally going to be open to interpretation. This'll become clear once you read it, for once the competition is over it shall go up on here. Or my personal website, haven't decided yet.

T-shirt business. I'm probably not going to go with my friend. The entire company he bought his stuff from, I've come to realise does not suit my needs. Not only is a 4 jig screen printer not enough, but his only allows one shirt board. I need 4 at least. I'm looking at an option to get 6 of each, costing me $1000. On this I will need a heater ~$600, and with any luck my friend will still sell me the carbon printer, for the several hundred $'s. This will hopefully save me about $2000 which I can use to actually purchase the blank shirts and ink and maybe pay rent for a mini-stall or whatever. Need to think it through and talking it through with my peeps.

And this has grown to be far long than I had anticipated. With that, adieu.

Manic

Last time I called it my creative streak, and it occurred to me that it's rather similar to the manic phases in bipolar disorder (or what was manic-depression), periods of bursts of creative energy and impulsivity and lack of inhibition. Seems to characterise my current mood quite aptly.

One thing that was quite apparent to me (and perhaps has been one of the great points of lamentation from my dear Mother) is my resume/CV's bareness. Bullshitting can only get one so far. It began with the Express Media grant; it put a seed in my head: Perhaps it's time that I started considering doing projects with tangible goals.

Last night I realised I should do what I distinctly remember seriously considered 2 years ago, during my first year at ANU. That was to write for the student newspaper, The Woroni. I noticed that there's a need for tech/gaming writers, and I suppose I fit that bill rather well, especially since I'm heavily interested in social media and in particular how the technology of social media has fundamentally changed us and society. Maybe that's worth looking into.

Alternatively, I could provide opinion pieces, Lord knows I have an opinion on just about every topic under the sun; or I could write satire pieces, which would be rather beneficial considering my pledge a few posts back to enter into Raw Comedy'010. I've actually already got 4-5 different pieces I've got and last night in bed my mind started composing some of them. I'd like to think of it as practise for a more focused writing career.

I had a talk with Gobi about this and he agreed that it's definitely something I should consider, indeed he expressed surprise that neither of us had mentioned it previously.

EDIT: Nearly forgot the other thing I'd decided. There's this annual short story competition at the ANU, and I didn't know about it last year or the year before, so I never entered. But this year, I've decided I'm going to. In it to win it. Not for the monetary prize (good as that may be) but again, as the overarching tenet of this post suggests, so I can put it down on my CV. I've already a story in mind that I came up with last night, that's a philosophical, absurdist type short story. Should be interesting.

I also talked to Gobi a bit more about that club idea, except I've recast the notion into a production company/team, with a more bureaucratic approach to how it'd work. I've actually still not many ideas as to whether it'd be viable and whether it'd be eligible for a grant.

These days I've discovered a nice little tree by the river that my Thursday afternoons are spent underneath. Alone. On this occasion I gave some thoughts to potential projects that could "use language in an innovative way" and my mind kept coming back to the same kinds of things (outside that production company), and that was some sort of game, likely social in nature, though I've not any clear ideas. I'm going to have to pool the collective thoughts of my friends and see what they come up with.

Funding

And I'm back, baby! 8) Shanan's back in town. I'd like to think that I'm on a bit of a creative high right now, different threads of my life are coming together in rather interesting ways. On top of the several ideas I outlined earlier in the week, there's also the song I gave to Ned to compose for. He told me today that he's started working on it and that ... hell, why not just read it yourself:

what I got so far is pretty cool :)

haha yep started last week sometime. its a challenge making a verse and chorus and stuff... but how I have done it is, i have taken the verse-verse-churas structure it seems to have and changed it so the last two lines of the 2nd 'verse-phrase' each time is the chorus, and the chorus section is like a bridge. if that makes any sense at all. lol!

I am fucking ecstatic to hear this. Potentially the first project when I'm not badgering my collaborator and hassling them and generally feeling like a horrible person to doing so. Even better, I just can't way to hear what he's done, even if his description is a tad vague; but I've given up pretty much full artistic licence to play around however he wishes with the song.

I also came across this today, the Express Media's Writer's Grant. It's basically a fund to request up to $5000 to help fund and kickstart your own project involving using language in innovative ways. I mean right now there's nothing I'm working on that would qualify, but that's not to say that ideas haven't popped into my mind before. Here's a list of things they funded last year. They did the 12words project, which I think was a brilliant concept. There's a literary journal, a writing festival, literature program, play festival, an e-zine (and he also used it to produce a chapter of a graphic novel..?) and a collection of essays. A lot of things to consider there.

As I understand it, the projects limited to outside 'personal writing' things, so I won't be able to get funding for any of my current projects (not that it needs it). But there's a lot of interesting things there ... Obviously a zine would be interesting, if only for the fact that it's a homonym for my character in The Spiral Project.

I'll have to give it some thought, who knows, I might just come up with some kickass idea and funding would be precisely what I need to make it work. Lord knows I won't be funding it myself, what with being a poor uni student and all. Perhaps I could come up with some collaborative effort with fellow uni students. Or maybe that club idea I was bounding around ages and ages back. That could be something interesting.

And, I'm sure Mother will be so proud of me for this: It will look pretty impressive on a resume.

8)

Projects and Projects and Projects

Alright! So over the past few days I've given some thoughts to projects of mine. What will come of this? Well if you've read my blog for any length of time you'll know that the answer to that is probably nothing, but the process, once I do become rich and famous, will be of interest to my ardent fans. Or, if it all fails, it'll be good for me to look back on how my ideas have developed and how projects have evolved.

1. Podcasts. I wrote a few days ago about giving thought to podcasting. I guess I called it audiobook/drama because in my mind a podcast is purely a informational talk-radio-show type thing, it doesn't include audiobooks or audiodramas. I guess podcast is the catchall term for anything audio that's syndicated. I'm not interested in say, taking a book/novel I've written and just turning it into an audio format. I'm more interested in treating it like a play/movie and writing a script for it, since I'm much better with dialogue than I am with traditional exposition anyway.

What do I need to find out from here? Listen to a few examples of podcasts that fit the bill of what I want to do, find a few podcast production companies that accept amateur/newbie scripts that also suit the fashion in which I want to work, and then write the darned thing.

2. Manga. So "Liberi Ex Janus" sits in a hiatus-limbo mode now. That's cool, don't mind it. Yesterday Chris, from here and here talked to me on Facebook about his manga'ing ventures. He'd uploaded some new work a few months back and I was suitably impressed. If I just came across those drawings somewhere on the internet I'd swear I'd think they were scans from an actual manga. He told me about a manga magazine that was founded in Australia a few months ago, and that he'd like to submit to them, and I looked into it a bit as well. I'm considering buying a couple of issues just to see how well they work.

