November First is Coming

As many of you know, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month this year. I'll have the thirty days of November to write 50,000 words of a novel. There is a "kick-off" party tonight in downtown, and while I wanted to go to that, it would've royally screwed up my important Halloween plans.

But I'm not as worried about not being able to go and meet other nerds, because I totally don't have a plot or character or idea that I want to write about. I sort of brainstormed yesterday but nothing really came of it. I'm still conflicted about a genre. I'm a complete mess. Spies, zombies, astronauts, time travel, romance, erotica? All these are things that I could take on, if only I had an idea to begin with.

The other problem is that I'm so close with a few of my ideas, but far enough that I don't feel confident in sitting down and fleshing them out, figuring out endings and the like. That's usually what really nails me- the end. I'm not good at resolution, usually because I'm not good at setting up conflict. I spend most of my time avoiding conflict at any length and so I lead a unexciting life, free of most conflict.

Conflict is inside all of us, emotional, personal, secret conflicts we don't tell anyone about. Things that eat us up inside, but don't necessarily lead to any action. Many strong and powerful writers, like Hemingway, could write about internal conflict well and personalize it within his characters to the point of making the reader feel almost claustrophobic by the intense issues plaguing the protagonist. Unfortunately, I am no Hemingway.

So it stands that I am a writer without conflict, in search of something interesting and gripping and catalytic.

And it's Halloween(party night at least)! So I'm not going to think about it until tomorrow or Monday.

HERE IS THE BEST HALLOWEEN VIDEO:

This “Things We Lost in the Fire” Promotional Campaign Has Gotten Out of Hand

I know that viral marketing is the it thing when it comes to promoting your TV show, movie, or social networking site, but the current campaign for Halle Berry's film "Things We Lost in the Fire" has gotten out of hand.

The strategically placed firestorms around Los Angeles and San Diego county are certainly drawing attention to all the things that all these people are losing in all these fires, but I've heard rumblings in and around the insurance industry that whoever signed off on this grandiose scheme is going to get rubbed out.

After the whole Boston/Mooninite bomb scare fiasco, you would think that skewed-thinking advertising companies would be a little bit more cautious before they brazenly toyed with public property. With thousands displaced, damages reaching a billion dollars (which I doubt will be covered by three-day grosses on opening weekend), I'm not sure that the proper attention is being paid to Dreamworks' "Things We Lost in the Fire" because we have anarchy and death to deal with now.

I’m evacuating California and fleeing into my house.

The ash and smoke is so bad in Long Beach (I can't imagine what it's like elsewhere), that I have been holed up in my apartment the last two days, with all the doors and windows closed. My head is pounding from breathing the same stale, recycled air, but at least it's not filled with charred dry brush.

It was like this two years ago, when half of Riverside burned to cinders(Riverside real-estate actually went UP*). I remember going to class in a dull orange haze and coming back to see my windows frosted with ash. Blech.

I'm actually afraid to go outside. Even to check the mail- it's that horrible. And my shit isn't burning! A few months ago, during that ridiculous Griffith Park fire that they couldn't put out because they couldn't get any firetrucks up the mountain and/or were prevented by the ghost of Griffith J. Griffith, I thought that my girlfriend's house, which is all of half a mile from the burning hillside, was going to be covered in ash and smoke for the net few days. Instead, the updraft from the Golden State freeway (the 5), created enough pressure to launch that nastiness across town and have it all settle directly on beautiful Glendale.

I imagine that is a similar effect of what is happening now; with fires raging all around Los Angeles county, and Long Beach bearing the brunt of being downwind from Malibu AND that Irvine firestorm, we're getting "beautiful sunsets" I can watch from the gray, stained windows.

It's a grey Halloween this year people.







*ZING!

Cinema Verité

I'm exhausted from shooting all weekend.

Here is a brilliant single take video(hint: it's not from Children of Men).



I know it's not the newest link, but for those that haven't seen it, as well as those that are watching it again, it will always bring a smile to your face.

Have a great week people!

Clickables: Samantha Who, Super High Me, and more!

