CJ

Thoughts on Storytelling and the Castle Season 4 Finale

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May 082012
 
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I love storytelling — the ability to weave characters and situations into a tapestry so intricate that you get lost within it. When looking at television, the storytelling I look for not only gives me resolutions but also propels me expectantly into the unknown realm of the story-to-come. The season 4 finale of Castle did that for me.

(Spoiler warning: the rest of this post will refer to events up to and including that episode as well as also speculating on the future.)

Over on TIB, I wrote a post about the timing aspect of TV romance including Castle/Beckett (link). Here, I want to talk about the story ramifications. It’s hardly a secret that I sometimes get story flashes when a series reaches an exceptionally fertile turning point. After all, I did spend a year of my life following up on just that sort of thing with The Connor Wars. I had one of those, again, after seeing the Castle season ender.

One of the things you learn in storytelling 101 is that a good story will periodically take your characters and spin them out into a new direction. That new course needs to make sense for the story and people in it but is necessary to avoid repetition and forumla — shoals especially dangerous in a well-established series. At the risk of sounding meta, in the very first episode, Castle said that the reason he killed off his long-time hero Derrick Storm was because Rick had reached a place where he knew what was going to happen; there weren’t any surprises. This is what started Castle the series, and it’s this that could possibly fuel new story options in the fifth season and beyond.

I’ve said many times before that the ideal for most TV series is to become an episodic serial having continuing storylines propelled by otherwise standalone episodes. The standalone aspect is important because it makes the series more attractive for syndication. Think of all the Law and Order or NCIS episodes you stumble across while channel surfing and you get the idea. On the other hand, the serial aspect helps viewers take ownership of the show. As they become more invested in it, the roots of their passion often grow deeper. Unfortunately, it also alienates people who weren’t on the train from the beginning as they avoid the burden of having to catch up on the mythology that continuity has built over several seasons.

Castle now has the opportunity to step outside its comfortable formula (something alluded to in Alexis’ valedictory speech). It’s more than just getting Castle and Beckett together romantically. There is a golden opportunity to test new waters while still retaining a lifeline if the seas become too rough. And this enters into the area where I had my little story flash.

The easiest description is to think of Castle and Beckett becoming their own detective agency with themselves as the primary clients. You get Esposito (probably still on suspension) to be their trusted associate. The lifeline? You keep Ryan in the 12th; still scared of Gates and wary of breaking the rules but also wanting to redeem himself to the only people he trusts with his life. He’s now their mole within the department.

From here we have a world of stories that can be explored without being confined by the formulaic dictates of the four walls of the 12th precinct. Javier gets to be a little more like the special forces guy he really wants to be. Castle gets to play with his gadgets. Beckett gets to follow her investigative nose. These three could form a core that leads to many seasons of great stories. If it doesn’t work, we can always retreat back the 12th, but I can’t help thinking that it would seem smaller, somehow.

If I were a writer on Castle or willing to commit another year to writing fanfic for this (I’m not), I’d be giddy with the possibilities before me. I felt this way after the Sarah Connor Chronicles series ender as well…and you remember how that turned out on my end. So, if I say that there is the seed for great storytelling yearning to break out of its shell and stretch its branches to the sky following season 4, you can trust that what I see in my mind is worthy. I just hope the creative team at Castle sees it, too.

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 Posted by on May 8, 2012

Dancing With Fanfic

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Feb 192012
 
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Fan Fiction, or fanfic, is treated as a bit of a dirty word in some circles despite lots of people writing it. I don’t think it’s a dirty word at all. In fact, a lot of people came to my writing because of the fanfic I’ve written over the years. Because of that, and because some of the older works are difficult to stumble across sometimes, I’ve made them available here for your enjoyment.

I’ve been a part of four fandoms: Star Trek, Highlander, Xena – Warrior Princess, and Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I didn’t write fanfic for any of the Treks, but I did enjoy reading the works of others when I found them at conventions or via the grapevine (this is back when blue dittos were the norm, and copies printed on a Xerox® machine were fancy-schmancy). I did submit scripts to Trek back in the day, but I don’t consider those in my list of fanfic material.