I told Chris this point, and I guess I'll reiterate them here. I have several really quite good stories that are close to my heart. The only way that I think I could do them any sort of justice is to do them in a fully professional capacity in such a way as to get them the widest audience possible. Now I would take one and produce it for free for a small magazine, but their smaller audience doesn't appeal to my stories. Does this make me arrogant? I mean it just means that I'll start small and use stories that I have less of an emotional attachment to.

Chris himself told me that he'd like to work on something with me, with me as the writer and him as the artist, so that would be really cool! :D In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I thought the story I had planned for my NaNoWriWe project could definitely lend itself to being a manga, rather than being a novel. It has all the makings of a very Japanese-influenced story and mythology. And I'm not as emotionally invested, so technically I have no qualms about producing it for this magazine. Last night I went on a frenzy and compiled all my thoughts I'd had down in a txt document, including my super secret ending :D

What do I need to find out from here? Precisely what kind of submission process this magazine has. I need to find out, since I'm not an avid manga reader, what the pacing for chapters is like, especially since it's bi-weekly. I need to know how many pages of magazine is produced and how many pages of script that converts to. I also need to find out dramatically how long a chapter is ... do I cover an entire mini-story or just continue the story ...

3. Harry just talked to me and told me his sister as a screen printer in response to my t-shirt business woes. I'm looking for more information on him about the machine he has, so I can find out what it's upkeep and turnaround is, and how much work/time will be needed from me to operate it. I need to know the limitations of what kind of designs I can have, and need to know how much the machine will set me back.

But if it all works out, I might not have to outsource the printing at all, and I can, for the very initial steps, work it all myself :D

And Ned to the rescue!

I tried to do a quick search about when I wrote the lyrics to this particular song, but I can't find it. Overall I have written the lyrics to 3 songs, 1 that's just long and wordy and may just be a poem/operatic piece or something, 1 that's supposed to be funny but I don't think it that much any more, and the other one of which I am quite proud.

I remember finishing writing that and looking at it and just feeling like it worked. Potentially it was because I had a very clear visual image in my mind and had characters in mind as I wrote it. This emotional core definitely made the lyrics much better. At some point, probably quite soon after, I had AJ take a look at it. Though he expressed enthusiasm for the lyrics, he has yet to even mention the composition of that song (which I recall entrusting to him), so I'm just gonna assume that's a bust.

That must've been a year ago at least. I remember thinking that I just had to keep it on the backburner until someone came along into my life that could collaborate me as a musical partner.

But then I remembered my good friend Ned, a very talented musician and studying music composition at university right now. He and I have been Facebooking for ages now, and it occurred to me that I should just ask him. This is what I did earlier tonight. And he's agreed to it :D

I sent him the lyrics and the type of song I'm after. He immediately upon reading it said he already had some ideas :D Though he won't get to it for a few weeks as he's busy with schoolwork (perfectly understandable), but I am eagerly awaiting his results.

And perhaps, if I were to finally get some actual payoffs for the work that I'm doing, I will become inspired to actually do some more work on the song writing front. Either as just a collection of music or as working on a musical of some sort. I trust Ned's musical sensibilities, and back in 2005 I had tried to talk him into writing a musical with me. Who'd've thunk that 5 years later it's all come back to him? :D

The Web-Novel

Now here's an idea I just had ... It's recently dawned upon me that the majority of my Facebook usage is about encouraging communication and discussion, whether that be through witty little comments or deliberately controversial status updates. I suppose this isn't what dawned on me so much as it was the fact that I seem to have achieved this purpose, a quick purview of my wall indicates a lot of people (mostly regulars, I suppose) comment and we always get a nice lil' discussion going.

Like I lamented in my last post, Twitter is my escape away from "accountability" (by which I mean to my friends, and not to the larger social/political accountability and responsibility that I hold. So if you're someone in the future trying to comb through my blog looking for "incriminating" statements, kindly gloss the fuck over this.), but Facebook is definitely my main "broadcast" medium. I wish more people would use Facebook like that, as a means to foster communication and learn about people, rather than a one-way broadcast out, or a banal wall-to-wall service or even worse, a medium for just photos. Facebook takes all those things and creates something much grander.

As such I was just noodling in my mind about different ways about interacting with these people, most of whom are good friends of mine. And as always, it comes back to the notion of writing. I think the internet is one way in which actual serialised writing could work. But just writing it plainly and uploading it onto Facebook = not much of a guarantee for it to be a success, I mean the last thing I'd want is to write something, post it up and not get any feedback whatsoever.

Here's where my thoughts are at: Suppose that I have a germ of an idea of a story. I write up a short passage (a length I am not sure about) then upload that. People read it and respond (should I "tag" people I think would be interested ... maybe different people each week? Or would I just the regulars? I'm sure some people would not appreciate being tagged with my clutter). I then scour the comments and from that someone get influence in the direction I take the next segment.

Obviously my writing style would develop as the feedback built. So it's a way to get very immediate feedback. But I also see it as a way that I could communicate some of my ideas/philosophies, embodied in characters and situations, and generate a discussion and perhaps incorporate aspects of that discussion into each section.

(And how would I have any indication of readership? Perhaps I could ask that people, once read, would like the segment, so I know how many people have read it, who has read it and perhaps that could influence how the story develops.)

It would also discipline me to be writing regularly and to nurture communication and listen to feedback. As for regularity ... I have no idea how regular these things would be. Obviously the more regular the shorter the length of the piece. But if I leave it longer then it will be expected the segments will contain a good length. And yet I want to keep it short enough to allow people to read without suffering a tl;dr complex.

But there's also the battle between yielding to my readers' wants and my own story. I'd have to setup from the onset what the limits of audience feedback would be. Would it become a choose your own adventure style ... I offer a couple of alternatives at the end of the segment, and based on the vote, take the most popular and run with it? Or do I let people decide maybe on lines of dialogue/exposition that I have to include in the next segment?? Or is it just a standard style of writing without contrived gimmicks, and I just look at what the general feel seems to be and then write the next section? Should the novel just be a totally generative story, or do I write with an actual basic plot in mind and let the audience help guide the path but not the destination??

That's the most important part of this and I'm really at a stump to how I can effectively cultivate the zeitgeist of my peeps. If you have any suggestions I would LOVE to hear what you think.

A man of ideas but no action

Several weeks ago when I went to see Avatar with Sandy, I recounted for him the numerous stories I had in my mind. It even scared me how many I had, how many of which were nearing some severely indepth plotting, and how little had been done with each of them. Thus I thought it might be prudent to document them here, since this the blog where I journal such things. Here goes, in no particular order.

Paintball
STATUS: Shelved until Strike Rapier's EVO's newest version is released, which has several features I need.
MEDIUM: A bot controlled game in Active Worlds.
PROJECT: A new age paintball bot that reinvents how paintball has been done before.
NOTES: 'nuff said. The ideas are still here, most of them on the SWC forums, some detailed others not. I'll push it once EVO is developed to a point where my ideas can be realised.

