Well, I'm writing again. Its been a while, but I figured that at this time I've got more than enough unfinished stories that are bleating at me to be told, that it's time to crack them out again, dust them off, and actually finish them.
It's really kind of weird, to be honest. The longer I leave a story, the less ideas for stories I have. If I finish a story, then another idea pops up in its place. It's like there's a queue of finite length. (Of course, there's not... it's probably my inner curmudgeon complaining that I can't get anything else done unless I finish at least something...)
So, in that vein, if we look at the unfinished stories I've got (and when I was working on them), they look something like this (note: yep, some of the descriptions are really really vague... that's deliberate... I still need to finish them some time :) )
The Chronos Theorem (1994)
A time travel story set in the near future. I got about 60 pages in, and then stopped writing it because I realized that I'd buggered up the timeline of the story. Time travel stories, apparently, take a bit of prep work. Especially if they loop in and around themselves.
Vampyre Dawn (1995)
Vampires. In Chicago (though I'll probably move it to Seattle now). A man loses the love of his life when he is turned, and is introduced to their society. Warring factions start a battle, and he's in the middle of it all while trying to fit in. First of a trilogy of stories.
Little Miss Litty (1995?)
A short horror story about a school teacher locked in an asylum for the criminally insane.
Fractures (1999)
A doctor who story
The Story Of Yin Yang Man (2000)
He fights the forces of good and evil. And his partner is Feng Shui Girl. Who solves crimes and puts the world to rights by moving furniture. Originally meant to be a graphic novel, it might work as a one-shot film. Hard to plot out simply because if he's fighting good and evil, well, is he good or evil? Neutral characters - while good gags - aren't necessarily compelling.
The Witnesses (2000)
A man has an accident, and discovers that he's compelled to watch events - but that's only the start of his powers. Secret societies. The end of the world. Epic battles. And sadly unfinished.
My Recession (2002)
An architect has been out of work for nearly a year. He spends his last night on earth in a bar, saying goodbye to his friends. The lines between reality and his mental musings blur as the night goes on, until it's hard to tell the difference. (Kind of almost synopsis form).
Dot Comedy (2002)
Two friends working for a dot com get laid off, and in their last two weeks there, use the equipment to fake up a bunch of money. Then they go to Vegas to spend it.
Unsealed (2003 - cowritten with Joseph DeLorenzo)
The script for this one actually got finished. It's about 45 minutes long. Which is all kinds of wrong for several reasons. So strictly speaking, I need to revisit it and make it much longer.
So ... er... what am I doing about this?
Well, I just started turning Little Miss Litty into a screenplay for a horror movie. It'll be a good test case. I'm 13 pages in so far, which actually works out to be about half of what I originally wrote. (You can see that here if you want).
The structure is changing a bit as the format shifts, and I'm fixing up some of the dialogue a little. Oh, and I'm un-Britishizing it as I go. (By the way, if you want to know what the insane asylum looks like, watch Terminator 2. That's what it is in my mind.)
So let's see.. Horror movies tend to be between 90 minutes and 115 or so. So I figure I've got about 13 pages until I hit new material in the story where I have to really start working hard, and then I've got about 74 minutes of fresh material to write. That's not too bad. A pretty reasonable goal.
If I write about 10 pages a week (say, reserve one night a week for it), then in about 8 weeks time, I should have a script ready to break apart and edit the crap out of.
Will it be any good? Will it be sellable? Will it make it?
Who knows.
Will I have fun doing it? Ya sure, ya betcha.
I don't think I want to direct this one. Too much CG to do it on a small budget... better leave that to someone else.
More news as I have it.
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