Been a while!

So, it has been quite a bit of time since the last post on this place, I've started College, JC has begun living life his way, and well who knows about anyone else. Anyway I wanted to bring up a few things that have happened recently. Several opportunities have opened up for me in the writing field...

'Evolution is Suicide' Reference

Found this on my facebook newsfeed. Very similar the monologues delivered by Natasha in Angel in the Snow.

The Wanna-be Fantasy Writers Exam

"Ever since J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis created the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia, it seems like every windbag off the street thinks he can write great, original fantasy, too. The problem is that most of this "great, original fantasy" is actually poor, derivative fantasy. Frankly, we're sick of it, so we've compiled a list of rip-off tip-offs in the form of an exam. We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering "yes" to a question results in failure and means that the se tion in question should be re-examined"

The Exam(link to the original thread here)

Well this is embarrassing...

I've run into a bit of trouble lately and it seems I won't be able to work on my long extended stories, Retrospection: Far End of the Sky and Tamara: From the Serpent's Mouth until later.

One Last Dance

One Last Dance was recently performed as part of Walden Theatre's Annual Young Playwrights Festival. This play has its roots in my desire to write a play about myself and a friend, it grew beyond that when I decided to adapt a conversation JC had with one of his friends. That project and this one ended up merging together, resulting in this piece of which I am immensely proud.

In One Last Dance, Mr. Jackson brings a young man and a young woman to the outside steps of a party where they talk about who they love. It’s clear these two care about each other, trusting each other with their emotions, and there’s a sense that each of them, at different times, could be describing the other as the one they love.  The twist at the end – as to who actually loves whom – was crafted effectively. ~~Kathie Ellis

Thoughts on David Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

Returning to Alternate Universes

When I first started writing I wanted to write massive epics like the Lord of Rings series and Star Wars -- the kind of writing Ian's working on right now. I was around six years old when I started and soon realized how difficult it is which is when I switched to playwriting at around eight years old under the false assumption that it was easier than prose.

Two Short Pieces

Bypassed and Park Bench, two short plays that I really have no idea what I want to do with. Ideas?

Echoes Down the Corridor

The year was 2010, I had just finished performing Arthur Miller's The Crucible. I loved that play, and the characters, and was very interested in the "epilogue" provided to us by Mr. Miller. It was one paragraph, and briefly gave the actual known history of what happened afterwards, as well as a legend or two about some of the characters. He titled it Echoes Down the Corridor, from which I drew the title of this play.

Letter to Santa

Along with You, Me. Him, Her. Letter to Santa was submitted to YPF 2010. Both were rejected.  

You, Me. Him, Her.

You, Me. Him, Her.  has an interesting history, and sadly I no longer have the various drafts I wrote as the story developed. I first wrote it as a response to a girl saying 'no' when I asked her out, at one point I intended for it to be a modern Cinderella, I even attempted to flesh it out and make it a full three act play, bits and pieces of which can be seen in my most recently produced play -One Last Dance-. 

Coffee House(Original)

Coffee House was the fourth play I submitted to YPF, and the second that was accepted. It was performed in 2011. This is the version that was approved and subsequently handed out to the actors and director, it is substantially different than the version that made it to the stage. 

The Restaurant of Broken Dreams

One of two plays I submitted to Walden Theatre's 2012 Young Playwright's Festival. This one didn't make it in, even though it's one of my personal favorites. It is based off a conversation that was overheard in a Burger King.

I Am Not Dr. House

Contrary to what most people who think they know me believe, I am not a big fan of House.

Yes, I have memorized many episodes of House and know the plot and characters extremely well but the same is true of the entire Terminator series, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and many others. It's just a habit. Ironic that I memorized movies but completely fail to memorize school material, not that any of that matters now, though.

After just a few minutes with people, most will either accuse me of trying to act like House or simply being very similar to House. Truth is I only started watching House until maybe the 6,000th person pointed this out and I decided to see what everyone was talking about rather just dispense bile the way I usually do. This was in 2010 I believe, since I remembered that House had been airing its sixth season.

Shadow of Fear

Shadow of Fear was originally written as the prologue to my book, at the time titled The Quest of Gondlring, due to recent paradigm shifts in the way I've been writing my books, it may or not appear as a flashback at some point in one of the books. It's posted here as a novelty.

Lauriel

My first play -Lauriel- written in 2008, is a modernized adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It was my first produced play. J.C wrote a beautiful piece of music for it, which can be found on his personal blog. UPDATE: JC linked to where the song can be dl'd in his post below. Thanks!

Byronic Hero Passes Before His Time

Time of death: Thursday, Frebruary 9th, 2012, 7:32 AM

It seems House never recovered from its awful seventh season. One of the last episodes of season one, maybe one of the best, was titled "Three Stories" and another episode in season seven was called "Two Stories". This doesn't this doesn't even begin to describe House's decline. The show has gone from 'slightly silly' to 'farce'. Two episodes were spent with pointless and weird imitations of popular movies and other TV shows. In one scene, Dr. House takes his entire team for a ride in a monster truck in the middle of the city - it was basically a Benny Hill sketch without the music.

JC's upcoming projects (Jan 2011)

I have a few ideas for writing that I think I should post here as a to-do list.

Retro Theme Song?

Okay, I should have been writing the second chapter to the story I'm working on but then I did this instead. Pretty simple stuff. I could call it a theme song.

While some would say it was unnecessary, I find listening to music while I write very helpful. I could even make the argument that all my writing comes from musical inspirations.

Angel In the Snow is the most obvious since it has the same title as the Elliott Smith song it was inspired by but my other 10 minute plays also have music in their roots. Sorry About the Mess was inspired by a song called Help Yourself by Sad Brad Smith and the director of it in YPF even considered playing parts of the song at the beginning and the end of the performance. Grey Matter was inspired partly by the movie Hurricane starring Denzel Washington but mainly by the song Hurricane by Bob Dylan.

UPDATE: I just realized Angel In the Snow and Help Yourself were both featured in the same movie, Up in the Air. Interesting...

Grey Matter

Second 10 minute play I've written, this one hasn't been performed. I began writing this when I was much younger and I think it shows, I personally do not think much of this play. The subject matter is something that didn't really relate to me very specifically at the time and the way I approach it seems self-conscious. Oh well.

Angel In the Snow

My latest 10 minute play, this one has not been performed either. Inspired by the Elliot Smith song of the same name this is essentially a condensed, more thematic version of an actual conversation I had with a friend. This play is still up for a bit of revision eventually, to establish exactly how the title relates to the play. While Sorry About the Mess is still my favorite, I think this one is the best play I've written so far. What do you think?

Sorry About the Mess

First 10 minute play I ever wrote got into Walden Theatre's Young Playwrights' Festival of 2011. I have thought about going back and editing some of the story, mainly Spencer's encounter in Prague, which would most likely make this play closer to 15 minutes.

Retro Chapter 1 First draft

Very short and by no means finished. I plan on expanding it. The first chapter of a new story I'm writing is here. Let me know what you think down in the comments.
What kind of story does this seem like it will be? What length? What genre? That sort of stuff.
A friend who also read this said he didn't like the character names, I may change those as well. Thoughts?