Here is a quick update link-list for everyone to peruse and abuse:

- New VideoGame Theater website with loads of new content!
- Samantha Who premieres tonight, I did some graphic work but I think it's a pretty funny show and Christina Applegate is adorable. I made the Brillstein logo at the end of the show and I pitched for the opening title sequence and I did some other work that y'all will never see.
- Super High Me premiered last night to a sold-out, waitlisted, audience and got a great reception. Who would have guessed the pot documentary would have sold out at the WOODSTOCK film festival HERE is an article about the festival, but mostly about Super High Me.
- Jesse Dean reminded me that many people don't know I have a bunch of videos on my MySpace video page. Go there to check out some of my "other" stuff and I wouldn't mind a few ratings and comments and forwarding to friends of the items you enjoy.
- The search for America's Next Top Hoodie has concluded with a nice olive green fleece zip-up made by the non-sweatshop sweatshops of American Apparel. Your giant novelty check is in the mail.

That is all! I hope everyone has a great week!

Brass Tacks

Alright, so in case you're just joining us, I've signed up for National Novel Writing Month or, cringe, NaNoWriMo.

I can't decide what I should start brainstorming about or preparing for or training for or what. Besides preparing for writing a novel in a month- I get that part.

The whole 50,000 words in a month thing isn't a great worry of mine. I was telling Annie and Aubrey last night that I can write thousands of words of dribble for many days in a row, where it gets hard for me is the linear nature of a novel- needing all those thousands of words to be about ONE story.

On top of that, I don't know what I should write about in terms of plot. Do I choose something that I know a lot about and love, like science-fiction or action? Or do I choose something that is a bit more foreign to me, like chick-lit, or young-adult drama? I guess this is one of those times where it probably isn't a good idea to try to learn the quirks of a new genre.

It's not that I want to have a plot all laid out and prepared when November 1st comes around, I just want to have a road map to get me through the month. So when I have a job to do and I have to explain that I'm busy writing a novel on a deadline, people will take pause before they fire me. Just having an IDEA is better than starting out with nothing. I've always found that when recording anything, let's say a short film, that those first takes at the beginning of the day, are always useless and never as creative and awesome as the ones toward the end of the day when everyone is warmed up and in the zone. Meaning that if I don't have an idea when I start, the odds are slim that I'll come up with something great in those crucial first day- something that I'll be happy to continue writing about the rest of the month.

(deep breath)

Alright people, any ideas? Or are you all saving them for your own month-novels? (are those called NaNos?)

I’m Going to Write the Fuck Out of a Novel

I majored in English:Creative Writing at Cal State Long Beach and really got into short story reading and writing. Whenever I told people I was an English major they usually asked if I liked writing novels and I said, "No, I really enjoy the short story form a lot more." And that is true.

However, I just signed up for NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH, giving me the entire month of November to write a novel. I know that you have a bunch of questions and to be honest, so do I, but I'll start here first:

Why do you have to sign up for this?
You don't HAVE to sign up with their dorky website to participate. Do you need to sign up for a website to celebrate black history month? The website is a hub, a support system and forum, and it has a few other neat features, like a place to upload excerpts, and keep a running word count/ status meter. Which brings us to…

How long is a novel anyways?
For National Novel Writing Month, you've got thirty days to write 50,000 words. Let me break that down for you- 12 pt, courier font, double spaced, equals very close to 250 words a page. 50,000 words is about 200 pages by that standard. Not a Stephen King book or Grisham novel, but 200 pages isn't exactly a 12 page short story about combining Nyquil and Dayquil.*

Wow. Do they use some sort of goofy abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month?
Yes. It is referred to as NaNoWriMo; and from what I've gleaned, if you are participating, you are a WriMo (I don't understand that one).

Here's a tip from the administrators that is perfect for me-**
Tell everyone you know that you're writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who've had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.

They also tell you to not edit any of your writing as you are going, that you should use December as your month to polish the novel you have just written.

What happens if you don't finish?
Nothing- the same that happens if you DO finish. There is no incentive except personal joy having completed something like this.

As national novel writing month has gained steam in the last few years, garnering more and more participants every year, more and more people finish and inherently, more and more people are getting their month-long-written novels actually published.

What they don't tell you is that getting things ready to send to publishers is another month long process that is just as challenging and time-consuming a process as writing the thing.

I will keep you updated. Holy shit, I bet you people CAN'T. FUCKING. WAIT.

Until November, when very likely you won't hear from me too much.





* Fun(?) fact: I actually wrote a story in college about a guy that gets super powers because he combines Nyquil and Dayquil. I thought I was a genius at the time, but I look back on it and cccrrrrriiiinnngggggeeeeeee.


** I've always wondered if my personal motivation could be described in a few sentences and there it is. Almost everything I've ever done, I've completed out of the sheer terror of not wanting to tell people I gave up. We'll see if this will apply to writing 50,000 words in 30 days.