Stories!

I joined fictionpress.com a little while ago and have finally uploaded some stories and poems. My pen name is Illishar Ontega (big suprise, right?) so for the one or two people who actually read this blog feel free to check it out.

I other news I have totally fallen off the post wagon and clearly should not attempt to write multiple post essays if I don't have the time to follow through.

In other other news I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year (yay!). I wasn't going to because November is a really busy month for me, but it looks like I might have more time at the end than I though so I'm gonna give it a try. This year I'm gonna write State Line Road. It was conceived as a mini-series I was going to film, but I don't have the budget for it so I'm just gonna write it as a novel and take it from there.

I'm going to be using this blog as a sort of sounding board and note taking place to work out some of the kinks and discuss the characters and such, so feel free to chime in or ignore. Whatever works.

The Nightmare House aka WTF?

I was going through my old script files looking for a short film I wrote a few years ago and came across a file called The Nightmare House. It's a synopsis for a short film and I think my brain took acid without me knowing about it because it sounds kinda messed up.

Tagline: You may leave now or stay for the night. Choose carefully.

Premise: A weird combination of Beauty and the Beast, The Bachelor, Blue Beard, and frame plot bits of Arabian Nights with a dash of Hunchback of Notre Dame and Cinderella thrown in.

Seriously? That's a messed up combination of stories right there.

It's actually a very interesting idea, but I labeled it wrong because it should be in the Book Ideas folder and not in the Potential SFF Projects folder. It would work as a gothic romance, but so not as a movie.

Old Characters and New Ideas

I was looking through my vast collection of unwritten and partially written novels, movies, etc. looking for a specific file and ended up browsing through projects I'd sort of forgotten about. One in particular caught my eye - Hero for Hire. It was conceived as a short episodic TV show for SFF that would air on youtube. The main character is one of the last in a long and illustrious line of classic villains, but she hates her family and decides to go rogue as soon as she can. She trains to be the best hero ever, but it costs money and so she is forced to charge a fee for rescuing people. There's a lot more too it than that, but that's the basic gist of it.

What really struck me as amusing while reading over my notes for this was the education on her resume: Masters degree in General Heroics with a duel emphasis in Impossible Escapes and Thwarting Evil Plots from the Medea School of Melodrama. Clearly I was having fun with this. I also love the last line on her business card: Witty banter costs extra.

I think I stopped working on it to focus more on State Line Road, and because I had the basic concept and some bits but not much more than that. However, since Annamarie has expressed a desire to play a total badass action hero I may think about working on it again. We'll see.

Also I was working on another idea recently (mostly just jotting down dialogue bits that were running around in my head) about a sort sketch (or sketches) sort of making fun of the concept of Wife Swap - swaping Superheroes and Supervillains so they have to see what it's like on the other side. I'm calling it Super Swap. I have no idea if I'll ever film it, but I think I might finish writing it because it's kinda fun. Here's an excerpt:

VILLAIN: For god’s sake woman, I’m in the shower!

HERO WIFE: Why are you wearing your cape?

VILLAIN: It’s how I get the wrinkles out!

HERO WIFE: Have you ever tried a hot iron?

VILLAIN: Not on clothes.

(later that night)

HERO WIFE: Are you enjoying your stay?

VILLAIN: Not really. The homecook meals are nice though.

HERO WIFE: You’re wife doesn’t make you dinner?

VILLAIN: I married the Mistress of Darkness. She doesn’t cook. I had to steal a second car so we could go though the drive through.

HERO WIFE: What was wrong with your first car?

VILLAIN: It’s 8 feet tall and covered in spikes.

HERO WIFE: Oh.

(obviously I haven't named anyone yet)

I probably shouldn't throw plot ideas out onto the internet like this in case someone decides to steal my idea, but it's not like they're amazingly original ideas (the wording and spirit is unique but it's hard to steal that) and I know there's only like one person who reads this. But just in case an executive in the entertainment industry happens to read this I'll just add that all of the above it officially under common law copyright (and if said exec is reading this could you give me a job please?

Okay. Enough goofing off. To dinner!

Deblocking

Once upon a time I was a prolific writer of various forms of fictions (short stories, movies, tv shows, novels, etc.). Then I got sucked into a portal of editing...ness, and have mostly abandoned my writing ways. Now I'm getting a little burned out on editing SFF stuff (not work stuff obviously, just the SFF stuff), and the writer midget in my head is screaming to be heard. Also I'm about to begin an intensive month long Final Cut Studio class and won't be able to even think about editing in my free time so this works out well. In the next 30 days I will be wrapping up the SFF stuff for the 15th year DVD while working on getting back into the groove of writing by doing the Thirty Days of Questions for Writers. Just to get the ol' writers block, unblocked, and help me find the worlds in the words again. And it all starts tomorrow. So...um...look forward it? I guess?

FYI: I got the questions list from friend's blog. Thanks Keiran!

http://ciaranrr.blogspot.com.