T-Shirt Business
STATUS: Awaiting a quote from printer.
MEDIUM: n/a
PROJECT: Starting a t-shirt business selling mostly online with designs from my friends.
NOTES: This is the most financially viable project, and the current one I am obsessing over, which was reinvigorated today. I'm eagerly waiting for some replies to numerous e-mails, the most important of which is the one from my potential printer.

The Spiral Project
STATUS: Traveling steadily and awaiting Colby to write his latest chapter.
MEDIUM: Novel. Maybe more than one, depending on where the story heads.
PROJECT: A novel that begins with two disparate storylines that end up spiralling together. It is written chapter by chapter, taking turns between Colby and myself. We're not allowed to discuss plans or ideas and must make predictions based on what the other has written (in turn guided but what the other wrote previous) without intentionally guiding the story themselves.
NOTES: This is perhaps my most successful project in that stuff is happening with it. I have a kickass chapter planned (but of course subject to change based on what Colby gives me). I've made a prediction for how I think his chapter will end (jut based on what I have up to Chapter 6.2, and if he ends it that way then there will be an awesome link in the stories ;)

The Spiral Project TV
STATUS: Pilot written. Considering 2nd eps and how to proceed with series. Possible wait until novel is written.
MEDIUM: TV series... obviously. A serial drama. Probably more like a mini-series. Several eps long.
PROJECT: a translation of the Spiral Project novel into a TV series type format.
NOTES: The pilot script is written. I've yet to properly edit it. Mostly dialogue lifted from the chapters but delicately woven together by my dainty hand with lil' extras peppered here and there to add to the dramatic tension.

Helix Project
STATUS: Shelved pending one or two years until Connor is ready. Looking for replacement in meantime.
MEDIUM: Novel.
PROJECT: The book is written where person A writes a section and person B must pick it up, without talking to person A and continue the story. Not necessarily the storyline, but continue with what the story requires. The integrity of the project is imperative. In this way we can write two novels simultaneously, swapping between the two of us together.
NOTES: Connor says he doesn't want to do it right now, given uni commitments and all that. I respect that. He really likes the idea and wishes to do it. Gave me blessing to find someone else to do it with in the meantime. I have a first 'section' idea roughly sketched out. No idea where it will head though.

Trio
STATUS: Idea is sitting in my cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: TV series.
PROJECT: A Prison Break/Code Geass/Death Note type psychological thriller and mindfucks galore meet the decadent Skins. As a TV series it can potentially span 2-3 seasons, though, like LOST, I feel it would be best if it had an end date so I can arc the story properly.
NOTES: I did say I was going to do with this Jeanne, but that kinda fell through and the more I think about it the more attached I get to these characters and so will probably do it on my own. Designed to work  with a major television network type thing. How this will be achieved I have no idea. Currently coming up with character names and may start definitively plotting the story out sometime soon. I have copious notes detailing plot points and ideas and characterisations.

A Show about Heroes
STATUS: Idea is sitting in my cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: TV series.
PROJECT: A Heroes meet D. Gray-man type thing. Story based around people who get powers (and though similar in premise to Heroes, the storytelling will be quite different and I actually came up with it before watching Heroes. The idea of people getting powers intrigued me and I wanted to put my own spin on it).
NOTES: In my mind I have it planned into three definitive seasons. I have a basic mythology planned. No characters as of yet.

Liberi ex Janus
STATUS: Shelved, but not forgotten.
MEDIUM: Manga/Graphic Novel.
PROJECT: An original story idea. There is a premise that could sustain a long term manga, but in my mind I do have a definite story planned out. So if it's fleshed out then it will expand on this story. Basic mythology laid out, most names planned and characterisations of the main characters devised.
NOTES: I've written a draft for the first graphic novel. Awaiting detailed feedback from Gordon, who is/was going to be my artist. Project shelved due to lack of interest on his part. I also need to rewrite the entire draft to give it better dialogue. Plenty of notes for how the story goes, separated into 5 arcs, though upon reflection could be expanded to 6-7.

Doppelganger
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: A play.
PROJECT: An original comedic play. I have a basic premise, an opening and an ending in mind. I know the ideas and themes I wish to play with, but no characterisations and virtually no plot.
NOTES: I only have scarce notes on this. I did have plenty of ideas at one point, but failed to document them, and I suspect for the best.

Sekrit project
STATUS: Discarded.
MEDIUM: A web startup.
PROJECT: top sekrit.
NOTES: I don't feel the idea was ever viable and definitely isn't at this point in our technological history.

AWTowns
STATUS: Shelved.
MEDIUM: A bot based game in Active Worlds.
PROJECT: A game that is a little bit like interactive building. Gives a social element to the game, a lil' bit like Hyper Anthony's new Goal-Oriented Building Game, but more involved.
NOTES: Failed interest on my part led me to shelve it. I feel kinda bad for Baro, as I'm like the 4th or 5th developer to give up on him.

Romantic Comedy
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: A screenplay or maybe a play.
PROJECT: A love story told from two perspectives. A bit of a farce. Love from a different perspective ;)
NOTES: I know the basic 'message' of the story and maybe one or two themes. I have one scene planned in my mind, I hope it's as funny as I think it is. But that's about it.

Graphic Novel with Alastair
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Graphic novel.
PROJECT: Taking a basic premise from Alastair and expanding its story and characterising it. Alastair as artist.
NOTES: I have the first 2 acts planned. No idea how to end it though, and through talks with Alastair, neither does he. Basic characterisations planned and name of the name character. Basic ideas on themes.

Bathos
STATUS: Shelved.
MEDIUM: web-comic, kind of like a xkcd meet ... I dunno. Slightly serial.
PROJECT: Just a fun lil' project on the side. Art style I blatantly am using the Order of the Stick, but I mean it's only 3 comics, so whatever.
NOTES: Shelved because it was waaaay too much work to make each comic. I have basic ideas for several comics planned. Maybe one day I'll find an artist to realise them. Although I've lately been thinking about deploying them through a different, non-web comic medium.

Musical
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Musical.
PROJECT: Taking a story already written and turning it into a musical.
NOTES: Haven't formally asked permission from author yet. Probably won't until I have several songs written and if denied I'll adapt them for something else. I have several song themes planned, though no actual lyrics written.

NaNoWriWe
STATUS: Idea is in my cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: A series of novels. Generally humourous. High fantasy.
PROJECT: Originally conceived as a story NaNoWriWe, but spiralled out into something else entirely. Still no name for it yet so I'll refer to it as NaNoWriWe.
NOTES: A full mythology and history planned. Character roles planned. Symbols and themes planned. Message and motifs planned. A lil' bit of characterisation, though no names. Begining fully planned. An ending fully planned. Only thing missing is an actual plot.

The Unremarkable Tale of a Boy and his Dog that Couldn't Talk
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Rhyming poem. Dr Suess style.
PROJECT: A children's story with a pretty kickass moral.
NOTES: A rhyming meter determined, a few rhymes here and there. At one point I had several lines planned, but they are forgotten. I have a full plot planned. Just need to write it now.

