Before I start writing I need to state two things. First off, I’m glad to see that Mr Rothman finally able able to produce Jathia’s Wager. Second is a disclaimer; I wrote the first complete draft of Jathia’s Wager referred to as “The Love Story Envisioning”. This means I had some vested interest in the project back when it started in early 2007.
Now, let me get to the heart of this post. The final film has the same issues that the original seven page partial draft written by Mr Rothman had. There is no plot, no driving force, and no reason to empathize with the main characters. The sad thing is because what I saw in that partial draft was a deeper meaning than what Mr Rothman decided to portray. However, with the summary below it doesn’t surprise me it was lost.
“An object in motion will stay in motion until acted on by an outside force.” – Newton’s First Law of Motion.
This doesn’t apply just to objects, but to writers as well. Once a writer has been shoved hard enough in the right direction, he/she will continue down that path until something slows or stops them. For physical objects that tends to be friction, but for writers it could be anything–real life, sickness, lack of energy, depression, self-loathing, etc.
Now, that I have you thinking. Let me change gears slightly. Frankly, the idea of inertia isn’t interesting to me, nor will be the focus of today’s topic. But it’s the concept of creating that inertia in the first place.
As you can tell, I’ve lost all inertia. Not only on this website, on my home website, and on a writing project tentatively due at the end of March (which I blew). The energy required for me to write or edit is high (editing is the worse of the two). It isn’t that I’m lazy or I feel as if I suck at the task. It has more to do with my distractibility.
A consistent set of world rules is a requirement when you sit down to write a story, and the rules you have will depends on the length of the piece. There is nothing worse than reading a book that conflicts with itself (Well that is a lie, but go with me. I’ll talk about other important things in later articles).
I can honestly admit I rarely run into what most consider the typical “writer’s block.” Pattern matching and string ideas together is pretty much second nature to me. I have lots of concepts written down in my database of notes (If you don’t have one of these then you need to start. It doesn’t need to be anything in electronic form. Douglas Adams used a drawer in his desk to stash notes). However, I do suffer from writer’s block. It comes as depression, lack of energy, and the inability to focus long enough to let the words congeal enough to put on paper.
For those doing NaNoWriMo and are searching for advice how to survive it. The best answer is “Eat the Elephant One Bite at a Time.”
Only reason I bring this up is because I know folks that are currently way behind (like I am), and the more behind you get the more the word count piles up and you get scared. You start asking why you are doing this, and how you got yourself into it. Even worse you start to doubt that you can do it.
Well, STOP IT! The way you get through a month of writing (or any project for that matter) is to look keep your eye on the closest check point, and it’s your goal to make it to the checkpoint come hell or high water.