I like superhero movies. Dig ’em. Not all of them. More than a few stinkers exist over the past couple decades that I prefer not to admit to watching (Ghost Rider? Seriously?). But I thoroughly enjoy the recent spate of Marvel successes. Nolan’s Batman trilogy? Genius. X-Men? Hot and cold, but I’ll watch them in the theaters when they come out. Spiderman? Not so much, although I did watch the first three back in the 90s. (oops, just checked and it was the 2000s)
Now, like I said, I was no huge Spiderman fan. Why? I dunno. I guess he just never really hit the mark with me. Too much of a weak-willed doormat before he became Spiderman. Didn’t really strike me as a Super Hero when he was Spiderman. For awhile he turned into an arrogant jerk. In my opinion he just never did the things I thought he should be doing. He was never really comfortable in his own skin, with his abilities. Saving people, sure. Great. But being awesome? Never saw much of it.
You may disagree and that’s fine. One good friend of mine loves the movies. While I liked them, I didn’t love them. Which, I guess, is part of the reason I laughed for a good five minutes straight when I saw the meme to your left. Jameson was too often a flat, undeveloped jerk. Stuff like this would have made him far more interesting, at least to me.
Cruel? Heartless? Yeah. But funny. Fun-ny.
Which leads me to some thoughts on my writing process. I’ve been taking notes and outlining for a week or so now. Starting snippets here and there but not getting any “real” work done.
Why?
It’s how I write and I’d like to change it. I let things build and build inside me until I can see it. Until things are fairly mapped out and I’ve got all kinds of good ideas just ready to burst out of my head and they’re just filling up my brain and I’m afraid if I don’t start writing them down I’m going to start forgetting all of them. That day was today.
Why is this bad? It’s just a version of the “waiting for inspiration” or “waiting for the muse” style of writing. Which produces lots of delays between works. I’m really trying to move more towards the “butt-in-chair” style: Sit myself down and write 500 words, good or bad. Just do 500 words in one hour. Then repeat. Not all will be good. Maybe they’ll all stink. But it’s a start.
So, now that I’ve actually started writing the meat of the story, I need to transition to the more consistent method of churning out work so that I’ll actually get things done and published in a more reasonable timeframe.
Oh, and one more thought about what I do. I don’t know where I heard or read it, but someone somewhere said the best way to write a story, once you’ve established your characters, is to chase them up a tree. Then start throwing rocks at them. Then set the tree on fire. Once they figure out how to save themselves, the story is done.
The end of Episode 4 was me standing about 15 yards from the tree with a Molotov Cocktail in each hand.
In Episode 5 I’m throwing one at the base of the tree and one at the trunk, right below where the branches start.
We’ll see what JC and The Team do.
RC