Raffle House
STATUS: Just came up with a few days ago.
MEDIUM: Screenplay.
PROJECT: A comedy type drama film.
NOTES: Got the idea from Comit when he and I were having a discussion. A basic germ of an idea to set up the movie. Not sure where it goes.

The Phantom of the Opera
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Mini-series.
PROJECT: A mini-series based on Phantom of the Opera. Based heavily on Leroux's original work.
NOTES: I have specific lines I wish to use. I think I would be quite good at this, especially when I'm in my Erikian mood.

Sketch Channel/Series
STATUS: Just an idea.
MEDIUM: An online youtube channel.
PROJECT: A series of character-based sketches, kind of like Little Britain, but done online.
NOTES: I have like a handful of sketches in my mind. Several characters I could play for it. But this is not much more than an idea.

Punk/Emo/Rock Band
STATUS: Awaiting the right people.
MEDIUM: A band.
PROJECT: The idea is to form a band around people I know IRL and taking to the online and building up a fan-base from scratch. I would be manager, of course.
NOTES: I have several plans. I know what I want the band to look like, but no actual people as of yet.

Duologue
STATUS: Awaiting the right people.
MEDIUM: Non-fiction.
PROJECT: A kind of back and forth exchange of philosophical discourse.
NOTES: Nawaaz did express interest at one point, but I think that was a one off.

Short Story Collection
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limgo.
MEDIUM: Short story collection.
PROJECT: A short stories based around a real world event connecting these people together.
NOTES: I have a final story planned. I have the world-event premise. I have several stories planned. Just need to seriously plan it.

Documentary
STATUS: Awaiting the right idea.
MEDIUM: An amateur documentary released online. Maybe serially.
PROJECT: Just an idea for some kind of real world documentary. Just need the idea.
NOTES: I was thinking maybe using it as an excuse for an epic all-round Australia roadtrip. But dunno if I know the right people who would be up for like a month long roadtrip D:

Got AbMo?
STATUS: Back and coming along nicely.
MEDIUM: Online blog.
PROJECT: To keep a record of the thoughts that run through my head daily and the events that occur in my life daily. To be an effective "me on the internet". Destroying the notion of a professional image.
NOTES: This blog is a project, I nearly forgot. And is no doubt the most successful in front of Spiral.

Huh. 25 projects listed here. My God; how many of these are in cognitive limbo?! :P

On T-shirts

Right before I tumble right into a lengthy post detailing my thoughts and plans for my first business, I need to make known that earlier today, as I was unplugging my piano to plug in my heater (yes, because it was frickin' cold today, despite it being the middle of summer), I accidentally ripped part of my nail from the flesh of my right index finger. Like the nail ain't split, just the flesh underneath is no longer attached. It's nothing, big, just minor. A bit of blood, and a lil' sting of pain. Pretty much no biggy, I suspect it ought to heal in a day or two. I tell you this merely so you know that as I type this, I feel an almighty pang of pain, just so you can appreciate how important you all are that I am willing to endure repetitive jabs of torment.

A coupla nights ago I rather briefly mentioned that I wanted to do a t-shirt business. Well tonight I want to write a bit about its genesis and precisely what I mean. Except not so much precise because, like all my good ideas, they're so good I do not wish for potential competitors to steal my ideas, so I'll avoid being too direct and tend towards a happy nondescript indifference.

This whole idea really was the right ideas at the right time that sent my mind spiralling down an entrepreneurial path. First of all, I had, about two weeks before Christmas, been talking to my parents about our relatives who are in the retail clothing industry and I was merely hearing about business dealings and such. So I had all this stuff on my mind, where I was just thinking of what I would do if I had to handle distributing clothing yadda-yadda.

Then, Gordon, rather coincidentally, expressed a wish to me that he wanted to design some t-shirts. His idea was to just make some and then wear it to see how well his design would be received. I'm not sure if he has plans for mass-production or anything.

Given the frame of mind I was already in, the notion of distributing shirts that were original kind of excited me and really got me thinking. My initial plans were to go into a partnership with Gordon, that he would handle all the artistic stuff and I would handle the marketing and distributing and production side of things. Basically the lion's share of the work.

The more I thought about it, however, the more I began to wonder if I could perhaps open up the platform a lot more. Instead of just having Gordon, I make it so Gordon is just one of many artists who "work" for me. I'm not exactly sure what t-shirt designers for major companies fare when it comes to getting royalties or whatever, but if the industry is anything like the music/book-publishing industry, then I suppose treating my artists fairly can only help things.

Since I have a very non-chalant stance towards money, and the fact that I had and still have no intentions of this business becoming either a full-time occupation or indeed source of income able to support me, then I'm not driven towards making maximum profit and thereby screwing my artists over.

Like all my good ideas, everything must be crowd-sourceable from Facebook. More importantly, from my friends. I have no interest hiring people just because they're good. Business of all sizes ought to be personable and I really despite how divorced people are becoming from their occupation/job/professional-image. They ought to be one and the same. And like all good beliefs, one doesn't bother trying to manifest them real, they act as if they are and the enlightened will follow.

A status update to Facebook later and I got quite a good response. On top of an initial Gordon (with whom I confirmed afterwards to be interested), I got: Simone, Blake, AJ and Colby all raising their hands. I then went out of my way to ask Beau (my friend in the QLD whom I met online ... about 10 years ago now, it must be) who said yes and also intimated that his twin brother might also be interested. I also asked my good ol' pal Alastair and he also expressed interested.

This gives me a list of eight potential artists. And I say that merely because some of those people I have yet to assess whether they would be able to actually do it. I'm giving pretty much carte blanche to people with what types of designs they wish to pursue, so none all of it has to be 'hand drawn', in that they could take photos/images/logos and photoshop it up. This also opens it up for me as well. I'm probably going to avoid just single line pun/joke shirts, unless they can also be aesthetically pleasing.

With this, I basically went into a frenzy of how this would all work. The initial idea was to make it an online store. I've looked at several websites who run inventory and such, and have found several viable candidates. I then naturally had to look at PayPal accounts since if you want to run an online business you basically cannot avoid it. I also started looking and possible ways to host the site (since I have 7 free domains I've yet to use), and I believe the most viable option would be Google Sites. I only played around with it a bit, but it really seriously does think like a great site editor that will produce professional results. Failing that I can enlist Syn for help.

I also have in my mind some potential marketing campaigns, but that comes later. I'd like to appeal to an international market, so it won't just be targetted locally to Australia or indeed Canberra. Shan't say any more ;)

I also have some "real world" representation ideas in my mind, but nothing fully fleshed out. I know a few people and locations in which I could set up temporary stores to at least appeal to a local market.