Highlander was my entry into the fanfic-author world of fandom. I’d been writing scripts for a while, but I could see that the landscape was shifting away from spec scripts (this is cyclic in Hollywood). I figured that it was time that I begin learning how to write prose. As I was a fan of this syndicated show, I thought it would make a good first vehicle: allowing me to focus on technique and story while removing the need to create a convincing universe/rules with brand-spanking-new characters. Learning a new writing style is tough enough without trying to learn everything all at once. Both of my Highlander stories were well-received and each were printed in HL anthologies.

I hadn’t planned on writing any more fanfic. When Xena came along I felt the urge to write — not fanfic, but for real. I tried to submit a script to the production company, but was stopped early in the process being that I was based in NM and not the L.A. area (or at least southern California). Since my location wasn’t going to change, that was effectively that for Xena. Since I now had a script I couldn’t use, I posted it for the fans. One thing led to another and I ended up penning a few more stories as well as articles for the Xena fanmag, “Whoosh!”.

Then I decided to try to set the bar higher: a Xena fanfic novel. Because of my training with scripts, I knew I could construct a story. With prose, however, I still had that novel-length word barrier to overcome. It can seem daunting, but as my experience with my very first screenplay taught me, once you break through the mental barrier of how much material you have to write, that stops being a problem. So I started writing…and posting the chapters online, unedited, just as soon as they were finished. Despite the crude result, this effort, too, was very well-received. It likely will never get buffed up all nice and shiny. So many tweaks I’d love to do to make it better and more consistent. Oh well.

After Xena, I thought my fan fiction authoring days were long past. Fandom is time-consuming in and of itself without the added exercise of scribbling some unauthorized, and necessarily free, creative works. But then there was TSCC. At some point in the second season, despite all of my fannish blogging, I wrote and posted a few script pages. These were the first script pages I’d written in about a decade. Then I wrote and posted a few more. Then I did a half-episode, and so forth.

Although I suspected the series’ cancellation was a fait accompli, the strong season finish gave me hope that this bubble show might be the recipient of a last-minute reprieve. At the end of the 2nd season finale, I had a creative flash that was so impressive and stunning, it wouldn’t let me go. The Muses are whimsical in this way. BTW – this flash is, essentially, the first 22-episodes of The Connor Wars, with astonishing detail…I just had to copy it down onto paper. So I wrote up a quick bible and rushed out two quick episodes so the powers that be at Fox could see some fleshed-out possibilities. As the series had already been shuttered over a month before, it didn’t pan out.

Even so, there were rumors. I resolved that I’d continue writing scripts and stop if a rescuer arrived. No rescuer arrived. So, in the span of 11-1/2 months, I wrote 27 1-hour teleplays and 1 2-hour screenplay. This was The Connor Wars. Its world-wide popularity took me by surprise (it’s been translated into Russian) as has the still-arriving stream of fan mail and comments. I’ve made a number of friends because of it. The combination of the amount of work required for this labor of love with the amazing fan response will keep TCW in a very special place in my creative heart, with a candle always burning. (And I still have a couple of story ideas I still want to do with it if I ever get the time.) I just wish I could do something with the material as an added thank you for all the fans. They really love this show, and TCW was a welcome salve. Unfortunately, it’s not up to me.

It’s been an interesting road, this fan fiction thing. Every time I thought I was out, it sucked me back in. There is a terrific allure to speculating on a show you love, in exploring unvisited possibilities. If you check out the fanfic here, you’ll see that I always try to be respectful of the show, the characters, and the fans. No “slash”. Nothing so out of character that it couldn’t appear on the show in question. It’s both learning/practicing of technique and playing around with supposition — not so much flights of personal fantasy. I honestly can’t think of a better way to play.

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 Posted by on February 19, 2012  Tagged with:

My 2012 Writing Toolkit (addendum)

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Feb 112012
 
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I realized, after I posted My 2012 Writing Toolkit, that a couple of things went missing. I blame myself. That first list was very software oriented, and I sort of stuck with that. I’ll try to fix that, and give a more complete picture, with these additions.

