“What are you watching?” ~ Don’t Watch Stupid

Feed the empty minds…

If you are reading this right now and claim to not watch that much television, you are lying.  But even if we pretend you are not a liar, we both know that everyone else watches television, and way too much of it.  They’re all a bunch of brain washed zombies who don’t read enough books.  I know, it’s just so frustrating.  But what can you do?

Firstly, stop lying to yourself.  It will help no one.

Secondly – Writers, they, like everyone else, watch that bloddy TV set (or use Hulu).  A harmless time killer, right?  We read books, we’re smart!  We can spend some downtime watching a pointless movie.

Hold up.  Pointless movie, eh?  Is it really so pointless?

Problem?

It’s no surprise to hear that our minds don’t do much while we watch TV.  But it’s becomes a little more disturbing to know that your brain does more work sleeping than it does watching TV.  (Brain cells need to be used guys, or they die.  Please, save the brain cells.)

“Therefore TV is stupid and must be the cause of stupidity-!”  Hold it there, my friend, that’s not where I be going with this.

It’s true that it requires much less effort to watch television than to read a book.  Already you’re setting yourself up for a neurological nap.  Books used to be the way we got our information and the song of our culture, requiring we expend a little brain power, but now with the flashy screen of the media that is no longer true.

The book has not been rendered obsolete, but…it’s statues has been somewhat diminished…You know it’s bad when college English classes resort to movies, not books, to keep kids in class.

Hang on, our English teachers are using movies.  What gives?

There is no question that Jersey Shore and American Idol are backed by very little intelligence, but our media isn’t entirely without meat.  But in order to tap into this culture medien, one must first -gasp- turn your brain on! Don’t let your mind die in front of the set we both know you spend so much time with.  Your brain cells only live once. #YBCOLO

Movies and shows can be as easily read as a book, well, actually it’s easier, which makes the fact that a small percentage actually do very sad.  The songs, ideas and messages of our culture are still alive.  Even if their medien be on a TV screen.  Deep meanings and thoughtfully put together cultural messages are still to be found among the masses, even if they can’t see them.

Don Coscarelli’s Bubbu-Ho-Tep

So next time you watch a movie about Elvis with a cancer on his manhood teaming up with a black JFK to defeat a mummy in cowboy boots, don’t forget to turn your brain on (like I did) and miss the message about what it really means to grow old.  Meaningful writing can happen in the strangest and most unconventional of places.  Even in a retirement home where mummies try to suck the souls of the living out of their asses.

Don’t let this be a books vs. television world, because there is no getting rid of one or the other, or assuming one will always be more intelligent than the other.  It’s the viewer (or reader!) that decides whether they are watching stupid.  Having an open mind is key in being a writer, so might as well embrace and learn what you can out of both.

Screnzy…Abort? (Suicide)

First day in I realized I was in trouble. >.<

See, for this year’s screnzy, I decided to do something totally different, new, and exciting as an experiment to explore where I’d never gone before.

…ooooh this was not one experiment I was ready for.

See, I decided to write a graphic novel script.

Problem.

I’ve read two graphic novel series.  Just two.  I don’t actually read them that often.  It’s more for “when I’m bored eye candy” and “if there are some really, really cool characters I absolutely HAVE to read”.  So, I’m not exposed to them that often, which means…

I don’t think in panels!  I realized this quickly.  I think not so much in ideas and words, but in moving images.  Like a movie.  How hard is it for me to convert moving images into comic panels?  Extremely… apparently.

So my mind is screaming — ABORT, ABORT!

Do I abort?

…no.

I said I would screnzy, therefore I will screnzy!

“But you have school.” …yes…

“You have testing to do.” …ok that too…

“You’ve signed up for a lot of volunteer work!” …True…

“When are you going to find the hours to learn this format and do 100 pages in thirty days??” …I’m…I’m not.

So, today, I do something almost as crazy as trying to do a comic book script.

I’m starting over to page one.

…but this time it’s going to be a film script like last year.  That, my friends, I can do.

Potential screnzy suicide?  You bet.

~Yarrow

Script Frenzy – April’s Madness

100 pages of script.  30 days.

Absolute madness.

But so is the NaNoWriMo, and that didn’t stop us, now did it?

In the winter time we decide to voluntarily lose our minds to the NaNo, 30 days to write a 50,000 word long novel.  Now, during the spring time we voluntarily lose our minds over Script Frenzy, or Screnzy, for short.

What is Screnzy?  The NaNo equivalent for script writers.  We have 30 days to write 100 pages of script.  Screenplays, stage plays, TV scripts, and comic book scripts.  Any script.  It’s time to write visual media.

It has a similar surge of madness as the NaNoWriMo, but it has one hitch.  Weird, ridiculous formats.  If someone wants to try writing a script, they are often stopped by the intimidatingly foreign  concept of these formats.  It’s not really quite the same as rushing head long into a novel.  Scripts rear an uglier head called format in an attempt to frighten us away.

I say to hell with it.

Format — all it takes is a read over the formatting tips offered on the Screnzy site here.  Once this is read you can refer to it all you want.  If it’s not perfect formatting FIX IT LATER.  We don’t have time to be perfectionists!  We have 30 days, people!  If you want to do this thing, do this thing!

The time is now and today.  Onward, my Screnzy friends.  We will show the world bravery, or at least a new level of madness.  Write that movie you’ve always wanted to see.  Write that play.  Write that TV series.  Write that comic book, darn it.

Now, why are you still reading this?  Start writing!  The clock is a-ticking!

~Yarrow