I think it means, like, sneaky or something

On Groupon last weekend they had a deal where if you could a buy a $12.00 gift certificate for Collectors Paradise for $5.00.  I, of course, bought the max (which was 3).  I neglected to check out the location of this comic book store, which is Winnetka.  Now, for my readers who don't know where that is - it's hip deep in the valley and nowhere near anywhere I go anymore.  It's basically almost as far as the law office I used to work at.  I might have had a second thought about buying them had I known, and I would have ended up regretting it.  It takes me about half an hour to get there, which is about how long it takes me to get to Golden Apple, which is where I make my purchases now.  The store is about the same size and the selection is not quite as good, but still better than Secret Headquarters (the closest store to me).  I have a feeling that they know they are in ass end of nowhere, so they have a "Graphic Novel Club" where if you buy a graphic novel, you get 20% in store credit to spend on your next graphic novel purchase.  I'm not sure if this is enough to get me to go back after I spend all my gift certificates (which can't be stacked).  

So, my first purchase was Incognito by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips.  Now, you may have noticed that this is probably the first time I've mentioned the authors of a graphic novel, and that's because I'm a huge fan of both of them.  Ed Brubaker does the Criminal series, which is usually 3-5 issue arcs that are sort of noir-pulpy.  Sean Phillips has been involved with Criminal, Marvel Zombies, and Hellblazer.  Between the two of them they manage to hit my two favorite things: pulp and horror.

Incognito is the story of Zack Overkill, a former supervillain now in the witness protection program forced to live out the rest of his days as a file clerk at huge office building.  When the drugs that rob him of his superpowers start wearing off, he starts fighting crime - not because he's had some epiphany, but because he likes hurting people.  He's the kind of guy who after he's done saving you, he's likely to yell at you or take you home and have his way with you.  He hates regular people.  He just hate not being superior more, and if he's found out he'll likely be put in prison with his old boss, whom he helped put away.  

I got it home and I couldn't put it down.  What's amazing about this book, is that it isn't a redemption story.  He hasn't learned to love humanity during his time as a regular person - as a matter of fact, he may hate them even more now.  He hasn't found a respect for human life, he still loves killing people.  He is who he is.  

I guess the main thing I took out of this, from a writing standpoint, is to let your character's be who they are.  If their assholes, let them be the best asshole they can be.  Not everyone when given the opportunity to change for the better is going to do it, some might change for the worse just to show you who's boss.  

My life will the Thrillkiller cult

So, I just got Batman: Thrillkiller from the Atwater Village library and read it cover to cover.  I am telling you now, to do whatever you have to do read this book.  It's not a perfect story, but what it does do, it does very well.
The story basically reinvents the Batman story and shows what new paths you can go down if you make changes in a character's backstory or change the setting of the story.  In this new version, which takes place in 1961, Bruce Wayne's parents go broke in the depression, prior to being killed, and Bruce is raised in an orphanage and becomes a cop.  Barbara Gordon is Batgirl and Dick Grayson is Robin, and Bruce is hunting them down.  Barbara is rich and owns Wayne Manor, which she has retrofitted and refers to as the Batcave.  There are other changes (Joker is a woman), but you get the idea.
In the past, I never gave a huge amount of thought into character's backstory or the specifics about setting.  While I was writing Heisty however, I started to.  I changed character's gender and starting using specific regional aspects in the storytelling, and it helped the story make sense.
Thrillkiller does this in spades, it takes a story we already know and shows us how everything would be different if their world was different, but that what it is at the core of the character doesn't have to change.  Bruce is a corrupt cop like everyone else on the force because of his tough upbringing, he is still a boy scout.
If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, it's definitely worth reading.

Ugh.

This is just a quick post to let you in on a little lesson I learned last week:  Don't make notes if you're not going to look at them.

On Tuesday or Wednesday last week I was going over my notes for my zombie script (tentatively titled "Ship of Ghouls") and I realized I had already solved the problem of fast vs. slow zombies, in a (I hope) new way that I really like and that makes a lot of sense to me. 

Oh well, at least I found the notes and am happy now.

