No guts, no glory. This is said to have been Bette Davis' creed. And it was this creed, more than likely, that made her an actress in which most actresses admire and try to measure to.
I have been repeating this exhaustively in my head over the past week. I think it's more because that I feel my creativity come alive again. I have one more story to finish for my collection. It is a story that has been in my mind for years, but only started to take more shape over the past few months. It is the story of a hot new bad boy director who is about to meet his biological father (who is also a film director) and a film journalist searching for a gay-themed lost film supposedly made during the early part of the 20th century.
Because of a broke MacBook and a new laptop that does not have a word processor, I took out a couple of notebooks and asked myself when would I find the time to take a deep breath and start writing this story? Usually, I go to a coffeehouse or the library or to Madison Pub and just let the story spill out. Now, it has been decades since I wrote a story longhand and I found myself staring at my notebook and pricing MS Office to download onto my laptop. And in trying to make a choice, I thought back to an earlier piece of work from high school. I remember writing the story in my bedroom at home. I can't remember how long it took me to write, but I was happy with the way it turned out. I entitled my story 'Encounters'.
I wrote 'Encounters' in a spiral-bound 200+ page notebook in sparse, bare prose. Some sections or chapters were only dialogue exchanges. The first part of the story was basically the story of a small town high school as seen through the eyes of a teenager. There were two main storylines unfolding: the story of a girl who had been dumped by her boyfriend and a boy discovering his sexuality. Other chapters dealt with other students and their everyday existence. The girl was trying to find out why her boyfriend broke up with her and the guy was fighting to keep his love for another boy a secret.
The second part of the story told a further story of the girl and the guy noticing changes in their classmates. At first the changes were illustrated in the minor characters who had been mentioned in passing in the first part of the book. The girl notices the changes first when she encounters her ex's new girlfriend. She mentions it to the guy and they both start to notice the strange metamorphosis of the student body. And it isn't until the object of the boy's affections accidentally hits his head that they start to find out the truth: that their peers were being turned into robots.
The third part of the story dealt with the girl and the guy investigating who was turning the students into robots: the principal! (haha!!!) And his evil plan to rid the world of progression.
I remember having fun writing that story. I remember being satisfied with the outcome. I know it was not the last time I wrote a story using pen and paper, but it was what came to mind when I was trying to choose between my notebook and Microsoft Word. Sitting at my desk and writing in my apartment has been very uncomfortable. I would like to remedy that. I don't know why sitting at a table inside Madison Pub with the music and bar noise surrounding me makes for a comfortable writing space. I guess we all have something a bit quirky that gives us complete satisfaction.
And now that my present focus - entitled 'The Unicorns of Atlantis' - is starting to come together into a coherent and, hopefully, involved story I find myself wondering if it would be worth it to invest in a computer program so that I can type the story out or to take pen to paper and see what can flow onto the pages of a notebook...
I have been repeating this exhaustively in my head over the past week. I think it's more because that I feel my creativity come alive again. I have one more story to finish for my collection. It is a story that has been in my mind for years, but only started to take more shape over the past few months. It is the story of a hot new bad boy director who is about to meet his biological father (who is also a film director) and a film journalist searching for a gay-themed lost film supposedly made during the early part of the 20th century.
Because of a broke MacBook and a new laptop that does not have a word processor, I took out a couple of notebooks and asked myself when would I find the time to take a deep breath and start writing this story? Usually, I go to a coffeehouse or the library or to Madison Pub and just let the story spill out. Now, it has been decades since I wrote a story longhand and I found myself staring at my notebook and pricing MS Office to download onto my laptop. And in trying to make a choice, I thought back to an earlier piece of work from high school. I remember writing the story in my bedroom at home. I can't remember how long it took me to write, but I was happy with the way it turned out. I entitled my story 'Encounters'.
I wrote 'Encounters' in a spiral-bound 200+ page notebook in sparse, bare prose. Some sections or chapters were only dialogue exchanges. The first part of the story was basically the story of a small town high school as seen through the eyes of a teenager. There were two main storylines unfolding: the story of a girl who had been dumped by her boyfriend and a boy discovering his sexuality. Other chapters dealt with other students and their everyday existence. The girl was trying to find out why her boyfriend broke up with her and the guy was fighting to keep his love for another boy a secret.
The second part of the story told a further story of the girl and the guy noticing changes in their classmates. At first the changes were illustrated in the minor characters who had been mentioned in passing in the first part of the book. The girl notices the changes first when she encounters her ex's new girlfriend. She mentions it to the guy and they both start to notice the strange metamorphosis of the student body. And it isn't until the object of the boy's affections accidentally hits his head that they start to find out the truth: that their peers were being turned into robots.
The third part of the story dealt with the girl and the guy investigating who was turning the students into robots: the principal! (haha!!!) And his evil plan to rid the world of progression.
I remember having fun writing that story. I remember being satisfied with the outcome. I know it was not the last time I wrote a story using pen and paper, but it was what came to mind when I was trying to choose between my notebook and Microsoft Word. Sitting at my desk and writing in my apartment has been very uncomfortable. I would like to remedy that. I don't know why sitting at a table inside Madison Pub with the music and bar noise surrounding me makes for a comfortable writing space. I guess we all have something a bit quirky that gives us complete satisfaction.
And now that my present focus - entitled 'The Unicorns of Atlantis' - is starting to come together into a coherent and, hopefully, involved story I find myself wondering if it would be worth it to invest in a computer program so that I can type the story out or to take pen to paper and see what can flow onto the pages of a notebook...
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