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John Ostrander: Writing 101

John Ostrander: Writing 101

What does a writer do?

I did an interview recently and I was asked what advice I could give to someone who also wanted to be a writer. I get asked that at classes, lectures or seminars and I always answer by asking that question.

It’s not a trick question, although some people seem to think it is. Generally, I get answers like:

a) writers create stories

b) writers make up characters

c) writers make up things

It’s actually a lot simpler, more basic, and far tougher than all of the above.

What does a writer do? A writer writes. We don’t simply think about writing or talk about writing or imagine ourselves writing, although every writer I know does that and, in many cases, prefers to do that. It’s a hell of a lot easier than actually doing the work. However, if that’s all you do, then you’re not a writer. You’re a wannabee.

A writer writes. Every day. If you’re just starting, find a time and place that you can do it even if it’s only for five minutes. It’s like when you’re starting to exercise; you’re not – or shouldn’t – go from 0 exercise to trying to running the Boston Marathon. You need first to get into shape; with writing you need to get into the habit of writing. At first you’re looking for consistency – five to seven days a week.

I don’t care where or how you do it – in a diary, a journal, with pen and paper, on a computer or what. Text messaging is not the same thing, and you know it. It’s preferable to write in something so you can see what you’ve done, where you can refer back to earlier entries. Date the entries.

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Jake Gyllenhaal to play Captain Marvel?

First we hear Maggie Gyllenhaal is being courted to replace Katie Holmes in The Dark Night. Now the New York Daily News gossip columnists are reporting that her brother Jake Gyllenhaal is in line to play Captain Marvel in New Line Cinema’s proposed Shazam! movie, based on the DC Comics series.

The paper’s Rush & Molloy column, citing anonymous sources, reported that the movie is New Line’s bid for a franchise on the order of Batman and Superman. "They’re ready to spend up to $200 million to get it started," one source told the columnists.

The columnists also reported that director Peter Segal and his fellow producers want to nab Gyllenhaal before Spider-Man director Sam Raimi does, as Tobey Maguire has said he may let someone else play the webslinger in subsequent installments.

What, Fred MacMurray isn’t available to play the Big Red Cheese?

News Flash: Unicorns not real!

News Flash: Unicorns not real!

It was all a misunderstanding, admitted the Billings, MT chief prosecutor.

Seems a  deputy prosecutor misinterpreted an e-mail from a colleague who used the phrase "unicorn defense" as an actual statement from Phillip C. Holliday Jr., whose truck crashed into a light pole last week.  Seems "unicorn defense" is a slang term used by prosecutors when a defendant blames some mythical person for a crime, much like "SEDI" (Someone Else Did It).

Apparently Holliday blamed a nonexistent woman for driving his truck into the pole.  I think he should have blamed the elfin thief.

 

Role-playing robbery

Role-playing robbery

The Beeb reports that a man accused of a stealing underwear at knifepoint from a lingerie shop in Belfast, Northern Ireland "believed he was a female elf at the time."  Robert Boyd is accused of having purloined two sets of bras, knickers, suspender belts and stockings from the shop on 14 December, 2005.  He had been participating in the role-playing game Shadowrun, where his character was a shaman elf named Beho "who carried a small Japanese sword as a weapon."

Boyd is accused of holding up staff at the shop disguised in a wig, hat and glasses, which acoutrements authorities do not believe were specified in the game.  He denies committing the robbery but admits to the possibility he may have confused reality and fantasy.  Ya think?

And as if that weren’t enough, a Phillip C. Holliday Jr. has told police in Billings, MT not to blame him for crashing his truck into a lightpost last week, as a unicorn was driving it.  No word on whether the unicorn was wearing a wig, hat and glasses.

Hellboy: Blood and Iron premieres on Cartoon Network

Hellboy: Blood and Iron premieres on Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network will premiere Hellboy: Blood and Iron, the second feature Hellboy animated feature film, on March 17 at 7 PM Eastern.  The movie features the voices of a number of the actors that appeared in director Guillermo del Toro’s live-action Hellboy movie including John Hurt, Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones. Tad Stones and Victor Cook direct the movie. Guillermo del Toro and Mike Mignola are creative producers.

The second Hellboy live action movie is scheduled for 2008, and a third animated feature is in finishing stages.

Dreamworks animation goes 3D

Dreamworks animation goes 3D

DreamWorks Animation has announced plans to produce all of its new films in full 3-D.  they plan to produce their movies employing stereoscopic 3-D technology from the start of the movie production process, and has already begun production on its first movie to be made in this format, Monsters vs. Aliens (working title), slated for release in summer 2009. 

According to DreamWorks, "this approach will increase its storytelling opportunities and create a more immersive movie-viewing experience."  Up until this time many of the movies shown in 3D were produced for regular movie theater projection with the 3-D parts or full-length 3-D movies rendered for 3D projection in post-production (e.g. Chicken Little and others).  As for where these movies will be shown, DreamWorks points to a significant increase over the past two years in the number of theaters that have the proper equipment to support stereoscopic projection, and claims that by 2009 there will be several thousand screens equipped for 3-D.

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WaPo disses crone comics

Effective next Monday, the Washington Post will be rearranging its comics page adding the strips Agnes and Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, as well as the "offbeat panels" Brevity and Speed Bump.  In order to make room for these new comics, the Post will be dropping the panels The Flying McCoys and The Other Coast, as well as three strips — Broom-Hilda, Cathy, and Mary Worth — all coincidentally featuring women of A Certain Age. 

The dropped strips and panels will still appear on the Post’s website, but considering how, a mere five years ago, they loved Cathy Guisewite enough to conduct a lengthy interview with her, many comics readers are perplexed about the move.

TNT drama series in development

TNT drama series in development

TNT has a few new series in development that could be of interest to us all:

  • The Talisman – a six-hour limited series scheduled for summer 2008; a new project from DreamWorks Television and executive producer Steven Spielberg, based on the Stephen King and Peter Straub novel of the same title.
  • The Saint – a new one hour series based on the Leslie Chateris classic character – the famous Simon Templar. From executive producer William J. McDonald and producer Jorge Zamacona. The Saint was featured in movies dating back to the late 1930s (starring the great George Sanders) and the British television series from the 1960s starring Roger Moore. I can hear the theme song now…
  • The Company – a limited one-hour, six-part series debuting in August with Chris O’Donnell, Alfred Molina and Michael Keaton that looks at the CIA’s activities during the Cold War, based on the bestselling novel by Robert Littell. Batman, Robin, and Doc Ock? Sure, why not.
Potter breaks another record

Potter breaks another record

The last time Harry Potter headed out to the bookstores, he brought 10,800,000 books with him. Today, he’s older and stronger and can carry an unprecedented 12,000,000 copies of his latest, and last, thriller.

So if you’re investing in first editions, you can skip double-bagging Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The promotion theme wil be "There Will Soon Be 7," although a great many fans believe that by the end of this final volume, we won’t have Harry Potter to kick around anymore.

Noted UK actor Gareth Hunt dies

Noted UK actor Gareth Hunt dies

Gareth Hunt died of pancreatic cancer on Tuesday at the age of 65.

His résumé reads like a Who’s Who of British television: he starred in The New Avengers as Mike Gambit, played Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs, and played Arak in Jon Pertwee’s final Doctor Who saga, "Planet of the Spiders". He also played the romantic lead in a long-running series of Nescafé coffee commercials.

Hunt also was known for his work on stage on both sides of the Atlantic, appearing in such productions as Twelfth Night, West Side Story, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, Deathtrap, and Guys and Dolls.