 Whiteboards

When I was writing The Connor Wars, I’d have been lost without my small 9″x12″ whiteboards (more properly known as “dry erase” boards). I’d fill 6-10 of these as I was hurriedly outlining each episode (a couple of examples: WB1, WB2). It allowed me to play with story ideas and scenes in a more freeform way than a keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen allows.

Many people use larger board mounted on walls. You see this in writer’s rooms throughout Hollywood. For personal use, I like the small ones. They are large enough to get a lot of material on them while also being easily stored, transported, and are inexpensive to boot.

The down side of the whiteboards

Notebooks

For more note-taking longevity, I still rely on the writer’s go-to device: pen/pencil and paper. Notebooks are like high-storage density analog devices whose utility has withstood the tests of time.

Since college, my standard notebook as been spiral bound, 5×5 Quadrille Ruled (basically 5 squares to the inch graph paper). It’s useful for writing, equations, drawing/drafting, lists, etc. I buy them by the case.

I’ll also use college-ruled composition books. These are almost exclusively for brainstorming or generally writer babble. As web tools have improved, I’ve used these very sporadically in the past few years. But when you just need to scribble down some thoughts for posterity, there is nothing better in a pinch.

Post-it® Notes

Back in the days before these now-ubiquitous slips of adhesive paper, we’d improvise just about anything to make notes, mark places in research texts, and so forth. In hindsight, it’s amazing that we were able to get along without them.

I’ll go through many pads of various sizes in the course of a year. Personally, I stick with Post-it® brand simply because the adhesive has the balance of adhesion/removability that bests most of the generics out on the market. I also don’t have to worry about varying quality because they found a new supplier. These notes stick where I want them to stick, and don’t have to be coaxed to let go…well, not for the first couple of years, at any rate.

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 Posted by on February 11, 2012  Tagged with:

My 2012 Writing Toolkit

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Feb 062012
 
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Sometimes it seems there are as many ways to write as there are writers. As our options increase, we tend to try a myriad of tools to find the combination that works for us. Some of us opt for more populist tools, others assemble an eclectic mix  that others would find maddening. I sort of fall into the latter category.

I don’t run any Apple gear. As a result, some of the gee-whiz software that becomes all the rage is, at best, held at arm’s length — that is, if it’s available at all for other platforms. My main machines are an aging Windows XP tower, and a not-as-old-but-could-be-newer laptop that mostly runs Linux (specifically the Ubuntu distribution). As a result, I desire tools that are cross-platform and functionally identical. This leads to tools that have full cross-platform functionality, or tools that are web-based and thus divorced from a specific platform.

LibreOffice

This is my text recording suite of choice. I used to use OpenOffice, but I don’t see Oracle’s ownership being in my best interest. Apparently I’m not the only one who felt that way, and so LibreOffice “forked” off from Oracle’s product. So far, it seems like LibreOffice is more attentive about features and bugs, so it seemed the way to go.

About 98% of what I do is with LibreOffice Writer, but I will do some outlining and calculations using LibreOffice Calc.

I’ve found that since Writer has long been designed to be word processing software, it gives me the flexibility I desire while also staying out of my way. Converting text so that Kindle is happy, or CreateSpace, or Smashwords, or…you get the idea, isn’t too onerous. And, when the next e-publisher comes around, doubtless the functions already available in LibreOffice will be equally up to the challenge of meeting their formatting quirks.

There once was a time when I used the Microsoft Office Suite, but any perceptions of software bloat aside, the fact is that with it not being cross-platform as well as being a bit pricey (especially if you upgrade every cycle) it lost its appeal. The only reason I can see to go with Microsoft is to appease publishers, agents, and editors who insist on giving notes in those programs. While LibreOffice does a good job converting formats, I’ve learned firsthand that it’s not always with the fidelity you’d hope for.

