Is this little guy a mole, an offensive depiction of a fellow from the Indian sub-continent or what exactly?

Script Writin' Fancy Like - Part 4
Right then, a breakdown of my new approach to writing vs my old one. The method for "Tonight...." is easy to sum up: Sit in front of computer, pound at keyboard until something decent arrives. Repeat.

I might have made some notes on loose paper which have since been lost, but that was essentially it. Even if I thought of an idea while away from the compu-tron, I'd just repeat it in my head until I was sure I could remember until I was at my computer. With the clutter of University and daily life in general, this wasn't the best method. I still have a ghost of a scene, which I know was good but melted away during an exam, wandering the memory halls and rattling its chains.

Realizing what a pile of shit that approach was I bought myself a tiny notebook, which I could fit in most pockets, the November before last. I tried to use it as a catch basin for whatever may pop into my noggin' while I am on the bus, (was) in class, at work or anywhere else. Despite the metaphor, I recommend making very sure that this book is tiny as the smaller it is the more likely you are to take it with you and capture something worthwhile (like cameras, in a fashion). Sure some pages have been hijacked by shopping lists and the like, but you can tear those out! In the end the booklet will be thinner than when you bought it, but what remains should be a nice reserve of story ideas, settings, snappy lines and whatever useful mnemonic devices you may have designed for your later-self.

This improved things, but when at home I often found that I didn't want to boot up the computer just to get down some notion that had hit me and risk being sucked into hours of distraction. But my tiny notebook was too tiny to get down more than a couple of paragraphs without using up gobs of pages. Then I spotted my pal Joey T with a wonderful, hardcover notebook of a rather good size. Larger than the little pocketbook, but not as cumbersome as a standard legal-sized notebook...'twas perfect!

He kindly helped me acquire one and ta-da, bigger idea catch-basin. There is, of course, more room on the larger pages and it's helpful to be able to literally keep more of any one idea in front of your eyes. Plus it's not so cumbersome that I can't stuff it in my regular black carry bag. I love it and it, along with das pocketbook, kept me pretty well sustained for months on end. I initially tried to colour code the pages for quicker reference, something I'd done to great effect in my pocketbook (Ex. Gold line along the top indicates collections of Lines, Silver Line a collection of story ideas and so on). Damned if I know why, but this just didn't stick with the larger notebook.

But whatever, it's invaluable to have and I think one of the biggest things it has over a computer is that you can easily bring it anywhere that you feel might put you in a good mood and therefore be more prone to inspiration. Yes I have a laptop and others with laptops can do it - but when I have an idea these days I want instant accesibility to a method of spitting it out and no distractions. A laptop has to power up, be placed somewhere smart so it doesn't burn your lap, can't really be used in a lot of public spaces at all hours for fear of attracting thieves, is slower to pack up if rain starts and so on. Plus, you know, the million other things than Word which you have at your fingertips which offer temptation and distraction.

Now I am probably getting more anti-computer (in the context of writing) lately because I spend my weekdays sitting front in of one of the damn things inputting data for National Rail - but even before this I was finding myself more and more reluctact to write on the computer, almost to the point of resenting the machine. True, I pour ideas out faster through typing than writing but I am finding the difference to be negligable and also when I have to que up notions in my head while waiting for my pen to catch up....I find that this sometimes leads to a bit of refinement before I lay down the words, whereas with typing I'll just spew and spew with little on the spot management - leaving a bigger job for me to do later in my revising.

Anywho, as my two basins have filled up with bits and bobs for Archbrook as well as other ideas which may or may not grow into something...I found it kind of annoying when I tried to refresh mysef on Archbrook. You see, something I make myself do each time I sit down for a serious go at Archbrook is that I review all the loose notes which came before. But as it became obvious that Archbrook was winning the battle with my other script ideas to win the right to further development, I found it very tedious to have to keep flicking about over the other story notes to get to the next chunk of Archbrook.

On top of this, I knew that Archbrook would be more challanging than "Tonight..." and I wanted to be better prepared when I sat down to write the proper script pages. So I decided I would write the basic story out, from beginning to end in a loose narrative, before I wrote page one of the script - this is the treatment I've been mentioning lately. But something that long and ordered would block up my notebook catch basins like all get out - with those it is important to keep them in a state that I can just jot down whatever, whenever and not worry about where in the book it is.

So I nabbed a cheap booklet of 60 pages with a soft black cover and have given it a similar role to the hardcover, but exclusive to Archbrook. I have mostly been writing the treatment
(which is at a nebulous 50-60% done point, depending on how long I decide to make the story) but whenever I get to a point where I think a scene could be done one of two or more ways, I write the scene that feels strongest first. Then in square parantheses I write out the other two options. Thus they are placed where they would be in the story, helping me keep everything in order in my head, which I think is better than placing them at the back of the book in an appendix.

In anticipation of when I write my first draft of the script, which I also think I'll try out on paper first, I bought a cheap notebook of similar make and page count, but this time a bit larger than legal size paper. We'll see where things go from here!
For the actual generating and laying down of ideas, I don't know that there is a whole lot I can say about this at the moment. I mean, where do you get your ideas? I think that is fairly unique to each person and as I've hinted at, it can fluctuate from day to day. Sometimes I write better in a good mood and other times in a bad one, sometimes better in a quiet library and other times in a noisy public space. The only consistent thing which springs to mind is the binary tug of war between content and structure. You need content or you have nothing to structure (nothing at all, really) but structure is handy for keeping your ideas from simply being a deluge of colorful ejaculations which can ignite the imagination of the reader but not sustain that flame. It's easy to get lost in either side of things, doing too much content without wanting to orangize things because "it's up to the damn stupid reader/viewer to interpret my genius" or to toddle about putting things in pretty spreadsheets when all you are really doing is building sandcastles instead of writing. I'd love to say how to master the balance, but it isn't something easily measured in quantifiable chunks. Managing this balance is, as Chris Onstad might say, the slick dirtle.

Anyways, I really enjoyed writing these. If anybody wants to ask any questions about this or the small amount of production experience I have....go for it, I'd be happy to blather on. Tune in next time for some pictures from my Saturday evening in the Oxford Circus, Carnaby Street, Picadilly square area.