Slow and steady wins the race

After some thought last night, I realized I had already given myself a way to have "patient zero" be fast and the rest be slow.  But, after talking with Matt and Disco, and really thinking about why I chose the location I did for my script, I realized that slow zombies are the best choice.  With narrow hallways and no real escape, there is no need for fast zombies.  Sure fast zombies are scarier, but you kinda lose what makes zombies what they are: the living dead. 

 I may end changing my mind and just making them fast "infected".   But, for now, slow and steady wins the race.  

BTW: I got back into the treatment for this script that I had started months ago and put down.  It's interesting to see all these ideas I had, that I had completely forgotten about (as well as some pretty terrible character names). I'm hoping that by the end of the week I have my treatment done and then I can start working on a beat sheet/outline (possibly right in Final Draft).

Also, since there is no reason why this script should be more than 80-85 pages (a lot of action; less dialogue as we go; keeping that level of tension), I am also going to write a spec for Community.  It will of course involve curling.  More updates on that when I ahve an actual plot in mind.

How fast do you like your zombies?

I should have realized that once I started playing Left 4 Dead that it was a foregone conclusion that I would select my zombie script to write for Script Frenzy.  I debated my ninja script, my panda script and my horror-noir script (and for a moment I even debated my "illegal cross-country road race" script).   But, in the end, the fact that I already had a lot of idea on post-its covering one side of my bookcase (and the fact L4D is so intense) caused it to win out.  Quite frankly I was beginning to wonder if I would ever write it.

Now comes the fundamental question all modern zombie writers have to answer: Fast or slow zombies?

My initial inclination is to make them slow - in my mind it just makes sense.  These people are dead.  There muscles and brains are no longer receiving nutrients.  The inflection is what is keeping them alive.  But, on that same note, there's no rule saying that the infection couldn't be supercharging everything.  And, fast zombies are in many ways scarier than slow zombies.

What I am debating doing is making most of them slow and just a handful fast.  The problem is how do I explain it?  I mean my protagonists are college kids, not biomedical engineers, so any explanation must be readily apparent to them.   Do I even have to explain it?  The problem is that I don't want my screenplay to come off like a video game, where you have a lot grunts to kill and then bosses.

Let me know if you have any ideas.

SCRIPT FRENZY

So, as you may have ascertained, I have not been writing a lot as of late.  Between stressing out about not working and working, I just haven't been getting a lot of writing done.  So, when my friend Matt emailed me about Script Frenzy, I was instantly hooked.
Now, Script Frenzy is brought to you by the same people who do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but instead of writing 50,000 words (I think), you have to write 100 pages of script.  It can be comic book, screenplay, teleplay, or play (I think I got them all).
It starts 4/1 and goes to 4/30.  It may seem like tons of time until it starts, but in actuality, it's not much time at all, when I think about everything I have to do before then:
1) Finish the draft of Heisty that I am working on and probably do at least one polish on it.
2) Figure out which story I want to do next - I guess it's a good problem to have, having a lot of ideas for stories to write about, but I need to pick one and stick with it, which is the hard part.
3) Once I pick the idea I need to quickly write the story, then a treatment and then a fairly detailed outline, because when it comes time to start, 3+ pages a day is not easy when you don't know exactly where your story is going.  This is problem I had with Heisty - I just had a basic idea and started writing, so when the script came out to 60 pages, I just started randomly filling stuff in, and not really thinking about the story.

I've got the notecard app for the iPhone, as well as the screenplay app, so I'm going to go through both of those and my Moleskine, over the weekend and try and figure out which story will be the best, easiest, but most importantly, the story I will be the most excited about writing hardcore for a month.

I'll try and give you an idea as to what kinds of stories I'm considering over the weekend.  Here's a sneak peak: They're pretty much all genre films.

I am returned

I have been gone quite awhile. I know, like children, you're wondering: "What did he bring me? Script reviews? Tomatoes? Some other halfassed ideas?"
The answer is....I have brought you nothing. Certainly, I have read scripts (and I will be discussing them soon) and I have been attempting to get around this problem in my script (without the help of tomatoes, which may or may not be a good idea).
But, in fact, I come to you empty handed. This is only a harbinger of things to come.
I am returned. And you will be hearing from me.


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