MediaWiki

When I’m constructing a long, complicated story, my favorite tool is MediaWiki. I’ve written about this before in Best Writing Software Since the Word Processor. I’ve found it to be a great tool for novels—I first used it in earnest when writing Que Será Serees—but when I was writing The Connor Wars, it was indispensable. When you have scores of characters, multiple timelines, a big ol’ pile of story arcs…well, it gives you are great reference for when you’ve forgotten whether a certain character had two or three scars on their face.

The only downside with MediaWiki is that you do need to host it. You can opt to make it available to you on the web on a web host, or you can install it on a local computer (or UFD). I’ve done it both ways and it works fine.

Evernote

When doing research for a project, I find Evernote to be a valuable asset. I can dump photos, web pages, notes, and other sundries into a project notebook. It allows me to be protected from sites disappearing on me, taking their data with them (which happens). Since it also stores the source URI (or, optionally my GPS), I can cite and return to my source. Even better, I can mirror select notebooks to my phone, so that serves as a helpful data backup.

Evernote offers a very useful free version, but I found it so valuable I’ve signed up for their “pro” edition which offers more storage, bandwidth, and added features.

Dropbox

Speaking of backups…well, I backup my data like crazy. Over so many decades of computer use, I’ve learned the value of backups. Dropbox offers up a very simple, automatic backup that I can access from a variety of devices. When I’m working on a project, I like to have my work-in-progress files “drop-boxed” both to safeguard a data corruption and to have the file available on multiple machines.

Freemind

When building a story, sometimes you need something less rigid than a wiki. Freemind offers a more free-form framework to diddle around with your story ideas, easily allowing you to move bits around, flag others, and generally get a handle on the story during the messy, brainstorming stage.

I used to use similar software for Windows, but it’s since disappeared for download and the only computer that had an orphan copy running sort of crashed an burned a few years ago.

Movie Magic Screenwriter

When you are a screenwriter by training, you have some ideas of what you want from screenwriting software. I’ve used just about everything out there at one time or another, and Screenwriter is the one I always comes back to. This is partly due to me having been using this lineage going back to ScriptThing for DOS. More than that, it has the balance of features and a lower number of bugs than most.

That said, it’s not perfect. It doesn’t play well with Linux. I think it and its main rival, the more widely-used Final Draft, are a bit overpriced for what they do. Worse, I’ve yet to find one that doesn’t have its share of bugs. That aside, I’d probably opt for Celtx if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve grown with Screenwriter and (at least when I was writing The Connor Wars) Celtx lacks the ability to write a teleplay with act breaks.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Another one of those tools I’ve written about before. I like using Dragon for two things: 1) As a method for me to write when my RSI issues flare up enough that typing isn’t a great option; 2) For note-taking.

I’ve written before about my RSI issues. There are times when I can’t type or hold a pen for more than a signature. Since stories still like to be told, I need a way to tell them. Dragon allows for that.

Perhaps the thing I usually use Dragon the most is for note-taking. You just sit down with the microphone in front of you and just talk…stream-of-consciousness. It’s a nifty way to help story development. Some people will use a voice recorder, but this gives me text I don’t have to try to transcribe. I can even import a recorded file and have it transcribe it for me.

Still…I do find the error rate to be higher than I’d prefer. Perhaps it’s me. Maybe I naturally mumble or slur in excess of Dragon’s abilities. I’m a writer, after all, not an enunciator.

The Internet

Was there ever a better research tool for writers than the Internet? No. Not even close.

Scrivener

Lastly, a piece of software I don’t use, but strongly considered using. Scrivener is one of the most popular pieces of writing software I’ve seen come along. It has many features that are much more integral than those I’ve listed above. It’s reasonably priced…though you’ll need to buy it for different platforms as the license doesn’t swing three ways.

I opted not to use it first because it’s development for Windows and especially Linux are lagging. As a result, I don’t feel I’m really the targeted demo. That aside, having been burned with proprietary software in the past that disappeared and rendered my archives unusable (at least not without a ton of work on conversion software), putting all my eggs in one basket makes me nervous. Toss in the large number of files the program produces and a somewhat awkward editor (not as intuitive as Writer, in my opinion). I do see why people like Scrivener, but for me the minuses outweighed the positives.

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 Posted by on February 6, 2012  Tagged with:
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