So in my mind, basically the business would operate like this. I get all the shirts printed and I store them in my apartment. Then people, using the online store, purchase the shirts. When this happens I basically package them up and take them all down to my local post office and send them off. That's it. How hard can that possible be? In all seriousness, how hard?

Because at the end of the day, if they don't sell they don't sell. I'm not investing tens of thousands of dollars into this. A couple at most. And if I fail then I fail. I'm not asking others to invest in this, and my artists are not invested, so they will not be hurt by the lack of sales. The shirts that don't sell will sit in storage until they do, or otherwise I will think up some way to make some minimal profit. There will be no harm. Lest I remind you how little I care for cashies ;)

The hard part, of course, is the actual production of the shirts. So as I hinted, I have familial contacts that may be able to help me get mass-produced shirts. Luckily, I also have local contacts and I have one potential candidate in mind who might be good for this. I sent him a well placed e-mail, but unfortunately a family emergency has called him away fro two weeks (I suspect it's been at least 2 weeks now) and I am eagerly awaiting a reply. But if this guy falls through then I will consider the others. It'll be far less personal and intimate, but I'm fine with that.

Right now at this stage, I need to find out how much an individual shirt will cost me to produce (the cost of the shirt + the cost of printing + the cost of shipping). I need to know all this to know if I have a viable cash flow and what kind of a profit I can make. Once I reckon I have a realistically working "business model", I'll call back on my artists for designs.

Once I get the designs, ones that I approve naturally ( ;) ) then what I think is the best road forward is to have them sell the pieces to me (or the business, I guess) for a set royalty. Yes, it will involve contracts. And thus yes, it will involve lawyers. But the last thing I need is to have my competency questioned when really I'm just living by my own set of philosophical values. So I must determine how much this royalty would be. Plus I think this way it's fine because the natually good designs will sell and the sucky ones won't. But also in this comission way, no one but me is bringing money to the table, which is exactly how I want it.

Then I need to set up all the online business stuff. And the marketing campaign. And the real world location.

yeah, I know I always have ideas. Many, many projects. This is indeed just another one of them. In fact I'm not even going to say it'll be more important than the others, because it's not. The whole project is designed around the idea that it won't take up much of my time or effort (outside of setting it all up) and without continual investment from me.

There have been naysayers. That's only natural. It really doesn't bother me that much though. The success of this project is not predicated on whether or not I make money, despite what "realists" may insist. There's not a huge chance of this working, you're right. But I'll be satisfied with breaking even. No, actually I would be satisfied if by the end of it I have not completely stressed out, if I haven't had major arguments with officials or whatever. I will be satisfied if by the end of it I had fun and all my colleagues also had fun.

The whole scope of the project falls under the idea of doing it my way. Outside of legal issues, I am discarding all notions of convention and tradition. If I don't think it a wise move to make, I won't make it, no matter how much you insist. For instance, some enquiries I've made to printing companies have asked that I provide a sample picture and they can get a quote for me. The way I see it, that's unacceptable. I am not getting anyone to make any art until I have a full idea of the finances going into it. So if they can't work by my rules, then I just won't use them. Pretty simple business strategy, I find.

Oh, by the way. Other ideas I had for marketing is to use local talent from my pool of friends. IE models, photographers, videos, whatever. In due time, if the project gets off the ground, you'll see another plea-status update on Facebook.

PS. I still don't feel natural blogging and you can no doubt tell this from the jerky thought patterns of this post. Although that could be the pain from my finger.

My Creative Roll

Man, I must be on some creative streak or something. I've had three neat ideas today.

This first one arose from last night.. about 2:30am, I was cleaning the dishes and listening to We The Kings on my phone (<3 having headphones... like having an iPod all over again). Though I'm not going to share the intimate details with you specifically, it's essentially going to be a comedy type drama movie. It would latch onto one philosophical ideal (which I think may be the twist ending) and explicating and exploring it the way through. But not really pushing the philosophical side of things, just taking a neat polychotomy and then traversing its hidden realms. It'd be like a 'Stranger Than Fiction' or a 'Being John Malkovich' type thing. The good thing with this idea is that it's quite loose and open and I have no real idea for a plot, just a basic mythos. Thus I will need a collaborator. I was actually thinking that maybe I would crowdsource it out from my friends, see what they as a collective can come up with. Dunno yet, still thinking about it.

Next one came early today. I was listening to Phantom of the Opera, as I often do, enthralled by the great David Gashen singing Music of the Night, and it occured to me that Phantom has been made into many different forms. The story's been turned into many books, many films, many plays, many musics, probably one or two operas, I think a graphic novel as well. But I wondered, has it ever been made into a TV series? A 12-episode affair... Pushing the drama side of things whilst keeping some sort of episodic form. I genuinely think the story, or at least the character can be translated as such. I mean Erik's shenanigans in the Opera House with the managers can in itself form the backdrop for several episodes. It would allow for some deep, probing character development, outside of what is usually a facile representation in most of the other forms, and would allow me to write my own Phantom, something I've wanted to do ever since I understood the story.

The last idea game about an hour ago.Again, I cannot spare the details but basically it's just a notion for a mythos. Something that I personally haven't seen done yet, though I'm sure the idea exists out there somewhere. Anyway, I don't think I will be creating a story around this one, rather I will incorporate it eventually into one of my stories. I'm thinking my superheroes TV series, of which I have 3 seasons planned, it might make a good backdrop for the 3rd season. I dunno yet. I might need to write it down in case I forget, but then again, this one is so good I can't possibly forget it...

And now I have piled even more crap onto my creative plate. I wish I could say this would mean my summer break would be endlessly fascinating, but I fear this will just push more under the rug. *sigh*

Duologue

Given my recent internetual outtage, I've begun another rewatch of Frasier (for like, what, the 19th time or something? :D) and just now I was watching the last three eps of the first season. In particular, "Author, Author" and "My Coffee With Niles" have always stood out to me as particularly genius episodes. Pretty much anything that centres around Frasier and Niles being at their wittiest = a great episode.

In "Author, Author" Frasier and Niles try to write a psychiatric book and it got me thinking, why are all my 'book' ideas always fiction? I'd like to believe that I have some pretty good, well thought out ideas on things of philosophy and lie in general and I think I'd be able to provide an insightful look at some issue from the perspective of an amateur (whatever that issue may be).

Of those non-fiction ideas I've had, "The Death of Logic", that's a singular undertaking. But how about a way to write a conversation, discourse, a duologue? Almost as if it were a forum thread involving just two people, writing back and forth debating some issue. I'm sure it will have been done before ... but in my mind I'm thinking something written in that "real world" language, where the things being discussed don't become too airy-fairy for the layman. Something that can affect at both an emotive and intellectual level. In my mind I'm thinking books like "Tuesday with Morrie," which is brilliantly simple. It's short yet every time I read it I am inspired and feel good. I wonder if such a feeling can be encapsulated in a duologue.

