In the tech world there is a concept called “analysis paralysis,” which actually commutes to many situations.  Analysis paralysis (in tech terms) is where a project gets so bogged-down that it stalls because of over-analyzing the requirements.  At some point, you have to jump, and, as Nike so succinctly put it, Just Do It.

So it is with writing.  All of the schools of thought, from Aristotle to Egri, Vogler to McKee, teach the STRUCTURE of writing.  How to make a story conform to some set of rules extrapolated from great works of literature, fiction, playwrighting, etc.  Many would-be writers drown in the quagmire of analysis that these techniques mandate, as they attempt to work backwards through the process, analyzing, designing, structuring, then finally TELLING.  Myself included.

As I lay in bed at night, waiting for the Sandman to sweep me away, I use the quiet time (I have two small children so it is about the only quiet time I get :>) to think through the analysis and structure of the story.  As I delved into a particular aspect, in this case what could cause a child to want to kill a parent, my muse struck and revealed a bit of the story to me.  I quickly grabbed my notebook and wrote feverishly for 45 minutes.  Satisfied that I had captured the essence of the inspiration, I re-read what I had written, and that was when it hit me.  I have MANY MANY bits like I had just written.  In Writer’s Boot Camp language, M2 elements (M2 for Movie Moment) are the big set-pieces that make up a story, knit together with the connective tissue of character and plot, and if you consider any movie or story you love, you will find it to be filled with “moments” that reach through the screen or pages and touch you in some way.

This revelation got me thinking, and what I concluded was that I had plenty of M2 elements for at least the first story of this trilogy, and all I needed to do was put them together, and then allow Anne Lamott’s concept of the “Shitty First Draft” to take hold as I filled in the mortar surrounding them.  Then, armed with a “Shitty First Draft,” I could apply my own phrase, “It is far easier to make something better, than it is to make something.”

And that is where I am at right now… assembling the M2 elements along some semblance of a timeline, such that the story to be told is more clear, needing only those stitches of plot and character to tighten it up into something, hopefully, enjoyable.

I am finally getting around to posting something on my progress/process.  With two little ones and a full-time job, finding time to write is difficult at best.  But I have been doing a lot of the mental work of sorting out storylines, weeding through possibilities, and constructing the pathway along which the tale will travel.

Back when I began the script for “Techgnostica,” I had the notion that there was far more story to tell than just a single movie’s worth.  That made me think of the Wachowski Brothers and their relentless pursuit of positioning “The Matrix” as a trilogy from the very beginning.  And that in turn gave rise to a similar notion for my story.  Now, after much internal debate, and after a good conversation with Tina, I think I have realized that, although I COULD tell this as a single movie, there truly is at least one other story that needs to be told… perhaps two.

So, I will either write an epic novel or a series, and will expect to write a trilogy of scripts for the movie-version.  That is the current plan… as always, this is subject to change… a LOT.  😉

Last night, with this new concept in mind, I was able to sit down and actually outline 3/4 of the story.  It seems that in trying to cut corners and be concise enough to fit into some prescribed structure, I was closing off avenues that needed to be traveled, and this was contributing to the block I have been experiencing.

So, now I am feeling like I can, once again, put pen to paper, and get back to the more obvious form of writing.  In doing so, I have crafted a couple of “sequences” that may play nicely as short stories, and I am wanting to put those up in this blog or somewhere on the site.  But I am concerned with rights violations, and impingement on publishing possibilities, and a variety of other issues.  So, until I get that stuff sorted and understood, I will hold off.

More later…