Naturally there are some inherent problems. For one thing, from my experience with debates, they very quickly narrow their scope from broad and focus on one particular sentence in the entire thing, until neither party is interested in debating any more since it cannot be resolved and do not wish to move onto another point of discussion. For another, to fill out a book each response would have to be quite lengthy - how much discussion can be said to be taking place in something that long? It probably wouldn't work to do the whole forum quote-a-section then respond, rather make it a general response to the ideas presented previously. Should they even be considered direct replies to each other, or should the brief be something along the lines of each response is inspired and affected by the previous response? Would such a system provide a satisfying conclusion, or would propogate eternally?

Should the entire book be about one topic? Or maybe split it into sub-topics of the one major topic, like say "Healthcare reform" and then debating the specific issues involved. Or maybe segmented into totally different, unrelated topics, but again, I can't see that providing enough of a cathartic ending.

One of the benefits of such a book, as I'm just thinking about now is that it will 'humanise' both sides of the argument, present them through a respectful medium without the tedious fallacies that are enacted out in public. By making it simple and everyday it makes it accessible and informative. Should it end with one side conceding to the other, both sides conceding to some compromise or maybe both sides coming closer together than before but without actually meeting any common ground?

And once I firmly mould the conceptual ideas for this project, I need to start looking at the more mundane factors, like what should the topic be and who I could do it with. Natural instinct tells me Chris. Both of them, I guess, but SW Chris in particular since he and I have a lot of discussions that kind of follow a similar format. He's also well-informed on most issues and articulate, as well as being an Apologetic (Apologist? I'm still not sure precisely what that all means, but my basic understanding is that it arms them with argumentative skills and experience). Chris, on the other hand, has a very pleasant and natural voice, and is not clouded by biases that might plague the other real world discussions.

Maybe someone like Nawaaz or James? Both articulate, intellectual individuals, but I'm not sure how much they and I would disagree. I believe we're all kinda likeminded people, so though it might be delightfully interesting for us, I doubt it so for readers.

But yeah, I had nowhere to go with this particular post. Thought I'd jot down the ideas I had regarding a potential project and maybe getting some feedback/ideas/references to similar things already done.

EDIT: OUCH! I don't think I've ever slapped my own forehead that hard before. Like quite literally I smacked my own forehead. Can't believe I didn't think of Connor. He's someone with whom I have many disagreements on a daily basis, someone who is smart and has interesting ideas. Again, I sometimes fear that he and I may have the same fundamental underlying beliefs that just so happene to manifest in opposing arguments. But perhaps I can retire Helix with him, instead opting for this. This also means I'm free to take Helix to some other (perhaps more deserving) recipient ;)

Start of Something Good

Over the past week I've been mentally going through and actioning a few ideas related to a new game concept in AW. You'll note from my tentative label of "paintball" that it may not be a precisely new in that sense. It will be another first person shooter. It actually annoys me how any first person shooter is so quickly subsumed under the 'brella of paintball ... I respectfully submit to attempting to break out of that banal dichotomy.

It really started with a conversation I had with Connor last week, reminiscing about one of my childhood games which he loved as well. In fact, in that very one game, we loved one particular mode of it and one particular way of playing it. You'll notice I'm being disgustingly vague, and unfortunately my paranoia compels me not to leak out my genius ideas out into the free world just yet. I want to get a beta up and running before announcing it to the world. People reading this on the SWI dev board will have already read my preliminary proposal, so plz dun spoil in comments, should you opt to leave any.

So yeah, it was this nostalgia that prompted me to realise that that particular game concept would be utterly and completely foreign and alien to AW. It wasn't even hampered by AW's technical limitations, if anything it played to them quite well. Thus I started investigating its feasibility using the SDK. At this point it wasn't even paintball at all - no shooting. Except maybe as a bonus feature, but the main game didn't have it.

The SDK didn't allow it. In particular movers were buggy as fuck all so I had to abandon the idea. However, I know that once the SDK is fixed up and this one limitation is removed, the idea once again becomes feasible and I will want to make it.

But that didn't stop my creative streak. Thinking about that one idea got me thinking about another one or two ideas that seem to have been missing in AW's FPS games. Perhaps over the past 10 years they've surfaced here and there, but as far as any contemporary game is concerned, none of them have what I'm thinking. Strike Rapier, who's a good friend and a brilliant programmer is working on a brilliant paintball bot, AW@War. He's really the only competition and even he lacks, and isn't even thinking of heading in this direction.

Means I have a very niche market here. Thus my mind went into overdrive with coming up with specific ideas and vague ways to implement them SDK-wise. Somewhere along the line I realised that this entire project can be made into a game for SWI. About fucking time, I say, SWI lacks any multiplayer gaming capabilities, and as Lead Minigame Developer, I can't help but feel entirely responsible for that. I mean I've desperately tried to avoid making a bot dependent game, but I've decided to discard that, particular with this idea which absolutely cannot work without a bot.

Right now I want to integrate it fully into SWI ... The scores you earn in the game get added to a total your SWI account keeps track of. I want to have two way itneraction with SWI so that certain players may get special privileges or effects in playing, either they earn it in SW City and that transfers over, or over playing this new game they earn it I don't know yet. That'll come into after implementing the actual game.

Beyond that I want to build a teleport in SW City somewhere advertising the game as a Matrix-esque virtual game. A virtual reality in a virtual reality? I'm just that meta 8) Within the game I want to use known locations around SW City and though not complete replicants, I want to use the thematic things from them, including ambient, original music, if at all possible. And trust me, if  I can get this game to the level I have it in my mind, people will want to compose something for me, so that's quite exciting.

Since it is so strongly SW'ian, there will be characteristic clownism going on, which I suspect will be half the appeal. That it's not so serious and that it's focus is on the experience and having a fun time. Not that I'm saying Strike's isn't :P But we'll see how my idea manifests itself.

In terms of the bot's actual development, I was looking around at the SDK to see if I could do what I wanted. Yeah, technically possible, but would just break my balls in trying to code it all from scratch. Particularly the Hyperion technology Strike had come up with, which is integral to my ideas, especially given that movers have died. Thus in talking to Strike, I came to the conclusion to take a look around his bot Evo2, which I hadn't had a look at.

Fucking lord that thing is bloody brilliant. Not only is it technologically robut and superior to anything I've ever seen, it has it's own fucking scripting language. So I'm going to just program my bot using that scripting language. Strike was even kind enough to lend me his preliminary paintball script, which I will be using as a "learn-from-doing" method. It's in a format I'm vaguely familiar with, so it shouldn't be too hard to learn it myself.

I can't believe it though, that he'd made a scripting language from scratch and that he has all these classes in it as well. He let me take a peak at his rudimentary documentation (a life saver). And he's offered t help me should I need it.

Today, I managed to get the one roadblock I perceived out of the way, and that was Strike's approval. I just felt that, given he was the pre-eminent paintball bot developer at this current point in time, and that I was going to be using his Evo2, that I ought to have his blessing. I didn't want to feel like I was either turfing in on his territory or just using him. Luckily, he feels that his bot will be superior to anything I can come up with, so he's happy :D Either way, I'm not too fussed if it is superior (which in all likelihood it might be), as it'll be more replayable content for SWI, which it needs quite a lot of. I want to be able to provide a fun environment for those guys to play in.

So. Here I am, having written this, feeling someone professional for having at least blogged about the process. If I learn anything from Software Design it was that now I need to make a plan for the future. Right now I have no specific timeframe in mind, but I do have the next two weeks off so inbetween assignments I will be working on this, and once I get final exams over, I'll have 3-4 months to work on it. If I can get it released before February next year I shall be one happy lad.

Projected Plan for the SWI Paintball (as yet officially untitled)

• Stage 1a: Mass rapid prototyping and understanding the capabilities and limitations of both Evo2 and the AW Browser. This will involve me getting a cit, going into the world Strike has kindly provided me and testing the shit out of it. Hopefully once I get the basic idea done, we, as a SWI collective will be able to convince Flagg to give us one of his test worlds as well as an OP to play with.
• Stage 1b: Planning the game mechanics and the specifics of the secret features with other SWI staff. First of all this will involve getting them interested and into it, so Stage 1a will involve showing them what I want to do and how it can be best done.  Once that's done we will begin rapid planning and schematicising and making sure nothing is too broken and everything is fair for a fun experience. During this stage I will locate a 3D artist to do work for me.
• Stage 1c: Avatar and object modelling: This will involve much cross-talk between whoever my artist is and me, getting it all together and working. Much of what is possible for the Avatars will inform how the aesthetic and feel of the game will work, so what eventuates here may retroactively alter any plans made in Stage 1b.
• Stage 2: Major development period of the game. Including the full structure and scope of all my features being implemented, working through them all. This includes the avatar and models from Stage 1c being fully and usefully implemented.
• Stage 3: Alpha-testing of all features with the SWI staff, keeping the details of it secret still. Will address any bugs and balancing that needs be.
• Stage 4a: Start interfacing the game with SWI. This includes all the aforementioned features as well as anything else that may be deemed necessary.
• Stage 4b: SWI builders begin building the actual world and the arena.
• Stage 5: More alpha-testing of all the changes and implementation of necessary changes, fixes and balances.
• Stage 6: Begin advertising and slowly leaking of information. A slight media campaign. I'd like to do some neat videos of the game, courtesy of one SW Chris. At this stage I will also start looking for musicians and stuff to add finesse to the aesthetics to the game.
• Stage 7: Final assessment and evaluation of the game.
• Stage 8: Release.

So now I can really get started on Stage 1b. Let's hope I get some more good feedback on the forums.

"The Unremarkable Story of a Boy and His Dog That Couldn't Talk"

"The Unremarkable Story of a Boy and His Dog That Couldn't Talk" ... I have decided that this shall be the title of a children's book I'm going to write. I don't know where I came up with the title, I remember the other night I was just playing around with long titles and came up with this. At first it was going to be a young adult novel of some sort, but now I've decided I wanted to make it a children's book.

It'd be in the same vein as "The Night Before Christmas," so it'd be just one long poem. Funny, probably. A parable with a moral, no doubt, as it is a chidlren's book. Am I going to shy away from using big/obscure words? Fuck no ;) Picture book? Possibly, indeed, likely.

Plot? I dunno yet. That's the main problem with it. There's just so much I could potentially do with that one title. I do know it has to be unremarkable. It's supposed to be written in the same cynical, depressing style of Mr Lemony Snickett, who would no doubt approve of this woesome tale of banality.

Before bed I was playing around with what could be possibly some sort of mould. It even has a moral message. I might go with that, unless I can think of anything better in the meantime. It's also a good, small side proejct I can undertake by myself without worrying about other people. It's not the epic TV series that requires weeks of work. If I get inspired this could take like 2-3 days.

Nartually that would also depend on the length of the thing. I dunno how long I should make it. This is proving difficult. In a picture book setting, it'd probably be a stanza per page, and if I want to make it a substantial and not condescending children's book then it has to be somewhat long. Maybe 40 stanzas or something, that seems like a good amoutn. I could quite easily fit my story into that length.

I've already got the rhyme of bark and park. How much harder can it be?!

Deadwood

Chris's ... Wait, is there such a thing as "Chris has" being contracted? *thinks for a moment* No they don't D: Where the hell did I get that contraction from?! Anyway, Chris has been begging me for ages to give Deadwood a shot. So I finally caved and gonna give it a good go, just watched the first two episodes. Gonna give some of the thoughts that hit me.

Deadwood is known for the extreme and anachronous use of profanities in the show. It serves a very similar function to the typical 'ghetto' speak in modern day New York type shows. It firmly establishes the 'lawlessness' of the context and gives characters colour. Naturally, I think most writers of contemporary shows are very limited by their prolific use. Any prosidous expletives just wouldn't be considered realistic. In Deadwood however, since they've thrown our the 'realism' aspect of the language altogether, they're left with free creative reign.

And with that, these two episodes I watched have been quite inspiring on that front. Only one or two linguistic gems there ("limp cock fuckers" being one) ... but something tells me before the first season is out I'll've learnt several more phrases that make me ooze with joy.

Other thing that struck me is that thus far there hasn't been any "hooks" in the show. Like with Death Note and Code Geass and Dexter ... all those serial shows, there's always some known hook to get you in. Or at least you could sense the hook coming. But with Deadwood , nothing like that at all. Or at least not yet, but I'm not sensing anything. I mean there's no overall plot concept (or at least not yet) like there was in Lost, no intrigue, it's not heavily character driven, like Heroes was. It's something totally something different. Perhaps it's just the odd, quirky and delicious dialogue.

Which brings me to my next point. I just found out that the one guy created, wrote and executive produced the entire show (or like 99% of it). Sounds like my kind of guy. I'm thinking with Trio, instead of necessarily working it with Jeanne I might just do it all myself but get her sagely advice.

With my 20th looming around the weekend and with my failed 20 days to 20 post series.. :P I've been thinking about what my next year is gonna be like. Whether I actually accomplish projects or not. Many of my other projects involve others. I always figured collaborations would be the way to go, not only foster a closer friendship, but I also need someone to keep me on a leash so I don't go too far over the edge (which I have a tendency to do). But this past year ... I've only got Spiral to show for it.

And many of my other ideas require input from others. Like comic and musical ... both require skills I do not possess. But writing a TV series? C'mon. That's just writing dialogue basically... I obviously know there's a lot more to it. But strong dialogue is one of my, or at least I think so, strong points. T'is why I want to work on perhaps a play.

Two days ago I came up with a brilliant concept for the basis of a love story. I even sort of have a potential ending or at least the moral of the story type thing I wish to leave with. It's a bit on the nose, but the plot is definitely original, horribly convoluted and undisputably hilarious. I even have a title for it :D Now the problem is whether I make it A) a movie, B) a musical or C) a play. It definitely has to be one of those, it wouldn't work as a novel or comic or anime. And it's viable. Excruciatingly viable ... one of the few ideas I have that don't require overt intelligence in either my audience or my collaborator, one that isn't so out there that no one will like it. This one is aimed squarely at the general public. Plus it's a love story. Or romantic comedy, I guess. Perhaps I can turn it into a movie. Probably reach the largest audience...

I need to talk it all out with someone first. I was thinking Gordon, so if I see him, I'll do that. I should, given it's my birthday this Monday.

So right now, I have two budding, individual and most importantly, viable project ideas. It's about time I took one of those on, I think. Fuck my collaborators ;)

Sketch Channel?!?

Colby has been pestering me lately about a possibility of writing some sketches/skits together. Possibly publishing them online. Just writing my previous blog made me think again how I had hoped to have started my youtube channel by now, which I've obviously neglected.

It also reminds me of the idea I had to do a sketch series with Josh.

No offense, Colby, but I'm totally unsure about whether it will work out. I mean if it does, great, but I have some pretty epic reservations. I had the same kinds of issues with working with Josh. For instance, one benefit I noted with Josh was that he and I appreciate very similar kinds of comedians, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, other British comedians who specialise in that absurd, British humour. Colby on the other hand, I'm not so sure if we do, I mean I pretty much only know him through Spiral, but when he pitched the idea to me he linked me to a coupla American kids who did these pretty typical American humour vids.

Which I pretty much find occasionally funny, but for the most part rather lacklustre. However, I also know that I cannot actually perform that kind of humour, it's just not hardwired into my humouric vocabulary. It's pretty much absurd and physical all the way with me.

The last thing I would want to do is to be doing the kinds of things Smosh is doing. Some of those vids are gold, but for the most part, I just don't watch them. There's only so much screaming in shock type humour before I lose interest. Sure, it'd be great to be that big, but at the end of the day, I want people to look at the videos and be able to tell there's substance there, whether that's specious or not.

There are benefits to working with Colby over Josh, however. With Josh I worried about the execution, whether we'd be able to pull off the scripts which I would've predicted to be well written. I know it'd be a lot easier with Colby because I know he respects my opinion and he would be able to listen to my suggestions from a directorial/comedical/audiencial perspective. Josh, I'm not so sure... I'm fairly certain there would've been a butting of heads.

On the other hand, I'm judging him before he's even sent me a script. I'm waiting for one, or at least ideas for one or two, just to see whether it'll work out. Who knows, this could be just the collaborative partner I've been looking for. The Andy to my Hamish, the Laurie to my Fry.

Renouncing the Holiday from Shanan

Was a niggardly week. In fact, what a niggardly month. Maybe even two. It's been like two, perhaps even three, entire months of very little Shananing. The only work I've got to show for it is half of the next Spiral chapter and nothing else. This chapter was supposed to take me a week. It was supposed to be the start of the new, upbeat pace. Instead, I've found myself disintegrating to a measley meander through a non-affective life. Complacent and automaton.

Wake up. Eat. Watch some TV show or rewatch some TV show. Shower. Dinner. Watch more. Sleep. Occasionally uni when the timing was right. This has been the extent of my activities. I look at myself one year before now, and I actually can, thanks to the wonders of perpetual blogging, and I see a guy so infused with the impossibilities of the future.

Honestly, I think I burned out. I was pretty much on full throttle for a year and a half, projects here and there, picking up about 20 or so at one point. Still coming up with stuff now, except I'm not pushing it as hard as I would, instead placing those ideas in the back furnace. I'mi'd done with pretdown preliminary notes, which I'd done with pretty much everything else, which leads me to fear I may lose some real gems of ideas.

So I burned out and I took a holiday. A holiday from Shanan.

That also includes this blog. Looking back I've barely pushed the 7 post per week mark in so long. Meaning there's at least one day a week I didn't blog. Screw that. I mean now with uni and all my 9am classes, I can't blog right before bed, so I pretty much don't blog any more. I'm going to change that. Blog more often on more ideas, as they come to me and capture the moment.

There's 27 days until my 20th birthday. That's 27 days straight of blogging. Perhaps I might update or make a new Manifesto of Dreams, perhaps I'll do something different. You can definitely expect an assessment of all the things I did there. I haven't read it since I wrote it... I'm fairly certain I'll have NOTHING on that list completed.

And I told Colby that I would have Spiral done by the end of this weekend and so it shall be! It must!

Hence I call an official end to the Holiday from Shanan '09. Lest there be another.

Move out of the way Shakespeare, you've met your match.

Would it be completely presumptuous of me to announce another project I'm gonna try starting to work on? If so, would it also be arrogant for me to undertake a project that's an attempt to revive Shakespeare?

I watched Were The World Mine today and it was a spectacular film. A very pomo take on Midsummer Night's Dream. What struck me most about it, however, was when the characters started speaking in iambic pentameter. Most of Shakespeare's writing, when spoken aloud, sort of has an archaic feel to it, and it's not just a factor of the obvious anachronisms, but there's just something there. But modern day speech in iambic pentameter is filled with a glory I can only assume the audiences of Shakespeare experienced.

It would be a lie to say it sounded completely natural. But at the same time it wasn't unnatural. I guess one could say it's supernatural. Like many things I am for in life, it feels like it perfectly matches precisely what it's supposed to be. In this case, it would be language and metaphor being utterly congruent through an iambic meter. Guess it's why most people consider it one of the most pertinent measures in English poetry.

Therefore, I wish to embark upon a journey of trying to write a play in total iambic pentameter, using the spondees and phyrric feet Mr Shakespeare would've used, using the dramatic devices and all the beauty of the English language. It's more than just a reshaping of a classic Shakespearian play into a modern (or maybe even post-apocalytic) interpretaion, but is a totally new play in our current modern day setting, utilising the language. This, as far as I'm aware, hasn't been done in mainstream culture (I'm almost positive someone out there would've done it.. but it's not reached by ears).

I mentioned some time ago that I was gonna write an Oscar Wildean play, flourishing purple prose adorning my script, and I had a pretty neat Earnestian plot ... but maybe I can utilise that here. How much humour can be conveyed in iambic pentameter, I wonder. Or maybe I'll come up with a completely different plot.

Every time I read something about poetry or think about Othello I also start talking to myself in lil' podules of iambs. Figure why not try stringing them together into a more substantial work? Trick is now to get my hands on my old Shakespeare texts from school, which will have my notes so I can properly observe the tropes and devices ;)

dun Code Geass #2

I've finished watching Code Geass  for the second time. Well, that was about an hour and a half ago... I've just managed to gather myself from the blubbering mess I was ;)

I am now officially inspired to go forth and produce projects these holidays

:)